Man of the moment and long time veteran of all things house and techno, Paul Woolford changes London Grammar's 'Help Me Lose My Mind' from a chilled, indie, slow burner into a piano-led house stonker that smacks you in the face with his signature sound right from the off, reminiscent of his earlier 'Untitled'. He keeps Hannah Reid's ethereal vocals mostly intact and chucks in some crazy looped piano chords with a good measure of hefty bass. Et voila.
As 2012 draws to a close I must draw attention to the Disclosure b2b Skream Boiler Room DJ set at the Presidential Suite of the W Hotel in London. I streamed this on boilerroom.tv as the madness unfolded whilst crying into my pillow. What I wouldn't have given to be there to enjoy not only the high calibre of music but also Skream being characteristically hilarious in the midst of a messy pillow fight (circa 45 minutes in) and Disclosure dropping a VIP mix of their own remix of Jessie Ware's 'Running'. Probably one of the best boiler room sets of the year (if not of all time).
What a BLOODY FANTASTIC four days. Having squeezed every
single drop of merriment possible out of
Creamfields last year and Parklife earlier this summer, I didn’t expect festival life to get any better. But nothing
could have prepared me for just how skilfully executed Bestival 2012 was: like
the crème de la crème of all the best Christmases, birthdays, new year’s eves,
mitzvahs both bar and bat all rolled into one perfect little parcel of musical goodness.
Party shirt? Don't mind if I do...
Four girl friends and I got off to a bit of a panicked
start as the car keys were nowhere to be found, but after some manic searching
they were located in some obscure drawer and we were on our way. A couple of
illegal U-es and some terrifying manoeuvres from designated driver Molly later
and BOOM we were there, waiting in the queue, poppin’ bottles and just
generally being a group of over-excitable girls.
The first day and night were somewhat chilled compared
with the other days and mostly involved putting up our tents (which won me the
nickname Bear Grylls...even if I did give it to myself), but we still managed
to smash Hot Chip who had absolutely packed out the Big Top to an elated crowd.
However, on Friday shit got real when we went to the
Rizlab to see Bondax play some of their most breezy, uplifting and summery
tunes mixed in with the likes of Disclosure. Somehow we managed to bump into
them before going in and didn’t hesitate to remind them that we were, in fact,
the infamous ‘Twitter Girls’. I couldn’t have been more content bopping along
to Wet Summer in the sun, Strongbow in hand with fellow blogger and Bondax
aficionado Becca at my side – definitely a Bestival highlight.
When their set finished me and Bates, in matching party
shirts might I add, sprinted over to catch Julio Bashmore in the Roller Disco
(roller skates optional). He’d drawn in a mass of house heads, a large portion
of whom seemed to be ginger, at which point I started congratulating them all
on being Julio Bashmore’s brother (he is extremely ginger in case you didn’t
know). I was obviously finding myself hilarious. I managed to get on someone’s
shoulders in time for Julio dropping Au Seve and went completely ape shit
mad, but not as mad as the guy who’s shoulders I was on who was leaping around
as if I was a bloody rag doll. Without a doubt another of my Bestival
highlights.
It was back to the campsite after that to get pumped for The XX who were headlining. And boy did they deliver. I read in a Mixmag review of their album 'Coexist' that 'silence might be their most important instrument' and this really struck me as we listened to them play on Main Stage. The atmosphere was completely electric and you could almost feel everyone holding their breath . Obviously this clip doesn't even nearly do it justice but here's them playing Angels.
The night continued with an extremely energetic set from Florence & The Machine, and then to the Bollywood tent, aka the hottest place on earth, to see Oneman do his thing. I'm not even kidding it was genuinely hotter than the sun in there and combined with the fact that I was not very with it at this point it turns out I spent about half an hour of his set facing the wrong way. Still, I remember thinking that I was having a bloody great time so that's fine...
Woke up on Saturday feeling a liitttlllee bit ropey but we just got on with it because, well, yknow, it's Bestival. And the sun was shining. So we went for a little stroll, a spot of Wagamamas, a photo at the massive Bestival sign (had to be done) and stumbled unwittingly upon a marriage proposal at Skinny Lister's set on main stage at which point I burst into tears because it was just so goddamn romantic ok!
Having been a masssiiivvee Disclosure fan for about a year (I regularly tweet them, but alas no response..yet) I was extremely excited to see them, especially as they absolutely smashed it at Love Saves The Day in Bristol. The mood was crackling with excitement in the Big Top and they played all of my faves, even getting Jessie Ware out for Running.
Another highlight has got to be making it onto the big screen though. After having forced one of my mates to put me on their shoulders for What's In Your Head, I was just boppin' about, havin' a great time when I spied what I thought was some bint copying my moves on screen and was outraged before I realised it was actually me and so started waving my arms about like a loon to the expense of my poor friend who had kindly offered up his shoulders. Was definitely worth it though. SBTRKT absolutely went off in the Big Top a bit later on and I was horrified when my friends tried to drag me away to go to Bonobo, especially as Redlight was due on soon. And as much as I adore my beloved Redlight, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how sick Bonobo actually was. He has such an original, contemporary sound and its complexity makes it so gratifying to listen to his jazzy, bassy, electro beats, particularly Kiara.
So Sunday came around horribly quickly but we were keen to make our last day on the Isle of Wight one to remember. But that was always going to be the case as the one and only Stevie Wonder was headlining that night. It was literally all anyone spoke about all day...and for ages afterwards. He was absolutely unreal, I don't think any of us could quite believe what we were witnessing. Ladies and gentlemen, he's still got it. He even managed to make us all have a little cry when he covered Eva Cassidy's 'Imagine'. And what better way to top off the night than an absurdly eccentric fireworks display. We then headed off to watch one of my favourite duos of the moment AlunaGeorge at the Replay tent who were cracking live and then back to the hottest place on earth to see Jaguar Skills spin. He was definitely another highlight and completely tore it up just like he did at Parklife. Although at one point he had us all shaken with some chat about a police raid which all turned out to be a joke as he dropped WOOP WOOP ITS THE SOUND OF THE POLICCEE. Definitely saw a couple of people peg it out of the tent at this point though...
So that concludes most of what I can remember of my Bestival experience. Safe to say I am DEFINITELY getting a ticket for next year as soon as they go on sale, and so should you. See you there...
