sun, sea and sigur-ros-alikes

[devi]

My pockets are full of pink sherbet and beach sand.

So last weekend was All Tomorrow's Parties. Whoever had the idea to host an experimental music festival in an off-season holiday camp must be some kind of genius. There's something wonderfully disconcerting about listening to bizarre, atonal electronic crunching sounds in a room decorated with comedy cartoon animals (zebras in bra tops!) and strangely poignant black lighthouses. As my brother (an ATP veteran) texted me on the first night, "Remember you're in the Fun Factory!"

The whole camp experience was a combination of kitschy and sad. Imagine, people go to these places for straightforward, non-ironic fun, look forward breathlessly to eating in Captain Croc's Diner, sitting on the chilly beach and playing the 'Western Train' machine in the arcade ('Players enjoy controlling the train directly! Suitable for all age and gender!'). Instead, this weekend, it was stuffed with indie kids in stripey jumpers and intellectual beards, Rough Trade compilations with songs about eggs playing from the doors of their chalets. The whole thing was very otherworldly.

I've been to festivals before, but somehow this one really worked for me. Sometimes in the past I've found myself standing in a crowd, broken cups and squashed noodles under my feet, not able to see anything but the backs of people's heads, drizzle coming down, and wondered where was the explosive, transcendent fun. But this time I'd gone along mostly for the company and didn't feel like I was under pressure to like the bands, and fun crept up on me at surprising moments. The rest of the time I felt free to slag off the slaggable-off ones, and that was fun in a strange way too.

Some of the bands were excellent. Growing were sort of primal, Whisper in the Noise were beautiful in a Sigur Ros sort of way (though the whole ATP crew seem to hate Sigur Ros, a lot of this year's bands sounded like them), and Mogwai were like flying headlong through a violent rainstorm, and Trans Am were like falling asleep on the back seat of your parents' car as they drive you home, seeing stars and swooping wires out the window, feeling the road vibration underneath your cheek. Or something like that. Bobby Conn was exuberant, bouncy, glam-rock fun, though I don't think he'd work so well on record. The rest was mostly just baffling, or very silly (TurboNegro's stage patter: "Are you ready for some hard schooling?").

But like I said, I went for the company (the Dunstabulary, strange_powers, the_heiress, d_sameboy, Helen-who-really-should-get-an-LJ, and my verlaine), and none of the best moments really happened in the music venue. They mostly involved karaoke, Scrabble, d_sameboy's own game Kaboom! which really should be on general sale, drinking Domestos and vodka (Sainsbury's cheap Red Bull knock-off comes in a grey bottle that looks like it should be in the cleaning products aisle), having absinthe the proper bohemian way with sugar bubbling greenly on a spoon, moshing and bawling along to 'Who's Got The Crack', and other moments too many to mention. You all rock, and you don't need any hard schooling in it either.

On the last day we mooched around Rye and then drove along the south coast to Beachy Head. There was another perfect moment when we were driving along Hastings seafront, the sun beating down on the sea and the tall white hotels and boarding-houses, and Suede came on the stereo - they always give me that faded-seaside-glamour feeling. It's not that often that the soundtrack and the images match up so well.

I also played a heck of a lot of Dance Dance Revolution (hey, olethros!). I had a moment of revelation ("so *that's* when you're supposed to step on the arrows!") and after that the only way was up. I'm sure I enjoy it much more than is healthy.

That was a weekend, that was. Back down to earth now, wondering what comes next, waiting nervously for some news, feeling the pain of certain others and wishing I could make it all okay, you know, all that real-world stuff. But the sunshine and the sea will stay at the back of my mind for a good while yet.

Comments

[mzdt.livejournal.com]

I keep meaning to go - one day I will. Another faction of my friends list were there - julietk and gang. OK, I was working this w/e anyway, and got to hear Mogwai's set (or part of it) on John Peel last night. I think he's doing more bits from ATP on the rest of this week's shows, too.

I'd recommend Dungeness as a good escape point next time, too...

[the-heiress.livejournal.com]

I second Dungeness as a future post-post rock entertainment. I want to visit every nuclear power station in Britain.

[sellafield.livejournal.com]

oh yes... ;-)

(mzdt again. I'm from Sellafield. hmmm).

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

I have to applaud that. Beachy Head was great and all, but I'll never forget the thrill of dread I felt the first time I saw a real nuclear power station (on a school trip which involved going overland to Germany) after hearing horror stories about them throughout my childhood. It was one of those really menacing ones with a spherical reactor. Brrr.

[mooism.livejournal.com]

I wasn’t exactly scared the first time I went near a nuclear power station, but a bit anxious. (It was Sellafield; I was vaguely near it for a week of family holiday and we happened to drive on a road that was within sight of it a few times. Haven’t seen Sellafield since.)

The landlady of the B+B we were staying at was insistant that it was a good thing; it provided lots of jobs and besides, she’d never heard of it doing anyone any damage.

I was about 14-15 and going through a “if it causes just one death we must shut it down” phase; thankfully I didn’t say anything.

[kasku.livejournal.com]

Festivals. Never again after Glastonbury. :-)

I'm so glad you had a good time though!