ATP NBC 09 - My Bloody Valentine
Title: Live: ATP NBC 09 - My Bloody Valentine
Author: Rich
Date: 10, December, 2009
So, another December means another awesome ATP Nightmare Before Christmas in good old Minehead,
although I, like many others it seems found it to be slightly less awesome than normal. Something was
clearly weird this time around, maybe it was the slightly disappointing lineup chosen by the slightly
anoyingly up his own arse Kevin Shields/My Bloody Valentine, or maybe it was the announcement of the
far more entertaining looking Ten Years party next week. I don't know Still, it was a weekend of
supidid highs and annoying lows and no matter how it all turned out I have to admit to still loving
ATP. How the hell can anyone in their right mind not love the most entertaining and odd festival in
the world?
After one horrible train journey and car drive (and a bloody Wimpy of all damn things) later, we had
a chalet complete with tacky christmas lights. Right then, beer time. So to the Irish bar for a few
drinkies before going to find out what the hell was going on with the MBV rehersal show up in Centre
Stage. Cue some slightly confused security telling us they were running late. Okay then, some more
beers later and about 30 people babbling away in the Irish bar and MBV cancel their rehersal as they
were not happy with their rehersal for the rehersal show. Nobody cares, the denizens of the bar end
up complete and utterly wasted and some random chalet party happens. No idea what the hell happened
but bloody hell it was fun.
The 10am wakeup call on the Friday by Ben playing Motorhead at a stupid volume from his damn iPod however wasnt fun. Cue hangover and an inabilty to drink for abour 5 hours whilst sat in a pub in Minehead. Ben and Rob get plastered, I feel as if my eyeball is going to fall out. Meanwhile back in Butlins, there is a hugge queue for wristbands to see MBV. Of course you didn't actually have to queue up. It was a mess but whatever. Music time. Oh and it seems people are drunk again. First up is the ever enigmatic Josh T Pearson, there was me being hyper about his acoustic noise meltdown and he bloody well plays electric with the drummer from Lift To Experience (I think it was him anwyay). It was awesome, very very awesome with his acoustic solo stuff being battered out at an immense volume in a very different manner. Why this man isn't more loved I have no idea. Oh and he attempted to play some MBV to much delight of the crowd.
De La Soul also did the inevitable on the rather sparkly Pavillion Stage and eeveryone seemed a lot happier and better off for it. Things were looking up, yeah screw the Ten Year one, we are at the festival of awesomeness! A quick run over to catch J Mascus doing his Witch thing and we were away! Though why anybody thought to include Primal Scream is beyond me, damn Shields again, so instead its Yo La Tengo and their Krauty noisy 15 minute jams of awesomeness... Really, how the hell did I get so worried and meh over the lineup?
Oh yeah, thats whay... MBV pretty much sucked on Friday... it wasnt loud enough and there wasnt a queue. So all that wristband stuff was a waste of time Oh well. Still, MBV were okay.. just a bit... hmm. I think after that it got a little silly and blurry.
Saturday morning, no hangover for me somehow. result. Even better, SpongeBob was on the TV. Can't complain at all about that followed by Watership Down (which resulted in a NO I AM NOT SITTING HERE ALL DAY WATCHING TV moment after 10 minutes of violent rabbit action).
The Sun Ra Arkestra quite frankly were insane. Like Harry Potter on steroids their free form space jazz mentalism was a real treat with the crows loving it and the old percussionist/saxofonist doing some highly entertaining dancing and the best lyric of the enire weekend (WELCOME TO YOUR MOTHER FUCKING NIGHTMARE! ITS A NIGHTMARE!) Another reason to love ATP, can you imagine any other UK festival that can draw a youngish crowd that size to see Sun Ra because they want to be there and they know who he was, what he did and why they are so important? No, didn't think so.
What else? Harmony Rockets, now they were the big surprise of the weekend. One improvised hour long piece of incredibly loud free form jazz tinged noisey post/kraut rock frrrrreakout was perforemed and it was quite probably the highlight of the entire weekend. And who would have thought they have been going for years as the side project of Mercury Rev? Yes, Grasshopper was being suarve with a bow on his guitar. J Mascus again this time playing as Fog and things were still going good. Of course I missed the horrors, ended up dancing to Credence Clearwater Revival in a chalet and back in time for Sonic Youth. Unfortunatly this is where it went down. Too much new stuff, not enough old stuff and I kind of just didn't get it. Shame really, they were on top form, Kim looking as sexy as ever and Thurston looking older and older. Oh well, over to catch robin Guthrie do some ambient soundscaped in Reds, which was okay.. jsut too long and not the right time for it. By this point I had wanted something to dance to. And this wasn't it, though Ben loved it (sorry, I mean LOVED IT)
Then came the most needed thing of the entire festival. Lightning Bolt. Yesyes we have seen them before but who cares. They were on the stage, the crowd of rather inebriated and 'up for it' skinny music nerds were on the floor and things endedup in a heaving mass of tangled arms and legs and beer throwing. I survived about half of it before needing to get outside before being killed in one of the most intensly brutal (and I kinda hate the phrase) mosh pits I have ever seen at an ATP. Excellent stuff which culminated in icey water in Ben's hair and a rendition of Fantomas's The Godfather on the way back to the chalet to drink a load of vodka and listen to some techno. And for me, that was it. Not sure what happened but cue moodsing and a very wasted inability to really move at all. Searching about chalets at 4 in the morning for Ben was odd and I visited a few randoms on the way including some lovely people with the best looking chalet I have ever seen. A little bit of Nathan Barley at the Thursday night pal's chalet and that as that one. (oh and I caught most of Fucked Up do their Hardcore thing, but at 2 in the morning it was way way waaay, too much for me.
Sunday arrived, a wee hangover for me, a monstrous one for Ben and Th' Faith Healers didnt do a huge amount to change things. Nice tambourine action from Claire though. Swervedriver sucked, why why why were they playing? If only slowdive had got back together... oh well. A little bit of EPMD and I'm feeling tired as hell.
Another real disappointment was Iceland's finest Múm, since when did they change so much? I miss the old Múm, not that they were bad, but they could out twee Belle & Sebastian any day. I miss their bleeps and I have to admit to not being fond of the new lineup. Not a good thing that.
But here comes Warren Ellis to save the day with a (as expected) utterly blinding set from The Dirty Three. Can't really say much more other than they were awesome. More awesome than ever in fact and very much needed.
Finally it was MBV again, things seemed a lot better this time, less breaks in songs and more volume. But it wasn't enough. Shields looked bored, he didn't say anything to the crowd, not even a thanks for coming etc etc. And was that his roadie turning off his pedals after each song? Is he that up his own arse to refuse to even stomp on his own boxes? Shame really.
Still, its ATP, its awesome. But something this time was amiss. Oh well, Groening next year looks like it could be a LOT of fun. Or maybe BLOC weekend. I still love you ATP, just... something a little more next time. Maybe, and don't get MBV back to curate thankyouverymuch.
Feature Comments