29th July - 1st August 2004

The Big Chill Eastnor Festival.

Featuring the largest lineup to date, this was the biggest Chill yet. With approximately 27,000 people on-site including crew, it was a huge event. Sprawling over a larger site than ever before it still managed somehow to keep the intimacy which we're famed for.

The only times when the sheer numbers of folk on site became noticeable was at night, when you were trying to walk through some of the 'bottlenecks' at the gates. Apart from that, the site felt relatively uncluttered.

Musically, this year was more diverse than ever before, due to the increased number of stages. One of my critisms from past years was that the 'dance' element was too evident. This year, the balance was redressed by the arrival of the 'Sanctuary' area, which catered for the more ambient and chilled end of the musical spectrum. Next year though, this stage should be open-air, as opposed to under canvas...

The reason I say this is because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. I don't know whether Pete and Katrina have sold their souls to the devil, but remarkably the weather has been unusually good for the past three years - this year was no exception; the sun coming out for the entire period, with beautiful moonlit nights to counteract the heat of the daytime.

I was very busy, running around doing something every day of the festival, which is just the way I like it, although truth be told, I was fucking knackered by the end of it...

Programme Pictures

I was fortunate enough to be interviewed for the section of the programme which asked various folks what their favourite memories of the Big Chill were. I talked about my experiences at the inaugral Big Chill in the Black Mountains...

My main artiste page with a smashing picture of me. Not.

The listing detailing a collaboration with resident VJ John Rixon (amukidi) and the prolific German composer Ulrich Schnauss.I really enjoyed doing this gig!

The programme listings for Tom Middleton's' Top Ten Tent'. I, along with ten other DJs was involved with performing here on the Sunday afternoon. It were right good fun, lad.

A page dedicated to advertising the new Big Chill Recordings label releases.

The plan was to drive down to the site on the Wednesday evening, but Ed Richardson (my old friend and VJ) arrived from Yorkshire with Dave Meakes - after a few drinks, we realised that we weren't going anywhere that night. We decided to delay our departure until the following morning - actually ending up leaving at about 1.15pm on the Thursday. On arrival at the site, we sorted out our tickets and rather fortuitously found our traditional spot in the quiet camping area.

Thursday night was my only night 'off', so I made good use of it, relaxing with my mates.

Friday was spent enjoying the first day of the festival 'proper'. My first commitment was to try to make it to an interview on Big Chill FM for 9am, where my friend Stuart Nisbet had played the evening before - a lovely set, Stuart.

The interview went well with Susanna Glaser - we had quite a laugh doing it. Then my next job was to play alongside Laura B as 'Survival of the Slowest' that night in the Sanctuary tent. As per usual, we didn't really know what we were going to do and I think that this was reflected in our performance, which felt a bit disjointed in all honesty. We still enjoyed ourselves, though!

Saturday was spent giving Jake Bickerton a bit of moral support for his debut gig at the Big Chill. Bar a few technical difficuties due to his backing tracks skipping on a cheap portable CD player (knob!!) I thought that his gig was a real success. Patrick Bickerton on the bass guitar did a sterling job, and the addition of a live percussionist really added some life to his tracks. Then later that night (very much later in fact - 3am-5am) Ulrich Schnauss and myself DJed to the superb visual accompaniment of John Rixon and Simon. I played some of my favourite contemporary music, and Ulrich did the same. We have quite similar tastes...

Sunday was my busiest day. After a bit of sleep, I found myelf at Tom Middleton's tent, where I played a selection of my top tunes, including John Martyn, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, ELO and a bit of dub. It was fucking ROASTING in the tent - I was sweating like a good'un. After this, I had a film crew following me around for the afternoon for a documentary that's due to be shown on Channel Four later this year... Dom Phillips was the director, formerly the editor of MixMag.

My main gig of the festival took place that evening at 8.45 on the Chill Stage, as alucidnation. I had a FANTASTIC time - usually I get about halfway through a gig and wonder what I'm doing on stage, but this didn't happen this time. I had the perfect audience - everyone sitting down and listening properly - quite a large audience as it goes! Came off stage feeling quite elated actually.

Then I had a brief respite until I had to make my way to the main stage for the finale, where Stuart Warren Hill had compiled a spoof TOTP rundown, with Jimmy Saville 'compering' - very amusing.. 'I'm Not Bad' made the top twenty Big Chill Classics rundown coming in at a respectable 16. I'd put together a little 1 minute video the weekend before - seemed to go down very well! Then after this, the idea was for me, Pete Lawrence, Tom Middleton and Ella Lawrence to perform the Big 10 anniversary tune on the stage. However, it was down to me in the end to perform it on my tod, which was more than a little daunting! There must have been about 10000 people there...

After this, I was looking forward to my last duty, which was playing live on Big Chill FM at 5am thru to 7am where Mixmaster Morris took over from me. For me, this was the highlight of my festival - I really got into it and did some great mixing..

All in all, I had a great time. Roll on next year.

Click here to visit the Big Chill Eastnor 2004 site.

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