February 2006
DJ Magazine Big Chill Feature

I was interviewed at the Big Chill's 2005 Eastnor extravaganza by Paul Clarke; here's the transcript...

In the summer of 1995 a few hundred friends, hippies and general hangers around gathered in the Black Mountains in Wales for a weekend that has since gone down in clubland legend. Many of them had met the year before at a gig in London's Union Chapel where the ambient soundtrack melted the heart and knees like an ice-cream which perfectly suited the name The Big Chill. And as they slumped out under the stars around the single stage one of the records that tickled their ears was 76:14 by the then little-known duo of Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard trading under the name of Global Communication.

Fast-forward ten years and across the border into Herefordshire and the crystalline sounds of ‚76:14‚ are ringing out again. The thing is there's now only about twenty people around to hear it this time. But that's not because The Big Chill has dwindled down to a handful of hardened slackers who've spent so long horizontal that they've actually fossilised. For in the fields all around that original few hundred has expanded into nearly thirty thousand people who are dancing, drinking and dilly-dallying around the nine other stages - and when you've got a choice between Alice Russell's downhome soul and Afincianado's Balearic beats amongst other choices at the same time then two blokes simply playing a remastered copy of their album have got their competition cut out.

Possibly none of us would be here without 76:14‚ but whilst you've got to respect the roots The Big Chill‚ it seems, has grown out of all control.

‘It's enormous now,' understates Bruce Bickerton. ‘The first one was so secretive and word of mouth but now they've sold out thousands of tickets months in advance. But I think although its got bigger the vibe has stayed pretty similar. It's not like the music is secondary but the best thing about it is just catching up with old mates.'

A veteran of the first Welsh Mountains gala, Bruce claims The Big Chill has been a life-changing experience with the wide eyes of a born-again believer. And in his case that's undoubtedly true, for not only did he first ‘make it' with his future wife there but it also inspired the sound of his own musical project Alucidnation, who recently released the Induction album on Big Chill Recordings.

‘I still love things like The Orb and although myself and The Big Chill have moved on we've always been about good horizontal listening music‚' he explains.

Of course, if there's one man who knows about that then it's The Orb's own head honcho Alex Paterson. The name of his most famous band might crop up in conversations and be emblazoned on T-shirts all around the site but this is actually his first visit to the festival which - as one of the original architects of ambient house - he's played a pivotal role in building the scene for.

‘I don't really think of myself as influential but when I hear things like The Blue Room‚ on the radio and see things like this I suppose I am,' Alex demurs. ‘I don't touch Glastonbury these days and most other festivals are just full of acid casualties but this is much more my cup of tea.'

And the reception afforded Alex's new band Transit Kings as they play their first full English gig on the main stage on Saturday shows that he's just The Big Chill's cup of fairtrade chai as well. All the elements you loved about the Orb are there in the bubbling synths and cheeky samples but there's much tougher breakbeats behind tracks like ‘Japanese Cars' which get the entire field pogoing in celebration. ‘They absolutely loved it!' enthuses Alex, after the constant cheers for ‘one more!' are unfortunately cut short by pressures of time. ‘It's important to prove that we've progressed further.'

As has The Big Chill itself since those early days of an ambient-only diet. OK, there's still plenty of soporific soundscapes‚ undulating over the crowd in the Sanctuary Tent although as people congregate to come down in there when the main stages finish at 2am it's ironically the least relaxed place on the site after hours as the gnashing teeth of everyone who can't face bed yet almost forms a beat to the otherwise slo-mo soundtrack. But as the numbers have expanded over the years so has the choice of music, meaning that on Saturday alone DJ Mag gets to hear the Afrobeat of Libyan refugees Tinariwen, Slovakian folktronica from Dlhe Diely and best of all the Kiwi dub of Fat Freddy's Drop. Undoubtedly the musical highlight of the whole shebang, Fat Freddys work their way through only five tunes in 90 minutes but keep everyone utterly enraptured as tunes like Ernie and Hope swell like a far more pleasant version of the belches DJ mag gets as the bass frequencies disagree with all the organic stew we've just shovelled into our stomachs.

In fact, as night falls, it's the big rather than the chilled aspect of the festival that takes over as everyone who has spent the afternoon supine in the sunshine suddenly snaps awake. Whereas previously the club tent was pretty much empty during the day as everyone chose to relax in the open air this year the decision to only open it at 8pm means its packed with people up for it from the very start. Which works especially well for Underground Resistance on Friday. Rather than cruising through the dull terrain of most techno the Detroit figureheads climb up ever-steeper peaks of intensity - which admittedly makes it an uphill struggle for some. Not that there's much respite to be found at either Idjut Boys‚ or Different Drummer's sets elsewhere that evening as the former drop everything from The Rolling Stones to Van Halen amidst their disco staples and the latter seriously endanger the structural stability of the Strongbow tent with their deep house and weighty dub.

Come Sunday in fact and it's going to take a pretty irresistible beat to shake DJ mag out of the stupor brought on by two days of too much dancing, not enough sleep and having our heads scrambled by conversations with the random but all unfailingly well-meaning loons we seem to have attracted as the festival wears on. Luckily that beat is exactly what Gilles Peterson provides as he spins an energetic set of old favourites like ‘A Message To You, Rudy' crossed with fresh and fearsome dancefloor tracks and enlivened with Earl Zinger's patter. Then it's a choice between his protégé Benji B proving that he's not just Gilles junior with a toughly funky house and broken beats set in the cocktail bar and neo-soul group The Rebirth on the main stage. Benji wins out largely because of great tracks like ‘The Journey In' and The Rebirth's on-stage proclamations makes them sound like they've been beamed in direct from The God Channel. Which finds us sipping our cocktails, gazing out at the sun sinking over the hills and wondering whether we've got a good case for Trade Descriptions here. After all, how can a festival billed as The Big Chill leave us feeling this knackered?

PAUL CLARKE

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