All Yesterday's Parties

Within about an hour of my mates arriving in London we were fucked. God knows how I survived living up in Glasgow (ok, so it gave me an ulcer, but that's neither here nor there). We pretty much tore shit up in London town for a couple of days, and before I knew it I had my hands on a spare ticket for All Tomorrow's Parties, and was on a train to Camber Sands. Saying it was a 'bit cold' when we got there is like saying 4 guys fucking is a 'bit gay', but after braving the temperatures and getting all our shit (including a Slint goody bag, wooo) we finally got into our chalet. That poor chalet, we were only in it about 15 minutes before it looked like Hiroshima, post bomb.

Anyways, Friday night was awesome - I remember being terminally drunk while taking in Deerhoof, no thanks to the busload of spastics (and single darling) they had manning the bar, but the rest of the night was, understandably, a blur.

Rather than waffling on, I'll just outline some of my favourite shit:

-Mogwai. Goddammit they blew me away. I've seen them before but this time they were something else. They played a couple of awesome new songs, dragged Aidan Moffat up for a wee sing song and closed the set with a stunning rendition of 'Like Herod'. My ears are literally still ringing.

-Although it was unbearably cold at times, it was fun just bouncing about, enjoying the atmosphere. Wandering round the site, drunkenly banging on chalet doors was ace - it was one of the many ways I ended up talking to much random headcases.

-Being drunk for an entire weekend! I mean, how debauched is it to have pretty much 24 hour drinking available? Not that I've never spent a whole weekend off my rocker, but it was great doing it in such a cool place.

-Seeing Slint. Although I'm not a massive fan, they were pretty damn good, and their programmed TV channel in the chalet was good fun.

-Love as Laughter were a nice surprise. I think I've heard some bits and bobs from them through various mates, but never really took notice. I reckon I'll have to nab some of their stuff now, after a rousing live performance.

-Neil Hamburger (off the wall comedian) said some of the harshest statements I've ever heard. It was a great way to start the Sunday. Some of his best jokes being - "What do you get if you cross Elton John with a puma. I don't know, but keep it away from your ass.", and "What's the difference between a porcupine and Courtney Love? If a porcupine pricks you with one of its needles you won't get HIV." Classy.

-Badges, tonnes of them! I have more Slint badges than one man could ever need!

-Sitting listening to Matmos while chatting up a couple of randoms. It just seemed.....so right.

-Seeing my mate Stewart bouncing about giving out copies of his (now award winning!) Beard Magazine. He was like a giddy schoolkid. I think even Dave Pajo got one. Oh, and the wee bastard got an interview with Mogwai!

The only bad things were:

-Forgetting to go on the Go-Karts

-Having to leave early and thus missing Sons and Daughters (who were a late replacement for Mark Kozelek, who had stubbed his toe or something). They are one of my favourite up and coming bands, and I really wanted to see them again. I was very close to just ignoring work on Monday morning, but sense preavailed. My mates inform me they were perfect on stage. Grrrrr.

-Having to miss most of Early Man, due to having to go on a dope run. They looked like they were gonna fucking rock.

-The sparseness of the bands - When looking at previous year's lineups, you see far more artists. Only about 4 of the shows have really burned themselves onto my mind permanantly. I imagine it's so everybody could get to see all the bands, but it did cause a nightmare trying to move around the place. And why stick Mogwai on at that time in the afternoon? Even they made a comment about it.

-The Red Nails. They were shit.

All in all, it was one of the most enjoyable musical experiences of my life. My body is still paying for it (not to mention my wallet, damn desirable Rock Action t-shirts), but it was worth it. I'd love to go to the Vincent Gallo curated one in April, but I doubt it'll happen. So, next year then.