Last week I was at the Bennicassim Festival. It was Amazing.
Headed over on Thursday 5th to Barcelona (what a place) - all trains to Bennicassim were booked, and we spent hours looking for the appropriate bus station (there are several), got down Friday afternoon (its a 4 hour journey) some great power ballads (an underrated genre 
) on the bus. We missed the “start day” – ash and a few other forgettable acts. Got the tent up, into the gig, and over to air in one of the tents. We saw a tricolour, and I said to one of my the boys I went over with “that couldn’t be Irish” , but alas it was. No escaping the paddys . Air were so – so. Not really suited to that atmosphere.
Saw 20 mins of the “martini bros” – seemed interesting. Anyone know anything about them?
Then it was the PetShopBoys. A highlight. The forest of lights they had onstage worked really well. Played all the hits too. Started on flamboyant/rent which worked really well. Standing in the middle of 30000 Spaniards shouting “go west” was some buzz, and any band who manage to turn Bonos psuedo-spiritual bullshit into a camped up pop song (much to Bonos disdain) gets my vote.
Speaking of buzzes(and bono), one of the down points of the weekend was the replacement of ecstasy with “coca” as the drug of choice in Spain/at festivals. Terrible stuff.
Next up that night was kraftwerk. They took the big stage at around 3am. The festival goes on all night, so you can see all the headliners (take note shitty UK festival promoters). All lights and cameras were off for the KW set. It was more or less the same (1 or 2 songs shorter) as the European gig. The atmosphere picked up from a slow start. The crowd didn’t really get it at the start – but improved, and were dancing along with us at the end. Some reasons for this were – the fact there was no lights on the crowd (due to KWs highly controlled light setup), and the crowd didn’t seem to know the older songs. Once the robots came out and strobes went on, the crowd went nuts. Great stuff. A mate claimed to have an “outer body experience” during COMPUTERWORLD. I felt really emotional at points in the gig. The songs are really touching, and have personal gravitas. Geeky note : Florians tie refused to light up when required. Those reckless, unprofessional Kraftwerkers!
We hung around and watched (rather than participated in) some DJ sets, and headed to the site around 6am. I killed myself during Kraftwerk, and thought my legs would die. We were awakened by condensation in our tent at 8am, uuuuugh. Bummed around all day discussing bands and Djs, Djs and bands. Headed down to the beach (15mins away) and ate pizza.
Then more good news on that Saturday- Morrisey pulled out. No reasons were given at the time , so we occupied a few hours with dream scenarios. The best were : 1-Morriseys dead. 2-Morrisey dead along with every smiths and Morrisey recording and master. 3-Morrisey dead along with every smiths and Morrisey recording and master and Smiths and morrisey fan. 4- Morrisey dead – watch footage of him dying on the big screen now, whoop and holler. 5- Morrisey dead and NewOrder are filling in with a “vanishing point only” set.
It was perversely pleasurable to see all those smiths fans mope more than usual that night. The Saturday was a bit shit otherwise. Soulwax were shit. Soulwax are shit. We heard some Scissor Sisters from the tent – and that “chamon chamon” song sounded really fun. Lou reed was terrible – although I was in a minority thinking that. No velvet hits – no hits at all at all, and lots of proggy guitar solos. As a friend said “why not be more honest and get a load of old men to masturbate onstage”. I started feeling a bit poorly – or sick – or whatever, and only saw some Belle and Sebastian. I wasn’t going to wait around for 2 more hours for coked up bobby and mani. Ive heard terrible stuff about Primal Screams latest shows. Rock the Shack (worst ever NewOrder song) is reason enough for hitting that tent earlier.
Spanish ladies : Sheeeeeit :)
Then to Sunday. More sitting around reading and discussing and heading down the supermarket and feeling queasy and walking back to the campsite and dancing beside a car blaring out technique and doing stuff you wouldn’t do but on holiday. Brian Wilson tonight , Brian Wilson tonight, Brian Wilson tonight, Brian Wilson tonight, “Don’t laugh if I cry” said one of the lads, and big Brian was that emotional. Such a genius, in such a state. Poor bugger. Hes had a really shitty life, and those songs are really beautiful. He looks like a big child, but seems really sharp in other ways. When he engages his otherwise dangling hands to act out songs with motion, he really looks innocent, like a 7 year old child learning the words to a song in school. His voice is really good , and his band work around him really well. Some good banter with the crowd too. We left the big stage after his big songs (all played backtoback for the last 15mins in all their crowd pleasing glory). Franz Ferdinand were next. Hence the fact we left the big stage. God - I hate them.
Earlier on we witnessed Arthur Lee butcher his back catalogue. The Catalans were having none of it. Boos and thumbs down and half a tent walk out may have sobered him slightly, but it would take a lot more than that by the looks of things. That’s what I like about the Spanish. You turn up and fuck up cause youre loaded, then fuck you, we will walk. Irish crowds could learn a lot from that. He was reduced to mumbling “im sorry” in his wrecked voice.
I was dragged along to wire by a fan, and was impressed. Ive never seen them before. Lambchop also. 2 bands I “picked up” at the festival. Then for some LCD soundsystem (I only stayed some minutes), Spiritualised (not my cup of tea), and the chemical bros – who are huge in Spain and France. I didn’t stay till the end to massage tim burgess ego either. I wasted myself on wilsons set – singing along with a sore throat, jumping along when I was already pretty tired. Off to bed - but again, not for much sleep.
We hung around the Monday, were going to go to the beach party with 2manyDJs, but all ended up sleeping it out by mistake. Up to Barcelona again for the Tuesday night and Home Wednesday. I really liked Barcelona. A city after my own heart. Saw the CNT headquarters, and too many pictures of DALIs over stylised , thoughtless crap. Not a fan of him or Modernisme, but still loved the place.
Id advise all European NOOLers to head next year. If NewOrder are playing (and they should, they would go down well, and its among the best festivals around), id advise every NewOrder fan in the world to go. No joking! It was great.
If only it were true.....