Thanks for all the reports so far. I’ll try to compile all of them into one report together with images and scans in due time. My report mainly focuses on stuff that hasn’t been mentioned yet:
It was a long day of waiting, but as midnight approached, Tall Paul cleared the decks and the stage opened for 808 State. Clearly 808 had the headliner timeslot, even though Danii was officially the main act on the posters. One thing that immediately sprang into my eye was the lack of visuals on the big screen behind the stage. Why was it turned off when 808 started? It had been working all night and was turned on again straight after 808 had finished. Bizarrely the visuals used for almost all other acts included the Transambient DVD. Even the video ‘Macrobiotic’ (used for the 808 track on transambient) was on screen during Sister Bliss’ set. Without the screen, the 808 stage looked a bit colourless as there weren’t too many lighting effects (and no 808 laser show).
808 surprisingly kicked off with Cobra Bora. It was soon clear that Graham had been listening hard to our wishes on the message board and boy did I go mental when the words “Welcome to Techno City” pounded through the arena. The lads were in good spirit and it was a different story compared to the Dundee gig six months ago. Hearing all those classic 808 tracks and seeing Eric (alas no fan or mirror ball) dancing on stage took me straight back to the old days, marvelous. The only thing besides the lack of visuals that I found slightly disturbing was the needle jumping on Darren’s decks while he was scratching. Don’t know if he noticed. There had been no sound check prior to the gig.
After the gig I briefly saw the boys. Andy had the flu as ever, Darren headed to a warehouse rave and Graham (pouring with sweat) drove off to a hotel in order to get some sleep as he had to get up early to catch a flight to London for a Homelife gig.
Drummer Mikey mentioned that he couldn’t hear a thing on stage that he had been playing but thoroughly enjoyed the gig – I could only confirm that it had been a pleasure watching him at work.
When a Scottish promoter started a rather uncomfortable discussion with me, I decided it was time to leave (Nick tried to convince me later that the bloke actually liked me – drunken Glaswegian humour apparently).
Big respect to the globalState firm making their way to Glasgow:
Neil Tartan Army, Nick King, Rodders + mate, Steve C, Pete + Carlos, Geordie Ian + mate, John Ancodia McBride + mate, JD + mates, myself and new man Oggy. Great to finally meet Geordie Ian and John Ancodia in person.
After two Scottish dates in a row, I think most of us wouldn’t mind a different country for the next 808 gig venue though…
A final word about the festival:
Where the promoters trying to recoup the lack of ticket sales by charging £2.50 for everything? £2.50 for essentially half a pint of beer or a bottle of water. £2.50 for the cloakroom. Why even the set list (with errors) had to be purchased at £2.50!