This is the day GBV were supposed to have played, and then they pulled out shortly after the (rapturously received) announcement. What a tease! :) Quite a few of us went anyway, and had a good time, but really, it's a bit sad they're not coming back over here. For years, I would always wear a GBV shirt, Sundays at ATP, it was a tradition, so on the day they were supposed to make this come true and actually close out the Sunday night slot, I wore my brand new rune T-shirt which I acquired from the nice guys @ Fire Records when they were representing at the indie label market in Spitalfields recently.
I went quite early, & the first three slots in the main room for Sat and Sunday (which was actually a biggish side room to the main hall at Alexandra Palace and worked quite well for most of the acts on Sat and Sunday; on Friday, the "metal day", there was a bigger crowd & the Melvins, Sleep and Slayer rocked the big hall which only works for pretty big shows), were all vaguely haunted electronic acts with a strong AV focus, Forest Swords, Blanck Mass & Demdike Stare; outside it was brilliant sunshine, inside it was a dark room with trippy & twisted images and sounds.
Blanck Mass:
"Don't Look Back" Bob Dylan doc from 1963 or so. The day in the cinema room was curated by Louis Theroux who also showed his new documentary "Twilight of the PrQn Stars"which I missed, at the festival and the other day on the telly as well...
The foyer, you can see how light and summery it actually was on that day:
Demdike Stare:
three minutes and 14 seconds: Set the controls for the heart of the sun:
The fun and slightly camped up garage sounds of Thee Oh Sees from San Fran. They looked and sounded like Billy Childish had found them in his wardrobe ;)
Gavin and Vanessa, outside in the brilliant sunshine:
Archers of Loaf return with their agreeably gruffy vintage power pop...
It's Joerg!:
Yuck, amazing lightshow, continuing the AV theme from earlier in the day, featuring mashed up images filmed and screened immediately. They sounded a bit more engaging than previous times I've seen them.
Ally Pally looks a bit like the Brighton piers used to look, huh?
The Panorama room:
The Make Up, who really divided opinion. I thought they were maybe a bit washed up? but not too bad... Truefact: I almost bought their album, that time in 1997 in the Brighton Virgin Megastore when I bought "Under the Bushes, Under the Stars", my first GBV album and my gateway into GBV fandom. So maybe I should get that Make Up album after all?!!
and on to the reunited Afghan Whigs who played a passionate well received set, Greg Dulli on top form, looking and sounding very good. And that's the slot GBV had, originally. They were certainly a worthy replacement. Pretty much loved it from start to finish!
