Party Vibe

Well holy frap jockeys, that was a mission and a half, the natives first outing in 2005 and we got tested, but made it thru alive. First off I worked all Saturday and Friday, and I “forgot” not to get completely spannered on Friday night. So by the time sat eve showed its face, I was slightly delusional from lack of sleep. Plans were going fine, but I hadn’t forwarded a message about when we were meeting to the crew, so they were running a few hours late. Then, once id squared all this out, I get a call saying we’re missing a vital lead and some of our rig cant be plugged in. boo. So im sorting out this glitch, and in that horrible pre-rave waiting limbo, trying not to get too caned so actually have some energy, and nearly falling asleep anyway.

Reet, so we mission it to the town near the site, having missed the convoy and having to find it just like everyone else, from the partyline. Problem is, we only have one phone and its not receiving shit, so im going on scribbled notes from an earlier conversation. We get down off the road, onto a track, and follow what seems like the right way, until we get to a mound and a gate. Now I know we are meant to go over it, but the drivers are having none of it and we cant hear shit.

Luckily enough, just at that moment, a astravan appears coming down the hill on the other side of the mound, so I leg it over, only to find that they haven’t found the party either, and have been to the top of the hill. We listen to the partyline on their phone on speaker, and realize there is a further turning we hadn’t heard before, so they set off and we prepare to ramp the mound. The first can gets over fine, but the second bottoms out and has to be tipped over. Not a good sign, as it turns out the rig is coming in a caravan, not a Luton. We get to the top of the hill, turn down a long slope of earth and stone and find our selves at the bottom in a forest. We cant get thru to the organizers, cos there’s no reception down there, and we aren’t hearing any bass, but we keep goin anyway. Finally, we see a van up ahead, halo’ed in light, and we know we’ve got there. “I’ll be surprised if there are more than 7 ravers here” someone comments, and we all take the piss out of him and get out.

Brainfuel are setting up, when I ask about for someone to chat to from the rig, I get stonewalled, like im a cop or summat. to be expected. I trek down past massika, who are nearly up, to aztek, who are on the end pointed away from everyone else. Im too knackered to make any intros, I have an ask around but no ones seen any of my contacts. or at least aren’t telling me. Back to the car for a reefer, I think, and I wander back, eyes peeled for familiars, and head full of how the fuck the rig will get here.

After a bifta, we decide to go and find some reception and see where the rig is. on the way back up the hill, we pass the troops, who tell us the caravan is stuck behind the mound, and fid’s guarding it. I tell them to go get aztek and some shovels and we’d meet them there. On the way further up, we see cars turning around, obviously thinking that we haven’t found shit and are goin home. We catch up with two of them but one gets away. by the time we get to the mound, there’s already a four car tailback behind the ‘van. The geez in front has a smashed windscreen, and is more than a little distressed that some wanker of a farmer has put his torch thru the bloke’s viser. Apparently, he isn’t too chuffed we had a rave near his land. surprise surprise. Its not like he can hear us, and the track we used is a green lane public right of way.

we stand about for a bit umming and arring, and then decide to unload the cara and try and make the hillock. It’s looking good, until it hits a root on one side and gets bounced against the tree, smashing a window. Im the only one who notched, so I keep quiet while we push it the rest of the way. Job done, load the van, get going. We get the rig on site at about 1 o’clock.

Now starts the setup, and we haven’t been out as a rig since September, and that was a link, so we are a bit rusty to say the least. I think we tried about five different positions before we came to one everyone was happy with. That got done by many helping hands (nice one, you know who you are) and the visuals started getting setup. We were gonna sit in the caravan and project out to a sheet hanging off the window, not ideal, but better than nowt. Fist problem: the midi keyboard didnt work, at least 7 keys are up shit creek, so vjing is gonna be tricky, to say the least. Second problem: getting the projector in place means having it on a separate table to the mixer etc, which means dangerous leads. danger danger.

So at fucking last we set up, and were ready to rave. I necked a load of shrouds, skinned up a few, got my olde english pikey out the car and set off. had a phat boogie in front of all the rigs; brain fuel was next to us, and made us look like a hifi, and their tunes were heavy punchy and dark. “graveyardcore” I think was the most apt description of the night I think. They have a rig that looks like a monster, with big swirling u.v eyes and a dirty great letterbox mouth lined with fangs. tripout. massika were next down, they had quite a simple setup, with a black n white banner over the decks and a chunky rig. I didn’t spend much time there, dunno why, not that inspiring I guess. Last down the track were aztek, who despite only bringing half their rig were making plenty of noise, and quality noise at that. I still failed to track down any of the lads, but apparently as we were getting the caravan over the mound, they were goin the back way with some of the native crew to help us out. nice one lads. anyway, i wandered around for a bit, chatted to a few heads, but not very much, as i was properly spent, and the shrooms were tripping me out, but they weren’t waking me up. I decided to have a mission. Got nice and far away from the rigs when it started raining- at the time it was welcome refreshment, but I didn’t know what was to come. Tripping merrily amongst the trees, I picked my way back over logs and brambles, and disturbed shit loads of scuffling things in the woods. got back to the caravan to skin up. dogboy and arkadarka turned up to help me smoke some weed, and just then, freeman bursts into the caravan and sends the projector flying. tripping, I saw it all slowed down, the projector flipped up in the air, beam swerving in front, dashing itself into a cupboard where it turned off and fell to the floor with a nasty sounding crack. freeman was mortified, and there was a stunned silence while the non crewmembers edged toward the door. Proper shat. Basically the thing we’ve been working so hard on had been set back 400, if not 1000 quid. and all eyes were on freeman. To be fair, it was our own mistake, we should have been more careful setting up, it was totally an accident on his part but still, he wasn’t pleased with himself. we wandered off for some more stomping and to try and find and extra xlr cable for one speaker..to no avail.

After the projector crashed, I ran out of steam and inspiration and had to crash. Me and my bird in her car with some pillows and blankets- softcore! Anyway, I woke again at about 7, the rain was stronger than ever, and I was well up for bed. I went and gave all the rigs one last rave, packed the rest of the VJ equip up and loaded the car. we were off.

We set back off up the hill we had come in on, to find that a night of rain and enthusiastic driving had fucked the path good and proper. Felt like my girlfriend should have been given a rally medal for getting us out of there, unfortunately the rest of the crew wasn’t so lucky. The caravan wasn’t having it, so a van had to be procured from up in surrey. That meant a four hour round trip. The rig was eventually loaded, and the guys got back late afternoon. The other car full of crew skidded on the way home coming up to a crossing, and misaligned one of the wheels, making the car unridable and forcing the passengers into a taxi. I still don’t know where the caravan is.

[nb: if anyone wants any of this taken down or amended, please private message me. cheers. why i bothered writing this is beyond me, and support, criticism or whatever is most welcome]