Less
than a week after returning from
Glastonbury,
the Wax Music crew were heading off to sunny Clapham for a more civilised
festival experience. There would be no wellies and rain-macks on the
common today as the beautiful people had turned up sporting their Von
Dutch t-shirts, platform shoes and oversized designer sunglasses. But
today wasn’t just about looking good on this beautiful sunny day in
South West London, it was actually about the brilliant line-up of dj’s
and live performances the day had to offer. Behind the high walls that
surrounded the arena, lay a veritable banquet of dance music – from drum
n bass to old school hip-hop via big beat and funky house. All we needed
to do now was to line up with the several thousand other people that were
waiting in a queue that started somewhere several miles south of Clapham.
After some impressive queue jumping, we finally made it
into the arena. I headed straight for the first tent I came across where
the legendary Joey Negro was working the crowd into an early afternoon
frenzy. After a few hours getting funky, it was time to check out the
toilet facilities which were also getting funky as the two portacabins per
to thousand people were not quite adequate. And using a urinal al fresco
with the wind blowing in face is not a pleasant experience either. Oh
well, back to the bar (which was the same tent that hosted the Glade Bar
at Glasto!) for another round a
Kroney’s.
After
a short ice cream break, it was off to the next arena for a nice brew.
Andy Carthy aka Mr Scruff, was on top form. Playing an epic 8 hour set in
the Keep It Unreal arena, Mr Trouser Jazz worked his way through dub
reggae, northern soul and a few stompers from his own back-cat. It was now
dilemma time. Do we stay for the rest of Mr Scruff’s set or do we head
over to the outdoor stage for the main event – Groove Armada?
Well,
some of the crew hung about to keep it unreal while a few of us headed to
the crammed main arena to shake that ass. Sadly, we couldn’t get further
into the crowd than just behind the sound booth and so with the bad
location and the howling wind, the sound was pretty poor for the whole
set. However, I’m sure the few thousand people in front of us had a
better earful than us as the crowd went mental to a set of anthems that
certainly secure Groove Armada as one of the biggest names in dance music.
We bounced to Superstylin’, shaked our collective asses to I See You
Baby and got blurrey eyed to At The River. Then
suddenly it was over.
Ten o’clock
and Groove Armanda had left the building. God damn those local residents!
OH YEAH AND…
…there
was the excellent but sardine-tastically packed drum n bass arena hosted
by Movement. Sadly the power
went off mid-set and everyone slowly left, leaving the DJ embarrassed and
lonely. Ahhh.
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