I say that, but I know what I like and when I like it. So if you’ve got Sanjay Tailor on at the Revellers Tent on a Saturday (it’s a big one and if you’ve not read the review of Friday’s events for a primer, see HERE), it can’t only be me that was disappointed to find he was on at 1 o’clock in the afternoon and not 1.00 am! Give him his due, the Asian Dub Foundation’s expert DJ set was no less than awesome which made the timing that much more annoying. Added to that, he’s not exactly ‘warm up’ for the next act, Helsinki’s cinematic folk of Husky Rescue. Oh well, hopefully Festival Republic’s programming will get better next year (that said, there were already rumours that it wasn’t only the crowd that were not happy with the programming; more a case of horses’ mouth - and I don’t mean Horse Meat Disco).

Undeterred, it’s off to see the leading exponents of space-rock-glam-funk with Chrome Hoof. They were so good in the Dance Tent last year, they’d been promoted to the Main Stage for this. The crowd seemed to like them (and in the Press Tent afterwards, the camera loves the “Darth Vader” look) but it was still too early for me. I’d have probably been better off at the Clash stage (as Bass Clef was on at the same time) but as Chrome Hoof finished, above the sound of the applause I heard a teen girl shout, “Well done!”. Hardly the cry of a festival veteran, I thought. And I’d be right as she was one of a group of youngsters that had set their pitch in front of the main stage for the day as they planned to see The Jolly Boys, Metronomy and M.I.A (after originally booking on the strength of childhood heroes Massive Attack and Thom York being on the bill).

Now you’ll immediately spot that Jamaican veterans The Jolly Boys are the odd ones out in this list but they get the street-cred by doing cover version of Winehouse’s ‘Rehab’ I was told. So I suggest to them that instead of hanging here they go and see Easy Star All-Stars with their range of reggae covers from Pink Floyd, Radiohead and The Beatles (they seemed quite excited by the thought of Sgt. Pepper being reworked in this style). So they’d be most impressed with ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, ‘A Little Help From My Friends’, ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’, ‘Lovely Rita’, ‘When I’m Sixty-Four (tributed to Sugar Minott who recently passed away) from the Lonely Heart Dub Band album. They also mixed the set up with ‘Breath’ and ‘Money’ and ending with Radiohead’s ‘Karma Police’ (wouldn’t that have been cool if Thom had turned up to sing-a-long)

And if you like all this old stuff, you could hanged around for Craig Charles Fantasy Funk Show and not far away was Bristol’s oldest and finest, DJ Derek; but after missing the Latin Dub Soundsystem on the Global Local Stage, it was time for some hip-hop flamenco of Jardares Por Fuera and like a Spanish/Cuban equivalent, WARA both bands are fronted by powerful female vocalists and they we’re both excellent fun.

So it was now after 6pm and the 6 hour protective sunscreen I’d lavished on my body earlier in the day had not been required to do its job with the benefit of hindsight. However, regular readers will know that I don’t like to dwell on the negative and whilst we’ve been closely following the Disco Re-emergence onto the dancefloor cool in recent years, Saturday proved to be have a life changing moment for me at Big Chill; and I’m not taking bad acid or a reaction to a chick pea dhal curry either.

Ever since I caught the guys at Phonica playing The Balihu Years 1983-2008 that came out towards the end of last year featuring tracks by Brennan Green, Carlos Hernandez, Ilya Santana and Massimiliano Pagliara but mainly Daniel Wang, I thought Wang’s “left field” disco music is just our thing and I couldn’t’ wait to see him at one of his DJ sets. And he’s now definitely in my list of top 10 DJs as he turned up looking like he’d just arrived from the airport with two big bags of vinyl for 2 fun filled hours of obscure (and not so obscure) old disco (and other) music, “sometimes with commentary”. A DJ that can talk into a microphone! He’s a real star as he plays, talks and dances to “the groove with rhythm”. The guy is infectious he’s got a big following in the tent with crews from Manchester and Leeds (at least). Expect him to play anything from Dennis Coffey to Deodato and whilst he likes to move and groove along to his favourite records he’s more than just the Louie Spence of disco.

As a side note, as he handed over to Maurice Fulton (with Roy Ayers’ classic ‘Running Away’ sounding as good as ever), Daniel offers him the mic whereupon the tight lipped Maurice shakes his head dismissively as if to say no self-respecting dance DJ should use something as uncool as a microphone. But we’re of the old fashioned school that loves Daniel’s communications and think that he’s a real nice guy who makes and loves incredible music; expect a special FLY feature on him very soon.

And talking of special, we were mostly looking forward to seeing the live appearance of Roots Manuva (as previewed in the review of his latest single, ‘Jah Warrior’ HERE). And as the shout went out in the Press Area, “Roots is going on stage now”, the whole area emptied to go and see the man on the main stage. Sandwiched between Patrick Woolf and M.I.A., it did seem a bit of an odd spot for the Uncle of Big Chill. “You’re all grown up now Big Chill. I remember you as a little festival and now look at ya” he told the masses in front on him. He went through all the recent hits like ‘Again & Again’ and a hard versions of ‘Buff Nuff’ (that shook my shorts and bladder) and some new tracks from the forthcoming album. “It’s a special day today” he declares, “cos I’ve brought me dancin’ shoes” before going funky on ‘Watch Me Dance’ which preceded the classic ‘Witness (1 Hope)’ - if you’ve never scene the egg and spoon brilliance of the video, track it down on YouTube. But there was more to come with a souled out reggae groove to ‘Colossal Insight’, another old single ‘Let The Spirit’ before dedicating ‘Come What May’ to “anyone with a broken heart, just had an argument or can’t take it anymore”. Whether the timing and stage where right for Rodney’s presence is arguable (I got the impression that opinions were mixed), the fact remains that he’s the best we’ve got and the likes of youngsters like Tinie Tempah (who was on at the Revellers Stage immediately before) have a long way to go by comparison.

As ever, I couldn’t resist a bit of a walk-about and caught the last bit of an impromptu Bonobo DJ Set at Mr. Scruff’s Tea Tent (always good sounds coming from this ever friendly mix of sounds and beverages) and Roots’ mate, (another Ninja Tune) Toddla T with MC Serocee on the Starburst Stage (basically a load of big plastic boxes that lit up at night). Plan B attracted a suitably large crowd (another one for the teenagers) whilst the crowd in the Chill X tent went mad at the end of Wax Tailor’s set.

So whilst I wasn’t too bothered about missing the much talked about M.I.A. set (it made the BBC Radio news with “fears of a crush as fans stormed the stage” but with no reported major injuries, it was clearly a slow day for news) as I’d rather have a bit of the Vijay Iyer Trio with their Trio Riot version of M.I.A.’s ‘Galang’, there was still some acts that I wish I hadn’t I missed like Kellis, Mount Kimbie, Bullion, Henrik Schwarz and Charlie Dark to name just a few more!

But as Big Chill’s Big Sunday was still to come, I was already getting excited for more.

Sunday review HERE

Friday review HERE

Links:
Festival Republic presents The Big Chill, 5th to 8th August 2010 Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Malvern Hills, Ledbury, Herefordshire. www.bigchill.net
The Guardian, 10th August 2010 Big Chill Festival 4/5 James Smart www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/aug/09/big-chill-review
www.easystar.com
www.myspace.com/easystarallstars
www.myspace.com/kirstyrock
phonicarecords.com
myspace.com/dannydancer
rootsmanuva.co.uk
myspace.com/rootsmanuva