| Global Gathering 2006 Review |
|
TheTranceArena.com attended the event on Saturday 29th July to review the Godskitchen tent, which was where it was all happening from a Trance point of view (although Tiesto played the previous evening). We also went along to take some photo's, video clips, and to interview Judge Jules and Armin Van Buuren, who were both scheduled to play in the Godskitchen arena. We were also due to interview Paul Oakenfold, but due to him arriving late, he had to cancel all press interviews. We arrived at 11am - three hours before the gates opened to the general public. We wanted to arrive early to avoid any queues, park safely, work out which all of the various tents were, and to plan our interviews with performing DJ's. Thankfully, the roads were clear, there were no queues outside the airfield, so we had a nice easy journey there, which allowed us plenty of time to grab a bite to eat, and an opportunity to take some photo’s of the event area from the car park before it became too busy.
If you've never been to Global Gathering before and don't know where it is hosted, then we'll try to build a picture for you! Basically, imagine a massive disused old airfield with a long runway and grass either side of it in the middle of the countryside with no houses for miles! Put some perimeter fencing around it, some massive performance tents, an outdoor stage, portacabins that are to be used as ticket offices, hot dog stands and a camping area, and then you'll be on the right lines!
Upon our arrival at the main gates, we were told where the press area was straight away - so everything went to plan. The weather was scorching hot, so in we went - armed with a nice cold drink, cameras, pens, notepads, and all the other essentials required to review an event! We were escorted through to where it was all happening without having to queue, so we managed to take a few photo's of the various huge tents and facilities before everyone was allowed in. On the day, there were 7 tents, the BBC radio 1 "beach" stage, and the Hed Kandi "VIP" area. The 7 tents were the "Carl Cox & friends" arena, "Bedrock" arena, "Defected" arena, "Polysexual" arena, "Accelerated Culture" arena, the "Strongbow cider house", and, the best of them all - the "Godskitchen" arena! Some of the tents were larger than others - but the "Polysexual" tent and the "Godskitchen" tent were certainly the biggest. Our first stop was the press area, where we picked up our listings so that we knew which DJ’s were performing in each tent. It was here that we also had to check the time that Judge Jules and Armin Van Buuren were meeting us for our interview. Once we’d finished in the press area, we decided to have a brief walk around the site to check out the facilities and tents. Overall, everything looked well organised, tidy and secure. It had been dry for days, so thankfully, the field was hard and dry, which meant everyone would be walking around in their normal clothes and not having to avoid the puddles in their wellies. A lot of people were talking about Global Gathering 2005 being a total washout and how they had to walk around in wellies and rain coats. This year was the opposite – the girls were walking around in strappy tops and bikini’s, and the lads were walking round in shorts, t-shirts (some even topless), and flip-flops.
After checking out the area and some of the other tents, the time was approaching 2pm, so we made our way to the Godskitchen tent where Jon O’ Bir was due to open. Unfortunately, there were problems from the start, which resulted in a crowd of people gathering outside the tent, and a pneumatic crane inside the tent making some repairs to electrical equipment. The tent finally opened at 3pm to a massive roar from the crowd, and everyone rushed in and started dancing immediately. Jon’ O Bir played a reduced 30 minute set, however, he looked very unfazed by the problems and delivered a nice opening set ready for Matt Hardwick to take over at 3.30pm. Matt Hardwick kicked off with his usual trademark style of Trance, although he appeared to be struggling with his mixing because at one point, we counted four poor mixes straight after each other - something we'd not normally associate with Matt Hardwick. Jon O' Bir also had a few loose beats, and Fergie also struggled, so we wondered if there was perhaps a problem with the monitor speakers in the DJ area that was causing a "delay" problem.
Once Matt Hardwick finished, Above & Beyond took over behind the decks - although we took a wander around the site again because, in all honesty, we're not great fans of the more mellow side of Trance. We decided to come back a little later once the tempo had picked up a bit! At around 6.30pm, we came back to hear Fergie on the decks, who had a mixed reception - some really enjoyed his set, and others weren't so keen. In all fairness to Fergie, his musical style isn't ideally suited for the Godskitchen arena. His style usually consists of Tech-House and Techno, whereas all of the other DJ's in that tent were Trance DJ's. The highlight of his set though was DJ Elite's - "That Fuct Camera". The bassline in that tune echoed all through the tent and could be heard quite clearly outside - so clear in fact, that 5 people came running in chanting "oh my god! That Fuct Camera - Tuuuuuuune" - and then they started dancing hysterically!
Following on from Fergie at 7pm, was Marco V. We were quite intrigued to hear Marco V because he's churned out some stunning productions over the last 12 months or so, and he's also highly rated as a DJ. Unfortunately, we were unable to listen to his whole set as we were scheduled to meet Judge Jules for an interview. Of what we did hear though, he was supurb. Marco played an amazing remix of an Arctic Monkeys tune, and his "False Light" and "Red, Blue, Purple" tunes went down a storm too! Marco V was certainly one of the highlights of the day. During Marco V's set, we had an exclusive backstage interview with Judge Jules - but rather than interupt the review by putting that here, we'll post that up on the main homepage over the next few days.......
Following on from Marco V was a live BBC Radio 1 broadcast by Judge Jules. Now, Judge Jules has always been a DJ to recieve mixed reactions - people seem to love him or hate him - but its amazing how loud he can get the crowd to cheer when he says "In 30 seconds time, we'll be live across the nation to 1 million listeners on Radio 1. When you hear the music start, I want you to let everyone at home know exactly what they're missing out on". The roar was immense! I think the fact that he had such a roaring reception, plus the fact that he was playing to a, now quite full, tent, brought out the best in him because Jules pulled off a cracking set that continually kept the crowd going. It was quite bizarre though being under a tent with around 6,000 people in it, and then hearing a "Weeeeeeee're getting Louder! Judge Jules on Radio 1" jingle playing at various stages through the set. Highlights from Jules's set include Team SR's "Leaving London", Fabio Stein's - "Tran 4", and Fabio Stein's remix of Jules's "Keep Me Running". Once Jules had finished his set, Ferry Corsten took over from 9pm until 10.30pm. Now, sods laws says that if you go to a dance music festival, then you'll want to see two DJ's that have clashing times. This was the case on Saturday - we wanted to see Ferry Corsten, but we also wanted to see Fatboy Slim - and they both started at 9pm! We chose to see Fatboy Slim - and we certainly made the right decision. Fatboy might not play Trance - but he can certainly entertain! He alone had the pulling power to make sure that the Radio 1 "beach" stage was absolutely rammed.
We attempted to go through to the press pit to take some photographs, but it took us ages to get there because of all the people all packed into one area. Coincidentally, as we walked through, we bumped into Godskitchen resident, Mark Eteson (who we'd spotted several times already that day dancing with the crowd in the Godskitchen tent.) if you've never seen Fatboy Slim before, you've definately got to go - even if he's not your cup of tea musically! The crowd love him, he loves the crowd - and his enthusiasm cannot be faulted.
About half way into Fatboy Slim's set, we had to leave and make our way up to meet Armin Van Buuren, who'd agreed to have an exclusive interview with us backstage. Again, rather than interupting this review, we'll put the full interview up on the homepage in a few days time...... After we'd interviewed Armin, and saw the last bit of Fatboy Slim's set, we'd decided that we'd finished our "work" for the day, and decided to check out the Godskitchen tent as "clubbers" instead. The notepad went away, we arranged no more interviews, and we enjoyed the music! We arrived back to the tent to see Paul Oakenfold in action. Just as we walked in, Oakie was playing "Total Blackout", followed immediately by Alfa - "Sacrosanct", and Push - "Universal Nation"! Three absolutely amazing tunes all played back to back - even if the tune selection was a little random! It was hard to give an honest opinion of Oakie's set because by the time we got back to the tent, we'd missed most of his set.
Immediately after Paul Oakenfold at midnight was Armin van Buuren. Armin was supurb! He started off with a few slightly more "chilled" Trance tunes, but he soon upped the tempo and began to "bang" out the tunes. Normally, Armin's style is fairly progressive, and he builds his set up over a 3 or 4 hour period - but because he was on for a much shorter than usual time compared to some of his long club sets, he "worked through the gears" much quicker! This was probably one of the best sets we've heard from Armin. Highlights from his set were his own "Communication" tune, and Paul Van Dyk's - "For An Angel". You can't get tunes much bigger and better than that for a festival!
Now, a bit of confusion hit the arena at 1.30am! On Friday, Eddie Halliwell pulled out of Global Gathering and his name didn't appear on any of the lanyards and listings, so people weren't expecting him there. Armin and Paul Van Dyk had been allocated an extra 30 minutes each to cover for him. However, on Saturday, Eddie Halliwell announced his availability again, but Paul Van Dyk had to pull out instead - so, the majority of people were expecting Paul Van Dyk to come on, but in fact, Eddie Halliwell came out instead. To help bring an end to the confusion, a special video feature displaying Eddie Halliwell's name appeared on the main screen's, so everyone knew what was going on again! Unfortunately though, Eddie's set was affected by a power cut in the DJ booth and he was DJ'ing in darkness for half of his set. Eddie was fairly disappointing - he didn't do as much of his scratching and trickery as usual, and the style of music that he was playing didn't really fit the Eddie Halliwell that we all know. Perhaps he was playing it safe because he was sandwiched by other Trance DJ's? We felt a little disappointed once his set ended. Following on from Eddie Halliwell was his good friend, and Serious Management "stablemate", Judge Jules. Jules had got off to a good start, however, he was another victim of the tents power problems when, half way through the classic "Angel" by Ralph Fridge, his decks cut out completely - leaving the tent in silence for around 5 minutes. It had been raining earlier in the night, and apparently, the tent was leaking water into the DJ equipment. Unfortunately, Jules seemed a bit "rattled" by the problems, and then it all went a bit wrong. He re-started after the power cut with Team SR's "Leaving London" - and then mixed, oddly, "Leaving London" into it again. It sounded like he had been caught unaware and wasn't ready for his next track as he appeared to start the second playing of "Leaving London" with the crossfader open slightly - rather than a mix, it sounded like a radio station when they just overlap the start and ends of tracks slightly. The only reason we can think of was that he was perhaps trying to clear the water away from the equipment. Once he realised he played "Leaving London" again, he mixed out at the earliest convenience - but by which time, a lot of people were starting to leave the tent.
 The indoor fireworks
Following on from Jules was Godskitchen resident Mark Eteson - unfortunately, by this point, we'd been awake for approaching 20 hours, and was starting to feel a little tired - and with a drive home to follow, we decided to play it safe and leave then. Overall, we had a very enjoyable day! The weather was scorching hot until it rained at around 10pm, everyone was very friendly, and the music was quality! The fireworks display brought a nice end to the day, along with the somersaulting aeroplanes!
Its quite clear to see why this is the UK's largest and most popular dance music festival. It is well organised, well planned, caters for most tastes in music, and is conveniently located in the middle of the country. if you get the chance to Global Gathering 2007, it certainly comes well recommended! The only problems that could perhaps be prevented next year is the amount of litter that is around in the tents. There was a severe lack of bins, resulting in people dropping their empty bottles, plastic beer cups, and other rubbish on the dancing area. Also, there were obvious electrical problems in the Godskitchen tent, so perhaps the tent should be better waterproofed next time. People were also very annoyed at the music being turned dwon from midnight onwards! There didn't seem any logical explanation for that - there isn't a house for miles, so disturbing residents shouldn't have been an issue. People want to go to a dance music festival to appreciate the music - so if its turned down to a low level, they aren't going to be too happy. Crowds of people were chanting "turn it up" to Armin - but the sound engineers refused to turn it up, and Armin and the crowd looked quite annoyed. lessons to be learnt in 2007, despite it still being a fantastic event! We look forward to our return in one years time...........
Global Gathering movie clips:http://carlbriggs.ttamixhosting.co.uk/globalgatheringvideos/movie1.mpg
This review is protected under copyright law and no part of it may be copied in part or in whole without our written permission! TheTranceArena.com would like to thank the following:Godskitchen Global Gathering for allowing us to review the event. We appreciate your help and support! Many thanks. |
The weekend of Friday 28th and Saturday 29th July 2006 saw the UK's largest dance festival return to Long Marston Airfield in Stratford-Upon-Avon - Warwickshire, England. A crowd of 45,000+ people were expected over the weekend to see their favourits artists perform - some of which rarely visit the UK due to being so in-demand internationally. Daft Punk, Groove Armada and Fatboy Slim were the main headliners, although the line-ups in each of the other tents were pretty damn impressive too. Read on for the whole Global Gathering 2006 review....
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|