So this is Camber Sands Pontins holiday camp at 9 a.m. on a Monday morning, after the weekend known as The Nightmare Before Christmas, the winter instalment of the now well-established All Tomorrow's Parties music festival. The festival where instead of damp tents everyone gets to hang out in a little chalet, make their own food, watch television programmed by the curators of the festival and have proper hot showers in the morning or evening. Aaah bliss.
This was the 9th ATP I've been to, so you could say I am something of a veteran (I've only missed one - a weekend chosen by the actor Vincent Gallo, and I can't totally remember why we didn't go to that one, but Herr Gallo's own performance at a previous festival may have had something to do with it). This particular line-up was selected by Nouveau Prog Rock giants The Mars Volta and was a relatively eclectic mix of rock, hip hop, electronic music and a few more unclassifiable acts, among them Diamanda Galas and Coco Rosie.
As always with such events, it's impossible to see everything. We got there too late to catch the opening act, Battles, but their CDs are doing it for me and I'll be reporting on them at a later date. We only caught half of Diamamda Galas but it was electric - pasisonate banshee octave leaping and piano slamming. In what would be a bit of a precedent for the weekend, the crowd was thin for Galas as that kind of act doesn't really seem to draw in the rock crowd and can look a bit out of kilter in a hall that also has a fast food outlet and a trick or treat shop selling fake breats, comedy wigs and dog turd pens. (No, really.)
Friday night ended with a magnificent set by the boyfriend and girlfriend duo The Kills and then it was off to the disco in the on site pub for more drinks, dancing to Blondie and The Smiths and then to round it off a mass sing along on stage to 'Power Out' by The Arcade Fire. This last was probably a major contributing factor to my headache and sore throat the follwing morning. More also on Arcade Fire in the days to come.
ATP can be a drain on the resources at the best of times, but the cold weather of December doesn't help and it took a while to get going on Saturday. A walk on the beach helped, as did a warming pint by the fire in Camber's nicest pub (The Green Owl). The first act we saw that day was The Fucking Champs. They were fantastic, but it's something of an anticlimax watching a band perform when you've actually been standing through their entire set up and soundcheck beforehand. Still, their mix of Thin Lizzy, Motorhead and Trans Am is a winner in my book though obviously not to everyone's taste. But who could fail to love Mr. Quintron and Miss Pussycat, who followed? New Orleans' answer to Peaches and Le Tigre, Quintron plays keyboards and sings from behind the front of a classic car while removing most of his clothes one by one, as Miss Pussycat occasionally provides backing vocals and shakes maraccas with dolls attached. "I'm a fucking badass," he howls as he dives into the crowd, who are loving every ridiculous minute of it. Exactly the kind of thing a festival needs to kick start its big Saturday night. After that it's rock all the way with Mastodon and Mars Volta, though by the time MV are two thirds of the way into their 140 minute set it starts to (unsurprisingly) flag. After this, some of us are ready for bed though others head straight for the pub disco again and stay there watching hugely drunk people play air guitar, do somersaults and sing along to AC DC.
Part 2 of the ATP report will follow very soon. In the meantime, make do with the picture above...