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home » festivals » The Big Chill » Big Chill @ Eastnor Castle 2006
Sunday overviewBig Chill @ Eastnor Castle reviewsWednesday 9th August 2006 Sunday dawns and after tea and a sly bacon sarnie I feel considerably less hungover than when I first woke up. After some blissful lounging about at our tents in the sunshine we mission off down into the valley for Norman Jay's annual crowd-rocker. Almost as much an institution as his Notting Hill Carnival slot, Norman Jay MBE has gathered an enormous flock for his annual Sunday lunchtime session, although at the point we arrive his laidback house is failing to move the audience from their Observers and picnic blankets. However a few dnb classics later and we're all on our feet. The crowd is enormous and I am envious of the view we must be creating for the people sat on the hill above me. Wanting to beat the crowds, we leg it off to the Castle Stage just before Norman Jay finishes to bag ourselves a good spot for Lily Allen. While some may be scathing of her live performances, we thoroughly enjoyed this little slice of cheeky pop. A friend of mine once described Lily's sound as "The Streets meets Corinne Bailey-Rae" and today this seems fair comment as Keith Allen's daughter bounces her way through LDN, Knock Em Out, Alfie (a tribute to her stoner younger brother who she gets onstage with her towards the end, though he doesn't look best pleased about it) and Smile. Lily appears to be having a great time and the crowd love it. This is summer sunshine pop of the highest order and a nice little interlude in my day. Unsure who to see next, we decide to fill a gap in our schedule with the classic soul funk of Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators on the Open Air Stage who we'd heard Mr Scruff recommend on his radio show earlier that morning. "If it's good enough for Mr Scruff, it's good enough for me" tends to be a wise festival manifesto and it didn't let us down today either as the slinky sounds of Nicole and her 10-piece band drifted into our lazy ears as we reclined in the grass. "This is the nicest music I've ever laid down to!" a good friend of mine commented afterwards and he was not wrong: if you like a bit of Northern Soul I cannot recommend them highly enough. Sticking with the Open Air Stage, the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain were next to tread the boards. The seven-piece festival favourites played a grin-inducing barrage of pop classics, lovingly reworked for a ukelele band. Should I Stay Or Should I Go, I Love Rock n Roll and Smells Like Teen Spirit were given a rapturous reception from the watching Big Chillers and the band were applauded onto an extended set by the early evening audience and an encore later. So good was their set that I could only feel for the Future World Funk DJs who came on next - that would be a tough act to follow. More crazy covers were up next from Nouvelle Vague, the acoustic bossa nova band from France who basically rewrite 80s post-punk tracks to suit their more laidback, latin lounge style. Showcasing tracks from their new album, Bande A Part, Nouvelle Vague (which translates to "new wave" in English, and bossa nova in Portuguese) revisit some of producers Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux's favourite tracks from the early 80s by bands like Joy Division, The Undertones and The Clash in a stunning combination of bossa nova, jazz and 60s pop. Accompanied today by singers Gerald Toto, Melanie Pain and Phoebe Killdeer, the band gallivant through new album tracks like The Killing Moon, Human Fly and Heart of Glass as the lady singers shimmy sexily around the stage, much to the delight of the blokes in the audience. After some much-needed sustenance and a beverage or 3 we found ourselves back at the Castle Stage for The Proclaimers. This is the first time I have seen these Scots favourites and it was not difficult to see how they have kept going all these years as their live show is fantastic. The band are tight and have as much energy now as they did when hits like I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) and Letter To America were shiny and new back in the 80s. A heavy Scots presence is felt among the watching dancers and this set is a big success. Unsure who to see to finish off my Big Chill weekend (it's Coldcut, Rob Da Bank, Solid Steel's Strictly Kev & DK or Guilty Pleasures and I've seen them all before), I decide to follow some old uni mates to see The Heritage Orchestra, a new signing to Gilles Peterson's Brownwood label. This huge and very young jazz funk orchestra play their big sounds to a small but enthused audience, finishing their set with a cover of Big Chill anthem Les Fleurs by Minnie Ripperton, played by the orchestra in the style of 4Hero's cover of the song and even featuring the same vocalist, Carina Andersson, who featured on the 1994 tribute. I had no idea who the Heritage Orchestra were before last weekend, but I would certainly look out for them in future as they keep us dancing to the bitter end. Big Chill is a great festival weekend that does exactly what it says on the tin. The food selection is great, the bars are numerous, the cocktails are lethal, there are water points everywhere and loads of toilets, although these could do with being cleaned more regularly. The festival's diverse age range makes for a more laidback atmosphere than at many festivals and the numerous happy children in attendance add even more to this ambience. A great musical line-up in beautiful natural surroundings: what more could you ask of a festival weekend? review by Lynsey Haire
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