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Glade Festival 2005

Friday 15th to Sunday 17th July 2005
nr Newbury, Berkshire, England
£82.50; Campervans £30; (no day tickets) - SOLD OUT

My Saturday began in this year’s extremely popular new addition to the festival, the LittleBig Tent, with DJ Zilla playing some fantastic chopped up hiphop-y breaks and beats. The atmosphere in the LittleBig Tent was rather lovely, although the tent was often too packed to be comfortable, particularly during the brilliantly barmy Wrong Music Afternoon on Saturday. As festival temperatures soared, the tent became more and more unbearable for those frying inside – next year we need a bigger tent!

We moved onto the Main Dance Arena next, for drum n bass legend, Aphrodite’s fabulously bass-heavy set. The D&B maestro was accompanied by the appalling MC Sugar, a man intent on convincing the crowd that “England is the best country in the world,” in such a way that had me and many around me questioning his real political agenda.

Another highlight was to follow, as I moved over to the Breaksday tent to catch live breakbeat band, Atomic Hooligan, complete with decks, effects, live guitars and 3 vocalists, including human beatbox and current festival darling, MC Xander. This set was a major high point of the weekend for many I spoke to, as the band rattled through tracks from their latest album, You Are Here, to great applause from the audience. Rennie Pilgrem’s TCR All-Stars also kept the live and loud vibe coming later that evening, with a belting set almost as good as the band’s amazing Glastonbury Dance Village performance last month.

Back in the Main Dance tent, it was time to square up to Saturday’s two major headliners: Warp Records’ heavyweights Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, performing under his DJ AFX moniker. While I am not usually a fan of either of these rather “difficult” artists, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed both of their sets. Squarepusher played his 6-string bass like a demon once again, but seemed to set the scene for his musical deconstructionism far better on this occasion than when I have seen him previously, allowing his audience to get into a few more musical tracks at the start of his set before beginning to rip those same forms apart as the set moved on. With a starting point of reference like this, I could then see what Squarepusher tries to communicate in his more jagged, fragmented compositions. Having read his explanation of his musical style featured in this year’s programme, I couldn’t help but wonder if this set had been designed as something of an introductory showcase to his music, with people like me in mind. If this is the case, for me he fully succeeded.

For a DJ so notorious for not giving his audience the tunes they want, DJ AFX’s set on Saturday was an old skool ravey dream. Some members of this website and major Warp fans met the man himself on the Friday and begged him to play some Gabba, which he duly did! Moving his set through old school rave, D&B, gabba, and into ambient territory towards the end, the Main Dance tent was rammed with people dancing to his beat.