bennyhana22

I bloody hate downvoting... Ben

It was a great night! Venue was Joshua Brooks in Manchester, to which I'd never been before and I always like to go somewhere new. My train up was about half an hour late so didn't get into the city until just before 10pm. Met a couple of Glastonbury mates, one of whom was coming to JB's too. We got in the venue around 11.20pm and it was already nicely busy. The dance floor is in the basement with a bar upstairs that is open in the day and serves food etc. too. Space downstairs is nicely dark with brickwork and arches, and some different levels around the outside of a beautifully small and compact dancefloor. Sound system was pretty damn good and I'm pretty sure was a VOID which rarely lets me down. The two DJ's on before Rush for an hour each are Haus22 residents and did a very decent job of getting things going. Bar staff were absolutely lovely, very efficient and prices were refreshingly not silly. Rush was excellent. At times a little samey , but kept it moving well, with some particularly excellent percussion throughout. I do like well placed clicks and high-hats! I'd sen a few sets of his online and so was in no way surprised that, around mid-set, he picked up the mike and started doing some scatty vocals over a track. I mean, what's all that about?! But is was only brief and the crowd liked it! The crowd - a proper techno crowd. Not in any way studenty, as I'd thought it might be given the location. Very friendly, zero agg, had some lovely chats and made new friends. Security were polite, courteous, entirely non-overbearing and I don't recall seeing any on the floor at any point. Any more than three hours of Rush would probably have pushed it a bit for me as I'd have needed a bit of variety by then, but his track selection and transitions were great and it was a fab dance for me. Next is the legendary House of God in Brum on 8 April. They're treating this 29th (!!!) anniversary night as a back to basics after the madness of the last two years, so it's residents only. Which would be fine in any case, even if one of said residents wasn't Surgeon! Can't wait for that one. Also, on a not-quite-rave front have Max Cooper at the Roundhouse the weekend before HOG, so all looking like a nice few events to warm for the Farm. Sorry you couldn't make it @FuzzyDunlop, but understand completely - hope you have a sound roof again by now! Ben

It almost certainly won't be, but they'd be cracking late night in the Glade... Ben

Morning E/D ravers. DJ Rush in Manchester tonight, and first time out since WHP in November. Suffice to say I'm ready for this. @FuzzyDunlop - hope you can make it out tonight. We can show the kids how it's done. Ben x

Hope the Gas Tower has more sets that I want to see and that fit into the schedule. Saw Max Cooper in there last time and really like the venue. Though the slight slope gives the very regular structure a slightly off-balance feel! Ben

It's almost as if there is no pattern. Ben

(I don't think we've posted this before have we? My memory is shocking!) Ben

Oh my days. Ben

Boom 💥 Ben

Bravo 👏 "30 years and a plastic cover to you, chief" Ben

Absolutely everyone is welcome in the most inclusive of threads* Ben *except those who clearly have no business being in there x

That'll do, Donkey, that'll do. Ben

Bloody hell, yes. Eric in that guise on IICON...oooft. That would be incredible with the visuals the IICON team can do, and sound coming at us from all sides of the filed. @Ddiamondd - say it's true, and if it isn't, just lie. RE: DJ Rush - as said, I'll be there open to close with another mate from the Farm, so if you fancy it, you'd defo have some company on the dancefloor. Ben

FUZZ! How have you been, man??!! We've missed you. Would bloody love to buy you a beer and have a catch up, if you can make it. It's only a short one, so I'll likely be there doors to doors 😆 Ben

I've got DJ Rush in Manchester on 25 Feb - three hour set in a small venue. Should be dark and dirty. Max Cooper live at the Roundhouse on 2 April. And hopefully House of God in Brum are putting a night on on 8 April. After that, it's probably heads down for the Farm! Ben

And they say there's no place for VAR in the game? Pah! Ben

Seriously? Your first sentence sounds a wee bit troll-ey! Let us know if you would genuinely like some pointers regarding the myriad stages at Glastonbury that host electronic music, other than the sadly departed Beat Hotel... Ben ☺️

Everyone here knows my tastes in dance music. Gotta say, most of this is absolutely banging. Ben

AHEM!!!! Usual procedure, @Ddiamondd - spill it as soon as you're able! Ben

Argh! This was a tough clash choice! Notwithstanding the legendary nature of Slint and their mythical Spiderland, I'm just not much of a nostalgist and they'd been not a band for a very long time. That Green Man was hugely memorable for me because (a) it was just incredible and (b) my pal and I chose the Walled Garden for ALL three of our festival headliner sets: Teleman > East India Youth (who was phenomenal and justified my not seeing Slint - I had a bit of a /moment'...) > Lanterns on the Lake. The sound in that garden for all three was superb, and we also got to see Adult Jazz who are amazing and who, finally after getting on for 8 years, seem to be close to their second album. What memories. From a rave perspective, Ben UFO, Luke Abbott and The Field gave me possibly my favourite Green Man night-night. Ben

'Gold VIP Arena'. Please tell me this is *not* an area of the event into which you can go only if you've shelled out a small fortune for a pointless lanyard and a bar the great unwashed cannot go to? The absolute antithesis of everything that a festival should be about, for me. The haves and the haves not. Line up? Yeah, s'alright! No-one really on there that I would spot and go WOAH! Amazing booking. You can catch most of these artists relatively easily/frequently. I guess that is the scene a bit, atm. If the pandemic has done one thing to the dance genres, it's stifled the rise of newer artists who have missed two years of proper profile-building, so the established big names are a big pull as we emerge back onto dancefloors, I guess. Lineups do seem really pretty samey atm. Dimensions the one to stand apart for me. Ben

Yeah, I sort of knew that. I think what I had thought was that for 2020, specifically, it would stay there, thus pretty much guaranteeing the crane for at least that year. If the pandemic has meant that the base still hasn't been moved, I wonder if they'll just go with the crane again, as if it was 2020 and the last two years of madness never happened, even if they bin it off after that for the reasons you mention. Ben

Nothing to add from a vague inkling perspective, but in terms of wish list? Oscar Mulero would be the dream. Ben

I would say it's because it's not seen as that kind of festival. It's not Houghton, Freerotation, Gottwood etc, and so the line-up is curated for variety, keeping the largest number engaged and entertained etc. How many 'all-genres' festivals have regular 3-4h sets? Not many, I'd say. Even Boomtown, which is probably the danciest of the multi-genre biggies, doesn't have 3-4h sets in any significant way. A shame, I agree, but I'd be more surprised if they did have them, tbh... The only place I could really see that being a regular thing, I think, would be the Downlow. Ben

Apologies for being lazy and not reading the planning stuff, but I seem to remember (probably erroneously) that they were pretty sure they wouldn't het planning permission to leave the base in place forever, but that it was 'OK' for a year or so more after 2019. Before the webcam went down it was ever present in the Arcadia field and I though that there were defo plans for Pangea Mk 2 for 2020, even if the long term future was uncertain. TBH, given the time and financial investment they made in the project, I'd be very surprised if the crane is not there this year, again even if its days are numbered at Glastonbury , at least, due to planning. I guess the main issue that it was going to take something monumental to follow the spider and not always be a little bit of a deflated balloon. Ben