• The Big Chill 2011 review


  • The Big Chill has had a transformation of sorts since being bought by Festival Republic in 2009. Last year the site was re-arranged and the atmosphere changed dramatically as a younger crowd appeared at the Eastnor Castle site eager to enjoy an increased dance music presence. While families were still out in force, the kids area seemed tacked on and there was a sense the artist element of Spencer Tunick’s painted naked festival bodies was added for media interest rather than serious aficionados. This year Creative Director and co-founder Katrina Larkin had no hand in the creation of the event as she resigned last November, leaving the Big Chill in the hands of Melvin Benn’s Festival Republic. The result was a Big Chill in transition and, while beautiful to look at, lacked the atmosphere and unique artistic qualities that had made it so unique.

    On arrival at the festival on Friday afternoon, camp was set up and the first port of call was a wander down the hill to the arena. As ever, approaching the mix of stages and stalls made for attractive viewing as we passed Big Chillers lazing in a sea of hammocks and relaxing around giant light spheres in the field opposite while in amongst the action there were plenty of visual treats to be seen. The Enchanted Garden was a focal point for the festival beauty with paper butterflies overhead, an organic installation featuring hanging pods to seek comfort in and the Art Trail offering a breather from the action.

    The Enchanted Garden was a focal point for the festival beauty.

    This year’s Art Trail was hidden in the woods with the path up to a variety of music, film and acoustic band lit by green neon lights and a safe haven from some of the more hectic areas on the main site. Information cards from mental health charity Mindapples, shaped as apples, invited visitors to write their favourite things in the world and hang them on string running from tree to tree. While some scrawled to shock, the majority shared caring responses which showed the softer side of human culture. Elsewhere a notice board was littered with lonely-hearts notes written on a nearby typewriter and an installation by Rachel Wilson and Elizabeth Jordan used fluorescent light to create a moody atmosphere. Elsewhere films from Suki Chan (Interval II_) and Oliver Beer (_Resonance Project) offered a quiet solace to immerse yourself in – particularly Beer’s time-scaped views of the stars. A large white cube confounded many younger explorers on the Art Trail while those looking to express themselves musically were welcomed with open arms musicians from the Bristol Institute of Modern Music and Bath Spa University as well as junk percussion collective Recycled Beats to create a magical space at the festival. As well as the Art Trail, another dedicated area was the kids’ field where children could enjoy a dedicated playspace and stage without any of the childless Big Chillers spoiling their fun. For those without the little ’un, like me, the majority of the weekend was spent listening to the varied sounds of the Big Chill.

    On Friday Warp Records took over the outdoor Starburst area.

    On Friday Warp Records took over the outdoor Starburst area with prized acts including DJ Food, Jimmy Edgar, Luke Vibert and Global Communication stepping up to play an area littered with towers of water containers that lit up the shades of the rainbow when it became dark. Moved next to the river that runs through the Big Chill site, it made for an impressive spectacle, though the soundsystem never quite hit the same mark as the acts performing. Jimmy Edgar’s sound of Detroit techno and Vibert’s old skool house would have benefited from a club situation while Tom Middleton’s DJing as Global Communication was struggling to galvanise the crowd. Far more successful were the efforts of on the main stage met with rapturous applause. Neneh Cherry has not been seen on a festival stage for a long time so her appearance on the Deer Park Stage was a nice surprise as she performed old hits “7 Seconds”, “Woman” and “Manchild” which reminded us of her successes and how she became an acclaimed, Brit Award winning solo artist.

    Australian electronic music duo Empire of the Sun followed with bandmember Luke Steele taking centre stage as Nick Littlemore is not currently touring with their live show. Dressed in bright blue jacket and headdress Grace Jones would be proud of, Steele stood in front of a giant screen featuring an array of space-like visuals while dancers pranced and the space-age “Walking on a Dream” blasted out across a loving audience. As their most famous song it was a surprise to hear it early in their set and meant interest was hard to sustain as Steele and co rattled through the rest of their debut album, but there was much excitement when headliners The Chemical Brothers stepped onto the stage shortly after. With a back catalogue of some of the biggest chart dance hits and a visual show of a giant backing screen, lasers and cylinder of LED lights overhead that moved with the voices of their music, they were always going to bring roars of approval. “Block Rockin’ Beats”, “Hey Boy, Hey Girl” and “Starguitar” were among the classics while new tune “Horsepower” was a treat. A late-night wander around the site took in the Barcardi Get Together area complete with a VIP balcony and comfy booths as well as the accordion-led uplifting ska of Molotov Jukebox at the Global Local tent and the house of Scuba at the People’s Ear tent, rounding off the Friday fun.

    We’d had blissful sunshine on Friday which gave way to a more overcast Saturday with a couple of splatterings of rain, though nothing to set welly alarms ringing. First up at the Deer Park Stage was a promised fusion of music and film in the form of band The Bullitts featuring Jay Electronica, Lucy Liu and Idris Elba. I was most excited about the idea of a story being told on stage via a band, guest stars and Hollywood actress Liu, but was somewhat disappointed to see only a short, if well-shot, video introduce the act and a stilted delivery from Liu before singer/songwriter and producer Jeymes Samuel sparked the band into life. As their debut live performance it was a well-rounded mix of guest vocalists and tight production to deliver a fusion of reggae, hip hop, funk and pop influences. They need to work on their claims they will embody an action adventure with a groundbreaking online presence if they are to become the superband they so dearly want to be, though this was a good start to that journey.

    Janelle Monae oozed confidence and panache.

    Janelle Monae followed in what would be the most impressive performance of the weekend. An announcer walked on stage to usher in Monae by enlivening the audience to shout her name leading to the band taking their positions. There was no sign of Monae despite her voice kicking in, then suddenly she revealed herself as one of three cloaked figures at the front of the stage. Dressed in her trademark tuxedo-style with a two-tone theme for her dancers and musicians, you might think you were watching a 1960s performer if it wasn’t for the modern-day influences of R&B and funk which light up Monae’s set. She oozes confidence and panache, something many of today’s overpaid chart toppers could learn a lot from. We headed to the Revellers tent next to catch the end of another hard-worker: Jamie Woon. Arriving just in time to see his final tune, the soulful beatboxer who layers loops of his own voice sent out a heartfelt melody to leave onlookers swooning. A swing past Tom Middleton’s second set of the weekend (I counted three in total but there may have been more for the ultimate Big Chill fan and performer), this time on the Deer Park Stage, heard him point out that a lot of people down the front were eagerly anticipating Metronomy’s set, though it proved to be a band I frustratingly missed. The injured Jessie J, sitting in a throne in the centre of the stage, whipped up the crowd as darkness descended and it grew cold, keenly aware that there was a growing weight of expectation on this year’s headliner, American rapper Kanye West.

    It was an expectation that was too great in many ways as West, who was rumoured to have hired out Eastnor Castle for the weekend, managed to keep us waiting for 30 minutes while engineers wandered the stage – then sang “H.A.M.” from the sound desk as a confused audience looked puzzlingly at the stage where dancers performed in front of a garish backdrop of a Roman sculpture backed by LED lights. He made his way from the sound desk to the stage for “Dark Fantasy” to whoops from those he passed, however “Power” and “Jesus Walks” came and went before the familiar tones of “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” grabbed attention back. After “Monster” West seemed to fall apart as he claimed he was portrayed as a “Hitler” by the media and rambled on for around 10 minutes leading to boos from the back of the field, yet he pushed on as those at the front couldn’t get enough, going wild for “Gold Digger” and “Stronger”. His encore ended with an Amy Winehouse tribute featuring “Tears Dry on Their Own” and “Back to Black” which was a nice touch to a flawed set. West seemed out of place at The Big Chill and claimed it was his biggest gig of the year: the mumblings from the crowd were he sounded auto-tuned and lacking in presence. If West had hoped he could emulate his bandmate for The Throne, Jay-Z, who wowed at Glastonbury in 2009, he failed and may have lost a few casual followers along the away.

    2ManyDJs lightened the mood with a mash-up of classic, electrified dance tunes.

    Around an hour or more late onto the Deer Park Stage past midnight, 2ManyDJs lightened the mood with another mash-up of classic electrified dance tunes old and new with a sprinkling of Nirvana and Guns ‘n’ Roses ensured the rockers and the ravers got to party together before the good vibes of The Gentlemen’s Dub Club and Congo Natty took proceedings up to 4am, helped along with a few distractions such as the bumper cars in the all-night fair.

    Thunderstorms were predicted for Sunday and though it did rain in the morning, the sun was soon back out just in time for Norman Jay MBE. The Good Times DJ is a Sunday regular at Eastnor with his house, drum and bass and reggae, and brought a smile to all ages. He almost lost those smiles when he announced there would be no Good Times stage at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival which was a surprise, thankfully he confirmed it will only be a hiatus until 2012. Femi Kuti and The Positive Force continued the laid back attitude with their Nigerian Afro-beat, then it was over to the Starburst area for some lively dubstep, drum and bass and electro from the Dirtyphonics. Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and his Band of Joy offered older rockers the chance to see one of their heroes who proved he still had what it takes to liven up a sleepy Sunday on the Deer Park Stage. He was just in time too – headliners Rodrigo Y Gabriela proved to be worth their billing as the famed rhythmic acoustic guitars took to running all over the stage with their frenetic strumming. Though better suited to a more intimate surrounding than a field where the sound seemed to be lost in the night sky, they’re passion and talent was incredible, easily outstripping the previous night’s letdown that was Kanye West.

    A Big Chill in transition.

    A dash over to the People’s Ear stage saw electronica mastermind Kieran Hebden behind his laptop for a live Four Tet show of dreamy techno before director Chris Cunningham almost gave the whole festival nightmares with his audio/visual assault of savage beats with videos to match. He’s a genius, if owning a slightly disturbing imagination that leads to creating scenes of assault and mutated humans to entertain those who want to be challenged is considered genius credential. Jamie xx polished off The Big Chill 2011 with a final 90-minute disco, yet the end to the weekend brought a lot of reflection.

    As my fourth trip to The Big Chill it was certainly the most mainstream in terms of music available and it felt like Festival Republic had packed in too many bars with soundsystems: the relaxed Mr Scruff tea tent was sat opposite a loud cocktail bar leading to a horrendous soundclash whenever you walked past and a thin-on-the-ground crowd meant smaller venues were empty at times. It was encouraging to see fewer teenagers roving around the site and a lot of effort had gone into beautifying the surroundings and providing little nooks and crannies to explore, but without the buzzing atmosphere you need for a festival of this size it was easy to lose interest. A drop in price, money carefully spent on headliners who fit the ethos of The Big Chill and a return of the artistic elements will reclaim what was missing from this year’s event – let’s hope Festival Republic listen to the feedback from the punters.

    Photography by Freya van Lessen.

by Mike Barnard

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