live review: atp, nightmare before christmas. butlins, minehead


Posted by tim brown on 12 Dec 2011 / 0 Comment



live review: atp, nightmare before christmas. butlins, minehead. 9-11 december 2011.

when i first posted a review based solely on my tweets it was basically a lazy way to review field day a couple of years ago. i developed the idea and wireless 2011 was what i perceived was the pinnacle. now, with the ability to embed tweets (you may have always been able to do this but i’ve only just found out), we’re taking it next level motherfuckers. you can reply, retweet and favourite. go fill your boots. it seems to slow down the site a bit though, so you’ll have to click to read…

i won’t lie. i was planning on a few more tweets than i managed on the coach transfer from taunton station to butlins itself.

instead all you got was a comment of complaint and a tweet about somebody you’ve probably never heard of.

we arrived shortly (if you count an hour as shortly) afterwards and i quickly went about giving anybody that wanted to ransack our chalet the details of where to find us. security.

you may recognise saul from a post he once wrote on here. i think. anyway, he’s been coming for years and it was his influence that made me whack £400 on my debit card a few months ago and buy tickets. he is also an editor by trade, so no real excuse for the error. i only apologise for my apostrophe misuse. it should read “bates’”.

what was next? oh yes. the milk. maybe i’ve lived a sheltered life, but i’ve never seen milk like this before.

you didn’t come here to read about milk substitutes though. you came here to read about music. the festival was opened by les savy fav’s first set of two they were set to play. i think my tweet tells you everything you need to know.

the 3g problem is something that is becoming more problematic everyday in the life of a professional live tweeter. this is not the only time you will witness the problem during this review.

back on the subject in hand though. air hockey.

while hiding my disappointment about the travesty of a result in the second game, we ventured up to the centre stage for some music and drinking.

i don’t even know what that means.

do you know what i hate? people that dress up at festivals and then think they’re the life and soul of the party. i don’t mind the dressing up so much i suppose (actually, i do mind it), but it’s the way they try to take over like they’re the only people who can possibly be having fun and the only people that matter.

i know i’m not alone in this because i think i got two retweets and a favourited. yes. the first day ended with a no age and another les savy fav set. it also ended with me passing out and managing to not mention anything about the les savy fav performance other than wanting the job of the girl through sparkly bits. and something about nuts.

day two started with a hangover and gradually got worse…

… but all was soon redeemed.

one of the nice little features of atp festivals is the mixtape (although they’re all cds) swap. while browsing the merchandise we got caught up in the middle of dozens of excitable young chaps and lasses busily swapping their collections.

i am an idiot for forgetting to do one because i too would have liked to be an excitable young chap. albeit less of the young. also, if i’d done enough imagine the plugging i could have achieved for sockformation.

due to my lack of 3g in the venues i was limited on tweeting about the actual real music. i managed a bit though.

so after the previous day that included no age’s singer/drummer and les savy fav dismantling their drum kit at the end of their first set, we had battles and their front of stage drum set up (and ridiculously high cymbal) and the fantastic nisennenmondai and their very talented drummer. nisennenmodai were probably my find of the festival by the way. brilliant. i’d never heard of them before, but luckily i wasn’t the only one.

we headed back to the luxury of our chalet and freshened up.

women. honestly. after i had been allowed out of the door, we dared to drink again. (emma had started on the jack daniels quite a bit earlier actually).

saw some music.

and won some shit.

other notable parts of the day included meeting a butlins staff member who appeared to never have seen an iphone before and almost running out of toothpaste. both thrilling moments for you, the reader, no doubt.

oh, the irony of following my first statement with that.

for day three, the plan was clear.

you’re getting bored with my pointless little interludes like this aren’t you? i can tell. i’m going to hit you with a shit load of tweets in a row now. due to my lack of 3g some are retweets or emma. i’ve ignored my tweets about the worst refereeing performance in premier league football history, but have included an interesting discussion about what you can cook in a kettle. that’s because all we had in our room was a kettle you see.

actually, i will pop in quickly to apologise for that little episode. i can guarantee that no hamsters were harmed in the making of this review though. now, back to the music.

so that was it. i think the following last couple of tweets on nightmare before christmas sum up the festival well. it was fun. we’ll be back. i think in a six-berth proper self-catering thing though. man can not live on over-priced burger king and rollover hotdogs alone. also, i still think bret easton ellis would make a great curator, despite his apparent love of keane.

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