Electric Picnic additions ...

Grace Jones, Joan as Policewoman, Dan Deacon, Booka Shade, Deadmau5.

Well it's better than some little scobey fuck "tent bombing" you I guess.

Cleaners for festival 'had to sleep in stables'

Esther Addley
Saturday July 12, 2008
The Guardian

It may not have promised glamour, but for a group of Portuguese and Polish cleaners, mostly from London, it at least offered 12 days' work at the Irish equivalent of Glastonbury, with all expenses covered.
But when the 52 workers arrived on Tuesday at Punchestown racecourse, site of the Oxegen festival, they were met with a surprise. Instead of the hotel they had been promised by contract cleaners Cleanevent, they were told they would be sleeping on the concrete floor of the stables.

The block had breeze-block walls, no windows or flooring, and, some of the workers claimed, only enough campbeds for a third of them. A spokesman for the contractors, which also supplies Wimbledon and Wembley Stadium, said it was investigating the claims.

Only after one worker called the police did the organisers promise to buy inflatable mattresses, placed in a kitchen metres away from the dressing rooms of artists such as REM, the Verve and Amy Winehouse, all of whom play tonight.

Sonia Mendes, one of the workers, said: "For me, no way. It would have been shameful for me to stay." She and two others insisted on being bussed back to London the following day.

David Hanley, a spokesman for Cleanevent, said it was looking into the reports.

The event's promoter, MCD, said it "worked with contractors in advance to ensure all staff requirements are fully met." Each contractor was responsible for its own staff welfare, it said.

http://music.guardian.co.uk/festival...290581,00.html

We may have to reassess our views on Oxegen being not especially enjoyable at times.

ZOO8 was a bit of a nightmare by all accounts.

Electric Picnic.

Now "appears" to be sold out.

But further to a post on On The Record earlier in the week it's probably not really sold out and tickets will probably become available very soon.

Oh, and expect to see Dodos added to the bill soon enough. They owe me "Park Song".

I'm off to ATP in the morning.

This will likely be my final post until Monday night/Tuesday sometime when I get back.

Frightened Rabbit are playing Dublin while I'm away. I'd have liked to have seen them, ah well.

Here's their dates:

18 May Sugar Club, Dublin
19 May Dolan’s, Limerick
20 May Auntie Annie’s, Belfast

Future Days lineup.

So maybe it wasn't on Monday like I thought it'd be but here it is. Originally posted on On The Record.

Thursday June 12 - Matmos and Si Schroeder - Andrew’s Lane Theatre

Friday June 13 - Low, Atlas Sound and The Holy Roman Army - Andrew’s Lane Theatre

Saturday June 14 - Dan Deacon, Jape, White Williams, High Places and more - Vicar Street

Sunday June 15 - Bonnie Prince Billy, Baby Dee and Paul Curreri - Vicar Street

Sunday June 15 - Metronomy and Spilly Walker - Andrew’s Lane Theatre (late)

The Friday is the same night as The Dodos so once again events conspire to mean I miss them. The Sunday is the same night as Fleet Foxes and Beach House at Whelan's. I think I'll be at Will. Edit: Nope it's the Saturday, I won't be seeing them that night either.

I understand that there are 2 other names to be added to the Saturday bill and they will only make an already strong lineup even better.

Future Days lineup announcement expected tomorow.

From what I've been told there's at least 3 gigs that are part of it that I'm really looking forward too. Dan Deacon night will be epic.

If you fancy going a little further afield than Minehead or Camber Sands.

ATP New York will be curated by MY BLOODY VALENTINE. This event will be taking place from Friday 19th September to Sunday 21st September inclusive at Kutshers Country Club in Monticello, NY.

The line up so far:

MY BLOODY VALENTINE
FUCK BUTTONS
POLVO
LOW
EDAN WITH GUEST DAGHA
MOGWAI
THE DRONES
BUILT TO SPILL PERFORMING PERFECT FROM NOW ON
WOODEN SHJIPS
SHELLAC
THEE SILVER MOUNT ZION ORCHESTRA
AUTOLUX
MEAT PUPPETS PERFORMING MEAT PUPPETS II
TORTOISE PERFORMING MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE
THURSTON MOORE PERFORMING PSYCHIC HEARTS

More here: http://www.atpfestival.com/events/atp-ny/

There'll be many a trust fund cashed in around the US by people wanting to go to this. A country club sounds much more swanky than a Butlins too.

Probable lineup announement for the Electric Picnic.

Found on thumped.

Sigur ros, the sex pistols, franz ferdinand, underworld, superfury animals, Flamin Lips, Mogwai, Mercury rev, My Bloody valentine, Moby, Fat boy slim, Massive attack, Bloc party, Tindersticks, Supergrass, The Cure, The Breeders,Elbow,CSS, George Clinton, Chic featuring Nial rogers Gary newman, The Human league, 808 State, The Orb, Faust, Neon Neon, Jamie lidelle, Foals, Lee scratch perry, Baaba Mal. the wedding present, sebastian tellier, henry rollins, Billy Bragg, Marty mulligan, Saul Williams, Booka shade, Transglobal underground, Goldfrapp, two gallants, King Creosete. Joe Lean and the jing jang jong, Damien Rice, Duke spirit, Crystal castles, Tinariwen, Red snapper, F**kk buttons, Micha P Hinson, Dan le sac V's Scroobius, Fish go deep, Grand National, Lisa hannigan, cinephile, King of Convienience, David Kitt, Donal dineen, Gossip, Plaid, Rodrigo y gabriella.

Plenty of really good stuff there, some shit too.

Full lineup for Primavera sound announced.

Someone PLEASE bring over Bon Iver.

www.primaverasound.com

808 State, A Place To Bury Strangers, Alan Braxe, Animal Collective, Apparat Band, Dj Assault, Atlas Sound, Autolux, Awesome Color, Bill Callahan, Bishop Allen, Bob Mould Band, Bon Iver, Boris, Buffalo Tom, Caribou, Cat Power, Clipse, The Cribs, De La Soul, Deerhunter, Digital Mystikz, Dinosaur Jr., Dirty Projectors, Dr. Octagon aka Kool Keith + Kutmasta Kurt, Edan & MC Dagha, El Guincho, Ellen Allien, Enon, Eric's Trip, Fanfarlo, The Felice Brothers, Fuck Buttons, Dj Funk, Gentle Music Men, The Go! Team, Grande-Marlaska, Health, Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs, It's Not Not, Kavinsky, Kinski, Les Savy Fav, Lightspeed Champion, Madee, Man Man, The Mary Onettes, Mary Weiss, The Marzipan Man, Menomena, Messer Chups, Midnight Juggernauts, Mission Of Burma, Mixmaster Mike, Model 500, MV & EE with The Golden Road, Nick Lowe, No Age, The Notwist, Okkervil River, Om, Para One, Pissed Jeans, Polvo, Port O'Brien, Portishead, Prinzhorn Dance School, Public Enemy performing It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, Robert Hood, Rufus Wainwright, The Rumble Strips, Scout Niblett, Sebadoh, Shipping News, Silver Jews, Simian Mobile Disco, Six Organs Of Admittance, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, The Strange Death Of Liberal England, Subterranean Kids, Supermayer, Surkin, The Swell Season, Tachenko, Tarántula, Throbbing Gristle, Tiefschwarz, Tindersticks, Träd Gräs och Stenar, Vampire Weekend, Vórtice, Voxtrot, White Williams, Why?, Young Marble Giants.
Més Noticies

Electric Picnic early bird tickets on sale tomorrow.

It's still a stupid logo.

No bands announced yet so it's a bit of a risk but I had probably the best weekend of the year there this year (as opposed to a weekend of shame, recriminations and pain the year before) so why not? On sale tomorrow from ticketmaster for €199.

By the way, with talk of reformations and new albums and curating festivals in the UK here's a song that I'd give anything to hear in Stradbally next September. The setting would seem to suit them.

MP3: Guess.

Electric Picnic

Isn't it typical to say of these things "it was much better last year"? However I can't in good conscience say that about this year's Electric Picnic which was vastly superior to the 06 edition (although EP 05 is still the benchmark). The big headache last year was the fact that the capacity had been increased but the camping area remained the same size which led to much tripping over ropes at night and various other frustrations. Things were rectified a bit this time around and everything seemed much bigger this year.

I stuck around the campsite for much of Friday and only ventured into the Arena in time to see Bjork play a so-so set, a bit of a let down to be honest considering how fabulous she looked on the Glastonbury TV coverage, fancy laser show though, probably best suited to a planetarium.

Following that I decided to not bother my arse giving Modest Mouse a second chance following their pretty unimpressive performance at Primavera and decided to place my trust in J.C. (that's Jim Carroll folks, not Jesus Christ) and try out Pieminster. Hmm, lovely mashed potatoes but the pie crust was a bit thick and the filling (pork and applesauce and some other stuff) wasn't that great. Ah well, Jimbo was, I think, wrong about MIA too.

Somewhat fuller I went back to the main stage to check out 2005's most pleasant surprise LCD Soundsystem who have gone from a mid-afternoon act to main stage headliners thanks in no small part to this year's pretty fantastic Sound Of Silver. At this point I'm dead tired and not feeling like watching music on my own so I only manage 4-5 songs before heading back to the yellow campsite. Kind of a shame because James Murphy and co. looked like they were really ready to rip it up. Must remember to pick up tickets for the TBMC Cargo (awful, awful name) gig in a couple of months this week.

My experience early on Saturday illustrated one key point to bear in mind for all future festivals. Never try to arrange for 15 people to leave the campsite and see a band. It'll never work out well. Eventually made it to catch the last 10 minutes of Malujube, probably shouldn't have bothered. Next up though was a really pleasant surprise in the form of Easy Allstars Radiodread, it could have been terribly gimmicky but was in fact a hell of a lot of fun. The afternoon wrapped up with Jarvis Cocker still being a lyrical genius but I fear his current music, while perfectly adequate pales in comparison to the brilliance of his Pulp work.

Cue a break for food (Chicken Teriyaki and Noodles, nice) and a short stint in the campsite to bitch about the horrible clashes and overlaps that we were facing with The Field, The Polyphonic Spree, Final Fantasy, Spiritualised and The Jesus And Mary Chain were all playing in and around the same time. For me there wasn't much of a decision to make as Final Fantasy was my favourite thing on the entire bill and despite having seen him play 3 times before there was no way that I was missing Mr. Pallett for anything. It was quite frankly an amazing set, even surpassing his astonishing Whelan's gig late last year (which itself managed to top his first Irish show a few months previous to that). The crowd in the Foggy Notions tent (and kudos to Leagues, Eamon et. al. for once again programming a great selection of bands over the 2 days the tent ran) were red hot for him ("You're so nice"), there was mass screaming during songs, huge applause for everything he did, people singing along (OK me), people dancing (OK, me again) and he was one of the few non headliners to get an encore. In addition to songs from his own catalogue , including one "new" song, Pallett treated the audience to a big selection of covers too with his versions of "This Modern Love", "Peach Plum Pear", "Interview" by Leo Chadburn all getting an airing before he finished up the set with Mariah Carey's "Fantasy".

How can you top that? Well in truth you can't but Deefhoof tried their damnedest to do so and played a fantastic set.

The night wrapped up on the main stage with The Chemicals Brothers and about 15 friends, I think most of what the Chem's have done over the course of their career with a few exceptions is trash so it was never going to blow me away.

Sunday began early (for once) as I took the opportunity to see the only 2 Irish acts I caught over the weekend. First up was Fight Like Apes who battled losing a bassist due to a broken finger, vocal troubles due to letting May Kay loose in a field for 2 days before the gig and sound problems caused by ... whatever causes sound problems. They're still the best new Irish band of the past year. After that it was back to FN for Si Schroeder. Coping Mechanisms is one of my favourite Irish albums ever but rather than the gentle, understated electro that was heard on the album Simon and his band took the songs off in a lovely shoegazey direction. I felt as though I was dreaming the music whilst Si whispered the lyrics in my ear.

Following a break for lunch it was time to sample the Fall live for the first time ever. Mark E. Smith is probably a complete prick and I suspect he's a sound man's worst nightmare but the set was pretty incendiary. Following that up with Bat For Lashes' gentle sound may have been a mistake, Natasha Khan is obviously a wonderfully talented lady but it felt a little flat to me. She did manage to play to a surprisingly large crowd though thanks mainly to her set coinciding with the heaviest rainfall of the week.

Next up on the agenda were Sonic Youth, thankfully not playing Daydream Nation but rather a storming greatest hits set full of amazing "jamaroonies" as Thurston might say. Following that it was over to the Electric Arena for the end of Unkle's set and it was surprisingly great. I'm not sure why I was shocked it was good as James Lavelle is obviously able to handpick any number of shit-hot musicians to play in the band but I for some reason I expected it to be crap.

I couldn't convince anyone to come to Fujiya and Miyagi with me so I stuck around for the Go! Team's set, they're a band I've never dug but they really changed my opinion on them by about the second song. They're a great party band and Ninja is simply charisma in human form. It was during this set that I got the text about the Clap Your Fantasy In Helsinki set which I wrote about at length on Monday (see 2 posts ago) which meant I didn't have to tell people that I'd sooner eat my fingers than go see Primal Scream with them, and after that I just made it in time to catch the end of Skream's set but I didn't really see enough to form an opinion on it.

So that's that for another year, Electric Picnic's position as the best festival in Ireland by a country mile is secure for another 12 months and already I can't wait for the next one. I'll finish this off by saying that I truly hope that the person who shat into a plastic bag in their tent and dumped it beside my friend's on Saturday catch some ironic and horrible form of fecal born disease.

Again, again, I wanna go again.

Gone picnicin'

Back on Monday.