Well, at least spend a weekend in April at a British holiday camp by the seaside - Camber Sands on the south coast. 

This is not my review.  In fact it is not a review.  It belongs to Paul McAliister, a guy who contributes to the alt.music.mogwai newsgroup.  He and his mates went along to All Tomorrow's Parties (ATP), a three day festival "hosted" by the 'Gwai.  It took place a couple of weeks back and featured a whole range of post-rock type bands.  Sonic Youth were there and according to one newspaper review I read they opened with 21 minutes of feedback: can't wait to see them in D.C. 

You can get a full list of the ATP acts at Mogwai's new web site - www.abandcalled.mogwai.com 

Enough of my ramblings, over to Paul.  BTW, I take only partial responsibility for this partly (for obvious reasons) edited diary, ie I'm putting it on the web.  And finally from me, Paul kindly sent copies of set lists by Mogwai and GYBE. 

ATP diary 

friday morning: i miss my maths exam due to incompentant friends, which is actually a godsend as i have more time to prepare for the journey ahead.  chris is late coming to pick me and lyndsay up and we finally get to the station about 1ish. 

we're supposed to be meeting jamie in rye at 3-4, which is looking very unlikely. the train takes ages, and the stereo is really weighing down my bag. we get to waterloo at about 3 ish i think, and eventually find a train to ashford. then get to ashford about 4. ring jamie and tell him we're delayed even more. he's cool about it, he's pissed and says he's been kicked out of a pub. finally get to rye at about 5. we meet jamie and jump in a cab. jamie takes the piss out of the cabbie a bit, but he doesn't mind. we see mark waiting outside the gates and sort of the tickets. 

friday evening: finally dump the bastard heavy bag in our chalet. meet amanda, mark and other chris. everyone looks really organised except us, who've just bought booze and extreme amounts of h**h.  we sit and have a smoke, and then go and watch the delgados. they're good, nice acoustic set. we then go back to the chalet for a drink and erm more gear. 

chris then goes off to get a good spot for godspeed (3 hrs in advance). me and lyndsay wander down to see a bit of stereolab. i then go off to stage 2 for godspeed and fly pan am. godspeed are absolutely totally fantastic. the most intense music experience of my life. chris gets the setlist by stealing it, being  bitten and punched by two people, and then running for his life. extreme measures, but worth it. 

friday night (actually saturday morning) me, lyndsay and chris go to see james lavelle djing and dance for a bit. chris buggers off back to the chalet about 3am. me and lyndsay decide to investigate the beach. its very dark and we eventually find it after taking an extreme long route to get there. when we get there its very very very dark, and we cant see anything at all. somehow manage to negotiate huge sand dune and collapse on the beach. it's a very clear lovely night and we can see lots of stars. we roll a hasty joint, sit about for a bit and wander back to the chalet. everyone else is watching apocalypse now. we drink vodka and talk about films. eventually fall into bed at about 5am. 

saturday get up about midday, attempt to cook food but fail. settle for a joint instead. have a shower, and begin to appreciate just how good this festival is. no tents, and your own kitchen and bathroom. me, jamie and lyndsay go down to the beach and walk along. the weather is absolutely gorgeous. hot and sunny. the sea looks blue too and very inviting. we resist though, and walk up and down a bit. we then head back to the chalet for some vodka. we decide not to go see ligament, because they're fucking awful, and wait for snow patrol. they're good, the added samples go well and they get a good reception. then its back to the chalet for more alcohol. and maybe some food. me and chris decide to go and see the for carnation, but they're disappointing. very very hushed stuff. not really what i expected. not bad, but i was expecting great things. chris goes back to the chalet and me and lyndsay go to see arab strap. they're great, aidan is really up for it. we decide to hang around for sonic youth, i'm not a huge fan but they're supposed to be good live. well, they were absolutely fucking appalling. the worst thing i've ever seen in my life, and i didn't find anyone who though differently. an absolute joke. they just spent the whole set tuning up. and mucking around. we were not impressed. 

saturday night: back at the chalet, we watch some of clockwork orange. we're all amused by someone getting squashed by a giant dick. we watch about 20mins of it and then me lyndsay and chris head off up to the bar. we don't really mind about sonic youth as we realise it's the warp dj night. we also spot a "very special guest TBA' in the programme. i wonder if it might be aphex twin. it is aphex twin. we spend the next 3-4 hours dancing madly to some fantastic music. it ends at 5am and we're very very pissed and very very happy. me, jamie and lyndsay then head off to the beach to watch the sun come up. theres quite a few people down there. we then lie on the beach for ages and try to avoid talking to scary people.  we eventually stagger back to the chalet at about 8am. 

sunday: this is by far the best day of the festival for various reasons. we get up about midday and i get told by mark that the bands are playing football and b&s are playing. so we all hurry down to the court and watch some footy. snow patrol are playing the delgados and both teams are pish. stuart murdoch is playing for snow patrol and shows some good touchs. i then spot chris geddes wandering towards us (b&s keyboardist). he comes over and obviously wants to sit on our bench, but he's too nervous. we say hello and get him to sit down. we find out that b&s don't have a team and stuart is just helping out snow patrol. we then spot stuart braithwaite, who comes over to where we are standing and starts talking to aidan moffat. then the arab strap drummer comes over with the new mogwai t shirt (scottish guitar army). stuart loves it, and it amuses him for a while.  we also spot john peel and aphex twin. 

we then head back to the chalet and get our swimming stuff. me, mark, amanda, chris, lyndsay and jamie then head off to the pool. only the boys actually go in for a swim, the girls deciding they cant be arsed. we find inventive ways of using the slide (going down headfirst) but get threatened with being kicked out. jamie does it again and the lifeguard gets pissed off. we leave. 

after a few joints and a game of headers and volleys, we head off to see some bands. we've already decided that we'll settle ourselves at the main stage and stay all night to get to the front for sigur ros and mogwai.  we watch two dollar guitar who are boring. me and lyndsay go off for some food and bump into some mental glasgweigans. chat to them for a bit and head back to the stage. we manage to get our way to the front in time for sigur ros, who are quite honestly mesmerising. they were the band i was looking forward to seeing most, and i wasn't disappointed. they were absolutely beautiful. totally stunning. they leave us after just 5 songs, sadly, but we're all totally enchanted by their atmospheric beauty. 

we then watch papa m and wire, who are both good. papa m get better towards the end, and it was nice to see dave pajo in action. then it was time for mogwai. they were ace. stuart was really up for it, and they were blistering. the new string stuff was nice, espcially my father, my kingdon (jewish song) which was amazing.  they did mogwai fear satan as the encore, and we snatched the setlist. mark and lyndsay thought it was the best thing they'd ever seen. i thought it was good, but i've seen them on better form before. 

me and lyndsay then head off to dance. fat cat are djing are we're really up for it after such a great evening of bands.  we go down to the queen vic pub after a while and spot loads of people off the b&s sinister list. we also spy empty seats at stuart murdochs table, and as we're so pissed, we go and sit down at his table. we say the odd word, but he leaves after a while.  we find jamie, who's off his face and dancing madly.  lyndsay sees aidan moffat and wishes him happy birthday. he seems pleased and shakes her hand.  we then go up for more dancing upstairs. after about 5mins, some mad bloke almost knocks lyndsay over. when he comes over to apologise, we realise its jonsi out of sigur ros. we then dance with him for ages. he's a mental dancer, totally mad. we spy the rest of sigur ros sitting round the edge of the room. we also see stuart braithwaite, chris geddes, martin bullock and john peel. when the djs finished we stagger back to our chalet and fall into bed. 

monday: its an early start, and we eventually manage to be up and packed by 9. we check out and get a cab to rye. we get the train to london and arrive about 11. chris heads off home straight away, to catch afternoon lessons, the mad bastard. me and lyndsay hang around london for a bit so she can see some sights. she then gets her train back to glasgow at half one and i hop on the first train back to mk. i get home about 3 ish and pass out on the floor of my bedroom. 

----------------------------------------------------  
Paul McAllister 
paul@belleandsebastian.org 
ICQ#21292923  
 

Thanks Paul for letting me use this and the set lists below. 

Mogwai 

GYBE 
 

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