Monday, May 31, 2004
Wednesday Night - Fat Freddy's Drop
Having been so disappointed by our first attempt to see Fat Freddy's it was good to have another chance on their way back home. This time the venue was Neighbourhood (which we had already been to to see Groove Armada).
If you have not heard Fat Freddy’s before they are a typical Wellington band in that you can't really categorise their music. They have a bassey backing track, tinkling keyboard's, funky guitar and jazzy sax, trumpet and trombone. They put on a very professional show although some of the members like sugar2tone (a.k.a. Toby Lang from The Black Seeds) looked very tired. You can't really blame them, they have been on a whirl wind tour of Europe and probably partied most nights too. The bar was nicely filled and the sound was great, Dallas' vocals are really amazing from soulful heartfelt melodies to fast raps. Lou did say that she thinks the songs were a little too long.
Thursday - Chelsea Flower Show
Lou here. I have always wanted to go to the Chelsea Flower Show and seeing as it was just down the road from where I work there was no stopping me. The show is an annual event where professional gardeners gather together to display the fruits of their labour and gardening enthusiasts come to be inspired.
The highlight was the 'Show gardens'. These where especially designed and constructed for the event and show off the best in gardening creativity. One of the most impressive ones was of course the NZ garden '100% Pure New Zealand Ora - Garden of Well Being'. It was the first entry for NZ and won a gold medal. I hope my photos turn out ok, then I can upload them to the photo gallery. The evening was lovely and balmy which made the session very pleasant. I didn't see Maggie Barry but was told that she was there filming for her garden show back home.
Saturday - Homelands
Homelands is a dance music festival remarkably similar to the Gathering in NZ. It goes from 1 pm Saturday to 6 am Sunday. The location is in the middle of rolling country side a short bus ride from Winchester (1 hour on the train from London). The main difference between Homelands and The Gathering is that it is much better organised. There were regular trains and buses throughout the day and most of the night. We arrived at about 6 pm. The forecast was for heavy rain through the weekend so when it started, as we entered the front gate, we were glad that we brought our rain coats and appalled at how many others hadn't. The rain stopped about 20 mins latter and it never returned!
There were many big acts we wanted to see and luckily their times were staggered. The festival is divided up into different areas - Live, House, Drum & bass, Hip-Hop, Cheesy house etc. So to see the acts you move around the different tents. The acts we saw were Groove Armada (DJ Set), DJ Hype (originally in the ganja crew), MC Tali (from NZ with Roni Size backing), Grand Master Flash (gave us a lesson in the History of Hip-Hop) and Faithless (the highlight of the night, the tent was absolutely packed!). By 1 am all the good acts had finished we got bored and tired by 2 am so investigated when the trains were leaving. The next one was 3:30 am. We arrived at waterloo station at 4:30 and walked through London at dawn, which was nice, to catch the night bus home.
Having been so disappointed by our first attempt to see Fat Freddy's it was good to have another chance on their way back home. This time the venue was Neighbourhood (which we had already been to to see Groove Armada).
If you have not heard Fat Freddy’s before they are a typical Wellington band in that you can't really categorise their music. They have a bassey backing track, tinkling keyboard's, funky guitar and jazzy sax, trumpet and trombone. They put on a very professional show although some of the members like sugar2tone (a.k.a. Toby Lang from The Black Seeds) looked very tired. You can't really blame them, they have been on a whirl wind tour of Europe and probably partied most nights too. The bar was nicely filled and the sound was great, Dallas' vocals are really amazing from soulful heartfelt melodies to fast raps. Lou did say that she thinks the songs were a little too long.
Thursday - Chelsea Flower Show
Lou here. I have always wanted to go to the Chelsea Flower Show and seeing as it was just down the road from where I work there was no stopping me. The show is an annual event where professional gardeners gather together to display the fruits of their labour and gardening enthusiasts come to be inspired.
The highlight was the 'Show gardens'. These where especially designed and constructed for the event and show off the best in gardening creativity. One of the most impressive ones was of course the NZ garden '100% Pure New Zealand Ora - Garden of Well Being'. It was the first entry for NZ and won a gold medal. I hope my photos turn out ok, then I can upload them to the photo gallery. The evening was lovely and balmy which made the session very pleasant. I didn't see Maggie Barry but was told that she was there filming for her garden show back home.
Saturday - Homelands
Homelands is a dance music festival remarkably similar to the Gathering in NZ. It goes from 1 pm Saturday to 6 am Sunday. The location is in the middle of rolling country side a short bus ride from Winchester (1 hour on the train from London). The main difference between Homelands and The Gathering is that it is much better organised. There were regular trains and buses throughout the day and most of the night. We arrived at about 6 pm. The forecast was for heavy rain through the weekend so when it started, as we entered the front gate, we were glad that we brought our rain coats and appalled at how many others hadn't. The rain stopped about 20 mins latter and it never returned!
There were many big acts we wanted to see and luckily their times were staggered. The festival is divided up into different areas - Live, House, Drum & bass, Hip-Hop, Cheesy house etc. So to see the acts you move around the different tents. The acts we saw were Groove Armada (DJ Set), DJ Hype (originally in the ganja crew), MC Tali (from NZ with Roni Size backing), Grand Master Flash (gave us a lesson in the History of Hip-Hop) and Faithless (the highlight of the night, the tent was absolutely packed!). By 1 am all the good acts had finished we got bored and tired by 2 am so investigated when the trains were leaving. The next one was 3:30 am. We arrived at waterloo station at 4:30 and walked through London at dawn, which was nice, to catch the night bus home.
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