Bluedot/Day 1: Chris Parkes/Leftfield/Pixies

I had one of those rare moments this morning, when I felt genuinely sorry for Dan. I read a while back about how, during puberty, a teenager's brain basically rewires itself, which goes some way to explaining why they can be so hopelessly disorganised. 

He arrived, as planned, at eight-thirty. 

"Have you got everything on the list?"
"Yep."
"Oh, well done. Come into the kitchen while I wash up and we can run through it."

The third item on the list was some walking shoes or wellies.

"Oh, no, I haven't got those."
"But you said you brought everything on the list!"
"Well, I brought everything on the list that I've got."

Anyway, having then made a more forensic check on what he did and didn't have, we found that my wellies fitted him perfectly and we sourced the other bits and pieces before setting off to pick up the Minx and miniMinx and thence on to Jodrell Bank for the Bluedot festival. 

Having enjoyed it so much last year, there was no way we weren't going this time and we were "boutique camping" again, which meant that once we'd ferried our stuff from the car and popped it in the tent, we were free to go into the festival. We were on the main field in time for the opening act, which was a chap called Meilyr Jones. I don't wish to be uncharitable but I can only assume he's related to one of the organisers. It wasn't a patch on last year's opener, which was Public Service Broadcasting. 

After that, Dan and I went to a talk by Chris Parkes, entitled 'Where is all the anti-matter?' Dan is, by and large, up for anything but I think he found it more interesting than he expected to. And I was glad about that because ever since I was at school I've noticed that it's easy for scientists to access the arts but less straightforward for artists to have useful exposure to science. 

After that, though, it was back to the music and we met up with Simon Not Quite Light to go and watch Leftfield playing their 'Leftism' album. The nineties was not a good period for me and electronic music - I hated the generic dance sounds - and that was a time when I really got more into guitar music, like the Pixies and The Wedding Present. But there were a few exceptions and 'Leftism' was one of them. 

Sadly, though, this evening's performance was a disappointment, the problem (for me) being that they'd over-emphasised the beats in the mix (much as Underworld did last year). This sledgehammer approach also resulted in some neglect of the rest of the music and by the time they'd done a lazy job with 'Inspection (Check One)', which is my favourite track on the album, I was ready to leave. In the interests of balance, though, I should point out that Simon danced all the way through and loved it!

The day finished on a high, though, with the Pixies. I've seen them once before, when my friend and erstwhile bandmate, John, took me to see them play in front of about 200 people at the BBC in Maida Vale. I wasn't sure how they'd translate up to a festival but they were AMAZING! I knew maybe a third of the songs but enjoyed every single one, as did Dan and the miniMinx. 

And then, chums, it was bedtime. 

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