Supersonic 2009 - Diary / Review, by Glatze

Well, at last I've found the time to write something about my experience at Supersonic 2009. This is a very personal and highly subjective account - part diary, part review. Aside from the programme clashes I somehow also missed a lot of bands (!), so it's far from a complete overview of the festival, but here it is.

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Despite numerous years of meaning to make it to Supersonic, I am mildly embarrassed to admit that I was a Supersonic virgin until 2009. What a way to break my Supersonic hymen! Firstly, I was asked to play on the Friday night. Then I was asked to complete an alternative soundtrack for the animation shown at Moor Street Station at the opening of (and throughout) Supersonic. Then I was asked to appear on Rhubarb Radio. Top that with a free festival ticket for my efforts and there was no way I was going to not enjoy myself! This is how I got on...

Thursday Night

The opening night of the festival featured the first ever screening of a video piece by the artist Marc Silver, entitled 'There Are No Others, There Is Only Us'. I, along with four other local sound artists, had been asked by Capsule to compose an alternative score for the video, and each one was shown in turn on the opening night, and then through the festival.

The event was packed with talent from the local creative community. In fact so was the entire festival, which was what made it such a pleasant and inspirational place to be. To name a few, the likes of Pete Ashton, Ian Francis, Ben Javens, Richard Hawley, Matt Snowden, Ben Waddington and George Benson were there, which was great to see.

The wine was free and the conversation (apart maybe from a few slightly stale speeches) was good. It was a pleasure to see our work on the big screen and to gauge the various interpretations. I relish working on projects like this. More please!

Friday Night

Excited, I arrived early and went backstage to my allocated 'artist bay'. I had my usual kit: a bag, a guitar case full of circuit bent crap and a plastic pig mask. The bays were big and mine was one of the most sparsely populated. Yep, you guessed it, Sunn O))) more than filled theirs.

Nerves set in prior to going on, so I failed to listen to Atomized properly. Bonkers stuff though, as expected. I was also gutted to miss Drum Eyes but somehow I felt compelled I had to concentrate on the stage I was going to be on.

So, next up, Glatze! As I got on stage adrenaline took over from nerves. This was my biggest gig to date. I thought my nerves might ruin it, as has been the case with some of my gigs in the past, but I soon started to relish the challenge and the crowd. I could see people in the front agog / smiling / pointing. Now that might not sound like an ideal reaction but it's exactly the sort of reaction I want people to have to Glatze. It was definitely my best gig to date and people seemed to like it. I got a big cheer following my Black Sabbath cover, which kept me rolling, and the reaction at the end seemed great. Musically this is a stepping stone for me as I hope for greater things to come from Glatze, but in terms of my performance and the stature of the event it was 100% on the money! If I'd been told I was going to play Supersonic 2009 in such an accomplished way when I started doing live solo stuff about a year ago, I'd have laughed heartily. So, I am well chuffed! A thoroughly enjoyable time.

Time to get off stage, pack up my kit and straight to the bar. As much as I enjoyed playing, I could now finally relax.

Sunn O))) were next. A crazy spectacle, as ever. The way they tried to fill an open-sided marquee with smoke was admirable. They were crushingly loud, with nothing much to see...ideal. What made it funny for me was that I had seen them sound checking, so I knew the Cheshire Cat grins of pleasure that accompanied every note, beyond the smoke and robes. Most amusing and most brilliant!

Rhubarb Radio next, as they had asked me to pop by for an interview following my show. They're a great bunch, aren't they!? I had a nice informal interview and only talked a bit of crap. They have since asked me to do a monthly show. At present I am thinking a series on 20th Century Musical Pioneers might be interesting. Exploring backgrounds, influences, techniques etc...watch this space.

Back to the outside stage for a typically frenetic set by Venetian Snares. I find his live stuff a little tiresome (because he basically DJs his tunes), but with his mentalist tracks, the mighty sound system and a metal crowd it worked like a dream. The mosh was in full flow when I ran in. Had a good bit of push and shove, ending in me cutting my mate's head open with my (somewhat goofy) front teeth. Oh dear!

Saturday

Saturday started with two double Bloody Marys and two pints, as breakfast. Oh dear!

Somehow we made it to the festival and first up was Rose Kemp. I am a big fan of Rose, since seeing her at the Venn Festival a few years ago. She had a powerful presence on stage and her set was great, although I felt it lacked some of the intimacy that I liked so much the last time I saw her. Bigger venue by far though, so hard to achieve I guess.

Was chuffed to catch some of Flower/Corsano Duo. I had seen them once before at the Hare and Hounds. I loved them there and I loved them at Supersonic. Their energy is infectious! Amazing for a duo, consisting only of a guitarist and a drummer.

Diagonal were cool. Enjoyed their set a lot and good to see them around the festival for the duration.

Master Musicians of Bukkake were daft, as the name suggests...but in a good way. Was a bit like watching the Mighty Boosh, funny and disturbing in equal measure.

**BLUR**
Oh dear! At this point I missed shed loads of Saturday...maybe I was too pissed, maybe we decided to give our ears a rest, maybe we went for some food - or maybe a mixture of all those things. Either way, looking back makes me a little sad, as I know I surely missed some great stuff.

One thing that definitely occurred in this period was me picking up my mate in a boysterous [sic] drunken embrace and then promptly dropping him on his head, leaving him with a 3 inch gash on his forehead, pissing out blood. It got glued up and seemed to hold for the duration, although I understand he had to wear a turban bandage to work for a while after. Oh dear! Sorry Simon! :(
**BLUR**

Zu absolutely killed it! Prior to Supersonic they were one of the upcoming highlights for me, and they didn't disappoint . I am really into sax led metal, and with Zu it works so well! They look and sound the part. I was only introduced to them at ATP last year, where they blew the roof off. Supersonic was more of the same. Muscular and yet musically intricate. Great stuff!

Saturday at Supersonic ended with Monotonix, which reminded me of The Darkness mixed with an embarrassing uncle at a wedding. If that can ever be a good thing then they kinda pulled it off. Not really my bag but great fun to watch...

The night ended in a drunken blur, which included me falling off a rather large wall, a long walk back to Cotteridge and an attempted shortcut that ended in me falling in a river. Oh dear!

Sunday

I was pretty much spent by Sunday, much to the relief of my friends who were wondering what the Sunday head wound might look like. I managed to perk myself up with a few merchandise purchases (including the obligatory Supersonic 2009 t-shirt) and some (free) Bloody Marys. A great final day!

Nancy Wallace was cool. I wanted it a bit edgier at times but she provided a nice easing in to the day.

zZz were great fun. They look like a pair of stoner tourists but they really ripped it up! I particularly enjoyed the banter with the crowd and the way they kept messing about with mics and drum stands etc. Was a very entertaining show!

Theo had a powerful sound for one man with his guitar, looper and drums. He's a fantastic musician and I really liked his tunes. Only slight gripe is that he's a bit of a one trick pony, which is fine but it left me a bit lukewarm after a while...

Onwards, and time for Esoteric. Frankly, they really didn't do it for me. I like my metal heavier or more ironic - ideally both!

It was soon time for some chill out with Chris Herbert. I had heard good things about the local god of abstract ambient, and he delivered. Were it not for the donkeys who kept slamming the door to the theatre I would've been in a trance. Sublime stuff.

Khyam Allami was about the most charismatic performer I have ever seen, a delightful mixture of friendliness and great musical ability. His performance was amazing and it was good to see him around a lot afterwards, mixing it with the likes of me. I love being introduced to great new musicians, so this was definitely one of the highlights of the festival for me.

At this point, given the absence of ales inside the festival, we went to the pub for a bit. On our way we stopped to watch the skaters, buy a bit of merch and check out the various stalls. Some great peripheral stuff (if I can call it that) going on at the festival. I particularly liked The Outcrowd shed! Ooh, and a little bonus at the pub. We ordered a Bloody Mary and a pint each but the chap serving had no idea what a Bloody Mary was. We told him and he ended up putting lemonade and lime cordial in it, instead of squeezing a lemon and lime in it. It tasted rank but this episode confused him so much that he forgot to charge us for any of our drinks. Given that they were disgusting anyway we opted not to remind him ;)

Another funny at the pub was putting our mate/victim Ken in the stocks...which Houdini-like he just slipped himself out of. Oh we laughed.

Back for The Memory Band. Great soundtrack and great musicianship. They were kinda charming too, good stuff!

Head Of David next. I love it when a front-man lays themselves bare for the audience. It was quite a challenging performance to watch but really powerful. I was probably one of the few there who hadn't heard of them before Supersonic 2009. Glad I have now!

In a bizarre twist I spent quite a lot of the time between Head of David and Goblin handing out loads of plums (from my plum tree) to randoms in the eating area.

Goblin were a great climax to the festival. They are a bit of a mixture of my favourite things in music, and some of my least favourite. I love the dark, playful, demonic side - really scary - but the prog bit kinda brings me back down with a bump. Either way, they were most enjoyable and seemed to get off on the crowd reaction, which was good to see. A fitting end to Supersonic 2009.

So, that's it, all over...? Wrong! I got a good second wind (through my friend Jägermeister) and had a fantastic time going spastic at the after party. It was great to see the Capsule crew and loads of punters still loving it. There was everything from wonky podium dancing to ballet........fantastic!

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Highlights

- My gig - by which I man I really enjoyed doing it ;)
- My great friends (new and old)
- Cheery Capsule staffers
- All the delighful people who attended
- The numerous amazing bands
- Handing out my little hand-finished sticker / merch packs to my adoring fans...
- The authentic Cornish Pasty man
- Dancing like a twat at the after party!

Lowlights

- Somehow missed some stuff I wanted to see. I blame beer and my ZX-81-esque memory!
- Failed to get a Zu t-shirt - did I miss the Ipecac merch crew?
- Beer was a tad pricey and they ran out of ales by Sunday

Wants for next year...

I imagine the logistics and politics of booking bands is not straightforward but, if I may, I'd like to suggest a few acts that I think would go down well at Supersonic 2010, or at least that might make the line-up if I were choosing it. Take it as you will...(in no particular order)

- Mr. Bungle (reformed)
- John Zorn
- Rebirth Brass Band
- Acoustic Ladyland
- Messer Chups
- Tom Waits
- Dillinger Escape Plan
- Tin Hat Trio
- Joanna Newsom
- Dub Trio
- The Necks
- The Bug
- British Murder Boys (reformed)
- Hazmat Modine
- Sayag Jazz Machine
- Chris Morris

...and that ladies and gentlemen is why I don't curate!

Final thoughts

Firstly, a huge thank you to the Capsule massive! Lisa and Jenny are a real inspiration, and their ethos shines through the good people that work with them to make the festival such a great success and such a thoroughly enjoyable place to spend time.

I had a fantastic time performing, getting twatted and having some great laughs. Moreover I met some fantastic and highly creative people, as an event like Supersonic is ever likely to attract. I feel like I have taken a leap forward in terms of my musical endeavours. My confidence has had a major boost and some of the collaborations that I have formed off the back of it will surely flourish!

See you in 2010...