field day RIP

horsemouth is up early. he was hungry and ate a pizza for breakfast. when he returned home last night he had a filthy headache and so didn’t feel like cooking or eating (and truth be told had little to cook and eat in the house), he chogged some paracetamol and went to bed.

horsemouth and howard (and tony and jacqui and some of their friends) went down to field day in brockwell park. howard was ill (week off work flu) and so was not on tip top form. fortunately horsemouth found 30 quid on the floor which enabled them to afford some whiskey and cokes to perk up. the security were obnoxious, the drink was overpriced and the food was overpriced (honourable exception small beer stall a pint of pale ale for six quid- thank you), the queues were a pain in the arse, the line-up (like last year) was a little thin. on the plus side the youth were beautiful, some of them could really dance, the PAs were large. the sun shone.

so who did horsemouth see? 




oumou sangare (queen of mali) - horsemouth went down early just to catch her - 20 plus years ago (when horsemouth first saw her) there was no drumkit, no stadium rock guitar solos, no tastefully synthesized keyboards - she has added all this to her act and it’s a proper stadium sized affair - true they were mainstage but they were on at 2pm (well 2.10 - malian time) on a sunny afternoon. the set was bookended by recent funky drummered anthems but at its heart were wassoulou songs in 3 time -6/8,12/8, 3/4s - ah ndiya for example. songs that are frankly a bit difficult to dance to with western 4/4 sensibilities (until you lock in). horsemouth overheard a youngster say he thought it would have been just like seeing fela kuti - he’s wrong of course (for various reasons), but hey - at least he’d heard of fela kuti.

... and the rest?

the barn stage horsemouth never managed to get into (such was the crush) so no review of floating points or four tet, bugged out was dull (standing in the way of control is your best track - yet another recycling of your love - sheesh!) , at the crack stage he saw princess nokia (just before howard and the others got in) most enjoyable. at the resident advisor stage horsemouth and howard saw tzusing who played a great tech-breaks set, very harsh, very industrial, for horsemouth the unexpected highlight of the show. there was a dude dancing there who had some great samba type moves and footwork, his girlfriend was very stylish and almost kept up.


later on (and in other mainstage action) horsemouth and howard saw the end of kurupt FM’s set - cod MC’ing over uk apache and shy fx’s jungle classic original nuttah and ray keith’s (is it?) lighter (or was it dj ss lighter tune?). horsemouth and howard jumped up and down like madmen.

later still charlotte gainsbourg’s set - a bit space, a bit french disco, undoubtedly stylish.

on their way out horsemouth and howard checked out cornelius - tasteful, a bit dull. and then they were gone, tube and bus and home.

that’s it for horsemouth and field day - he doesn’t think he will feel the need to go again.