WorldWide

After spending a couple of days with Ally and the rents it was time for me to leave again. My mum had just had some bad news about the cancer and was off to portugal to see her sister, her flight was half an hour after mine so i got a lift with her, luckily i had no hold luggage and had already checked in so the fact that i arrived at stanstead 15 minutes before the flight boarded ended up being ok. i walked swiftly through the airport and as i was about 3 gates away i saw a sign for final call on my flight, broke into a run just to see that the queue had gone nowhere and to the calls of 'look he's running'. Waiting there were Pierre and Joe, Joes sister harriet, her boyfriend max and their mate, Hannah, Lucy, Naimh and their mate Alice, so a few first impressions were made of me as the sweaty late one.

After the flight we arrived in a very hot montpellier where we tried to get a bus into to town to get the train to sete but instead opted for a taxi all the way to the hostel. This pretty much blew my budget out of the water as it cost 75 euros for between me pierre and joe. We got the hostel, after a quick walk up a very steep hill, and again, as were checking in, i reinforced my reputation as the sweaty one by sitting on one of the plastic chairs in the foyer which, when i left it, had a little puddle collected. we couldn't move into our room until 4 so we decided to go into town get some munch and then got to the beach party which was the launch of the festival. When we were on the bus there i realised i hadnt eaten all day (i was up at 4, it was now 1 in the afternoon) so started to feel really hungry, when we eventually got to the beach the huge munch we had was incredibly buff. The sick thing about the beach venue, named ACD beach after the bar it was set in was that the speakers faced the sea, so if you were swimming or playing bat and ball or frisbee in the sea, you could still hear the music and dance along club med stylie.

Wer missioned to get the very infrequent bus back when we gotr back to the hostel we found out that harriet and max had hitched a lift. we had dinner at the hostel that night and tried to imbibe some very room-temperature pastis, luckily the girls had soem beers so we managed to snaffle a few of those. After a while we headed down to the lighthouse venue called Phare du Mole which was where most of the nighttime DJing would take place, we got there in the middle of Theo Parish, who i felt was a bit of a let down, as he kept on dipping and boosting the bass, which was a bit rubbish and ultimately broke the soundsystem. After his set he gave a little speech, and kept repeating, 'i should of done a sound check!'. Diplo was next up and he was wicked. He opened up his set with some sick tunes, brought it a bit commercial during towards the end (he played skream's remix of la roux) which didnt really fit with the festival, but ultimately it went down well and i thought he was sick! I went home after him cos it was some whack mintech DJ on afterwards and i had virtually been awake for 24 hours as well.

Next day i went online for a bit and whilst pierre and joe went for a coffee. I met them at the cafe where they were sat with naimh and lucy, we went to monoprix for some munch and then went to get the bus. Joe started running for it but it seemed like a bit of a fruitless endeavour and pierre and more so i slowly lagged behind. when i got round the bend i saw the bus pull away with joe and pierre on it! waiting for the girls i decided to give max and harriet's hitch hiking idea a try. In about 3 minutes a guy in a convertible pulled up and asked me where i needed to go, to which i responded the beach, as i got in the girls walked past so asked if they could come too, of course! we ended up getting to the beach the same time as the others. The music on the beach was good, as it was the day before, but i was looking forward to some live music in the third venue called the Theatre de la mer.

After going up to the hostel to finish off our pastis (this time with ice) and drink some leffe which we had bought we headed down to the venue with sandwiches in hand. When we got there we were told we couldn't bring them in so we stashed them and whatever beer we had left. The theatre de la mer is a big romanesque open-air amphitheatre which over looks the sea, probably the nicest venue for live music i have ever been too. We got in for the end of sebastien schuller who was a bit weird and ambient but afterwards came Soil & "Pimp" Sessions... Never before have i seen a group of guys that looked so cool. Soil & Pimp are a Jazz group from Japan who Gilles Peterson described as the biggest name in the world of Jazz at the moment, and I could see why. I'm not usually into Jazz as a dance music (in fact i've just starting downloading one of their albums now) but literally half way through their first song half the amphitheatre was on the dance floor in front of where they were playing and the other half of the amphitheatre was standing up in their seats, dancing as well. After Soil & Pimp we collected our sandwiches and made our way to the Phare du Mole. Pierre wasn't sure whether he wanted his or not, but litterally a second after he mentioned this he dropped it under my foot as we were walking, pierres mind was made up for him then and there, goodbye sandwich.

The main act that i we wanted to see at the Phare du mole that night was Dorian Concept who was doing a semi live set, playing the melody on a little keyboard whilst he DJed at the same time, It started to rain half way through his set and, because the stage had no roof, the tech guys had to hold a plastic sheet over the decks whilst he was DJing, eventually it was pouring down and the crowd was uniting under the heavy rain, marvelling at the lightning bolts out at sea, until the music had to be turned off, as well as the lights probably due to safety. He came back on about 15 minutes later when the rain stopped and finished off a very good, despite being interrupted, set. After was a another mintech DJ called Martyn so i went for a rest cos my feet and knees were hurting pierre came with and fell asleep, standard, the only man i know to fall asleep more than me. I was waiting around for Carl Craig, of whom i had heard good things but when his set started i realised it was a standard friday night 4am type radio one music, the type you listen too when your on the bus home, the fact that Gilles Peterson kept interspersing it with bursts of 'you are listening to the sound of detroit, Mr Carl Craig...' in his best radio voice, didnt help. I decided to make my way home, i guess I'm not that much into my Second Wave Detroit Techno.

That morning i set my alarm for 9.30 in order to get up in time for the free breakfast, i filled my boot sand went back to sleep but agreed with myself that it wasnt worth it doing again. That day we went to the beach as standard, all of us hitch hiking, i assumed my sunbathing pose and subsequently did my daily routine of nap, swim, eat, swim, sunbathe, frisbee, nap, swim, that night we skipped/missed out on the live music, in sacrifice of getting pissed and eating a meal of ratatouille and frites at the hostel. That night was deffinately the best night of music at the Phare du Mole. First up was Fulgeance, a sort of lesser, french version of Dorian Concept but almost as good, towards the end of this i got a bit tires so went for a cotch and ended up having a little nap, when i woke up, god forbid, I heard house music! It was Jazzanova playing some sick tunes It might of been a couple of nights previous but it fits into my memory as happening on this night, Joe was trying to chirps Alice, so employed me and Pierre as wing men, which of course we were very excited about, are job was to get rid of hannah so we performed a 2 man dancing barrier manoeuvre which slowly moved hannah away from the other 2, and she was none the wiser, except until she reads this of course. next up was Laurent Garnier Live. For me and i reckon a lot of people this was the highlight of the festival, an amazing live set which culminated in a rendition of his massive choon, 'man with the red face'. I'm sure you guys know it but if you dont here's it is, quite a sick video as well...




After laurent was another mintech DJ so i went home!

Day 4 was at ACD beach all day. We decided to have a sit-down meal in the town centre, but the cafe 'hotel-de-ville' had basically finished lunch so pierre and joe had the plat du jour and i went down the road for an omlette and frites sandwich. on teh way to our spot where we hitched from some 15 year old algerian kid offered us so hash, so we picked up off him, was good shit, straight out of north africa afterall. The beach party had been expanded from the previous 3 days and now the seats and barriers extended nearly all the way to the shore. The music seemed to be of a higher calibre as well and it seemed as though everyone was a lot more up for it as well. The girls bought a fuck load of beer so we got some ice and made a make-shift fridge in the sand, time was spent during the day swimming drinking and dancing, particular highlights included a nighttime swim (so weird!), listening to a shit load of Michael Jackson and loving it, especially when Simbad dropped thriller with a full moon in the sky. It went on until about 4.30 when the security kicked us off the beach, just as we left the beach we witnessed a massive fight between some local 'racail' in which a non-involved couple became involved when the fell into them and they reacted as anyone would, but ended up being hit and thrown to the floor. we made our way passed the fracas where the girls hired a cab cos they couldnt be arsed to walk the hour home from the beach. Me, Pierre and Joe started to walk, attempting to hitch a lift with the few cars passing by, after about 10 minutes walking up the road a car pulled up, despite me having my hand down the front of my shorts. the two gusy in the front were playing some badass arab-french fusion hip-hop but suddenly the music got cut off and the guy in the passengers seat asked us what we did. 'students?! ah so you must take drugs...' he then went on to ask us how much drugs are in the UK, before they dropped us off at the foot of the hill before the familiar walk up the hill to the hostel, where i watched the sun rise over my book and a spliff, waited for breakfast to be set up, eating then going to bed.

The next day was Pierre's birthday so we checked out and moved into the girls room. we went for lunch in town and used the internet for a bit before going to a little place we had found earlier in the week and had some beers and some cake the girls got him. afterwards we headed back to the hostel and chilled out with will morgan, michael hessle and their mate who until this point i have forgotten to mention were also staying at our hostel. The next day we got up for breakfast and left for pierres yard in the countryside.

Worldwide was wicked, the thing i didnt like though, apart from the mintech, was that it felt like you needed to be late twenties and monied, and for that reason i dont think i will go there for at least another 5 years. Sete was a lovely setting (get it?) but i would have preferred to have been in an apartment in the centre rather than in the hostel at a treks-legnth up teh steepist hill i have ever seen in a french town.

I leave you with the official video of teh last day of teh festival, u get a brief video of joe doing his music face and a bit of me taking photos of my back...



WHAT AN EPIC POST!!!