Live Review

GlobalGathering – Long Marston, Stratford-Upon-Avon

• 10th Aug 2010

As the sun peeked through the clouds, so too did the music peak at Global Gathering. Saturday afternoon sets from Scratch Perverts and Jaguar Skill got the crowd moving and oiled the joints of those who had had a big one the night before. Lucky for me I only arrived on Saturday; freshly showered, with a clear head and clean shoes. It didn’t stay that way long. As I joined the 50,000 ravers trying to get the most out of 150 DJs across eight stages things went from astounding clarity to slightly messy rather quickly, the flow of free beverages in the backstage area didn’t help.

“Is that not a drum and bass tent I see before me?” Correct, we were in Shakespeare country. It was an eye for an extremely dilated eye, a booth for a DJ booth. Now in its tenth year Global Gathering has become an institution for dance music lovers around the world, and within a few hours of being at my first ever event it wasn’t hard to see why. As darkness descended zany characters seemed to come out of the woodwork and the intensity of the music was elevated.

Carl Cox played a stellar set in the arena named after him. And when he dropped Underworld’s ‘Long Dark Train’ the crowd reaction confirmed that this innovator and legend of UK dance had not lost his touch. On the main stage Dizzee Rascal had to follow up an impressive performance by the Bloody Beetroots for his headline slot. Being a dance festival Dizzee seemed a strange choice, but the massive crowd gathered to see him proved it was popular nonetheless. For me it was the third time I’d seen him this festival season (there doesn’t seem to be a single one in the UK where he’s not on the bill). This performance fell a little flat, he appeared to be running through the motions, rather than keeping it fresh and energetic. But as he ran through hit after hit the crowd were onside and when he reached the climax with ‘Bonkers’ there wasn’t a person in the field not going absolutely nuts (except perhaps my friend Tilly!)

Elsewhere the Random Concept tent was full all night with dancers reveling in the drum and bass sounds. Towards the end of Andy C’s set the crowd was 30 deep outside the tent, so you can imagine the sweaty bodies mingling inside the arena. Goldie followed with another high-energy, feel good set that kept the ravers moving well into the night. Next door the Hardcore Till I Die arena was the place for hardcore hardcore fans to get their fix of insanely fast beats blaring at piercing volume. For me the 150 bpm plus pace was too much for 3am after a long day, but those who were into it were really into it, so I left them to it.

From hardcore to house there was something to suit every dance music fan’s taste, strange bedfellows brought together in one field. Personally I enjoyed taking in the atmosphere, doing some crowd watching and, of course, having a good dance.