- SATURDAY
London has been having one of its wettest summers in ages, and there has been intense flooding around the nation, so when the heavens opened up as I was walking to the beautiful confines of Victoria Park, I worried that day one of Lovebox was under threat of being renamed Mudbox© (thanks to my mate Aidan for that witty moniker). Fortunately the rain gods were only teasing us. When I arrived at around 3.30 p.m., just in time to catch Patrick Wolfe, the sun and blue skies had begun to peek their heads out from behind the grey clouds.
Now in its fifth year, the Groove Armada boys seem to have the festival thing down pat, and there was a good mix of musical talent, eclectic stage set-ups and other attractions. Dubbed a mini-Glastonbury by organizers, this feeling rang true, as despite some low-key sponsoring, it felt relatively corporate free. Food options were plentiful and went far beyond burgers and chips (with the jerk chicken stall taking my vote). My stance on the amusements rides is that they cheapened the event and gave it a real fairground feel, but the giant Ferris wheel directly in front of the main stage provided amazing vantage points to watch the show if you chose to go for a spin:
So enough about the amenities. How was the music?
Patrick Wolfe, a multi-talented singer/musician, provided an energetic, well received set to start my day off, bounding about the stage like a kid with ADD. Despite the poor acoustics on the main stage, he was brimming with positivity and gave it his all, and in an almost clichéd fashion seemed to will the sun to finally come out from behind the clouds as he finished things off with his hit 'Magic Position'. A few other sly touches included a homage to Debbie Harry, with a few choice Blondie lyrics thrown in in anticipation of their set to come, as well as the ad-libbing of Rihanna’s current number one hit 'Umbrella'.
I decided to stay at the main stage to check out The Presets, one of the highlights of the day for sure, while my girlfriend went off to meet a friend at the main entrance. The electronic duo from Sydney absolutely tore it up - if you haven’t heard their sound they could be compared favourably to Soulwax (Nite Versions). They worked the crowd in to a frenzy, at one point mixing in elements of Daft Punk to much delight.
At this point my girlfriend came back, informing us that she’d just seen cops with sniffer dogs bust about twenty people for drugs in the space of fifteen minutes, even hauling some of them away. Making a mental note to avoid the front entrance at all costs, it was time for a little exploring.
To the right of the main stage, the Horse Meat Disco/El Barrio stage façade was particularly impressive, set up to look like the seedy streets of Manhattan circa late '70s complete with traffic lights, neon signs, and men in drag flaunting their wares out of the second floor windows. As this was an enclosed club-like stage with limited capacity, the queue to get in was consistently 40 feet deep all weekend, so don’t ask me what it was like inside, but I was choked to have missed Diplo on the Sunday night.
On the other side, the Strangelove tent (currated by ISSST on Saturday and The End on Sunday) was heaving from the beginning to the end of the festival, and had a real nightclub feel to it. Seeing that we couldn’t even squeeze our way in, which speaks volumes about ISSST's popularity, we headed over to the Clash Club/Bassline Circus tent (which really did look like a big top circus tent) to check out electroclash (hence the theme) rockers Who Made Who. The Danish three piece, dressed in skeleton suits, milked their now familiar set to much aplomb, including both their interpretations of Mr Oiseau’s 'Flat Beat' and of course Benni Benassi’s 'Satisfaction'. My mates, along with the rest of the crowd, all seemed to be having a wonderful time, so mission accomplished, I suppose.
The tent of the afternoon for me though had to be Secret Sundaze. Tucked away in the furthest corner of the grounds, the circular fenced enclosure had a real backwoods feel to it with a bayou porch of a stage. The centrepiece was of course the infamous Secret Sundaze disco ball which hung from a giant stump of a tree. Unfortunately as it got later they couldn’t get the light to work to shine on the ball, but the mood was hardly dampened. Giles Smith and 2000 and One spun house tracks that were perfect for mid-afternoon, the loyal SS crowd responded, and the result was a dirty (in a good way) daytime afterparty-like vibe. Unfortunately I missed Funk D’Void’s live set as there was just too much other stuff to check out, namely Tiga in the ISSST tent and Blondie on the main stage.
I don’t know if I’m getting older, but Tiga just isn’t doing it for me the way he used to. His formula of electro/pop reworkings is getting a little stale - perhaps it might be time for him to retire a few of his tried and true numbers. While in there I heard yet another reworking of LCD’s 'Tribulations', a dance version of the Gossip hit 'Standing on the Edge of Control' along with the snippets of 'Washing Up' and his own 'Good as Gold'. Again, the crowd were really into it and having a great time, cheering their brains out when all the big recognizable numbers came on, but the set was far from forward thinking. One complaint was that the sound was far from loud enough in this tent, inciting group chants of “Turn it up.” Even Tiga himself could be seen complaining about the volume. Dance music is meant to be heard loud. The tent was hot, sweaty and heaving, so for me it was time to get some fresh air and head back out to the main stage to see 62-year-old Debbie Harry and the rest of the cats in Blondie:
I have to admit, Debbie Harry was looking pretty good for her age and Blondie gave the crowd what they wanted, namely all the sing-along hits ('One Way or Another', 'Heart of Glass', 'Maria'). Harry’s voice has held up well, sounding like the album versions. Unfortunately, in such a large windy outdoor environment, the sound didn’t travel that far and was quite muffled unless you were relatively close.
So bypassing Sly and the Family Stone, it was back to Secret Sundaze to see James Priestly close things out, playing a few modern classics along the way. Anyone who can ID this track for me gets mad love: male vocal singing “Master of disaster, are you ready for more…”
SUNDAY
Fast forwarding quickly to Sunday (and bypassing the whole Richie vs. Ricardo debate, I heard Richie played from 4am til 10.30am!!!) let me mention a few highlights from a rather more chilled (and much sunnier) Sunday affair which I only caught the tail end of.
Stage of the day for me had to again be the one where Secret Sundaze played, this time hosted by the Trojan Soundsytem. Earl Gateshead and Daddy Ad’s vast collecting of 45’s provided some classic dub/reggae riddims, while vocalists Superfour and Chuckie Banton did their best vocal interpretations and occasional shoutouts for the rewind. The atmosphere was chilled and friendly, as one would expect. Closing out the stage, Massive Attack’s Daddy G brought things up about ten notches with a storming set of proper jump up ragga jungle. Give it up for the selecta.
The other two highlights of Sunday were the B-52’s, who looked and sounded timeless, but Sunday really was all about the reggae, with Toots and the Maytals providing a heavy dose over at the Time Out stage. With so many recognizable classics, the crowd were in a positively blissful mood, singing along as Toots’ gleeful demeanour and playful interactions spurred them on. The highlight had to be the call and response “54-46 was my number” with Toots asking the crowd to “Give it to me…ten times!” to everyone’s amusement.
Lovebox has evolved considerably in the last five years, moving from a dance festival to a more widely accessible multi-genre event. There really was something for everyone here. The irony might be that electronic music is possibly the type of music that works least at festivals, with dodgy sound levels and makeshift club-like stages. I still feel that it is music best listened to on dedicated, tailored-made soundsystems in clubs that cater specifically to that scene. The two songs I did see Groove Armada perform at the end of Sunday don’t convince me that recreating dance music live comes across that well. Dance music is meant to be played loud, which wasn’t always possible with stages close to one another, not to mention the festival's proximity to a residential neighbourhood. Secret Sundaze worked because it was an intimate stage tucked firmly away from other proceedings.
In the end though, these are small quibbles. A festival is only as good as its crowd, and everyone seemed to be in good spirits all weekend long. Add to this top notch musical talent from start to finish, a dedication to detail, and quality event organisation, and Lovebox left me more than satisfied.
Photo credit: Lovebox Weekender