In my life, I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a few ‘pinch me, I must be dreaming’ moments, but when the grandmothers of festival invention got on the Glasto hotline to invite Kavus Torabi and I to DJ, you could have knocked me over with one of Mr Wakeman’s moth-eaten cast-off capes! We had a ball and judging by the crowds, not to mention the enormous amount of people unable to get into the Stonebridge Bar who remained to the end, we must have done something right!
The sight of so many music fans wigging out to our eclectic tastes was a great one that will stay in my memory forever. That people were prepared to listen to such an unfashionable mix of music styles gives us all hope that not everyone is that interested in a woman from Tottenham, singing in an American accent, headlining the Pyramid Stage. Maybe our set times didn’t clash with Adele’s but rumour has it her management were worried about the competition so requested that we were moved to early evening on a different day!
It’s impossible to underestimate the attention that something like Glastonbury Festival generates. It’s a publicity magnet. The Stonebridge Bar was a top venue and the hospitality afforded to us was superb. It seemed only right to produce a commemorative tote bag to throw out to the masses.
So what to play to an inquisitive Glastonbury audience? We decided to stick to our strengths and try not to run before we could walk, although both actions were nigh on impossible in the mud bath that ensued that weekend! Whilst Kavus and I like a bit of techno and absolutely love a shed load of clever electronica, as far as DJing live is concerned, we’re still wet behind the ears. Beat-matching was out of our remit and we decided our only ‘sampling’ would be restricted to craft ale sent in our direction.
We settled on a plan of attack: play a track and then play another one more or less straight after it. There was the possibility that one might merge into another but only by accident. It was a revolutionary throwback policy that we hoped would bamboozle anyone expecting a techno mixfest. Our plan was to play 90 minutes of music where the heroes of the moment were the artists themselves rather than the freeloading, booze-ridden facilitators.
The set was posted to our Interesting Alternative Mixcloud page and should you need encouragement to check it out then I invite you to get your head around a 90-minute set that had room for John, Paul, George, Ringo and Christian Vander.
Catch Steve’s Interesting Alternative Radio Show every Monday 10pm-midnight at www.Phoenixfm.com.
Steve Davis on Autechre and DJing at Bloc Weekend
