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On 03/07/2003 andrew said: "Glasto (the long bit)"
I probably said half a dozen times over the weekend that festival bands are to bands what airline movies are to movies (or internet downloads to singles): if it looks like it might be a good idea, there's no reason not to try it. You're hanging around anyway, right?
So people go to stuff, and wander into to stuff, and experience things they hadn't intended to (cause that's the point, maaaan). So there's probably no reason to imagine that everyone at the Vice Party on friday night (in what used to be the Rizla Tent) was there to listen to Erol Alkan, or the Audio Bullys or because it was a great time last year, or even because it was open after midnight. It might've been some or more or less of these, but they were there to dance.
And Erol slapped on the chart hits, and at some point a serious bassline was heard, and whooping started. Everyone liked the hell out this, whatever it was, and it was going to start. And it was White Stripes's Seven Nation Army, and everyone went on loving it. And singing. And dancing. And dancing.
And then it was Saturday Night, and 2manyDJs, and the continued search for that moment again. And they play Seven Nation Army to an equally loud reception, and then a few minutes later, the guitars play a song I've known for ten years, and me and my friends are rocking out to The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary, and so's everyone. DJ Swamp had the slot before and was rubbish, playing a trick-heavy set that included murdering Smells Like Teen Spirit. As luck would have it, 2manyDJs are packing Lithium, and they show how to do it.
And then it was Tuesday back in Dublin, and I'm dropping by a computer game store on the way into work, and they're playing a bootleg of Bootylicious over Smells Like Teen Spirit, which I've heard before, and thought it was pretty clever, and I realise that it isn't just clever, it's great. I used to love one, and now I love the other as well, and I'm not alone. Both the songs have ascended to the same heaven, and they're still not the same song. It's girls versus boys and both sides win.
(Ironically, Erol's proper set in the Dance Tent was pretty much identical to the Vice one)