Godskitchen Global Gathering 2005
Long Marston Airfield
Stratford-upon-Avon
Saturday 30th July 2005

Global Gathering 2005, Godskitchen hosted their annual summer festival at Long Marston airfield, Stratford-upon-Avon. For the first time this event had the option of turning into a weekender giving people an opportunity of staying over and camping on the air field.

Having missed last year's event due to family reasons I was eagerly looking forward to returning back to Long Marston this summer. Having not been since to Global Gathering 2003, which was the year when the airfield turned into a mud bath!
During the week leading up to this years event it looked like the weather wasn't going to be on Global Gathering's side, as there being a small tornado in near by Birmingham things didn't look too good!!

30th July finally arrived and it started to rain in the morning so it wasn't a great start, we got to Long Marston just after 3pm. When we arrived at the Long Marston airfield there was already a convoy of cars, we didn't have to wait too long before finally getting a parking space at the back of the festival site. After parking up we made our way to the main entrance, on our way to the entrance some people obviously over done it on the previous night, as we greeted a young chap 'good morning' who was wandering around bare foot with his sleeping bag!!

Queuing didn't take too long as I was luckily enough to have a guest list another friend of mine had a normal ticket, both of us got inside around the same time. As there wasn't a massive queue at this time. We had decided to arrive a little later than the opening time to try as we wanted to beat the traffic, and I think with the mornings weather people may have decided to leave later than usual, hence the reason behind the small queue.
There was a strong police presence at the entrance with them having sniffer dogs and mobile CCTV units here too.

It was great to be back at the airfield seeing it transformed into a small city full of ravers dotted about everywhere. With people staying overnight we saw a few peeps milling around with their sleeping bags and retracing their bearings to the campsite. Well we grabbed ourselves a festival programme to find out who was on and to locate the various tents. The airfield was transformed once again with lots of funfair rides for the thrill seekers and little stalls selling various bits and pieces along the main runway, there was even a cash machine here too!

We headed towards Accelerated Culture's Drum and Bass tent to be greeted by Nicky Blackmarket. The tents used at Global Gathering were massive similar to that you'd find at a circus.

The production inside the Drum and Bass tent was good, with plenty of inflatables hanging from the ceiling and with two massive projection screens either side of the large Funktion one speakers, though the system wasn't too loud when we got here and it was only 4 in the afternoon! The DJ box was right at the front of the stage and behind the DJ box was a platform for the dancers and MC's to perform on which I didn't really like, as it lacks that crowd participation that the MC provides.

Nicky Blackmarket was on with MC Presha we caught the tail end of Nicky's set, Nicky played 'Dangerous' the Champion Deejay and Junglist all in one tune called 'Junglistic Man'. Nicky also dropped a Drum and Bass remix of Nancy Sinatra's ' Bang Bang (My baby shot me down)', which went down quite well. During this set I spotted MC's Storm and Whizzkid having a little brock out before they headed off with Hixxy to the Pollysexual tent.

As a massive follower of both Hardcore and Jungle Drum and Bass I've always wanted to see a Hardcore tent at the Global Gathering festival, but alas this has not been the case. Hardcore Til I Die's very own DJ Hixxy was here at this year's festival alongside MC Storm for the first time. It was a chance for these guys to prove that Hardcore actually deserves its very own tent at this festival. Well it might of only been an hour of Hardcore but it's better than nothing!

We headed to the Pollysexual tent and it was rammed with lots of ravers heading towards to tent to see these guys. Storm was up MCing to the crowd and Hixxy was dropping plenty of tunes from the Raver baby label, which is also featured on the Clubland Extreme Hardcore album. Hixxy dropped 'Make some noise', 'Pro to plasm', 'Makin me wanna dance' and 'Cry'. It was great to stomp to some Hardcore at Global Gathering showing the hard house heads how it's actually done! It was also good to see MC Whizzkid here too, showing his support for Hixxy and Storm at the festival.

With Storm on the mic MCing and hyping up the crowd with amazing lyrics getting plenty of Energy from the crowd too. As this is something different the hard house heads as there are very few genre's of music still incorporating mc's including hardcore along with jungle / drum and bass from the old rave days. What also shocked me was that there were quite a number of hardhouse heads who actually knew Storms lyrics especially when Hixxy dropped 'Dark like vader'.

Hixxy continued to play 'Free at last',' Come with me remix ' which went down a treat, 'Look at all the ravers' which is very similar to DJ SS's 'Breakbeat pressure' as it list all the Hardcore DJ's and MC's with MC Marley on the vocals, the tune has a dirty Drum and Bass break in there for good measure! There was a tune that Hixxy played sampled Rage against the machine 'Fuck you I won't do what you tell me', Hixxy, Storm and Whizkid were doing their MC Bassman impression raise a finger!
Last tune from Hixxy was his remix of the classic 'Set you free' which got the place singing and the tent was rocking!

Once Hixxy finished his set it was funny to see the tent empty out as many people obviously wanted to get their Hardcore fix at the festival. So I would say that this set was a huge success and that many people would welcome a tent dedicated to Hardcore at a future Global Gathering!

After Hixxy's set we headed back to the Accelerated tent and caught Breakbeat Kaos's Pendulum. Pendulum had Spyda, Bassman and Juiceman MCing for his set. Pendulum played his remix of the Prodigy classic ' Voodoo people' and he also played another oldskool classic this time from Candi station ' You got the love'.

After Pendulum it was Full Cycle's DJ Krust along with MC Det and Spyda. Krust played a dirty deep set as he played 'Style baby and 'Slippery slopes'. Was great to see Det here with plenty of people reciting his lyric getting a good response from the crowd.

We thought we'd have a wander around the airfield to see what was going on. This years festivals felt bigger than the previous two that I have attended with various little tents with their own sound systems dotted around the airfield, which weren't advertised on the flyer or included in the programme.

There was the Gun.net bus didn't catch who was playing but they were playing some oldskool house with quite a fair number of people dancing away. Also was the BBC 1-Xtra tent too which was heavy. We just missed DJ Sappo but in time for Rodney P and Skitz who were playing some serious hip-hop. I've heard of Rodney P as he's done some work for V recordings on Roni Size's 'Return to V' and for th DMC champion 'Plus one' so it was good to see him in the flesh. I pretty enjoyed this set as at these festivals its more geared for dance music rather than urban music so this was something different to break up the evening and good to see many people enjoying themselves too.

There was a big black cloud brewing over the airfield and I thought it was going to rain so we decided to head back to the Accelerated Culture tent. The tent was absolutely rammed especially at the front, as it was getting near full to capacity. Mickey Finn was on with Foxy and Eksman he was playing some oldskool bits along with some upfront tunes. Mickey played 'Junglistsic man' the new remix of 'Arsonist' along with 'The nine' and '2 degrees'.

After Mickey it was the turn of the True Player DJ Zinc alongside the SAS combination of MC's Shabba and Skiabdee. Zinc played an awesome set with some new material along with some classics, Zinc dropped 'Brown paper bag', 'Xray' and his own remix of the Prodigy classic 'Charly'. I noticed that the sound system was louder than what it was earlier on, just hope it was going to get louder later.

From a True player to the Ganja man DJ Hype was on next. A tremendous set from the oldskool legend, it's been a very long time since I've seen Hype play out and I really enjoyed his set. Hype was showing off his scratching and mixing skills, which got him his name as he was once Britain's DMC representative many years ago. Hype sneaked in 'Body rock', he played 'Dubplate killah',' Revolution', 'Ask not vip'. He was also showing off his old mixing skills by switching two copies of 'Machomist', which went down a treat. Hype finished the set with '96 thing'

Fabio was on next, but I decided to have a wander around the nocturnal village. It was a wonderful site to see all the illuminations of the fun fair rides to light up the night's sky. The weather was still holding out it, but it was a bit cold but just glad it wasn't raining thank god!

There were various stalls over the airfield selling various bits of paraphernalia including tape packs other bits of merchandise and also a stall selling camping supplies. It cost £3.50 for a can of beer, which isn't too bad, though it was also £4.00 for a hotdog is expensive but that's the way these places make money unfortunately. There were other various food stalls selling not just burger's but also a stall selling Chinese take away!!!

Headed back to the Drum and Bass tent and Grooverider was finishing up the legendry GQ was MCing for him. Brazil's DJ Marky was on next with MC Dynamite, you couldn't really listen to this set as Marky was showing off his skills on the decks. Marky's scratching was astonishing as the other MC's just crowded over the decks and stood in amazement, Foxy had to stop the record and GQ's jaw just dropped!

After the scratching showcase from Marky it was the turn of the guvnor Andy C, Dynamite was accompanied by IC3 and Fearless for this set. Andy played a lot of new tunes along with him teasing many others to show off his mixing skills as he sneaked in 'Turbulence' and 'All that jazz' into a few of his mixes. He did play 'World of Darkness' and the 'Voodoo people remix'. Most of the DJ's tonight kept playing the Voodoo people remix, I really like this tune not a patch on the original, but still a decent remix but after hearing it so many times throughout the night it did get a bit tedious.

After Andy C it was the last set of the night as DJ Swift and Friction decided to go back to back with Fearless and IC3 going back to back on the mic as well playing a 90-minute set of sheer madness! I would say this was one of my favourite sets of the night very high paced and full of energy.

Swift opened the set with 'Style baby' which is one of my favourite tunes at the moment and to hear it from the beginning was even better as it feels like going on a roller coaster! Swift and Friction teased in numerous tunes and double dropped a couple as well. Fearless and IC3 were amazing working the crowd into the early hours, seeing how it was to come to end after a gruelling 12 hours!

Friction and Swift continued to play '26 bass', ' Tombraider', 'Gangbang', 'Aint too loud' and 'Rapture'. Friction and Swift played a remix of 'Papua new guinea', which did slow the tempo down as they finished the set with 'Burial', and 'Plastic soul'.

It was 4am and the Drum and Bass came to an end as the tent had to close whilst the rest of the festival carried on till 6 am. We headed back to the car park to locate our car, which took over 30mins. It's a bit of a nightmare as there is no lighting in the car park.

Overall I had a great night out, especially as I was worried that weather wasn't going to hold out but it did with no repeat of the 2003 mud field! I wasn't impressed too much with the sound system in the Drum and Bass tent as the levels kept going up and down through out the night, it did get loud during a few of the sets early in the morning but would of preferred for it to of been at a higher level as I know the Funktion one system wasn't used to its true potential tonight. It seems that Drum and Bass always gets a raw deal at these kind of festivals with sound levels having to be restricted. Atmosphere was alright in the drum and bass tent, no moody vibes but it was rammed especially at the front with not much space especially when Shabba and Skibbadee were mcing.

Hardcore fully deserves it's own tent and Hixxy and MC Storm proved that tonight, the Pollysexual tent was rammed during their set and emptied out as soon as they finished. With HTID doing their events at Air in Birmingham on a regular basis, as within the past 12 months every HTID at Air has either been rammed or sold out. This proves that there is a massive following and that there is a market out there that global can attract those ravers to a future event. So Godskitchen I hope you took note during Hixxy and Storm's set and bring Hardcore to next years Global Gathering festival! The atmosphere in this tent during this set was amazing pure electric with lots of great vibes.

Having missed last years event I really enjoyed this years festival thoroughly. Just a shame the Drum and Bass tent closed early but it did give us the chance of leaving that bit early and missing out on the traffic. Atmosphere over the airfield was really good plenty of up for it people coming out to have a good night out! There were very few arrests too spanning over the weekend.

Roll on 2006 and start praying to the sun gods!!!!

Big respects to Rhiannon at Spring PR, Mark and Chris Lambert, Hixxy, Storm and Whizzkid, Fearless, Ben and Katie, Brockie, Nicky Blackmarket, IC3, Foxy, GQ, and Rodney P.

Massive shouts to Charly, Ed, Zoe and Collete, Sangita and Rachel, Faye and Donna, Ricky and George, Lisa and Sarah, Satin and Justin at KoolLive, Mike at BornHardcore, Brian BK, Zane, D-Ice, Pricey, Ruthless and also to everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.