Global Gathering 2008
Long Marston Air field
Stratford-upon-Avon
Friday 25th July 2008

Global Gathering returns back for 2008 at Long Marston Airfield, Stratford upon Avon to present a weekend of electronic Dance music.

The line-up for Global Gathering has now been spread over 2 days featuring with the very the best artists from the various genres of electronic dance music. There were numerous tents to cater for everyone’s tastes offering a bit off everything with brands such as Godskitchen, Random Concept, Pollysexual, Raveology, Cocoon to name to name a few all here for the two day festival.

This year I decided to have a bit of a change and attended the Friday as I was looking forward mainly to the Raveology oldskool terrace with rave legends Ratpack & Baby D headlining here.

Since the Global Gathering festival started back in 2001 this is an arena that I’ve wanted to see at a dance festival. An arena where the ravers are given a history lesson in dance music taking them back to the roots of dance music, under the skies like the old days when ravers would be running around the M25 orbital finding their kicks for a Friday night.

Previous years have seen the Festival marred with bad weather as most of 2007 was a washed with bad weather with not only Global Gathering, but near enough all the major festivals suffering at the mercy of the terrible bad British weather. This year was looking better as the weather leading up to this years festival was quite on the bright side.

Getting to Long Marston wasn’t too difficult with the local roads all sign posted to ease off the congestion for the revellers who were making there way to the Airfield for the weekend.

Parking wasn’t too bad either as there were various car parks designated to day ticket holders, weekend campers and V.I.P’s. When we arrived there were quite a number of campers here who had already set up camp ready to party at the UK’s largest summer electronic 2 day festival

As expected there was a heavy police presence as the West midlands police were out here in force with sniffer dogs to ensure the festival was ran smoothly.

Once through the doors we entered a raving metropolis with lots of tents dotted around along with numerous merchandise stalls in place selling plenty of Global gathering merchandise including CD’s T-shirts and various other bits of memorabilia.

For those who like their adrenalin rushes there was the numerous funfair rides that were available too placed down the main runway of Long Marston Airfield.

The Raveology terrace was situation quite far back of the site so it was quite a bit of a walk away from the main attractions but quite close to the Pollysexual terrace. As I approached the terrace I was greeted by the sounds of Raveology’s very own time traveller Glen Aston

The sun was blazing in the afternoon and there was a nice crowd bubbling up out here. As expected Glen Aston laid down the slammers as he took the crowd back to the hazy days of 92 with tracks such as ‘Energy Flash’, ‘ Don’t go’, ‘I need relief’, ‘I want you(Forever)’ and ‘Bombscare’ which sent the crowd wild !

Raveology’s very own MC Magika was on the mic hosting this set keeping the ravers lively into the late afternoon. Glen started to up the years with his selection as he was dropping tracks such as ‘Trip to the moon’, ‘Keep the fire’s burning’ before closing with ‘Renegade Snares’.

I decided to have a wonder around the rest of the festival site as the sun was out blazing. The festival was starting to get rather busy as I checked out a few other tents and they were starting to fill up too, though there were plenty of people who were chilling on the grass soaking up the sun’s rays.

When I returned back to the Raveology terrace and was greeted by Flashback’s very own Mistress Mo. Mo had flipped the switch and went for a more oldskool jungle selection which was welcomed by the crowd. There were quite a number of classics being dropped throughout Mo’s set as she went through the various years of drum and bass.

MC Boggieman was doing the mic duties adding his ragga style which really complimented Mo’s selection as she dropped ‘I got 5 on it’, ‘Dual voltage’, ‘No diggity’ and ‘It’s jazzy’.

With DJ Andy of Brazil missing his flight Raveology’s very own DJ Assassin took to the helm along side Birmingham’s MC Bassman. This was quite a big moment for the Raveology resident as there was quite a large crowd that congregated around the terrace.

Bassman was tearing it down on the mic with his unique style of one liners that kept the crowd amused back with his filth. Assassin was playing a very upfront set with lots of current slammers including Hazard’s ‘Mr Happy’ along side ‘All that Jazz’, ‘Timewarp’ and ‘Hovercraft’.

Penultimate set of the night came from the oldskool legends Lipmaster Mark and Everson Allen better known as the Ratpack ! At this point the sun was starting to go down as the day turned into night, perfect setting for the oldskool masters !

There was quite a number of remixes of oldskool classics being played such as ‘Searching for my rizla’, ‘On a Ragga Tip’ and ‘Born slippy’. Everson Allen was in his element whilst on stage mcing under the stars reminded the crowd of how it used to be like this back during the golden days of ’92 free parties.

The Ratpack played a number of favourites from this era including ‘I feel the this’, ‘ Feel the heat’, ‘Closer to your dreams’ before finally signing off with the Ratpack signature track ‘Captain of the ship’

Baby D was in the area tonight doing a live PA of all their hits to close off the Raveology terrace. Baby D was joined by Production House’s very own MC Nino along with MC Micro. Micro was armed with his trumpet like the old Helter Skelter and rush hour days with himself and MC MC.

The Baby D crew were performing a number of their classics hits from their chart topping album Deliverance with tracks such as ‘Take me to Heaven, ‘So pure’ and ‘I need your loving’.

Though as expected when Baby D dropped the timeless number one classic’ Let me be your fantasy’ this caused a storm and had the whole crowd singing along with Baby D a fitting way to close the night.

Well the day came to an end and what a good day out it was. I was really chuffed to finally hear some oldskool at a Global Gathering festival after all these years. This is something that I’ve always thought was missing as oldskool is really the roots of todays electronic dance music and should be up there along with the other tents and arena. It might have been an outdoor terrace but it’s a definitely a step in the right direction.

There has been some controversy over this year’s festival as headlining Kanye west who is a hip hop artist. Many people have found this headliner quite odd considering the festival’s main emphasis is electronic dance music. But yet this did not deter the many revellers who were here for a weekend of entertainment!

Massive shouts to Magika & Jo raveology crew, Bassman, Aaron, Mistress Mo, Esther, Boogieman, Shauny, Glen Aston, Elton, Damien, Alice & Kiri, Gilbert, Wil, Sarah and Collete, Everson Allen, Lipmaster Mark, Samantha da Pantha, Baby D, Micro, Nino, Julie and B and everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognize