h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

 Well I've just about recovered fully now, and yes I can actually remember most of it too! Homelands was great- it could have been a lot better, with more variety of acts and DJs, but the setup, scale and crowds were all really good- some of the best I've seen at this sort of festival event. So who did I see and were they any good?

Due to the usual organisational nightmare my mates cuase, we didn't get there till about 4pm, but fortunately we hadn't missed much. As soon as we bought a playlist, however, the first big disappointment of the day emerged when we discovered Jurassic 5 had been cancelled. What is it with US Rap bands letting down their Scottish fans- we've seen all this before with the Wu Tang. My mate Douglas went specifically to see J5 and spent his 40 quid for this alone- he was not happy.

Paul Oakenfold did his usual majestic trance thing, but was surprisingly staid and unexciting in the year that Goa Trance crossed over to the top 10 pop chart. He was eclipsed by Nick Warren, who played a similar style but with crisper, cleaner beats and more interesting records. Although the 5:30pm time slot as oppose to Warren's 1am slot can't have helped Oakenfold- there were a couple of thousand there anyway. Ishould mention at this point, that like Rezerection before it, all the tents at Homelands had hard black matting laid on the ground which meant dancing was a joy, not a trudge through eight inches of mud- T in the Park take note- this is what you really need...
Liam Howlett was really disappointing- not only did he seem totally incapable of mixing two records together (stopping one and starting another)but his actual selection of tunes was dire. It all sounded like sub-Prodigy stuff with the vocals, melodies and samples ripped off the top. No one was dancing (including Keith Flint who kept sneaking on stage, having a look around then buggering off) and most people had left after half an hour of this rubbish.
Dave Angel on the other hand was pounding- really good medium fast techno with breakdowns, good mixing and a great crowd.
DJ Die was on next in The End tent (consistently the best of all the stages) and he was his usual excellent self. There was only a relatively small crowd at the Drum & bass stuff (perhaps 500) but they lapped it up with glee. Unfortuantely I was so wrapped up in this that I missed all but the climactic beats of The Chemical Brothers- friends who saw them said they were pretty good- and this looked like the busiest act all night.
Breakbeat Era came on and were a big disappointment- never really getting their live D&B sound to take off- their singer too seemed really ordinary.
Then came Roni Size on the decks- wow. He played a brilliant jungle set of favourites and new records, culminating in an astounding display of mixing when he played about eight classic records in two minutes- mixing them all perfectly- quite astonishing- possibly the best mixing outside of HipHop DJs I have seen.
Rounding off the last three hours in The End was Mr.C- who played clean, crisp, refreshing techno and managed to sound like no other techno DJ in the world I've heard- top stuff.
Had a great night and even managed to get a taxi home! Now I'm desperate to get down to The End in London- or maybe they could be persuaded to do a Scottish Tour?