Kanye West in a rare moment of an actual song
Kanye West in a rare moment of an actual song
These weekend we donned our best wellies and trotted off to Herefordshire for The Big Chill festival. There is just too much cool stuff at this festival, but these have to be the highlights. The only not cool thing was the weather, which was to be honest, rubbish!
Most obviously, the highlight of the whole weekend has to be headliner Kanye West, or rmore specifically, Kanye West’s ego, who most definitely has gone a little bit ker-razy!
His entrance was pretty damn cool, which we would expect after he was about 45 minutes late. Focused on the stage we could hear his voice but he was nowhere to be seen, until the crowd slowly realized he was behind us. It was literally a case of HE’S BEHIND YOU! He then disappeared for ten seconds and re-appeared on the stage! Kanye West had somehow teleported across to the stage, no zip wire or golf buggy anywhere to be seen! Seriously cool.
Things were going great until Kanye launched into an impromptu rambling soliloquy about just how rude everyone is about him, he even compared the way he is represented in the press to Hitler (really!) shouting, "People treat me like Hitler,". While someone next to heat shouted back ‘Kanye West is a bellend’. We admit, we sided with the latter...
Kanye’s nuts monologue burbled on for so long the crowd started booing. When he did eventually start his next song, he shouted at his band ‘ONLY PIANO!’ until they all shut up. This was definitely NOT planned.
Finally, he literally cleared his throat in the middle of a song, obviously his speech had worn out his poor little throat. We also heard he was shouting at people backstage a lot and was very late indeed, so this could have worn out his vocal chords.
After ducking into the dub-step tent and getting a bit of a shock about the shapes being thrown at that hour of the day, we headed to over the Revellers stage to catch Katy B. First thing we noticed THAT Topshop dress! Luckily it is in the sale now, so we quickly snapped one up online! Seriously, who doesn’t have that dress?
The tent was literally packed but after some very persistent shouldering heat managed to bag a place near the front. But we did pay for our space, when one unimpressed Katy B fan poured a beer down our top out of protest. However, at £4 a pint we think we know who the real loser was...
Stupid rubbish weather, but nice rainbow!
Stupid rubbish weather, but nice rainbow!
Jessie J in her throne on The Deer Park Stage
Jessie J in her throne on The Deer Park Stage
We then had some very nice cocktails in the Drambuie tent and waited for Jessie J. We had heard whispers in the VIP area that she was planning on bunking, and that she still hadn’t arrived.
However, phew, eventually she rocked up in a VERY tight leopard print catsuit, but had to keep her leg up as her poor foot is still all broke. Jessie J’ s huge voice was even bigger live, and definitely something everyone should check out.
Example on The Revellers' Stage looking strangely fit
Example on The Revellers' Stage looking strangely fit
Something we didn’t realize was that The Big Chill is so chilled that some of the acts don’t even come on stage until midnight. Example was due to come on at eleven after Kanye’s monologue, so we had to leg it back over to The Revellers' stage to catch him. But wow, was he worth the embarrassing jog in wellies!
By the time we arrived, the actual tent felt like it was jumping up and down, and as Simon Cowell might say ‘he really knew how to work the crowd’. Watch The Sun Come Up was actual euphoria, and he is definitely strangely fit.
The Big Chill glitter wrestling!
The Big Chill glitter wrestling!
We stuck around for Calvin Harris, but our ears almost couldn’t handle it. It was like he asked them to turn the speakers up to the point where they could be used as a weapon. We think he did some songs, but they were just painfully loud, so we left half way through and headed back to the dub-step tent, affectionately renamed the N-Dubz tent, to do some embarrassing dancing.
Biggest problem for The Big Chill? There are no big screens for the main stage, which was, at times, a bit annoying. Especially when you had Kanye West performing an on stage melt-down.
Best bit? Glitter wrestling.