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festival trickle-down the thames
Aug. 28th, 2007 01:50 pmWeekend was a case of stretch, eat, stretch, doze, 'can anyone figure out who's playing?', eat.
Seriously. You live in the Reading West area, or Purley, or anywhere along the river valley to the west of Reading and it's a standard afternoon/evening question over the bank holiday weekend. Either a comment on whether they've turned the sound down this year :
'I remember when you could hear the base at 3pm...' 'Pah. Who remembers when you could clearly hear the *words* at 3pm?' 'Oh yes, that was a good year for unreconstructed rock.' 'Whoever did the sound check needs to be shot, the levels are *terrible*.'
or a comment on the actual music :
'Does anyone know who's playing?' 'Can anyone figure out who's playing?' 'Did you hear the rhythm section last night? That was very good drum playing.' 'Who here heard Red Hot Chilli Peppers last night?' 'Was it last year or the year before Oasis were playing?' 'Year before, they were crap on Champagne Supernova.' 'They'll never beat the likes of the Prodigy. We were hanging out the window to listen to that one.'
And you know who's doing this? 40-50-60-something suburbanite parents. So middle-class it hurts, most of the time wouldn't be able to ID any of these bands if you shoved them in their face, but come Bank Holiday weekend, it's half the conversation. They pride themselves on knowing the set list, whose bass line is better, and sometimes they'll even make a note of who was playing 7-8 on Sunday night because they rather liked what they heard floating down the river. And then they'll talk about what's been happening re: festival goers at the supermarket, on-site, and about the Silent Disco. And quizzing anyone under the age of 35 for more news. Whereupon I'm normally forced to wail that I haven't listened to the radio for over a year and have less idea than they do - my playlist is musicals and 30s-50s music.
In other news, barbecue, dozing by the river, and going for dinner for Mum's bithday was my weekend.
Also, there's clearly something in the interview process for ed production that filters for female geeks. Claire is a Firefly and other stuff nut. Emma, her second day, she brings in her mug. Which is a Stargate Atlantis McKay one.
Seriously. You live in the Reading West area, or Purley, or anywhere along the river valley to the west of Reading and it's a standard afternoon/evening question over the bank holiday weekend. Either a comment on whether they've turned the sound down this year :
'I remember when you could hear the base at 3pm...' 'Pah. Who remembers when you could clearly hear the *words* at 3pm?' 'Oh yes, that was a good year for unreconstructed rock.' 'Whoever did the sound check needs to be shot, the levels are *terrible*.'
or a comment on the actual music :
'Does anyone know who's playing?' 'Can anyone figure out who's playing?' 'Did you hear the rhythm section last night? That was very good drum playing.' 'Who here heard Red Hot Chilli Peppers last night?' 'Was it last year or the year before Oasis were playing?' 'Year before, they were crap on Champagne Supernova.' 'They'll never beat the likes of the Prodigy. We were hanging out the window to listen to that one.'
And you know who's doing this? 40-50-60-something suburbanite parents. So middle-class it hurts, most of the time wouldn't be able to ID any of these bands if you shoved them in their face, but come Bank Holiday weekend, it's half the conversation. They pride themselves on knowing the set list, whose bass line is better, and sometimes they'll even make a note of who was playing 7-8 on Sunday night because they rather liked what they heard floating down the river. And then they'll talk about what's been happening re: festival goers at the supermarket, on-site, and about the Silent Disco. And quizzing anyone under the age of 35 for more news. Whereupon I'm normally forced to wail that I haven't listened to the radio for over a year and have less idea than they do - my playlist is musicals and 30s-50s music.
In other news, barbecue, dozing by the river, and going for dinner for Mum's bithday was my weekend.
Also, there's clearly something in the interview process for ed production that filters for female geeks. Claire is a Firefly and other stuff nut. Emma, her second day, she brings in her mug. Which is a Stargate Atlantis McKay one.
