And Make Them Large Ones

A local documentary festival was showing that documentary about the All Tomorrow's Parties festival, this being the one they have had on in Camber Sands and Minehead over the last ten years or so. The film was made up of footage supplied by the festival's attendees, overlaid with music of bands playing at it (occasionally intercut with footage of British holiday camps in the 1950s and 1960s) In an age where people can't go for a piss without recording it on their mobile, the film's producers obviously had a lot of footage to work with – it's striking how they are able to cut between different shaky camera angles when showing performances by popular bands (thought they also had proper footage taken by professionals).

Most of the film washes over the viewer, as a kind of audiovisual stream of consciousness, but it is all very evocative of the festival in both locations. I think my favourite bits of concert footage were probably Battles performing 'Atlas', or The Gossip performing a song other than 'Standing in the Way of Control'. Other notable performances included Daniel Johnston, skating on the thin line between idiot savant and worrying mentalist, while the Yeah Yeah Yeahs continue to radiate star quality.

I also liked the bits where festival organiser Barry Hogan was giving out about the people who live near the Pontins in Camber Sands. They are a bunch of cunts, apparently. The bit where the guys in a trolley are being pushed around was also a*w*e*s*o*m*e.

I do not know what people who have never been to any of the ATPs would make of it, but I care not for them. For my own part, this motivated me to run out and buy a ticket for the Nightmare Before Christmas in early December, so I could spend the next six* months getting excited about it.

*indicating how long ago I wrote this.