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The Nightmare Before Christmas, Butlins, Minehead
It's Butlins - but not as we know it
By David Pollock
Published: 13 December 2006
The name of this innovative winter festival from the people behind springtime's All Tomorrow's Parties very nearly became reality, had it not been for some tireless last-minute reorganisation.
It was held in Minehead's Butlins holiday camp off season, and the task of ensuring that a few thousand bedraggled alternative rock fans saw each headliner, spread over three rooms, was always going to be tricky. The anticipated demand for the main draws, Sonic Youth and The Stooges, allied with a main hall of insufficient capacity, meant that both had always been scheduled to play two separately-ticketed gigs across the weekend. However, unforeseen rushes for acts such as Gang of Four and Dinosaur Jr - hundreds were locked out as the former played on the Saturday night - meant that the first ATP Festival here (having moved from Camber Sands in Sussex) came dangerously close to disastrous.
Fortunately, some swift negotiations with the bands which led to four other acts playing second gigs themselves meant that those who were disappointed first time round got to see everyone. It was testament to the solidarity at this most fan-orientated of festivals.
With such potential catastrophe averted, the weekend proved to be memorable for all the correct reasons. Programmed by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, the line-up revealed his predilections or classic psych-rock and post-punk alternative bands, and for modern-day avant-garde and experimental outfits.
Indeed, it was perversely amusing to see signs that proclaimed this particular Butlins' history of pop acts such as Liberty X, A1 and Romeo while on the way to witness such mind-expanding aural experiences as the caterwauling San Franciscan rockers Deerhoof, the subtly expansive post-folk of Charalambides, or the riotous and surely semi-ironic electro-punk drone of Wolf Eyes.
To recommend any of these bands to partisan fans of the supposedly "alternative" guitar music in vogue in the UK would surely be a fool's errand. In their own way, each sounds like a science-fiction approximation of what music might sound like in the dystopian far future, and what many of the 40-odd such names on the bill lacked in discernible commercial appeal they made up for with wildly interesting experiments in tone and musical structure.
Even Nurse with Wound, one of the more dizzyingly inspiring projects on the bill with a Dada-inspired combination of ambient soundtracks and lithe avant-funk, have managed to remain resolutely unknown for almost three decades. Fortunately for the more casual attendee, Moore's taste in older music is less potentially exclusive. Recently-revived English post-punks Gang of Four are a revelation, providing an energetic and eminently danceable collection of almost-lost classics. "At Home He's a Tourist", "Damaged Goods" and "Anthrax" were among the highlights of the weekend, as was Dinosaur Jr's "Freak Scene" - although one's enjoyment of the grunge linchpins may have been decided by an individual taste for loud, feedbacking guitars.
The Saturday set by Sonic Youth came close to earning the description "legendary". Moore has been known to let his eclectic tendencies overwhelm his own band, but this show was an utter crowd pleaser. A few songs from the definitive Daydream Nation album - including the magnificent "Teenage Riot" - elicited a joyous reaction from an otherwise somewhat brow-furrowed crowd.
Yet it was possible to upstage the hosts, as The Stooges demonstrated. Iggy Pop remains an icon in motion, a complete rock-and-roll performer whose years don't dim his magnetic excitement. He launched himself into the red-strobed sweat-pit time and again during "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and ordered a stage invasion before "No Fun". DKT/MC5 - the recently revived and still-entertaining incarnation of Pop's contemporary MC5 - couldn't help but suffer in comparison with such elemental force. Shell-shocked festival-goers clearly felt that any amount of queuing was worth it to witness such a primal display of definitive, empowering performance.
The name of this innovative winter festival from the people behind springtime's All Tomorrow's Parties very nearly became reality, had it not been for some tireless last-minute reorganisation.
It was held in Minehead's Butlins holiday camp off season, and the task of ensuring that a few thousand bedraggled alternative rock fans saw each headliner, spread over three rooms, was always going to be tricky. The anticipated demand for the main draws, Sonic Youth and The Stooges, allied with a main hall of insufficient capacity, meant that both had always been scheduled to play two separately-ticketed gigs across the weekend. However, unforeseen rushes for acts such as Gang of Four and Dinosaur Jr - hundreds were locked out as the former played on the Saturday night - meant that the first ATP Festival here (having moved from Camber Sands in Sussex) came dangerously close to disastrous.
Fortunately, some swift negotiations with the bands which led to four other acts playing second gigs themselves meant that those who were disappointed first time round got to see everyone. It was testament to the solidarity at this most fan-orientated of festivals.
With such potential catastrophe averted, the weekend proved to be memorable for all the correct reasons. Programmed by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, the line-up revealed his predilections or classic psych-rock and post-punk alternative bands, and for modern-day avant-garde and experimental outfits.
Indeed, it was perversely amusing to see signs that proclaimed this particular Butlins' history of pop acts such as Liberty X, A1 and Romeo while on the way to witness such mind-expanding aural experiences as the caterwauling San Franciscan rockers Deerhoof, the subtly expansive post-folk of Charalambides, or the riotous and surely semi-ironic electro-punk drone of Wolf Eyes.
To recommend any of these bands to partisan fans of the supposedly "alternative" guitar music in vogue in the UK would surely be a fool's errand. In their own way, each sounds like a science-fiction approximation of what music might sound like in the dystopian far future, and what many of the 40-odd such names on the bill lacked in discernible commercial appeal they made up for with wildly interesting experiments in tone and musical structure.