T IN THE PARK: SPECIAL ISSUE
WEEKEND Wishlist CONTINUED
MANIC STREET PREACHERS Archives of pain Please Manics, play this song, it will scare the shit out of the audience and be the most memorable moment of the festival. That solo at the end is worthy of any headline performance. Bring it on! (Dave Scullion, via list.co.uk) Odds they’ll play it: LOW
BIG COUNTRY Restless Natives This Scottish pop masterwork is over half-an- hour long – it soundtracked the brilliant, same- titled film – so the chances of hearing this are slim. But maybe they’ll play the four-minute edit in its rugged, guitar-skirling glory: a tribute to our rewired political landscape, and to Big Country’s own restless native, Stuart Adamson. (Nicola Meighan) Odds they’ll play it: FAIR
FIGHT LIKE APES Something Global Refreshingly uplifting pop. The starting strings build a crescendo towards what seems like it may be a baroque anthem, before the rhythms kick in and the song collapses into a playful pile-on of happy guitars and catchy vocals. Hearing it in a festival atmosphere can only intensify the joyous harmony, as it smartly says ‘screw that’ to serious music. (Hamish Gibson – blogger, curiousjoe.org) Odds they’ll play it: EXCELLENT
CRYSTAL CASTLES Alice Practice The sound of fairground waltzers heard from the other side of the T field, strobe-lit, amplified a hundredfold and bellowed right in your face. Like or dislike Alice Glass’ petulant electronic shriek, this is the closest T will get to punk rock this year. (David Pollock) Odds they’ll play it: GOOD
PRIMAL SCREAM Don’t Fight It, Feel It If ever there was a band to encapsulate the party-hard atmosphere at T in the Park, it would be East Kilbride's most famous sons, the Scream Team. They tend to go down a storm when they play and this year will be no exception. Performing their groundbreaking, Screamadelica, in its entirety, I can't wait to hear ‘Don't Fight It, Feel It’ in Balado as well as the other bona fide feel-good festival classics like ‘Movin' On Up’, ‘Come Together’ and ‘Loaded’. As the song goes, 'I'm going to love the life I live . . .', a true music festival sentiment! (Andy McColgan, station manager, Radio Magnetic) Odds they’ll play it: EXCELLENT
FOO FIGHTERS White Limo Sure the Foos have their hits, but feral punk growler ‘White Limo’, from their latest album, is the perfect track to tear up the turf at T to. An intense, fast and raw rock rampage. (Henry Northmore) Odds they’ll play it: GOOD
18 THE LIST 23 Jun–21 Jul 2011
Grand Slam
We asked the Slam DJ and production duo of Stuart MacMillan (above, left) and Orde Meikle (right) to pick their five favourite acts playing this year’s Slam Tent
STUART MACMILLAN: ORDE MEIKLE:
First of all Leftfield, having them come back to play is a bit of a rarity and obviously something that was massive 10–15 years ago and still is. You think of their back catalogue – they have so many great tracks. They’re definitely a seminal live dance act. For us it’s a real coup to get them.
Going a bit more underground, Mathew Jonson – he’s probably one of the newer breed of techno artists. He came along in the last five years with releases on Wagon Repair and M_nus. He’s a real talent, a bit of a genius actually.
Benga & Youngman, again the new breed, dubstep, something we haven’t really featured in the Slam Tent before. Dubstep’s not what we’re known for but we’re always aware of quality music and these two guys are really doing it right now. So I’ll definitely be listening to what they’re up to. Bloody Beetroots is going to be massive. Again, a great coup to get them – they’ve got a massive fanbase and they’ll rock the tent for sure, it’ll be a real highlight of the weekend. It’s always an intense experience in the Slam Tent and I think they’ll be perfect.
Finally, I’m gonna say Craig Richards from Fabric. Craig is a guy who personifies quality with the line-ups he curates at Fabric and what he does personally as a DJ. It’s the first time Craig’s played but we’ve played with him all over the place. He’s a great great DJ so it’ll be fantastic to see him.
They’re all there for a reason, so choosing five is hard. We met Vitalic many years ago and watched him grow as an artist. The live thing blew everyone away, he took it to another level. His live show is just so energetic to me; he’s really the qualitative end of electro music. Chris Leibing has always done what he’s wanted, when he’s wanted. When you see him live, that’s when he really shines. The labels [CLR and Spinclub] are fantastic and his productions are brilliant but he morphs the records. You think you know what he’s playing but it’s like live remixing.
Josh Wink and DJ Sneak. Two of our oldest friends, so always good to see them. Sneak’s enjoying a real renaissance with a residency at Cocoon in Ibiza. One of the nicest people we’ve ever met on the circuit, he just does what he does – he doesn’t look over his shoulder but is always a fantastic deck technician, he usually ends up with the crowd in the centre of his hand. Josh is one of the best DJs technically that I’ve ever seen. He can be really underground but he has that edge that really gets the crowd going. They’re seasoned campaigners who we can trust to do a good job. Hudson Mohawke has grown like a slow kettle coming to the boil, it was no surprise to see him on Warp Records. A boy from the Borders so always good to have him. Electronic music thrives on people pushing into territory that is a little less accessible; dance needs that experimental side and Hudson embodies that.