Tidy Summer Camp 16/17/18 July 2004 Posted by Bushy on Sep 16, 2004 - 4:00:00 PM

With the awesome success that Tidy have had up my neck of the woods in Prestatyn, I made my way down South to the even sleepier seaside resort of Camber, with great expectations. After a 2 day expedition that saw 7 hours of the 2 days on the road (thanks for driving Dawn), a night in Andover as Lisa and TonyP’s lodgers (thankyou both) we arrived at Pontins!!!!

Shane and I jumped out so we could get in as Lisa, Tony, Dawn and the rest of the crew were yet to collect there tickets! Shane and I approached a entry area, and were surprised there was no queue, we were given the briefest of searches and let into the grounds. We then went to collect our Laminates and find Scream, who we bumped into enroute to laminate collection. He had queued almost 2 hours to check into the chalet and collect the keys.

Once we got into the chalet we realised they were very similar to those in prestatyn, a little larger maybe, although the quality wasn’t as good as Prestatyn. The Chalet layout was really difficult to get to grips with, as they were all crammed in together in joined quadrants, also the number sequences didn’t seem to run correctly, which would have been a nightmare come 5am on either of the mornings. Luckily we were placed directly behind the queen vic!

We then made our way out of the grounds to head down to a pub and grab a few beers with the crew waiting for their tickets. Eventually we all made our way in, and then had to use mobile phone navigation to find Dawn with our luggage in her car. Which was the other side of the complex. Once we’d got the luggage back we all decded to get into the tidy mood by starting to get completely star spangled. I shaved off my beard to leave my tash for the weekend – Bushy ala El Greko, although I have been told I looked more like the bloke out of Dirty Sanchez. Lol

As we entered the venue for the first night that was to be Tidy Summer Camp we all waited in anticipation for what was ahead. We ventured upstairs to Arena 1 – Friday Night Live, we were welcomed by some wicked sounds courtesy of the Talented Champion Burns, as they toiled their way through track after track the arena got busier and busier then hotter and HOTTER!!! It soon became unbearable and we headed off downstairs to arena 2, where it was time for the Dark Destroyer Mr Glazby to take control of the decks.

As we entered the sound was fairly good, but not what we’ve come to expect at a Tidy Weekender, Glazza was throwing out some cool techno which I’m really liking at the moment, but then…………………..he started to mix. He mixed like he had ski gloves on, not what I’ve become accustomed to from the man I call, GOD! I had to leave as every mix I heard him play was out by a mile. I returned to the chalet to collect The Dawn! She was feeling ok now, and told me I was a bad man!

As we walked back into the venue we just caught Glazby leaving looking less than happy. After a quick chat he informed me in between a foul four lettered tirade that there was no monitor in the arena. God was less than happy.

So I popped back into arena 2, and that’s where I spent the majority of my night, learning to cope with missing beats at every mix. Paul Maddox was slamming out the tunes by now, and did the best he could, due to circumstances. I stomped, I sat, as did a lot of people.

One thing that struck me with Summer Camp, was the attendance. Apart from the main arena everywhere else seemed to be a lot quieter, also in my opinion all the rooms were smaller than them up in North Wales.

Up next was Nick Sentience, he played a nice hard set that got the room pumping big time, especially when he dropped his remix of Hostile. As he did, Maria came flying over at me and ripped me up out of the floor and forced me to dance in a comatose state.

The rest of the night has become a bit of a blur, as I stayed downstairs in arena 2, up next was BK, now from what I remember he played a rather techy set, which I recall really enjoying, but since then I have chatted to a few people about his set and they said he didn’t play anything techy. So I am stumped, although i do remember a remix of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit which was rather dirty.

After BK had completed his set, up stepped Ed Real, and delivered a stomper. Halfway through Ed Reals mash up, I decided it was time to call it a night for the arenas, and make my way to the chalet……..

Upon arriving at the chalet, Frazzle and Liam headed off to their chalet to get changed then make their way back to our chalet.

As many of you experienced at the last Tidy Weekender, a chalet party including myself and shaney are rarely quiet affairs, and this didn’t dissapoint. Frazzle and myself armed with his Scrumpy cider went to work on it, which led to allsorts of mischievous goings on.

As the messiness of the Saturday morning took its toll, people filtered off to their respective chalets. Frazzle, Lisa, TonyP, Maria and myself headed to Lisa’s chalet and decided to sample a bit of Psy-trance. I remember the first few tracks then nothing. Apparently we had it on 3 times!

Then some more Scrumpy, and then back to my chalet to prepare for the Saturday night.

Saturday night did not have the best line up in the world, hence going into the arena at Midnight. I didn’t even bother going into the pressure cooker upstairs, which was arena 1. Frazzle and myself headed for the hardcore arena for a bit of Kevin Energy, and then Ham. Damn I forgot how good hardcore was.

Then we headed for a bit of a chillout in the arcade, as we prepared for my first ever experience of Proteus, a finnish bloke by all accounts, in the HQ sponsored arena. As we went in as he started up his set, I was shocked by the image in front of me, a gothic lunatic, dressed in leather with black lipstick to boot.

One word described this man – AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quite easily, the set of the weekend, He was everything, everyone else wasn’t. From his mixing to his tune selection, his appearance to his damn good entertainment skills. I honestly believe this bloke enjoyed himself so much that while he was dancing he forgot he was actually on the decks, as he would run from the front of the decks back round to mix. I didn’t stop dancing for the whole hour. Frazzle was that bowled over by him he fell over at least 6 times during his set. I got a little scared at one point as some meathead came up to me, he had muscles on muscles, put his arm round me and said in a deep dutch accent ‘YOU LIKE THE PROTEUS YA’ I thought he was rather up front, but I was like ‘yeah….YEAH’.  I was a little worried. He went on his rounds doing the same to everyone, when he approached frazzle, he hid behind me!

If you have not seen Proteus, you have to make the time to see this man! WOW!!!

The hour just went too quickly, but once the man had finshed we went for a well deserved rest, and grabbed a bottle of water to rehydrate.

Once we had regrouped after the vicious onslaught of the man from finland, we headed off into the 3^rd arena again hosted by Brisk’s Next Generation Records, we kicked up a storm as Ponder & Mc Elmo took us to the next level with awesome hardcore sounds. As we waited to see who the special guest was….. hmm I wonder….

4am saw the arrival of none other than Brisk, who played as per norm, an absolutely devastatingly good set, from one stomping track to the next, he had the 3^rd arena rammed, and this arena definitely needs to be bigger at the next event as it was pretty busy the whole night.

Finishing off with some gabba that would make you turn in your grave, he played out in style, giving a big speech at the end, and also pressing for a bigger arena!!!!

Once again back to the chalets, once again not quite sure what happened was right, but It was fun. More scrumpy, more fun with the electric shock machine and air ball gun. (Crill has video footage)

Then onto Sunday night.

As we headed out, for the final night of summer camp, everyone was in fairly good spirits. Once again the main arena was Hot as Hell, as we avoided it for the first hour or so, as we went and listened to Colin Barratt, who played a nice uplifiting techy set to warm us up nicely for the rest of the night.

Then we headed up to the main arena, caught a bit of Anne savage who played a solid set, although the drum n bass we had heard all day had taken its toll on Frazzle and he was dancing in a DnB stylee to hard house, which was quite funny.

As the night drew on, we were treated to a B2B set from Paul Glazby and Andy Farley, even though the music was just background to me by now, then also to finish off was Rob Tissera. The night got fun as everybody had the fake tash syndrome.

Afterwards everyone was once again back at our chalet for the closing hours of Summer Camp.

In all honesty I had more fun in the chaets than I did in the arenas, this was a bit of a dissapointment.  Ok it was tidy’s first attempt, but the whole event seemed disorganised, rushed and thrown together. It was a new venture, but knowing Tidy, they will persevere, and get it right……eventually.

Thanks to everyone who played a part at the weekend for me. Also all the staff at Tidy and Pontins (Camber sands).

Bushy