Field Day 2022

[Wolkenkrabber]

I think I enjoyed myself more during Daniel Avery (live) and Kraftwerk than I did during the Chems.

[cowboy]

I can say the same - had more fun during both Erol Alkan's performance and Daniel Avery's than the Chems. Too many drunk people and people high on ecstasy at the front where I was initially, people dragging their friends to the front despite having absolutely no room for anymore people at the front, people being absolutely off their tits on something, generally just typical London festival behaviour.

Had to move to the very back after Eve of Destruction and sit down because it felt too much to be surrounded by people like that.

I must say though, I was at barricade during both Erol's and Daniel's performance and everyone was really polite and enjoying it. Daniel's especially, everyone respected everyone's space, nothing but pleasure from the crowd. The Chems crowd had people making out and touching each other in front of everyone, etc etc.

It's a shame that I didn't enjoy the Chems show as much as I hoped I would, but it's definitely not the Brothers' fault. It's just typical London festival behaviour from people with no manners, no consideration for others or themselves. Field Day was fun, though, for the most part.

[ThePumisher]

I think I enjoyed myself more during Daniel Avery (live) and Kraftwerk than I did during the Chems.

I can say the same - had more fun during both Erol Alkan's performance and Daniel Avery's than the Chems.

[Bosco]

Darn, not encouraging reports. Thanks for being truthful though.

Kraftwerk were lovely when I saw them earlier this summer. Very thankful they made the effort to do a lengthy tour. Gotta imagine this will be the last chances to see Ralf.

[Ben_j]

I can say the same - had more fun during both Erol Alkan's performance and Daniel Avery's than the Chems. Too many drunk people and people high on ecstasy at the front where I was initially, people dragging their friends to the front despite having absolutely no room for anymore people at the front, people being absolutely off their tits on something, generally just typical London festival behaviour.

[...]

It's a shame that I didn't enjoy the Chems show as much as I hoped I would, but it's definitely not the Brothers' fault. It's just typical London festival behaviour from people with no manners, no consideration for others or themselves. Field Day was fun, though, for the most part.

I can relate, The Chems at Field Day All Points East 2018 was the worst experience at a concert I had in my life. I literally couldn't move my arms, we were all squeezed against each other, it was absolutely awful, and that's not even mentionning the behaviour of the people in the crowd...

EDIT:

This video is a great example: you can hear more people chatting than inside a pub...

Spoiler

[cowboy]

I can relate, The Chems at Field Day All Points East 2018 was the worst experience at a concert I had in my life. I literally couldn't move my arms, we were all squeezed against each other, it was absolutely awful, and that's not even mentionning the behaviour of the people in the crowd...

EDIT:

This video is a great example: you can hear more people chatting than inside a pub...

Spoiler

I saw that video as well and thought the exact same. It was strange to say the least.

I couldn't move my hand up completely, whenever I did I would hit the back of the woman in front of me AND the people beside me. Had to stand slightly sideways with one of my feet on tiptoe and the other angled weirdly because of the barricade's little support platform being below me. I couldn't see otherwise, I also had to prop myself up a bit to avoid the women in front of me flipping her hair in front of me. The friend that was with me got hit quite nastily by a woman on something crying out to the Bros up front with both her hands up and jumping up and down violently.

The performance, though, was incredible as always. Loved how the changed it up slightly, I just wish that I could've gotten barricade so I could've had the most comfortable experience.

[Csar]

I think I enjoyed myself more during Daniel Avery (live) and Kraftwerk than I did during the Chems.

It's not as if anyone would be interested in knowing why... :-p

[MadPooter]

It's always so interesting to read about when a Chemical Brothers show is a "miss" for one reason or another. The crowd sometimes just is not right.

Two Chemical Brothers shows that I've seen in the past have fallen flat for me--one where they "opened" for New Order in 2005 in Oakland, and another where they played the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam in 2007.

When they played before New Order, it seemed like the vast majority of the crowd was there to see New Order. What that meant was a huge number of older fans of 80s music who weren't going to dance even when New Order wrapped up with Blue Monday. It wasn't exactly a "lively" show all around, and I became despondent watching people with their arms crossed while Hey Boy Hey Girl was bumping through the air.

And for whatever reason the 2007 Amsterdam show was the same--I would assume that everyone was a little too stoned. I was jumping up and down near the front of the crowd... and I was the only one. I felt like I showed up to a formal black-tie event dressed like I was going to a costume party.

Sorry to hear that Field Day was not quite a success for all who went. Perhaps a bigger venue or smaller crowd would have done the trick.

[cowboy]

Then again, it is just one show that hasn't made me as happy as Castle Howard - I'm positive that the Brothers won't stop touring next year and that I won't drop dead anytime soon (I hope ), so there's always a next time. That next time may have more Chems fans that I can interact and have fun with and that next time may have a much better crowd. Definitely not letting that Field Day performance sour my experience completely.

Sorry to hear that Field Day was not quite a success for all who went. Perhaps a bigger venue or smaller crowd would have done the trick.

Will second with the smaller crowd part - probably the most people I've ever seen in one place, even when there were people leaving midway through. Going to assume they needed to catch transport back home without the rush of the public.

[gfa2001]

I was just infront of the sound stage, it was quite busy but still room to dance etc. Definitely been in far more compact crowds. Enjoyed it thoroughly - sound was good too (some people complained about this, APE always has sound issues though i've never had problems). Will be back there for Tame Impala and Disclosure next weekend.

The poor crowds were not that surprising given the huge variety of acts in the day. Chems and Kraftwerk are about 20 years older than any other act on the lineup so it was always going to be a bit strange.

Here's some videos on my YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4sC8MFi88Zvhntu4FjxiOg

[cowboy]

Here's some photos from Field Day -

Erol Alkan's set,
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2RxkzWIAEmj8w?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2RxktXEAAs4gH?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2RxkrXkAMkO8w?format=jpg&name=large

The view from the wheel; watched some of Folamour's set like this,
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2SviDXgAMH06h?format=jpg&name=large

Daniel Avery's peformance - still recovering from how good it was,
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2S5rJXoAE7do6?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2S5rJWQAITKlB?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2S5rQX0AMgu0l?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2S5rJWQAANsvK?format=jpg&name=large

The actual Chems concert,
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2UGYyXkAI5Ba3?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2UGY4WYAECISN?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2UGY0WAAEkQSX?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fa2UGY_XEAABL1h?format=jpg&name=large


Apologies for the poor quality on most of the photos, I have a bad case of shaky hands.

[Wolkenkrabber]

It's not as if anyone would be interested in knowing why... :-p

Oh you want details?...Here we go. 
Spoiler tags to stop my post looking enormous.
(TL;DR? I mostly agree with Cowboy)

Too many drunk people ... people dragging their friends to the front ... people being absolutely off their tits ...

Yes the general behaviour during the Chems wasn't great. I got elbowed in the mouth at one point, and the culprit didn't even check if I was ok (fortunately I was). I'm reminded of Danny Glover's catchphrase from Lethal Weapon...

during both Erol's and Daniel's performance ... everyone was really polite and enjoying it. Daniel's especially, everyone respected everyone's space ...

I would agree,and it's probably for a couple of reasons:

1) People who weren't really digging Daniel Avery (or whoever) had choices. So they could go off for a boogie at say, the 6 Music stage (which was kinda cool BTW).
2) That meant there was more room for the people who wanted to stay. And the fact that they genuinely wanted to be there, I think, was reflected in their behaviour.

This video is a great example: you can hear more people chatting than inside a pub...

Yes, so much talking. So many people who only knew one or two Chems tracks and just didn't care about listening or being a 'fan'.


At the end of Kraftwerk (9.15) on the West Stage it was time to cross the festival site to the East Stage to catch the Chems (9.25). There was a monment when you realised: oh, EVERYBODY is heading in the same direction. There's only one thing left to see.

The East Stage area became jam-packed, and half the people just weren't that into the Chems, so they talked and goofed around and climbed on each other, and fell on each other, and threw their elbows around.

You can see in this twitter post just how large the crowd was.

Spoiler

https://twitter.com/fielddaylondon/status/1561413985127354369

The laws of physics dictate that the whole crowd coudn't realistically get a good spot.

I miss the days of 5000 people at Brixton academy. I remember the Hammersmith Apollo gig (also about 5000 capacity) in 2015. CHEMICAL was new and not exactly a radio hit, but the Hammersmith crowd sang along - because they were actual Chems fans who knew the music. At Brixton '07 The Salmon Dance was played in the "Tomorrow Never Knows" slot before the gig, and people sang/rapped along. Because they were Chems fans.

On Saturday night I heard a girl say "oh this is Galvanize!". Well she was correct but it's too bad she had talked and shouted through most of the gig before that. 

Now I'm aware that it was possible to leave Kraftwerk earlier to get a good spot. But I didn't go to the festival just for the Chems (I nearly didn''t go at all. It was last-minute). I had never seen KW before and may never see them again,so I wasn't leaving early. Also if I had got to the East Stage earlier, I would have had to endure a Peggy Poo DJ set. Nahhhh.

I should probably add that I have been going to Field Day on-and-off since 2009. I am aware that the big headliner on the main stage can sometimes be a damp squib - if only because of the size of the thing, and that sometimes the most fun can be had at the smaller stages.

Kraftwerk were lovely when I saw them earlier this summer. ... Gotta imagine this will be the last chances to see Ralf.

I hope you kept your KW branded 3D glasses. Some people were just dropping them on the ground at the end. For shame!

A thought on the Chems staging/screens.

Spoiler

For those of us who ended up at an oblique angle (far right) the screens were a bit hit-and-miss. For E.g. During MAH we got the laughng theatre-mask people on the side screens, but we didn't get any of Mad King Puppy (or whatever he's called). And from an oblique angle you could barely see the main screen behind the Chems. During Wide Open we got the starlings on the side screens, but no Romola Garai coming up for air. During Star Guitar there was absolutley nothing on the side screens at all. That seemed a shame.

I know they try to get the side screens to interact with the main one. A good example is BenJ's clip of No Reason. And that was fine for everyone because we were still getting the marching drummers - even if we couldn't see them "cross" the main stage. But maybe team Chemical could consider that the side screens should be used as much as the main one in order to reach everyone in a wide festival audience.

The audio?

Spoiler

It was...ok. However the audio for KraftWerk was considerably better. Perhaps because it was easier to get near the front, and the speakers for KW simply didn't have to cater to as large a crowd. 

I was just infront of the sound stage... Enjoyed it thoroughly

Good for you!


Thoughts on the new tunes:

Spoiler

No Reason is fun, I genuinely like it. But it feels like a snippet of a more complete song. And I suspect we're not going to hear any more of that complete song.
I believe Kele Okereke wasn't thrilled with Believe because of the way the song was cut up. Well If I had sung or co-written No Reason, I too might wonder about the rest of the song.
The lyrics as they stand aren't really backed up by further explanatory lines. And perhaps they should be.
As for the "woos", they're there but I think they're lower in the mix compared to the footage we heard from Printworks.
As for Pumisher's guess that the vocalist on No Reason might be Ali Love, I think that's a decent guess. Unless anyone has a better suggestion?

The Dreaming track.
It does feel a little incomplete, and I'm not sure it's going to make a good home-listening track. But it certainly has the ability to make a crowd dance and cheer.
We may have to respect it for it's crowd-moving properties, if nothing else.

The new Wide Open intro? I could barely hear it! It's not the first time we've had a quirky live intro tacked onto the front of the track. And in the grand scheme of things I don't think it matters very much how good it is.

Gotta say I'm glad this was a last minute thing for me - less anticipation. And there was some good stuff to enjoy even if it came from unexpected quarters (the insanity of Squarepusher live, PlanningToRock pumping out Pump Up The Jam at the 6 music stage, HAAi's DJ set). I didn't feel the same Chemical intensity that I've felt at stand-alone Chems gigs, but when it comes to festivals, them's the breaks.

Cowboy if you're reading this. You might like this tweet from Mr Avery.

Spoiler

https://twitter.com/danielmarkavery/status/1561741284146044929
Avery is humming Computer Love (aka Coldplay's Talk) at the start of this, BTW. I noticed Erol threw a bit of Boing Boom Tschak into his set too)

@Pumisher, just for you:

Spoiler

 

[ThePumisher]

@Pumisher, just for you

[cowboy]

That meant there was more room for the people who wanted to stay. And the fact that they genuinely wanted to be there, I think, was reflected in their behaviour.

Yeah, I also noticed that - everyone up at the front was feeling it. Except for the two women to the right of me, I heard 'You just sneezed on my tits, Serena(?)' from one of them. Shame on you Serena(?).

Yes, so much talking

I would like to add my own video as further evidence of this, also during No Reason;

Spoiler

This is in no way meant to advertise my Chemical Brothers Instagram page but I've posted all the videos (from the front) on there and you could hear talking in every single one. Not just subtle one-off comments, but actual conversations;

Spoiler

View this post on Instagram

Also if I had got to the East Stage earlier, I would have had to endure a Peggy Poo DJ set.

Funny you mention it, I knew that if I went to see Kraftwerk perform, there was no way I would be able to get a good view and good spot for the Chems show even if I leave early. I got to the East Stage 25-20 minutes before Peggy was supposed to end her set and it was super crowded even then. Shuffled to the centre(ish) every time we found an opening when people were starting to leave.

the insanity of Squarepusher live

Oooh, he was good. I also enjoyed hearing someone yell 'CHEMICAL BROTHAAA' as I left because of my jacket.

Cowboy if you're
reading this. You might like this tweet from Mr Avery.

I saw! You can't see me that much because I was right off to the side but I did record when he finished his performance, that was awesome.

[ThePumisher]

Thats fake news, i haven't talked about Squarepusher 

(even though i like the Tomnib version from the Lost In Translation O.S.T.)