Konono Number 1.

Every event has it's ups and downs. The beginning of Thursday night felt to me more like "FutureNothing" but by the end of the night, I can assure you it had proved its self as "FutureEveything".
Eight hours at my day job was quickly followed by a dash into town to Club Academy. The next three hours, me and another three volunteers shifted one table from the back of the venue to the stage. I'm sure there is a joke in there about how many engineers does it take to move a table, but I couldn't find the punchline :P

Bass Clef's sound check broke up the day. The dirty, triplet driven grind of dub step filed the venue. When the lad produced a trombone I felt very suspicious, but as the squeaks and rumbles came from the brass I realised that my fears were unfounded. The dull hours before doors dragged somewhat but I was soon rewarded for my patience. He played a storming set. His chilled, easy going style gave an atmosphere of fun and relaxation (and did I mention was absolutely storming).
Following this excellency were Konono No. One. The played a fun filled set, that would not have been out of place at the world music stage in the afternoon at summer music festival . Essentially an acoustic 'african drum' band, they played and enormous two hour set, each song lasting in the order of twenty minutes! The only electronic element was that in of the marimba (thumb piano) that had been passed through the oldest 70's overdrive pedal I had ever seen, causing it to 'stick out' in a peculiar but satisfying was. The whole lot was initially miked through a couple of old aluminium speaker 'megaphone type's that wouldn't have seemed out of place on a sports track. (The drummers cymbal was made of various circles of scrap tin, see video!)
The whole night had a fantastic vibe and had everybody dancing, and i mean everybody. I'm sure if you didn't even want to dance you would have ended up surrendering and moving your body to the beat.

For me the close down was a nightmare, as all the gear had to be emptied from the venue and into an already very full van (to be expected) but then across to SoundControl, where an unrelated event packed the venue full of blue jeans and white tee shirts. All this gear was loaded through the crowd and into the venue, which (without ramps or lifts) needed to be taken down 3 flights of stairs! Exhausted I got to bed at 3am another day of FutureEverything  already not far on the horizon.

Bizarrely, i met my old college mate from years ago, who was running the 'world music society*' merch stand. Apparently the gig had originally been theirs, but had a FutureEverything stamp of endorsement on it! (Although I think that is another story!)

Plaid & Mark Pilkington

Manchester's 'Victoria Baths' was definitely an 'odd choice' of seated venues for the festival. Inside the walls had been coated in black cloth to absorb the sound. The pool (now empty, obviously!) had been lined with seats, the gradient towards the deep end offering a perfect angle on which to hold a show. As I entered calls of 'well, it's a bit weird in here' came from across the room An enormous AV screen had been set up at the deep end, displaying the FutureEverything logo, and the glitchy opening of Mark Pilkington proved to be interesting. 
The show had to be delayed for half an hour, due to the sun (and heavy reliance on AV was needed). So, starting the show early, Mark Pilkington played us in (sat in a cold and rapidly filling venue). Although as the venue filled, something very odd happened. The audience seemed completely unaware that the first act was on. The majority of the audience talked, progressively louder as his set went on, until Mark finally stopped playing, the audience clapped and then went quiet, as if waiting for something to happen, not realising that it just had and they had missed it! Very Unfortunate, because Mark's set was actually brilliant, just a shame it was spoiled.

Plaid played an awesome set, astounding visuals, drifting from abstract views of aeroplane con. trails, to glitchy and distorted fractals. I also found out that Plaid did the Warp "Pig Corp" video, which I think everyone should watch at least once :). Half way through their set they got very heavy and 'warp' esc. At this point, supprisingly quite a lot of people left! (including the family that had brought at 10 year old boy! - well what did they expect!). I realise that this gig wasn't supposed to be a "Plaid - Gig" but have somthing to do with Reindeers, but that guy pulled at the last minute.
In bed at six, back to work at four!

Festival Insanity

The festival is starting to take it's hold now. The pang of dehydration now plays a permanent role on my lips. Another bus journey down the strip. Another cigarette, another bottle of lucozade. More bands are arriving soon. Quickly spike the stage. Gear to the back. Earplugs back in. Monotony and exhaustion now common place. Another bus ride, cigarette. Not long now till doors, more beer, another party, the satisfying feeling of why I do this. Another night at the festival, on the town. The final party is rapidly approaching. So tired. Sleep won't come easy, the festival drawing to a close. One last show, one more year behind me.

Ryoji Ikeda

Studio 7 at the BBC is always a weird venue to work in, most noticeable because it isn't a venue. This orchestral rehearsal space has the best acoustics of any venue in Manchester, bar none! Unfortunately, it is just not set up for the general public. The heavy security to the main entrance to the BBC building on Oxford road had a real problem even letting the staff into the venue, but as it came closer to the start of the event, most of them went, leaving nice security guards who seems just happy that there shift wasn't as boring as usual. The security conditions of FutureEverything putting on a gig here was that each person had to be personally shown to their seats (or if not in person, at least in small groups). Working as a skivvy meant that was my job. Ear plugs were given to every single member of the audience and they were all warned, Several times, and christ did they need em!
Arriving two hours early for my shift, found me sitting in in Kro2 next door (apparently the FutureEverything Hub). The bloke we were sat with, I gathered, had just landed in Manchester from Berlin; trouble with the volcanic ash. It soon occurred to me that this was Mika Vainio, the supporting artist for the nights performance. I attempted to gather some kind of conversation with this fella, but he was quiet, shy, (typical musician,) and having none of it.
He played a devastating set, going from complete silence to white noise, the volume of which would make you gran cry, and back again, accompanied by bleeps, hums and synthesised tinnitus. The shear dynamic range of his performance made ear plugs mandatory.
A rushed, fifteen minute interval (which isn't a lot for a 340 people) was all that stood between one form of pain and another. Ryoji Ikeda,was a lot more palatable (as far as sonic art ever is) and gave a lot more structure to the constant, lung rattling sub bass and white noise, glitch accents. The front lit projections looked a little bit like that black and while thing that appears at the top corner of your telly when ITV are about to go to adverts, only massive, cool, and proper messed up!
An incredible, brain rearranging experience... I can quite honestly say that I don't want to hear anything like that again for a while, but I'm incredibly glad that I went, and would highly recommend it to anyone!
At Kro2 after, Ryoji Ikeda sat on his own at the back with a glass of brandy. I let him know my thoughts, and I was surprised at how genuinely lovely he seemed, and genuinely happy that I had let him know.

So, It's that time of year again, for a "more arty than ever" FutureEverything. Looks like they have got some real money from somwhere this year, and spent it all on staff! There's more paied workeds than voulenteers this year! After a few problems last year, I'm not taking a week's hollidays and hurtling round manchester at a hundred mph trying to sort things out. Instead concentrating on getting some solid experience. This year, anyone interesting in production had to sumbit a CV. Which means I now have a CV for Music Event Production, (and it looks supprisingly impressive, It's amazing what happens when you remeber stuff!). So I have 2 gigs working front of house (BBC and Cliub Academy), then Event Production work at Sound Control for 2 days, which I'm quite looking forward too. What I'm not looking forward to is missing the opening 'free wine' and the enormous amount of "Lack Of Sleep" I'm going to suffer, working two full time jobs!