Tim Noble and Sue Webster holding hands across the table in Butlins Burger King neatly sums up the vibe at this years first ATP. Now located way out west at the flagship Butlins in Minehead in Devon ATP has grown into a monster. There is none of the cute intimacy of the old venue, Pontins in Camber Sands. Instead we have rows and rows of shabby chalets surrounding the ridiculous tented pavillion that features in the Butlins adverts, the huge outline of which blights the whole of Minehead.
Inside it resembles an airport departure lounge, through which Nick Cave, and other lesser known musicians periodically stride. Whilst I know that Nick Cave is kinda cool and iconic (well, I've heard the Kylie track anyhoo) I don't really know any of his back catalogue so I can't sing along. But he's good and certainly has stage presence. Up close, however, he is perhaps a bit too orange. Maybe the fact that I don't know the Dirty Three or many of the acts performing is a sign that I won't have the best time ever, but then there's always the extracurricular activities at ATP.
Dancing until late in the night at the disco in the pub in Camber Sands was for many the highlight of their festival experience, that and the game of find a rockin chalet party to crash. As there was only one pub at Camber Sands it easily became the epicentre of that late night party vibe, but at Minehead there are three cavernous bars to choose from, all mostly empty and distinctly lacking the right party atmosphere. I also don't feel much like drinking these days so that probably colours the way that I feel about getting slaughtered and dancing with strangers into the wee hours, although I know of many an ATP romance. There was even an ATP wedding - now you really gotta love ATP to do that!
Devastations were the best thing I saw all weekend - Spiritualized and Low don't really do it for me. Unfortunately all the bands that I really wanted to see were on Sunday night when I had to leave - bummer. My favourite part of the weekend was without a doubt our time spent in the waterpark - lots of skinny white indie flesh swilling around the tidal circle and catching the waves and riding the water flumes. We then spent most of Sunday driving around on a wild carboot chase. Maureen and Larry's carboot sale to be precise - don't even go there! Still the Devon lanes were very pretty so we drove around a fair bit and ended up in some hideous seaside chav hellhole, before driving back empty handed. Ach well.
Special mention should be made of the travel arrangements for those who travelled by train - many waited hours and hours to catch the local bus from Taunton to Minehead. ATP had hardly bothered with any extra transport and so many poor folks were stranded. We picked two friends up in the car and drove the whole 30 miles with one lying across our knees covered in bags to avoid police detection. We all lost the use of our limbs - they should definitely sort that out as quickly as they can.
