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Dour Festival 2005 Review

After a last minute change of plans on our return from a month in Ibiza, we decided to try to make it to Belgium’s famous alternative music festival, Dour 2005. With the Dour Festival originally opening back in 1989, now well into its teens by Dour 16, their experience of organising large scale festivals is second to none here. Its reputation is by far the most credible for artists and music policy alike, the international mission is set.

Friday comes and we arrive in a little town call St Ghislain near the French border. On foot with tents et al piled up on our backs, we attempt to follow the green press signs to receive our passes - an hour or so later, this started to get a little annoying when we found ourselves in an abandoned carpark and feeling rather exhausted… Eventually we stumbled upon the VIP office (the local town hall, 2 kilometres from the venue), realising we had to do the same walk back, our faces dropped - a kind employee gave a lift down the long road to the venue and voila, we were in (thank you random bloke)… Bearing in mind we’d already missed a night’s show the camping site was fairly busy… Luckily, we had contacts.

Owen H and the lovely Chris (aka Mon petit poulet), had arranged to meet friends when we arrived. We were led to their marquee sheltering four tents with just enough room to squeeze ours in, bingo - we were all set.

Off to check out Liverpool’s Robots in Disguise (Chris’s favourite scousers), the punk-rock meets new-age electro duo with a huge Belgium following, they're no Transformers that's for sure. A fairly passive start with some popular 80’s covers, this resulted in some beer being thrown on stage, only to be beaten back by one of the girls calling out "Fucking prick!" and two (open) bottles of water getting thrown back out. After the higly anticipated "DJ’s Got A Gun" (my personal fave from the album), we rocked on to the Red Frequency Stage.

Just in time for some 60’s style indie shit by Austin Lace, taking tracks from the current "Easy 2 Cook" album. We managed to gauge our bearings by this point (despite the large maps facing the wrong way), and headed for a more familiar name; Mr Gilles Peterson’s Latin and Brazilian carnival flava sound was echoing through the La Petite Maison dans la Prairie tent, hard drum tracks, rumba/samba, low-bass followed by some beautiful D&B/jungle blended by the reggae vibes dancehall - "Up In The Street, they call it muuurder!" courtesy of Junior Marley…

Talking ‘bout Reggae - jah man, time for Yellowman over in the Club-Circuit Marquee, although appearing white, is (apparently) a black Rasta man without any pigmentation in his skin, similar to an albino rabbit I guess, making him appear white, or Yellow as it were. Regardless he was absolutely tearing it up with sing-along hits like "Pass The Duchie" and "Whatta Bum Bum" (unsure of title), supported by his band his chatting vocals received a piercing round of applause - the loudest so far.

Back to the Dance Hall tent and Brighton’s Big Beat Boutique resident DJ Touché (also one third of The Wiseguys) is rocking the crowd with his stompin tech-house set full of acid-blips and techy tips. His trademark cut and slide / scratching and fading style as unmistakable as his granddad hat towering down from the stage.

The last memorable act of the evening for us was the much-hyped Amon Tobin set on the Red Frequency Stage, he quenched our thirst for delectable d&b, tasty trip-hop and hip-house breaks with tracks like Amerie featuring Eve "1 Thing" Remix winning quite a reaction.

Serge & Co - Neighbours Saturday morning comes and we awake to coffee and croissants courtesy of the on-site food and drinks marquee. The voucher system seems to be working flawlessly so far, to my surprise. Our Dutch neighbours (Serge & co) meanwhile gather round their camping table (complete with four seats), to cook up the own breaky - a great way to start the day!

The venue opens around midday, and we take a stroll over shortly after 2pm to see what was going on… We didn’t get much further than the first of one of the many stalls along the way, run by one of Belgium’s finest female D&B DJs, Elorac who runs one of Belgium's most popular record stores has come to Dour for the third successive year. Equip with the latest selection of underground house, techno, D&B, resident DJs, decks, amp and fairly nice set of speakers, her portable record store has a constant buzz of bodies around it - even if they’re just dancing aimlessly away to the beats or having a chat, it’s all good here.

We’re invited backstage of the record stall for a spot of lunch, DJ Elorac’s cooked up some pasta salad just being served.. Accompanied by some intellectual international discussion (branching three languages at times), we sit round putting Belgium’s dance scene to rights. Belgium’s vinyl decline is top of the agenda for Elorac aka Carole, record shops near and far have been closing by the dozen, it’s getting so hard even Carole’s considering throwing in the towel. Presumably this is due to shift in musical trends with on-line downloads, MP3 & CD mixing, I think we all sometimes forget the consequences of these issues.

Contrary to the above, sales here at Dour seem to be going well - similar to last year that is… The spliffs keep coming and the soundtrack of Detroit and Chicago techno booming away in the background is making us all a little figity. Heading towards the arena, checking the line-up (which may I ad, are distributed free of charge - take note UK promoters) and we confirm how many fresh new artists there are at Dour, so many unfamiliar names, so much new music, so little time.

French hip-hop phenomenon Ultimate Team (pronounced with French accent) shone after being recommended to me by several ‘hip-hop heads’ before the UK’s legendary human beat-boxer extraordinaire Rahzel stole centre stage with support from DJ JS1, leaving the crowd bemused and slightly bewildered by the man’s raw talent. Next up a Festival highlight and major talking point, Barrington Levy opened up on the Red Frequency stage by apologising for Sizzla not being able to make it, true enough his slot was filled by Anthony B and the Jamaican All Stars instead. Levy performed admirably tunes like "Ribbi Dibbi Doo-da-day" and "One love, One heart" amongst other classics in this almost a spiritual experience for his fans.

On our way back to the other arenas Moving Shadow’s Dom & Rolland is calling us, a drum & bass pioneer from London town, and misleadingly, just the one man - Dom Angus, with the Rolland being his trusty sampler… caters for those craving the dirty quick-step beats and crisp, yet heavy, rollin’ basslines he’s so well known for. En route to the after-party tent (keeping people occupied until the wee small hours), we passed the Douwe Egberts Coffee Tent with Martin Solveig’s "Rocking Music", well rocking. This is the first time I’ve ever witnessed any Coffee brand elbowing into the festival/youth market, and they seem to doing a great job so far.

Sunday day breaks and amazingly no-one’s lost an eye in night, poked out by someone crashing into the tents. By now the weekend’s stubble is really coming on, feeling rough and dirty we head for the breaky bar after a quick wash… Coffee and croissants sort us out for the final day at Dour.

Alter Ego Clan are first up in the Dance Hall Arena at around 2 O’clock, raw French hip-hop, a scratch-master and three MC’s rotate the lyrics, completing lines and working the crowd into a frenzy, their funky beats and deep bass style have bods jumping around like the House Of Pain... Onwards for our "Rasta Meditation" courtesy of Mika back on the outdoor Red Frequency stage, a five-piece band complete with two drummers and a guest vocalist encourage you to "listen to (and feel) the music!". Peace.

Back at the Dance Hall Tent a grande crowd gathered for Explicit Samouri, chopping it up between X-Zibit’s "X-Z" and 50 Cent’s "Candy Shop" plus throwing in some exclusive phat tracks on top. The MC duo perform a freestyle tag-team with some intelligent lyrical accapellas and cleaver breath control. After autographing their life away at the signing tent, the Levellers (also originally from Brighton), graced us with gems like "Last Man Alive", and the aptly chosen "Beautiful Day" for this summer scorcher.

Dashing over to the Last Arena for the one like Rodney Smith aka Roots Manuva has shot to international fame via his recent "Brand New Second Hand" album after a lengthy slog on the underground circuit. Sounding even better live with a 6-piece in tow, tunes like "Awfully Deep", "Survival" from 99, "First Hand, Second Hand", "Left, Right", "Love Machine" all came out, before Manuva blasts "I gotta be sipping champagne with my peoples!" before proceeding to spread the bubbly with the locals. All in all the whole fresh new look with a live band was fucking big, his "Too Far" track rocking the 8000 capacity crowd followed by an onslaught of "Witness The Fitness" and "Colossal Insight" to round off the package. Very tasty.

Time for the more laid-back 10 piece "Liars" to deliver some up tempo nu-jazz, including harp and Spanish fiesta music in "The Last Arena" for optional swinging, 60’s funk, mental and hecticness. In the middle of it all someone’s passed out sitting cross-legged in the centre of the footpath. Meanwhile Desmond Decker and six-piece band take the stage again touching classics like "Pass The Ducie", the party-time special "Shanti Town", "Dream, Dream, Dream" and "Baby Come Back" - no doubt pleasing the dred-heads, I've seen dreadlocks here per square mile than Jamaica.

The evening is filled by drinking round the camp-candles with Serge, Owen and myself beering it up and telling various assorted tales.

My oh my, what a weekend! Treated with a musical line-up more varied than a big of pic’n’mix, some glorious weather and some cool neighbours we all had a wicked time. I did find the vibe a little more conservative than the average UK festy, a "Bonjour!" wouldn’t automatically ensure a response of any kind, although the country-wide festival greeting of "Bon Festival!" was rather sentimental.

Still to this day I wear my Dour 05 wrist-band with pride, hoping to bump into someone else who went or to keep it for next year? If you are thinking of going, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed! Until the next time Belgium.