>THANKS

Our thanks go to:

www.ideageneration.co.uk

www.thebowenshotel.co.uk

www.bigchill.net

>PHOTO'S FROM BIG CHILL

BIG CHILL FESTIVAL 2008 EASTNOR CASTLE HEREFORDSHIRE - UK

>THE BIG CHILL FESTIVAL 2008

The Big Chill Festival 2008 - Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire, England.

Taking place over three days (1st - 3rd August), the Big Chill Festival celebrates multi-media music, entertainment, literature, arts and comedy in one huge festival.

Playing to a sell-out crowd of 39,000 people, from stages and tents dotted all around the huge Deer Park site, are artists from all corners of the globe.

Sometimes it did seem the scale of the whole event was a little overwhelming for some, frantically scurrying from tent to stage.

Unlike the name suggests, the Big Chill is not solely dedicated to chillout and ambient music genres. A diverse mix of retro house, rock, lo-fi - basically every genre you could imagine.

Before we go into our highs and lows from the weekend, just a couple of words of thanks to the hard working guys at Idea Generation (www.ideageneration.co.uk) especially Asha, Kelly and Leon for hooking us up with our press access and looking after us throughout the event. Also to the Harts at Bowens Country House (www.thebowenshotel.co.uk) for providing us with a superb English breakfast and the comfiest bed ever - well, you didn't expect us to camp now did you?

Okay, so who won our thumbs up? Friday's highlight was the superb John Metcalfe. A distinct mix of ambient, classical and drum & bass. Hopefully, we will have more from John on the station soon.

Stepping away from the chillout genre and back 20 years for a retro house set from Tom Middleton. For me, the highlight of the festival; it's been a while since I danced to the Prodigy in a field!!!!

And finally, the peace of Sunday was brought to us by Pete Lawrence, mixing up an eclectic selection of chillout favourites with strange oddities like English Country Garden!!

Most of the thumbs down go to the larger (or more hyped) acts. The arrogance of a spaced out Martha Wainwright on Friday matched her overly produced tracks and the continued fascination with the music of the Mighty Boosh (granted, they packed the main stage) is beyond me. Anyone who can produce a track about sh*tting on your mum doesn't deserve stage time. I presume they were booked as a "crowd pleaser" rather than for their content.

Anyway, you can check out all the photo's by clicking on the link to the right and you can catch a few video clips on our You Tube channel here.