Barcelona 26th to 30th May 2010

Barcelona

Arrived in Barcelona just before 8 and it was already getting hot....chilled out near the port for a few hours then went to check into my pension just off Las Rambles ( Barcelona’s most famous, and as I found out this trip notorious, street.) Took a wrong turn on the way and ended up in some kind of mini vice area where a riot van was watching various illegal activities going on “hamsterdam “style. Not a cool place to walk down with a backpack on, even at 10 in the morning...this didn’t fill me with confidence for late night post-festival returns....eventually found the hotel, which turned out to be really nice inside + I had a private room; a great relief after 3 days in stinky hostels. Spent the afternoon wandering round town and then went to a Prima Vera pre-show party at the Apollo club in town. Took an hour to get in and the venue was overpriced and ridiculously smoky but the live music was worth it. Caught a strong set from Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit including a Fleet Foxes cover and then a fantastic set from Los Campensinos which ended with virtually the whole band playing in the crowd. The best and loudest I’ve ever seen them play ...

Despite running into various “faces” from the Cardiff Indie scene after the gig had an early night to recharge batteries before the festival started properly.

Prima Vera Sounds...

In terms of overall festival experience probably the second best I’ve been to, in terms of musical enjoyment by far the best!!.....the first evening was better than all 3 days of atp put together. This being due largely to a far superior sound system and a lack of out of practice “curators favourite” bands from the 80’s ( anyone who was with me at the Raincoats at Pavement atp will know what I’m talking about)

Started off watching BIS who played a surprisingly rocking set though I must say they looked different to last time I remember seeing them back in the late nineties .....next up was Titus Andronicus who really got the crowd going. Then headed to see the XX at the second stage ( sponsored by Ray Ban who’s motto was “hide nothing” with a picture of someone wearing sunglasses ...hmm interesting ).

The amount of people in attendance for the XX was un-believable the band seemed a bit overwhelmed at first but by the end seemed to have found their stride....next up was Broken Social Scene on the same stage...got there early to get a 2 row back view and had to listen to annoying American students talking about shallow bullshit for 40mins, wished I’d brought my I-pod at this point so I could have been a proper miserable soupy ...however BSS put on another impressive performance though I must say they were slightly better at ATP 2 weeks earlier. This didn’t matter too much in the end as Pavement were much better than at ATP....Next up Saw Fuck Buttons playing to a massive crowd with massive sound ..awesome!...

Spent the rest of the evening ( till about 5) wandering the site trying to avoid the prospect of being mugged outside my hotel in a vain attempt to wait till light to go home. (I think I was being a bit paranoid about my street at this point, as I would later discover most of the Rambles area was like “hamsterdam” after midnight) In the end tiredness set in and I qued for a shuttle -bus for 20mins only to be told that there would be no more busses as the tickets had been sold out. Even though there were 5 or so buses waiting, we couldn’t get on as the info booth hadn’t printed enough tickets. (This is the same booth by the way who earlier sent me to the wrong gate when I arrived at the site to wait for 45mins needlessly in the unrelenting sun. They were so gormless in fact, that if Philips worked here he would be the info booth equivalent of Alan Sugar) After spending another 10 mins trying to figure out the local transport map ended up sharing a cab with a couple of music engineering students from Manchester and then hung out with them for most of the rest of the festival...other musicians to discuss technical stuff with ..nice...

Day 2 and 3 were equally as good...Les Savy Fav on day 2 were the festival highlight for me, absolute madness... the set started with front man Tim Harrington lying on the stage unknown to the audience for 15mins while the band sound-checked. Then in the first song he leapt to his feet wearing a yeti costume and proceeded to give the best front man's performance I’ve ever seen. This included various trips into the crowd, one right up into the seated area....Freddie Mercury eat your heart out. ....

LSF were followed directly by sets from Shellac and the Pixies...not a bad evening of entertainment like!!!

Day 3 started with some smaller scale sets in Parc Jean Miro on the other side of town, a very cool location. A Sunny Day in Glasgow were the pick of the bands here. Headed to the main area later on for another heart warming set from Atlas Sound before No Age and ended with sets by Lee Scratch Perry and Orbital (the latter finishing at 430 am) ...left for home strait away after this despite massive urge to stay and party into the night... err morning, as had to be up for 845am train to Toulouse in France....

Will endeavour to go to Prima Vera Sounds again next year and will be actively recommending it to other music buffs..... To sum up, if you took ATP made it bigger and hotter, with better sound and replaced all the “I Hate Daddy” middle class muso-ironi-nerds with sexy Spanish indie chicks, you would be close to Prima Vera sounds.....

Through sheer willpower alone made it to the station in time the next day only to be told that my train went from a totally different location and was then sent to the wrong platform 3 times to get a connecting train ( it’s not only the info booth where Philips could excel in this country ) ..This meant I had missed the train and had to spend the day on the beach with the liberal European bathers....oh well could be worse!!...Eventually left Barcelona and then Spain in the early evening as the next train crossed the Pyrenees into France....

In conclusion Spain one of the best 12 day periods of my life....was left sunburnt, exhausted and suffering from some kind of weird trench foot disorder....however I can say it was more than worth it even if the hedonistic lifestyle had run me over-budget...Next stop southern France and a week in the holiday house recovering and trying to write Monkey-Dolphin demos while eating cheap pasta...

France will have its work cut out to top Spain... let see how we get on.........