Get Loaded In The Park 2007

United Kingdom | | 30 August 2007

Sadly a full on day and night at SW4 - the other half of The Metro Weekender - held the day previously, we miss the brilliant Rumble Strips, Sinden and Man Like Me. This means we can only cry into our beer and sing half-heartedly along as Art Brut declare their perpetual undying love for ‘Emily Kane’. Time to scan the set times to devise a waterproof plan of action for the day.

The sun decides to shine all day for this penultimate festival weekend. So one could quite easily be forgiven for sitting on the common listening to the flow of sound waves from the tents whilst your skin basked in the rays. We valiantly opt for DJ Yoda but it only takes a minute to be overcome by stuffy heat and three minutes to realise that we’re not going to see very much such as the numbers that have converged here early to see the turntable master at work. Once a sweaty bare chest starts taking a fancy to our t-shirts we leg it.

A more amicable atmosphere resides in The Beats tent, much smaller and more intimate than the rest, and the perfect place for The Mitchell Brothers to get the party started. Opening with a flurry of tunes from their latest album, it’s only when they ask: “Where do we shop from?”  that the place truly erupts as everyone gets down to ‘Harvey Nics’. And when ‘Michael Jackson’ filters out through the speakers the love is well and truly shown.

‘Lets get this party started right, lets get drunk and freaky fly’, Uffie suggests whilst hanging over the crowd as Beth Dittos, girls with stylish hair cuts and new era boys push to the front to touch her. Uffie and DJ Feadz charm festival goers with ‘Hot Chick’ and ‘Ready to ‘Uff’. When ‘Pop the Glock’ drops, it becomes apparent that spending the whole summer on festival stages has helped the smart MC polish up her live act. The set flows swimmingly enough, her vocals perfectly audible and a stage presence that makes the crowd want to take her home.

It’s all a bit of a warm up for M.I.A though, that really cool girl from down the road with the loudest brashest wardrobe, the one you wouldn’t quite want to be, but who you just can’t wait to love. The crowd adore her, encouraged by the classics ‘Galang’ and ‘XR2’ plus the jumping ‘Jimmy’ and the massive ‘Boys’. When Afrikan Boy joins her on stage, most are dying for him to slip a little bit of ‘one day I went to lidl’... but much to our dismay he just sticks to new song ‘Hussel’. Still, M.I.A lives up to her exclusive festival appearance and no doubt earns herself hundreds more fans.

John Kennedy is scheduled to DJ between sets but Chinese whispers whip around ranging from “I heard he was late” to “the schedule’s been changed”, how informative! As “John Kennedy” blasts out drum’n’bass we wait for Dizzee Rascal, who’s greeted with huge cheers in the XFM tent and between songs makes South Londoners feel proud for being well, South Londoners. More people pack in to dance, bounce and mosh to Dizzee’s gritty take on grime, his trusted DJ Semtex ensuring the bass vibrates as he rewinds the crowd-pleasers. We’re treated to a snippet of ‘Dream’ but only a snippet because slow and child friendly this set ain’t. Instead we get ‘Old Skool’, ‘Sirens’ and the hits from Showtime. He also performs his track ‘Temptations’ but sadly no last minute Arctic Monkeys appearance. The crowd limp out with mud covered flip-flops and prescriptions to see the local physiotherapist as ‘I luv u’ ring in the ears.

The sun is beginning to set over the Common as thousands exit the tents and congregate in front of the Main Stage. Everything is timed with precision to end just as The Streets take to the stage, leaving no option but to listen to them. You can’t help but love this original-pirate-material geezer and his  performance has been long awaited by almost everyone at today’s festival, so perhaps a bit of an anti-climax was inevitable. From the start a more mellow mood is set as ‘Never went to church’ trickles out through the air. It’s clear that Dizzee, M.I.A and the general Get Loaded vibe have concurred to get us too hyped up. Sure enough we wait and hits like ‘Fit but don’t you know it’ and South London reggae anthem ‘Lets push things forward’ enthral us. Example, Professor Green and the Mitchell Brothers keep popping on stage to help out Mike, who enchants the audience with his pub-like banter, and gradually the set transforms into the party we were promised.

Get Loaded... once again showed what an indie-dance rave up is all about and it’s a dead cert that a lot of stops will have to be pulled out to top this year’s impressive array of acts. Not one artist could be faulted with every single band and DJ part of what’s made music so very special in 2007. Oh and by the way, it seemed that no one was too bothered about Pete Doherty failing to turn up for his ‘surprise set’ – or maybe that was the surprise!

by Lauren Hamilton