well its been 4 weeks so i thought id get my review up now....hope you enjoy reading it as much as i enjoyed taking part! (^^,)


WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON!
was a complete ker-fuffle, knowing that i had less than 24 hours left to go until the bulldog bash was well and truly underway. panic was beginning to take a hold of my already nervous, nervous system. after hearing so many stories from people who had experienced the madness first hand, this was going to be my first time at europes biggest and best biker festival... organised and policed by none other than the Hells Angels! before now, the only contact i had ever had with the H.A was when i was about 11 (on holiday with my parents... he told me off for sitting on his bike.) And now, in 24hours time i was going to be thrown in at the deep end, i had butterflies in my stomach as i sat there pondering the weekend ahead... then it hit me... i had nothing ready at all... no clothes, no alcohol... i didnt even have a tent... and i was about to go to a festival!!....

THURSDAY AFTERNOON, got my clothes washed and packed, my tent safely in the car and some shrapnel in my pocket, not much to be taking to a weekend on the grass by a long shot but after all the running around and all the chaotic ramblings from place to place that had taken place the night previous... i decided things could have been a lot lot worse!
And so it begins... armed with nothing more than the clothes in my bag and my buddy claire by my side we set off on our epic adventure into the unknown... for some reason the nerves and panic that had a firm grip over me last night seemed to have distinguished over night (during the 3 hours sleep i managed to get in the end) and now i was as excited as a nipper on crimbo eve, and there i sat on the backseat of jocks car, counting the roundabouts to long marsten airfield...

THURSDAY AFTERNOON. after a minor handbag incident between jock and a member of the illustrious H.A we were finally in. Guest pass in hand and big fat cheesey grin on my face we set off to find our home for the weekend ahead... THE DANCE TENT!!! after what seemed like hours setting up the monster of a tent we were to be sleeping in for the weekend (DAMN YOU JOCK!! cocky fucker had a caravan!!) we were just about ready to go out, explore the site and check out the attractions!
The dance tent looked absolutely amazing, a 3000 capacity, carpeted big top, full UV decor and a lighting rig that would make even the most talented light engineer cream his pants. We walked into the tent for the first time from backstage so the first view we got of this amazing venue was from behind the decks. i envied anybody who was going to be standing here during the weekends antics, though after a moment thinking about the talent on offer this weekend, all envy was pushed aside to make way for a feeling of overwhelming anticipation.
walking around the site i soon realised that this wasnt going to be your average music festival, and considering that global gathering had taken place on this very same field 2 weeks prior...it wasnt THAT muddy. With an enormous market selling just about everything bike related ever invented (and even the most random stall i had ever seen...selling lumps of metal?!?!) a ginormous custom bike tent which wasnt actually open yet, a great fun fair with some awsome rides and a dragstrip with massive seating rafters. i knew this was going to be something quite special.
we returned backstage to find all the E:Volve crew were pitched up and ready to go. Riggsy, Alex,Andrew, Jock, Suz, Rob, Claire, Martin, Paul and myself... E:VOLVE DOES THE BULLDOG!! i took one look around at the people that would be sharing this experience with and knew it was going to be a weekend i would never forget!

THURSDAY NIGHT... E:VOLVE HOST THE DANCE TENT. 8pm seemed to come around so fast i didnt know where the day had gone. me and jock threw up the banner, suz rounded up the troops and we all got ready to sprinkle a little bit of that E:Volve magic over the festivities... first up... ROB DIAZ who began to drw the crowd into the tent with an awsome warm up set (one that ultimately lead to his new residency at E:Volve itself, good stuff... check him out on the 13th sept at the custard factory!)... by the time JOCK DREADSTER came on the decks the party was just about kicking, and where it needed that certain "edge" jock was on hand to deliver with a pumping techno set, "one night in hackney" definately got the crowd moving...then ALEX TOWSE played an absolute blinder of a set to get the "warm up" party into full swing, "burning up" i think it is called is a track that definately stands out from that set...and "higher" got the crowd going mad!...or was that just me? the dancefloor was hanging onto his every beat!... then RIGGSY smashed it out with a set his momma would have been proud of, the energetic tech-trance mashup with a harmonious mixture of hard house and filthy electro worked up a frenzy on the now pretty rammed dancefloor. then all of a sudden about 15 E:Volve t-shirts swarmed the stage and worked the crowd into a frenzy as FKM finished off the night with a brilliant Hard set to round things off. The music went off and the E:Volve crew lapped up the vibes coming from the crowd who begged for more. and this was just the warm up??
ALCohol and adrenaline pumping through our veins we returned to jocks caravan and the conversation went from lighting rigs(JOCK!!!) to praising the DJs, then from recapping the first day to wondering what was to come...then from "Schmudging da love!" to Tim westwood (in a pimped out hospital ward with blacked out curtains, alloy bed wheels and hydraullic bed suspension) haha... dont ask... or if you feel the need to ask anyway...ask martin!
all in all i had an amazing first day, it got a bit messy, a bit muddy and a bit random at times... but it was one of the most memorable days of my life!

FRIDAY MORNING
After 2 hours sleep i wake up and get out of my tent, its 9am! my body says go back to bed but my mind wants to explore. i go and take a cold shower, walking around long marsten in my simpsons slippers attracted quite a few strange looks considering how muddy it was but i didnt care, on i squelched. down to the shower blocks, looking at the state of some of the people going into the showers it was plain to see that we wasnt the only people to be up to the early hours. (^^,)
after my (freezing cold) shower it was on to the food court for breakfast, with a choice ranging from a full english to pizza to indian curry?! i decided to play safe and keep it simple, bacon and egg bap it is then... then it was back to the backstage area to see who else was awake and to gear up for another exciting day. the rain thankfully kept its distance and the sun shone down onto stratford and allowed festivities to proceed. at 11am those still lucky enough to be sleeping backstage were savagely awoken by what can only be described as noise! the dance tent was being used as a live band stage during the day (and if im honest, through-out the whole weekend i heard about 3-5 "noises" that could actually pass as a song)...too bad anybody who wanted to sleep (jock and suz we're pulling their hair out at one point! haha)...anyways...if that hadnt woke them, with the sun came the opening of the drag strip. and with us being camped literally 100yards away from the starting line, the noise as you can probably imagine...well...it wasnt quiet anyway! at one point me and suz were chilling in the 'van and thought somebody was outside banging and shaking the caravan...until after a short journey outside we found out it was the rocket car revving up its beast of an engine. it was by far the loudest and fastest thing i have ever seen by far! whoever drives that thing must have balls of steel!
after a long excursion to the dragstrip armed with a handful of cans and a box of fags, and after feasting my eyes on the stuntfest that was TERRY GRANT and a light chat with EDDIE KIDD, and watching some of the fastest things on 2 wheels blast down the strip i thought it was time to return to camp and chillout with the clan. Rob bought a 1ltr bottle of JD and me him n claire polished it in 2 glasses each...wrong! then it was onto the strongbow, budweiser and whatever else we could get our hands on!

FRIDAY NIGHT
8pm once again crept up on us like a sloth to a branch and already the tent was alive and kicking...now due to the copious amounts of alcofrol i cant actually remember who played between the hours of 8-1, though i can say that MINI MINX played a great warm up. then at 1am i got a call to tell me that my "newlyfound-longlost" sister was giving birth...after months of telling her not to drop while im at the bulldog...she goes and does just that... i really wanted to go home and cut the weekend short...but i knew deep down that that wasnt gonna happen so i just curled up in the caravan and carried on with the strongbow's until i was joined by BEN STEVENS and PAUL GLAZBY which was nice... it was cool sitting there talking bollocks with two of my heroes, though i didnt let on that i was so star struck lol. then claire came to get me to go and listen to dions finishing set...and what a set that was! DION finished off the friday with a full on attack of savage beats and hard ass kicks leaving the crowd begging for more when all was finished!
i didnt even attempt to sleep that night, knowing i was about to become an uncle any minute i just stayed awake ad got uber messy with a random geordie lad called jack and kept the party going till the sun came up.........

SATURDAY MORNING
......which it didnt...now after all the narcotics and alcohol that was running through my body i cant actually remember much of saturday... though i do remember chilling out in random peoples tents and talking utter nonsense. and keeping claire awake all day with my wrecked up randomness. then in no time at all...though it probably was but i was too wrecked to notice the hours fly by. it was

SATURDAY NIGHT
8pm...it was time once again to rid the dance tent of the noisy fuckers trying to string a melody together and get some proper music on the scene... again... this was a complete blur as i was in no fit state to be able to remember anything with any detail. what i do remember though is this.
RIGGSY completey smashed the shit out of the place with his live performance...the vibes i was in the crowd were nothing but good! proper showstopper of a set!
caught a little bit of RODI STYLE but not much... had a chat to him after though and hes a really down to earth nice guy!
sitting in the caravan with the ORGAN DONORS was a fookin giggle and a half!
and who can forget the gayfest that was ed tangents dancers... i dont know if this is just me feeling this but 45year old blonde haired beer bellied blokes wearing a white lycra outfit with the nipples cut out... aint the kind of thing that you should be seeing at a H.A festival... but it was hilarious all the same.
i can remember having to sit on the front of the stage for 15mins because i really didnt know who or where i was... SPANGLED TO SAY THE LEAST!!!!


well... sunday just brought about the usual blues and feelings of utter messiness as we tried to pull down the tent...well i just sat there in my own lil zone whilst everybody else did the work...i returned home with the feeling that i had just had the best weekend of my life... i think?!

heres a shoutout to all the bulldog bashers that were there to share in what was a fookin awsome weekend... CLAIRE, JOCK, SUZ and PAUL...you guys are fookin awsome...thankyou for everything!
All the evolve rezzies RIGGSY, ALEX, DION and ROB you guys smashed it proper. was great to be able to chill out and chat with you all for once. ANDREW(groove) for SCHMUDGIN DA LUV!! tim, tim, daz, charlie, claire, drew, phil bray, diablo traxx collective, the 2 randoms i spent most of saturday with...cant remember your names though sorry. all the people i met and spoke to...all the ravers at the front who helped me stumble from place to place, the people who were running the legal high stall(its your fault)... the guys from rattlesnake remedy...you guys rawk...sparkz (most random dude ive ever met in my life!) and whoever ive forgot or just couldnt be bothered to mention. sorry if the review gets a bit sketchy through friday and saturday...i cant remember much though. there was loads of stuff we did but have skated over purely because i didnt think about em when i was typing...and if i did i'd be here for days!.

WHAT A FUCKING WEEKEND!!

heres to 2009!!!
(^^,)

sounds like u had a wicked time hun will see u sat at evolve :P xxxx

it was absolutely amazing to say the least... you bet your boots you will be!!...how was blue babe...any good?

yea not bad i didnt stay til the end tho went n had a sesh round a mates i no evolves gonna b super duper cant wait hunni x

Ah thats wicked Dan, glad you had such a great time. Was so nice to actually spend sometime with our ressi's and you lot, you all really made it. Will never forget us all at the end of the Thursday night on stage having a mad un! Great memories

wicked peice dan, took me right bk to it, thurday was awesome n we all danced like loons at the end.

Schmeeeeer da lurvve.....nuff said:)

hey hun,, think you`ve got your info wrong i didnt play warm up, i played 4-5 after ben stevens and before dion.. sorry if you thought my ste was a let down but i thoughrly enjoy`d myself.xx

oops, sorry hun, as i say i was UbEr sozzled for the whole duration, imsuprised i even remember a thing. but as far as yourset being a let down, not at all chick... every set i heard over the whole weekend was top notch... i caught atleast 30 mins ofyour set then as i was onth stage from about 4:30... i aint got no complaints. was puuurty good fromwhere i was standing.
sorry about the mixup chick.

lol... i was having a long chat 2u bout your sis having a baby... u was on cloud 9/xxx