Homelands Ireland

25th September, Mosney, County Meath

You can click on the pictures to see them full-size!!

Liam and Keith having a laugh

What a nice flight to Dublin it had been! Knowing that the reason you are going there (Liam Howlett) is just sitting a few rows in front of you in the same airplane, just makes the whole thing a bit better.

Now we arrived at the festival around 4pm and I first had to stand for about 40 min in a queue for the left lugagge. Having a first look around afterwards I noticed that it was much more crowded and bigger than homelands Edinburgh had been. The home arena was huge and the tent already full! (probably it looked more crowded in the tents cause there was heavy rain outside!) I sort of lost my friends for a while then, but I knew they would be at Liams set anyway. I had a Photo-Presspass, but I preferred to be in the crowd at Liams set, cause you just get more into it.

At 6pm Paul Oakenford would be on, and I knew this would be crowded so I went into the homearena 15 min before 'Oakey' was on. He then came on on this huge DJ desk in the middle of the stage. I sort of almost managed to get in front, although I couldnt have been less interested in Oakenford. Around me everyone was going crazy. I've never seen such a hype going on because of a DJ, but those guys around me were honestly nuts. They didnt just get into the music, they absolutely worshipped their 'Oakey' and every move he was doing. I didnt like his stuff at all and was just bored standing there, waiting for Liam to come on at 7.30.

I soon realized that they were putting up a smaller DJ desk at the left side of the stage with 2 turntables, so it looked as if Liam would be over there, so damn, I had to leave my frontrowspace and went to the left side were I saw Andresa (one of my friends) altready waiting at the front. At 7.15, 'Oakey' was still playing and playing, Liam came on stage to set up his stuff. Big applause when he arrived, wooohoo, rescue from the boring Oakenford sound wasnt far anymore!

Oakenford was now finally finished and 'Liam Prodigy' (as he was called in the prgramme) came on even 7 min earlier than planned!

Wearing a shirt with a white skull now (in Edinburgh it has been a black one) Liam starts his set and I remember his second track is 'music response' by the Chemical Brothers, which he has also played at Bug Jam. The sound is absolutely great and the whole crowd in the tent gets into it now. You dont feel like at a DJ set anymore, it is more like at a gig, and you get squeezed in first row. But anyway, Liam starts off his set absolutely great, and goes on with tracks which have already been played at Bug Jam, but in different order. He soon starts to talk to some technicians and shows at the top of the tent. I soon relize what's going on, raindrops are coming through the tent and landing on his decks! So he is given a towel and every now and again you can see him cleaning his turntables.

If I remember correct the first Dirtchamber track played is Medicines 'I'm sick' , which is one of those tunes that gets the whole tent dancing. Later he plays 'Rock The House' by the B-Boys but, as at Bug Jam, a different part of the tune than on DCV1, with that long vocal part. The raindrops get more and more so a guy with an umbrella comes to Liam and holds the umbrella for him, which looks really weird, to be honest, and since Liam doesnt want that, he for a while goes on only with his towel. But always more raindrops are coming through now and finally he needs the umbrealla anyway and for the rest of the set we see this guy standing left or right behind Liam holding an umbrella which looks a bit amusing, but hey, its worth the good sound!

He plays a lot of tunes now which have already been played at Bug Jam and I suddenly spot The Edge from U2 at the side of the photopit, just dancing like everybody.

One of the best parts of the set comes now when Liam plays the Mexican and the whole tent is screaming and everybody gets totally into that song now, which is actually so weird at a dance festival like homelands!! Radio Babylon is next and we all of course know this track from DCV1, but suddenly Liam puts another well-known sample into it: 'superstar DJs, here we go!', but then again, 'Babylon'..... We all know which track is next now and the 'superstar DJ's here we go', gets us to the 'hey girl, hey boy, superstar DJ, here we go' and as always this track is one of the absolute highlights! There is no other line which can make the crowd sing along more than the 'Here we go', and Liam uses this and turns down the volume at this part of the tune.

The tent is full now and everyone is dancing and screaming and Liam controls it all from his little DJ desk at the left side of the stage, it's amazing! As at all his DJ sets the last half hour is IMO the best one and Liam plays loads of dance and hip hop tunes which I dont remember the name of. Its already 5 min to 9 now and I wonder if we will get to hear the Sex Pistols again, or lets say I hope we will. First comes this very cheesy version of 'Sweet dreams' which I honestly dont like at all (Eurythmics- and even Marilyn Manson version is just 100 times better) but while this is playing I can suddenly see this pink LP in Liams hand and from where I am standing I can now even read the 'NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS' on it!! Sweet Dreams fades out and the last tune of the last of those DJ sets starts: 'Pretty Vacant' by Sex Pistols!! We all know the words, we all sing along and while Liam leaves the stage this feels almost like something magic to me, describing the end of those 5 DJ sets which I had been to. This last tune put me in that mood of 'What a great night it was' and I didnt even care anymore about Orbital which were next and left the tent.

I know Orbital are said to be such a great live band and I had never seen them and I should have watched them but I just wanted to save my energy for Underworld which is one of my favourite live bands, so we left and had a look at other tents where for example Breakbeat Era were playing.

For the headliners Underworld which are on at Midnight, I finally make use of my photopass, and I enter the photopit with my small camera together with all those professional photografers...weird.

Underworld are one of those bands you just need to have seen live before you really know them. THeir sound gets the whole crowd moving and Karl Hyde shows once more that he is a great performer, singing or just doing his unique style of dance. 'Push upstairs' is quite early in the set. Later they play 'Jumbo' and then 'King Of Snake', the actual single. I stay at the side of the photopit for the whole show which is amazing cause you get the energy from the crowd plus you are as close to the band as possible. Karly Hyde jumps down from stage and almost runs into me.

The still most widely known song is without any doubt 'Born Slippy' which is one of those highlights of the whole festival. Pumping sound in the tent, people are sweating, jumping, screaming. UNderworld once more proofed what we all know by now: also a dance act can be a brilliant live band!

At 2 am the whole thing is over and due to the Irish law the festival has to be finished now and we go to the airport to catch our plane back to London at 7am.....