Dores, Loch Ness, 24 June 2006

Mylo.

GOING ALONG the Dores road on the way to the Rock Ness event that would feature DJ sets from the likes of Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox and Mylo, I expected to be stuck in a massive queue of traffic and that would take us about 3 hours to get parked.

However, I was proven wrong very quickly as everything was quite efficiently set up and we were parked within about 20 minutes.

After being thoroughly checked at the gate by the security (must be my face?), I was into the events grounds. It seemed some what strange but nice to be surrounded by the beautiful scenery of Loch Ness, but yet be in amongst 10,000 people many of whom were going crazy to the music of SLAM who were busy DJing on the main stage.

I’m admittedly somewhat out of touch in some ways with the current Dance music scene, so I can’t say I enjoyed Audiobullys as much as SLAM. From what I know of them they seem better suited to producing records rather than mixing records for a DJ set.

One of the highlights of the event for me was watching the Scratch Perverts on the second stage, which, due to being a tent and not open air like the main stage, benefited by being in the dark and having an impressive lights and visuals show. The Scratch Perverts I first discovered through the late John Peel who championed the band, even going as far as to say they were sh*t hot on Radio 1 at about 7 pm at night.

Mylo, who to my knowledge was the only Scottish DJ on the bill, seemed to get everyone jumping, and played quite a diverse set of music, even featuring ‘Crazy Nights’ by rock band KISS as part of his set!

For me, the DJ who most impressed was Carl Cox, and going back to my point about Audiobullys being producers first rather than a DJ, I would say that Carl Cox is just the reverse of this. He is considered by many a legend of Dance culture, and it’s easy to see why he is perceived this way – flawless mixing an understanding of what his audience wants to hear, along with his mic skills that pushed the crowd on, firing them up perfectly for Fatboy Slim.
The Fatboy Slim set was impressive in that it was the only set on the main stage that featured lights and visuals, and Norman Cook did not disappoint the crowd, by not only playing all his hits such as ‘Praise You’ and ‘Rockafella Skank’, but also keeping his mix going with pieces of tunes such as ‘Apache; and others that would be familiar to anyone born in the last 50 years.

Overall, the Festival was well organised and put together with a good vibe, and it’s good that the Highlands was able to enjoy such an event alongside established festivals like Tartan Heart and Loopallu.

© Steve Robertson, 2006