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As festival season draws to a close we look back at some of the stand out moments. Kanye West was supposed to be the brightest star for the whole Big Chill weekend – but after arriving 45 minutes late on stage he allowed his brain to derail the show.
While the audience grew impatient Kanye made everyone endure a five minute build up with dancers and strobe lighting until finally ‘The Big Chin’ strode on stage.
He opened with Power but along with dodgy vocals on the mic, he was drowning in strobes, smoke effects and unsuitable contemporary dancers.
Kanye possessed no stage presence, madly bouncing around and ignoring the crowd – too selfish to share his self-styled aura.
Barely making it through Flashing Lights – he admitted his voice was suffering, but that he was going to finish the show and give everyone what they came for.
During Jesus Walks, there was still a part of us that wanted Kanye to win us over and bury all the doubts, but he continued to slide into insanity and his audience began walking away in droves.
What followed was a ten minute tirade about how he is mistreated by the world at large, by the end of which our conservative guess was that a quarter of the Chillers who had been watching him had deserted his show in favour of action elsewhere.
Kanye had a meltdown of epic proportions on stage – ranting about his portrayal in the media, his sponsorships and how he puts every cent back into his music, ‘his legacy.’
He went on to expound his sorrow and misinterpretation over the MTV Awards incident with Taylor Swift (that was two years ago you sad gimp). Then comparing himself to Hitler, Michael Jordan and observing how ‘people look at me on the street like I’m fucking insane.’ Yes.
We concede College Dropout is a badass breakthrough album, but Kanye is sadly deluded along with his most fervent fans. Official verdict… He’s not the messiah, he’s a whack little rapper.
After the smoke, sadness and lies had cleared from the main stage, 2 Many DJs rocked it out with the kind of vicious aplomb which you would expect from a star of Kanye’s stature.
They opened with We Don’t Belong In Pacha – Bad Boy Tonight. The Brothers Dewale have mastered the art of the main stage set and can mix anything with amazing visuals. A particular highlight was a Metal montage including Motorhead, Metallica and their faves Queen.
Saturday afternoon had belonged to Jonelle Monae. Wearing a black velvet cape, she summoned the spirit of James Brown to the Lower Deer stage.
And with a commanding funky ‘getting low’ dance, which saw her and her entourage descend to the floor alomg with the crowd she brought the first downpour and without missing a beat declared ‘I made that happen.’
Honourable mentions go to Aloe Blacc, Craig Charles for his energetic DJ set and Northern Soul maestros Smoove and Turrell who brought their own unique blend of funk to the big show.
The Big Chill was under scrutiny after being accused of losing its way in recent years with a move to over commercialisation – now being ran by Festival Republic. The numbers may have been down but there’s life in the beast of Eastnor yet. Roll on 2012.