Boards

and the rest of their set, obviously.

and starting during the last song of Sonic Youth's set.

- Public Enemy.
- Discovering that red wine, reef and blueberry slush puppie makes a weird hangover free version of Sangria.
- Being thrown out of the bar at 3am. And at 4am. And then congaing around it one last time whilst the Dj thumped out Vitalics 'La Rock'.
- Distributing our third issue of the fanzine out and a few members of bands we'd previewed in there thanking us for it.
- Waking up outside the chalet on the Sunday morning of the Shellac weekend, to find a mate passing me a can of Fosters.
- Liverpool vs West Ham - best FA Cup final ever?
- Beach football
- Meeting John Peel and seeing him DJ
- Shellac. Everytime they've been there.
- Dizzee Rascal being a bit skill
- Coming second in the go-karts

performing part of Physics Of A Bicycle, during Subtle's set at vs the Fans.
Dose joining Why? and them performing some Hymie's Basement.

That was a great night.

stage invasion at Thurston Moore NBC '06, and Mastodon tearing my sorry, sorry face off at Mars Volta NBC '05

went so fucking well with their set - throbbing lights drilling into your eyes. great stuff.

the field. though i suspect this is more of a personal one as i absolutely lost it. then came back to find someone in the subtle fashion trying to crack on to my girlfriend - "sorry mate, i was just trying to shag your girlfriend." "fuck off then." "alright."

Chelsea v Man U - Worst FA cup final.

Just dire and I missed Annuals to watch it.

Only about 60 people there - really really good.

Oh and the whole of the 2002 Shellac ATP

for some time that Nick Cave was standing less than 5 metres away from us during the Dirty 3's set....... and not a sould was bothering him!
Watching Efrimm from ASMZ introduce himself to Alan from Low in the Sun over partridge (or what ever it's called) pub.
Losing myself in Portishead's set

during an otherwise pindrop silent Joanna Newsom set

finally getting into the children's playroom in 2005 and finding a passed out irish man at the bottom of the ball pond
every minute at atp always but particularly those spent in the queen vic

Saturday morning hangover with The Melvins.
Shellac.
Jerry Sadowitz revealing his cock.

was pretty immense to be honest

I had the TIME OF MY LIFE at Les Savy Fav/Hot Chip. Not entirely sure what happened but it was INCREDIBLE!

Completely incredible and I managed to lose my wristband in all the excitement.

Seeing Magik Markers for the first time at the same weekend, coming on 20 mins late, playing for about 15 minutes and completely shreading my face. They've never matched that performance since.

Cocorosie at Volta weekend

The chalet party with some mad people from San Fransisco at the Slint weekend which was still going when we left at 10am on Monday morning.

Pretty much all of the Pitchfork weekend from start to finish.

Too many more. God I love ATP.

You, me dancing! at Pitchfork this year was one of the happiest I have ever, ever been. And I didn't even particularly like LC! before then.

Jens Lekman asking how long he had left, only for David to shout '4 minutes'
Ice and a slice?
David Mellors ghost
The corpse of Stanley Matthews
Pints of death
HOW DO YOU DO?

1 - One ATP (i think the Stephen Malkmus one), I was sharing the chalet nearest the Queen Vic, the first one you encounter on the corner of the main walkway towards the other chalets. I was sharing with a group of guys / girls from my uni who were pretty liberal with the ol' drugs and everyone was pretty wasted to say the least. Everyone sitting round spaced out, my mate gets up and goes into the toilet. 2 seconds later, a knock at the front door. Me being the only one who can move properly gets up and opens the door. Lighting Bolt plus about 50 people bust into the room with a portable hifi all singing and dancing and start jumping on the furniture for two minutes. Everyone files out to move on to the next chalet in the rampage. We all sit there stunned. As the last person files out I shut the door, and matey comes out of the toilet and says "did someone just come in?". Cue massive laughter. Couldn't make it up. We then all went and followed the mob, and later that evening was the classic 417!! 417!! stand off outside chalet 417 with the occupants of the chalet and the security force.

2 - First ATP (Mogwai/Shellac/Tortoise) I went to, I got a +1 on the press list, and we got to go in the press entrance and park there. We were unloading all our shit from the car, and I had the door wide open and blocking the next parking bay. My mate shouts out to me, as I'm trying to pull something out "Dan shut the door some guy is trying to park!" I shout back "tell him to fuck off!" and continue to try and pull this thing out (think it was 6 bottles of water wedged in). In the end he parks two bays down, gets out, and it's John Peel! We kind of grin and nod at him red faced. We lock the car and set off with our stuff towards the chalet, and immediately we walk past David Pajo and Bob Weston having a chat. Do first 2 minutes at first ATPs get better than this?

3 - The game of cricket at the MayTP this year. For anyone involved they know what I'm talking about. For those that don't it was basically a massive game of cricket with a tiny bat in one of the chalet courtyards which meant the crowd for The Hold Steady was probably about 50 people less than it might have been.

There are so many more too but I'll leave it at that for now!

is making me really mad that at P4K ATP I sprained my ankle and spent the best part of a day and a half bedridden.

That's my bottom ATP moment.

I enjoyed Julian Cope's rant last christmas though, and Fuck Buttons becoming my new favourite band ever with 2 amazing sets. And Jamie splitting his baggy jeans by hiding 2 litres of rum and coke down his crotch. I love you Summers.

and then passing out from a combination of their amazingness and the massive amount of alcohol I had consumed.

- The crowd singing Boredoms intros outside the Queen Vic. There’s a youtube clip of it somewhere.
- The idea that you can play Singstar until 4am and then someone says “fancy going to the pub?”
- Subtitle on the roof.
- Leading people in synchronised dancing to Rock Classics and Erasure.
- Asking Declan to play Gold Chains over and over again.
- Random encounters – especially involving people that are going to wake up their chaletmate by dropping raw bacon on his chest.
- The ant joke
- Shouting Maddy jokes at Subtle.
- Seeing Josh T Pearson on the waterslides.
- Stealing a laundry cage/trolley.

1. ATP New York. Every single second of it. From the bus ride through the Catskills until the ear shattering My Bloody Valentine finale, taking revenge for their tepid Roundhouse shows, this was the best festival ever. With free ice cream. (2008)

2. Being tipped off that Lightning Bolt are setting up in the corner during Sonic Youth's set, legging it over just in time, being in the front row and then having 2,000 other fans piling on my back trying to get a glimpse of as well. Complete chaos but worth it. (2004)

3. During without doubt the most disappointing of all ATPs - there is only so much beardstroking one can take - a ray of sunshine occurs on early Saturday evening as Calexico play an hour of the most cheerful infectious music you can imagine. Some headnodders are even seen dancing. (2001)

4. Discovering Nina Nastasia in the upstairs room at Camber Sands. That haunting voice, combined with doom and gloom in the lyrics and a gothic sounding backing band including drum maestro Jim White, has turned me at once into a life long fan. (2002)

5. The Breeders closing what is probably my favourite ATP line-up of all time, curated expertly by Shellac, and followed by all-night dancing with Kim and Kelly in the Queen Vic. (2002)

6. The Nick Cave/Grinderman double bill, and one of the few occassions that the Pavillion stage in Minehead works. Cave keeping his lyrics in a plastic carrier bag. Cave swearing in front of his kids. Cave running for the train on Monday morning. Stuff of legend. (2007)

7. The whole of Centre Stage exploding in a mad scrum during the hitherto virtually unknown Negative Approach, who play a blistering set bordering on anarchy actively encouraged by Thurston Moore and friends from the side of the stage. (2006)

8. Mogwai curating their own festival proved to be as much hit (Sigur Ros, GY!BE, Arab Strap) as it was miss (Snow Patrol anyone), but their closing set on Sunday night was probably the first time that they showed they could hold the attention of a large crowd from start to finish, and they have been enthousiastic ATP supporters ever since. (2000)

9. Blood Brothers and Liars first both playing career-defining performances, and then combining for a thrilling cover of Nirvana's Territorial Pissings. Neither band would ever reach those heights again. (2006)

10. Les Savy Fav's Tim Harrington starting the show with an on-stage haircut, followed by a sweaty performance that includes t-shirt swapping and black facepaint, even though the gimmicks are no substitute for the fact that an in-form LSF are as tight as you want your US guitar bands to be. (2007)

... and this is only the tip of the iceberg, every ATP his uncovered true gems worth mentioning.

GOOD TIMES

and the game of fake pizza vs real pizza we subsequently invented with their props

I think this might be bettered this weekend though!

- The Japanese dude dressed as a superhero, who did that funny run on the spot and punch the air dance to every band one year.

- The amazing Britpop CD they were playing at vs. Fans and missing most of Patti Smith to play pool and sing along in a big group to "All You Good Good People" by Embrace.

- Devendra Banhart getting totally pwned at air hockey by a girl.

- The guy who sells hot dogs who was called Phil Collins.

- Haranguing Bob Weston constantly to play Kenickie when he was DJing in the Queen Vic and him shouting at us something like "LOOK JUST FUCK OFF - I DON'T HAVE ANY "KENICKIE" !! ".

- Missing Les Savy Fav at vs Fans due to staying in the chalet on my own and watching a Vic Reeves documentary on pirates, (which wasn't even on ATP TV, it was just on ITV 1), and later seeing Tim Harrington running towards the beach with a massive novelty inflatable round his waist.

- My mate (won't name you, haha!) blacking out during Violent Femmes on the last night of one Camber ATP, and experiencing short term memory loss. I took him back to the chalet and put him to bed, he kept repeating stuff like "I know we're at ATP, but where is it?". We think his drink was spiked. Anyway, he's there being temporarily crazy, and I'm sitting on the bed reading 'British Politics : An Introduction' expecting the worst final night of ATP ever, when the guys we're sharing a chalet with bust in with five massive security guards saying "don't worry guys, these guys are just gonna search the chalet, they think we're dealers". Apparently they had caught them with drugs in the toilets. They weren't dealers, but they had told them that they had no more drugs on them, despite having a massive bag of weed just lying on the table, which one of them promptly hid in MY guitar case, and the girl who was staying with us started going apeshit because she had a bag of a dealable amount of ecstasy pills in her bag. They then proceeded to do the shittest search ever, not searching my guitar case, not searching the girls bag despite her totally losing it and being completely obvious that she had drugs on her, and left saying "ok sorry for bothering you, stay out of trouble, don't go back to the pub / club" and confiscated the wristbands of the three guys they had caught. Throughout all this short term memory loss matey was sitting there looking totally bewildered and like he was on some kind of acid trip (even though he wasn't), and for some reason the guys had erected a tent inside the chalet which must have made security think we were all drug lunatics. Literally unbelievable they got away with it. We obviously went back and partied until 5:00am, the others sneaking back in despite having no wristbands.

- Having a drunken half an hour conversation with Lou Barlow outside the Queen Vic at about 3:30am, at MayTP this year, opening the conversation with "Hey Lou, great show earlier, is Jason about?", and containing such great quotes as "I think you have made the best album of all time, guess which one I mean!", and him actually replying straight up "You're Living All Over Me", following this up with "don't get me wrong I love Sebadoh too, well, apart from the last album". And later, after this drunk dude came up and babbled for a couple of minutes, me saying "drunk people - so annoying", and him going "Yeah, SHEESH!" like we were old mates. I was absolutely slaughtered. To be fair I think he was too. Bring Da Ding Da Ding SEBADOH!

- Despite thinking they had released the best album of all time, lying down in the band room waiting for Dinosaur Jr to come on, and being so tired that me and another guy I was with fell asleep and didn't wake up until a massive cheer went up for Freakscene at the end of their set. We woke up pretty much surrounded, and jumped up and danced. I slept through the whole set of possibly the loudest band ever.

Amazing. Just amazing. The best time, the nicest people. Oh the kills played BUT even they failed to ruin that weekend. Christ I saw battles twice and les savy fav. AND the locust. AND saul williams. AND acid mother temple. I was genuinely depressed when I went home.

its a pity that absolutely none of my friends wanting to come to this though, but sounds like i'll have an amazing time without them douches.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f238/mellimoon/ATP016.jpg

but I think the Mars Volta and Thurston NBCs were definitely my favourite ATPs. So so much fun.

getting a bit bored during his set at portishead nbc, going outside downstairs and finding many many people rhythmically drumming on the tables and joining in for like an hour. and i wasn't on drugs or anything so it must've been a pretty pure form of enjoyment.
then the next day madlib told me i had cool shoes. and i nearly wet myself with how cool it made me feel.

but that was enough for me to say i'd be be going back for years to come. So many good moments

1. Going for a cigarette first thing in the morning and finding Saul Williams standing outside.
2. Bumping into members of Trail Of Dead constantly on Saturday, and having chats about America and global warming. Also, Conrad being dragged past me in the crowd for Battles by three Japanese girls.
3. Seeing Jason Reece trying to reassure a security guard that 'we're just having a couple of beers man' outside a chalet party opposite us, which I really wish I'd walked into if I wasn't too drained.
4. Th dancing at Battles' night set. Particularly a woman who was grooving her heart out, then disappeared for a few songs. I turn to my friend and say 'Where'd that girl go?' and then she appears, bashes into my friend dancing again.

-Envy last thing on the Sunday at EITS. Incredible. I was knackered, but battled through to see probably one of the best things I've ever seen.
-The Thermals opening vs. the fans. I just felt like I wanted to scream all the way through.
-The National at EITS. Just completely lost myself in the whole thing.
-Les Savy Fav. That's all.
-Watching 30 rocks for about 4 hours one morning last year.

1.) drinking vodka with two swedish girls at 9am whilst they explained the lyrics of Dungen songs at the mars volta one.
2.) octopus project after half a litre of vodka. things went a bit downhill after that though.
3.) singing/dancing to 'holland, 1945' in a chalet at 4am, with several canadians including a couple members of BSS. being kicked out and preceding to run to the beach.
4.) Raekwon + his mobs shilling at the back of the pavillion whilst Broken Social Scene played, and him dropping an n-bomb on me when i bought one.
5.) breakfasts at the cafe just outside of the Minehead complex, and the owners disturbing (for a fifty-odd year old) sexual comments to me and my chalet-mate, despite her husband being there.
6.) buying J Mascis a chocolate bar as he had no change for the vending machien, and chatting for a couple minutes.
7.) several fun times with the DiS lot at the Dirty Three ATP, including Sam Strang being threatened by a member of Dirty Three.
8.) miskicking a football to Nick Cave, and him laying off a sweet pass straight back, in the best shoes I've ever seen.
9.) Battles second set at the Mars Volta EP, right next to the left-side speaker.
10.) The weekend of football over the EITS ATP weekend.
11.) Low's 'dragonfly' in the Pavillion.
12.) Damo Suzuki jumping from the stage to give everyone hugs at the Mars Volta ATP.

im sure theres loads more

Whole of Thurston Moore's NBC.