Bloc 2011: Highs and Lows

[Kinder]

We got to Bloc and saw the car perched on the traffic light stump. We drove out to Mozzers for supplies later on and saw the cops doing a full cavity search on the car. I guess the Bloc excitement got to them...


HIGHs: Moderat, Dopplereffekt, Apperat, Four Tet.

LOW: severe stomach complaint during Aphex's set meaning I had to bail out and miss Vitalic and Speedy J too. Gutted. Probably completely unrelated to the Buckfast sesh earlier. Also no clothes stalls this year apart from Bloc's own. Gutted as I was after a new hat...

Oh and another low, my George Michael impression not having the desired positive effect on the audience on Sunday. Sorry folks!

[Warpiggy]

people seem to think that just cos it's a rave, a blind eye is turned to everythin that goes on inside...bullshit. discretion is always the name of the game, no matter where you are. without gettin too much into it for fear of moderation by the powers that be ,

touche mr moderator...touche

[mike_t]

Dublinstep - How much effort does it take to walk back to your chalet and do whatever you want in private? Not much.

But that's just the point - it was the security crashing into people's chalets for no reason which annoyed me : just walking in as they pleased to see what was going on.

[risk49]

We got to Bloc and saw the car perched on the traffic light stump. We drove out to Mozzers for supplies later on and saw the cops doing a full cavity search on the car. I guess the Bloc excitement got to them...

Yeah they musta hit it with some force!! Specially as it's just after the roundabout!! Poor feckers hope they weren't hurt and missed out on Bloc as a result! Certainly left their mark on Minehead!!

[jondavey]

Highs;
:LFO, Seriousily good.
:Mala, solid set and Sgt Pokes was the perfect MC.
:The little rabbit I seemed to see every time I walked over the bit of grass. (no there really was a rabit there).
:Sound Dimension Controller, nice vibes and a pleasent supprise.
:Jerome Hill on Thursday, rocked it. All of the Brackout DJs were good.
:The general organisation, getting booked in, busses etc.

Lows;
:Lots of act clashes, as always, too much good stuff. I think the arenas should be more genre spesific.
:No record stalls...gutted. I really enjoyed listening to and buying tunes with loads of other bladdered people.
:The Ableton tent, just didn't look inviting at all. I stayed clear of it all weekend.
:Everything starts too early and doesn't go on late enough IMHO.
:Short set times. I know he's Laurent Garnier but there are pleantly of other acts I would have enjoyed see play sets that long. The shortest set time should be two hours...again IMHO.
:Too many acts on the bill, less acts, longer set times would give everyone the chance to really get their groove on.
:There was no mention of 'pub bloc' on the flyer anywhere, it looked like a laugh in there at times as I was walking past, but I had no idea what it was all about.
:Having to step over people flat out on the floor who had "drank too much" in the main arena
:Encountering the odd agrassive elbow to the ribs from territorial dancers (which has never happened before).
...well there's my two peneth. My wife and I had a grat time anyway and will be booking next year...providing there's a record stall!
Jon.

[LUHG]

Dublinstep - How much effort does it take to walk back to your chalet and do whatever you want in private? Not much.

But that's just the point - it was the security crashing into people's chalets for no reason which annoyed me : just walking in as they pleased to see what was going on.

What's the full story with this?

It happened to us on the Thursday night/Friday morning at about 9am just as we'd got off to sleep. Thankfully we'd put the door on the chain, but the security came up with some lame excuse like "we needed to check if anybody was in here". We'd only checked in the day before.

On the Saturday night/Sunday morning at about 9am we had a knock at the door from security who wanted to see our booking forms for the room. Over 48 hours after we'd checked in. No explanation was given by them as to why on the last day of the festival they needed to check that we were in the correct room.

All a bit odd, I thought.

[Burnibus]

Wow, Bloc was amazing again. Ive been to everyone and each time it just seems to keep getting better and better and better.

Highs:

LFO - King of bloc to be honest, not a techno artist in the world that can touch mr Bell yet he releases so little. Come on Mark give us some more.
Aphex - really diverse playing loads of tunes i had never heard before, thats why i love him.
Ancient Methods - This was the absolute shizzle, proper dark sinister moving music#
Speedy J - great saturday closing set kept me raving hard till 6 am
Fourtet - i really enjoyed hearing his new tunes on a great system.
Dopplereffekt - unbelievable, to be able to see one of the true originators, in such hi fidelity, blew my mind
Silent Servant - Played some seriously groovey dark rolling techno in Plex
Ben Pest - for his Nintendo DS tour de force, everytime i see Ben he delivers

Too many more to mention to be honest, but most of all the people. What a class crowd again, well up for it and super friendly - i love you all.

As for the Lows:

so very few. maybe the Tec Bloc and Red Bloc not going on till 6, which ive always thought was a shame.


thats it really, not other lows. Shame about people getting intruded by security, in all honesty there is no excuse for them barging into anyones chalet but if the knock and ask like reasonable human beings, then fair enough.

Thanks bloc

[ogriff]

We got to Bloc and saw the car perched on the traffic light stump. We drove out to Mozzers for supplies later on and saw the cops doing a full cavity search on the car. I guess the Bloc excitement got to them...

Yeah they musta hit it with some force!! Specially as it's just after the roundabout!! Poor feckers hope they weren't hurt and missed out on Bloc as a result! Certainly left their mark on Minehead!!

Nothing to do with the festival (local boy racer) and dead according to the taxi driver I got from Taunton-Minehead late on the Thursday

[dublinstep]

Lows;
:Too many acts on the bill, less acts, longer set times would give everyone the chance to really get their groove on.

Heh. I posted up this exact same request for last year, maybe even the year before. No change to the scheduling this year then I take it? 1 hour DJ sets = a dozen or so records, and with timetabling clashes, timetable re-jigs, and travel time in between stages, sometimes you'd catch half a set or less.

Longer sets would be great. e.g. Ben Sims Sunday set at Bloc 2 was brilliant.

[dublinstep]

Shame about people getting intruded by security, in all honesty there is no excuse for them barging into anyones chalet but if the knock and ask like reasonable human beings, then fair enough.

Thats a bit out of order alright. As long as people arent causing a nuisance in their chalet, then they should be left well alone.

[disco_stu]

highs:
Ancient Methods
Black Devil Disco Club
Dopplereffekt
dOP
Jimmy Edgar
The Advent
Alva Noto
Modeselektor
Kyle Hall
Making it into Minehead on the Sunday morning for Brunch

lows:
queues for Aphex
no Veto crew / no fenchurch / clothing stalls
missing brackout
not going swimming
the train journey back
Wednesday in work!

I never had any problems with the security but I did notice them nabbing a few more people than normal on the first night so was a bit more careful.

[patcundall]

The Good:

Radioactive man playing one of my favourite Analord tracks was mental!
Apparat, Moderat, Modeselektor - energy was incredible they just controlled the crowd, people just pleading for the drop.

Shackleton - Was too exhausted to dance, sat down for this mindblowing experience
Dopplereffekt
Aphex: Words can not describe how I felt about this, BIG wow, I was literally in a trance riding the wave of music sound and noise. Visuals were incredible, great idea with the cameramen filming people and having it played back on the televisions aphex style.
Siriusmo - amazing
Beardyman - great and very funny
SBTRKT - really enjoyable and not too crowded
The beautiful coastline of minehead - left festival grounds around 9am Sunday morning and walked towards town and kept walking, through forest, along cliffs and rocked hopped for several miles before returning, just beautiful.
The weather
Great vibe
The Ableton Dome
The Ableton Dome bean bag area
The Ableton Dome security guy, all smiles and positivity

The Bad:

Meathead security - especially Saturday night. Was verbally abused by a man, possibly a security guard, about 8:30am sunday morning when I was in the Tea and Empathy area. I came in during the night in distress and needed some chill time, and gratitude goes out to those who were running it.

To cut a long story short, after I'd had some sleep some pighead was running it and when I asked him to turn his (what can only be described as: bad trip music) music down he told me to shut the fuck up and that I'd been there long enough and if I didn't like it that I should just fuck off. I got up to get some water and he told me sit the fuck down and that he'd get it. so I just left - the cunt.

Loved the whole weekend, looking forward to next year!

[evilbaronP]

Dublinstep - How much effort does it take to walk back to your chalet and do whatever you want in private? Not much.

But that's just the point - it was the security crashing into people's chalets for no reason which annoyed me : just walking in as they pleased to see what was going on.

What's the full story with this?

It happened to us on the Thursday night/Friday morning at about 9am just as we'd got off to sleep. Thankfully we'd put the door on the chain, but the security came up with some lame excuse like "we needed to check if anybody was in here". We'd only checked in the day before.

On the Saturday night/Sunday morning at about 9am we had a knock at the door from security who wanted to see our booking forms for the room. Over 48 hours after we'd checked in. No explanation was given by them as to why on the last day of the festival they needed to check that we were in the correct room.

All a bit odd, I thought.

Was this actually happening? I've been to all 5 Blocs and never had any issues with security. The second year the Pontins half of the security was a bit OTT, but that was apparently because they'd had a tidy weekender there just before and things had kicked off. As far as I've seen Bloc is a trouble free festival and the security reflect this. Shame if people did have trouble tho.

I did see some guy get grabbed for dealing in Jak on the Saturday, I think, but he was stood right in the doorway, bascally within arms reach of security. A bit of common sense goes a long way.

Highs this year:
Jak Bloc - some awesome sets: Boxcutter, Ancient Methods, Legowelt, other stuff I can barely remember later/earlier in the morning
The Dome - seems to have split opinion. I loved it. Everyone I saw in there was awesome. Ceephax!
Brackout - Hell yes!
Four Tet, Modeselektor, Apparat, King Midas Sound, Speedy J, Kenny Ken, Drop The Lime, Black Devil Disco Club, Dopplereffekt, LFO, Iration Steppas, What I saw of Daedelus
The people, as always. Good people. Best festival crowd.
Bloc tv - always entertains
Fancy dress - The Tick!
Those weird, and completely pointless, sand digger things near Pub Bloc.

Lows:
Jak Bloc - The smell!
Burger King onion rings - aren't they supposed to have onion in them?
Not playing crazy golf. Again. Maybe next year