1999.06.19 – Gatecrasher Summer Festival, Leeds, England

Date: 19th June 1999
Event: Gatecrasher’s Summer Festival
Venue: gardens of The Lotherton Hall
City: Leeds
Country: England

Tracklist:
n/a

Extra info:
Review by neko:
First of all, I dont like Gatecrasher as event by itself…sorry…Also, I actually think, Liam didnt fit in there at all…
But still, I have never been to Gatecrasher before and as Liam Howlett was DJing there I had no other choice anyway, and as I was meeting a few friends in Leeds in the afternoon before the event, I was quite looking forward for it.
After the event in Dublin, where I had seen Liam DJing in a small club 2 weeks ago (6th June 99) I didnt expect too much from that much bigger event now.
There were already a few negative points about Gatecrasher, a loooooong queue…no, actually, it was 3 long queues untill you finally got in. The whole area reminded me too well of homelands festival, but I would soon find out the ‘differences’. First of all, no cloakrooms!! And this at an event where people are supposed to dance!!! So well, I wasnt the only person carrying a bag during the whole festival then. Second, no names on the tent….there were just those nameless tents standing there, and somehow through asking everybody you could get the info which tent was which. Third, no program. There was one screen in the middle which, from time to time, showed the program, if you were lucky you saw it, if not, you could just ‘guess’ who was on when. I still dont know if Darren Emerson was actually there as announced, or not, cause I couldnt spot him on the programme!!
Anyway, somehow we where then at the right time in the right tent, and Liam was supposed to be on at Midnight. I really wasnt excited at all to see him as I used to be, cause I had met him less than 2 weeks ago, but still, I’m a huge fan of him, so why not take the opportunity and just stand in ‘frontrow’ just 2 metres in front of Liam, so I could watch what he was actually doing perfectly through the whole set. So I was standing there, looking at my right side and spotted that blonde striped brown-black hair comin ‘he’s here!’…wow, he was really here, and as the applause could tell, I wasnt the only Prodigy fan in there! He was wearing a ‘The Clash’ T-Shirt, was that a reaction to the ‘kind of festival’ he was playing tonight? 🙂 Then I spotted that baseballcap from Keith… ‘Keith is also here!’, I said to Pete who was standing somewhere behind me…’Where?’, but he couldnt see him anymore, and was even more surprised when Keith suddenly turned up just like 1 metre next to him, dancing to Liams sound. (Well, it might sound stupid, but actually Keith and Leeroy WERE Liams first ‘fans’!!)
While all this happened, Liam of course started his set. I really expected him to play the same set as in Dublin, what he DEFINITELY didnt! There was almost nothing that could be found on the DCV1 album, only some slight hints at some edges of a tune, but not whole sentences of the album as he did in Dublin. There was a lot of HipHop tunes, everything actually harder than in Dublin, it was like a step in the future compared to his set at the Redbox and could show some directions the music of Prodigy might go in the future. The only thing that was the same was the ‘Hey Boy, Hey Girl’ (by Chems) towards the end of the set. I did fit into the Dublin set, but not really into the GC set.
After all I cant tell which one I ‘liked more’, it was 2 different things. I would actually like to ask Liam WHY he was playing 2 so different sets at those 2 locations quite far away from eachother, but I doubt anybody will ever ask him that, cause I was probably one of the only persons who has seen him at both places.
Liam didnt play in the big tent…it was one of the smaller tents, the SYAM arena, he was on before Goldie, who was kinda the Syam headliner, if I can say so. But during his set, there were loads of photogrphers, more than for other DJ’s, he still is ‘Liam Prodigy’…
But it wasnt only Keith who was there!! At about 1am (I was still in front) I thought I had spotted Gizz…I told Pete and Smitty, but then I said again ‘I’m not sure though’….cause I really didnt expect him there. Then 15 min later he was there, standing at the end of the fence and as he saw us he was waving. Wow, I really didnt expect him to be here!
After he had finished, Liam was generous with handshakes, autgraphs and whatever, I didnt even go and talk to him or ask for an autograph, neither did I talk to Keith, although I actually could have…I just didnt feel like ‘running them over’, as there were already lots of fans. After another 15 min then, I was talking to Gizz at the bar, I could actually see Liam just leaving the backstage area to go to wherever in that festival …

Flyer:

Photos from the show:

 

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