Glastonbury WOW Stage

Glastonbury Dance Village’s ‘WOW’ Stage traces its history back to 2008 when Dave Harvey and Tom Paine founded Team Love to programme the Igloo Tent. It was the first all-night venue in Dance Village with acts like Don Letts, Tayo and Metronomy. They followed up the next year with the Lounge stage, programming just one night including an infamous East 17 reunion gig 30,000 people in the field to see it and what a lovely bunch of boys! 2010 saw the first year of the Wow stage with Jamie Jones, The Ratpack, Snap!, Four Tet and a whole host of others.

2011 sees them back with arguably their best line up yet, showcasing some of the hottest acts on todays scene. The stage has developed a name for itself as the place to be for up-and-coming underground dance music. And alongside their WOW taster mix right here, the team is giving away a whole host of signed records, t-shirts and albums from this year’s artists HERE.

Tom Paine also runs Motion nightclub, and 2010 saw them launch their highly successful In Motion series Bristols answer to Warehouse Project with 2011 set to be even bigger. Dave Harvey programs Croatias Garden Festival in his Futureboogie hat & continues to run Futureboogie events and tour in Bristol, the UK and beyond.

The R$N caught up with Mr Harvey to hear about the WOW, what makes it tick and the men who make it happen.

You’re a west country lad, with one of the most successful nights down those parts (and beyond I might hasten to add nationally) so it only seems right that you’re involved in booking one of the dance stages, Wow.
Can you tell us about how your involvement with Dance Village & Glastonbury came about?

Im actually from London originally but have been living in Bristol for nearly ten years now and as anyone who knows the city will tell you, its filled with people who work for loads of festivals, especially Glastonbury.

My business partner Tom had been working for Glastonbury Dance Village for a few years and some old friends of mine approached us about getting their new project The Igloo into some festivals and events. Its a pretty amazing set up a dome venue with 360-degree wraparound projections and a heavy sound system. We put together a proposal to use the Igloo as a kind of secret rave, with a load of DJs who we were either friends with or had good links to and who we knew liked to party we did it on a shoestring but still ended up with a wicked line up.

After that, the area co-ordinator, invited us back the following year 2009 to run the Dance Lounge and program the Thursday night opening party.

Booking East 17 for Glastonbury?
From about 1000 capacity with the Igloo to 4,000 capacity, we knew we had to do something big but we also really wanted to try and get someone who would get everyone talking.

Tom had always had a bit of a thing for shit boy bands and 90′s pop and jokingly suggested we should try and get East 17 back together. I was massively anti the idea to begin with but after some serious soul searching what started out as a bit of a joke suddenly actually seemed like quite a good idea and he managed to convince me do the unthinkable and it turned out to be amazing – we ended up with 30,000 people in the field to see them, and it really was quite a magic moment – I wont’ admit to singing along but I did have my picture taken with the band afterwards – lovely lads as it goes!

A lot of the rest of Dance Village is quite breaks focused, can you tell us about the music policy of the Wow stage and how it differs?

I think The Wow provides a counterbalance to the more established acts on East and West. We really try to pick up on artists who are coming up, pick them out early and get them involved and again this year weve been really lucky to do so with lots of acts like Julio Bashmore, Space Dimension Controller, Lone, Floating Points, Funkineven, Fatima, Maya Jane Coles, Subb-an, Hyetal who have really come into their own in the last few months and our stage is probably the best place for them to be at the festival.

Your partner in Team Love (who book the Wow stage) Tom runs Motion, can you tell us about the influence Motion has had on Bristol.

Tom Paine hes the talent in Team Love, Im the show pony.

It has to be said theyve done an incredible job down at Motion. Theyve taken it from a skate park/part-time party space &and turned it into the go-to spot for putting on mega line ups in the city. Its the number one place to go and see a real cross section of great music on one bill, and I guess thats exactly the way we think about the Wow too.

You’re part of the trio team that is Futureboogie. Care to give us a potted history of who you are and what you’re about?

Futureboogie as our now highly outdated bio says is many things to many people We are nearly ten years old, were a club night, a booking agency, management company, festival programmers and just recently we have set up our label Futureboogie Recordings in partnership with a certain Mr Bashmore who you may have heard of. We run nights mainly in Bristol but around the country when we get the opportunity. Over the last year weve put on acts like Theo Parrish, Metro Area, Motor City Drum Ensemble,Tensnake, Dixon, Horse Meat Disco, Crazy P, Bonobo so quite across the board.

Were also really good at smoking and staying up late, in the right circumstances.

Last year’s Sunday night @ Wow was a real highlight for me. Four Tet, Tayo, Snap, Ratpack… it’s not a very predictable four steps is it?!

No I guess not but actually made perfect sense somehow and made a few peoples year not mentioning any names We always like to throw in a few curveballs we also wanna keep it fun and its great to have some old classics in there as well its hard work for Tom to look cool ALL the time

Can we talk about your bookings this year. The Sunday night Rebel Rave is quite a coup! But cursing your eye across the rest of the weekend we’re looking at a who’s who of the bubbling underground. Tensnake, Lone, Space Dimension Controller, Toddla T, Soul Clap… and here’s a curveball; Neneh Cherry!! Discuss.

Yeah we must admit we have been dead chuffed to snare a lot of the names we have this year theres definitely a good few names who could be playing bigger stages but to be honest, what we lack in size we make up for in rave spirit and artists have come to know that.

Neneh Cherry another one weve had on our list for a while. Really happy that she came in for this year this could definitely be one of the highlights and it will either make us feel really old or really young not sure which yet

The Rebel Rave is something personally I’m massively looking forward to – I’d like to think that Jamie is very much part of the Wow/Team Love family – we’ve been booking him for Glastonbury since we made the move to a bigger stage and he’s exactly the kind of person we love to get involved – musically brilliant with the right attitude and outlook on what the festival is all about, plus loads of fun to boot, a diamond – it’s gonna be great to have him back and welcome Seth and Damian as well – Seth’s had a ridiculous couple of years and I know he is properly buzzing about checking Glastonbury for the first time. It will be great to have the daddy Mr Lazarus there to make sure they behave themselves!

They’ve got a lot to live up to as well – last year Matt Tolfrey and mulletover’s Geddes smashed it in a similar spot so pack em high gents!

How do you manage to get so many artists and DJs to be where they need, at one of the most indulgent festivals in the world?

That is a good question – but so far everyone has made it to the ball on time, fingers crossed this continues this year – have I now hexed us?

Naming no names, has anyone been ‘past their peak’ to play in recent years?

There have definitely been a few faces who turned up looking past their best but have all actually pulled it together – sign of a true professional. The clearest memory I have is scooping up a certain Mr Beer up from another field where he was having what well call an in depth conversation with Howard Marks I think theyre both names that I can get away with mentioning? If theyre not out in the ether already then Im not sure who is.

You’ve booked one of the most exciting rising talents known to man – read hottest property – Julio Bashmore. Can you tell us about your friendship with the future supremo?

Julio Bashmore the flame haired casanova from Knowle. As I mentioned before we have just started up Futureboogie Recordings with Matt and its loads of fun, he has a studio above our office, Joe 90 and him chat about fashion and vol au vents, I ask him whats happening with the youth and he plays us loads of wicked tracks that hes working on and keeps us from feeling too old.

Julio’s also fronting the first release for Futureboogie recordings, the sublime summer anthem Father Father with Javeon McCarthy. What made you start a record label after all these years of FB, especially in this musical climate?

Its something we had been thinking about doing for years. I happened to be playing before Bashmore and when he came on he dropped Father Father and I was like whoa what the fuck is that?!, thinking why is this young kid playing classic house? So I went over and asked him and in his nonchalant way he said ah just something I knocked up this week.

We got chatting about what we wanted to do with the label, what he wanted to do, music, parties girls and it turned out we actually had a lot of the same ideas about what a Bristol label should be about and there you have it. Father Father sold out in a matter of weeks and we are just about to drop FBR002 from Christophe. Then a multi-artist Summer Riot EP at the end of June, so really excited to see where it goes. I wanna see Bashmore with his pins out in Ibiza!

What else can we look forward to from Dave Harvey over the summer in terms of musical programming?

Weve got loads on this summer under the Futureboogie banner which I run with Steve Joe 90 Nickolls we have one of our favourite things in the world The Garden Festival in Croatia – booking acts we love for one of the best sites for a party in the world. Theres nowhere else quite like it!

Were playing all over as well, Louche in Leeds, which looks proper, Big Chill, Hulstfred in Sweden, Kubicle in London, Croatia, hopefully back to Berlin and of course Bristol.

Under the Team Love banner were running stages at Glade Festival and Secret Garden Party plus a brand new stage in association with Red Bull Music Academy at St Pauls Carnival here in Bristol with a SUPER big secret line up that is looking tasty.

To end the summer we are involved in a massive street art & music event in the centre of Bristol – some of the worlds top street artists taking over and painting a whole street with a series of music events running alongside. Going under the working title of See No Evil WATCH THIS SPACE

I’m a West Country lad me-self but bottled the whole thing at 18 and headed to the big smoke in search of the Heavenly Social, haircuts and strange jumpers. What made you stay down there. What’s Bristol got for you that London hasn’t?

Bristol is ace. But i don’t want to encourage too many of you London types to come here and ruin it – plus I have just realised that this is probably the longest things I’ve written since university so I think I better wind in the chat at this point and just say Team Love – come join us somewhere in a field over the summer – everyone is welcome!

Outside of Wow! who should we be checking out this year at Glastonbury?

I am gonna do my best to check out Warpaint, James Blake, Wu Tang Clan, Kool and The Gang and definitely make my way up to Shangri La/Tjhe Unfairground/Block 9 at some point as it ‘s always blinding up there and we like a little bit of mess.

Do you get to enjoy Glastonbury like we do?

Ha – in a very different way to how I used to but yeah – I started goin there when I was 15, breaking in, gettin in a right state and all the rest of it… to be honest we are really lucky to be doing what we’re doing and we are also really lucky to have an amazing crew involved with Team Love and Glastonbury in particular – from our outstanding decor, build and stage crew who do an awful lot with very little and who’ve have been with us for years – to the Dance Village management massive, without them none of it would happen – and they are really good at making me and Tom look stupid which always helps keep things on an even keel. Actually they are just good at making me look stupid but I don’t want to make Tom feel left out.

In 3 words, what does Glastonbury mean to you?

Let’s Get More

2011 sees us back with what we feel is our best line up yet, showcasing some of the hottest acts on today’s scene – and the stage has developed a bit of a name for itself as the place to be for up and coming underground dance music.

Here we go again…get yourselves involved, invite your friends, Summer’s coming x

THE WOW 2011

THURSDAY 23RD JUNE:
NETSKY
MAYA JANE COLES
JULIO BASHMORE
MS DYNAMITE
ADDISON GROOVE
TROLLEY SNATCHA
PLUS A COUPLE MORE SPECIAL GUESTS TO BE ANNOUNCED

FRIDAY 24TH JUNE:
SUBB AN FT BECKFORD
FUTUREBOOGIE
SOUL CLAP
TENSNAKE
GREG WILSON
EGLO RECORDS FT FLOATING POINTS, ALEX NUT, FATIMA, FUNKINEVEN
ENDIAN
MAXXI SOUNDSYSTEM
DEAD ROSE MUSIC COMPANY
STARSMITH
FEEL THE REAL SOUNDSYSTEM

SATURDAY 25TH JUNE:
NERO
REDLIGHT FT DREAD
TODDLA T FT SEROCEE
DIGITAL SOUNDBOY SOUNDSYSTEM
NENEH CHERRY
DANNY BYRD
MAVERICK SABRE
FLUX PAVILLION
DIAFRIX
TRUE TIGER
LOADSTAR
MENSAH + EDDIE K
INTERFACE
LEWAH
HOSTED BY KOAST

SUNDAY 26TH JUNE:
REBEL RAVE FT JAMIE JONES, SETH TROXLER, DAMIAN LAZARUS
MOUNT KIMBIE
DELS
BONOBO
GHOSTPOET
ELECTRIC WIRE HUSTLE
HYETAL
SPACE DIMENSION CONTROLLER
LONE
APPLEPIPS FT APPLEBLIM + AL TOURETTES
BENNY BLANCO

Mosey on over to the Glastonbury Dance Village Facebook page and like it for your chance to win a whole host of lovely goodies including but limited to:

Crosstown Rebels – Rebel Rave Comp + Rebellion T Shirt
Soul Clap + Wolf + Lamb DJ Kicks CD
Eglo Records :Floating Points ‘Vacuum Boogie’ 12″
Funkineven “Heartpound’ 12″
Fatima ‘Follow You’ EP 12″
Toddla T – T Shirt
Bonobo – LP, CD
Ghostpoet – T Shirt + Signed LP
Julio Bashmore – signed 12″ Father Father on Futureboogie Recordings
Lone – Doublepack vinyl
Maya Jane Coles – Focus Now 12″
Dead Rose Music Company 12″

Phew!