T’was a pleasure to welcome back Primordial Radio and members of the rock and metal community for their 4th Big Bang party on 16th-19th September..
Thursday evening saw the erection (hrr hrr) of the Cookhouse, ready for Goody’s Bakery who were providing the catering for the event. <why is it when we have big things to put up, the smallest members of the Club are involved ?>
The first hiccup was our wonderful new beer cooler – only 2 out of 6 lines working. After much headscratching and quite a lot of swearing, it appears it was working so effcieintly 4 lines had frozen ! Feck it – turn it off and cross your fingers…..
3/5th of the “secret” band had their first practise together in the same room, a few (non frozen) beers were had and then it was time to get some kip.
Friday – Go hard or go to bed ?
Friday started too bloody early, but at 6:45am we had another beer working – the big question can we get everything defrosted before the folks arrived ?
Some last minute setup and a spruce of the Clubhouse <cheers to Blunty Senior and the #prfam folks who pitched in> and the #prfam started to arrive and got pitched up in sunshine.
Blunty Senior got his stall ready with Primordial Merch in the Snug Bar, and not to be outdone Tracey broke out the the OGRI Merch. They both agreed to play nicely and wouldn’t start a merch war.
By 2pm all the beer was flowing and folks started to stock up on beer tokens and refreshing beverages.
Full Metal Hackett started his Friday night bangers, it was a bad idea to start recording in a dodgy west country accent as I’m sure most of the links contained background shouts of “Get orf my laaaaand”.
Friday night saw the return of “Sing while you are mingin’” karaoke with an “interesting” display of talent (I think that Moose has a secret addiction as he seemed to be on stage more than most!)
It was a first visit to the OGRI Clubhouse and the Big Bang for some, Luke from Primordial may have peaked a little too early as was asleep by 8pm!
The bonfire was lit as the autumnal chill hit for the first time this year and the rotisserie bonfire dance took place : warm the front, warm the back, move away to cool down, step forward to warm up and repeat.
The rest of the evening was spent with folks catching up with old friends, making new ones and generally having a good time till the wee hours. For the Big Bang newbies, the fact that the bar was still open at 3am was a welcome surprise.
Saturday – Sexy panda and bread based puns
Saturday saw the winners of their complimentary hangovers up and about, grabbing tea and coffee and then tackling the rather awesome full English breakfasts from the cookhouse. There were lots of “oooh, fried bread AND black pudding” comments from the queue.
A rather chilled vibe for the rest of the day, some folks deciding to leave early as they discovered that it is advisable to check your campervan gas supply before you arrive and latecomers turning up and playing catchup with friends and tales of the friday night. The Primordial gin based cocktails seemed to be going down well and were surprisingly refreshing, who wouldn’t like a Reckless Ass ?
With the miltary background of OGRI MCC, a few of the Primordial Community being ex-forces and to stick to Rule #2, “Do the Right Thing”, a 2 minute silence was held to acknowledge the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II before the evening entertainment started.
<fingers poised over the censor button>
It was the 40th birthday of the vodka rainbow jelly Queen Charlotte, who may have mentioned some things at Bloodstock, that were duely noted for the purposes of this weekend. All we’ll say is, a Jack Daniels toast for everyone in attendance, a great cake, Charlotte in an inflatable panda suit and the appearance of the masked panda performing a sexy “little” dance !
First up on stage was the band that never really exisited until now – Toaster Nail ! With their own unique take of classics in a new breadcore style, including (toaster) Nails, Grilling in the name of, Panini of Destruction, For whom the bread rolls, the crowd was soon up and dancing, and getting knocked down by flying slices of bread!
Moose was poised outside clutching the Primordial bagpipes ready for an appearance, but Toaster Nail completely forgot about it !
There was a speed raffle for a plethoria of gin kindly donated for the Big Bang, but even with a 10 second countdown to claim your prize it did seem to go on a bit.
The final band for the night was Shades of Seattle who pumped out a load of hits from the Seatlle Grunge scene – the floor was heaving with dancing and there was some serious singing along going on.
After the bands finished, folks got chatting around the bonfire – common consensus was that this was the best Big Bang yet !
Important notes to take away :
- Dewsbury & Luke win the “first to bed” awards for Friday and Saturday
- Sam H – compensation for bread related injuries ? You did read the disclaimer didn’t you ?
- Winners of the Complimentary hangovers – too many to mention
- Aston – we’ll get nails ready for you next time !
- Winner of Merch Sales – Blunty Senior took the crown this weekend, Tracey is not happy and will be out for revenge.
- Moose will no longer be able to hear “You and me baby ain’t nothin’ but mammals” without requiring mind bleach
- “Killing in the name of” is still stuck in my head 3 days after the event and I think is the longest ear worm ever.
- A big thank you to Goody’s Bakery for the grub, brilliant breakfasts and a great range of food on Saturday night !
- How the feck did I manage to walk 18 miles this weekend over such a small site ?!
A big thank you to all the folks at Primordial for coming along and enjoying yourself – ready for Big Bang 5 yet ?
Simon C
