Review On Jurassic 5, DJ Nu Mark and Roots Manuva
After cunningly moshing during Hundred Reasons I was able to be 1 person away from the front for the next act to follow on the main stage, which was Jurassic 5.
They started off by coming out 1 by 1 and playing I Am Somebody, working the crowd a treat. A few idiots threw bottles but J5 look past it and went on to play one of the best sets at the festival. All the crowd respected one of the best hip hop groups that there has been.
After watching J5 I went to the dance tent where i stayed for the remainder of the night. Before Nu-Mark came on Shystie played, a garage MC who was very good but after that a band called LCD came on and they weren't much to shout about. After they had finished and the next group came on called "!!!" Nu-Mark started setting up. I was right by the front by a poll so I would be able to watch without getting squashed and still have a great view, this turned out to be a major plus. When "!!!" came on it was some lunatic who i didn't pay much attention to, he showed no respect to Nu-Mark by jumping on the table where he was setting up his equipment, i was thinking '...doesn't this wanker have any clue of whose equipment he is nearly fucking up..." then he started doing some homosexual dance right in front of me on the poll. I was glad when they had finished. Time for Nu-Mark..... His set begins 20 minutes behind schedule as something had happened previously during the day, not that i cared about that as I was front row and was watching him work his magic. 10 minutes of his set has gone to quick when he comes and sits directly in front of me...... Akil from Jurassic 5, I was thinking this is to good to be true, and shake his hand, moments later Tuna casually sits down on the speakers. Then the rest were casually watching Nu-Mark to my right. At that moment in time I was probably the only person that had realised all of this. Nu-Marks set was mainly tracks from his new album which is a must to get. He played an unbelievable set, which paved the way nicely for Roots Manuva.....
To my surprise J5 stayed as Roots Manuva started his performance, the whole affair was very casual with the band members sat atop speaker stacks and laughing and joking with the crowd. And getting down to the music along with few thousand people packed into the dance tent. I was enjoying the whole thing SO much and believed it wouldn't get any better, until Roots Manuva asked the crowd if they knew his homeboy from LA. He kept on asking, and I knew it was going to be one of J5. Then Tuna jumped down off of the speaker and Roots Manuva announced that Tuna was about to join the stage to do a duet of 'join the dots'. The crowd went wild and the whole dance tent was rocking. Tuna then came down to crowd level and started shaking the crowds hand and 1 of them jus happened to be. The set finished with Witness the Fitness which was electric.
I ended up going back to my tent smiling and don't think it has rubbed off yet. All 3 sets were amazing and they were the highlight of my weekend. (Excluding Dizzee Rascal)
Review by Daniel Smith
