Bloc Weekend 2010: review

My oh my - Bloc Weekend 2010 was a rambunctious affair. Thousands of dance music fiends descended on Butlins in Minehead for a three-day rinseout at the festival's fourth outing, and Gravity Skanker was there to witness it all.

Don't turn your nose up at a holiday park festival. They're actually rather fun. But I've talked about that before - let's get down to the nitty gritty.

I'm proud to report that it was the women who tore up the arenas this year. Headliners Salt n Pepa provided a damn good show, highly recommended to anyone who loves the early 90s sound. They had brilliant dancers, classic tracks (surprisingly more than I remember), and a great deal of energy and love for the crowd. It was brilliant, though Spinderella's a little out of practice.

Ms Dynamite also did a great job, MCing over DJ Zinc's bangin' set. She even did a top PA of 'Wile Out', a track that I love. Check it out in an earlier Gravity Skank blog post - woohah.

Further highlights of Bloc sets were Instra:mental and D:Bridge on the Friday night, who dropped a dutty couple of hours of dubstep in the more intimate Jac:Bloc arena. On an anthemic tip, Skream and Benga played a crowd-pleasing set in the main room, proving the dubstep pioneers still know what rocks the dance.

The Friday night at Bloc is always the messiest, but this year things were noticeably much quieter by Sunday. Two days of raving probably annihiliated a number of deserters, but I put it down to needing to get home for work on Monday. My crew raved it out till the end, conspicuous by our neon fancy dress (not many people partook in the wedding theme this year, boo).

Closing the Braindrop room on the last night, MJ Cole tore up the crowd... for half his set. Sadly things dropped off towards the end, and got progressively worse for The McMash Clan, who flipped the room into a weird blend of gabber, techno, (not very good) breaks and off-the-wall gnarly DnB. Hype came to the rescue a little too late, sadly with a mediocre set of DnB. I blame the five-hour drive from London.

I was gutted to miss Boy Better Know's grime set on the FWD + Rinse stage. Having caught crew member JME supporting Tinchy Stryder at The Roundhouse a couple of months ago, I'm now a proper convert. So hurrah for FWD and Rinse, who have shared links to mp3s of the night:

Click here for the Boy Better Know set at Bloc 2010.
Click here to download a zip file of the entire night.

It's a good old crowd at Bloc, so I was sad to see them let down by poor sound levels in almost all the arenas. In Tec:Bloc - usually the grimiest, most hardcore room - I could hold a conversation on the dancefloor and hear what was said. And this coming from someone with tinnitus. But sound issues aside, it was a rockin' festival, and Bloc always sells out for a reason. Here's to next year - see you there!