On Friday 18th August 2023 I made my way via train to Stoke-On-Trent Station where I was picked up by Pott3r and Joe. From there I was transported to Trentham Gardens which was to be the venue for seeing Chase n Status, the DJ Duo would be performing later on in the evening. We got ourselves some food and a couple of cocktails down us first before we headed over to the field were the venue was to be. Trentham Gardens themselves seems like a nice (but expensive) place to visit. Perhaps something that the ladies might enjoy sometime… we will look in to that. Getting to the field in question involved quite a walk first, around the edge of the lake through some of the gardens and up the hills.
Security checks to phones & wallets before we walked straight in – no frisking was conducted. It was an outdoor event but I think we all expected security to be just a little bit tighter. But looking at the state of some of the people entering the venue after us.. perhaps things tightened up later on, or we just all looked completely innocent / incapable of causing trouble! Arriving we saw that there was one bar, a large bar with many cashpoints, but just the one bar. Oh except the Prosecco and Gin which for some reason got its own little tent! There was some strange places layed out as VIP areas with seating (on the back of a flat-bed truck), think Grandstanding seating at club-level Motorsport events, and further towards the front was the ‘Golden Circle’. You could upgrade your tickets upon entry if you wanted to pay the additional £20 – £50! We didn’t! The prices at the bar were enough for us… £7 for a pre-poured, flat but still gassy pint of Cider or Larger, so £21 per round saw us perhaps drinking a little less than we might otherwise have done so.
Anyway, we found a decent spot to stand, and some of us.. sat on the floor, as it was a good almost two hours before any kind of entertainment started. First up was Luude who is an up and coming electronic dance music producer from Australia. He was the warm-up act and he did a good job of taking a slightly damp crowd from stationary to up and moving. He played a good selection of tracks in his mix and was impressive to us all I think. Next up was Sigma, a well known name within the Drum n Bass arena with hits such as the chart-topping ‘Nobody to Love’ and ‘Changing’ featuring Paloma Faith.
Now, my personal experience of DnB is probably.. as deep as Rudimental.. Sub Focus etc.. But I do know those two Sigma tracks and quite a few of the past Chase n Status tracks such as ‘Alive’ and ‘Blind Faith’, so I know of the style of music more than know the music well personally myself. So this was for me.. my first experience of a ‘Rave’, and that’s something that can now be ticked off the list. I was a really good night out with friends. For one of them it was their first ever gig, so that’ll likely be an experience to remember too! Sigma had a set of about 40 minutes in length… and they kept mentioning that.. so much so that I think they got more than 40 minutes on stage in the end. Thankfully, once the music started with Luude, they all flowed into each other so there was no big gap waiting for the next artist to come on. Chase n Status were finally on.
CnS were by far the hardest Drum n Bass of the lot and they did play some songs that were older than others, including at least a snippet from their iconic ‘Blind Faith’. But that was the surprising thing to me.. They didn’t rest upon their guaranteed success of pleasing the audience by playing their bangers. They mixed in their newer tracks too. This was.. both pleasing and disappointing – I would have liked to have heard ‘Alive’ and a longer-than-the-intro section of ‘Blind Faith’. But it is what it is, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves up on the stage. The Audience seemed to be enjoying the music too as the core section was not deterred by the weather.. The rain was by this point coming down much heavier than before, but it was still not cold. This didn’t stop the shapes being thrown by the audience whatsoever. There were some people who we could see exiting before the act finished but you know, that’s their loss. We stayed till the end. Stayed a little longer to see if there would be an encore, but that doesn’t seem to happen at this kinda gig. So we started the trek back towards the hotel room for a good night’s rest.
A nice cooked breakfast (which I don’t usually get at hotels I stay at) was the icing on the cake for us the following morning, followed by an ice cream before starting the journey back home. Another good first ticket off for me and great to catch up with friends too. Many more gigs in the future as there’s nothing quite like live music.
