Dunno if anyone else has heard this, but just got a text off a mate saying the Chems have been pulled at Gatecrasher as the main stage has been closed due to adverse weather.

That's a bit shit, innit?

Assume this isn't a wind-up.

Thank fuck for that. I was there. I got so battered on the Saturday night, saw Digitalism then the Prodigy, which was amazing. Then hit the electric stew tent till the Audio Bullys finished. Hit the D&B tent and people were handing drugs out. I went on this big red ride ride on my own twice and passed out between 4-5am, by then the drugs must of faught back at me and I was wide awake, ill as hell for the close at 6am. I realised my tent wasn't fully waterproof when me and my mates started coming down in the puddle which was my tent. Not one area of the tent was dry, and I was so ill from the Saturday night we left to come back upto north yorkshire. By the time I started leveling out last night I was starting to feel gutted I missed the day the Chems were on. But It looks like the decision to come home to recover has been justified. Does anyone know if Pendulum played then? They were ment to be on just before the Chems

So what did we learn from this kids ?

Taking to much drugs is not good.

Pendulum relocated to a main tent two hours later and took the fest by storm.You guys rock!

Talking of storms - how come no one had the foresight to judge the british summer and allow for adverse conditions ? I prepared for it with my glow sticks and motorbike waterproofs - how come the organisers hadnt?? Where was the canopy above the stage ? Did the Prodigy set fire to it the night before? Was it Twisted ? To cancel the Chems set 30 mins before the start because it was a bit chilly was pants ! Weekend ruined ! Im gutted !

Oh no!! :( That is disappointing and such a shame... but if the weather was really bad then the risk of damage (or worse, injury!) wouldn't have been worth it.

surface_to_air, sorry to read you had such a rough night and I'm glad you're feeling better!

although promoters don't have any control over the elements if our experience of gatecrasher is anything to go by they probably could have avoided it.

we went to the first festival they did years back. summersoundsystem I think it was called. it was the worst festival I've ever been to.

the overall organisation was shocking in fact 'organisation' as such was non-existent.

the soundsystems were terrible and dead quiet.

getting to the site was the option of a non existent (but publicised) shuttle buses from the train station or a taxi run in a cartel system which amounted to 40 quid for a 10min journey but gatecrasher were so bad at stewarding/managing the site there was a roadblock so the taxi drivers, having taken your money upfront were dumping you miles from the site at the edge of a main road.

we had to hike across farmland to get in. basically a farmers crop was ruined by ravers trampling across his land. not good.

on site nothing seemed to be on when it was supposed to be. the laminated guide we were sold for a small fortune didn't match the playing times at all and some of the tents/toilets etc on the map weren't even there.

the refreshments stalls were awful and few and far between and it pissed down with rain. we're pretty hardy festival goers but it was a nightmare from start to finish.

we couldn't wait to leave - then we realised there was about 20,000 people trying to get into a tiny village train station all wanting to get on 1 train.

I still shudder when that weekend is brought up.

sorry for the negative post. just reminded me of an expensive and fairly horrible weekend. from what I remember tom n ed were one of the few highlights....

200w Terrastrobes

Moonflowers

Dodgems

R.O.A.R

etc

mchebne is not wrong - it's still EXACTLY the same...

And 4.50 for a pint of beer, 3 quid for a bottle of water, and 10 quid for a laminated "programme" that you put round your neck is taking the piss somewhat...

WHAT!!!

Jesus! I was so hoping my best friend would get the chance to see them! I'm gutted just for her! I told her she wouldn't be disappointed but I guess she was :(

Yeah gatecrasher was the worst festival I've ever been to. It was so badly organised, they couldn't even deal with a bit of rain, nor could they be bothered to make an announcement to let fans know what was going on. And then, to top it off, programmes cost £10 and then none of the times are right. Think it was pretty bad chemical brothers pulled out, don't see why they couldn't have played on another stage. Poor performance. Gutted.

you can't blame tom n ed.

their live rig will take quite some time to set up and they'll have certain needs; technical and physical space which would probably rule them out of being able to use anything but one of the main stages at a festival like that.

time wise it's not going to be easy to turn that lot around to move stages because of the rain.

my comments were about a festival gatecrasher did five or more years ago. it's sad to see that things haven't changed at all. poor form.

i was totally bummed out about this at Gatecrasher but after reading their news story on the front page of www.thechemicalbrothers.com it clearly wasnt their fault...

Still had an amazing weekend too!

Aw, total bummer!

I'm glad you still had an amazing weekend, tlal, and that lineup seemed like it would have had some suitable substitutes.

But it seems like many haven't had good experiences with the festival overall...

about gatecasher...ok, u didn't play for the weather...but why they continued to sell the tickets(with your name!!) in sunday evening without explain the situation ?

Pasquale--while I haven't been to the festival, from what others have posted above it looks like the organizers of Gatecrasher aren't completely concerned about those who attend.

I have little doubt that the festival organizers realized they would sell less tickets if they did what they were supposed to do and take the Chems' name off the tickets. Another possible explanation is that the tickets had already been printed and there was no easy way of obtaining alternately printed tickets for sale the day-of.

Below is the message from the front page in case anyone was wondering/missed it:

*********************************

27-05-2008 //

On Sunday night we were unable to play the Gatecrasher event due to extreme weather which had made the stage dangerous. No other acts were able to perform on the stage all day due to these unforeseen conditions. Our crew arrived 24 hours ahead of the stage time and were fully prepared for the show to go ahead but it was mutually agreed by all parties involved that the stage was not safe due to the extreme weather conditions and particularly constant rain which was blowing onto the stage by the non-prevailing wind. Unfortunately we were unable to relocate to a tent due to crowd safety concerns.

We regret letting down the people that had come to see us. In 14 years of playing live shows we have never been in a position where it has been impossible to play a show due to weather.

Yours,

The Chemical Brothers

*********************************

That is truly a bummer and I feel badly for those who missed the show. There's always that one band you're most looking forward to at a big event such as this... and it must have been so disappointing for Tom and Ed and their crew. :(

The Chems aren't quitters - the closest the Chems came to cancelling a show due to the weather that I can recall was in S. America during the Push The Button tour - but they trooped on anyway, though cutting the show short, despite the wind and rain.

'Extreme' weather conditions ??? This is England in May - it rained and was windy !. We can land a spacecraft on Mars - but have the sense to watch the weather report after News at 10 and relocate to the big tent?? No , sorry - Thanks a bunch Gatecrasher !. I was so disappointed ! (Even worse than the Roundhouse fire alarm fiasco.)

"We can land a spacecraft on Mars - but have the sense to watch the weather report after News at 10 and relocate to the big tent??"

Hey Wolfie, I can totally understand what you must have been feeling. It's a personal MCA when a main act you want to see with pleasent anticipation and shining eyes can't perform because of such stupid mismanagement which is entirely incomprehensible. I feel also sorry for the boys. It must have felt so bad letting down the fans.

Must have been the dark side of the force that day..

I remember when Fatboy played that gig on Jan 1 on brighton beach - It was pissing it down like shit - and afterwards i hear that Norman actually got a few electric shocks from his decks.

Now those were 'just' decks.

Imagine all the stuff that Tom and Ed have on stage.

"imagine all the stuff that Tom and ED have on stage."

i guess they would have been fried up like chickens. nieahoeah. ZUEAHEA. ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!