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Wakestock preview

Brandon Block

Last updated: 03 July 2009

With his opening set competing against the Red Arrows, DJ Brandon Block has high hopes for Wakestock 2009. Some of the stars tell us what to expect.

Friday headliner Moby shares his thoughts on life, Wakestock and his new album on the BBC Radio Wales Evening Show.
Listen to Moby.

Like all festival-goers, DJ Brandon Block is hoping the weather will hold out, but he's particularly looking forward to his Friday afternoon set, when he'll be giving extra sound to the aerobatics of the Red Arrows.

"I'm thinking of playing the theme to the Italian Job, The Self Preservation Society. Nice and patriotic," he said.

"Then, as it's the afternoon, I'll be playing some deep room sounds because it's an open air stage. Also maybe some classics and a few up-to-date remixes to get them all going; you don't want to play something too trendy to start off proceedings."

Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens is excited about the line-up he's created for Sunday night's Relentless Live stage. "Wakestock asked me to put together some bands which would get people dancing and feeling happy.

"I'll also be doing a DJ set. I usually put my set list together last minute, though I've got an idea of what to play. Something to keep people on their feet on the last night!"

Huw's also delighted to be introducing Dyffryn Nantlle band, Y Promatics. "I'm really happy they've won a competition to play. They did a session for us on Radio Cymru's C2 and they're great.

"Even though Wakestock has grown into a really big festival with a lot of big English bands, they still have lots of Welsh bands on, which is great."

Y Promatics Dafydd Foxhall, Y Promatics' drummer, sees this as a massive opportunity for the band. "Being able to play at Wakestock will be superb. This is Wales's biggest festival by now and it's the biggest gig we've ever done.

"I remember watching the Zutons play a couple of years ago, and now we're playing at the same festival as them!"

Dafydd says his band are something new on the Welsh music scene. "We're big fans of Bloc Party; a mixture of indie, rock and pop. There aren't many bands like that in the Welsh language so our aim is to offer something different."

The five-piece band, who all met at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle, have striven to stay together, despite members being scattered all over England and Wales.

"It's been really hard to get together to practise," said Dafydd. "Two of the group live in Nottingham and won't be coming home until the week before, when I'm working! Thankfully we use a lot of backing tracks and synths, so I've been practising on my electric drum kit at home."

Dafydd, a sound engineer, has experienced Wakestock as both a fan and worker. "I was working at last year's festival as part of a film crew. It was great to see the festival from a different angle; sober and backstage.

"It's fantastic; coaches taking you down to the beach to see the wakeboarding. You meet people from Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand; it's amazing how international the festival is.

"So my tip is, get down to see the competing; that's worth seeing in itself, never mind the music."

But you won't have to go down to the beach to get some wakeboarding action. Rebecca Tappin, part of the Wakestock team, explains how the on-site Pool Gap works. "It's basically two pools with a set of rails in between. A winch pulls the riders across the water so they can do tricks."

Back at Pwllheli beach, reigning world champion Nick Davies will take on three-times Relentless Wakestock champion Dan Nott and a host of southern hemisphere pros.

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