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Wednesday 17th July 2002 was the date of a rather unusual event. As part of the Clerkenwell Literary Festival, there was a sort of mini-BITLive celebrating the C64 remix scene.
Well, it was fun! Stephen Stuttard (Mort) and I arrived at Angel tube station in good time for the event, despite the fact that the gallery is much closer to Farringdon. This was Stephen's suggestion, as "they're only about an inch apart on the underground map." So, after a couple of miles walking through Islington, we arrived. The gallery is in the basement of an office building, so it's not obvious when you're looking for it, but we did find it.
Press Play on Tape were setting up at that point. We saw Mayhem, Chris, Boz, Kenz and Mark Hennessy-Barrett were also already there, connecting up the videos and laying out the BIT stall. Chris explained that all the CDs laid out on his stall at the event were free! Free posters were also available. Chris appeared much more relaxed this time. His parents also attended the event - it appears they're also SID fans!
There was a bit of difficulty setting up the videos as it turned out the plasma screens didn't have loudspeakers. The Wizball video was run with various CD tracks in the background, while the Atari Robot Demo was run with headphones. Both attracted a lot of attention, and it was great seeing them both on big screens.
Boz had set up two Playstation 2 cabinets with C64s behind them. One was playing Monty on the Run, the other IK+ (at Mayhem's suggestion). Later in the evening, Mort impressed me by playing MotR from beginning to end while I watched, in only about five minutes! When he finished, however, I typed my own name into the highscore table instead of his!
While it's true that the place wasn't exactly crowded, there were enough people there to make it fun. Even some small children were brought along. Most people attributed the relatively low turnout to the fact the event was at 6pm on a weekday, and that a tube strike was scheduled.
PPOT's live set was great. It began with a showing of their boy band video for Comic Bakery. Mort, Mark and I clapped along to Delta, Monty on the Run and Outrun - someone in PPOT later said it was great having three "true fans" in the audience! Kenz and Mark took lots of photos, so hopefully they'll be online soon.
Sadly, Ben Daglish was unavailable, so we didn't get to see him reprise his whistling performance. PPOT were also one member short, as one of their keyboardists was stuck in Peru due to a freak snowfall! They seemed to manage fine despite all these problems (apart from accidentally turning off their keyboard during the intro to Auf Wiedersehen Monty!). They played MotR the best I've heard yet - even without the violinist! Other tunes played included Aztec Challenge, Warhawk, Flimbo's Quest (loader) and Rambo (loader).
During the songs, one of the screens showed video of the games being played. Vintage adverts for the C64 were shown at various points too, providing the band with intervals.
The aforementioned tube strike was due to start at 8pm, and, sure enough, people started leaving in droves just before that point. This caused PPOT some bemusement as this was right in the middle of a song - apparently they hadn't heard about it.
Afterwards, I spoke to the band about the performance, their album and the "Insert Disk B" band in which I'm involved. It was a very interesting conversation. I hope I'm not giving anything major away here, but they are working on some new songs, and there's the possibility of a new album with a guest performer. As for Insert Disk B, they gave me a few tips on licensing tunes and basically getting the whole thing together. It was very helpful - they said they liked the idea of having some competition. They've certainly set a high standard.
Soon it was getting close to 9pm, and the manager(?) of the gallery told Chris he had to be cleared out by 9. So Chris got us all to help clear up - taking down the posters and packing up the equipment and PPOT's gear (with PPOT singing Monty Python's Lumberjack song for some reason!).
Once most of it was done, Mort and I said out farewells and made our way to the bus stop. Luckily, this journey didn't prove quite as long as the earlier one.
So, in conclusion, it was quite an intimate little event, but a lot of fun. It was nice to see everyone again, and also to see and hear PPOT more clearly than at BITLive3, in a cooler atmosphere!
