Chemikal, Numbers and The Wedding Present look forward to The Last Big Weekend

Chemikal Underground’s inaugural East End Social jamboree of outstanding music events comes to a close with The Last Big Weekend, a towering two-day beast of a festival held on 30-31 August in the idyllic surroundings of Richmond Park. The line-up for both evenings is naturally stellar and, if one wishes to be crudely divisive, split between the ‘indie’ crowd on the Saturday – headlined by Mogwai – and the ‘dance’ crowd on the Sunday – headlined by Hudson Mohawke. But on speaking to the organisers and those playing, it seems the lines are much more blurred between everyone involved.

As Chemikal’s Stewart Henderson admits, "There are threads of influence to be found and unpicked throughout the programme," ranging from the grand doyen of indie rock David Gedge and his evergreen Wedding Present through Fuck Buttons carrying on into Sunday’s collision course of wide-eyed electronic madness courtesy Optimo DJs and party specialists Numbers.

Indeed, Numbers have massively revved up the Glasgow electronic music scene in recent times, and co-founder Richard Chater, also associated with Rubadub – the record and music equipment store which moonlights as a major distributor – is understandably proud of their programming for the second night of the festival. “The Sunday line-up is all about good music which represents what Numbers and Optimo are all about,” says Chater.

“We didn't want to compromise the line-up to the mainstream, we wanted to represent what both entities do and we all brought our own things to the table. Optimo brought Golden Teacher and James Murphy whereas for Numbers, we've got SOPHIE MSMSMSM there, Hudson Mohawke – we've known Ross for years, he used to come into Rubadub – and then you've got people like Jeff Mills who has been a longstanding influence on all of us. I think Keith McIvor [AKA Twitch] was the first person to actually bring Jeff Mills to play in Scotland during the Pure days. It's a dream line-up for all of us, having all these people all playing on the same day, it's outrageous! We don't get to do this very often. Golden Teacher also release on Optimo and I think they are the best band in Glasgow right now, we're massively inspired by those guys at the moment. And then Mills and Murphy's influence looms large over Glasgow!”

"It's a dream line up for all of us, having all these people all playing on the same day, it's outrageous!" – Richard Chater

While Mogwai may top the bill over on the Saturday night, it is the influence of the Wedding Present which also peers down upon the pretenders. The lineage between the Weddoes, Swervedriver and Mogwai is plain to hear and Gedge is bringing a rather unusual line-up of the band to Glasgow for this show. “Mogwai are one of my all-time favourite bands,” admits Gedge, “And Swervedriver, I've not seen them for years, so that will be interesting. And it'll be very interesting for us too as the Wedding Present because, when we were asked to do it, I contacted the current members of the band and all three said 'No, we're not available!' So I said this to the organisers who then offered to provide some Scottish musicians but I turned it down again. And just as I was thinking about it, I e-mailed Paul Dorrington, an old Wedding Present guitarist who was in the band from 1991 through 1994 and I just mentioned it to him… and he agreed to play. And then I asked an old drummer, Graeme Ramsay, who was in the band a bit later, and he said yes and the bass player on the day is Paul's girlfriend. So it's a one-off, unique line-up!”

Gedge has very fond memories of his time working with Chemikal Underground's founders. “There's a huge connection between the Wedding Present and the Delgados,” he reflects. “I heard them first on John Peel, as you heard most things, and I fell in love with them straight away. So we invited them to support us on a Wedding Present tour, we got on really well and the relationship was established then. Later on, when I did the first Cinerama LP Va-Va-Voom in 1997, I actually invited Emma Pollock to come down and sing on it, so we duetted on a couple of songs. And this year, I was doing my own festival in Brighton, and I invited Emma to join Cinerama on stage; then she asked me to come up and play this event in Glasgow! It was great.”

As well as offering a ridiculously talented two day bill of events, the Last Big Weekend also works wonderfully as a showcase for the incredible wealth and breadth of music coming out of Scotland right now. Stewart Henderson is very conscious of The Last Big Weekend’s role in highlighting this: “There's a shared mind between Chemikal, Numbers, Optimo and Mogwai. There's a critical discernment at play and it's good for us to apply that and put a festival line-up together. The fact that there is a really strong focus on Scottish acts, on the Sunday in particular, peppered with international acts, it draws attention to what we've got on our doorstep but it's also got a real international flavour to it. And that's how it should be.”