Boomtick and Fuzzy’s Parklife was back again for the second year running with a sold-out event that was bigger than ever and an impressive line-up that even superceded last year. Spread over four stages it included two venues – The Deen and The Shed, and an outside stage on Aberdeen Street.

Those that arrived early (or much later) in the day could count themselves lucky. A plan to arrive in time to see the first international – Mattafix at 3pm turned out to be a fizzer with the line spreading around the corner and along Newcastle Street, resulting in an hour’s wait for ticket holders to get into the venue, and much disappointment at missing this UK hip hop duo who have been achieving considerable success over the last few year’s.

Mixmaster Mike, using Serato Scratch software which allows him to have all his music on his laptop and use two records to control it, was scratching it up in the glaring sun on the outside stage. Dropping snippets of one tune after the other including the Beastie Boy’s Three MCs and One DJ, there was no disputing the technical skills of this guy. I mean he did win the DMC Championship three times, taught Q-bert and was poached by the Beastie Boys; but it just wasn’t cutting it for some people. Many thought he was a little off kilter and not as good as last time, other’s thought it was bad positioning on the line-up. There were certainly a few complaints about him playing Nirvana and White Stripes tunes. I think it came down to the fact that it just lacked flow and unless you were standing right at the front, you couldn’t see him at work (as there was no video screen), which of course always helps when listening to a scratch DJ. C’est la vie, I guess.

Ducked into The Shed to catch a bit of Peter Hook’s set and see what this Joy Division and New Order legend might dish up as a DJ – particularly given that DJing apparently got him back his passion for music. He certainly looked like he was loving it, jumping around like crazy behind the decks dropping one hit after the other including a remix of Song 2 by Blur, a cool Bizarre Love Triangle remix and Dare by the Gorillaz in the space of three tracks. The bass was so pumping that it was causing the roof of The Shed to reverberate. It was fun for a little while but his set turned too cheesy when he played The Bodyrockers I Like The Way You Move and some people decided they liked the way to move on outta there.

After checking out the rest of the stages and the wonderful ITM VIP toilets, which meant no toilet queues and space to have a breather, it was decided The Shed felt a bit like a sanctuary in comparison to the over-crowdedness on the street and in The Deen, so we decided to stick with the happy vibe and listen to German DJ/Producer Ian Pooley. As on his last visit to Perth a few years ago, he took the crowd on a pleasant tech-house journey, delivering a danceable set with quality tunes and superb smooth mixing skills. It was one of the day’s highlights.

By 7pm it was almost impossible to get inside The Deen, where Kid Kenobi was firing up the breaks with the very metrosexual Shureshock working the crowd. Hip Hop maestro Cut Chemist was one of the most anticipated acts on the bill and proved to be one of the day’s highlights for those that managed to get in to see him. With MC Hymnal an unexpected guest for part of set, everyone’s favourite record pharmacist got things under way proper once left to his own devices, with (My First) Big Break from debut offering The Audience’s Listening an early highlight. More tracks from the album followed, mixed in with scratched up samples and faves. Highlights included a cut up run through recent single The Garden and an extended acapella play of the It Began In Africa sample made famous by the Chemical Brothers’ track of the same name. Hymnal returned to the stage and got the crowd amped for What’s The Altitude before the ex-Jurassic 5 DJ headed down into the audience and recorded himself interviewing a couple of lucky front-rowers who then got to hear their responses played back through the Chemist’s Powerbook and scratched up over his final track. With a show this good even J5 fans would’ve been happy to see him doing his solo thing.

Up next the Stanton Warriors opened with the Trentemoller’s electro-breaks mix of Sharon Phillips’ Want To Need You lifted from their latest album Stanton Sessions Vol. 2. A slammin’ breaks set followed, getting the crowd rockin’ with a mix of theirs and others – WuTang and Fat Boy Slim tracks included. By this point though, those in the know were heading back outside to find things had actually thinned out a little for the return to Perth of headliners Coldcut. With one of the world’s most respected live shows thanks to their mix of class tunes and cutting edge visuals, the men that brought you Ninjatunes brought us a wonderfully sublime set of hip hop, breaks and some more chilled stuff, which left some of the drug-fucked massive confused but the rest begging for more. Classic tunes like Timber were made all the more brilliant thanks to the video footage of old forest wreckage and islanders’ visible stress. Other highlights included tracks from their latest album like True Skool, and the encore performance of Everything’s Under Control. Although the crowd didn’t exactly go off when the band left the stage, this was truly one of the coolest shows to swing by our city this year, and here’s hoping the poor reaction didn’t put them off returning again.

While some people ran off to join the rest of the masses jumping around to the Stanton Warriors and Mark Farina, the rest of the crowd slowly gathered their wits about them and made their way out into the a night policed to the max with bag searches and drug busts all part of the cost of entry (yeah, now you’re happy there’s Pass Outs aren’t you kids…). Most people weren’t quite sure whether they’d had a good day or not, with Parklife 06 not really living up to expectation, yet with so many great acts it was hard to not be impressed by the artists on display. Perhaps this was an example of bigger not necessarily being better, and here’s hoping they don’t add on the Post Office next year…

_Rachel Davison & H.Rae