Sequences Podcast No 210: The Fourth E.M.M.A. Festival, Derby 1997

Sequences Magazine

Emma was formed in 1994 by a team of fans and musicians who gathered together to create an organisation promoting electronic music in the UK, producing a regular newsletter and holding yearly festivals. 1994 saw two festivals in Derby, England, the first showcasing the best UK acts inc, John Dyson, Andy Pickford, Ian Boddy and Mark Shreeve. The second saw a more international lineup inc. Jonn Serrie (USA) & TK (Germany) both were very successful events. In 1995 the venue was switched to Sheffield. Again, the show had an international flavour with the highlight of two of our most successful artists, Ian Boddy & Andy Pickford, headlining. After those successful festivals, we were looking forward to more years devoted to EMMA, unfortunately, after some heated exchanges during our monthly meetings, with many leaving, left the remaining members said they could not carry on. Sequences editorial staff who were part of that team decided to go it alone with the EMMA name. Hence two years later, in 1997, the fourth EMMA festival took shape with Mind Over Matter & Waveshape from (Germany), ex Hawkwind player Harvey Bainbridge and three UK acts, Bekki Williams, T/Bass & Kinetic. Although the show, musically, was successful, audience attendance was down on the day. It didn’t help to be the hottest weekend of that summer & unknown to us, a Jean Michel Jarre convention in the same city. Special mention must go to Stephan Whitlan, who held everything together as a stage manager on that day, where quite a few technical problems occurred, the biggest failure being Derby University’s massive thirty thousand pound lighting rig which refused to work. It took over three hours for someone to notice they hadn’t connected the power, which meant we had to cut short the headlining act Mind Over Matter’s set (they were not too happy) so as not to run over the time limit set by the concert hall or occur hefty charges. And if this wasn’t the end of it, the mixing desk operator who was supposed to look after the recording of the concert failed to check it from time to time, hence some annoying humming & dropouts on the recorded masters we were sent. Tony Sawford (R.I.P.) did his best to try & restore them with some success, but I still felt they were not right. It’s only recently that I’ve rechecked the DATs. Unfortunately, they had not aged well over the last 25 years, having various degrees of deterioration, with one tape breaking, not helped being stored in a shipping container for four years when I emigrated to Australia. With new up to date software not available at that time, we have succeeded in capturing some sections of the performances of what we could salvage. Still, we feel some listeners, especially those who attended the festival, giving you a nostalgic podcast from our last EMMA Festival. Bekki Williams 00.00 T-Bass 20.19 Kinectic 40.33 Harvey Bainbridge 54.53 Waveshape 01.15.40 Mind Over Matter 01.37.31