Report from BIT 4 in Brighton ....

[Chris Abbott]

At this point I have to say that BIT Live was plagued by bad luck in
some quarters:

1) First guy who was going to lend us the hard disk recorder: died.
2) Second guy who was going to lend us the hard disk recorder: family emergency
3) Guys with C64s and third Amiga: family emergency!
4) Hard disk recorder we eventually got: 8 channels died, external drive bay didn't work (and this was hired from a reputable company!)
5) Nexus 6581 vol 2 didn't turn up (thank God Project Galway did!)
6) The blue screens we ordered for the upstairs event (you know, behind the stalls), weren't six foot tall as we ordered: they were six foot WIDE! Damn!!

Anyway, at least none of this stopped people having a great time, which was cool. I was glad Peter Sandén and Andrew Fisher managed to make the photoshoot happen at 3pm!

Also, the concert wasn't meant to be a "sit down" concert at all: they were meant to have removed the tables! But I think it was probably for the best, since 4 hours on your feet would tire you and, and it would have been hot and sweaty on the dance floor.

At least we solved the problems of BIT Live 3 (except drink prices).

As for the confusion over whether this was BIT Live 4 or 5: well, it was officially 5. 6 if you count 8-bit revolution!

Birmingham 2001 - no. 1
London 2001 - no. 2
London 2002 - no. 3
8-Bit Revolution
Germany 2003 - no. 4
Brighton 2003 - no. 5

Although I added to the confusion by calling the directory on the website
"bitl4"!

So let's just call it "Brighton 2003"

Chris

[Franksey$D012]

As for Martin Galway - whos from Belfast just like me - , is another great great guy, what a laugh we had with him.... Dawsy, Stevie and me talked to martin for well over an hour at the evening event and the story he told us about hearing 'Thing on a Spring' for the first time and the faces he pulled while explaining it had me in fits of laughter.....

Mate, I spent a great day with you and Dawsy and could we ever have imagined back in the 80s that one day we'd be stood next to Martin Galway listening to Rob Hubbard play live on a stage?! I can hardly believe it even now!

[dan gillgrass]

Markus Schneider: Which hotel were you in again?

He just didnt know

[Chris Abbott]

> He just didnt know
There is SUCH a story behind that one, involving me, the late minibus, Yodelking, a lost fax, the Best Western Brighton and one very tired and angry Chris (St. Christophers managed to lose the fax I sent them explaining in excruciating detail who was sleeping where, and Best Western Brighton had lost the previous day's data because it was after midnight!)

Markus was actually in Rob Hubbard's room the day before Rob Hubbard checked into it, and then as far as I'm aware, he used one of the spare
beds in the dorm accommodation.

Chris

[Cloudy]

Hello all,

First BIT I'd been to, I really enjoyed it. Came along to the pub on the Friday, knew we were in the right place when I saw the t-shirts

Shame we didn't know anyone still enjoyed the music though! Since I'd never seen "press play on tape" I didn't know what to expect, but thought they were great. That girl with the dreds too, wow!

Brighton is such a great place, lots of stuff to do there, had a great weekend. Will probably be at the next one!

[Mayhem]

The reason for the lack of C64s running wasn't due to them not working... we had the machines, power packs, joysticks etc... just not enough RF leads to connect them to the TVs!

And I believe this might be post 6581 on these boards

[tas]

CLOUDY

hey, you could have always knocked around with us guys ya know. More the merrier. hey if ya go to bit 6 if there is one, then give look for me and i'll introduce you to many people. A yorkshire man is always welcome =)

[Mayhem]

That girl with the dreds too, wow!

Which one, I saw two over the weekend

One of which is a friend of mine called "Bluey" who was asked to do the editing for the DVD... very nice girl

[Larsec]

One of which is a friend of mine called "Bluey" who was asked to do the editing for the DVD... very nice girl

Oh yeah, remember meeting her at the bar (and you as well I guess ), very nice girl She gave me her real name but I forget... So many things going on...

[Cloudy]

Well to be honest I only tried it out cos I have a friend in Brighton, so accomodation was free And after a 4+ hour drive (M25 on a Friday, yeuch), it's good to have someone to talk to!

Er, dunno, only saw the one girl at the do and she was by the door most of the night. Probably the safest place to be, haha

[dan gillgrass]

Well to be honest And after a 4+ hour drive (M25 on a Friday, yeuch),

I had an 11 hour drive back last night, first it was the traffic then the dodgy roads going to Macc, oh yea, then I got lost trying to get out of Macc and ended up on the Manchester ring road...oh well!

[Markus Schneider]

Ok,ok,ok !
After having too much drinks at the end of the event I still managed it to find my hotel. (I was so lucky finding Neil, Glyn, Lasse, Dan and Infy at a Fish'n'Chips shop late in the night helping me to find it). Finally beeing there I noticed I didn't know where PPOT and me stayed in due to some trouble at the friday check-in. (I had to sleep in Martin Galway's room on Friday.) Further I noticed my bag with all my stuff was still at Brighton centre. So I went off to find my bag but was too drunk to find the centre again. After realising this I finally managed it to get into the room.

Well, I am happy to have the most things still in mind, anyway it would have been better to have less drinks. /me in court "But I am not guilty. Everybody wanted to have a drink with me." And O2 would add ... and you also got a fishy one. *LOL*

At least I enjoyed the weekend a lot. The main reasons had been the nice talkings to many nice people there. The concert was great showing up with 'real pro's' - just great stuff from all performers. I had really interesting chats with sid composers like Richard, Fred, Rob, Martin, Ben, Barry, Reyn and all the others which I never met before.

The only thing I missed, had been name tags to identify people. I did not know that Simon Nicol was on board, after I read it in this topic.

A big thanks to everybody who made this event happen and invested time and money into this project.

After very less sleep, I now need some time to get all my strength back.

CU


PS: I really was lucky to catch my flight. If the bus had been 5 minutes later, I would have been still in Standsted. *PHEEW*

[tas]

Markus, your a class act =) was good to meet you and have so much fun at your expense.. LOL

don't worry i have had a sneak peak at some of the photo's you'll have a laugh at my expense very soon. :-/

hehe

[ElliotM]

After having read all the fantastic messages on this forum about BIT Brighton, I've got to admit, I'll never forget the evening...ever!

Regardless of what was/wasn't played, just being within touching distance of Rob "Lightforce" Hubbard made the evening for me...he is my idol from my younger days, and nothing will change that.

I can't wait for the DVD...Chris, do you have any idea of the potential cost at this stage and possible release date?

Also, I really hope that you recovered all of your costs for the event, and if not, I'm sure the DVD will sell like hot cakes from the Comic Bakery

Do PPOT have any videos/DVDs of just them performing C64 stuff?

[Matrix]

The sweet girl editing the video with Fred... was his daughter Alex... The gal with the short chequerd skirt and Loooooong legs that caught everyones attention as she bent down during PPOT's dance number was (i think) MOG who was also (i think) the barmaid from Gossips last year !!

But thumbs up to Mahoney for bringing the best looking gal there ..... there was a thai lass too, but she looked bored as heck, almost like she was being dragged round..... i only saw her smile once as she got Martins autograph .. must be the beard hehehe....