lifting off

By their own laid back standards, it's been a busy year for Orbital. Following the release of their fifth album, The Middle Of Nowhere, the Hartnoll brothers blew the roof off every festival they guested at including Homelands Ireland, the Republic's first legal open air dance event. Given their unquestionably pivotal role in the shaping of modern music, it's fitting that Orbital have been selected to ring in the new millennium in front of 25,000 people at Cream in Liverpool on December 31st. Ironically, Phil Hartnoll says it's the dress rehearsal date in Dublin's Point Depot on the 29th that the duo are actually looking forward to playing.
"We always jump at the chance to come over to Dublin because my wife is half-Irish and we always have such a good time over there," Phil confirms. "To be honest though, I'm sick of the word 'millennium': I feel no spiritual connection to the event, in the way I felt connected to the Eclipse or the Winter Solstice. Having said that, of all the millennium celebrations going on the Cream event in Liverpool is the best. They're putting on bands as well as DJs and it runs from 6pm till eight in the morning, so it's more like a mini festival than one night out. It's actually good value for money."
Apart from a rather irrational fear that humanity will be reduced to a hunter-gatherer state come 2000, the other main concern about December 31st, 1999 is how to afford the rather exploitative admission prices, in many instances a result of international DJs bumping up their fees to astronomical levels.
So, while Phil agrees that the door fees are exorbitant and will act as a deterrent to many revellers, he also is forthright about the wedge Orbital are receiving for their services.
"Yes, we're getting a horrible amount of money to play for Cream," he says before explaining that Orbital are "employing a crew of twelve people to put on a full production, and they've supported us over the years, so it's about time for us to pay them back. From a figure of #125,000, Paul and myself get #12,000 each. It's still a lot of money, and it would take my wife nearly a year to earn #12,000! Like the rest of the music industry it's completely out of perspective.
"The whole social hierarchy, the 'do you know who I think I am' attitude is wrong to start off with in the first place. In turn this greed will make people scared to go out and instead they'll do their own thing with friends. The situation reminds me of the Eclipse. We played at one of the Eclipse festivals and were led to believe that it was going to be stuffed, but hardly anyone turned up because the authorities told people that Cornwall would be besieged by nutters!"
Although Phil won't tell us whether the Hartnolls will play 'Chime' at the stroke of midnight, he is promising a greatest hits style performance at the Dublin date, almost ten years to the day since Orbital released their first record. One tune we're unlikely to hear at the Point is the recent Orbital remix of singer David Gray, because Phil wants nothing to do with it.
"David is my brother-in-law, and we share the same manager," answers Phil. "Paul did the mix on his own, so it's not an Orbital remix. Anyway, once I heard what he'd done to David, I decided that I didn't want to put my name to it! Paul, I'm only joking!" n
* Orbital play Cream 2000, The Point Depot, Dublin, December 29th, with Basement Jaxx, Roger Sanchez and Mr. Spring.