Lovebox - Friday 16th (Joy Orbison)

Joy Joy Joy. The line-up for the first day of the Lovebox festival 2010 included Dizzee Rascal, Chase & Status, Ellie Goulding, The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club, Mystery Jets, Chew Lips, Sinden, Doorly etc. From my point of view, this was a bang on average line-up, and I started to question why I had paid £45 to see this. Then within a few minutes I remembered, the only reason I'm really here is to see one man, Mr. Joy Orbison (and I am more than willing to pay £45 alone to see one of his sets). Throw Cooly G and Todd Edwards into the equation and you've got a good day of music ahead of you, although nothing could touch the hour of brilliance which O'Grady provided to a slightly subdued audience in the small NYC Downlow tent, a crowd which I very much doubt fully appreciated what they were hearing in all honesty.

O'Grady once again showed his great talent for ridiculously good track selection, with a great range of track styles that fit in the 130-140 bpm range. The set moved through house/funky, old school garage (95-98 era), new and up-coming post-dubstep/future dubstep (call it what you like, just know that's it's fantastic stuff) as well as featuring a number of his own wonderful productions. It was a really well balanced set, keeping you moving with a gradually increasing tempo and continual progression through styles which kept pulses and feet moving for the full hour.

JO opened with J.Doe playing alongside the intro of Braiden's debut track 'The Alps'. As soon as I heard this little combination I knew the set would be great, and there was no looking back after this. Other tracks which featured were Breach's 'Fatherless', Nu-birth's 'Anytime', a Groove Chronicles number, 'Brkln Clln', 'The Shrew Would Have Cushioned The Blow', 'So Derobe', 'Hyph Mngo', Ramadanman's great new release 'Work Them', as well as Pangaea's future garage track 'Memories'. As well as these wonders, there were a few very nice funky/house tracks early on in the set which I hadn't had the pleasure of hearing before, with a couple of lovely dark old school garage tunes which I'm not aware of also carefully arranged into the mix (these tracks were of the same ilk as artists such as RIP Productions, Groove Chronicles and Zed Bias). This all culminated in a great set, which was spot on both in terms of track selection and the formulation of mixes. My expectations were huge, I mean this was the reason I went to Lovebox in all honesty, and it says a lot about an artist when they surpass all your expectations. Brilliant. Sweaty, but brilliant.

Whilst walking around the various places on offer before JO's set, just killing time for the main event, I was surprised to find O'Grady hanging around outside the Rizla arena, watching on at Zombie Disco Squad before his set. I was delighted to find that he is a down to earth and humble guy, who was more than happy to chat about his music and the exciting Doldrums label. It's really nice to find someone that has had such a meteoric rise and success over the past year or so keeping his feet on the ground, not getting carried away and just wanting to keep on doing what he's great at; producing fantastic tracks and djing to adoring crowds.

Joy Orbison will not be stopped, his reputation is ever growing, and deservedly so. Look out for his live dates at his myspace page by clicking here, and I will let you know when London dates pop up, he is a must see artist. I will also be keeping you informed on JO's future releases and any material produced from the Doldrums label, I have a feeling we'll be seeing a new release from JO on his very own label shortly. Thank you Joy.