Aussie Swastikas

Great day out at Parklife. Personal highlights were Krafty Kuts, Ian Pooley, James Taylor and Coldcut. In fact, Coldcut was the turning point of the day for me - he was the first DJ I really connected with. I'd just been over to watch Peter Hook, and although he got full marks for energy, his set wasn't working. He spun Anarchy in the UK, and it totally killed the dancefloor. I think the kids of today are too busy maintaining their physiques to care much about maintaining the rage (more about that later).

Anyway, on comes Coldcut, the massive screens above his head showing images of passing galaxies, and the words "YOU ARE HERE". Slowly it zooms in on earth, then Australia, Sydney, Centennial Park, the crowd, cheering. And from there on, the visuals were as much a part of the show as the sounds. They had an MC too. "This is not the old school, or the new school, but the true school," he said. It's such an obvious concept to mix images with sounds, but so few DJ's are doing it. And sure, the political stuff also went over a lot of people's heads, but this is a better way forwards. All available forms of resistance, and all that. My old boss, Nick, would have loved it, I'm certain.

I was feeling positively geriatric in amongst the very young crowd. I'm old enough not to care now, but if I were 18 again, I'd be stressing out big time about my body. These days the guys are as subject to body-image pressures as the girls, if the heavily-muscled torsos on display are any indication. There were also a lot of Southern Cross tattoos around. I thought they might be a tribute to the Aussie cricket team, until a friend explained they had something to do with the racial tensions that have been simmering recently. Since then I've noticed them around in odd places - yesterday on someones backpack going up the escalators (the enthralling visual world of the commuter). Is this the Australian version of the Swastika?