Planet Angel - Live an Ordinary Life in an Extraordinary Way

We’ll be updating this page regularly with photos and comments as we receive them.. You can check the “updated” date below to see if things have been added since your last visit!

Updated: 1st February 2007 - Video Blog posted by Pete
Updated: 19th January 2007  - New set of photos uploaded from Gemma (Glitterbug)
Many thanks to Gemma for uploading the photos to the site, if anyone else has any pictures from the night please do upload them. if you have tried and are having problems please call me and I'll try to help, FTP and contact details are at the end of the review.

Sea Legs and Fireworks!.. 

It took 18 months of planning including countless meetings, a Saturday morning tasting session, several decor practise rigs, 6 different hand drawn ‘to-scale’ floor plans, revision after revision of schedules and itineraries, and days of military-style checking and re-checking logistics.. but it was worth it!

The Planet Angel 2006 New Year’s Eve Cruise was everything we’d hoped for. 

While Party People gathered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Most of the crew were rigging the boat, which was done at Lambeth Pier - about a mile upriver from the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Festival Pier where everyone else would board. We had just an hour and a half to rig the boat!

Rigging means loading and setting up everything; food and catering systems for nearly 200 people, (do you know how heavy salads that size are!), the PA system, the decor, the flower arrangements, the lights etc etc.  OK, if this was a case of opening the back doors and wheeling it all in, then hey no problem.  Nope, for this event it meant parking the van on the pavement and carrying everything up over the flood barrier, across a sodden wet walkway, down another - perilously steep - walkway to the main pier, up onto a swaying barge (with a gap between just big enough to fall into and disappear into the cold grey Thames) along the slippery metal barge, down some steep, slippery, wet metal steps, hop across another 30cm gap, then another onto another boat, across that boat hop another gap and onto our boat that was ‘triple parked’ as far away from the pier as is imaginable.  Occasionally the boats would drift apart and the gap would be too far to jump so you’d have to stand there in the half light getting wet in the drizzle, waiting until the gap closed a bit. And all this with something heavy or awkward in your arms. Once on board we had to scramble back for another load, 12 of us made about 3 terrifying trips each!

After the usual gambit of “who’d-have-thought-that-could-go-wrong” rigging problems (like – we found the only surface on the planet that high grade water-proof gaffa tape doesn’t stick to) we managed to get everything ready just in time for boarding - which ended up being delayed by two other boats that had badly managed boarding procedures… It turned out that Jenni and Arif (who were responsible for the Planet Angel boarding process) ended up helping customers of the other boats to get organised – the Yellow Planet Angel Host jackets acted like beacons to panicky random people wondering which boat they should be boarding!

Eventually our boat – bathed in purple light and clearly identifiable as the “Planet Angel Boat” - arrived at the Pier amid cheers and sighs of relief, especially from the three guys who had run all the way from Embankment with literally seconds to spare.. 

The journey started gently amid the gentle tunes served up by Resident DJ Nibbler and people started to settle in.. The Planet Angel Kitchen was swamped with people from the start and the food that we’d planned for months was almost completely devoured in about 90 minutes! By the time Resident DJ Dr. F took over at around 10:30 the atmosphere had built up to full pre-party state and the vibe was great!

As no boats are allowed near the London firework display we’d initially planned to cruise downriver towards Greenwich and then back up, but after a word with the helpful Captain Bill, we re-planned the route to be as near as we were allowed to be to the London Eye just before midnight… We arrived in time to grab a great mooring spot and, as BBC Radio 4 announced midnight, the fireworks started to a soundtrack by DJ Dr. F that can only be described as exquisite – as anyone there will surely testify. It was a magical moment, the huge skylights of the boat were open with loads of people standing on chairs, their heads out of the boat watching the London Eye light up with fireworks and waving to other people on boats next to us doing the same.. and the sound of beautiful music and fireworks mixing in the cool evening air..

For the rest of the cruise we set off upriver and back down again in full party mode waving at the thousands of people lining the bridges as we slid gently under them. Special guest DJ Ade Laugee played a fantastic set of classic uplifting trance that seemed like a collection of the best tunes played at Planet Angel throughout the years... and a party ensued.

As we arrived back at Festival Pier and disembarked, the party spirit and smiles were carried off on Sea legs to countless house parties, after parties and other New Year’s Eve events…  What a night.

And then we had 20 minutes to derig!

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New Years Eve....Thanks to everyone who contributed to make it my best ever! Mouthwatering food, amazing cruise, mindboggling sights, headspinning fireworks, wicked music & lovely people. We still had time to get in last orders at our local, followed by a houseparty with our closest friends back home!  WELL DONE PLANETANGEL once again.. (Maggie)

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:) OMG! what an amazing  new years eve party!!! I had such a wicked time!! (Lauren)

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What a FANTASTIC Boat Party!!!.. The vibe of the party was as usual perfect with a great chance to meet new people who are enjoying PA just as much as I did when a regular. Will hopefully see you in February and Thank You to ALL involved.

Love and Hugs, Pete xxxx

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WOW!!! What a way to welcome the New Year! A truly fantastic party with some truly fantastic memories!

From the tasty food to the amazing music espicially after the fireworks what a tune to kick off the New Year! Absolute classic! Thanks to EVERYONE involved. And EVERYONE includes all the party peps that gives PA that friendly vibe which we all enjoy so much.

Peace, Love, Unity, Respect
(kowboy kid) 

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* If you’d like to add your comments on the night please feel free to post them on the guest book and we’ll make an edited collection of them here for prosperity!

* Also! If you took photos on the night and would like them posted up here with the rest, please follow the instructions below and we’ll endeavour to post up the best ones!

To upload your New Years Eve pictures you will need some knowledge of FTP (call if you get stuck!). The FTP settings are detailed below:

FTP Site: ftp://freeolaweb1.freeola.net/NYE_PICS/
Username: sr0395701
Password: M00ndevil

You should upload your photos here in a new folder that you create (Make the name of the folder the same as your name so we know who to credit on the site)

If you have any problems please feel free to call me (Glenn) on 07970 688 542 and I will try to help.