Surrey can be good on rare occasions...
The missus & I managed to win 2 free tickets for Guilfest this weekend through my work, which is pretty cool.
After lamenting the fact that we're not going to be able to afford any festivals for a long time it was nice to be able to go and chill out, even if the festival itself was pretty tiny.
I was impressed by Cerys Matthews - was worried she'd be a bit too country & western but she was absolutely lovely and even did a couple of Catatonia numbers. Her stripped-down version of 'Road Rage' was a lot better than the original single as well. The Damned were as good a live experience as it is possible to get but were on stupidly early - 3.15, in front of a couple of tribute acts to The Jam and Pink Floyd. This meant their set was criminally short whereas I thought it could have done with an extra 3 or 4 songs. Or ten. Can't moan really as it was a)the second time I've seen them in 6 months and b)free entry. It's just that they've become one of my personal favourite live bands. I don't know what it is but hearing the opening bars of 'New Rose' or 'Smash It Up' does something to me. It's like something goes 'ping' and all of the decaying grown-up cells in my almost 30 year-old brain suddenly run into a phone booth and emerge in a Superman costume ready to rescue people from burning buildings or prop up falling skyscapers or something. It's not right that a band that old should have more energy than bands a third of their age.
For me the least surprising part of the festival was exactly how chuffing good Blondie were. Having seen them at Glasto almost a decade ago I knew that they would be nothing less than excellent, however I feel that I appreciated it a lot more. The band seem to genuinely enjoy being on stage and this made for a really fun show with Debbie kicking her shoes off into the audience after a couple of numbers, starting a song with the intro to 'Voodoo Chile', finishing their main set with an epic version of 'Rapture' and coming back with 'Atomic' and a cover of 'Get Off Of My Cloud' for encores. Needless to say all the crowd-pleasers were included from 'One Way or Another' and 'Heart of Glass' to 'Call Me' and 'Maria'. In the 9 years since Glasto '99, the band have got even better at playing, Debbie now looks younger than she did at the end of the '90s and has also got better at rapping, which was a good thing considering the extended version of 'Rapture', the original single of which allegedly brought New York hip-hop to a mainstream white audience for the first time in the 1980s and was also the worst attempt at rapping ever committed to vinyl until John Barnes guested on 'World In Motion'.
The biggest surprise of the festival for me was Kula Shaker - they are actually really good live. Don't take my word for it, go and see them!
After lamenting the fact that we're not going to be able to afford any festivals for a long time it was nice to be able to go and chill out, even if the festival itself was pretty tiny.
I was impressed by Cerys Matthews - was worried she'd be a bit too country & western but she was absolutely lovely and even did a couple of Catatonia numbers. Her stripped-down version of 'Road Rage' was a lot better than the original single as well. The Damned were as good a live experience as it is possible to get but were on stupidly early - 3.15, in front of a couple of tribute acts to The Jam and Pink Floyd. This meant their set was criminally short whereas I thought it could have done with an extra 3 or 4 songs. Or ten. Can't moan really as it was a)the second time I've seen them in 6 months and b)free entry. It's just that they've become one of my personal favourite live bands. I don't know what it is but hearing the opening bars of 'New Rose' or 'Smash It Up' does something to me. It's like something goes 'ping' and all of the decaying grown-up cells in my almost 30 year-old brain suddenly run into a phone booth and emerge in a Superman costume ready to rescue people from burning buildings or prop up falling skyscapers or something. It's not right that a band that old should have more energy than bands a third of their age.
For me the least surprising part of the festival was exactly how chuffing good Blondie were. Having seen them at Glasto almost a decade ago I knew that they would be nothing less than excellent, however I feel that I appreciated it a lot more. The band seem to genuinely enjoy being on stage and this made for a really fun show with Debbie kicking her shoes off into the audience after a couple of numbers, starting a song with the intro to 'Voodoo Chile', finishing their main set with an epic version of 'Rapture' and coming back with 'Atomic' and a cover of 'Get Off Of My Cloud' for encores. Needless to say all the crowd-pleasers were included from 'One Way or Another' and 'Heart of Glass' to 'Call Me' and 'Maria'. In the 9 years since Glasto '99, the band have got even better at playing, Debbie now looks younger than she did at the end of the '90s and has also got better at rapping, which was a good thing considering the extended version of 'Rapture', the original single of which allegedly brought New York hip-hop to a mainstream white audience for the first time in the 1980s and was also the worst attempt at rapping ever committed to vinyl until John Barnes guested on 'World In Motion'.
The biggest surprise of the festival for me was Kula Shaker - they are actually really good live. Don't take my word for it, go and see them!