Guilfest

Well the first day of Guilfest is over, and I'm just gathering myself for day two.

So, how was the first day I hear you cry?

FANTASTIC (ish).

The Darkness had an absolutely storming set, starting in true rock style with a 5 minute instrumental....

And Alice Cooper, great stage show - canes, snakes, swords, dancing girl, big balloons. Great stuff, only let down by the lack of an encour - although that was the council's fault for pulling the plug at 11, miserable bastards!!

Any way, today we have The Undertones, Aqualung, Skin, The Stranglers and Madness to look forward to!!!

Day Two:

I started off the day hobbling around because I was standing up too much the previous day.

Eventually I persuaded my mates we needed to make a move down to Stoke park instead of mucking about with badly working ICE in badly working Peugeots.

Arrived in time for the The Undertones. Good set, and was greatly amused to see the lead singer getting irate with a succession of dodgy microphones. I suspect his monitor was broken 'cos we could hear him fine!!!

Aqualung were exceptionally cool, and a good time was spent lying on the grass of the hill chilling with some beer. They did a superb rendition of 'God Only Knows', as previously seen on Re:Covered.

Skin rocked, new stuff from her album mixed with a couple of Skunk Anansie classics. She was also the first (and probably only) artist to stage dive the crowd!!! Mad scenes as the crowd bubbled and writhed.

Next up, The Stranglers made their Guildford homecoming. I must say that I wasn't familiar with the band, and was pleasantly suprised at the sheer amount of classic tracks that they have done down the years!! It was like the soundtrack to my childhood!!

By now Guildford's premier open space was looking like a bad German Beer Convention, littered as it was with countless empty plastic pint glasses, and covered with a detritus of dubious food of many origins!!! It seemed that all the beverages from the Beer Tent had been transferred 100 yards down the hill to the overflowing troughs in the Gents, a river of piss was surely in the offing, and I resolved not to return to find out - although this didn't stop me getting another pint in before resuming my position for the headline act!!

Right, Madness. It seemed that every Madness fan in the country had descended on Stoke Park. The ground shook under the weight of thousands of 30-something loons jumping around the place. Standing space was at a preimum, and nowhere was safe from the exhuberant jostling. Every song had a backing choir of thousands and rapturous applause at the end!!! They played every track you could want to hear, starting with One Step Beyond, moving through My Girl, the outstanding Our House, and culminating with It Must Be Love, dedicated to Barry White, and Baggy Trousers. I grinned throughout.

The best gig I've been to since I saw Faith No More at Brixton Academy. If you weren't there, or didn't listen on BBC Radio 2, then you missed out on a treat!!

No report for day three, as I'm not going. Need to rest, don't need to see Atomic Kitten!!

Nice review.
Did anyone else see Stuart Pearce wondering around on the saturday - my word that boy still loves his punk music.
Much better turnout than expected and the music was a good laff.
Two downsides - the sight of small children trying to walk their bladdered parents home and a group of gypos camped outside the beer tent in their palarse shirts. An afront to the senses.

Yeah, I saw them, made me cringe. They were far outweighed by the Chelsea fans though, they are the team of choice in this part of Surrey!!

Are you going this year?

whos playing this year ?

Dunno.

I heard a rumour it was Blondie headlining this year.