Guilfest 2004 - Day 3

I entered Guilfest 2004 to the sound of ‘The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain' knocking out an unforgivably lame version of Undertones classic ‘Teenage Kicks'. I must admit I was curious when I saw their name on the bill, and for some inexplicable reason, I thought that they might be rather good. Their version of Morricone's ‘Once Upon a Time In The West' was well up to scratch, the Ukeleleists chipping in with the ‘wah wah wah' vocals and some very confident whistling. They closed with an overly ‘mockney' cover of ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go' with an “I've got eels for me supper” refrain. According to their promo material, the UOOGB aim to “reveal the triviality of pop music”. They do this, of course, through the least trivial instrument of them all – the ukelele.

Eve Selis' country rock band were very tight but the vocals grated like a mature Parmesan over a steaming bowl of pasta. During her set I witnessed that most moving form of personal expression - linedancing. It wasn't pretty.

Midge Ure injected the first bit of real talent into the proceedings, on stage alone bar his acoustic guitar for 45 minutes, he held the crowd in the palm of his hand the entire time with beautiful songs interspersed with witty banter. His strong falsetto was waning toward the end of his set but nevertheless he obliged the 600 requests for ‘Vienna' and rasped his way through ‘Dancing'

The Saw Doctors were a welcome injection of adrenalin and had the crowd on their feet in no time. They seemed to be able to fit a Rolling Stones coda onto nearly all their songs, however I was hungry by this time and was tucking into ‘Mexican' food through most of their set!

Femi Kuti was by far the best act that I saw at Guilfest. He had an incredible band, the rhythm section playing as one, as did the brass. His three scantily clad dancers were shaking their gravity defying butts like there was no tomorrow throughout the entire set, and I'm sure I witnessed a buttock fly off into the front row at one point. Femi himself is an incredibly dynamic bandleader with strong vocals and great sax technique but his strength as an arranger was most apparent, the band flying effortlessly through time, tempo and key changes, and dropping down to pianissimo at the flick of Femi's wrist. He sings his politically charged lyrics with such obvious conviction, leaving you in no doubt that this is a man with something to say. I'll definitely be buying a couple of Femi Kuti albums.

I remember being very excited when I first saw Ocean Colour Scene on ‘The White Room' in 1996, rushing out to buy the ‘Moseley Shoals' album soon afterwards. I can't say I've really followed their career since, and although I've read various slatings in the music press over the years I was quite excited to see them play. Four songs into the set and I was bored and embarrassed, as I'd told my equally bored friends how good this band were! However, the ‘Mexican' from earlier had by now weaved it's magic and as I stepped out of the portaloo I heard Hendrix' ‘Star Spangled Banner' blaring out on the Uncut Stage, on investigating I discovered ‘The Hamsters' – a middle-aged, three-piece covers band. They were hot! The Hendrix covers were spot-on, as was the Stevie Ray Vaughan stuff. OCS were still playing as the Hamsters set finished but I just couldn't be bothered. Steve Harley rocked his way through his and other's greatest hits, and UB40 had a great big bass laden sound for their formulaic reggae.

On further exploration I discovered a tent containing an inexplicably large amount of chicken feathers and a gurning, semi-naked guitar player performing appropriately psychedelic arrangements of Hendrix songs. There was an Electro show happening too, which was fantastic, if only for the redundancy of the bad-boy MC next to his geeky but virtuosic DJ (oh, and the bad breakdancing!). The festival itself was very white middle class, as you might expect in Guildford, with a liberal sprinkling of crusties, bikers etc. There were plenty of pushchairs and M&S coolbags, and it felt like a very safe, relaxed environment. There wasn't too much to do apart from the 5 stages, and I think that one day is probably enough, just due to the small scale of the festival. I had a great day, and to be honest it really didn't matter who was playing – it's always great to sit in the sun with friends drinking beer and talking music!