Reef

Glastonbury Festival 2000 reviews

Reef
Pyramid Stage
17:30 Saturday 24th June 2000

'We're Reef - we play Rock' were the words of Gary Stringer as Reef opened their set on Saturday at 5.30 and launched into 'Place Your Hands'. I'd been looking forward to seeing Reef again as I knew from experience they put on a great show. Gary has a unique strong raunchy voice and that smile is a wonder is behold.

Three songs in and they performed their new single ' Set the Record Straight' but after that they just gave us what we wanted - the sun was shining, the crowd was ready to rock and Reef gave us songs from their previous three albums that we could all sing along to. Tracks like 'I've Got Something To Say' 'Good Feeling', and 'I Would Have Left You' had the place rocking and Gary wanted to join us on our side. He ran to the crowd and tried to jump the barrier but security were having none of it and pulled him back, he went again and pushed security men aside which nearly caused a fight in his desperate bid to get into the crowd, but they stopped him and he reluctantly came back on stage.

The band then threw themselves into more songs with backing singers adding more depth to the sound. Gary had to fetch a belt to keep his trousers up as he bounced all over the stage in his bright yellow jacket and new shorter hair, the mike hardly long enough to keep up with him. 'Summers in Bloom' reminded me of AC/DC and this was reinforced by the bass player, Jack Bessant, who was wearing a shirt and school tie - very Angus. Later they played another new one 'Super Hero' and then in a tribute to Ian Drury 'Sex and Drugs and Rock&Roll' is attempted, but no one can match Ian on this one, leave it Gary.

At this point there was some crowd entertainment as a guy popped up in a dinghy and surfed the crowd laughing his head off. To finish we all sang along again to 'Naked' and finally 'Yer Old'. These guys are a great band to see live - don't miss them if you get the chance.