GuilFest offers a strong line-up of legendary acts on Sunday
GuilFest 2010 Review
Wednesday 21st July 2010
Waking up to a hot tent is always a good sign and GuilFest was no exception. The Rock Choir where again opening the main stage in the arena and the show was pretty much the same as the day before, however they were also due back later today to join The Soldiers when they played.
Having had a lazy Sunday in camp with members of our party going over to the leisure centre for a shower we arrived to a packed arena to watch The Soldiers entertain the crowd in a one off gig. Feel good tunes backed by the now well practised Rock Choir got the early afternoon masses singing. Hey Jude was the biggest crowd pleaser and judging by the amount of people there and audience participation.
Moving up onto the Disabled platform so I could sit down we settled into a brilliant set by The Blockheads. This band has never failed to deliver and always does Ian Dury's songs justice. Clever Trevor, Reasons to be Cheerful Part 3, Sweet Gene Vincent and of course Hit me with your Rhythm stick all got the crowd going in the usual Blockheads way.
The next band on was 10cc. Now I don't mind saying that I had been looking forward to this all weekend. The amount of people in the main stage area now was way past the mixing tower which did lead to a 20 minute wait for the toilets. However when this incarnation of 10cc arrived on stage they ripped into a greatest hits set that took my breath away. With hits like I'm Mandy Fly Me, Dreadlock Holiday, Art For Arts Sake, it was spellbinding with many of the older members of the festival going public, singing their hearts out, we even had a Police Sergeant holding his phone head height to I'm Not In Love to record it for posterity. So often reformed groups tour but never deliver, this was simply not the case with 10cc.
Next, a band I had not seen for 24 years live. In fact, the last time I saw them they headlined Glastonbury, so it was with a little trepidation that I waited for Level 42 to take stage. However, Mark King and the band members pulled off a crowd pleasing set of hits from the 80's and newer compositions. It's their 30th anniversary this year and they are a very tight ship under their leader, whose slap bass funk style has not lost any of its vigour in that time.
So it was time for Status Quo. All weekend you could tell it had lead up to this moment. Only the teens leaving the main stage area to catch the Chase and Status set the amount of blow up guitars and Status Quo T-shirts it was obvious it was going to be their night.
Having seen the Quo last year I was familiar with the white speakers on stage, however what was a little different was the ten minutes it took to hoover the carpet put down for Messrs Rossi and Parfitt. With the sun still out it was ready for the final headline show at GuilFest 2010. Playing their usual range of three chord songs, they worked the crowd into a frenzy for an hour before ending with the crowd pleaser's Rocking all over the world, Caroline and a rock and roll medley. Had they done GuilFest justice? Of course they had, it was a great band to close the stage, but we always new it would be.
For such an early finish at a festival, 10pm on the Sunday it was all over way to soon and with that the people funnelled out of the arena home. Seeing we were staying on site it was only natural to go and find a bar which we did and sat down to go over the day's events. As I said at the beginning of this review I was not sure what I would find here. The line-up was neither young or old, experimental or comfortable. It was just right. After being here a day it felt like we had been coming here for years. All of our group had a brilliant time at GuilFest and I have no problem recommending it to those people who perhaps wish to try a music festival before taking the plunge with camping etc. The only moans were toilet queues, but then again when don't people moan about toilets. Seeing how accessible it was to the main arena and the availability of showers etc we will defiantly be back next year.
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