day 2 overview

The sun makes the tent hot from an early hour and a rather random loud Irishman who appears to be lost wanders around loudly discussing the parentage of some children. Yup it’s loud and random and wakes us early. So we make coffee and decide to head for the Spectrum, the leisure centre next door for some fun on the water slides once it opens.

We return in good time and the arena is now open, already the heat is scorching and we opt for a veggie breakfast from ‘Vegetarian Delights’ the ‘Not the Hot Dog Stall’ we setlle down toward the back of the arena and beside the big screen, which I don’t remember Guilfest having last year, which means people can sit outside the bar and still see the main stage. A Great idea!

The Storys are first on and surprisingly good, a little reminiscent of middle of the road American acts like The Eagles or Fleetwood Mac, and a most excellent opener. They aren’t from California though, it turns out they are Welsh! With excellent musicianship and rather fine vocal harmonies we can expect to hear much more from this lot who are destined I’m sure to become a rather familiar name in the future. Groovy!

The heat however isn’t pleasing our daughter, who starts to get a bit grumpy, so with a few acts on the bill, who I don’t know, we decide it’s time to try and get into the Kids’ Field. It turns out we can! We’re told we can’t take pictures, but we’re primarily there for fun so we’re quite happy to unwind. There’s circus equipment scattered over the grass so after some stilt walking and balancing, it’s time to decide on a henna or airbrushed tattoo and be pleaded with to spend £20 on corn rowing her hair. No chance!

We watch a drumming session with chanting participation and play around Jan’s van for a while and her maze. There’s no workshops to make anything at that moment and no where to buy a drink, so we head off to the Nintendo Café avoiding have to buy playtime on the swing boats or bouncy slide.

Once in there were entertained with open mic competitions, comedy, break dancing, lip sync competition and play lots of Nintendo DS games. Sure enough there’s one game that catches her eye and that’s it she’s engrossed. We grab a smoothie and some water bottles and slip out to watch a bit of Kovak on the Ent24 stage and they’re pretty dancy keyboards with a hooking bassline and shared vocals between the guy guitarist and the girl. It’s dirty, messy rock’n’roll and the drummer is a powerhouse for the five piece. They sound rather original and half the time I’m not sure if they’re singing their songs or adlibbing on the spot.

We go back to the Nintendo Café to drag our daughter away from the virtual puppies and off to see The Cosmic Rough Riders. But she wants shade and storms off, I get distracted and only half listen to the band. They start a bit all over the place, but soon tighten up and get it together. But they don’t quite sound the same as they did before Daniel Wylie left. They play some stuff off the new album including the forthcoming single, but whether it’s the fact I’m chatting and only half hearing it, I don’t know but it sounds like they are less of a force these days. Shame.

We head off to watch Mohair in the Rock Sound Stage which is sweltering and there’s quite a queue to get in. It turns out that INME have cancelled so all the bands are shuffled up the timings, meaning we have to wait to see Mohair. We’re entertained with Ozzy over the PA and my daughter gets a Mohair sticker so she’s happy. Finally the hairy guy gets on stage says hi and blows the audience under the twinkling stars in the roof of the tent away! Their drum driven rock is fluid and the Steward behinds me looks pleased to be hearing something with a bit more melody and less “Rarrrrrr Pish!”They play tracks off the album ‘Small Talk’ which is an album that’ll be sitting in my record collection very shortly. Better than your average hyped band, hope they get somewhere with their musical talents.

Terri Walker is in full flow when I get to the Ent24 stage and singing a song in German! I’m not too sure why, I think it must be from her being raised there. She rather disappeared into reclusion after her debut album ‘Untitled’ and she returns to familiar territory with ‘Ching, Ching’ from that album. Her band sound great, very traditional soul and ‘Ain’t No Love’ wins the crowd over before Terri mixes in a few old soul classics. ‘Dirty Weekend’ and “Baby, Everything is Alright” showcase her vocal talent and she mentions she also has a new out, something I was unaware of. The new material shows she’s sticking to the same formula and hopefully she can regain some of her exposure she enjoyed after her Mercury Music Prize Nomination.

The heat has loads of people crashed out in front of the stages and SS RadioUK.com is playing funky house exactly as it says in the programme much to the delight of the topless lads and bikini clad girls all dancing to it in the heat. It reminds me of the old dance stage at Glastonbury but with fewer space cases about. The whole site is looking pretty busy, all the tents are crowded, there’s lots of people in front of the open air stages, chilling in the market stalls or sitting down beside the long bar.

I arrive late at the Radio 2 stage to catch Sophie B.Hawkins, she’s already been on a while but slush puppy margaritas were more of a necessity. She’s rather errr brazen and passionate and fired up, it looks like her set has been going down well, and she’s full of fire for the only song of hers I know ‘Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover’ so I got there just in time, I’m thinking. However, as I write my notes I’m told off by a random woman for not getting there earlier – “typical man” she says venomously, I’m still wondering what on earth brought this on or whether she’s an eFester as I write this.

Next up are Kosheen, a band I’ve already seen this year at festivals and I know it’s going to be good. The bass rumbles through the ground getting the crowd off their feet and drawing more of the crowd from the surrounding arena to the main stage. They start off with ‘Damage’ and Darren Decoder and Markee Substance are turning on the tunes, while Sian Evans sings and jumps and dances and gets the crowd involved. The trio are joined by the mohawked drummer again this time behind a Perspex screen and his beats are tremendous. ‘Hide U’ is greeted with a big cheer and everyone around me is singing it as that tune reverberates around us. And by ‘Catch’ there’s people literally running past me to get down to the front for a dance. New tracks from ‘Damage’ are also given an airing ‘Overkill’ is a killer dance tune and will surely put Kosheen back on the musical landscape once it’s released. One of the highlights of the weekend.

As I’ve seen them already, I decide to leave them halfway through and catch a bit of pop singer Sandi Thom. I’m amazed how big a crowd she’s drawn in, although clearly the number one has helped. Once again I manage to get there just in time for the hit ‘I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)’ and predictably it’s a giant karaoke session. It’s not however the end of her set and I’m impressed by how she comes across. I was expecting another packaged female vocalist but instead I watch a genuine musician with a gift for live performances, she’s entertaining and shows her vocal skills with a cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Living For The City’ and it’s testament to her performance that there was no one leaving the crowd.

I elect to watch Glenn Tilbrook and The Fluffers rather than Gary Numan, a decision I’m later to discover was a mistake and as I listened to a few Squeeze numbers I could here the corrugated iron beatings of the industrial sounding Mr Numan. Turns out I would have loved his impression of Manson replete with his electronica but with a harder edge and occasional weird wittering! But hey Glenn was good too and 'Cool for Cats', 'Up the Junction' and 'Tempted' were bleedin’ lovely. He even finished with a version of the ‘Minder’ theme tune. Now I’m sure even Gary’s ‘Cars’ couldn’t beat that.

Infact Numan is still on stage when Glenn finishes, however there are some large animals wandering about and on investigation it appears they are to take to the stage with Guilfest’s very own Flaming Lips - The Boy Least Likely To So I stay on to see them. And it’s definitely a mistake, musical folk whimsy poorly delivered by a band that at one point say they’ve been to the festival before but didn’t think much of it. A great way to win fans, not! They’ve toured both the UK and USA with James Blunt – which says it all really. They play their debut album, some people clap and then eventually the big animals take to the stage. My daughter applauds the big drumming dog, a weird yellow bird thing and the strange blue cat thing, even louder when it falls into the press pit.

And we’re finally able to leave, to go and see headliners A-Ha. The crowds dotted with A-Ha fans, mainly female who cheer dementedly at their idols imminent arrival on the stage. Cheering the roadies, the sound guys, a cameraman and the compere in delirious anticipation before almost fainting as they step onto the stage. For two songs they play very pleasant pop songs, with nice instrumentation and Morten’s distinct warbling voice and then I run away. It might be well done but to me it’s incredibly boring. Well at least I’ve seen them and Guilfest does cater for lots of different musical styles, so I head off to the second stage.

And I’m so glad I did as I got to see Blue Oyster Cult. See separate review!

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