Musically, day two of GoGo was fab with some amazing artists and bands.

GoGo Festival 2011 review

By Michelle and Trish Owen-Williams | Published: Thu 30th Jun 2011

GoGo Festival 2011 - around the festival site (crowd)
Photo credit: Michelle Owen-Williams

GoGo Festival 2011

Friday 17th to Monday 20th June 2011
Headcorn Aerodrome, near Maidstone, Kent, England MAP
£95 for weekend camping tickets

We got up with the lark on Sunday morning, 6am to be precise, even though the gates didn't open till 10.30! We had actually talked about going home after the fiasco of the day before, but the sun was shining, we had both been fed and watered with a lovely full English and a mug of tea and the line up was better today. It had to be as Jill Jackson, Heather Peace and Betty were playing!!

We got to the site at gate opening time. Thank God there was no shenanigans like the day before - straight through to the press area, no one else there, so we sat down and chilled. There was no one around to take crowd shots or atmospheric shots so there was literally nothing to do!

Christina Coronel
Festivities kicked off at Midday with solo artist Christina Coronel. She looked like the stage was gonna eat her up sitting on her patio chair plonking away on her keyboard. What a lovely little voice she has. Shame there were only a few people watching her.

Juey was a country singer, just her, her guitar and cowboy boots on stage. Again a lovely voice, but the set did seem to go on for a while and the highlight was when the wind kept blowing her dress up in the air! Weyhey!

AMiTY
AMiTY was up next. I loved this girl as she reminded me of KT Tunstall, using her myriad of equipment to create an amazing backing track to her powerful vocals whilst on stage. To top it all off she had a 50's look about her and looked like she'd stepped out of a 50's flick. I wanna see her again in a more intimate setting. Let me know where you're playing next Amity!

I must admit I wasn't paying much attention to the next act and lost the will to live. Alexia Chellum and her strange group of odd-looking band chums just didn't do it for me. Neither did their farmer-like outfits. After song three I took refuge elsewhere.

On the other hand the youngster Miri was a breath of fresh air. How can one so petite and so young have a powerful voice like that? It was quite velvety and a pleasure to listen to. Watch out for this girl.

Karima Francis
Award for the wackiest hair goes to Karima Francis; it was the biggest hair I'd seen all year. Her styling was just as wacky with gold shoes that apparently cost her 50p from a charity shop and a paisley shirt that looked as though it had come out of my wardrobe in the 80's! I had never heard of Ms Francis before, but after this set I shall be checking her material out. She really reminded me of Tracy Chapman; the material was easy on the ears and I just wanted to hear more. Totally loved it.

From Karima Francis to the next act, the arena started to fill up a bit. A buzz could be heard around the arena as Glaswegian songbird Jill Jackson was about to grace the stage. Team Jackson were in force on the first few rows and yet again were like cobras awaiting their charmer to come on stage.

Jill Jackson
The crowd went bloody mental when she was announced - like they'd had a stick of dynamite stuck up their backsides by GOGO in a kick-start effort to get the weekend going! It gave me a bit of a jolt, as up until Jackson came on stage the atmosphere was non-existent. There were screams and shouting as soon as they spotted her dressed in cons, stripy socks, shorts, yellow t-shirt and her trademark hat. Jackson drew the crowd in and she had them eating out of her hand throughout the 30 minute set. The front row was bonkers, shouting, "get em off" in the hope that Jackson would take her shorts off. 'Song for John', the amazing 'Mocking Bird', 'Sunbeams and Custard Creams' plus 'Long Way Round' featured in the mellow yet mind-blowing 6-song set.

The set was over far too quickly for my liking and in all honesty Jackson should've been higher up the bill. She was way too low in the pecking order - this woman can really sing so give her a break!

Greymatter
London based Greymatter, an all girl folk-rock group, proved that they totally deserved to be on the bill too. They totally rocked da' house with tracks from albums 'Hands on Fire' and 'Caterpillar Tree'. Again, another band that floated my boat and deserved a longer set. If they hadn't of had so many ikckle bands there might have been more time for ones that deserved to be there. Pin-up Georgey Payne and Emma Kavanagh sang completely in unison and harmony, delivering a melodic sound that my O/H thought was amazing and kept asking "why haven't we seen these before?". I eagerly anticipate their new album!

Scottish singer Horse, in her self proclaimed Matrix outfit, was accompanied only by a guitarist and backing track. I think Horse is an acquired taste. Don't get me wrong, the vocals were amazing and the set was cool, but I'm not really a fan.

Never The Bride
One of the big surprises of the day, for me, was Never The Bride. Their strap line is "Rock Music's Best Kept Secret" and they totally lived up to that. Supporting the likes of Alice Cooper and ZZ Top, they know what stage persona was all about and gave the crowd a show that they lapped up and got involved in. With 80's styling that reminded me of early Bon Jovi (back combed hair and platform boots) they fooking rocked and got the crowd well hyped up, throwing 'Never the Bride' G-Strings in the audience. Song of the night goes to 'Living Tree' that had been covered previously by Dame Shirley Bassey.

These ladies have a real pedigree and have worked with so many Gods of music including Elton John. They were astounding on stage. What got me was how much energy these ladies had; I want whatever they had which seemed to be copious amounts of wine after the gig!

Heather Peace
The Yorkshire lass with the Colgate smile was up next. Even before she came on stage, we were having a debate. Out of 11 photographers, 7 of them had the hots for Heather Peace. One was even wearing lucky pants and practising her lines in case she met her. She will remain nameless, but kept on going on about that she lived in Brighton and has seen HP a few times but has never known what to say. My answer - she's a normal person and goes to the toilet and farts like everyone else - so get with it! (Sorry Heather!).

Lip service's Heather Peace (HP) did an hour's set with an encore accompanied by her newly formed band. Peace has built up quite a fan base over the last year thanks to the huge popularity of Lip Service - not forgetting the fact that they love her voice and songs too. She's even got a group of hard-core followers called 'The HP Core' or 'Team Peace'.

They are a totally loyal bunch of fans that have to be at as many HP shows/appearances as possible. Quite a group of them turned out to see her here too. There were rows and rows of Peacer's all geed up ready for her to come on stage.

All of a sudden, the pit (where photographers stand to take pictures) became filled to the brim with HP's friends, family and people from other bands wanting to catch a glimpse of her on stage. Shame that they were all quickly asked to vacate the pit for health and safety reasons - much to their disgust. The security had been very, very lax up until that point so why they suddenly tightened up is a bit of a mystery - either have rules all the time or why bother!

HP came on stage with the tightest black jeans on I've ever seen. Just like when I saw her at the Glee in Birmingham, she must have used talcum powder or grease to get a pair of trousers on that tight. How on earth doesn't she keep picking her pants out from her bum? Either she wears no knickers or a g-string - let the imagination run riot!

Where were we? Trademark tight jeans and brogues, together with Raybans all equal a trendy Lesbians favourite gear. All topped off with a push-up bra, (yes we could see it and no I'm not a perve or Team Peacer) and waistcoat to match. No one really cared what she had on though - they crowd just wanted a piece of Peace action.

She started off on her keyboard, first few keys then, "Oh Fuck, what's wrong with this keyboard?" The sound engineers hadn't set the keyboard up right, so Ms Peace was left cursing embarrassingly for a couple of minutes whilst they tried to sort it. It was left to her backing singer to put right the errors and get the set going. Tut Tut!

Heather Peace
A stonking 11 song set ensued, starting off with 'Thank God For You', Then HP's cover of the Snow Patrol Classic 'Run' and a lovely song called 'You're For Keeps'. Michael Jackson cover 'Human Nature', 'Better than You', and one of my favourites 'My Way Only' followed shortly afterwards.

Heather then showcased new song 'Beechwood Avenue', with Horse joining her on stage in the middle of the set.

The set finished off with an encore dedicated to Rhianna, 'Te Amo' and 'Girl in the World', HP fans were ecstatic and there was no doubt that they were going to go home happy that night.

We were standing by the press tent watching HP come off stage when backstage area left was suddenly filled by several HP fans bringing her a birthday cake.

It was hilarious and didn't stop until they, and some of the guests that had come along with the larger acts, were asked them if they could go in to the VIP area, as we felt the back stage was becoming too busy.

BETTY
After Ms Peace's set the crowd were ready for the US's BETTY, famed for their hit song that's the theme tune for the massive lesbian TV series 'L Word'. This band are huge across the pond and do so much for LGBT issues. They've been in the business 20 years and have been described as "Lively, candid, funny and electric" by the New York Post. They've even had a stage show on Broadway! Latest album 'Buzz Magnet' took pride of place in the hour long set and stand out song for me was 'King Kong'. It had the cheesiest lyrics ever but it stuck in my head all the way back to the hotel. The audience loved them and at least they had a fuller arena to play too on Sunday night than the night before.

Musically, the show was fab with some amazing artists and bands.
review by: Michelle and Trish Owen-Williams

photos by: Michelle and Trish Owen-Williams


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