HILARY ATHEY has sent in this wonderful review of GUILFEST 2010, along with a few photographs of the event. She also has some film footgage taken whilst there, and Derek and Marc are working hard to see if it can be made available, poosibly through You Tube.


GUILFEST 2010

A TALE OF THREE MUNGO JERRY'S


For the next stop on my summer 2010 tour of catching up with MUNGO JERRY, I went to Guilfest for the weekend of 16/17/18 July 2010. It is a festival for music fans of, let’s say, ‘a certain age’ – as are most of the bands playing. Headliners included ORBITAL, THE HUMAN LEAGUE and STATUS QUO – all bands that feature in my eclectic music collection plus many others so I knew that I’d have plenty to keep me occupied for the weekend. I went alone as it wasn’t the ‘cool’ sort of event that my usual festival buddies generally go to but the lure of TWO MUNGO JERRY gigs in one weekend was enough to convince me that I wouldn’t get bored. My festipals are welcome to their Glasto’s and Womuds – I had my MUNGO JERRY to look forward to!

Kitted up with my smart new 4 berth pop-up tent with living space, I was comfortably installed, complete with armchair, shaggy rug, iPod player and candlelight. The rain beat down on the Thursday night so I stayed snug in my little home from home with a glass of wine rather than go to the 70’s disco that was laid on for us early campers. Pop-up tents are marvellous inventions – they do pop-up in 15 seconds and are only too keen to escape from their strapping – however, the capture of them is another story and I ended up bundling it like an unruly octopus into the back of my car at the end of the festival after a frustrating hour of trying to fold it back into neat circle from which it initially popped, it was clumsily but firmly roped up in a semblance of the original shape and I took it back to the shop I’d bought it from here in Essex for a hasty lesson in how to pack it up again. Lots of people leave them behind apparently....

After an excellent sleep, I awoke to a sunny day on Friday, I found the showers at the Lido next door – a very civilised arrangement indeed - then wandered around the festival site to get my bearings. I bought a programme and marked up who I wanted to see and sussed out where they would be playing. I treated myself to a massage at the Elemis beauty bus, had lunch at the HUGH FEARNLEY-WHITTINGSTALL tent, chatted with my neighbours, taught poi to some kids to keep them amused whilst their parents were putting up their tents then wandered across to the main stage. MACAVITY's CAT were one of the bands playing on the main stage which I found rather amusing given that their name is from the same T.S Eliot poem that the name MUNGO JERRY was taken from. They were really good; psychobilly, bluegrass music and very energetic indeed – they even play a washboard and zob stick!

You know when you know you should be having a good time because of the great ambience but really, all you are waiting for is one band? That was me. I decided that ORBITAL could do their thing without my rapt attention as I knew I would be able to hear them from my tent so I toddled off to try and get a decent nights sleep and dozed off to the thunder of the Doctor Who theme. Unfortunately it was drunks on the rampage night and I lost count of how many times people blundered into my tent. I awoke in a less than cheerful mood but it soon dispelled with the prospect of MUNGO JERRY playing later. I wandered around the site again, watched ALI CAMPBELL's UB40, KID CREOLE AND THE COCONUTS and had a great boogie in the 70’s disco tent where the DJ was playing an awesome selection of 60’s ska – I just had to dance. Then I found the feet eating fish – seriously, they are small carp that nibble at your feet and give you a pedicure – try it, it’s the weirdest sensation!!!

Then, it was approaching 6 p.m and MUNGO JERRY were due on stage at 6.20 p.m so I ambled across to the Good Time Stage to see the final set of THE INFIDELS. As is my wont, I wiggled my way through to the front and positioned myself just to the right of where RAY would be. I’d had to be a bit patient, waiting for people to move so I could manoeuvre myself into position but I got there without too much effort.

Then they came on, a roar went up from the audience and I looked around to see that quite a crowd had already gathered. The sun had come out and was shining straight onto the stage, lighting them up well. I took a few pictures but was saving my camera for later. It was a similar set to the one I’d seen at Amersham the previous month but obviously much shorter as they only had 40 minutes scheduled to play and, despite MR DORSET’S legendary overruns, ALVIN STARDUST was on next and timetables had to be adhered to. Such is the marvellous showmanship of RAY, he had the audience singing along, clapping along, dancing along and cheering along. I just danced and sang along and then, all too soon it was over. Another roar from the audience, a quick wave goodbye and they vanished off stage.

As I was making my way through the crowd, I heard several comments enthusiastically complimenting the band on their performance, ‘I didn’t know they had as many hits’ was one snippet I heard. I saw a few more bands that night including Hawkwind then went for some much needed sleep.

On to Sunday and the gig I was really looking forward to – the MUNGO JERRY Backline Live Acoustic Stage set – to be held in a small tent next to the beer tent and with a reputation for fun and memorable sets. Earlier in the day I’d seen PAMA INTERNATIONAL, THE BLOCKHEADS and a couple of SETH LAKEMAN numbers but I made my way to the Backline tent at around 5.30 p.m so I was in plenty of time for the MUNGO JERRY set at 6.30 p.m. My friend had texted me, teasing me that I would probably be four hours early for the gig – I joked back that maybe I would be there an hour early – little did I know how true her teasing would be!

I spotted JON PLAYLE and MARK DAVID together with another chap I’d not seen before but found out later was PHIL SWAN, and they were stood next to the stage. There was some consternation and I heard an announcement that there was some doubt that MUNGO JERRY would play as they had been held up.

OH NO (as my niece would say), all this way, all this time, all this excitement, all this jockeying for position, all the saving of camera battery and xd cards, all the careful propping of the camera onto it’s tripod inside the barrier for an uninterrupted video shoot, all that prep only to have the gig cancelled at the very last minute. A bit more of a conflab and then THE MUNGO JERRY (LESS) BAND came on stage. JON had his usual air of calm, PHIL was hopping up and down a bit, MARK was chuckling and there was a bit of a headless chicken feeling before PHIL got to the mic, apologised for RAY’s absence and said they would do a bit of a set as a fill in.

Well, what a set! PHIL has a great Elvis style voice and he covered Elvis standards until he ran out of songs that he knew so started again. Just as they finished their last number, RAY appeared at the stage side and apologised for getting held up in traffic. Apparently, there had been a quick rearrangement of the schedule and it was confirmed that MUNGO JERRY would play another set later. I managed to call RAY at the side of the stage and got him to sign a copy of the photograph of us that is featured on this website THE FANS section.

Then on to 10CC unplugged. Well, I’d missed their full set on the main stage as I was watching THE MUNGO JERRY(LESS) BAND but when the four guys came onstage with just acoustic guitars, there was a frisson of anticipation then they launched into THE HOLLIES number ‘BUS STOP’. Their whole set was amazing and was a highlight that I had not expected to see. I was torn between videoing them and saving my batteries for the later set so in the end just saved 'RUBBER BULLETS', 'THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE' and 'DREADLOCK HOLIDAY' plus a few stills. They were so good and I’m glad I saw them.

On to the next band, BEMIS I think and I managed to find myself a better spot, to the right of the stage out of the direct spotlight. I settled myself down next to the barrier with my camera and tripod to the ready.

Eventually it got to around 10 p.m and the final act was announced as MUNGO JERRY. The whole gig was supposed to have ended at 10 p.m after a singalong at 9.30 p.m, I had around 35 minutes of video on my camera, the first battery still had some life in it with the reserve full, I was in pole position so I hoped I would capture a fair part of the gig for my own private viewing later at home. Hah, I’d reckoned without MR ‘HOW LONG CAN I STAY ON STAGE FOR TONIGHT’ DORSET. MUNGO JERRY was up against a full 90 minute set by the mighty STATUS QUO who were already thundering away towards their final numbers on the main stage a couple of hundred yards away but there were lots of people trickling into the tent and I spotted my neighbours who had said they’d enjoyed the previous day’s set so much, they came along for the second set.

RAY bounded onto the stage with his usual big grin, introduced himself and launched into 'SOMEBODY STOLE MY WIFE' then 'HAVE A WHIFF ON ME/URBAN SPACEMAN', 'LADY ROSE', 'FEELS LIKE I’M IN LOVE', 'SOMEONE TO LOVE', 'CADILLAC CAR', 'ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT', 'RIDE ME MAMA', 'MIGHTY MAN', 'SINGING THE BLUES', 'IN THE SUMMERTIME' and more but the camera batteries expired around 11.15 p.m so I just danced and sang along with everyone else and can't remember the rest of the set. So much for a 40 minute set though! I think that it was around 90 minutes in the end so something of a bonus – it couldn’t have worked out better if it had been planned that way...... There was the usual amount of banter, anecdotes, a bit of STATUS QUO ribbing and lots of fun. I know that they went from the acoustic set into their finale of 'NUTBUSH CITY LIMITS' and I finally wandered off to bed around midnight, totally shattered and extremely happy. I was so pleased that I went, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that for anything.

Next gig Weyfest on the 3rd of September (sold out) – I wonder what will happen there? Who knows but I have a feeling it might just be a little bit special.....