A few photos from the weekend at Guilfest 2012

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Apologies for not being able to post here on Guitarz over the weekend. I was at Guilfest in Surrey. By way of a post today I am going to share a selection of my photos from the weekend. Gary Numan (above) headlined the Good Times Guide stage on Saturday night. Although predominantly known for electronic music, Numan has had the same Gibson Les Paul since he was a teenager and has used it at every gig since early Tubeway Army days in the late 1970s.

Veteran reggae performer Jimmy Cliff proved that he still has the tunes and the moves! He's quite energetic for a 64-year old.

Nile Rodgers and Chic performed a fantastic set of greatest hits from Chic, Diana Ross, Sister Sledge, Madonna ("Like A Virgin") and David Bowie ("Let's Dance"). Rodgers was keen to point out that "Chic are NOT a covers band." He explained that every one of these songs he was involved with right from the inception, either as a writer, producer, player, or - more often than not - all of the above. I reckon he's an all too often overlooked guitarist. When do you ever see him mentioned in a list of Greatest Guitarists? But the emphasis in such lists is always on lead playing, whereas Nile Rodgers must surely be the King of the Rhythm Guitar. I was watching some of the licks he was playing - it's not all barre chords you know - and there are some pretty intricate patterns going on, and of course his timing is absolutely perfect.

Candi Staton says she has been performing for 65 years (she's now 72) and like Jimmy Cliff she could show many younger artists a thing or two. She performed a great set of "real" R'n'B numbers, a cracking version of "In the Ghetto" and, of course, her big hit from 1976, "Young Hearts Run Free". Her guitarist had a few tasty licks to show us on his Gibson 335 too.

Be-suited and immaculate as ever, Bryan Ferry performed a selection of his solo work and Roxy Music songs, including a few tracks from the first, rather avant garde, Roxy Music album.

I thought the guy with the Jaguar looked familiar. Yes, of course, it's ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr playing his new Fender signature series Jaguar.

As well as Johnny Marr, Bryan Ferry also had another guitar legend in his band, namely Chris Spedding. Some might only know him for his 1975 hit "Motorbikin'" but he has been a major session guitarist with artists including Harry Nilsson, Jack Bruce, Roxy Music, Elton John, Brian Eno, Nick Mason and Katie Melua. He even was one of The Wombles band put together by Mike Batt and appeared on TV playing his trademark Flying V in a furry womble costume. Here, with Bryan Ferry, he appears to be playing a James Trussart Steel Deville.

I confess I don't know much about Hector's House other than they were named after a kids puppet show on TV. I tried looking them up on the web but only found a page for a five-piece band of the same name, but these guys were a three-piece.

As part of the younger contingent, Look No Hands are a promising bunch of lads. Whilst they played a few covers, their own songs stood up well against the better known material and they certainly know their way around their instruments. I'm not so sure about the wearing of the guitars so high up on the chest, Mark King-style, but - Hey! - each to their own.

What I haven't mentioned is the mud. A week of rain meant that the ground was turned to squishing stinking mud. This meant no sitting down - there was no grass and no dry patches left anywhere - so we dived inside the acoustic tent where there were a few bales of hay to sit on and rest our legs. Here we were treated to the songs of Wizzi, a local talent from Guildford where the festival is held.

Over in the Big Cheese tent, we watched a rather noisier set by Exit_International who, as fellow Welshmen, I warmed to instantly. A three-piece, here we see drums and bass...

...and another bass! Yep, that's right, no guitars. The two basses approach worked surprisingly well with the Mustang bass being used as a fuzz bass and occupying a very different sonic territory from the more traditional sound of the Fender Jazz Bass.

Talking of bass guitars, I spied this Italia Imola bass being used by Chords UK in the Viva Le Rock tent. It sounded great too, and made me wonder why the Fender Precision is so prevalent when there are so many other affordable quality alternatives.

The Priscillas describe themselves as "milkshake punk" and are always entertaining; I've seen them three or four times now over the years, and am pretty sure I had a drunken conversation with one of them backstage at a gig headlined by The Damned a few years back now.

Described by Abba's Benny Andersson as the closest thing you'll ever get to Abba, Australian tribute act Bjorn Again performed a very entertaining selection of Abba's hits, with a few clever twists, e.g. morphing the ending of "S.O.S." with The Police's "Message In A Bottle" - "sending out an S.O.S., sending out an S.O.S." etc.

OK, that's it for now. Back to the usual Guitarz format tomorrow!

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Post festival blues

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Photo: © G L Wilson, 2011

Please forgive the lateness of today's blog post. I've been at Guilfest all weekend, and haven't long returned home after a long journey. (The weekend's blog posts in my name were scheduled beforehand on Friday). On Saturday, the act that struck me the most was Alice Gold (pictured above). She normally performs with a band, but her bassist was involved in a motoring accident (and is thankfully OK), so she decided to play a solo set - just voice and guitar - and she was brilliant. Thanks to David, my brother in law, for the recommendation!

Another highspot of the day was watching Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel who actually finished their set with their biggest hit, "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)", a song which I heard he rarely plays live - or else does a reggae version. The acoustic guitar solo played by Robbie Gladwell brought a tear to the eye. Fantastic!

Photo: © G L Wilson, 2011

Sunday's highlight, for me, was Public Image Ltd. John Lydon was on good form and supplied the quote of the weekend with, "It's nice to see so many children. Your children are safe with Johnny..." Guitar duties were taken by Lu Edmonds, who played electric saz on several songs and on "The Flowers of Romance" also employed what looked like a 12-string banjo played with a bow.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Whose Guitar Is This?... Neil Diamond

The answer to Friday's Quick Quiz is that the guitar pictured is Neil Diamond's signature series Epiphone SQ-180.

Thursday night I took my parents to see Neil Diamond at the Millenium Stadium, Cardiff, as a 70th birthday present for my father. I grew up listening to Neil Diamond. My father was always playing his records. He espeically liked the start of the "Hot August Night" album and would play it over and over. He confessed to me after the show that he had been worried that Diamond wouldn't be able to cut it any more in a live situation seeing as he is no spring chicken at 67 years old, but he (my father, that is) was very pleasantly proved wrong. Diamond and his band performed for a solid two and a quarter hours and played all the hits and crowd pleasers with gusto (I Am I Said, Play Me, Crunchy Granola, Cherry Cherry, Solitary Man, Sweet Caroline, Song Sung Blue, I'm A Believer, Cracklin' Rosie, etc...). The man can still belt out a tune and what amazed us was that right up until the encore he kept his jacket on; he didn't even break out into a sweat. He's one cool customer, that's for sure.

In the middle of the set he announced he wanted to play a few songs from his current album, and played "Don't Go There", a spellbinding rendition of the title track "Home Before Dark", followed by a Latin-flavoured version of "Pretty Amazing Grace" and then it was back to the hits again. I don't think anyone could have gone away disappointed.