Guilfest 2005: Sodared's band diary

Friday 15th July

Setting off for Guilfest felt like a different festival adventure from the start. We arrived at lunchtime after a long hot drive that was topped off by getting totally lost in Guilford. Don't know how we managed it, given the number of huge yellow Guilfest signs, but at least we got a thorough tour of the town before hitting the site. This all makes us even later than anticipated due to a late start that morning (told Libs, our manager, something about traffic but not sure she believed us).

On site, first impressions are good - this promises to be a weekend of great music, but if not, at least Guilfest has the best toilets in the festival calendar! We check out our venue, the Surrey Advertiser stage, on the way to pitch the tent. It looks fantastic in a starry-circus-tent-kind of way. Very excited. 

Friday evening music highlights on the main stage for us were Alabama 3 ("Hello, Hello, I'm Johnny Cash" was to become the catch phrase of the weekend) and pogoing to The Pogues (use your elbows!!). Inspired by Shane, we all sing and drink the night away and enjoy the thought that tomorrow we play our first festival gig. How cool is that. Shit, I hope we're good!

Saturday 16th July

8am - Tent's like an oven so have to get up for air. Chris still can't stop singing "I'm Johnny Cash". Think he may be getting on people's nerves now but it's just such a great line and his girlfriend is enjoying it as a reminder of meeting Larry Love backstage last night.  Everyone's emerging from their tents looking a bit worse for wear.

Steve is feeling a bit dodgy but puts it down to the veggie Thai green curry consumed the previous night, but as it turned out it was nerves some 12 hours before the gig! One night in and the toilets are still great. Guilfest is in a class of it's own.

Most of the band head off to see Chippie Tucker - A West Country band from the same town as our drummer Steve. The LoveGods are a must-see band in the Rocksound Cave. Seems like most of Guilfest have the same idea and it's pretty rammed so we don't all get in. Can hear them from outside the tent though and they sound amazing. The crowd inside was just loving it.

During the day a couple of the bands really stood out, taking our minds off our set later. Hal on the Radio 2 stage had their level and balance spot on, you could hear everything and their set sounded great. Next on were The Subways who just enthused energy and passion.

Things are getting close now, and with the kit all loaded in and ready, we can feel the buzz of excitement starting to take over. Been holding back on the beers a bit today but its time to let it all go now and just roll with it. When asking if there were any nerves Wes was reminded of the same famous question being asked of Pete Townsend by Bono at Live Aid, where he replied "I'll only get nervous when I meet me f****** maker"

Everything's set - Bloody hell, is that someone introducing Sodared ...

The gig goes well, it just flew by, seeming to last about a minute!  The set's tight, but there's a looseness to it as well which let's the energy come through.  Everyone's happy, everyone's buzzing. The heat inside the tent was pretty intense but this was soon forgotten once we had started. A lasting memory of the set was during the finale of our last song. We had only just written this section of the song and to see the crowd jumping, in time, despite the heat was just fantastic.

We've made some new friends tonight too. What more could you ask for?  Time to celebrate. Time to drink.

Some what drained, we caught up with some of our fan base who had made the trek to see us and headed off to see Paul Weller, who like a lot of acts at this festival played very long instrumental/solo finale pieces, surely it would have been better to play another song? Paul Weller did however produce one of his best sets of recent years.

A mid night BBQ back at the campsite rounded off the day nicely and it was very rock and roll to boil some water camping style, for our manager's Pot Noodle!

Sunday 17th July

There was a huge difference in crowd numbers between the Friday and the packed Saturday. Sunday was a far more relaxed and chilled out affair, which was reflected in the Sunday line up.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Britain were certainly highly entertaining, with their renditions of past hits. The Zombies that followed were definitely a highlight of the day. Quo were the Quo and after reaching our Quo limit we went off in search of something else. Hayseed Dixie, the second cover band of the day provided passing amusement.

Although, some members of Sodared are festival going veterans, we felt that the blazing sun, number of stages and type of acts gave it the right festival feel that rivaled the larger festivals.

All in all, Guilfest was a pretty special experience for us, one that we hope to repeat next year. If we're not, we'll be going anyway.  With those toilets, you can't lose.

Sodared are:
Chris Barlow (Vocals)
Dave Callaghan (Bass Guitar)
Steve Guard (Drums/Vocals)
Wes Goldthorpe (Guitar)
Libby Anderson (Manager)

www.sodared.co.uk