Guilfest 15/07/12 - Bryan Ferry


I went to Guilfest yesterday.  It was my first time at this festival (though I love going to gigs, I'm not much of a festival goer, unless there is a band/artist playing who I really like).  Since the headlining act was Bryan Ferry and the festival is local to me, I felt this was definitely a must see performance.  On arrival at the festival, I could not believe the amount of mud.  Yes, I know it has been raining here constantly for what seems like months so I should have expected it, but the mud was pretty hardcore.  In all my festival naivety, I turned up in my favourite pair of Converse (to think I almost wore ballet pumps).  Luckily, there was a stall selling wellies, so my friend Mike and I snapped some up.  Here is a picture of the hideous pair I bought.  Seriously though, these wellies saved us.


However, the music more than made up for the mud, and Ferry put on an amazing performance - his tour band really are fantastic, and on this occasion they were joined by Johnny Marr of The Smiths, who played guitar with the band for the entire set.  Marr previously played on Ferry's 1987 Bête Noire album and is also working on Ferry's upcoming album.

Ferry opened the set with I Put A Spell On You, followed by Slave To Love and Don't Stop The Dance.  For the remainder of the show he played a good variety of songs, touching upon almost every Roxy Music album, along with tracks from his solo catalogue.  The setlist was very similar to that of the last time I saw him at Shepherd's Bush Empire in December of last year.  However, unlike that show, the Guilfest performance lacked material from Ferry's last album Olympia, with only one track from that album - Reason Or Rhyme - being played.  However, this is a festival crowed, made up of fans who have come to see a range of artists, not necessarily just Ferry, therefore the setlist would inevitably aim to reflect this.
Crowd pleasing hits such as Let's Stick Together and Love Is The Drug certainly got the audience moving.

My favourite songs of the evening were Oh Yeah, More Than This and Avalon.
More Than This in particular was a joy to hear - I have a few great live versions in my iTunes library, but it's not the same as actually hearing it live in person.  I also felt this track was perfectly placed in the setlist, leading effortlessly into Avalon.

Setlist
I Put A Spell On You
Slave To Love
Don't Stop The Dance
Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues
If There Is Something
Oh Yeah
Casanova
Reason Or Rhyme
Like A Hurricane
Tara
Chance Meeting
More Than This
Avalon
My Only Love
Editions Of You
Let's Stick Together
Jealous Guy
Love Is The Drug
All Along The Watchtower
Hold On I'm Coming

Comments

  1. Laura16 July 2012 at 14:22

    Oh lord, converse in the mud? Poor Steph! Glad they were selling wellies! Also, I didn't realise Bryan Ferry was playing Guilfest! Not that I'm necessarily a massive fan of his, but that's a pretty big name act for Guilfest I feel!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LMBTO_Eurovision17 February 2013 at 16:15

    Wish I'd had the opportunity to go - sounds like an excellent set!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steph18 February 2013 at 14:13

    It really was a great performance, the setlist was bang on and his band are fantastic.

    ReplyDelete

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