Phoenix Festival, Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK
4:30pm arrived, and the crowd, who had been taking refuge from the
intense heat, surged into the Guardian 2 tent. The Holy Barbarians had
been scheduled to play at 3:30pm, but for reasons beyond their control
(ie the other bands arsing about), the band had to make a late
entrance...
As the crowd began to accumulate inside the tent, Vic Reeves introduced
the band, wearing a droopy false moustache. At that point, the Holy
Barbarians made their entrance, to an awesome reception from the
audience. Ian Astbury, wearing a knee-length skirt and a Miami
basketball(?) vest, greeted the assembled throng, and invited them to
guess what colour knickers he was wearing... In case anybody was
wondering; they were black.
The set was performed with intense energy, Ian Astbury providing the
frontman image of which we have seen so little in recent times. The
Cream album supplied us with the majority of the songs, but somewhere in
the midst of this, the set was punctuated with a superb version of The
Witch, a surprise to all those who weren't expecting any Cult numbers
to surface... As anticipated, the crowd went wild!!
At the risk of sounding repetitive, Ian was the perfect performer both
vocally and dynamically... aside from all the microphone swinging you
would expect, of course. Near the start of the set, he jumped into the
crowd, and protested as the security men tried to provide some form of
protection; "I am a professional..." he proclaimed.
Vic Reeves came on during Space Junkie to dance and sing, momentarily
taking over from Ian while he frollicked about.
Other highlights involved him jumping on and off the bass drum, drinking
a can of lager from a height (and missing), then throwing it into the
crowd (no doubt someone has a nice momento there!), using Vic Reeves'
moustache the *wrong*way*up*, and then at the end of the set diving
into, and wrecking the drumkit.... (and very nearly the drummer!).
Without a doubt - even accounting for alcohol and drug consumption - the
best gig of the four day festival.... We all went out the next day and
bought the album, and we will see God, er, I mean Ian and his band
again in September.
** Storm **