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Miffstock
2001 - Friday Night.
Check
out Fridays pictures
At around
5pm on Friday 18th May 2001, Broadbridge Heath Leisure Centre transformed
into a hive of activity in preparation for the first ever Miffstock
Rock Festival. Volunteers, Bands and friends all pitched in to help
build the main stage, assemble the PA equipment, set up 20 or so amps,
tune (badly) over 100 guitars and decorate everywhere possible with
various items of superb Miffstock artwork (thanks, Kate!). By 6:30pm
a massive crowd had gathered, and by the time the doors were officially
opened by Mr Marten (head of security) at 7pm the queue stretched through
both sets of doors and out into the car park! This hinted that the evening
was set to be a major success, but no one could predict the events that
followed.
Nick P,
lead singer with The Indigo Sunrise, made his way to the stage at 8pm
to officially start the Miffstock ball rolling. After thanking everyone
for all their support and mumbling a few workds about 'money' &
'stuff', he introduced the band that will go down in history as being
the first band EVER to play Miffstock - and what an opening set it was…
EVERAFTA
…took no prisoners right from the start. In lead singer Kablanski,
Everafta have quite possibly the best front man around at the moment.
Crazy hair, crazy jumps, crazy lyrics, crazy dance moves - this guy
has it all. It wasn't long before the eager crowd started to lap it
up and, even before the end of the first song, Everafta attracted a
great selection of beautiful young ladies to the front of the stage.
New bassist Phil and drummer Dan immediately laid down some solid punk
rock foundations to support the livewire guitar riffs of Chris Hazard
and the afore mentioned shenanigans by Mr Kablanski. Their 30 minute
long set just flew passed, but from the crowd reception at their finale
it looks like the band have enlisted a hell of a lot of new fans. Most
band's see the prospect of opening a gig such as this as a highly daunting
prospect, but Everafta disregarded this with style and provided the
best possible start to Miffstock. Quite simply, they were awesome.
FATM
Everafta
had the energy, but FATM sure had the sex appeal! Nobody knew what to
expect from this 2 piece outfit, but the site of grown women reduced
to tears at the mere sight of James "Mr Loverlover" Bassett
& Russ "Throbber69" Spyker truly was a sight to behold.
FATM made 3 appearances on their own stage, and each mini set was met
with Beatles-like hysteria from a heaving group of amorous young ladies.
James & Russ had the audience eating out of their hands throughout
the course of the evening with jazzed up renditions 'Deeply Dippy',
'Soul Kitchen' and 'Heroes'. This was classic entertainment, delivered
with a great sense of humour and the cocky swagger you'd expect of two
hardened Rock N' Roll stars. FATM will go far… remember where you
saw them first!
WIDELOAD
After
FATM's first set, Wideload took over the musical baton back on the main
stage. They sure had something to prove after receiving some negative
remarks from certain quarters of late, but this performance crushed
those remarks in a big way. From the opening number 'Jumpin' Jack Flash'
you could see that lead singer Oli was fired up for the challenge, and
his voice was on top form for this show. Whispers backstage had rumoured
that Wideload were planning something special for the Miffstock crowd,
and this surfaced in the shape of a cheeky cover of 'Pure & Simple'
by those ITV Popstar muppets. And rather spectacular it was too (if
only the original had been this good!). The lead vocals were shared
for this one by Oli, Megan & Jon with Jon's lines receiving particularly
loud cheers from the Costa Coffee contingent in the crowd. Wideload
gave 100% to this one and drummer Kerry even refrained from swearing
at the stage crew… bless her!
The
Brothers Jaf
After
another scream inducing appearance on the 2nd Stage by FATM, it was
the turn of The Brothers Jaf to entertain the masses (by now estimated
to be around 200). They set to work on working up the crowd with several
tracks off their album (which is now in Our Price, by the way…
check it out!). I have to give a special mention to 'Technophobe' of
course, because this is my favourite song! And it does rule in a big
way! It didn't take long for the crowd to cotton on to the Eeiyo's (did
I spell that right?) at the end… you can't beat a bit of Eeiyo's
as Sting would no doubt confirm. I must say that the guys looked very
dapper all decked out in orange, but I think Steve regretted wearing
the waistcoat as the on stage temperature soared way up past 'toasty'
and on to 'meltdown'! As you'd expect there was lots of banter with
the audience, who were now in the mood for some Jaf lovin'. It was a
mini set compared to what the guys are used to playing, but it sure
helped take Miffstock 2001 a step higher - Cheers Jaf, we salute you!
The
Indigo Sunrise
The
final performance by F.A.T.M saw some strippin' action from Throbber
Spkyer. Luckily several stretchers and the St John's Ambulance were
on hand for any girls ovecome with the sight. This last instalment from
F.A.T.M was absolutely ace, and Bowie's 'Heroes' in particular really
hit home. This was F.A.T.M's debut live peformance, but on the strength
of this show it definitely won't be their last.
It was
then time for The Indigo Sunrise to take the stage and bring to a close
the first evening of Miffstock. The start was delayed slightly by some
technical hitches which were luckily covered by the intro tape, but
as soon as the band kicked into 'Slacker Anthem', Miffstock ignited.
Cue much singing and pogoing which was a truly class sight in such an
odd venue! Things went from crazy to near danger levels during the next
few songs, as Jim Turner and Phil Kablanski struggled to stop the HDLMA
PA from getting trashed by the over enthusiastic crowd. Monitors got
trampled, overhead lighting got knocked and mike stands got knocked
over, but no one got too seriously hurt. 'Smalltown' had to be performed
pretty much as an instrumental due to the mikes eating dirt, but things
were soon back in order for 'You VS Me' to have its usual cool impact.
It only seemed like a few minutes had elapsed but it was time to finish
off the night, and 'GSMTV' did the job well. Its seemed as if half the
venue knew the words to this one, and it proved to be a fantastic way
to top things off.
It took
a few hours to get the place back to normal, but when the clearing up
had been done it was revealed that this evening had raised over £1,000!!
Needless to say this was very cool indeed. It was then time to start
thinking about Sunday's football tournament…
Check
out Fridays pictures
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