Mighty Boosh Festival: Rated!

United Kingdom | by Howard Jones | 08 July 2008

Overall - 8/10
The festival was fairly well organised and gave the crowd a great day out. The atmosphere was relaxed and people really came together to look ridiculous and enjoy themselves. The musical line up was lightweight up until the evening, but that was countered by the fantastic comedy talent present all day in the Velvet Onion tent. The only minor let down was the bus fiasco at the end of the day.

Getting There And Back - 4/10
The site took a while to fill up because routes to the festival were snarled up and unless revellers left early, they were in for a long wait to get out of the car park. Congestion finally cleared when the AA cordoned off the main road to non-festival traffic, allowing two lanes of festival cars to leave the site. A lack of buses leaving the site was the biggest headache though, with hundreds left stranded and stewards selling spaces back to London for astronomical prices.

The Site - 7/10
Although only 9,000 of the allotted 30,000 tickets were sold, the site was only just about big enough to hold them all. The comedy tent was too small, which meant huge queues gathered outside early in the day, but the main stage had ample room. Little touches such as the face painting tent and bouncy castle for children were nice, but there was very little else to enjoy away from the actual stages.

Atmosphere - 9/10
Dressed-up Boosh fans were out in force, paying homage to their favourite characters. The fact that everyone looked ridiculous added to the easygoing nature of event. The crowd were good-natured towards all the artists and out to have a great time all day. The atmosphere only soured for those stranded by the bus fiasco at the end of the night.

Music - 7/10
The music was never the festival's selling, or strong, point. The Boosh were great value headliners, but it was their comedy that made them a great spectacle. The Charlatans and Gary Numan played sets that proved the old wily customers have the edge over the young hopefuls such as White Denim and Robots In Disguise. In all, it was a mixed bill which produced fun sets rather than life affirming ones.

Uppers:

The Boosh Band - 8/10
In essence their performance is the same as a normal Boosh show, but with added music. With most people huge fans of the comedy troupe, the connection between the crowd and the Boosh felt very special. The band are sound enough and Noel Fielding plays up to the 'serious' musician guise playing several instruments. Julian Barrett sings and gets the crowd going with some help from the show's legendary characters. Who can resist songs titled 'I Did A Shit On Your Mother'? They had the crowd eating out of their hand.

The Charlatans - 8/10
Tim Burgess and Co do a sterling job playing with a new found verve. They romp through hits such as  'The Only One I Know', 'One To Another' and newer tracks like 'Blackened Blue Eyes', proving they are more than a washed up nineties band relying on their former glories.

Gary Numan - 9/10
For many in the crowd the godfather of electro is probably better known for the use of his track 'Cars' in a Boosh episode than his influential back catalogue. But Numan performed a set that showed the younger audience why their favourite modern bands cite him as a big influence. 'Are Friends Electric', 'Metal' and the staple 'Cars' really had the audience sold.

Downers:

White Denim - 5/10
The Austin trio may be a festival buzz band at the moment, but sadly, they disappointed here as their music lacked any real meat. The singer can growl, the drummer can play constant tribal rhythms but the boys seemed to have left their riffs at home, instead their guitars make scratchy white noise that failed to get the crowd moving.

Har Mar Superstar - 4/10
It was sadistic of the organisers making Har Mar follow Gary Numan. No one would watch Audley Harrison box after watching Mohammed Ali fight! Har Mar danceed and got the crowd going, but his musical repertoire felt lightweight.  He may as well have pole danced for half an hour.

Robots In Disguise - 3/10
The trio are a Boosh championed band, but their songs didn't translate well in the bigger arena. They tried to bulk out their sound, which was detrimental to some of their good lines, which seemed to get lost at a festival level. Cardboard robots joined the band onstage, but they look like they're straight out of the Blue Peter studio compared to the Boosh.

Random Events

'Lady Eleanor' from the Boosh as the MC on the main stage was so funny that you actually wished she would just talk for half and hour and spare us some average music. "I love you," she proclaimed at first and then encourages some new festival protocol: "Shit in a cup and drink it, Have sex with a policeman, Wake up in a bed of flowers. Go wild!"
 
Ross Noble was the highlight of the Velvet Onion comedy stage. The crowd corrected Ross several times on his material leading him to proclaim: "This is like being heckled by the Open University!" By the end of the set, the whole crowd were left with two imaginary monkeys each, and being encouraged to sell one on e-bay in the morning. A typical Noble set then…

Andrew Lawrence forced a standing ovation out of the Velvet Onion tent on the premise that he'd smear his own shit on the front row if he didn't get the crowd up on their feet. Everyone stood up. Though, I hope he was kidding.