ok so here goes my report from the event!
Friday 10th October
Rob Balducci and his band arrive at my house and chill. They are asleep when the Rugby World cup starts at 11 am.
After a sleep we grab some food, waited for the tour bus to arrive, dropped it off at the venue and then up to Denmark Street at about 6 pm for a quick look-see.
After getting caught in the rain we dried off in the Intrepid Fox when Paul, Gareth, and Mark from EverRain were already having a bit of brown ale
Our little corner soon grew to include; Me, Pete Davies, Carina, Rob Balducci, Dan Lamagna, Antony Paganini, Paul Brady (CK drummer), two of Paul's friends; Paul, Dan and Mark from EverRain; Clive Murray, Paul Cornford, Max Moseley (Cornford), and Pete (Cornford); Paul McCrone and Mark McGuigan from Scotland
we then headed to Garlic and Shots for a dose of the dreaded bloodshots, excessive drinking, bloodshots, stupid conversations about shite, ridiculously poor NYC accent impressions, shite, beer, poor taste/dirty jokes, some guitar festival crap, and booze.
Numerous alcoholic beverages later we had volcanic Garlic Bread which blew are heads off and then more beer.
Much later it was back to mine via the kebab shop and then sleep.
Saturday 11th October
Having woken about 6 am I caught some of New Zealand v Italy and then a bit of Ireland v Romania in the rugby.
After brekkie we walked to the venue to unload the PA from the tour bus then headed down to my band's studio to get our gear (and the backline for Jemfest).
Back to the venue where Adrian Foden, Paul Cornford were all setting up.
With the aid of EverRain, Rob's band and CK we got things set up and started to organise stuff.
Again for the third year running I played the first guitar on stage at Jemfest. Of course this really meant something when I was the first to play onstage at any Jemfest outside of the USA in 2001.
Organisers priviledge
We got the rest of the venue sorted, bar opened and the stuff set up and money off the people who had sneaked in early.
People were piling in and it was very busy when it was time to start (>100)
A quick change of running order and Alan Lennon from Ireland took the stage. Alan had asked to play Jemfest before the 2002 UK event and wow it was worth the wait!
Alan and his band ripped through some great tunes and knocked out some cool covers like 'Flight of the bumble bee' and 'Mr Scary'.
For one song they were joined by Stefan Lindholm for a jam.
Stefan was up next and played through one of the Cornford amps on stage.
Stefan came from Sweden last year just to watch and this year he played with a backing track. Lots of notes and lots of great playing!!
All the way from Newcastle came EverRain who played some great stuff with some cool head banging foot tapping riffs (especially when he was playing on my green and black UV7BK!)
Cereal Killer were up next. This is one thing I always forget about Jemfest! I organise Jemfest and answer all the questions on the day and sort as much as I can out but for 45 mins I have a break and play!
We had a blast and ran through our set with cheesy grins, squeal harmonics and further silliness!
Just for a change the first three songs of out set had no solos!!
A bit of Green Day, Thin Lizzy, Austin Powers and Lynyrd Skynyrd later and we are done. Thanks to our stand-in vocalist Mark who did a great job for his first gig.
Wipeout came on and played some great stuff and have added some new covers to their set. Some trademark over the head playing from Darren, a drum solo though the crowd from Gerry and some great stuff from Jamie and Kerry meant another good set from the guys from Swindon.
The man who needs no introduction-Clive Murray came on and blasted through a mix of his own stuff and a few covers. A different band line-up from last year incorporating the Edwards brothers from UKMG delivered a solid set of rock!
Tony Hernando had come all the way from Spain and although suffering from flu had a great time and played some fantastic stuff. Much appreciated was his FTLOG cover and the crowd gave him and his great Jem7PBK plenty of support.
Tony played through one of the Cornford amps and a Line 6 delay unit.
Last year Rob came over and played to backing tracks, this year he had brought his band!!
Rob was excellent and very very impressive! The new songs rocked and the older stuff was excellent too. A true headline performance!
Rob played through the Cornford amp and my rack effects.
Paul Cornford enjoyed it too and asked Rob to endorse his amps!!
As we were running out of time the jam was shorter this year. Ben Bartlett of Guitarist magazine kicked it off with a rendition of 'Sisters'
After that the CK lads got up as the backing band and we played
'Hard to Handle' with solos from:
Shaz Haque (CK)
Pete Davies
Simon Wilkins (CK)
Guy in white shirt
Paul McCrone
Paul Clark
Clive Murray
Shaz Haque (CK)
Herman Li (Dragonforce)
Jamie Hunt (Wipeout)
'La Grange' (with Pete Davies on bass) solos:
Haydn Mowbray
Oussama Metatla
Darren Hunt (Wipeout)
Some guy in a black shirt
Henry Blanchard
'Paranoid' solos:
Paul McCrone
Tony Hernando
Herman Li (Dragonforce)
Stefan Lindolm
Same guy in black shirt
Guy in white shirt again
Rob Balducci
Next up the raffle.
We had sold about 80 tickets and there were 25 prizes! so pretty good odds!
Borge won the guitar from Projectguitar.com
Borut won the Keeley pedal
Nathan wont the £75 Nevada music voucher
Dave Barlow won the £50 Arrowhead guitars voucher
Henry Blanchard the Guitarpicks UK prize
Nine people won the Cornford T-shirts and CDs
Kerry won the big honey from Steve Vai
Paul won the small honey
Amos and Borge won the other Vai stuff
Kerry won the Rob Balducci T-shirt and CD
Other prize winners
Kerry, Haydn, Paul, Mark, Emma, Andrew, Andy, Carl, Ece, Pete
and of course Darren Hunt couldnt go home without winning anything so he won the Jem777LNG cake!!
Thanks to everybody, especially Pete Davies and all the artists for everything.
Look out for the write-up in Guitarist magazine coming soon!
This was the biggest Jemfest ever with around 130 people attending on the day, beating Jemfest UK 2002.
We made around £1100 on the day which means we can donate around £500 (£100 more than last year) to NSPCC and MANF...
and that is what it is all about!