Gallery - Slideshow & Review
Retrofest, Culzean Castle, Ayr, Scotland - 2nd September 2007
Gig Review - Alison Stevenson
RETRO…right well…with all good intentions my hubby Shaun and I bought tickets for RETRO and booked ourselves into a romantic hotel…organised our boys to stay with friends….all the time thinking, oooh this is going to be great, we are going to relive our misspent youth and remember all things 80’s! But that was no to be…..Shaun got called in to work, the joys of being good at what you do…and I went off to RETRO…with not one but both my boys. Josh is 14 and Nic 10, both 80’s fans as they have been brought up with music, music, music…so they were excited!
We left Livingston at 7am with it pissing down…wellies and ridiculous raincoats packed, trying to convince ourselves that by the time we got to Ayr the sun would be shining…yeah I hear you laughing !! First stop was the hotel to book in…all dressed up in silly wellies, the boys in their 4GM t-shirts…me in something ridiculously 80’s only to be met by stares of total disbelief…who were these freaks and how dare they enter our beautiful hotel attired in such a way…golfers….say no more. Anyway off to the festival, queued for an hour to get into the parking then for another hour for who knows what reason to get into the grounds….at least we got some entertainment Kajagoogoo doing a sound check…never a big fan of their music, but by that stage we would listen to anything….
Day one was great with the likes of Lee John - Imagination, real cheesy pop but what a performer….did some fancy dance moves and then slid up to the mike and commented “yeah baby…and that at my age”. The day progressed with performances from Bananarama …slight wardrobe malfunction…hee-hee. The Blockheads, as obnoxious as ever but brilliant! We were then treated to Go West performing U2’s Vertigo…blimey that was surprisingly good! Next we had Mr Gold Lame Suit himself…Martin Fry and ABC. Absolutely wonderful, and brought back fantastic memories, was so funny to see Nic at ten years old singing all the lyrics! The last three acts were Tony Hadley, Howard Jones and The Human League!
Day two dawns…and surprise, surprise it’s still pissing down. After about 5 cups of coffee we feel like we could possibly make it back to Culzean Castle….we spent the time that Kid Creole and The Beat were on stage wandering about…spent Cutting Crews set frantically pushing our way to front of stage…good elbow technique was employed!! Next up were The Silencers and they were fantastic, just great to get us in the mood for who we were really there for….then …yes you will be amazed by the following piece of information…the sun came out….we like to think it did just for FOURGOODMEN and I’m sure you’ll agree…We waited 45 minutes for them which felt like forever!!! But it was well worth it. Being their usual brilliant selves they wowed the crowds! People around us who had not heard of them were afterwards describing them as the best act of the weekend and we of course fully agree. Ian’s brilliant vocals backed by the equally talented and gorgeous Jane, Malky hypnotising us with drum beats straight from heaven. Graeme once again spoilt us with guitar solo’s that simply stopped you dead in your tracks. So combined with Derek doing what only he can do!!! The fabulously talented MacNeil’s, Mick on keyboards and squeezebox and Carrie on pipes…need I say more!?!?!?! Sadly the set finished all too quickly and we soon felt like it was time to leave…We wandered around listening to Nick Heyward, had a wee chat with Mick but then headed home…nobody was going to measure up!
The one thing that struck me about the weekend was that a few of the bands hadn't really prepared which is disappointing…some were reunited on stage for the first time in years and it showed. Needless to say FOURGOODMEN did not fall into that category, thanks yet again guys for an awesome festival experience, you really do make it worth the rain, mud and crazy crowds!
