Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival 2000
Reef
Pyramid Stage
17:30 Saturday 24th June 2000
'We're
Reef - we play Rock' were the words of Gary Stringer as Reef opened
their set on Saturday at 5.30 and launched into 'Place Your Hands'.
I'd been looking forward to seeing Reef again as I knew from experience
they put on a great show. Gary has a unique strong raunchy voice
and that smile is a wonder is behold.
Three
songs in and they performed their new single ' Set the Record Straight'
but after that they just gave us what we wanted - the sun was shining,
the crowd was ready to rock and Reef gave us songs from their previous
three albums that we could all sing along to. Tracks like 'I've
Got Something To Say' 'Good Feeling', and 'I Would Have Left You'
had the place rocking and Gary wanted to join us on our side. He
ran to the crowd and tried to jump the barrier but security were
having none of it and pulled him back, he went again and pushed
security men aside which nearly caused a fight in his desperate
bid to get into the crowd, but they stopped him and he reluctantly
came back on stage.
The
band then threw themselves into more songs with backing singers
adding more depth to the sound. Gary had to fetch a belt to keep
his trousers up as he bounced all over the stage in his bright yellow
jacket and new shorter hair, the mike hardly long enough to keep
up with him. 'Summers in Bloom' reminded me of AC/DC and this was
reinforced by the bass player, Jack Bessant, who was wearing a shirt
and school tie - very Angus. Later they played another new one 'Super
Hero' and then in a tribute to Ian Drury 'Sex and Drugs and Rock&Roll'
is attempted, but no one can match Ian on this one, leave it Gary.
At
this point there was some crowd entertainment as a guy popped up
in a dinghy and surfed the crowd laughing his head off. To finish
we all sang along again to 'Naked' and finally 'Yer Old'. These
guys are a great band to see live - don't miss them if you get the
chance.
review by Skye Hi
more pages about Reef
