Canterbury Fayre 2002
Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th and Sunday August 25th 2002

 
 

Canterbury Fayre 2002, held over the August Bank Holiday weekend at Mount Ephraim Gardens in Hernehill, Faversham, Kent was for the first time a three day festival, having previously only been a one day affair.

Promoters Brain Wave Festivals and Second Wave Promotions took the ambitious step of jumping straight to a three day event with an impressive list of bands and from what we saw of things it was a very successful event.

The line-up over the three days was as follows:

23rd August

Fish - 9.00pm
Ozric Tentacles - 7.00pm
Nik Turner's Space Ritual - 5.00pm
Kevin Ayers - 3.40pm
24th August 2002
Jack Bruce and the Cuicoland Express - 9.00pm
21st Century Schizoid Band - 7.00pm
All About Eve - 5.00pm
The Electric Prunes - 3.30pm
Diesel West Coast - 2.40pm
Muffin Men - 1.30pm
Mostly Autumn - 12.30pm

25th August

The Stranglers - 9.30pm
The Damned - 7.30pm
Love with Arthur Lee - 5.30pm
The Pretty Things - 4.15pm
Oysterband - 3.00pm
Arthur Brown - 2.15pm
Man - 1.00pm
Karnataka - 12.00pm

Lighting for the festival's one Main Stage was provided by Fruit Salad Lights/Coloursound Experiment with Lighting Director Jasper Johns thrashing 6 Golden Scans to within an inch of their lives and displaying his skills on the lighting desk with some excellent chases/crossfades and other wild stunts.

The FOH sound engineer was Ian Bond (of Dream Theater fame) who fed wonderful sound around the natural amphitheater that formed the main stage area.

Due to unavoidable circumstances we could not get to the festival until early Saturday morning but we had some people reporting on Fridays events for us.

Kevin Ayers performed a very blues influenced set in the pouring rain, which did not put off his hardcore fans who stood there and endured the downpour while he played!

At one point his daughter came on and performed an acoustic piece and showed considerable talent.
Nik Turner's Space Ritual played a good but somewhat chaotic set that once things had settled down turned out to be a good performance, followed by what we were told was also a good performance from festival favourites Ozric Tentacles. Fish was, well, Fish................sorry!!

pOoTer and Boris arrived very early Saturday fuelled on copious amounts of Red Bull, Pro Plus and Vodka after a breakneck journey around the M25 and plenty of Speed Camera dodging on the M2/A2 (bastards....) and after erecting the monster Pooterland tent went in search of some fun......

We have been in touch with James Lowe from the Electric Prunes for ages and he wanted to meet up with us so first up we went backstage on a 'Prunes hunt.

After meeting up with Jasper from Fruit Salad we heard James Lowe shout out "Pooter!" and turned round to see him walking towards us smiling (we had walked straight past him....duh!!).

We hung out and chatted with the 'Prunes for while doing an informal interview and snapping some pictures and also ended up meeting Arthur Brown (who didn't know who the 'Prunes were until our buddy Neil introduced them...)

 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002

Mark Tulin, Arthur Brown and James Lowe

 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002

James Lowe, Mark Tulin and pOoTer

 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002

Mark Tulin, Neil Rice, Jasper Johns, James Lowe and Schmoo

 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002

James Lowe, Mark Tulin, Jasper Johns and Neil Rice (barely visible!!)

 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002

Jasper Johns, James Lowe, Mark Tulin, Neil Rice

 
 

We stood talking to the 'Prunes for so long that we blew out Mostly Autumn (too Prog for us!) and the Muffin Men (Zappa tribute band..) after which we went looking for some breakfast that didn't involve Red Bull!!.

This was found in the shape of some of the best vegetarian burgers EVER seen at a rock festival, these fuckers were so good that we lived off them for the next few days (apart from Boris's love affair with vegetable Tempura.....).

We heard the last part of Diesel West Coast before getting down the front for the highlight of the afternoon...........The Electric Prunes, live in the UK for the first time in 35 years!!!

After a terrible introduction from Master Of Ceremonies, Arthur Brown they were on and played the following set:

Lost Dream
Never Had It Better
Ain't It Hard
Last Night I Had A Dream
Too Much To Dream
Canterbury 'thing' (Mojo/Wind Up Toys etc. etc)
I Happen To Love You
Try Me On For Size
Long Days Flight
Get Me To The World On Time

 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 

Apart from some slightly overpowering lead guitar the set was brilliant and it was a truly memorable experience to see one of America's legendary Garage/Psych bands actually playing live here in England!!

We heard All About Eve whilst hitting those veggie burgers (again!!) for lunch before going back into the VIP area for another chat with the 'Prunes where we chatted about the years 'between the Prunes', Mark Tulin's disappointment at British weather, he had bought a raincoat over from LA and desperately wanted to wear it (it NEVER rains in California), Cameron Lowe's new found rock 'n' roll lifestyle playing in a 'legendary band' and the future.

I suggested a photo shoot and James and Pamela Lowe quickly got the band together for some pictures on the steps of Mount Ephraim House...

 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes Canterbury 2002
 
 
Electric Prunes and Max Myndblown Waller Canterbury 2002

Prunes with Max 'Myndblown' Waller

 
 
We arranged to catch up with the band later and went in search of some alcohol and more Pro Plus in preparation for 21st Century Schizoid Band, which are the closest you will ever get to the original King Crimson line up these days.
 
 
21st Century Schizoid Band 2002
 
 
21st Century Schizoid Band 2002
 
 
21st Century Schizoid Band 2002
 
 

They played a strong set to an appreciate crowd, we nipped down the front for some pictures before sloping back up to the Lighting Tower and watching the rest of the set from there (the BEST sound and best view of the lights...).

We stayed there for Jack Bruce and the Cuicoland Express who did a few Cream covers, amongst some strong blues and rock numbers and the crowd went wild. The highlight for us was Jasper's awesome lighting effects which looked excellent from our vantage point.

We finished the evening up at the band merchandise tent where we met up with the 'Prunes again, drank more beer, ate more burgers and ended up bumping into Chris Hewitt from Oz-IT Records and ending up in deep discussion about the current 'troubles' in the Hawkwind/Xhawkwind camp (see our News page) then wandering backstage watching some footage shot of Kevin Ayers earlier on Friday before drunkenly attempting to put up some camp beds in the Pooterland tent (without a torch....duh)

The Pooterland tent played host to Neil Rice from Optikinetics on Saturday night, but we were not very good hosts, having no food or lights (only Red Bull and Vodka!!)

Sunday morning looked like being a washout as it pissed down with rain for an hour or so before suddenly clearing, we took the opportunity and had our first breakfast (2 cans of Red Bull) before sneaking back to the veggie burger stall for more awesome veggie cheeseburgers and bumping into some Pooterland.com visitors who stopped and said "Hi".

We stumbled down to the stage and caught Karnataka who, although not psych by any stretch of the imagination played an excellent 'first band of the day' set (never easy) to an appreciative crowd.

Man played a good set although I am not sure what they played as I am not really familiar with their material, their guitarist Mickey Jones had been taken seriously ill and his son George had stepped in to take his place, he was AMAZING for a young kid, it has to be said!!

 
 
Man - Canterbury Fayre 2002
 
 
Man - Canterbury Fayre 2002
 
 

We ditched Arthur Brown in favour of more food and came back to watch the Oysterband who played an interesting Folk/Rock set and I think were a little suprised to be on the same bill as The Damned etc.!!

Also The Pretty Things. The Pretties were not quite what we had expected although they did play a kick ass version of Midnight To Six, Don't Bring Me Down, SF Sorrow, Baron Saturday and LSD.

Their Vox guitar was also very cool.......

Next up was Love with Arthur Lee and we were seriously not expecting the totally mind-blowing performance they we were witness to, this dude was awesome, he was so cool, the songs were so tight and his voice was absolute perfection, he was backed this afternoon by the same band (Baby Lemonade) he has been playing with for the last few years:

Dave Chapple-bass
Rusty Squeezebox-guitar, backing Voc.
David Green-Drums
Mike Randle-Lead Guitar, backing voc.

The set-list was this (thanks to Pooterland visitor David Johnston for sending in this correct version):

1. 7&7is
2. Signed D.C.
3. Live and Let Live
4. Your Mind And We Belong Together
5. Alone Again Or
6. Andmoreagain
7. Bummer in the Summer
8. You Set The Scene
9. Everybody's gotta Live / Instant Karma
10. Singing Cowboy
11. Encore 1 A House is not a Motel
12. Encore 2 The Daily Planet

 
 
Love with Arthur Lee Canterbury Faye 2002
 
 
Love with Arthur Lee Canterbury Faye 2002
 
 

They virtually had to throw him off stage as he was not gonna leave on his own accord, these guys were THE hottest band!!

Spotted watching from the edge of the backstage area was Dave Vanian and Patricia Morrisson from The Damned (who were on next and kept waiting by Mr Lee!!)

The Damned played an excellent set, with Captain Sensible wearing an Electric Prunes 'Rewired' T-shirt and commenting on 'how many of their heroes' had been playing that weekend, and keyboard player Monty Oxy Moron being possibly the most comically entertaining person of the entire festival......what the fuck is that bloke on? (somebody let me know 'cos if it can make a 41 year old wig out like that then I WANT some!!).

Their current line-up for those of you who have bothered to read this far is:

Dave Vanian - Vocals
Captain Sensible - Guitar
Patricia Morrison - Bass
Monty Oxy Moron - Keyboards
Pinch - Drums

Their set list was something along the lines of this:

Street Of Dreams
Democracy
Song.com
New Rose
Would You Be So Hot
Amen
Plan 9 Channel 7
Rain
Ignite
Neat
Disco Man
Eloise
13th Floor Vendetta (??? confirm....somebody...pleaes??)
Smash It Up

 

We did not hang around for The Stranglers, who are minus Hugh Cornwell these days (see Sons Of Shiva for Hugh's new project....) (sorry guys...) and blasted off up the motorway, stopping only for more Red Bull on the way.

 
 
Mount Ephraim Gardens in Hernehill, Faversham, Kent
 
 
Mount Ephraim Gardens in Hernehill, Faversham, Kent
 
 
Mount Ephraim Gardens in Hernehill, Faversham, Kent
 

Words: pooter - 2002
Photos: pooter and Boris - 2002