Kernowfornia Festival: Fantastic Friday

 

What can I say about the Fantastic Friday at Kernowfornia, other than it lived up to and even surpassed my expectations.

I got down early, just past midday, to make sure I caught both Lesoir and Pure Reason Revolution (two of the main reasons why I was attending the Festival).

Unfortunately, Lesoir had a few sound/technical problems, but I could still see what a fine band they are: 

 Aeon was the track that stood out for me, I was spellbound by it:

Would really like to see Lesoir do a much longer set somewhere after getting a short taste of them on the Fantastic Friday.

Shortly after Lesoir, it was time for Pure Reason Revolution:

Heavy-type Prog with a wonderful fusion of male and female vocals:

A few years ago, during 'Covid', I was on course to catch PRR with Gazpacho in Warsaw but this got scuppered by 'Covid' (of course).

But still, it was great to see tunes like Dead Butterfly; Ghosts & Typhoons; and Deus Ex Machina done live on the Fantastic Friday.

 Like with Lesoir, I was left wanting to hear more:

To be honest, I couldn't quite understand why both bands were not on higher up the bill, but this is just a small observation.

After PRR, I found myself kind of flitting between Willie and the Bandits on the main stage:

And The Cabarats inside the small tent stage:

 

Both bands sounded great and it was really a case of not being able to determine who to focus on.

 

After this, I did manage to focus on Haunt the Woods (who seemed to be the main festival organisers):

 

Had heard a lot about Haunt the Woods and had a nice chat with one of the band members the day before while getting my festival wristband from the Guildhall Tea Rooms in Looe town centre:

 

Fever Dream was the standout track of the Haunt the Woods set for me, and I was left sensing that the band were kind of a cross between Prog and quirky Alternative music (no bad thing, of course). Think this band will continue to digest well.

 

Then came the massive surprise of the day for me, The Magic Numbers:

 

 In no way had I expected them to be my band of the day, as I only really knew them in passing:

 

But they blew me away, just perfect for the occasion, even having a kind of Prog dimension that I'd never noticed before.

 

Love Me Like You was probably my favourite tune of the set but it's difficult to say as every song seemed to be made of magic.

 

Will definitely pay the band more attention in the future.

 

Similarly, I thought Embrace were great:

 

All You Good People is a perfect coming on song, a real barnstormer.

 

And just about every phone device seemed to be aimed at the stage when the band did Gravity.

 

Then finally, it was the turn of Marillion.

 

I'd first seen Marillion back in the early 1980s at Manchester Apollo on The Script for a Jester's Tear tour (also saw them twice around the time of Misplaced Childhood, at Castle Donington and Milton Keynes Bowl, but it wasn't until about 2007 that I saw them for the first time during the Hogarth era).

 

What can I say, Marillion are obviously musical proficiency incarnate, and I thoroughly enjoyed their headlining set at Kernowfornia, although it did look painful for Hogarth to have to do the Fish-era tunes, Kayleigh and Lavender. 

 

More to the point, Marillion basically ooze class, You're Gone was a great coming on song and Afraid of Sunlight, as good as ever. For quite some time now, I've kind of preferred the Hogarth-era Marillion to what preceded it, although the Fish-era was brilliant for its time, of course.

 

Finally, so good was the Kernowfornia Fantastic Friday line-up that it kept making me think back to the 1985 Castle Donington line-up which included Marillion alongside Magnum; Metallica; Ratt; Bon Jovi; and ZZ Top (what a magically varied line-up that was).