in
Reading, UK - 26 June 2004

Event: Marvellous '04 www.marvellousfestivals.com
Location: Wellington County Park (near Reading)
Admittance: 5 pm
Beginning: 7 pm
Bands: SAILOR, Björn Again

Photos by: Katrin Wagner, Leisl and Stephen Bowes, Linda Welch, Christel Müller, Malcolm Knowles

Promotion material - Click on the picture to enlarge (opens in a new window)

Rob and Phil at the Nickelodeon

Rob and Peter during "La Cumbia"

Rob and Phil during "Josephine Baker"

SAILOR during "The Old Nickelodeon Sound"

Phil and Peter during "Vera From Veracruz"

Rob and Peter during "Vera From Veracruz"

The audience in front of the stage

Rob, Phil and Peter

SAILOR on stage

The Full Monty

The Full Monty

The Full Monty

The end of the show

The end of the show

The songs that SAILOR played at Marvellous '04:

A Glass Of Champagne
La Cumbia
Give Me Shakespeare
The Old Nickelodeon Sound
Josephine Baker
Vera From Veracruz
Mack The Knife
Traffic Jam
Karma Chameleon
Panama
Girls Girls Girls
Latino Medley
Champagne Reprise

encores:
"Grant's moment" - drum solo
The "Full Monty"

Before and after the show...

Christel, Linda and Katrin in front of the audience

Katrin, Linda, Christel and Eileen

Malcolm and "The Robettes" ;-)

Katrin together with Damian (lighting design) and NaylorMan ("SAILOR nanny", sound engineer, production manager and best one-man-crew in the world! ;-))

Investigating the new SAILOR book...

The Marvellettes under the green tree - Linda, Eileen, Malcolm, Christel and Katrin

A concert review by Katrin Wagner:

The marvellous Marvellous trip starts for me on 24 June 2004 with a trip to my friend Christel where I stay over night. After a very short night with hardly any sleep we get up at 3.15 am and drive to Düsseldorf airport by taxi. We reach London at about 8 am and meet SAILOR fan Linda at Heathrow who kindly picks us up. First we drive to Linda's hometown Southampton to relax for a few hours. (Special thanks for the great time!!!)
At 3.30 pm we leave Southampton again and drive to the Wellington Country Park near Reading, where we are going to see Pete & Hugh today and SAILOR tomorrow. We reach the park at about 4.30 pm and search for the entrance. At 5.10 pm the gates open and we can go to the big concert area. As we have a picnic blanket we are not allowed to go behind a certain line because the area in front of the stage is only for dancing. People with chair etc. have to stay further behind too. So we stay a bit away from the stage and make ourselves comfortable. The weather is marvellous and after a while Peter Lincoln joins us on our picnic blanket for a moment before he gets ready for the show.
From 7.15 to 8.15 pm Pete & Hugh do a fantastic show and entertain the crowd (approx. 1500 people) who mostly remain seated. Christel, Linda and I go to the front in order to support the guys and take some photos. Afterwards it's time for the Counterfeit Stones who do a great show as well.
After another short talk to Peter who has also promoted and organized this event together with two partners and Graham NaylorMan Naylor who is very busy as he's the production manager of the whole event we leave the Wellington Country Park.
Day two...
Ready for the SAILOR show Christel, Linda and I drive from Southampton to the Wellington Country Park once again on Saturday afternoon. Linda and I decide to wear our new Panama hats and therefore rename ourselves to "The Robettes". We reach the park again quite early and are the first people at the gate which is far easier to find today because sombody has placed some signs on the way. We haven't brought any picnic stuff today so we can go straight to the front row once the gates are opened.
We get to know some nice Björg Again fans and are also joined by Malcolm and Eileen a little later. Some other SAILOR fans also wait further at the back of the queue. NaylorMan opens the gates at 5 pm and we walk (well, all the others walk and I run) to the concert area again and manage to go to the middle of the first row, surrounded by Björn Again fans, where we wait at the barrier until the show starts. Malcolm and Eileen have to stay behind the red line with their picnic blanket but then join us for the concert. As the concert is just about to start Sarah joins us in the front too. The weather isn't as marvellous as yesterday, but we don't really care about getting wet by the rain as we know what to expect soon.
SAILOR's show starts at 7 pm after the host - a local DJ in a rather funny yellow outfit - has explained details on the ground etc. to the audience for the 20th time. Peter, Rob, Grant and Phil do a marvellous show and play a lovely 65 minutes set - turning many of the Björn Again fans into SAILOR fans. The people next to us are really impressed by their show, as well as many others.
After the show Grant's wife Michelle and the author of the new SAILOR book, James, prepare a little merchandise area next to the stage and sell CDs, T-shirts and of course the first copies of the SAILOR biography while we hold the umbrellas for them. The books have all been signed by Peter, Rob, Grant, Phil and James just before the show. The four SAILORs join us too in order to sign more autographs, take photos and talk to the fans for a while. In the meantime Björn Again start their show.
After a while Phil, Rob and the Serpells have to leave, and Rob joins us again to say goodbye. When Björn Again have finished their show Christel, Linda, Malcolm, Eileen and I get together again and stay on the abandoned SAILOR merchandise table for a while. Peter joins us again in order to say goodbye as well as NaylorMan before we all leave the Wellington Country Park at about 11 pm.
Finally I have to mention that the whole event was very very well organized and the security people (or as we called them because of their yellow outfits which seemed to attract a lot of flies especially on the Friday show: "the guys with the flies") were very friendly and did a great job too. A special mention must also go to Graham NaylorMan Naylor ("SAILOR nanny", sound engineer, production manager and - as ever - best one-man-crew in the world) for the marvellous sound etc. and to Damian Goddard for the marvellous lighting design!
Oh, and watch out for drunken deer at Wellington Country Park as Peter spilled our wine on the grass... ;-)
Here's to Marvellous '05...
Copyright by Katrin Wagner, 28 June 2004

A concert review by Linda Welch:

Marvellous ’04 – Pete & Hugh – Friday 25 June 2004
The Marvellous ’04 weekend started early for some of the fans – yours truly is NOT used to getting up at 5 in the morning, but Katrin and Christel were up even earlier to catch their flight from Düsseldorf to Heathrow. I collected them and brought them back to Southampton where we had lunch in the sunny garden, then changed and prepared a picnic for the afternoon and evening, and drove to Reading. I was rather concerned by the lack of signposts to the Wellington Country Park, but I needn’t have worried. We weren’t late. Our car was fourth in the carpark (the other three belonged to people who were taking money at the gate!). As we got out of the car we recognised Pete’s voice over the PA system as he and Hugh were performing their sound check. The voices were tantalisingly close but, again, there were no signs to the entrance. The people on the gate told us, ‘You can’t miss it!’ But somehow we did, and ended up strolling through the artistes’ entrance to the very front of the stage. We were happy with that, but Naylorman was quite surprised to see us there. Some of the security men carried our heavy picnic bags back to the turnstiles where we waited until the official gate-opening time. We then had a quick lesson on ground layout (no picnic blankets and bags beyond the second red line, no chairs beyond the blue line) and spread out at the edge of the dance area in front of the stage. The sun was hot, and the showground was filling up nicely (2.000+ visitors were expected on Friday night) and Pete, looking surprisingly calm for one of the event organisers, strolled over to say hello and have a chat before disappearing backstage again.
A DJ from the local radio station – Kestrel FM – came on stage to give a few housekeeping announcements and to promise us that Pete and Hugh would be with us ‘soon’. It was hard to take him seriously in his yellow Panama hat, yellow shorts and yellow and white shirt; in the heat, the tiny flies that swarmed over the showground seemed to think that he and the security men (also in yellow) were some strange kind of flower, so they were all covered in flies! We heckled him gently from the front of the stage, reminding him at every opportunity that the Counterfeit Stones and Björn Again weren’t the only bands playing that weekend, and he looked rather surprised to find out that Katrin and Christel had come over from Germany specially for the event.
After a few more appearances by the Banana in the Panama, promising us Pete and Hugh at any moment, they finally came out on stage to enthusiastic applause. The evening sun was shining straight into their eyes so I’m not sure that they could see anything at all to begin with, but then they spotted friends, family and fans amongst the audience and waved and said hello. Although Pete and Hugh now only get together very infrequently and hadn’t had much of a chance to rehearse, they put on a really polished show, playing a variety of songs from the Beatles to the Doobie Brothers by way of Crowded House and Paul Simon. The songs were all ones the audience knew, but I’m sure they weren’t chosen just to please the crowd – Pete and Hugh clearly loved the music they were playing. It was evident that they enjoyed playing together and were having as much fun as we were, and the camaraderie between them made the event a pleasure to watch.
I could have listened to them play all night, but all too soon they had to make way for the Counterfeit Stones. It was our cue for to go back to our neglected picnic blanket and bottle of wine and make way for rockers of all ages to sing and dance along to Nick Dagger and his band. They were excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed their performance, but the evening was made for me by Pete & Hugh’s set. After all the hard work put into organising the event, I’m so glad that the sun shone for them … on Friday, at least!
Marvellous ‘04 – SAILOR – Saturday 26 June 2004
After a long sleep until about 10 o’clock, Katrin, Christel and I were ready for another trip to Wellington Country Park. We decided not to take a picnic this time, so that we could go straight to the stage and not stay behind the red picnic line or the blue chairs line. We knew exactly where to go today and this time we were the second car in the carpark! The sun wasn’t shining but it didn’t matter. A little rain can’t hurt a dedicated fan!
We were first at the gate, joined quickly be a couple of Björn Again fans who had come all the way from Leeds. They looked as if they would want to be right at the front too, so I made a deal with them: we wanted to be in the front, in the middle, for SAILOR, but after that we’d move aside so that they could get the best spot. They were happy with that. We exchanged stories about SAILOR and Björn Again, chatted with Malcolm and Eileen who arrived a little later, and the time passed very quickly until the gates were opened. We waited a little longer at the turnstiles, about 50 yards ahead, then Katrin ran for the stage, followed at a much slower pace by Christel and me.
We took our places, and nothing was going to move us! Malcolm and Eileen kept me supplied with glasses of wine, and we waited patiently while the local DJ came on stage to tell us about the toilets, the food and drink stands, and the painted lines on the ground. It was drizzling slightly, but we didn’t care!
At last we heard a disembodied voice telling us that we were all probably there because we had nothing better to do, and SAILOR arrived on stage to a huge cheer from their own fans as well as some of the Björn Again fans, who had been infected with our enthusiasm. We joined in with our favourite SAILOR songs – although there are so many wonderful tracks they couldn’t play them all – and maracas appeared at appropriate parts of the show so that we could shake along with Phil! You don’t just watch SAILOR, you take part, and I really felt that we were all part of the show, the only difference was that we weren’t actually on stage with them. We were really lucky that we had a longer show than usual – in total just over an hour – but it was still too short. When SAILOR left the stage, the Björn Again fans around us seemed very disappointed. We knew that they would be back, and we knew what to expect when they appeared again in naval uniform carrying the ship, but it was all new to the Björn Again fans and there were lots of deafening yells around us as the boys went into their Full Monty routine. They certainly converted a few fans during their performance, and several BA fans asked for details of the website so that they could find out about future SAILOR shows. All good things must come to an end and after a cracking show, SAILOR finally left the stage.
All weekend I’d been joking that I would bring a shower curtain with me to keep the rain off the three of us, and after the show it would have been very useful to keep the merchandise dry! But there were enough of us with umbrellas (and bin liners!) to make sure that the precious SAILOR books that had only just been delivered the night before didn’t get wet, and the guys came out to sign books, pose for photos and chat with the fans, despite the drizzle. We recognised several faces from the concert in Tring earlier this year, and I’m pretty certain that we’ll see some of the Björn Again fans again at SAILOR gigs in the future!
The only thing I’d have changed about Saturday is the weather – everything else was … marvellous! I know from my own experience just how much work goes into organising events, and this one was so well-planned and everyone involved was friendly and helpful. I’m sure it gave the organisers many headaches along the way but the result was a great weekend that everyone enjoyed, so thanks to all involved (they know who they are!!!) and I look forward to Marvellous ’05!

A review of "Marvellous '04" from the Wokingham Times:

MARVELLOUS TIME HAD BY ALL AT WELLINGTON BASH
THOUSANDS enjoyed a weekend of great entertainment at Marvellous ’04 last weekend.
Wellington Country Park provided an ideal venue for this relaxed, picnic-style festival, which is rapidly becoming one of the region’s major outdoor music events.
Local artistes Pete and Hugh kicked the festival off to a rousing start on Friday with cover version of many popular music tracks spanning the last 40 years from the likes of The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Crowded House and The Kinks.
Next, performing as part of their Get Yer Doo Dahs Out tour, came the Counterfeit Stones tribute band, whose act included great music, great costumes and great laughs, as well as hilarious film clips from the band’s tours over the last three years.
Saturday’s bands, SAILOR and Björn Again, provided entertainment, fun, glamour and glitz, in spite of the wet and windy weather.
Björn Again came complete with costumes (satin knickerbockers and all!), dance moves and Swedish repartee in an action-packed show that created an amazing party atmosphere.
The Sunday night Proms concert, with the Elgar Chamber Orchestra and featuring local singer David Walder, attracted a lively throng, complete with flags and union jack hats.
The crowd was definitely up for joining in with everyone’s favourite classical songs, including The Dambusters’ March, Pomp and Circumstance, Nessun Dorma and, of course, Jerusalem and Rule Britannia.
The concluding firework display was the occasion for many delighted ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ as the festival grounds were illuminated with spinning colours.
Steve Stanton, festival organiser, said: "We are delighted that so many people came to Marvellous ’04. Last year was good, but this year was fantastic.
"The atmosphere was absolutely terrific — very laid-back, warm and friendly. It’s especially good that so many local people supported the festival, many of whom brought their children.
"The funfair proved a great success with the youngsters as well as the more adventurous older festival-goers — and I think everyone enjoyed the opportunity to picnic in such a lovely environment."

Concert Photos