Jadis ‘Garden Party’, Hampshire Bowman, 19th June 2004
Well,
summer would not be summer without the Garden Gig. In a field close to the
Hampshire Bowman (a new venue for this one-time annual Jadis extravaganza), we
camped out for the night (a bit cold too!) after a great night’s entertainment.
Jadis
entered the stage around 21:15, and started with No Sacrifice. The day
was fading into nightfall, and the crowd was quite large. I couldn’t tell just
how many were there, as the area was quite vast, but I would say around 300+
made the effort, and many new faces too. The band were soon in their swing when
Where In The World was aired next, and by this time many people took to
wearing fleeces and other warm clothing as the cloud cover was no more.
Yourself Alone was followed by Understand, and Gary Chandler’s voice
and guitar were together as one by the time Sleepwalk was performed. Some
overseas fans had made the trip over to this event, so Gary dedicated Follow
Me To Salzburg to them.
The
other three members were as solid as ever; John Jowitt’s bass and part-time
backing vocals were, as you would expect, Steve Christey playing as well as
usual, and Martin Orford’s keys and voice embraced the whole band.
The highlight for me Daylight Fades warmed the crowd
up, as it was needed, and I felt this was the song of the set. After Each
And Everyday and Alive Inside, the first cover of the set XYZ
by Rush was played. Gary explained that they liked it in rehearsal, so they
played it, and a fine version it was too!
Wonderful
World was next, a nice song by all accounts and the playing again was note
perfect, and last song of the set was The Beginning And The End. A nice
version of More Than Meets The Eye featured the flute of Martin Orford,
which was greatly received by the crowd. Holding Your Breath was the
penultimate song of the evening, ideal to get the crowd jumping around with the
energy provided by the music and real ales on offer. Final song, and the second
of the two covers, was Pink Floyd’s Run Like Hell. Clearly almost
everyone knew this and again it was performed very well.
So that was it, another year, another Garden Gig, many more
to come no doubt. (It could be an idea to see IQ again in an outdoor location,
10 years ago it poured with rain in Holland, but that’s another story.)
Jadis staged a great show again, and I feel the band is at a
nice peek, performing smoothly and enjoying themselves!
Danny Mayo
