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The Monsoon Bassoon - Guildford, Shalford Park "Ambient Green Picnic" Sunday 11th July 1999 At first glance this festival is all about Hippies, dope and laying in the sun. At the entrance is the main stage - with a long list of dance acts and DJ's, pumping out the tunes they wish they had been whisked off to Ibiza to do. Most of the punters are happy to just chill out in the sweltering heat. The small amount that are dancing drunk and stoned in front of the stage, are mostly lapping up the scene because they are too young to go to a proper rave or club. This looks, to all intents and purpose, like an old style Glastonbury on a small, dry and manageable scale....with proper toilet facilities! But wade your way through the stalls selling everything 1970's and you'll stumble into the Cabaret Tent. There's 'The Laughing Mongolian' - a leather trousered bald man, who pushes skewers through his face and nails this tongue to a block of wood, before jumping on a pile of broken glass - bare foot of course.....but he's not laughing! Not even after being put "to death" in an electric chair! (would you?). Then on stumbles 'Vis the Spoon' - a sort of John Cooper Clark on drugs. No subject is taboo. He does have some very good material - the only thing that needs polishing is the patter to the audience in between poems. Luckily, today he is saved.....by two eight year old kids who are sharper than the razor blades that The Laughing Mongolian probably had for breakfast. Back out into that blazing sunshine. There is a small path in the corner of the field, where punters are wandering in and out. This is the entrance to the Healing Fields. Head massages, discussion groups and herbal tea are the order of the day. But hidden in the corner is another tent - the Acoustic Stage. The Monsoon Bassoon are playing here at 19:00. I arrive early with Steve, another stalwart Bassoon fan, so we can get pole position at the front. This isn't a problem, as by the time the Bassoon come on stage there's still only about 25 people ready to watch! Acoustic! You must be joking! The Monsoon Bassoon come out with the intention to drain the National Grid. It takes a couple of songs for the sound man to sort out the chaos, so we can hear the singing, clarinet and guitars all at the same time. By now people have started to wander in to see what all the fuss is about. There they were, quietly sipping tea and smoking weed, lying in the sun with a guitar quietly strumming in background. But what's this? Is this the sound of Armageddon? Today was all about peace and harmony - and now the Bassoon are throwing noises into the air that sound like a banshee who's just met the grim reaper. The Bassoon rip through their normal set list and the punters are stunned. By the end of the set, there are people just sitting, looking at the stage with mouths open wide. This is truly the future of original music, and today a large section of the community that are normally not exposed to this level of excitement, are well on the way to being converted. skippy

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