GuilFest 2005. The Guildford Music Festival on 15th, 16th and 17th July 2005

About the bands
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Artist: Monkey Toast
Genre: Rock
Performing: 18th July 2004 / The Andertons LiveClub Stage
Website Address: [www.monkeytoast.co.uk]

Monkey Toast were formed in the bedroom of James Phillips in December 2002 when James asked Tom if he fancies a jam. Playing songs such as The Brews by NOFX and We're only gonna die for our own arrogance by Sublime, it was quickly realised that this was more than a jam. We thought for a while before asking Chris McCollin to be the bassist, and he quickly agreed.

After the first practice our first song was born 'Louis is a Goth' and as practices went on more songs were written. The only problem is, it was March 2003 by now and we still had no vocalist. We had tried out 2 but no luck from then. Then all of a sudden everyone seemed to have the idea of asking Oz Browne to help out and become the vocalist. He agreed of course and from that day the real monkey toast was born, even though at this point we were still unnamed. We had our first gig booked shortly after, and practiced hecticly up until it, when we played the black dog in Grantham, and went down a storm. By now we had decided on the name monkey toast, as James was playing an online slot machine which came up with 2 random words, and money toaster came out, which was shortened to monkey toast. This hadn't been finalised by all the band but Tom produced the flyers for the upcoming King Prawn gig, which we were playing and it kind of stuck from there. The King Prawn gig followed a week after our first gig, and over 250 people turned up to this, dancing to all the bands. Over the next few months we played more gigs in Grantham and wrote a load of new songs, as well as recording our first cd.

This turned out to be better than we ever hoped it would and have currently lost count of the amount we have sold. September 2003 arrived and we were offered a place at the Wycombe leg of the moonska tour, which would also be our first gig out of town. By now we had a pretty new set for it and played this gig like it was our last. The crowd was amazed and we were instantly asked back after to play again. We then played a few more gigs around the block, playing with 4ft fingers amongst others. Then the big one came, we were asked to play an under 18's night at rock city, 3 days before xmas. We turned up early and set the equipment up. Then we sound checked but time just seemed to slow down. The doors opened and the queue was so long that we couldn't see the end. This must go down as one of our greatest gigs and we were told that over 1000 people had turned up to see us. We sold all of our cd's, and the week after were asked to support Long beach Short bus (ex sublime bassist) at the Charlotte in Leicester. By now we were moving up the bills and were on as main support to a band which contained a legend in our eyes.

This was just as successful as the rock city gig and once again we sold out of cd's. The next two months up until the present day we have spent playing gigs In Grantham, one with adequate 7 and recording the 2nd cd. We have some free time now up until the summer season to write a few new songs, we have already written 4 this year, one being a funky number, one ska/punk song and 2 metal/jazz kind of songs with obscure time signatures. Also we have just added a new member to monkey toast, she is a sax player called Heather, and after only 2 practices played her first gig with us which went down a treat! 3 songs were worked on in 2 practices and she took to them very kindly improving our sound greatly. We have now been confirmed to play Guilfest this year and will be playing on the Andertons LiveClub stage at 6-30 on Sunday 17th July. We have also been asked to support ska legends the Selecter in August at Winter Gardens in Cleethorpes, and will more than likely doing a week long tour leading up to this gig with London ska band Mumrah. Who knows what the next year holds, but if it's half as successful as the last year we will be doing very well.