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

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Artist: REEF - Gary Stringer
Genre: Rock
Performing: Guilfest 2001 / Stage 1
Website Address: http://www.reef.co.uk
Author: Anthony Murley

What’s the worst gig you’ve ever played?
I did use to know the worst gig we ever played, because we came off and said “that was the worst gig we’ve ever played”, but I can’t remember it. It was about five years ago. To be honest with you we don’t really play that many bad gigs. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s usually because something in your head is a bit wrong.

What’s the first gig you can remember going to?
First gig I ever went to I was on stage, I was 14 at St Dunstans school, Glastonbury. Playing in an AC DC covers band. That was a good laugh. The first gig I paid money to go and see was local band called Que Pasa who were a Cajun band. Superb they were.

Which do you prefer playing, gigs or festivals?
I enjoy them both. I think festivals have got something special about them though. I love playing to lots of people, it’s a wicked buzz, especially if they all enjoy it and get into it.

What’s the best thing you’ve ever bought at a festival?
I don’t really buy stuff at festivals to be honest. I grew up at Glastonbury,there was all sorts of tie-dyed flags and T-shirts and things around, and I’m not really into all that. [thinks for a while] The best thing I ever bought at a festival? Probably to be honest, the best thing I bought at a festival was a nice meal. A Chinese or something. Usually you get drunk and walk around bleary, and when you pluck up the courage to get some food it always hits the spot.

What’s the first thing Reef are going to be doing after their set?
Relaxing, having a nice drink.

If a gig’s going badly, do you go or soldier on?
Soldier on. One of the things we’ve always felt from day one is that people have paid for their ticket, and would probably be quite excited. If it’s a festival or a gig, basically people have paid money to see you play, and if you’ve got personal problems or just sh*t sound, you’ve just got to get on with it.

You’ve been described as having a “clean boy image” and somewhere I even read “teetotal”, so that considered, what are Reef drinking?
Guinness currently. I like Whisky a lot as well. I’ve gone through stages of not drinking, but I’ve never been teetotal, that’s B*ll*cks. If someone comes in and sees me now, and sees me drinking and smoking they’d say “Reef are wild party animals blah blah blah”. If someone walks in on a quiet day and you’re not doing anything like that, then you’re a teetotal born-again Christian. You can’t win in that way, people judge you quite quickly. So you don’t really worry about that sort of stuff, you just enjoy yourself.

On that note, which one can’t you get by without, alcohol or cigarettes?
I can certainly live without cigarettes, don’t like them at all. I could live without both but I choose not to.

What’s your message to the Guildford festival goer?
Yeah, I’d like to say thank you really. We were put in at short notice and we’d been locked away in Devon for four or five weeks writing. Because we turned up at such short notice, probably 90% of the crowd weren’t there for us, they were there for the festival they’d already seen, so to get the reaction we did was great.

What’s your favourite song?
Ever? That’s a really hard one, I don’t know. At the moment I like Dr Dre a lot. I like Big Egos by Dr Dre, that’s one of my favourite tunes.

What’s the first thing you do before going on stage?
Try and psyche myself up I suppose. Today I just got a guitar out and played a couple of the new songs we’ve written to warm up, then walked on and started singing.

What’s the first thing you do after going off stage?
Go and sit somewhere quiet just for 3 or 4 minutes, which is hard sometimes because you get bombarded pretty quick.

Favourite place in the world?
England. Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, people are very laid back there.

“Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom, if you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn?” Charlie Parker - how far do you agree?
That sounds about right. I think we’ve always been that sort of a band, for good or bad. When you sing and make music, you’ve gotta do something that represents you. That’s what we’ve always done. Sometimes it’s thrown us up high, sometimes it’s chucked us down low, but we’ve managed to keep going.