GuilFest 2006. The 3 Day Guildford Music Festival on 14th, 15th and 16th July 2006

Review:

Artist: Who Will Miss Mary
Stage: Uncut
Date: Saturday 12.45 pm, 16th July
By: Nora Birkbeck

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Once again, GuilFest stands alone amongst its peers in allowing The Great Unsigned to grace its major stages, thereby giving four blokes and a girl from East Grinstead the welcome opportunity to demonstrate their extraordinary brand of musical melodrama to a sizeable lunchtime crowd.

And what a brand it is. The band skilfully weld delicate acoustic arrangements to a solid electric backing, as melodies the size of Guildford cathedral are served up by singer Mary Leay – a girl-next-door-on-speed who sounds, for all the world, like the product of a lesser-known affair between Joni Mitchell and Robert Plant. Leay’s magnetism is already compelling; you can imagine nearby fast food vendors spilling their onions as she drags them into her attention forcefield.

There’s nothing obvious about Who Will Miss Mary – nothing ersatz – but the songs still lodge in your head as if you’ve owned their CD for months. Opener “Sooner Or Later” boasts a hook you could hang several coats on, while a later number that appears to be entitled “Throw It Away” bubbles and builds to an emotional crescendo normally quite unheard of at this hour of the day. Also impressive is the band’s sonic authority; in the penultimate track they reign in a powerful groove to a whispering, 4-part harmony with the confidence of a band with twice their experience. They’re also unafraid
to rip up the pop rule book; in the same song, they manage to execute a perfect, singalong chorus without the use of any words whatsoever. So who’s arguing?

Inevitably, one knows of a few people who might. As Leay twists and screams, and the finally unleashed guitars slam the thrilling 30-minute set to its conclusion, you can picture entire record company A&R departments shaking their heads, muttering “we’ll have a tough time marketing this,” and other
such nonsense. But while the world snoozes to Coldplay, one can’t help wondering how far a band like Who Will Miss Mary would really get, if only some gutsy industry shaker would take a chance on something other than the perpetual march of the bland.