Agiotfest is possibly the most illustrious local Festival in Corfu and this was to be its fifth consecutive year since its inception, setting out to headline the cultural events of the island. In regards to the bands that were lined up to appear (with Steve Gibbons being last year’s headlining act),the headlining position was offered to the band “The Troggs”, and the bill was completed by bands Vince Vortex & The Cucumbers, X-Lovers, Omega5 and Heather Skinner.
At about 19:30 Artemis, violonist, a student from the music school of Corfu, made her appearance on the stage, where she performed a mini-medley of Hanz Zimmer’s “Pirates Of The Caribbean” Soundtrack. Artemis won the applause of the building audience for her very good effort.
First on the bill was Heather Skinner, who undertook the task to “warm up” the audience, a task not very easy to accomplish, for the simple fact that the style of music she represented (despite being performed exceptionally well) did not fit with the Classic Rock style of the Festival itself. Accompanied by a keyboard player, she presented us with a selection of songs derived from Broadway musicals. Amidst her setlist, she performed tracks such as Love On The Rocks, Summertime and The Rose which was the song which closed her set.
The bulk of the audience arrived right before the appearance of the next band, Omega5, the members of which are coming from the U.K., but mostly perform around Corfu island. The vocals interchanged for a couple of songs, but the central figure was Steve Dell, who is a professional British performer. They had a well-worked out sound and the band presented us with covers by bands such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Eagles, and their appearance at the Festival concluded with Chuck Berry’s Johnny Be Good. At this point I’d like to add that the band’s lead guitarist Sam Woods, left the best of impressions.
Next up, was the local band X-Lovers, led by George Cheimarios. With the band undergoing a change behind the microphone, new singer Alexia Mane, despite the short time period between her joining the band and the performance itself, she was indeed very good. The band was completed by bassist Dave Good and Giannis Michalas on drums, with the latter showing some good technique and precision as a drummer. X-Lovers presented songs by bands such as Muse, Portishead, Amy Winehouse and Police and won the attendance’s applause.
Last band before The Troggs, were British punk rockers Vince Vortex & The Cucumbers, who truthfully justified their punk sensitivities on stage. This was their second appearance on the Festival (with the first one being two years ago, in 2011) and presented songs from some of the most popular punk rock bands of the early 80s. Vince kept calling to the audience and kept changing words with his band mates. All in all a solid performance.
And so we get to the Festival’s headliners, The Troggs, who would appear for the first time in front of the audience of Corfu. With Chris Allen taking the place of recently deceased Reg Pressly, but with the rest of the band’s lineup intact, and more precisely Chris Britton (guitar), Dave Maggs (bass) and Pete Lucas (drums), the Troggs appeared on the stage of Agiotfest. Despite the fact that Chris is with the band for the past one and a half year, he was amazing, a classic blues rock voice, while Chris on guitar was also exceptional, performing as expected, in the classic late-60s early 70s style, especially in the solos. The songs they performed were:
- Give It To Me
- From Home
- Louie Louii
- I Do Do
- Walking the Dog
- Night Of The Long Grass
- Feels Like A Woman
- Anyway That You Want Me
- Strange Moves
- Everything
- Little Girl
- With A Girl Like You
- Love Is All Around
- Wild Thing
Encore
- I Can’t Control Myself
Overall, Agiotfest 2013 was very successful, the audience stayed right until the end and left the festival with the best of impressions. We are looking forward to next year, 2014, and await what’s in store for us in regards to the bands that will appear then.
For Rockoverdose.gr: Michael Spiggos
Photography: Dick Mulder
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