Mantonfest Magic Multiplies

Mantonfest, the longstanding gem on Marlborough’s event calendar, finalised for another fantastic year last night, with metal-driven mayhem, as the sounds of AC/DC ripped across Treacle Brolly….

Tribute act AC/DC UK had a challenge, to top Dan Budd, who unleashed a burning effigy of everything Robbie Williams used to be and thoroughly entertained in manner and style so akin to who he was attributing, he might as well be Robbie Williams. Debatably they did, it’s a highway to hell of a show, using eighties amps and tech, the schoolboy uniform costumes and feisty skill to breathe authenticity into it, like coal fuelling a fire.

I’m not heavy metal’s biggest fanboy, but view them in light of what’s popular, or at least was, in Marlborough; and via this pov, they rocked the show. Though, I’m impartial to Robbie Williams too, being a product of the nineties boyband fad I raved underground throughout, and by his peak in the noughties I washed out! No, I was most looking forward to the Duran Duran Experience, that’s my era.

That’s my time when I couldn’t go to gigs, but idolised pop stars, making me the ideal candidate for a Duran Duran tribute; you had to like Duran Duran if you wanted to snog girls at school discos, fact! Hailing from the Midlands with fifteen years under their belts, Duran Duran Experience were great. They delighted my retrospection for songs I anticipated and excited my reminiscences for some I’d forgotten, and until today, that was my formula for a perfect tribute act.

But if the Duran Duran Experience were plodding, didn’t engage the audience on the same level as Dan Budd, then I need to rethink said formula. Robbie Williams may not be my bag, though it was the best tribute there by far, heading towards one of my all time bests. His band were incredibly tight, his engagement tiptop, the banter and the delivery were all on par with the cheeky yet lovable bravado of the real McCoy; he even looked like him and hails from Stoke-on-Trent, just like Robbie, so even the regional accent was genuine.

I don’t make a habit of suggesting a tribute was ‘like the real thing,’ though it’s a common assessment vocally in a crowd. In fact, I believe I’ve never said such cringe, but in this case, it truly was. Dan was Robbie with the full kit; impersonation, performance and persona.

Dan even made me contemplate there was something I missed about the talent of Robbie Williams, casting him off as manufactured ‘pop mush’ at the time, and perhaps the ability to change the minds of those who didn’t care much for the attributed’s work beforehand is a mega bonus ball to the perfect tribute act. For the standard wide age demographic of Mantonfest, gen z, millennials, all danced in awe alongside gen x, who were still recovering from the Duran Duran Experience!

Tributes aside, despite being the finale of Mantonfest’s ‘if it’s not broken’ formula, I unfortunately couldn’t make the festival from its off. I missed Barrelhouse, Humdinger, Jamie Williams and others, though safe in the knowledge of their refined abilities. I arrived in time to catch Amelia Mills finishing her sublime set with You’ve Got The Love on an additional stage set adjacent to the main stage, which provided continuous music while acts on the main stage tuned. I’ve seen Mills as part of the St John’s school showcase at Mantonfest some years ago; she was ambitiously striving then, but now she’s confidently brilliant.

The second stage idea was the only thing different about Mantonfest, as I said, if it’s not broken…. Mantonfest is such a lovely, communal festival, perfectly scaled and reflects the certain charm of Marlborough as a town, only under a sea of gazebos. The other highlight of the second stage I bore witness to was Hangfire; one Marlborough resident, the remaining matured gents from Highworth, covering a selection of sixties to eighties classics with such passion and proficiency it would be impossible to find fault with them.

But the second stage isn’t the be-all-and-end-all to the meaning behind the term multiplication in my headline. The tried and tested winning formula of Mantonfest expands into Devizes as in the incarnation of little sister festival Park Farm for its second year on Saturday 18th July.

The lineup there uses acts loved at Mantonfest, with a finely selected Devizes ingredient added, The Jon Amor Trio. That’s the reasoning I must cast to Devizes residents; yes, Park Farm is the newbie on the block, but is fuelled by the experience of 25+ years of Mantonfest, and Mantonfest again this year, reinforced my conviction that they’ve the ability and motivation to present an outstanding mini festival with a big, passionate and highly entertaining heart.

---