Kozfest- Axminster, UK July 28-30th, 2023

July 28th

We flew into Bristol the night before and very delayed. Anyway, we arrived in Axminster at 1411.  Easy to get a cab and it as 5.4£.  Lovely place we stay up the hill and Sarah the host is lovely. She gave us a ride to the festival with all my gear and merch, etc.. 

First band we saw was Sonic Trip Project. We could hear a bit of Shom and it sounded good. Met Santtu and Jaire, they were already totally smashed and would stay this way the entire evening. Far out…  STP were great and early on in their set, an older lady came up and danced for 5mins and it turns out she was the American lady who danced with Hawkwind on the original Space Ritual tour 51 years ago.. Far out… 

Codex Sarafini took a while to get going with a long spaced out first song.Might have been that new on they just released a video for.  They have a special look with the red robes and veils.  I quite like the sound and vibe but it all really does sound too much the same… one long song for an hr… Good band though..

Santiago Kings were a 5 piece- rock.stoner band.. Only heard 2 songs. It was not really what I was into. Lacertilla had an intense singer and a bit of a slower Orange Goblin vibe at times but they had so many sound problems with the bass cabs of the PA going on and off the drummer was killing his ride cymbal and they did not turn off the overhead so it just was killer to be anywhere near the tent. Just awful sound..

Set List: We go Here, Tangled Up, Trying to do a good Thing, Never see the sun, Further, We are the Flood, the Wired and the Weird, Round and Round, Deviate from the Plan

We had some African food. It was supposed to be spicy but it was not hot at all. Very tasty. A bit too salty though..  Yum… big portion..  I tried several of the local beers but they are served warm and some have almost no carbonation. Strange.. Best one was Hangmans stone.

Electric Cake Salad had two guitars, bass, programmed drums and a dancer.. It had a groove, reminded me of the 80s sound with a more agrro guitar.. Crowd was into it but it was not my thing. They need a real drummer…. 

Litmus they were my fave band of the day.. Just a great powerful set. All the guys sang well and pounded it out. They synths were perhaps a bit too dominant in the PA though.  I really loved it.. I recorded this one from the back.. A great mix of old and new stuff. Quite a few different songs than the Live in the Studio 2022 CD, which is nice. 

Setlist: Evil. Eartthbound, Never Coming Back, Kings of Infinite Space, Southern Side, God Bomb, Masson, Destroy the Mothership, Tempest, Under the Sign

Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, had a free form jam in the Nik Turner- Wally Tent and it was packed and sounded really awesome. Got a few pics..  WIsh they had been in a real stage.. SOmeone said it was the first time in 30 years they had played.. Not sure that is true.. I seem to recall the name on lots of festivals??? I later got a clarification that the guy playing drums it was the first time he had jammed with them in 30 years!! I did not expect such heavy psych rock. 

Saw a bit of the organisers band, Deviant Amps and that was really cool and spacey and some nice visuals as well. Cool to see Seaweed and Claudia playing with them. We saw half and then headed over to see Helicon. 

Helicon guys are super nice and it was great to see them play their brand of spacey 60s inspired psych with a bit of sitar on some of the songs.  Sound was a bit rough to start but got better. It was a lot of stuff to set up in less than 30mins… We only heard half the show.  Tent was pretty packed though.. 

Here and Now band. Wow.. only Keith Bailey from the original band but they had a cool sound with this strange mix of poppy weirdness and GONG like space outs. Guitar player and lead singer (young guy), he was great…  They had a good energy. Nice visuals…  We saw about an hr and then it was time to walk back to the town to sleep.  What an awesome little festival. 

July 29th

I am tired. IT was a long day but we stayed in bed til 10.. Hungry but no food around here. Ate the last granola bar.. We will have to walk to town or the festival for food. Lots of cool bands today starting early but I think I should rest up.. OSC are 2230-midnight…   Crowd seems very excited to hear us. Sold most of the records yesterday.. 

I made it to just catch the last 20mins of the Mandala Synth Orchestra (Cary Grace, Jez, Bob hedger, guy from Here and Now and one I did not know). It was a lot of modular drone with the occasional space bubble or sweep. 5 folks sitting on the floor playing modular and other synths. Would have loved to have joined..  

Kev Eillis and the Space Cadets was a really fun show.  He surrounded himself with a half female band (violin, bass, flute-penny whistle) and they just rocked and spaced out with funny lyrics.. A good time. 

The Honey Pot, a Fruits De Mer band, were next on the main stage and wow.. This was really nice and the crowd really loved their long jammed out take of White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane.  Very nice set…

Chumley Warners Brothers, featuring Richard Chadwick (Hawkwind), Bridget Wishart (Ex-Hawkwind) and one other played a friendly set of music. It was nice to see them but musically it did not do anything for me. Acoustic guitar, hand drums and bridget sang and played an electronic flute. 

Deltanaut, were probably the heaviest band at the festival. Hammond driven, stoner, a bit of doom, bit of 70s….  Had some great stuff.. I enjoyed the songs that I heard a lot. 

Moon Goose was one of the bands that I was really looking forward to and they did not disappoint!   I thought it was going to be more proggy but it was very Kraut inspired with intense repeated and driving drums and bass with one fairly normal guitar, a guy who freaked out a bit now and then and a keyboard player playing weird samples and interesting chords.. Very cool…

We had some food now and did not see Trevors Head (punky) and only caught a bit of Sloth Metropolis. Some of them wore strange masks and it was a very odd but cool music… I wish I could have seen more of them.  

The Kundalini Genie, were a young 6 piece band with 4 guitar players, male and female lead vocals. They reminded me a lot of The Sonic Dawn or some other 60s inspired Danish bands. Would have sounded the same if they had 2 less guitar players though. Not a lot of solo parts. They had a great vibe and sound, if not very original. 

Damidge, an old punky UK band (with Alex Pym on guitar), were fun. Old punks…. The lead singer sat on a stool for a lot of the set..  Not really my thing but they were fun…

Only a few more acts until Øresund Space Collective….. trying to relax…  We heard the entire Paradise 9 set from the beer tent. IT was really nice music..  I liked it a lot.. 

Setlist: Nothing 4 Tomorrow, Deconstruct, Into the Ethers, Crystalized Moments, Inner Spark, Sci Fi Reality, Shine On, These are the Days, Take me to the Future

Had to get my head together, the band and gear and move it into the main tent before ZubZub started.  Zub Zub is a techno act by Zia (Ex bass player in Ozric Tentacles) and with accompanyment by Alex Pym on guitar. They often have jumping Jon (Ex Ozrics) playing with them as well but not today.  It was not my thing at all. Just a laptop computer, Zia dancing about and Alex layering in some cool guitar and some ripping solos now and again. 

Sadly, we did not get to see any of Kungens Man as they were on as we were setting up and soundchecking. We did get to chat with them a lot though…  I heard they were a great. 

Our (Øresund Space Collective) soundcheck went great and sound was awesome on the stage. We hit the stage with a short space in and then it was pretty much high energy Space rock for the next 85mins.. We only did 3 jams and damn, everyone was on fire. Tim gave some much drive and energy and Jiri matched it with some killer bass and Omar and Vince just played amazing solos.. Mogens also did 4 or 5 cool synth solos and then I just layered some sounds in on the top. Chris Pardon (Nik Turner, Hawklords) joined us for the last 30mins.  It was like we all flew in the same musical UFO and were in such good musical contact. Band was just awesome this night.  The organiser told us it was one of the top 3 concerts ever at the festival. Wow.... The audience loved it. We had such an amazing response. It was filmed and multi-track recorded. I also did an audience recording. 

I just packed up my stuff, said thanks to the guys and some of the fans and off to where we were staying. We got lucky and a local was driving back into town and gave us a ride.  What a day.. Awesome festival day. 

They had a Uncle Wallys small tent with a music program as well and some bands have done two shows at the festival or just little jam get togethers. We heard a bit of Black Helium, doing some acid-psych rock and that was pretty cool.. . Gregg McKella did a set with some friends, including Martin Litmus on bass.. The Telephones started things off and Vince Cory (STP) joined them. Cool idea. I thought it was going to be more jam oriented but nice..

July 30th

We were up early but it has been raining most of the morning after a great nice mostly sunny day yesterday.   I do not see us going down there before mid afternoon today.  Some cool bands playing, Spiral Navigators, Black Helium, Dead Otter, Sendelica, Cary Grace Band, Nukli, Invisible opera company of Tibet, etc…

Sue decided not to go at all and wanted to go our for a real meal in town so I was going to go see a few bands and come back. The weather was crap. It had rained all morning. I did not manage to get down there until 1430 and ran into Tim and Mogens so we walked back to the site. We did manage to catch most of the Spiral Navigators.  A really crazy band with a realy old HW-GONG vibe- space rock with a bit of chaos.. Good fun!!! 

I left and got back at 17 and Sue and walked down to The George Hotel but sadly the kitchen was closed so the choices were Fish and Chips place (had not seating), Chinese, Kebab or an Indian place. We rarely eat Chinese so we tried that. Appetizers were really good but the main meal had no taste at all. Luckily it came with some fresh chile (which were very mild but added some taste to the tasteless chicken and cashew nut sauce.  36£ or something. Insane prices in the UK.

I walked Sue nearly back and then quickly headed back so I could catch some of Sendelica . I missed the first 25mins or so. IT was good but nearly the exact same as last year when we saw them. Nice folks. Spoke to Glenn a bit (the bass player). We hung in the hotel bar last year in Liverpool. 

  The ØSC guys were having a jam session in the Wally tent (Vince, Jiri, Tim and Mogens) and some guest folks did some singing. I only saw a bit and was off to see Nukli. 

 Nukli I was really looking forward to and they did not disappoint. They played a great set and some cool old stuff from the 80s..  What a great bass and drummer combination. Mark is just incredible. Best bass player at the festival I would guess.  Gives the guitar player a lot of freedom. It was a great set. Love the way they use the space in their songs. The new drummer is really great and powerful.. Super good set. 

Set List: Afrika, Tomorrow People, The Kings Hat, World of Light, Free Festival, Acid Funk, Red Alert!, Visions of Amber

Black Helium were on the main stage  but overlapped with Nukli so I only could see the last 25mins. Young band playing psych rock. Not really doing anything new but they have a cool sound. Great visuals and nice to see the stage not so bright. There set in the Wally tent was much more psyched out.. I went back to the Wally tent and a new jam was starting with Richard Chadwick on drums (later Tim joined in). I had a nice chat and hung in the tent for a bit.  Feet were tried as I had walked the 25mins each way 3x this day to where we stay.  I did not see any of Radical Dance Faction (features Joie Hinton, ex Ozrics).  

Black Helium

Dead Otter were the last band of the festival and the tent was pretty packed.  I love these guys. It is a great mix of instrumental music styles- stoner rock, psych, etc.. Both guitar players play cool stuff and the drums and bass are really solid.  Funny guys from Glasgow. Super nice.. I only saw hr.. Said good bye to a lot of folks.. 

Set List: Pathfinder, Whansy, Waning, Eye Gal., Ex Querra, FcrF, S. Shadows, Open Eyes, Komarov, Seen Enough, B.O.W., Assault and Battery

Awesome festival… Paul, the organiser is a hero to pull this off. Wow.. Congrats... Thanks to everyone that I met and chatted with and hung out..  Lovely people you are!!!!