Friday 04/07/03 The Darkness, Arthur Lee & Love, Thea Gilmore, Ozomatli, Alice Cooper @ Guilfest, Guilford

Mini-Glastonbury? Is someone having a laugh? For starters, nobody seemed to be on drugs. There also wasn't campsite-wide thievery going on and mass hippy nakedness or a cider-swilling John Peel were nowhere to be seen. For safety and relaxation however, Guilfest beats most festivals.

This year's line-up was heavily dosed with Americana acts and acoustic chic. First under the spotlight however, is Lowestoft stadium-rock inspired The Darkness, the exact antithesis of quiet and subdued. For pure tongue-in-cheek cheesy glam, indulgent guitar solos and bare-chested acrobatics, this motley bunch come top of the list. For any kind of non-live musical enjoyment (bar uncontrollable stag/hen night, 80's air guitar debauchery), they slump right to the bottom of the pile. It won't take long for the joke to wear off and for The Darkness to resemble the band in 'Still Crazy', frontman Justin at 47 still unashamedly stomping about, baring his torso and manically squealing 'The Best of Me'.

Impeccably attired Arthur Lee and Love managed to entertain a crowd brimming with Alice Cooper fans. Despite worrying imaginary gun-toting gestures, his sixties funky dance and incessant tambourine thwacking was obviously mesmerising enough to prevent a fight breaking out. Mischievous Lee wins the prize for best lyric ever: "Oh the snot has caked against my pants, it has turned into crystal" from 'Live and Let Live'. The newly Calexico-covered 'Alone Again Or' pleases those here hoping for some classic Love, but the set was a little on the stark side without their characteristic trumpets.

Thea Gilmore lights up the Uncut stage and her unassuming manner is immediately endearing; the men want to wed her and the ladies want to share their secrets with her, as proves a new track about a girl who cornered Thea in Camden and proceeded to divulge her entire life story. Despite Gilmore's critical acclaim, she still remains happily uncommercial, (yet, unfortunately, her sound wouldn't be out of place on the Dawson's Creek soundtrack).

Headliners Ozomatli provide a very welcome change of tact on the Uncut Stage. Considering we aren't in Nashville, but actually in a park in Surrey, there's only a limited amount of Americana one can take seriously. So to provide a breather from the grizzly and morose or the saccharine and poetic, this Mexicana/samba outfit have the crowd smiling and literally dancing! Moving their feet!

And so on to Mr Alice Cooper. Dazzling as his initial foray onstage was, dressed in sparkly suit with lights going mental, the most memorable part of his set was that he overran past the ridiculous 11pm Guilfest curfew so we all missed out on hearing 'Poison'.