The Elephant Fayre

Port Eliot .

St Germans. Cornwall.

July 26th - 28th 1985.

Killing Joke ,Chevalier Brothers, Pookiesnackenburger

Ra Ra Zoo, Howard Hughes and T.W.A , New Model Army,The Kosh Dance Co, Popticians,

Rent Party, Earl Okin ,Black Roots,John Martyn.

poster courtesy Ray Weston

    Usually the Elephant Fayre was blessed with good weather, but for once , it rained and the Saturday night was a washout, although the event still went ahead. This was the last year but one for the festival, but we need more eyewitness accounts and a full lineup of bands , as we only have an incomplete list so far, gleaned from audience tapes of the festival.

   There were reports of can throwing , which would have been unheard of in the earlier years of the festival.

The site was beautiful despite the rain and I remember having a very civilised cup of tea in the house. The Labour party had a big red bus there in an effort to entice the 'yoof' vote. That seemed a bit pointless to me as the number of Tory voters present could probably have been counted on one hand.My memories of the event have now merged so I can't put any order to them.

I remember seeing some Hells Angels messing around and whilst one of them was peeing on the ground, another one fell over and got a mouthful of the piss. I guffawed at this and found myself facing ten very cross-looking angels. cue hurried exit stage left.

Killing Joke seemed to be a little miffed at the rain and were grumpy,whereas New Model Army were happy as anything. At one point they declared that the next song was one for "burning hippies to". I noticed several long-haired types looking slightly paranoid at this, but most of them were clutching plastic containers of super-strength scrumpy so I'm guessing that they weren't fit to see the joke.

The comedy tent featured some blokes from Brighton who were doing performance surfing and singing about 'Sex Wax'. Quite marvellous. However, the reggae tent was the highlight for me as I had just bought a slab of hash fruit cake. After two hours of listening to dub I turned to my friends and said "let's go". In reality only half an hour had passed and I actually said "leeeeeeeeeetttssss... gooooooooooooo... "

In the morning my mate Toby returned to the car after spending the night sleeping under a tree, in the mud. He looked like shit. My girlfriend and I had spent the night in a very leaky canvas tent and, as she will confirm, we spent most the time after that bickering.

There was a boat moored up on the river bank and I decided to wade out to have a look at it. The owner then returned and pointed out why and how I was the stupidest man he'd ever met. In retrospect he was right.

I have no memory of what I ate for the weekend, nor what I drank (but the betting is on one of those plastic containers of scrumpy). I have no recollection of what kit I took, whose car we borrowed, nor the name of the fourth member of our party. I do, however, recall thinking that it was all quite mad and very good fun.
Cheers
Graham Carrick

Killing Joke 7-27-85

Audience tape.

The Hum, Darkness Before Dawn, Requiem, Empire Song, Tabazan, Night Time, Kings and Queens, Good Samaritan, Love Like Blood, Bloodsport, Complications,The Wait , Pssyche, Eighties, Wardance, Sun Goes Down, Follow The Leaders.

New Model Army 7-27-85

Audience tape

Ambition (cuts in) Frightened, My Country,The Price
Heroin, Better Than Them, Adrenalin
No Mans Land, No Rest ,Young Gifted And Skint
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place,Small Town England
Christian Militia ,Betcha