Jive Aces

Claimed to be the UK’s number one jive and swing band, theAces played to a packed audience in the Priory marquee on Saturday afternoon.

They are an effervescent six-piece band and have worked with Van Morrison and John Travolta, and played for Prince Philip They thrilled their audience with some of their own compositions but also great standards including Sweet Georgia Brown.

The thunderous applause from a very appreciative crowd could be heard over a considerable distance.

And those who could not get tickets to see the show inside the huge tent were quite happy to sit on the grass and listen for free...jazz on a budget.

Red Stripe Band

After almost filling the vast Priory marquee on Friday evening, this frenetic London musician and his band filled the Brewin Dolphin marquee in The Parade on Saturday with their inimitable frenzied style that ranges from boogy-woogy to honky-tonk.

Red Stripe (Neil Drinkwater is his real name) is the UK’s answer to Jerry Lee Lewis, one minute kneeling on his piano stool, the next standing up and even, sometimes sitting on it properly.

But red Stripe is not all about posture. he and his band are into fast-moving music that the Marlborough crowds love and cannot get enough of.

I would go so far as saying that if Red Stripe came to Marlborough every week, his band would play to packed houses.

Maybe it’s not jazz in the truest sense but who cared...he had his audiences at both shows rocking and rollin’ in the aisles.

Swindon Young Musicians

About 20 of the country’s aspiring young jazz musicians performed on the New Road bandstand to an appreciate crowd both sat in front of them in New Road – closed to traffic for the day – and in St Mary’s churchyard behind.

Swindon Young Musicians billed as Swindon Youth Jazz Orchestra represent the future in Wiltshire and from their performance on Saturday afternoon there are some very good years to come.

They played a varied programme ranging from jazz to swing and enthralled a large crowd.

Slaughterhouse Seven.

This irrepressible bunch of young musicians from Downside School, near Bath, is brought to the Marlborough festival every year by teacher Kevin Byrne, whose home is in Pewsey.

What they might lack in musical talent, the youngsters who have been coming to the festival since it started – different faces each year of course – have a firm following and on Saturday they played their hearts out on the New Road bandstand with a big crowd willing them on with their applause.

The festival would not be the same without a bunch of musicians whose enthusiasm infects the audience.

Long may Kevin Byrne keep bringing them to Marlborough.