FILE: Eugene Hutz and Gogol Bordello
Mid Afternoon and a break in the clouds is hurriedly snapped on camera-phones. Luckily, Gogol Bordello are here. The gypsy-punk band formed in the lower east-side of New York City by mostly immigrants from Eastern Europe kicks up a, well, storm for the soaking, defiant crowd. Like an Eastern-Eurpoean Pogues, they deliver a stomping set. The odd English lyrics on songs like "Dogs Were Barking," are delivered by what looks like Borat's mad brother, wild-eyed singer Eugene Hutz who emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine following the Chernobyl nuclear accident. The harder it rains, the more the crowd respond, dancing and waving umbrellas. The conditions are now perfect for masochistic, weather-obsessed Brits. Accordions, fiddles, washboards and a fire bucket on a mic stand are all deployed for one song which could be The Devil Went Down to Georgia (Ukraine). And there is politics too, "Think Locally, F—k Globally" is a new anthem for this soggy corner of Somerset.