The Greenside Hotel, Fifes most respected live music venue was the perfect place to hold Glenrothes' Oxjam Gig.
Painstakingly transformed with enough ghoulish décor to rival any haunted house, the now dungeon like venue was soon bristling with eager trick-or-treaters. In attendance where a few Witches, a Mummy, The Grim Reaper, Devil Woman, Pirate Music, a Corpse, Wee Willie Winky, two 'Ladies', 24-Cent, Bruce Lee and Whinny The Poo, the night was shaping up to be just a normal Sunday at The Greenside...well, almost.
Donning an Oxjam t-shirt, The Manikees frontman Graham Christie and his band kicked of the music – delivering favourites "Mrs Brown", "Boys in The Band" and "Lamb" with the precision and passion the 'Manikee Army' have grown to expect.
RocketFox, despite having trekked from Glasgow and on their fourth gig on the trot, followed with a blistering, stadium worthy rock set, enough to make the Foo Fighters look placid. Such hard hitting anthems typically lack the melodic thread to make classic songs – but not so with RocketFox's delivery, the Greenside's Oxjam crowd were treated to an impressive range of hard rock mixed perfectly with catchy harmonic vocals.
With the close of the gig looming, Root System's fun loving shaven headed 'Kev Feck', in a reference to his surname challenged the crowd, "We'll do the tunes, you go Feck'in Crazy!" – a challenge the Greenside Oxjam crowd were well up for!
Putting the Ska into Ska-lloween, Root System bounced the crowd non-stop through party favourites "Keepin' It In", "Don't Worry" and "Na Na Na Na!". A typically tight yet raucous set saw Guitarist Ronnie Tait waste not one, but two guitars – proving few strings can match the strength of a Root System set! Pausing mid-set to present the 'Best Costume' prize of Champagne to 'Mrs Broon', Root System yet again challenge the crowd – this time to cough up more coin for the "Oxjam Cause" – proving yet again Root System are a "band of the people".
At the close, and amidst the scramble for the sweets bursting out balloons, Best Costume winner 'Mrs Broon' drew a raffle prize for 4 Free Gig Passes donated by The Greenside, which was shared out to a few sweaty party goers. The top Raffle prize of an electric guitar, donated by Sound Control Kirkcaldy, and signed by top local band "Sergeant" was drawn by The Greensides' promoter Reagan Gallacher. The lucky winner was local girl Miss Walton.
Oxjam Events Organiser Colin McQuillen said after the event, "I'm delighted Glenrothes' first attempt at Oxjam has raised a total of £550. The Oxjam Music Festival's unique structure means anyone can get involved – large or small events, and tapping into the vast experience of promoter Reagan Gallacher his sound engineer 'Q' and the Greenside staff meant most of the hard work was sorted. Elsewhere in Fife, Oxjam Dunfermline raised a huge amount of cash, and we're both already looking to next year's Oxjam!"
Greenside's gig promoter Reagan Gallacher added, "It was great to be involved in Oxjam, The Greenside has been instrumental in helping bands like Sergeant get noticed nationally so it was a pleasure to use our experience in live music events to help such a worthy cause – and it was great fun too!"