We went to The Mighty Boosh Festival at The Hop Farm last weekend - saw some bands, saw some comedy, interviewed The Kills, went home.

They’d already done stand up, radio shows, three television series, a pantomime and it’s rumoured that there may be film in the works. So putting on a festival probably didn’t seem all that daunting to Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt (AKA The Boosh), especially with help from festi-don Vince Power.

If you organise a festival in three months you might expect a line-up knitted together like some freaky patchwork of summer touring schedules. However there seems to be a Venn diagram crossover between fans of Har Mar Superstar, Gary Numan and folk who just like painting themselves like ball sacks and yelling “This is an outrage”.

It’s a festival, so the weather’s bound to play a part. Probably because I’m writing this for our Fate issue, the predicted rain held off till Sunday (sorry Neil Young!), and all was gloriously clement.

Including comedy as a major part of the festival (taking up the over-crowded second stage) meant that the Boosh boys could attract respectable comics such as Ross Noble, Frankie Boyle and Matthew Holness (Garth Marenghi).

Now, Noble is one of those lucky fellas that can chat absolute shit about piss all, and still have the room LOL-crippled. With a load of Boosh fans in pink cowboy hats as fodder, and Gary Numan on next door – Noble feasts mercilessly. The only point at which it seemed anyone would leave was when he threatened to lead us en masse towards Numan’s stage, chanting the chorus of “Cars,” with ever-increasing tempo, until Gary’s 80s electro was transformed to rabid jungle.

The 'Velvet Onion' AKA Comedy Tent

Over at the music stage, Gary was putting up a spirited defense however. With the Boosh carrying a fairly studenty audience, some worried that the 80s star’s massive anthem, Are Friends Electrics? might be mistaken for a Sugababes cover. The youngsters loved it however, and his storming show turned out to be one of the day’s highlights.

Having witnessed a brilliant performance under the command of The Kills, we made it our mission to find and interview them after they came off stage. Having successfully located vocalist ‘VV’ and guitarist ‘Hotel’, we put to rest some terrible wiki-rumours about the band.

What’s this I hear about you meeting through the ceiling of a hotel room?

VV: Totally wrong.

Hotel: Well, it’s not a complete lie. VV was in a different band, and they were staying in this basement flat, while I was squatting in the flat above.

Oops. Okay, well you definitely don't have a drummer. How does that work out?

Hotel: It’s all we’ve known really. Everyone always asks if we’ve thought about getting a drummer, but no one asks more traditional rock trios if they’ve thought about doing away with the drummer.

So, if you were going to have another member you’d get some other instrumentalist? Like a saxophonist.

Hotel: No, not sax.

VV: Maybe a cinematographer or a photographer or a painter.

Hotel: Or a marching band. Four bass drums, four snares, something like that.

Are you Mighty Boosh fans then?

VV: I am a huge fan!

Who’s your favourite character?

VV: I don’t really have a favourite – I love the fact that they’re such a small group that plays so many diverse characters. It’s amazing to see something that started out with such a small, niche audience grow so naturally.

Tell us about Fate. How is the world going to end?

VV: I’ve never thought about it.

Hotel: As an atheist, it’s kind of weird thinking about Fate. I mean, there is a point where coincidence just gets too bizarre. I think we’ve been pretty lucky as a band really. In terms of the end of the world, I don’t know really. There’s not much you can do about it, apart from relish in the beautiful things that happen in the chaos.

Midnight Boom’s only come out this year, but it was so good that I have to ask – any new material yet?

VV: Not really, nothing concrete at the moment. We’ve been on tour for such a long time that we’ve been catching up on other things. We’ve been working on some other things though – we’ve got an art exhibition in Brussels right now.

Okay, we’ll let you off. Thanks guys!

But before we head back to the Big Smoke, we’ve got a Boosh to catch.

The guys naturally had the crowd behind them even before they arrived on stage in a 20 foot galleon (well, Noel Fielding did – Julian Barratt following in a dinghy). Jamming through a set list of songs from the show, we were treated to a couple of cameos from Har Mar and Peaches (to scold loveable ape Bollo). A bit like Bill Bailey, you can’t help feeling that there’s a repressed musical genius in Barratt, who just really loves stealing the limelight from Noel’s hair with amazing jazz, funk and be-bop guitar.

Audience enthusiasm ran high, with a nearby fan shouting along to ‘I Did a Shit on Your Mum’ - complete with daughter on his shoulders, and tutting wife looking away in embarrassment... Did I say the Boosh was just for students? Scratch that. A great family day out. Next year I’m bringing my cousin Timmy along as midget-wizard Naboo.