Of all the sights a tourist expected to see at Blenheim Palace, a modern music legend wakeboarding on one of the lakes would not have been one of them.

But that was the vision at the grounds of the stately home in Woodstock as Bez, dancer with Happy Mondays - whose hit albums include Pills and Thrills and Bellyaches - careered around the lake.

As reported in yesterday's Oxford Mail, Bez - real name Mark Berry - was trying his hand at wakeboarding, a cross between snowboarding and water-skiing, to promote the Wakestock Festival at the palace from June 27-29.

The festival will feature exhibitions of wakeboarding coupled with some of the top music acts in the country including Groove Armada, Mark Ronson and Pendulum.

Bez said: "I've never tried wakeboarding before, so I thought I would come down and give it a go - I'll try anything once.

"I'm told it's like snowboarding and I've been doing that for 15 years so I thought I would be all right.

"It's great to have a concert in a place like this - it's different from most others and I'm really looking forward to it. I always look forward to gigging though that's why I'm always on the go.

"It's always wicked when we get the Happy Mondays together. It makes me giggle though - if someone had told me that we would still be doing this 20 years ago, I would never have believed them."

"I like Blenheim Palace, it's wicked."

It was clear, despite one or two dunkings, that Bez was indeed a bit of a natural when it came to wakeboarding.

He added: "It's wicked, I could really get into it.

"I doubt I'll take it up though, there's nowhere really to do it where I come from.

"I suppose there's the Manchester Ship Canal, but I don't fancy sharing with all them rats."

Matt Crowhurst, Bez's tutor for the day, said: "You could tell he had done a bit of snowboarding because he looked quite natural.

"He used more muscle than technique, but it was effective."