I guess when a festival offers you a million dollars or something to play a 75-90 minute set in California in November, you say: "Sure. England is miserable in November and it's not like we're working on a new album or anything. We'll have just finished our domestic arena tour, so we won't be too rusty". Cha-ching!

BTW what does $19.99 down mean? Is that a downpayment? You need to move the decimal point one place to the right for the actual price.
Also all this "presale" stuff; what a load of guff. Something is either on sale or it isn't.

On a positive note, it's nice that they're topping the bill.

There's a bit in Brett Anderson's second autobiography about how disappointing it is for him to see Echo & the Bunnymen so far down the bill at festivals. They're a band whose music has meant a lot to him and he still holds them in high esteem.

New Order put the poster for this up yesterday on Facebook just after I posted the link at the beginning of this thread, the Human League did the same at roughly the same time: I was dubious when I first saw the lineup (I first saw it on Cold Caves Instagram page) and thought it was just a shedload of tribute acts, especially seeing that cheap looking logo for New Order.

That many bands on one day means there is guaranteed to be overlap with bands on at the same time (I'm assuming New Order will be on at the same time as Tears For Fears) but on the bottom two lines of acts, the only one I've heard of is Cold Cave so there is an air of never mind the quality, look how many bands are playing.

I haven't seen too many details but one story did report there would be 3 stages. So plenty of time to squeeze in all the bands performances but you may have to miss some due to conflicting set times.

Regarding The Chameleons: After the New Order gig in New Orleans, I decided to mention it to a lady that worked nearby me in Pacific Grove. I had noticed her accent and asked if it was Northern. She replied "Yes, Manchester." After mentioning the gig, she let me know her little brother is Reg, the guitarist in The Chameleons. She did say they were planning to do rescheduled dates this year.

Without asking how much older she was than Reg, I mentioned my five-year-older sister taking me to my first gigs in the late seventies/early eighties (Kiss, Foghat, Rush...) and wondered if perhaps her and Reg's tastes were also different from each other. Jackie said she'd taken him to see Bowie in the early seventies at a tiny venue with its stage barely 5 inches off the floor. So, much cooler than my sis.

I just saw Clan of Xymox in San Francisco last week. I like their first 4 albums but knew going in that there would be a lot of material that was unfamiliar to me (saw them back in 1989 & 1991). Ronny Moorings stills sounds good and it was a great show. They played 6 tracks from their 4AD period and "Obsession" from their major label phase. And much of the newer material was in the same vein. I hadn't seen them in so long because I thought they were just catering to the goth crowd the last few years, but their New Order-like mix of synth and traditional instruments still has a wider appeal. I would estimate the crowd was only about 40% goth.

I don't know what the capacity is: this is showing as sold out but they're advertising ticket and hotel bundles (advertised from '$24.99 down' but the cheapest packages start at $630 so I don't know how those tickets previously advertised as $19.99 down worked out: did anyone on here get one?)

Had another look at my invoice. I almost forgot the $77.71 in service fees!

Minty fresh news!

Like a gameshow where you gotta beat the clock (no Sparks on the line up?)



$313! Holy shit that's a lot of money to see NO. Did I mention that I saw NO for £18 at the O2 arena recently?



Well I presume NO were the deciding factor in going to this one, but I hope you manage to enjoy some of the other acts too. My experience of festivals is that you only find out the set times a couple of days beforehand. And these days they often have their own app where you can mark your favourites and it will kinda make a schedule for you.

Looking at the lineup, I know you're a bigger Echo & The Bunnymen fan than me, but I did see them once at Hop Farm Festival back in 2009. They were fine but not as exciting as NO for me. Also saw The B52s at Lovebox festival in 2007. Ok but not essential (they're about to retire though). Saw Blossoms at Field Day in 2016 - bored me to death. But their Smiths set with Rick Astley at Glastonbury last summer (I watched on TV) was really good. Saw The Human League at Ben & Jerry's festival in 2009 (free ice cream!) and really enjoyed that. But even then, Phil Oakey was the only true original member (yeah both ladies were there but they aren't proper founder members).

I seem to remember Soft Cell played a "final" gig at the O2 arena in 2018. And yet here they are on a 2023 festival line up. Never seen them; would like to. OMD, The Psychedelic Furs and Tears For Fears are the other 'old' bands I've never seen but would like to. Maybe they'll be good eh? I'd go for £18!

As far as the groups I'm interested in (but have never seen before), The Chameleons, Tears for Fears and The Human League are on the top of the list. I suspect the Tears for Fears set will conflict with New Order, so that's out. From what I've seen of The Human League's recents sets on TV, I don't have high hopes, but Phil still sounds good. I mentioned elsewhere on the site about meeting the sister of Reg from The Chameleons. Decided I should rediscover them at that point and like what I hear. Hopefully they can still do those songs justice. I do like Blossoms, but their live sets don't look particularly great (and I'm seeing them with New Order earlier in the week anyway).

Acts I have seen already include X (with New Order in 1993), The *English* Beat (I've also seen General Public), Clan of Xymox (and Xymox twice), The Cardigans, Violent Femmes (a few times), OMD (twice), The Psychedelic Furs (a few times), Devo, and Echo & the Bunnymen (at least 10 times, plus Mac solo a couple of times - he encored with Ceremony in 1990...).

I'm really curious how this festival is going to be set up. Here's the address: GoogleMaps

Probably the nicest location for a festival I've attended!

Edited by user 13 November 2023 23:58:45(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I think you mean 1pm for Cold Cave.

I've planned out the schedule for you for me*


1.05 cold cave

1.40 Chameleons

2ish Xymox or The Beat or Death In Vegas

2.40 OMD

3.25 Violent Femmes

4ish Cardigans or Devo or Kavinsky

4.55 Soft Cell

5.45 Psych Furs or Echo & Bunnymen

6.25 Human League

7.25 N.O.

8.45 TFF


*no I'm not actually going