Release Athens Festival 2022 - London Grammar, Hooverphonic & LP

More than two weeks after my first Release Athens Festival 2022 gig, it was now time for the second one. The headliners were London Grammar. London Grammar were due to appear at Release Athens Festival 2018, but they had to cancel at the last minute. So, Richard Ashcroft was called in to replace them and I went because I wanted to see him. And now that London Grammar were finally due to perform in Athens, a friend of mine asked me to go with her because she really wanted to see them since she hadn't been able four years ago. I was reluctant at first, not being familiar with the band, started to think about it again when LP was added to the line-up, but was finally convinced when the next addition to the bill were Hooverphonic. Now, I had seen Hooverphonic twice before (the second time in their native Belgium), but this time it was different. The original singer, the amazing Geike had come back. I really had to see her. And so I bought the latest CD from London Grammar (that's what I do, I don't stream, I'm old-school) in order to familiarize myself with their music.

I took my brand new camera with me (this was the concert where it would make its debut) and we arrived at Water Square a little before Hooverphonic were due to appear. Not a lot of people had arrived by that time so I was able to see them from quite up close. All the favourites were played including my own favourite song of theirs, "Sometimes" (the song with which I discovered them) which I was finally able to hear in a proper version (compared to the acoustic one I heard back in 2014) and "The Wrong Place" Belgium's entry on the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest.

Next up was LP. I, as like most people in Greece, got to know her through "Lost On You" and I'm mostly familiar with that song. Her later songs probably didn't get as much promotion. The start of the set was great, but we got tired after a while, probably because we weren't very familiar with most songs and partly because maybe this wasn't the right slot for her in the line-up. I believe Hooverphonic would have been more suitable to appear before the headliners because their music seems to "gel" more with that of London Grammar. (And perhaps she would have fit the bill better a few days later with Liam Gallagher and Iggy Pop). So we moved towards the back of the crowd on order to combine the alcohol we had brought from home with the cokes that were offered at the festival.

Anyway, it wasn't her fault and she was very energetic on stage, closing the set with the song most people expected to hear: "Lost On You".

And then it was time for London Grammar and the occasion that I had hoped to avoid. We realized that we had the chance to get really close to the stage. So what should we do? Well, we wore our masks. We noticed that there were other people doing the same thing and nobody was looking at them in a strange way, so we went for it.
This was the band's first gig outside the UK for three years (due, of course, to the pandemic) and they enjoyed it as much as we did. They played mostly songs from their latest album and that was alright with me because these were the ones I was mostly familiar with.

By the time my second Release Festival date ended and we started to walk towards the bus stop that would take us to the city center, one thing was certain: London Grammar had a new fan now!

 

SETLISTS:
HOOVERPHONIC
01. You Love Me to Death
02. The Wrong Place
03. Vinegar & Salt
04. 2Wicky
05. Sometimes
06. Anger Never Dies
07. Romantic
08. Eden
09. Jackie Cane
10. The Night Before
11. Expedition Impossible
12. No More Sweet Music
13. Lift Me Up
14. Badaboum
15. Mad About You

LP
01. When We Touch
02. Goodbye
03. Girls Go Wild
04. Everybody’s Falling In Love
05. When We're High
06. Yes
07. How Low Can You Go
08. The One That You Love
09. Can’t Let You Leave
10. Muddy Waters
11. My Body
12. Safe Here
13. No Witness
14. Strange
15. Special
16. Dreamer
17. One Last Time
18. Lost on You

LONDON GRAMMAR
01. Californian Soil
02. Missing
03. Hey Now
04. Lord It's a Feeling
05. Talking
06. I Need The Night
07. How Does It Feel
08. Baby It's You
09. Big Picture
10. Hell To the Liars
11. Wasting My Young Years
12. Strong
13. Metal & Dust
Encore:
14. Lose Your Head
15. Lose Your Head (Camelphat Remix)

Brussels Summer Festival 2019 - Manic Street Preachers & Giorgio Moroder

This was our second venture to Brussels for the Brussels Summer Festival. The first one had been two years before for the Pet Shop Boys where we were also lucky enough to see Goldfrapp as well. This time it was for the Manic Street Preachers. I was supposed to have seen the Manics back in 2007, together with the Smashing Pumpkins (what a line up that would have been), but the date of that particular gig coincided with a week when there were a lot of devastating forest fires in Greece. Although there was no forest fire remotely near the particular forest that the venue of the gig was located (the infamous Terra Vibe), the authorities decided that the concert should be cancelled. The Manics returned, one month later at the same venue, but I was too disillusioned to go, especially since the Smashing Pumpkins were not going to tag along. Twelve years after that, I had another chance to see them. Moreover, they are one of my girlfriend's favourite bands, so a good time was guaranteed for all. However, as with 2017 and Goldfrapp, there was once again a surprise in store. I took a look at the line-up to see what else was on, on that particular day of the festival. The Manics were third on the bill so that meant they would only play for an hour. (That was not necessarily a bad thing as we would later see). Second on the bill were Hooverphonic, in essence a local (Belgian) band who I had already seen in Athens back in 2014. This time though they would be fronted by - yet - another singer. However the biggest surprise was the person who was topping the bill that day : Giorgio Moroder! Now, Giorgio Moroder had made a comeback in 2014 declaring that "74 Is The New 24". I wouldn't normally know what to expect from a Giorgio Moroder live gig, but I had been alerted by The Electricity Club that he had assembled a band featuring extremely talented singers performing quite a lot of the hits that he had written and produced. So I knew we were in for a delightful disco party! Meanwhile, it was also announced that Giorgio Moroder would appear at a festival in Athens. He did appear, but thankfully, I didn't rely on that because it was only a DJ set, not a live gig. In Brussels we were going to get the full Monty.

The festival itself has many venues around the city, (and one can move among the different venues at any time with their ticket or "Day Pass" as it's called), but once again, like 2017 the venue for our chosen line up was Place Des Palais. And once again we were able to get all the way to the front of the stage. 

Manic Street Preachers were on time and normally they would have played the "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours" album because on that particular tour they were celebrating its 20th Anniversary as James Dean Bradfield announced when they came on stage. (A special deluxe version of it had been out earlier that year). However because they would only play for an hour they would not play the whole album. I wouldn't have minded if they had, after all it's my favourite album of theirs. This meant that we would get a more balanced setlist and we did, starting with "Motorcycle Emptiness" although they did play a lot of songs from the "This Is My Truth..." album, including my all-time favourite "You Stole The Sun From My Heart". The biggest surprise though was the cover of "Sweet Child O'Mine". We had a wonderful time up there at the front with several hardcore Manics fans who had come from abroad until James Dean Bradfield told us goodbye wishing that we would "enjoy Giorgio Moroder and Electric f***ing Dreams" as he launched into "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next".

But before Giorgio Moroder would come along it was the turn of Hooverphonic. I must admit their set arrived at the appropriate moment as night fell, providing us with a relaxing time before the party that was to follow. This was the band that most people had probably come to see as they were playing in front of their home crowd. This time there was no "Sometimes", but "Mad About You" (which seems to be their most popular song in Greece), was still there.

And now it was time (although we couldn't suspect as much at the time) for the greatest disco party we had ever been to. We were being properly prepared for it while waiting for Giorgio Moroder with songs like "Daddy Cool' playing from the speakers.

Meanwhile, it had started raining. Rainfalls are quite frequent in Brussels from what I hear, but we were lucky not to experience one when we were watching Goldfrapp and Pet Shop Boys in 2014. This time we were not so lucky, however the organizers had thought of that as well ans had provided us with free ponchos so we had nothing to worry about.

While waiting, by watching the giant screens on either side of the stage, we learnt that some familiar artists were going to perform in Brussels quite a while after the festival.

Finally, Giorgio Moroder was on stage and he kicked off with - what else - Donna Summer. We were expecting a lot of Donna Summer on that night, and that's exactly what we got. The opener was "Bad Girls" and the follow-up was "a sexy song" as Giorgio announced it. It couldn't have been any other than "Love To Love You Baby". Next up was "On The Radio" one of my favourite Donna Summer songs before it was time for us to go to the movies, first with "Midnight Express" ("Chase") and then with "Top Gun" ("Danger Zone" and the obligatory "Take My Breath Away"). Then we had a mixture some of some of his solo efforts ("From Here To Eternity", "Right Here Right Now"), more movie classics ("Flashdance... What A Feeling"), a Daft Punk tribute ("Giorgio By Moroder") before coming back to Donna Summer with the pioneering "I Feel Love" (the birth of synth-pop?), "Mac Arthur Park" and "Last Dance" as the final song of the main set. 19 years before, when I was in LA and inspired by the song I visited the actual "MacArthur Park" but I must admit I was rather disappointed as it seemed quite abandoned and smelled of piss.

There was more Donna Summer during the encore with "Hot Stuff" (which also became a movie favourite many years after its release when it was featured in "The Full Monty") and finally the party came to a close with Blondie's "Call Me" (another movie favourite featured in "American Gigolo").

In short, this was the best dance party I have ever been to!. And before leaving the venue to go back to the hotel, I found some time to stop in one of the stalls and have a portion of not French, but Belgian fries...

SETLISTS:
MANIC STREET PREACHERS

01. Motorcycle Emptiness

02. You Stole the Sun From My Heart

03. International Blue

04. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

05. The Everlasting

06. You Love Us

07. A Design for Life

08. Everything Must Go

09. Sweet Child O' Mine

10. Tsunami

11. No Surface All Feeling

12. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next

HOOVERPHONIC

01. 2Wicky

02. Eden

03. Heartbroken

04. Anger Never Dies

05. Romantic

06. Vinegar & Salt

07. Jackie Cane

08. The Night Before

09. Hiding in a Song

10. Mad About You

11. Uptight

12. One Two Three

13. Badaboum

14. Looking for Stars

15. Amalfi

    

GIORGIO MORODER

01. Bad Girls

02. Love To Love You Baby

03. On the Radio

04. Chase

05. Danger Zone

06. Take My Breath Away

07. From Here to Eternity

08. Giorgio by Moroder

09. Flashdance... What a Feeling

10. Right Here, Right Now

11. I Feel Love

13. Last Dance

Encore:

14. Hot Stuff

15. Call Me

One (festival) for the road

On June 21st I was flying to Rome to see The Rolling Stones. En Lefko Festival was announced in Athens for that very same weekend, the 20th and the 21st featuring among others The Simple Minds, who I would like to see (again). I was lucky because they were chosen as headliners on Friday which meant that I could go see them and catch my flight the next day. I was even luckier because the other band that I wanted to see, Hooverphonic were billed to play just before them.

So, I arrived at Technopolis, just as Hooverphonic were beginning their set, and after some problems with my ticket (which looked more like a receipt) I got in.

(Apparently, the scanner could not read the barcode, but that's to be expected when they print the tickets on cash till paper where the ink gradually fades away - duh!)

Hooverphonic first came to my attention around 2002-2003 with "Sometimes" and continued later on with the "More Sweet Music / No More Sweet Music" package. For most Greeks they are famous for "Mad About You" though.

They played songs from the whole of their career, and they did play "Sometimes". The last song in an acoustic version.

Now, it was June, the beginning of summer and my last gig was surprisingly at an indoor venue. This one was outdoors, but, after the Hooverphonic set was over, it started raining.

We took shelter away from the stage and started worrying if this was going to affect the Simple Minds set which we were all waiting for, but thankfully it stopped just before they came onstage. (And yes, the first thing Jim Kerr said to us when he appeared was "show me your hands". Typical.)

I had seen them before, again in Athens back in 2006. This time there was more of their early stuff ("Love Song", "I Travel"), stuff that they had disowned when they became famous ("Don't listen to our early albums" Jim Kerr apparently said to Chrissie Hynde, his wife at the time). Suprisingly enough it was these "early" albums that they were promoting a few years ago on their 5x5 tour.

But the problem was that there was also quite a few of their later stuff when just as they became famous they decided to go "epic" ("See The Lights", "She's A River").

But of course there was also stuff from when they were famous AND making great pop songs ("Don't You Forget About Me", "Alive & Kicking", "Sanctify Yourself").

And they saved the best for last: my favourite, "New Gold Dream", a song that should have been a single but it wasn't and was my favourite song in late 1982 / early 1983.

So that was the last song of the second and last encore. We were now ready to go home (and in my case to the airport). But then it started raining again. Hard.

We took cover for quite a while, even visited the dance stage which was indoors.

Finally it stopped. Thankfully, because the next day was going to be a long one...

Simple Minds setlist:

        01. Waterfront
        02. Broken Glass Park
        03. Love Song
        04. Hypnotised
        05. Imagination
        06. I Travel
        07. Blindfolded
        08. Dancing Barefoot
              (Patti Smith Group cover)
        09. Dolphins
        10. She's a River
        11. Someone Somewhere in Summertime
        12. See the Lights
        13. Don't You (Forget About Me)
        Encore:
        14. Big Music
        15. Alive and Kicking
        Encore 2:
        16. Sanctify Yourself
        17. New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84)