Release Athens Festival 2022 - Iggy Pop & Liam Gallagher

 

 I chose this, as my last date of this year's Release Festival because, well, I had seen Noel Gallagher before (as well as Oasis just a few days before they split up), so it was fair and proper that I should see Liam Gallagher as well (although Liam may not actually agree with that!). On the plus side, I wouldn't mind seeing Iggy Pop again as well whom I had seen at the same festival and at the same venue back in 2019. I had seen Noel Gallagher play support to U2, so now I would see Liam Gallagher play support to Iggy Pop. And as an added bonus, I'd also see the Sleaford Mods, who had come to Greece before and I had wanted to see them and know more about them since I first discovered them on an Uncut (or Mojo?) cover CD and understood that they were some sort of protest band for Britain in the 2010's.

 

As you can guess, I arrived in time for Sleaford Mods and once again I met most of my friends that I usually meet at gigs. This time there were more of them as Iggy tends to attract Bruce fans. Sleaford Mods were exactly what I had expected them to be (one of their members was sporting a t-shirt with a rather unflattering message for Boris Johnson), but they had something extra for me: a cover of Yazoo's "Don't Go".

 

It was then time for Liam Gallagher. During the break I managed to locate some of my closest gig buddies, people with whom we had spent hours in the pit at Bruce Springsteen concerts, so I went with them to the very front (donning a mask of course). I was in fact asked by one of them if I was an Oasis or a Blur fan in the 90's and that brought back some memories! Truth is, although I had started as a Blur fan, I thought they went downhill after "Country House", so I switched to Oasis. And Liam himself didn't disappoint. He came up on stage wearing a rather heavy jacket, certainly too heavy for the Athenian weather which was pretty close to heatwave temperatures. Every once in a while, before launching into an Oasis song he would ask us whether there were "any Oasis fans in the audience'. However he also played Beady Eye songs and of course his solo stuff. Towards the end of his set he asked us whether there were "any Slipknot fans in the audience". And then he played "Wonderwall". Go figure... He also played one song ("Stand By Me") from Oasis' third album, one that Oasis wouldn't touch with a flagpole in their latter days.

 

 

 

 

And then it all ended wonderfully with "Champagne Supernova"

 

I went back to get some pizza and beer and by the time I had finished eating Iggy came on stage. It felt like not a single day had passed since 2019. when he had started with "I Wanna Be Your Dog". Earlier on, as we were watching Liam Gallagher, a friend of mine who had looked up his setlists on the internet told me that he kept playing the same setlist night after night and it was mostly comprised of Stooges songs However, the setlist we heard that night was completely different. And what was immediately apparent was that Iggy had a problem with his voice. It later turned out that he had changed the setlist because of this very problem and that he cancelled his further shows for the same reason. Did I have a problem with that? As I'd already told my friends Iggy is at a stage in his life and career that he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. So even if he had decided to come up on stage and f*rt to the tune of "The Passenger", I would still be happy. He did of course play Stooges songs as well and as he was naked from the waist up as usual. Plus, he had a very beautiful female guitar player in his band!

 

 

Back in 2019 I went to see Iggy Pop because he was so popular in Greece and I had never seen him live (I had done the same thing with Nick Cave a year before that). And no matter what voice problems he has I will probably go see him for a third time if he decides to come back to Greece. 

 

SETLISTS:
SLEAFORD MODS

01. The New Brick

02. Shortcummings

03. Middle Men

04. Spare Ribs

05. I Don't Rate You

06. Kebab Spider

07. Mork N Mindy

08. Thick Ear

09. TCR

10. Jolly Fucker

11. Don't Go

12. Nudge It

13. Elocution

14. Discourse

15. Tied Up In Nottz

16. Jobseeker

17. Tweet Tweet Tweet

LIAM GALLAGHER

01. Hello

02. Rock 'N' Roll Star

03. Morning Glory

04. Wall Of Glass

05. Everything's Electric

06. Better Days

07. Stand By Me

08. Roll It Over

09. Slide Away

10. Soul Love

11. More Power

12. Diamond In The Dark

13. Once

14. Cigarettes & Alcohol

15. Wonderwall

16. Champagne Supernova

IGGY POP

01. Rune

02. T.V. Eye

03. I Wanna Be Your Dog

04. Lust For Life

05. The Passenger

06. Five Foot One

07. Mass Production

08. Free

09. Run Like A Villain

10. I'm Sick Of You

11. Death Trip

12. Nightclubbing

13, Search And Destroy

Encore:

14. Gimme Danger

15. Down On The Street

16. Fun House

17. Sister Midnight

 

Release Festival 2019 - Iggy Pop & James

My 2019 summer festival season started on the 8 th of June. And like last year, it once again started with a Release Festival date. The Release Festival date that I had already chosen for this year would come 8 days after this one (New Order and Johnny Marr), but this one, fell into the same category as my last year's Ejekt Festival attendance. Like Nick Cave last year, Iggy Pop is an artist who often comes to Greece whom I had not had the chance to see yet. And as an added bonus, I would also get to see James again, one of my favourite live bands (or so I thought at the time).

As I arrived, Shame were already playing and were reaching the end of their set. I was pleasantly

surprised by them.

When they were through, I decided to explore the festival grounds as I do every year. My favourite part was the double decker bus used to advertise the forthcoming - at that time – movie, “Yesterday”. 

While I was at the open top deck I heard the first notes of “Come Home”. James were on stage.

A promising start that didn't live up to my expectations. I don't know if it had to do with the song choices or something else, but the band didn't seem to be quite “there” even when they played the songs we had been waiting for like “Laid” and they certainly did not remind me of that spectacular show they had delivered 12 years ago at the Fly Beeyond Festival. It may be my personal opinion, but I did not enjoy it. James have a lot of fans in Greece and many of them were there that day, so perhaps by looking at other reviews you can determine if they were good or bad that night.

As for Iggy Pop, well I thought that I had perhaps waited for too long, that he would be by now too old and that he would not have that much energy. I couldn't have been more wrong. He went on stage starting immediately with his best songs, got half naked as usual and blew us all away! The highlight? A cover version of the first David Bowie single I had ever bought, “The Jean Genie”.

Having finally fulfilled one of my long-time ambitions to see Iggy live, I headed home knowing I had to wait 8 more days for my next Release Festival date: New Order and Johnny Marr.

SETLISTS:
SHAME
01. Another
02. Concrete
03. The Lick
04. One Rizla
05. Cowboy Supreme
06. Tasteless
07. Human, For A Minute
08. Exhaler
09. Lampoon
10. Friction
11. Dust On Trial
12. Angie
13. Gold Hole
JAMES
01. Come Home
02. Ring The Bells
03. Nothing But Love
04. What's It All About
05. Leviathan
06. Five-O
07. Interrogation
08. Sound
09. Johnny Yen
10. Picture Of This Place
11. Heads
12. Laid
13. Attention
14. Many Faces
15. Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)
16. Sometimes
Encore:
17. Sit Down
IGGY POP
01. I Wanna Be Your Dog
02. Gimme Danger
03. The Passenger
04. Lust For Life
05. Skull Ring
06. I'm Sick Of You
07. Some Weird Sin
08. Repo Man
09. Search And Destroy
10. T.V. Eye
11. Mass Production
12. The Jean Genie
13. 1969
14. No Fun
15. Down On The Street
16. Real Cool Time
17. Nightclubbing
18. Sixteen
19. Five Foot One
20. Real Wild Child (Wild One)
21. Red Right Hand

Antiparos Live!

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Πάρτε μια γεύση από τις παρακάτω φωτογραφίες.



Εντάξει, ότι ήταν να δω, το έχω δει τα τελευταία χρόνια (πχ το σπήλαιο), οπότε έχει πέσει πολύ ηλιοβασίλεμα (και ολίγη από ανατολή). Να σημειώσω, στη φωτό που δείχνει αυτολυς που παρακολουθούν το ηλιοβασίλεμα ότι το φωτογράφιζε με φλας (Έλεος!)





Τέλος σε ένα από τα μπαράκια που εικονίζονται, το Smile, έπαιξε ένα βράδυ ως guest DJ ο Bruce Springsteen, που φέτος έκανε τις διακοπές του εκεί. Στο νησί ήταν επίσης και ο Iggy Pop.