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

Fly Beeyond Festival 2007

In the last of my "10 years ago" series for 2007, I want to take a look back at what was promised as Greece's first pop music festival on July 17, 18 and 19 but didn't turn out as good as it looked on paper.

First of all, I wanted to attend day 2 (like everybody else), not only because the newly reformed James were headlining but also because of Tori Amos whose fan I had been since 1992 and I had wanted to see her live ever since. And I knew I would probably enjoy seeing Air whose "Kelly Watch The Stars" was a song I really liked when I discovered it a few years earlier on a British TV feature on "Charlie's Angels" (Did you know that it was actually written for Kelly from that series?). Then I looked at the line up of day 3 and although I didn't care much for Pink who was headlining I thought that I would love to see Sugababes. I wasn't a fan, but I had noticed that I actually loved most of their singles. So it was going to be day 2 and 3 I thought. But because a 2 day ticket was cheaper that two one day ones and a 3 day ticket was cheaper than 3 one day ones, I thought "why not see the whole thing?". I wouldn't mind seeing Avril Lavigne who was headlining the first day.

When I arrived on the first day, Mikro were on stage who had replaced The Rasmus at the last moment. I was really happy about that, since I had already seen Marsheaux a few weeks earlier. They put on a great show and one unforgettable moment was when the teen (and probably pre-teen as well) girl fans were chanting "Avril, Avril..." the lead singer responded by saying "Later! Now it's MIKRO!!!"

Avril Lavigne did indeed appear later and did not disppoint. What I mostly enjoyed about her set was her cover of "All The Small Things" by Blink 182 at the end.

On day 2 I was there early to catch Tori Amos. I love her set, but most people ignored her. 

Then I decided to get a drink before Air came up and got stuck in a long queue for about 90 minutes. I watched the beginning of Air's set from the bar queue, but I was back in my place (with alcohol included) in time for "Kelly Watch The Stars".

Finally James came on, the highlight of the festival. We were all singing along and dancing with "Sit Down", "Tomorrow", "Laid" and "Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)". They also played one of their new songs plus a special extended version of "Gold Mother". "This is not a reunion, it's a rebirth" as Tim Booth said...

On day 3 I knew something was wrong from the beginning when Onirama's set lasted for 90 minutes. They even said goodbye and then came back. They were playing one of their own songs and then a cover. Then one of their songs and then a cover. And so on...

Sugababes were late and when they appeared only 2 of them came up on stage. And then they left after 20 minutes! Considering that the ticket for day 3 was refunded it was still an enjoyable 20 minutes, plenty of time for them to realize that the (very few) people attending knew the lyrics to their songs.

After they left it was announced that Pink would not appear because she was stuck back at the hotel with "stomach problems". Oh well... As I said the price of the day 3 ticket was refunded, I got my 20 minutes of Sugababes so I can't really complain. Rumours were going arould that Pink (and probably the 3rd Sugababe) did not appear because of the fact that only a few people bothered to attend. (There weren't many people on the first day either, but Avril, a true professional, went out and performed anyway).

What we learned from the whole experience was something that we suspected: That Greeks do not go to pop concerts. They would sell out the Olympic Stadium the following year for Madonna, but that is of course another story...