When I went to see Mamma Kin back in December of 2013, little did I know that this was going to be their last gig ever. Sadly Mamma Kin have now disbanded. Their singer though is in a new band called Restless Ocean and back in June I was happy to attend their first ever gig.
The night was opened by Violent Cartoons and you can check them out for yourselves since a few days after this gig, they released their debut EP which is free and you can get it here!
Restless Ocean went on next. On their BandCamp page they describe themselves as "Influenced by both older and contemporary bands,
their music is an alternative mix of garage rock, blues and 70's punk". I am confident that we can expect a lot from them in the future since they are apparently working on their new album now. Meanwhile, on that night they gave us an enjoyable 11-song set.
One more important thing to note: There was another band, Bad Treat appearing after Restless Ocean. Unfortunately, I could not stay to see them since I had to hurry in order to catch the last train and bus home. I promise I will try to attend one of their gigs in the future. The funny thing is that looking back to the poster from that last Mamma Kin gig I just realized that Bad Treat were also due to appear on that night but for some reason they didn't... Oh well... So, one more time: I promise I will try to attend one of their gigs in the future...
SETLIST:
01. Your Addiction
02. More
03. Lose Our Minds
04. Pieces Of Me
05. Going Down
06. See You There
07. Rainy Days Revisited
08. Not The Same
09. Down To The Ocean
10. Valley Of Death
11. Let Me Be
After last year's fiasco (for which of course Eric Burdon was not responsible), the organizers of Rockwave Festival must have realized that they needed big names, for this year's 20th anniversary in order to bring the crowds back. And so they did: The Black Keys, Robbie Williams along with an artist that is a sure-fire success when he performs in Greece, Manu Chao. The only weird thing was that the festival's 4 days were spread over the space of approximately 3 weeks although I guess that this has got to do with the availability of the artists.
But first, let's talk about the negative things to get them out of the way Surprisingly enough those were similar to the ones before the Lady GaGa concert where some Greek rock fans were bullying those who wanted to see her, because she wasn't "rock enough". But why would a similar thing happen for a Black Keys concert? Surely, The Black Keys are a rock band, aren't they? Well, there are several reasons those "Greek rock fans" got upset. One was the fact that The Black Keys are popular among a younger audience in this country, who apparently don't listen to other rock acts. They were also accused of being familiar with only one of their songs "Lonely Boy" which was indeed very popular here. Another complaint these fans had was targeted towards The Black Keys themselves, namely that they "sold out" after their first two albums, don't play the same kind of "raw blues-rock" anymore and that they mostly played songs from their last three albums which were deemed to be "very commercial". Finally some complained that "the sound was bad", but a friend of mine who is a sound engineer assured me that the sound was great (And, the sound quality may vary at different spots in the venue anyway). As I have said before these people seems to me that they are in possession of a very particular device called the "Rock-O-Meter" which apparently measures how "rock" an act is. And those who fall below the standard that they have set are condemned...
Anyway, enough nagging, let's get on with the music. Puta Volcano, the first band were playing as we arrived and settled down so we didn't get to hear much from them.
The next band on the bill though, was the reason I insisted on getting to Terra Vibe early (apart from securing a good spot). Readers of this blog will know that The Big Nose Attack are a regular feature here and that's because I regurarly attend their gigs, stand-alone, or support sets. But that was not all. What was really special this time was that they would be appearing on the same bill as The Black Keys, a band that they themselves have admitted that they've been influenced by (apart from the obvious similarities like two members in both cases). And from what I saw on the web the following day, they did get to meet
The Black Keys backstage and take several wonderful photos with them! So that was a support set I definitely did not want to miss. And I didn't. They played a very good set as usual (with stunning and "fiery" visual effects) and yes, "That Girl" was included although Elena Pitoulis could not be found in the audience to do it with. Oh and they debuted their new gear having ditched the navy "Paint It Blue" design in preparation for their new album which will be called, as they announced, ahem... "69". Oh and the forthcoming tour is pizza-themed, pizza being the band's favourite kind of fuel...
Before they left they stage they told us to watch out for the next band 1000Mods. I will admit that maybe the heat and the sun blazing down on us at that time was not the ideal setting for the "stoner rock" (as other blogs have called it) that they play, but even if you were not impressed by it you would have to admit that they really know how to get the most out of their instruments!
"We're The Black Angels and we're from Texas" announced the next band and as the sun was gradually going down and the heat started to dissipate we were happy that we were going to listen to some southern rock.
It was dark when the time for The Black Keys finally came and before they came on stage we realized that the organizers were determined to turn this into a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the festival with the laser projections targeted at the hills behind us.
All these were forgotten when The Black Keys did come on stage. We did not care anymore whether the audience was young or old whether they had gone too far into the mainstream or from which album the songs they were playing were. They delivered a great set that included not only songs from "Turn Blue", their latest album, but also my favourite "Run Right Back" and of course "Lonely Boy" for those who only knew that song.
What we did not get was an encore, because the organizers decided that they would come up on stage instead in order to receive our applause for their 20th anniversary.
The projections screens informed us that the organizers team was thanking us. I'm sorry, but the feeling is not completely mutual. For the last 10 years we have been forced to travel to the end of nowhere to see our favourite artists (when they are our favourite artists and not some who have agreed to play for less money). Not to mention that when concerts were cancelled due to band members health reasons (understandable), no effort was made to reschedule them at a later date or the following year even though those artists were still on tour in Europe (The Rolling Stones and Depeche Mode come to mind). Or how about rescheduling a gig not only from a convenient venue (Olympic Stadium) to a far-off one (Terra Vibe) but also on a different date (I am of course referring to Roger Waters in 2013, although thankfully that decision was overturned after complaints and actions by the ticket holders). So remember dear organizers, it's not about you, no matter how many years you are celebrating, it's about The Black Keys and all the other bands we came to see. If you do your job properly we will be more than thankful every time...
SETLISTS:
Puta Volcano
01. Black Sand 02. New Song 03. Rockability 04. Indri 05. Indigos and Vulgars 06. Raindance 07. Await 08. Fou 09. The Sun
The Big Nose Attack 01. A Bite to Eat 02. All by Myself 03. Yeah! (That Girl) 04. Drunk & Gibberish 05. Adam & Eve 06. Left Alone 07. Wild Cherry 08. Down With Me
1000Mods
01. 7 Flies 02. Road to Burn 03. Claws 04. Low 05. Vultures 06. Set You Free 07. Big Beautiful 08. Vidage 09. El Rollito 10. Super Van Vacation
The Black Angels
01. Entrance Song 02. The Sniper at the Gates of Heaven 03. Yellow Elevator #2 04. Black Grease 05. Evil Things 06. The Prodigal Sun 07. You on the Run 08. Waterloo Waltz 09. Indigo Meadow 10. Better Off Alone 11. I Dreamt 12. Bloodhounds on My Trail 13. Bad Vibrations 14. Young Men Dead
15. Molly Moves My Generation
The Black Keys
01. Dead and Gone 02. Next Girl 03. Run Right Back 04. Same Old Thing 05. Gold on the Ceiling 06. Strange Times 07. Nova Baby 08. Leavin' Trunk 09. Too Afraid to Love You 10. Howlin' for You 11. I Got Mine 12. Money Maker 13. Gotta Get Away 14. She's Long Gone 15. Fever 16. Tighten Up 17. Your Touch 18. Lonely Boy 19. Little Black Submarines
30 years after Rock In Athens 85, The Stranglers were back in Greece. They had been back several times of course, one of them was 5 years ago when I had seen them playing with Billy Idol. This time it was going to be a bit different and more personal, since, having arrived at Fuzz Club early, I managed to secure a place at the very first row (As I did the last time at Fuzz Club with Saint Etienne).
A few minutes later we realized that we were standing next to the grandmother of the lead singer of MOAN, the support band. She gave us some information on the band which made us more eager to see them. Eventually we got to meet both her mother and the singer herself!
And indeed Moan were a lovely an unexpected surprise. Fronted by Olga-Maria with her amazing voice and stage presence they are immediately classified as "indie" or "alternative". Her voice reminded some of Bjork, my opinion is she has that cat-like voice which reminds me not only of Bjork but of several other female singers (Mazzy Star comes to my mind. Or The Primitives). On top of that, hers is not the only lead voice in the band as you can see from the video. They played for about half an hour and I can say that they were amazing and a great warm-up for the main event.
Then The Stranglers came on stage. First things first: The absence of Hugh Cornwell is obvious as I had first noted 5 years ago. More than obvious in fact. It's not that Baz Warne is a bad vocalist, it's just that his voice is different to the one we were used to all those years ago. He pulls it through though in my opinion, that's what made the gig enjoyable, I have to admit though he's probably an acquired state since there are a lot of fans out there who dislike the "new look" Stranglers.
Let's not forget though that Jean-Jacques Burnel still has his share of lead vocals as he did back in the 70's and 80's.
Oh, and another thing: Jet Black was absent as well, apparently because of his "rock'n'roll excesses" of the past...
So what did we get? The older favourites such as "Nice 'N' Sleazy", "Peaches", "(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)" and "Golden Brown" where Baz and Jean-Jacques faked being overwhelmed by nostalgia and stared crying which turned to gales of laughter after a new seconds.
Then there were the later favourites like "Skin Deep" and "Always The Sun".
But also their 21st century songs like "Norfolk Coast".
And finally their favourite cover versions "Walk On By" and "All Day And All Of The Night" to top them all off.
And they loved us so much they gave us not one, but two encores! To recap, I really did enjoy it this time, much more than 5 years ago when I didn't catch them from the beginning of their set and I was at the back of the arena. And they brought back memories of an era that was "unforgettable" as an friend from school characterized it when commenting about my Rock In Athens 85 post. I know it's not healthy to live in nostalgia, but there you go. Maybe I will now withdraw to a corner and start crying like Baz and Jean-Jacques did... NOT!
SETLIST:
01. Intro (Waltzinblack) 02. Toiler on the Sea 03. Straighten out 04. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself) 05. I've Been Wild 06. Relentless 07. Nice 'N' Sleazy 08. Golden Brown 09. Always the Sun 10. Five Minutes 11. Freedom is Insane 12. Time to Die 13. Norfolk Coast 14. I Feel Like a Wog 15. Skin Deep 16. Peaches 17. Time Was Once on My Side 18. Lost Control 19. Duchess 20. Hanging Around Encore: 21. Walk On By (Dionne Warwick cover) Encore 2: 22. All Day and All of the Night (The Kinks cover) 23. No More Heroes
What we're going to do right here is go back. Back into time. 30 years in fact. A "Throwback Thursday" kind of thing. 30 years ago, In July 26 and 27 of 1985, the first major rock festival took place in Greece. Rock concerts in Greece until then had a very short history. The first one was in 1967 by The Rolling Stones which was disrupted by the police. 4 days later there was a coup and a military junta took place which lasted for 7 years. Because of that, the next rock concert took place 13 years later in 1980 by The Police. From that moment on, bands and artists started playing in Greece, including The Boomtown Rats, Roxy Music and, in what is believed by many to be the greatest rock concert at that time, Rory Gallagher.
Rock In Athens though was the first festival to take place featuring 8 different artists spread over two days. The correct line up, in order of appearance was this:
DAY 1 (26 July 1985)
Telephone
The Stranglers
Depeche Mode
Culture Club
DAY 2 (27 July 1985)
Talk Talk
The Cure
Nina Hagen
The Clash
I am stressing the word "correct" here because most blog posts dedicated to this festival are listing a wrong line up, copied from the initial festival poster which was wrong. Makes you wonder if these bloggers were actually there... This poster also mentions "Musical Brigades" (Mousikes Taxiarchies), a Greek band who refused to appear.
However, by searching through the internet, I was able to find a lot of visual and audio material from the festival, partly due to the fact that most of the festival was filmed and was broadcast (in... installments) by Greek state television (ERT). Depeche Mode and The Clash refused to be filmed so there are no videos of them. Somebody in the audience though did record the Depeche Mode set, so there is audio material from that. I don't know if the Nina Hagen set was taped, but I only managed to find backstage footage of her from the television documentary. Finally I managed to find only one (1) photo of The Clash from that night. (While researching this post I found more, but still no visuals from Depeche Mode).
Day 1 was therefore opened by Telephone, a French band, quite popular in their country at that time. This had probably something to do with the fact that the main organizers was a French company ("Nouvelles Frontieres"). At that time, I knew only one of their songs which was featured in a Greek compilation LP (and they didn't play it). Before they came "officially" on stage, they were soundchecking in front of the crowd which was mostly indifferent causing one of them to shout "You treat us like shit, and we will do the same to you".
Next though were The Stranglers. Back then they had a "bad boys" reputation. In fact they were scheduled to appear in Athens 3 years before but they cancelled because they were arrested in France (or something like that). Theirs was a great set consisting of new (at that time) and old songs which were the crowd favourites. All three singles from their then current album "Aural Sculpture" were played ("No Mercy", "Skin Deep" and "Let Me Down Easy"), those from their previous one "Feline" ("Midnight Summer Dream" and "European Female") and older classics (like "Nice N' Sleazy" featuring a long instrumental intro that made it sound like a 12'' version). We had a great time even though the band were insulting the audience between songs (they told a particularly nasty joke about how you can tell the difference between Greek boys and all other boys which I will definitely NOT repeat here). Thankfully the level of English among the concertgoers was not that good so they did not understand the jokes anyway. Unfortunately The Stranglers' bad reputation caught up with them again, when we noticed black smoke rising from outside the venue. We did not pay that much attention inside but we learned later that they were riots between the police and people who wanted to get in for free (That was a common occurence in rock concerts in Greece at that time).
A few cars were burned and they did let some people in at the end something which was to prove catastrophic when the time came for Culture Club to appear. But more of that later...
Next up were Depeche Mode who back then were more electronic than they are now. A very tight set with lots of hits the highlights of which were "Shake The Disease", "Blasphemous Rumours", "Everything Counts" and of course "Just Can't Get Enough" as the finale where Dave Gahan was rubbing the mike stand between his legs while many people were claiming that he was singing "Just can't get it up" instead... I was worried about how the crowd was going to react when they realized that Martin Gore was wearing a black leather dress. They were probably confused and a bit perplexed but there was no indication of what was going to happen next...
Just at the stroke of midnight Culture Club came on stage. And then all hell broke loose! The crowd started throwing water bottles, wood planks and rocks at them, specifically aiming for Boy George. After his initial surprise he started making fun of the situation: "If I wasn't a lady I would have shown you my ass!" he told them. Meanwhile the bass player was playing bass with one hand only, using his other one to give the middle finger to the audience. I still remember the Kipper Williams cartoon in the next issue of Smash Hits where Boy George is pictured trying to dodge the stones while holding an English-Greek dictionary and shouting "ouchos! ouchos!". There was also a Sun or Daily Mirror front page the folowing Monday "Fans stone Boy George". To their credit the band completed their set (no encore of course) since there were many people among the audience who had come to see specifically them, singing the hits like "Karma Chameleon" and an amazing rendition of "Black Money".
It was later said that the organizers shouldn't have mixed up bands like The Stranglers and Culture Club in the line up. Greek rock fans have a long tradition of slagging off pop bands, or those that are not deemed "rock enough" for them, but this was probably not the complete truth in this case. It was clearly a homophobic reaction. Greek society back in the 80's was not very tolerant towards different sexual orientations (and towards other things but this is clearly a different discussion). As another blogger has said, perhaps the "revolutionary liberal young rock Greek crowd" of the 80's wasn't as revolutionary or as liberal as they claimed to be. I still believe that Culture Club should have played a stand-alone concert, on their own.
That was all for day 1, day 2 was much more peaceful. First on stage were Talk Talk who had a big hit in Europe at that time with "It's My Life", but they were still not very successful in their home country, the UK. My favourite song though (and probably the highlight of their set) was "Such A Shame".
Next up were The Cure and what can I say, I feel privileged to have seen them at that stage in their career. Probably every song in their set was a highlight, where do I start? "A Forest", "The Walk", "Let's Go To Bed". My favourite was "A Forest" though probably because a local band consisting of some school friends of mine used to play it in their set.
Next up was Nina Hagen. This was more of a show rather than a gig. From what I remember she had come to Greece before, probably for a concert of a TV appearance, I can't remember which. At that time I only knew "Universal Radio" the single from her then current album "Nina Hagen In Ekstasy" as did most of the crowd who were singing along with its "talking to myself" hook line (and urging her to "take her clothes off" throughout her set). That album though did feature a very nice cover of "Spirit In The Sky" which would, in the following year become a huge hit for Doctor And The Medics.
After the Nina Hagen set was over I took a walk around the arena. There were several people sleeping and others had lit fires, all waiting for the main event: The Clash. If I said before I was privileged to have seen The Cure what can I say about The Clash? And as I found out years later this was the last ever Clash appearance. I am proud to have witnessed such an important part of history!
It was 1:15 am when The Clash came on stage. Mick Jones had long ago left the band but Joe Strummer was there and their sound had gone back to their punk beginnings. I remember they played a punk rock ultra-fast version of "Rock The Casbah" and they did NOT play their commercial hit, what most people were waiting to hear "Should I Stay Or Should I Go".
When it was all over it was around 3am and I had to go back home and catch only a wee bit of sleep, since early next morning I was leaving for a working holiday in Corfu. When I came back in the autumn The Clash released a new single "This Is England" and an album "Cut The Crap" but as a live band they took their last bow in the early morning hours of the 28th of July 1985 in Athens...
SETLISTS:
The Stranglers
01. Nice 'N' Sleazy 02. Hanging Around 03. Bitching 04. I Feel Like a Wog 05. Uptown 06. Dead Ringer 07. No Mercy 08. Souls 09. Skin Deep 10. Let Me Down Easy 11. Golden Brown 12. Midnight Summer Dream 13. European Female 14. Strange Little Girl 15. Down in the Sewer Encore: 16. The Raven
Depeche Mode
01. Master and Servant (Intro)
02. Something to Do 03. If You Want 04. People Are People 05. Leave in Silence 06. Shake the Disease 07. Blasphemous Rumours
08. Told You So 09. Master and Servant 10. Everything Counts Encore: 11. Photographic 12. Just Can't Get Enough
Culture Club
01. I'll Tumble 4 Ya 02. It's a Miracle 03. Heaven's Children 04. God Thank You Woman 05. Time (Clock of the Heart) 06. (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher (Jackie Wilson cover) 07. Karma Chameleon 08. Gusto Blusto 09. Black Money 10. Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? 11. Victims
Talk Talk
01. Talk Talk 02. It's My Life 03. Tomorrow Started 04. My Foolish Friend 05. Does Caroline Know? 06. Dum Dum Girl 07. Such A Shame
The Cure
01. The Baby Screams 02. Play for Today 03. Secrets 04. Kyoto Song 05. The Hanging Garden 06. In Between Days 07. Primary 08. Cold 09. Let's Go to Bed 10. The Walk 11. One Hundred Years 12. Give Me It 13. A Forest Encore: 14. Three Imaginary Boys 15. 10:15 Saturday Night 16. Killing an Arab 17. Forever
Nina Hagen
01. Ekstacy Drive 02. New York, New York 03. African Reggae 04. My Way (Claude François cover) 05. Beat It
06. Carmen Encore:
07. The Ballroom Blitz (The Sweet cover)
The Clash
01. North and South 02. Straight to Hell 03. (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais 04. Janie Jones 05. Safe European Home 06. Hate & War 07. The Guns of Brixton 08. Pressure Drop 09. The Magnificent Seven 10. Bankrobber 11. Police on My Back (The Equals cover) 12. Johnney Too Bad 13. Brand New Cadillac (Vince Taylor and His Playboys cover) 14. White Riot 15. I Fought the Law (The Crickets cover)
After Still Corners and Future Islands, Leon Of Athens was another one of my girlfriend's gig suggestions. Thankfully, this time, she DID come along! :LOL:
Leon Of Athens is a Greek musician (hence the "Of Athens" bit) who is now based in the UK. (Before that he was called just "Leon"). Last April's gig at Gazarte was organized in order to celebrate one year since the release of his latest album "Global" copies of which were available to buy on CD and vinyl at the exit after the end of the gig (Almost exactly one year before that, he had appeared at the same venue).
The gig was opened by Arete Kosmidou, winner of one of the talent shows on Greek TV.
Then it was time for Leon Of Athens. The setlist consisted of several songs from "Global" (a fact that caused me to make a mental note to buy the album afterwards).
The surprises though were in the cover versions. How did Leon Of Athens know that my favourite artist is Bruce Springsteen and my favourite band is Queen? He must have known somehow because he played "I'M On Fire" from the former and "Under Pressure" from the latter!
Another surprise (well, technically not a surprise since it had been announced beforehand) was the guest appearance of Pavlos Pavlides.
Finally, one of the highlights of the night was the cover of "Friday I'm In Love". Leon apparently forgot some of the lyrics, but that was not a problem because we remembered the rest (well, some of them) and turned it into a great singalong.
And with that, we said goodbye to Leon Of Athens, we wish him success in his future projects and hope that we won't have to wait a whole year to see him again!
After the Leon Of Athens gig @ Gazarte (details on my next post), I stumbled upon Mr. Highway Band playing next door @ 45 Moires and seized the opportunity to get in and buy their first CD, which I didn't get a few weeks before at the 4th Music Highway Festival
