Festivals 2019

[Cuntbeaks]

Bang Face Weekender next week!  Can't wait to spend at least half of it in my chalet, bemoaning the state of my knackered old knees!

Would love to experience a Bangface Weekender at some point. Does the music go 24/7, or does the official stuff end and chalet raves take over?

[alan nagsworth]

Would love to experience a Bangface Weekender at some point. Does the music go 24/7, or does the official stuff end and chalet raves take over?

Music's usually on from around midday until 5am (it's a midnight close on Sunday though). They have Thursday pre-parties now as well so it's four fucking days of the stuff.

It's batshit mental, in all honesty. I've been to eight of them and they wreak absolute havoc on the senses. Some of the most fun I've ever had and you never really want it to end. Naturally, the comedowns are completely hellish and harrowing. This is not aided by the sudden dawning of how fucking wretched Pontins in Southport is on the Monday morning, the wind howling, the sky an icy white, and the crusties and the hippies in their outer space-patterned leggings moping about wrapped in duvets clutching empty Buckfast bottles, all having lost their voices.

But before all that, it is a total riot and almost all of my bafflingly large circle of pals are people I've met there. Even now as someone who's not at all into jungle or breakcore or gabber (mostly these days it's techno, techno's great) I don't go and see a lot of the music, I spend most of my time either in the TV studio or pissing about in the chalets where there's ridiculous karaoke and other complete, wanton debauchery. If you're into the music, though, there's really nowt else like it in terms of scale. All the best names on the scene, the whole atmosphere ramped up beyond belief, and more inflatable dolphins than you're ever likely to see anywhere else.

If you do go, for the love of god, make sure you eat. That's something I've never been able to get the hang of.

[justin_bennett]

Took me years to realise that eating at festivals was necessary. Game changer.

Bluedot and Flow (Helsinki) for me this year, and will be at the Cure / Mogwai / Twilight Sad one-dayer at Glasgow.

[Cuntbeaks]

Music's usually on from around midday until 5am (it's a midnight close on Sunday though). They have Thursday pre-parties now as well so it's four fucking days of the stuff.

It's batshit mental, in all honesty. I've been to eight of them and they wreak absolute havoc on the senses. Some of the most fun I've ever had and you never really want it to end. Naturally, the comedowns are completely hellish and harrowing. This is not aided by the sudden dawning of how fucking wretched Pontins in Southport is on the Monday morning, the wind howling, the sky an icy white, and the crusties and the hippies in their outer space-patterned leggings moping about wrapped in duvets clutching empty Buckfast bottles, all having lost their voices.

But before all that, it is a total riot and almost all of my bafflingly large circle of pals are people I've met there. Even now as someone who's not at all into jungle or breakcore or gabber (mostly these days it's techno, techno's great) I don't go and see a lot of the music, I spend most of my time either in the TV studio or pissing about in the chalets where there's ridiculous karaoke and other complete, wanton debauchery. If you're into the music, though, there's really nowt else like it in terms of scale. All the best names on the scene, the whole atmosphere ramped up beyond belief, and more inflatable dolphins than you're ever likely to see anywhere else.

If you do go, for the love of god, make sure you eat. That's something I've never been able to get the hang of.

That sounds right up my street, would probably need a further week off work to recover though. I think i would be little more than a shadow by the Sunday though. Two nights in a row on the hard stuff is enough to destroy me, plus, if your chalet was next to an improptu rave, then chilling out at any stage would be difficult.

But yes, i would dearly like to try it out, definitely my most desired festival by a country mile.

[dmillburn]

Very excited for Bang Face tomorrow, like every year I'll end up trying not to get overexcited and go too mad on the Thursday and then fail. To be fair the music is secondary to the  traditional Bang Face excursion to the British Lawnmower Museum in Southport on the Saturday and a chance to see Nicolas Parsons' lawnmower again.

I managed to bag a Supernormal ticket last night - I'm made up for them selling out in 2 hours especially when you think that only a few years ago it was touch and go as to whether it would go ahead unless they sold more tickets, but it has meant that some of our regular group have missed out. They introduced a really fair tier system for the ticket prices allowing you to pay what you can afford ranging from £75 for anyone on a low or no wage to £150 for people that don't have to worry about money, so I hope that people haven't taken the piss. I suspect it will work out for them as SN has one of the nicest crowds going.

[alan nagsworth]

Man I fucking forgot Supernormal was back on and didn't even clock that tickets we're going up. Fairly hacked off about missing out on experiencing that. I've still never been, a bunch of my mates have played it and said it's like a lower budget Supersonic. Arses.

[Captain Crunch]

I'm a massive fan of Yawning Man so I keep seeing ads for this new festival:

https://blackdeerfestival.com/

Blah blah blah, something disparaging about beards and wanky barbecues, blah blah blah.  Great to see Stubb still going though. 

[Pauline Walnuts]

Jeepers.... Notable more for the deliberate/Google friendly odd spellings for the 'up and coming' bands.

[alan nagsworth]

That's the worst lineup I've ever seen. And I really like The 1975.

[Pauline Walnuts]

yeah, but Charli XCX?

[alan nagsworth]

Lost interest personally. Her endless "do I look cute, angels?" on Instagram is tiresome, and I say that as someone who finds her very attractive. Also that "1999" single was complete shite, and that band she's just announced sound crap as well. I'm starting to think "Pop 2" was a fluke based on the talent producing and guesting on it.

[Pauline Walnuts]

I stoped following her on Twitter for similar reasons. There's only so many 'industrial cleavage' photos of a beautiful young lady I can take.


:sadface:

[thugler]

So the initial glastonbury lineup is out:


Relatively happy with that so far, a few things I'd like to see.. Particularly pleased that Janelle monae is headlining west holts rather than plonked mid table on the main stage.

[Johnny Textface]

So the initial glastonbury lineup is out:


Relatively happy with that so far, a few things I'd like to see.. Particularly pleased that Janelle monae is headlining west holts rather than plonked mid table on the main stage.

To me that's pretty much dog shit.

[Captain Crunch]

I still, after all this time, get irritated when I see Pond on listings and have to remember it's a new band not this sweet Portland lot from back when.

[ToneLa]

Wow Glastonbury looks like a great big pile of teetering, tottering shit about to fall over at any moment and I'm sure as fuck not going there and cleaning that up

I think for me this year, being dole and all, it's just the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia

Where I've fallen in love with bands like Suuns and JC Satan and left when Spiritualised came on because I was on acid (it got too packed and the bouncers started deliberately hurting people because of the crush at the doors - you'd leave then too, duuh) - had this amazing vision, and I'm not sure it isn't true, that they WANTED you to turn up on LSD because, get this: bottles of water, a quid. All alcohol was craft ale: £6. IS THAT NOT TELLING YOU TO DO DRUGS INSTEAD OF DRINK? Tell ye what, lasers + smoke when pissed is one thing but I take my festival names literally I'll have you know (including Festival #6, Primavera, and NOS)

And lo, it all turned around. I started getting gobby, just straight-up asking "are you on acid too?" and I got a fair few baffled glances but I met my next (French I'll have you know) girlfriend that way, got handed spliffs ootside for my simple honesty, and generally laughed my fucking ass off in this parallel acid-coated dimension.

And the music. Look, lads. I don't expect anyone to know JC Satan. Fire em up. "Crystal Snake" or "In the Light". You're five inches from them in a tiny sub-stage room and some topless fucked fella slam dances into you so you pick him up, he laughs, you put him down and pat him on the head like a dog and he hugs you, you both embraced in some fucked fuckin mad entangled freedom. And then it all crushes in, and there's love; you're crushed, embraced, sweat dripping off you, and it isn't even yours, and there's this mad band with the best garage sound over screaming ESCAPE MY PAIN and it's just the universe placing you in a loving womb of the like-minded in some disused warehouse and you're away!

It was brilliant. Best festival ever. Birds wearing not much, underwear + that dayglo paint shit, yes thankyou I have infinite time for you; except I was off my face, had strangers hugging me, BUT THEY'RE FUCKED TOO, but the sheer fucking feeling that I'm here and accepted because I'm me man, or, and this is a more popular theory, I looked fucked and the fucked trust the fucked which tbh is much more practical and workable

Walked out eventually and these scals started on me and my mate who were smoking hash I buy in The Swan on the way back. Told them "I'm high as fuck mate, if you want it, we're up for it" and got called a wanker and they fucked off (and I was up for it, I was up for ANYTHING, but have you tried fighting on acid? I assume I projected some genuine sense of no-fucks panache or some other macho shite as me and my mate linked arms and watched the clouds and just fucked off to the docks to watch the water, smoking biker hash, til our other mates who are only into club tunes rang us and yada yada yada I'm just being a wanker nobody will read this far but I amuse myself with what I Yada exactly)

Anywho, yeah, just the oner for me this year. Unless they read this post and bar me. Pfft, they might need a whole year off, but I don't.

- Legend Tony

I still, after all this time, get irritated when I see Pond on listings and have to remember it's a new band not this sweet Portland lot from back when.

I get notifications from Spotify about a band called The Monks playing near me :(

[alan nagsworth]

How come there's been no announcements yet for the Psych Fest this year? I know it had a year off last year, like.

Went in 2016 and had a bloody great time. Admittedly I don't do psychedelics but someone coming up and complimenting me Neu! shirt was more than enough of a drug to me. Only joking, I twatted my plastic pint on his head and told him to get fucked.

Only bad thing about it was The Horrors, but then they're just bad across the board aren't they? Can't believe I wasted 15 minutes of my weekend trying to see what all the fuss was about.

[Johnny Textface]

The Horrors, but then they're just bad across the board aren't they?

"Sea within a sea" is superb though.

[hermitical]

How come there's been no announcements yet for the Psych Fest this year? I know it had a year off last year, like.

Which one?

[Captain Crunch]

There are a few.  Bristol changed its name to Astral and is nice:

https://www.astralfestival.com/

Manchester is going ahead on 30th August:

MANCHESTER PSYCH FEST 2019
5 stages: O2 Ritz Manchester // Gorilla // YES
14+
LIVE MUSIC LINE-UP
COURTNEY BARNETT

TEMPLES
GOAT GIRL // THE LOVELY EGGS // THE CULT OF DOM KELLER
SAM EVIAN // YAMA WARASHI // ECHO LADIES // WORKING MEN'S CLUB
COSMIC STRIP // SOLIS // BELLE SONDER // URF // THE BLEACHÉS
+ MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED

Liverpool says it will be back but no detail yet (I think that's the one Mr Nags meant):

http://www.liverpoolpsychfest.com/2018/01/pzyk-communique-futures-in-drone/

I didn't really get on with Liverpool, I don't get on with the city anyway and the venue was horrible.

Cardiff is up too and seems to have a wider interpretation of the term 'psych':

https://www.themooncardiff.com/psych

[hermitical]

Yeah, that's why I was asking which one hadn't announced, as in there is loads of info out there about various ones going head.

Never went to one whilst I was in Bristol, there might be one or two bands but not totally my thing, iirc the last time I was in town when one was on I actually went to see Loop.

Looking at Bristol this year (I'm only an hour or so away) there is still little to tempt me and SWX is a horrible venue.

[hermitical]

Anyone tempted by this?
The Delaware Road, taking place on an old military complex on Salisbury Plain

"The Delaware Road returns for a 3rd outing at the austere military complex of New Zealand Farm Camp on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. The camp is a circular, walled complex within the Salisbury Plain Training Area featuring 11 multi-functional structures known as 'stone tents'. These adaptable buildings will host an incredible line up of experimental musicians, film + video artists, sound designers, guest speakers, record labels, writers & illustrators."

[Captain Crunch]

Even Margate has one:

[alan nagsworth]

Yeah soz I was on about the Liverpool one mentioned above me!

I don't live in NZ but if anyone does go to that Delaware Road one make sure you see Lone Taxidermist because they're a riot.

[ToneLa]

Yeah soz I was on about the Liverpool one mentioned above me!

I'll take blame for that mate, I turned in a novella when I should have just said "LIVERPOOL PSYCH FEST = PERSONALLY FOUND IT SATISFYING"

Keeping me eyes peeled. Threads like this for me may as well be Allocate Future Dole And Bitcoin

[hermitical]

I don't live in NZ but if anyone does go to that Delaware Road one make sure you see Lone Taxidermist because they're a riot.

That's New Zealand Farm Camp, Wiltshire

[Captain Crunch]

Check out Cattle if you make it, they're good.

[boki]

Even Margate has one:

The Cosmic Dead are fuckin' bangin'.  There's also Raw Power down in That London on this sort of vibe, which I've been to a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed.  The Psych scene must be one of the most vibrant in the UK right now, even if there are hardly any big bands in there, which in a way is great 'cos you can discover a band at one of these fests and usually find them playing to a few dozen people in a pub near you within a few months.  Just a shame that there seems to be a bit of a glass ceiling for it all at the moment, same goes for the overlapping post/math/whatever-rock scene.

This is borne out in that Reading lineup, too, I think.  The deterioration of the old touring circuit system (particularly with labels' ability to throw money at tour support) over the last couple of decades means that few bands are raising up from the little scenes and the mainstream festivals are having to rely on old hands and people who can get themselves hyoed up in the right new media circles.

[holyzombiejesus]

There are a few.  Bristol changed its name to Astral and is nice:

https://www.astralfestival.com/

Manchester is going ahead on 30th August:

Liverpool says it will be back but no detail yet (I think that's the one Mr Nags meant):

http://www.liverpoolpsychfest.com/2018/01/pzyk-communique-futures-in-drone/

I didn't really get on with Liverpool, I don't get on with the city anyway and the venue was horrible.

Cardiff is up too and seems to have a wider interpretation of the term 'psych':

https://www.themooncardiff.com/psych

Why are Courtney Barnett and Lovely Eggs playing a 'psych' fest?

[boki]

Why are Courtney Barnett and Lovely Eggs playing a 'psych' fest?

Outreach, especially in the former case.  I've never heard Lovely Eggs, but I do know that the promoters who put them on locally recently generally book pysch acts, so there must be some crossover appeal.