THE RETURN OF THE FUTURAMA FESTIVAL – EASTER 2021

THE RETURN OF THE FUTURAMA FESTIVAL – EASTER 2021

  A UTOPIAN FESTIVAL FOR DYSTOPIAN TIMES

THE LEGENDARY 2-DAY POST-PUNK FESTIVAL RETURNS TO LIVERPOOL APRIL 3-4, 2021

PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT CONFIRMED TO PERFORM JOY DIVISION’S SET FROM FUTURAMA 1979!

TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM SEE TICKETS HERE:

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Futurama, the legendary post-punk festival is back after 40 years and takes place at the Invisible Wind factory / Make Arts Centre and Ten Streets Social in Liverpool over two days, 3rd and 4th of April 2021.

The Futuramas were a series of ground-breaking and innovative post punk and electronic music festivals in the late 70’s and early 80’s. They were the brainchild of one-man, John Keenan, a legendary Leeds promoter who has put thousands of bands on over 40 years at his famous F Club. In 1979, he decided to do a 2-day festival at the Queens Hall in Leeds and put on all of his favourite up and coming bands and curated the first alternative indoor festival in Britain. Nearly all of Britain’s most important and influential independent bands played these festivals and many of them went onto considerable success in Britain, Europe, and the US. The roll call reads like the greatest who’s who of alternative music and they include Joy Division and New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, PiL, Killing Joke, Teardrop Explodes, Bauhaus, The Fall, The Smiths, Gang of Four, Sisters of Mercy, Theatre Of Hate, The Psychedelic Furs & even a fledgling U2. The Futurama festivals caught the zeitgeist perfectly and not only put on many female fronted bands, including Siouxsie and the Banshees, Young Marble Giants, Bow Wow Wow & Altered Images, but also many of the new wave of electronic & synthesizer acts including Soft Cell, Cabaret Voltaire, OMD, Simple Minds, Clock DVA & Vice Versa who later became ABC.

The post-punk era still casts an enormous influential shadow over contemporary music, making the timing perfect for the festival to return, combining both legendary acts from the festival’s history with the absolute best in up-and-coming talent.

pic by William Ellis – www.william-ellis.com

Bringing Futurama full circle, Peter Hook & The Light are confirmed to perform Joy Division’s set from Futurama 1979 in full, promising to be an absolute thrill for fans of the iconic band.

“Futurama was one the first festival experiences I ever had,” remembers bassist Peter Hook. “John Keenan the promoter became a lifelong friend. He was one of the first legends. The gig was the first time I’d ever seen caravans used as dressing rooms indoors, but it had a great atmosphere. It really put Joy Division on the map and the groups on the bill were very well matched to the audience. There weren’t many indoor festivals prior to Futurama so it was quite ground-breaking for the genre in the north. Funnily enough it gets talked about a lot even now. John became a legend and, in many ways, so has the festival. Let’s hope we can capture that wonderful atmosphere again.”

Also linking the festival’s history are Kirk Brandon’s Theatre Of Hate who will be celebrating their 40th anniversary of playing Futurama 3 in 1981, returning in 2021.

With a headliner still to be announced, these iconic acts join a host of bands from the many different strains and spectrums of alternative music, with respected website Louder Than War hosting the main stage on one day, and the world’s biggest rock ‘n’ roll and punk magazine Vive Le Rock the other day, whilst The AF Gang (the IDLES legendary fan club) host the up and coming stage.

There are 4 stages at the Futurama.

Invisible Wind Factory Main Stage: Headline acts and supports

Substation Downstairs in IWF: Electronic, synth and experimental noise

Make Arts Centre: Some of the best new and vintage post punk bands on the circuit

Ten Street Social: The AF Gang hosts the up and coming stage plus DJ sets

Other acts confirmed to appear include Warmduscher, The Chameleons, The Blinders, The Lovely Eggs, Spizz Energi, Imperial Wax, Just Mustard, Membranes, Evil Blizzard, Sink Ya Teeth, John, Heavy Lungs, We Are Not Devo, DSM IV, Bob Vylan, Billy NoMates, Witch Fever, Tokky Horror, Pozi, Crows, St Agnes, LibraLibra, Courting, Crawlers and Joe & Shitboys, with many more to be announced.

Tickets are Early Bird £80 for the weekend from See Tickets HERE:

£20 deposit scheme and four payments scheme in place

For more info head to: futuramafestival.com

On this day in Rock ‘n’ Roll history Metal is born thanks Ozzy, Tony, Gezzer and Bill

On this day in Rock ‘n’ Roll history Metal is born thanks Ozzy, Tony, Gezzer and Bill

on this day way back in 1970,  Black Sabbath released their debut self-titled studio album on Vertigo records in the UK.  The album happened to come out on a Friday which is a spooky fact. Peaking at No.8 on the charts which is something of a commercial success to be fair to the four lads from working-class backgrounds in Birmingham.

Recognised as the first heavy metal record. It seems like so long ago and be thankful that it was this album and these people. I’m not sure we should blame the four for giving us the likes of Danger Danger, Steel Panther and Manowar but if they were the first then they should take some collective responsibility because had this record never have been made would we have had judas priest? Who knows.  If only they’d added a keytar instead of Iommi’s Les Paul things might have ended so differently. Oh well. To think that back in 1970 the band released not one but two albums because later that year ‘Paranoid’ hit the streets and was responsible for that riff. Amazing work ethic and turn over that my friends wouldn’t happen today.

 

On February 13th1980, Police raided the home of former Sex Pistols John Lydon who greeted them waving a ceremonial sword, the only illegal item they found was a canister of tear gas, claimed to be for defence against intruders. Imagine that, musical outsider having their homes invaded by the fuzz for what under what crime prevention?  Makes you wonder why the bugger off to live in other countries. Of the incident, Lydon said, “I used to have these wooden slat blinds. They break, so up went an Italian flag. “But somebody thought that meant it was an IRA house, so… police raid!”  Lydon had long since left the Pistols and PIL were a going concern the incident was between ‘Metal Box’ and ‘Flowers Of Romance’ Lydon was basking in the afterglow of ‘Metal Box’ which had come out only four months earlier.

Amazingly The title of the album refers to its original packaging, which consisted of a metal 16mm film canister embossed with the band’s logo and containing three records. It was designed by Dennis Morris and was innovative and inexpensive, costing little more to the label than the cost of standard printed sleeves for equivalent 12″ releases (although Virgin did ask for a refund of 1/3 of the band’s advance due to the cost). Before the metal tin was finalised, there was discussion of the album being released in a sandpaper package that would effectively ruin the sleeve art of any records shelved next to it. That idea would later be realised by the Durutti Column

The album’s lack of accessibility extended to the discs themselves. Packed tightly inside the canister and separated by paper sheets, they were difficult to remove and were prone to be scratched and dropped in the process. Due to the short run on each side of the records, the listener had to change sides to hear the complete album rather more often than normal (not like Lydon to be awkward).

Deleted in November 1979 after an initial release of 60,000 sales, the album was re-issued on in February 1980  (funnily enough just after his house was raided) as a standard double LP in a more conventional gatefold. The sleeve art of ‘Second Edition’ consists of a distorted Keith Levene.

Also today in the mists of time (1982 to be precise) The Jam were at number 1 in the charts with double A-side single ‘A Town Called Malice’ and ‘Precious’ incidently the song is played at the local football ground before every second half gets underway (have that one fact fans).  Sadly the three members of the Jam have never reformed and the only chance of them ever being in the same place together would be when they’ve been to court – shame that but not many bands get to perform on TOTP  twice in the same night playing both sides of their single

 

Finally, in 2007 Rod Steward did a hard days graft and only got paid $1 million.  A wealthy billionaire Steve Schwarzman paid the singer to perform an hour-long set for his 60th Birthday celebrations in New York, (nice work if you can get it). Other performers are available for a lot cheaper. but I guess well done Rod We’d all like a piece of that. It’s not the only time Stewart has performed for wealthy people for large sums of money. A long way from his busking days in Paris and Spain or on train platforms in West London Stewart hung up his rock n roll wildman boots long before ’07 to be fair.  but still quite an achievement.  I hope Mr Schwarzman got his moneys worth and told Rod what to play.