LTW Newsletter 53

Welcome warriors,

It’s been the summer of spectacle.

In 2023 everything is B.I.G. big. Big gigs in big stadiums with full frazzle tech amping up the culture into monolithic proportions. This summer seems like a non stop barrage of big events bombarding us with a back catalogue of pop history. Everywhere we turn, there are huge shows from Blur at Wembley to Brice Springsteen to Iggy Pop doing his Dog Day Afternoon - 2023 is the year of the high decibel spectacle.

Decades of these gigs would be murky affairs and whilst the heatwave is still short lived and the sun has now retreated back into its familiar summer position of drizzle and cloud, the sound systems and the tech mean that the humungous gigs are still spectacular affairs now with added overcoat! Much has been said about the excessive tickets prices and the relentless cost of these affairs but they are huge immersive events and perhaps they are value for the money and represent the changing nature of gig going…of course they have always been with us but this year seems to be an endless mad parade of these pop culture excessives.

Inevitably LTW were at most of them

Dog Day Afternoon was seen as the last stand of the punk generation - on and off stage stage! A veteran lineup headlined by Iggy Pop delivered great sets to the 15 000 people at Crystal Palace Park. It was the foundation stones of punk big day out with Generation Sex - the supergroup of Cook ’n Jones from the Pistols doing the old lags on steroids things with Idol and James from Gen X.  The band are more than a cute concept and their rumbustious performance is one of the summer highlights whilst SLF and Blondie were keen reminders of both band’s deep back catalogues and the ancient Ig was a revelation with his crack band delivering one of the performances of his career and giving his varied back catalogue a brand new sheen that really worked.

Depeche Mode have been touring Europe with former Savages singer Jehnny Beth in support. It's a perfect package of dramatic pop noir that has been filling stadiums as the band now down to a core duo of David Gahan and Martin Gore deliver their mighty greatest hits package and captivating new album to packed houses. Jehnny Beth has been on fire and establishing herself as a solo performer with her muscular industrial pop and owns the huge stages.

The big gig this week was Blur doing the two nights at Wembley over the weekend. The band make playing the huge stadium seem effortless and their inherent indie raggedness added to the charm as they rampaged joyously through a diverse back catalogue that was full of feel-good moments for an audience of a certain age. If there was ever one thing true in pop culture, it's that those fleeting moments of youth so perfectly soundtracked by certain bands become nuggets of nostalgia decades later. Many have remarked that this summer feels like we are somehow still trapped in the Britpop high point of 1994, and whilst it seems like every band apart from Oasis is doing the rounds, its with a very different lens now than the rapscallion madness of youth!

Everywhere we went, there are events. The Cult and The Mission were fantastic in Halifax at the amazing Piece Hall - the part of West Yorkshire that looks like a bit of Venice dumped into the fast-changing former forgotten town. Both bands were at the top of the game - The Cult in 2023 are a total powerhouse. It seems like these big outdoor gigs that used to be a struggle for most rock bands are now a place for them to thrive and never sound better. Billy Duffy’s guitar is honed to perfection, and Ian Astbury's voice is somehow still a thing of wonder. Special mention should be for the opening act Lili Refrain - her tribal dark mystery goth excursions were entrancing in their mood.

When is comes to big-hearted bombast then Bruce Springsteen is the king of the form. He flew into London with a show that was as big as an American skyline and full of joyous emotion and steroid rock bellow. Bruce has been doing this stuff for years but in the year of the spectacle has not only upped his ticket prices but the quality of his show which was hours long, of course, but delivered with a pizzaz and perfection that was a step ahead of his last round of gigs.

Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is more than a concert; it is an immersive experience. Her first tour in over five years is a global phenomenon featuring excited fans cosplaying, sharing their friendship bracelets, and flocking to parking lots filled with merch.

Swans released a new album full of captivating mystery and spell-binding atmospheres that we made our album of the week. The band, who have perfectly ploughed their own idiosyncratic groove for decades, have never stopped moving, and with a new line up eternal frontman Michael Gira has explored his vision with even more depth than ever.

The most touching moment this week was the Wham documentary that explored the fundamental core friendship between George Michael and Andrew Ridgley. Far from being pop fluff, they were painted as at the time, they were the pop wing of post-punk with that period’s sensibility and politics playing out in the pop arena. George Michael, of course, became one of the biggest songwriters and performers of his generation and famously a pretty decent person, whilst Andrew Ridgley was far more than the ‘lucky mate’ that he has been painted as. The doc explored this and their deep friendship and was a feel-good take on one of the period’s great pop dramas.