I’ve had a heavy cold for the last couple of days and my ideal Thursday evening would be a hot bath, perhaps with a toddy, then bed by half past nine. The Smashing Pumpkins have other ideas. They’re playing an open air gig in the park at the end of the road, the closer speaker stack is about 300m from the bedroom window, and the curfew is half past ten.
I can’t claim to be familiar with the music of ver Pumps, as I’m sure no one calls them, but I dare say I’ll be a lot more familiar with it after tonight. When I went for a lunchtime walk I saw a bloke near my house in hi-vis gear, with a mic pointing towards the park to measure noise levels reaching the residential area. If it gets too rowdy I may have to nip out in my dressing gown and slippers and tap him on the shoulder.
This is just the first of a series of gigs in the park we have to look forward to, to be followed by Busted, Craig David, UB40, Tom Jones, James, Texas and Madness, so it’s not all bad news. I might even take a camping chair, a luxury denied to the paying punters I have noticed, to the area just across the river from the stage to enjoy some of them. And on the night Craig David is playing I already had tickets for a one day festival in south London headlined by Richard Thompson, and if that isn’t evidence for a wise and all-loving creator then I don’t know what is.
Hmm, sounds better than the fare we get regularly delivered here in Lichfield. Whilst I live about 1/2 a mile from Beacon Park, the sound blows in sufficient to disturb, if not loud enough to fully discern. Maybe a blessing, as this year it has been a reprise of the Tribute Band festival they had last year, whereby poor copies of Blondie, the Beatles, U2, Coldplay etc get to shout “How ya’ doin’, Lichfield” in regular rotation. Later we get the Proms In The Park, orchestral “favourites” blasted out, with, often, added, operatic arias of no great glory. Hopefully I wil miss this through being in Shrewsbury, a’folk festivalling.
The Light used to live a mile or so from the Essex end of the V Festival, close enough to get a vague idea of the sound of the wind was in the right direction. She would usually stay at mine on those weekends to avoid the traffic but some reason I was at hers when the Kings of Leon headlined. Every few minutes a song would start with a DUM-da dee dum dum bass and I would think, ‘Ah, they’re playing Sex on Fire’. Then the song would end to muffled cheering and the next one would start DUM-da dee dum dum. Repeat until curfew.
Woe indeed to the Bloody City of Lichfield
I saw ver Pumps at the Reading Festival in the early 1990s and enjoyed it. This was always my fave, the version on The Late Show was way better than the record.
“It is with a heavy but full heart that we announce that The Cambridge Club Festival will not take place in 2025.” My heart is not heavy, having been kept awake by the sounds of Radio 2 afternoon fodder blowing across the fields. They had Chaka Khan, (one of) Sister Sledge and Jessie Ware last year.
I work in central Manchester. I have a number of colleagues who live near Heaton Park. I will leave you to work out the rest.
Back to back Housemartins and Beautiful South tracks?
The Pumpkins were on near me recently and my youngest who has a summer job at the venue said they were good but didn’t stay to the end as “they’d already played Tonight, Tonight”.
Ver Pumps are popular in our house. Whilst Tonight, Tonight is veritably excellent, we would have also stayed for Today, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Perfect, 1979 and Disarm. Tunes, the lot of ‘em.
I think he’d sneaked a peak at setlists fm to gauge how long he’was staying as setlists for most of the acts tend to be quite static. The others you mention had all been played, so he was good with what he’d seen and beat the crowds out. As you say they do have some tunes.
My old house was about 500 yds from the Reading Festival Site – I didn’t go the Festival, but could hear it quite clearly.
(and the allotment we had was even closer – the Festival Site barriers skirted the Allotment site)
Heh, that there Simpsons episode was soooo long ago. I got the reference, I miss good Simpsons episodes. Then again, I miss my youth more. Nothing to really offer on the Punkin Smashers but at least it’s not Limp Bizkit I guess.
@Gatz I think the Scarborough Open Air Theatre (to which you allude) is a really good venue, naturally a better experience when the weather is clement. Sadly, none of this year’s selection of artists have interested me, but over the last two or three years I’ve seen some cracking gigs there, including Johnny Fucking Marr, a-ha on what was in all likelihood their last-ever tour, and Sting, who was good enough to conquer appalling conditions that Liam Gallagher would have nodoubt called ‘biblical’.
Similar bills do the rounds as part of a package, but it’s actually Castle Park in Colchester which is currently rattling the roof tiles.
I wandered down to that area across the river earlier, and it was perfectly possible to listen to Billy Corgan declaim, ‘We’re Smashing Pumpkins and we’re so happy to be here! Let’s rock!”, though no one had bothered. I’ll keep it in mind for some of the other gigs though.
@black-type I believe ver Pumps (as they shall be forever known) played Scarborough last night 13th (Halifax the night before) I know @Gatz is down in that there South.
I saw Max Jaffa play there in my dim and distant youth (very appealing Max)
I also saw Max Jaffa at Scarborough. My first “gig” I think – either that or Sooty.
Just so I can vent my spleen.
For the last three nights we have been ‘treated’ to the gentle sound of fireworks last night was relatively early at 10:20 the other two nights were midnight. I’m racking my brains as to why we should be ‘treated’ in early August to it.
Possibly an urban myth, but I have heard it’s an alert to those in the know that new drugs have arrived. Explains the occasional phenomenon of daytime fireworks.
The current lineup of The Pumps is worth seeing, no matter of where they are playing. James Iha is back and they have Kiki Wong on lead guitar (who is from a metal background). Let’s rock!