Carfest South: The Beginning of the End?

[sherlock]

I've just posted something in the Multimedia forum, but thought it might be worth discussing here - did this gig happen, or was it just a figment of my imagination? My original post was geared towards a current discussion on the lack of recent bootlegs, but the general feeling behind it is relevant as well :-

Please let me be wrong, but I think that it's rather telling that the band played a gig at Carfest South last night and, not only do we not have any indication of any recording, but there isn't a single clip on YouTube, no setlist on Setlist.fm, no Twitter updates during the gig and - possibly most worrying of all - no mention on the 2017 Tour Forum of this very website about the show at all, either in anticipation of the event, during the show or afterwards! I used to eagerly await logging on the morning after a gig to find out about how it went down, what was played, banter from the band and, in most cases, at least some form of clip on YouTube! I know it's a bank holiday, but is that really relevant these days when you don't have to wait until youget home to a PC to update social media? I can't honestly remember a time when people - the general public and the bands own fans - seemed more disinterested in the group ...

Thoughts?

[Phil C]

Originally Posted by sherlock

I've just posted something in the Multimedia forum, but thought it might be worth discussing here - did this gig happen, or was it just a figment of my imagination? My original post was geared towards a current discussion on the lack of recent bootlegs, but the general feeling behind it is relevant as well :-

Please let me be wrong, but I think that it's rather telling that the band played a gig at Carfest South last night and, not only do we not have any indication of any recording, but there isn't a single clip on YouTube, no setlist on Setlist.fm, no Twitter updates during the gig and - possibly most worrying of all - no mention on the 2017 Tour Forum of this very website about the show at all, either in anticipation of the event, during the show or afterwards! I used to eagerly await logging on the morning after a gig to find out about how it went down, what was played, banter from the band and, in most cases, at least some form of clip on YouTube! I know it's a bank holiday, but is that really relevant these days when you don't have to wait until youget home to a PC to update social media? I can't honestly remember a time when people - the general public and the bands own fans - seemed more disinterested in the group ...

Thoughts?

The gigs they are playing at the moment are not promoting a new album or celebrating an old one. As such there's less interest in them. On top of that there was footage going around of the Cornwall festival they headlined, I remember seeing Little Baby Nothing with The Anchoress and Found That Soul online.

Last year their song for the Welsh football team got them on television more regularly than for years and when they do a tour with new material I'm sure the fans' interest in recordings will perk up so they can get live versions of the new songs.

[Son of Stopped]

Even Sean's Twitter is quiet on it. Maybe it was an off gig? Not surprising. Nicky is having a family crisis so the fact they showed should be enough. Maybe the wrong crowd?

[Routine Builder]

This entire tour so to speak has been a very understated affair. I think the gigs they've been playing were booked so they could pay bills but not do anything where they might feel pressured about. I wouldn't say they're not bothered because that's not how they approach their gigs, but they're not limelight slots where they might have to play to their core fan base a bit more.

[darkanddivine]

Originally Posted by sherlock

Please let me be wrong, but I think that it's rather telling that the band played a gig at Carfest South last night and, not only do we not have any indication of any recording, but there isn't a single clip on YouTube, no setlist on Setlist.fm, no Twitter updates during the gig and - possibly most worrying of all - no mention on the 2017 Tour Forum of this very website about the show at all. I can't honestly remember a time when people - the general public and the bands own fans - seemed more disinterested in the group ...

Thoughts?

On this specific gig, in a way it's understandable. Assuming the set was similar to the North leg of the festival (and also assuming the current Setlist.fm is correct,) it sounds like it was basically a support slot style gig with a very short set of 11 tracks.

I'd imagine this ranks well below the other festivals the band have headlined this summer in terms of their own promotion. On top of that it's not exactly appealing to either audience. Casual fans might go if they fancy it, but it's not like it was a stellar line up on the whole. And more hardcore fans would have got a day ticket to a "proper" headline show to make sure they got at least an hours set. I wouldn't read that much into it.

[Abstract Unknown Girl]

I went to CarFest North last month and it was honestly one of the worst events I've ever been to (hence why I never replied to the thread about that gig on here). Admittedly, I only went for the Manics and couldn't care less about cars, so I think it's safe to say I wasn't the target market of the festival and should have stayed at home Most people around us didn't care about the Manics and the guy in front of me kept giving me looks for singing along. The music didn't start until about 4-5pm and the rest of the day was geared towards entertaining petrolheads and their families (we didn't turn up until after the music started for this reason), so whilst there were some Manics fans there, they most certainly didn't make up a large bulk of the audience, who obviously had other priorities. People were more excited about some bloody events function band playing cover versions after the Manics were on, as we were desperately trying to fight our way out of the crowd to leave (we didn't stick around for the Kaiser Chiefs, who headlined...seen them twice already as support for other bands, that's more than enough for me!). The band were only on stage for about 45 minutes as well and I would have thought they were on in the south for a similar amount of time. So, I imagine the lack of big Manics fans at this festival and the short set length probably explains why there wasn't much online about the gig last night. FD Twitter has posted as much as they could find about it by the looks of it though.

Chris Evans personally invited the band to play CarFest; I suspect that combined with the fact the band now have a mortgage on a new studio to pay for are the main reasons they even agreed to play these two gigs in the first place

[darkanddivine]

Yup. No band is ever going to look back and say "to be honest the greatest honour of our lives was playing Carfest South...." Unless you're in the Alan Partridge Band. Any festival that has music as a side dish rather than the main meal is going to be the worst place to watch a band you like. Festivals are bad enough for that as it is.

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by sherlock

I've just posted something in the Multimedia forum, but thought it might be worth discussing here - did this gig happen, or was it just a figment of my imagination? My original post was geared towards a current discussion on the lack of recent bootlegs, but the general feeling behind it is relevant as well :-

Please let me be wrong, but I think that it's rather telling that the band played a gig at Carfest South last night and, not only do we not have any indication of any recording, but there isn't a single clip on YouTube, no setlist on Setlist.fm, no Twitter updates during the gig and - possibly most worrying of all - no mention on the 2017 Tour Forum of this very website about the show at all, either in anticipation of the event, during the show or afterwards! I used to eagerly await logging on the morning after a gig to find out about how it went down, what was played, banter from the band and, in most cases, at least some form of clip on YouTube! I know it's a bank holiday, but is that really relevant these days when you don't have to wait until youget home to a PC to update social media? I can't honestly remember a time when people - the general public and the bands own fans - seemed more disinterested in the group ...

Thoughts?

I think CarFest is a bit of a weird point for them, but saying that they've been the square peg for the round hole so many times in their career anyway. I can understand Sean having a bit of an interest in the event, being a bit of a petrol head, but I've got no idea about the sort of crowd summat like that would attract anyway. Would expect military gear and feather boas to be a bit out of place...

I've been obsessed with the band over half my life now, seen em 60 odd times, got about 600 recordings in me collection across different formats, but never been the type to record at gigs or add setlists anywhere, that's for people with a slightly different obsession to mine. Maybe this forum is a bit of a reflection like that too, it's nowhere near as busy as it was when I joined, maybe a lot of people have found other obsessions.

[Son of Stopped]

This time next year we will have had more activity. Enjoy the si-lence as the song from a different band would say!

[Deets]

i was briefly considering going to carfest south but having bad reviews on carfest north i decided not to. also, it was expensive(70quid for day ticket), far away and 13 songs. i also believe that festivals are usually waste of money, bad crowd and most of time crap weather so why bother?

[darkanddivine]

Originally Posted by sculptureofabloke

I've been obsessed with the band over half my life now, seen em 60 odd times, got about 600 recordings in me collection across different formats, but never been the type to record at gigs or add setlists anywhere, that's for people with a slightly different obsession to mine. Maybe this forum is a bit of a reflection like that too, it's nowhere near as busy as it was when I joined, maybe a lot of people have found other obsessions.

Age comes to us all, alas!

I'd wager that people do have obsessions, but those obsessions are probably small human beings they created! Even for hardcore fans of particularly nuts bands like MSP move on aren't immune to the sands of time.

Mind you, (according to SCIENCE) around the same time people do tend to become "stuck" in their musical past and fail to move on. I know plenty of people whose regular rotations go up to about 1994, and not much after that.

In a way I can't understand this. Looking back is something I like to do as a "peek at the peak then sneak." Have a look, but don't wallow endlessly in moments that remind you of the fact that you were sexier, younger and hungrier back then. The new version of you is just as good - even if you wear comfy pants and prefer music that's not even likely to wake up a sleeping kid (btw I should point out this is literally the opposite description of me, but I know plenty who fit it!)

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by darkanddivine

Age comes to us all, alas!

I'd wager that people do have obsessions, but those obsessions are probably small human beings they created! Even for hardcore fans of particularly nuts bands like MSP move on aren't immune to the sands of time.

Mind you, (according to SCIENCE) around the same time people do tend to become "stuck" in their musical past and fail to move on. I know plenty of people whose regular rotations go up to about 1994, and not much after that.

In a way I can't understand this. Looking back is something I like to do as a "peek at the peak then sneak." Have a look, but don't wallow endlessly in moments that remind you of the fact that you were sexier, younger and hungrier back then. The new version of you is just as good - even if you wear comfy pants and prefer music that's not even likely to wake up a sleeping kid (btw I should point out this is literally the opposite description of me, but I know plenty who fit it!)

No little people for me, so I'm under no obligation to grow up.

I can see where that SCIENCE comes from though. Just a personal thing.. If I had to pick a favourite period of my life time for music, of say five years, I don't think I could. I do get nostalgic sometimes, but I wouldn't say that much of my favourite music harks back to my "glory days". I spend too much time thinking about this shit... I do miss the way I used to discover music, and that's changed. Nobody makes mix tapes anymore, you don't stand at a listening post in Andy's Records, you don't spend ages flicking through magazines. Decent chance there are more people listening to their iPods than listening to any radio playing new stuff. It's all so instant now. Got a massive Manics collection here but I don't think I can say more than 20% of it has been bought in shops over the counter. Alright, that's collecting for a band that I already love, but it's still the thrill of the chase and whether you're collecting or discovering, it's become too easy these days.

As sad as it is, I can probably count the number of bands I've got into this decade on one hand, and I don't really know why that is. I don't often listen to the radio, but it'll be 6 or XFM when I do. It's not even about harking back to a time when I was younger, but I do miss the feeling of excitement that I got by discovering bands, however I discovered em. I crave that feeling, but haven't had it for a long time, so I suppose the next best is to listen to stuff that reminds me of that feeling - hopefully fuck all to do with who I was then and who I am now, maybe a bit to do with how the industry has changed.. Don't want to rule owt out, but we've all got our comfort zones eh.

[IntlDebris]

I definitely miss the pre-internet era when it comes to discovering music. There was a lot more mystery back then. When I'd get into an artist, generally all I'd know about them was what CDs were in my local indie (which was surprisingly well stocked), but sometimes I'd go to a city and find a bunch of albums in Virgin or HMV that I never even knew existed. Things like that were really, really exciting. Whereas nowadays I can discover an artist, read about their entire discography and listen to three or four songs from every album in the space of an afternoon. There's definitely a lot less magic in that.

I've actually got to the stage where I'm actively trying to listen to less new music though, because it's getting to the stage that I'm still buying 50 new releases every year and trying to juggle that with back catalogue stuff and my 1500+ album collection and I just don't have time to listen to half the music I want to listen to any more.

[Dac X Lee]

Being a '90s kid and a '00s teenager, I've got a taste of pretty much both the pre-internet as well as the early-ish internet era music, and I think early internet was fun too. As soon as we got ADSL, I'd spend a good amount of time on SoulSeek discovering music from all over the world, through chats, and suggestions, it was cute. Of course, I'd buy some CDs and cassettes too, if they were available in my country.

[Frozendiva]

Back in the 90s HMV used to send an impressive book type catalogue of what was available in the UK stores - on my end, UK imports. I was limited to what was available here or what could be mail-ordered from HMV.