A one-line review of everything I saw at Forever Now

This monthly series is probably as much for my benefit as yours. I go to a lot of gigs and it is nice to have a way to remember them all. Maybe your interest will be piqued by one of the reviews. Maybe you’ll scroll straight past. Maybe you’ll unsubscribe thinking what did I see in this blog in the first place? You can find all of my one-line gig reviews here.

On what I expected to be a very hot Sunday I ventured forth to Milton Keynes national bowl for the Forever Now festival, at a venue where I have previously seen David Bowie, Erasure and R.E.M., and this time I saw …

Theatre Of Hate – One of those bands who I know their stuff via osmosis from the Annie Nightingale request show and various club nights through the years but never got into, but this was great and I can imagine going to see them on their own now.

[Theatre Of Hate at Forever Now, Milton Keynes Bowl]

John McKay’s Reactor – Plagued by technical problems but I enjoyed what little they managed to play, and found myself unexpectedly moved by Jen from The Priscillas channeling her best Siouxsie on some of the songs McKay helped sculpt in those early years when he was a Banshee.

[John McKay’s Reactor at Forever Now, Milton Keynes Bowl]

I then swung by the main stage and caught a little bit of Berlin who had gone down the Chesney Hawkes festival route by thinking “Hmmm, we’ve only got that one big single that people know” so leant in to doing a cover of Highway To Hell so people had something else to sing along to.

Then I realised it was nowhere near as warm as I expected in Milton Keynes as a wind was whipping round the bowl so like a prick I had to go and buy a band t-shirt so I had an extra layer.

The Chameleons – I’ve seen these a few times now and it is always incredibly powerful despite never quite making me want to listen obsessively to their records, which I guess I would have done if I’d had them at the time.

Odd moment during this, by the way, where a couple who had set up their chairs about two rows back from the barrier – weird enough in itself – decided to both go to the bar/toilets together and just turned to some random and said “Can you look after our stuff?” and wandered off. It was an opportunity to pull a stupendous festival prank by moving them somewhere else, but I was enjoying the Chameleons too much.

She Wants Revenge – I was really, really, really into their first couple of albums at the time, but never got a chance to see them, so was glad to be able to catch them here. Kinkcore music suited to dark clubs rather than sunny dusty Milton Keynes, but it was a great set.

[She Wants Revenge at Forever Now, Milton Keynes Bowl]

The Psychedelic Furs – I caught about half their set. I never got into them at the time and don’t really know them beyond the couple of big singles, but it sounded like they would be worth investigating further.

I skipped over Public Image Ltd because John Lydon is no longer a provocateur but a punching-down bully, and also skipped Happy Mondays because catching one of their reunion shows a few years back nearly undid all my memories of how much I’d enjoyed seeing them back in the day.

No such worries with Johnny Marr who plays some selected Smiths numbers with joy and everybody sings along and there is literally zero chance of him suddenly coming out with some self-pitying whine about being cancelled or a racist outburst, which isn’t the case with the Mr Lighten Up guy. Plus he does some Electronic and an Iggy Pop cover and the couple of solo songs he plays are pretty decent too.

[Johnny Marr at Forever Now, Milton Keynes Bowl]

Billy Idol – I was quite disparaging of Billy Idol at the time but obviously the classic clutch of early singles now have nostalgia bite to them, and he was an excellent old-fashioned showman, who really won me over by the end. Also compensated for playing a new song by chucking frisbees out into the audience during it.

[Billy Idol at Forever Now, Milton Keynes Bowl]

The The – One of my favourite bands of all time and the festival setlist doubled-down on the old stuff rather than the new songs. And then Johnny Marr came on to guest on the Beat(en) Generation and Dogs of Lust, the first time he and Matt had appeared together since the 90s.

[The The at Forever Now, Milton Keynes Bowl]

Kraftwerk – I’ve seen Kraftwerk a myriad times but I never get tired of the show. A slightly truncated festival set meant no Pocket Calculator or Computer Love, but they seem to have redone all the graphics again in even more ultra-HD, added some extra screens under the podiums, and cranked up the sub-bass since the last time I saw them.

[Kraftwerk at Forever Now, Milton Keynes Bowl]

And then I was off via a 20 minute detour due to drunken stupidity that meant I nearly missed the last train back to London, and finally it was the night bus home …

I hope they do something like this again next year.

Find all of my one-line gig reviews here.