Monday, January 10

Tommy in Coronation Street is a bit annoyed at the moment as his son has discovered death metal and black nail varnish. He's forbidden him to go to Manchester Apollo to see a band so his wife reminds him about sneaking out of the house when he was 16 to go to the Futurama Festival in Leeds to see Joy Division! I went to that 'do' too. It was in 1979. Cabaret Voltaire, OMD, PiL and A Certain Ration were also on the bill. I have no recollection of the performances. I saw Joy Division a month later at Newcastle City hall supporting The Buzzcocks (or rather I didn't see them as I was outside with the other underage smokers killing time till The Buzzcocks came on). I went to Futurama for the next two years and watched as Joy Divison morphed into New Order. But in 1980 Siouxsie stole the show and Vice Versa played and they went on to become ABC and some young upstarts called U2 showed promise. The Frantic Elevators also played and their singer was called Mick Hucknall. The Young Marble Giants and Durutti Column were my favourites. The 1983 Futurama was held at Deeside Leisure Centre and we camped on the football pitch. After our first night we awoke to find a terrifying Pete Burns applying his make up in a car next to our tent (Dead Or Alive, still unknown at that time, were playing the noon slot). Anyway, my point is, Coronation Street is sooooo new wave these days.

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