Blue Dot Festival: Back to Jodrell Bank

Have I actually beaten Andy to it?? NO absoultely caning the live dates. I wish they'd get back in the studio now...

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Bloody hell. Oh my word. I knew Kraftwerk were confirmed before Christmas but New Order now too? I guess New Order are on a different night from them, what an experience that would have been to see them both on the same evening.

And Hot Chip and John Hopkins. That’s one fantastic set of headliners for one festival. Phew.

Fotzepolitic wrote: Bloody hell. Oh my word. I knew Kraftwerk were confirmed before Christmas but New Order now too? I guess New Order are on a different night from them, what an experience that would have been to see them both on the same evening.

You going TWO SHEDS?

Ah bugger the Kraftwerk night is sold out.

Baggie Boiler wrote:

Fotzepolitic wrote: Bloody hell. Oh my word. I knew Kraftwerk were confirmed before Christmas but New Order now too? I guess New Order are on a different night from them, what an experience that would have been to see them both on the same evening.

You going TWO SHEDS?

I may well do Mike. Depends if I can get a ticket on Thursday morn when they go on sale.

Ah New Order are on the Sunday night.

So I presume tickets for the whole 4 nights are now unavailable seeing as Saturday is sold out? How do these things work?

I'm going to try for a ticket!

I'm perpetually annoyed that I missed their last performance there.

New Order underneath a big FUCKING radio telescope? HELL YES!!!!

perspexorange wrote: I'm going to try for a ticket!

I'm perpetually annoyed that I missed their last performance there.

New Order underneath a big FUCKING radio telescope? HELL YES!!!!

As far as I know, the festival does not utilize the telescope as a gigantic projector screen like New Order did there in 2013, which is a shame. However — this is touted as “celebrating the 50 years since the moon landings”. You never know what will happen.

Yes, I’m setting my eyes on this one, especially after missing out Ally Pally...

I got 2 Kraftwerk tickets off the wife for Christmas. Was able to upgrade them to weekend passes last night and beat the rush for once!!

Rorschach wrote: I got 2 Kraftwerk tickets off the wife for Christmas. Was able to upgrade them to weekend passes last night and beat the rush for once!!

How much is a weekend pass?

Are they actually going to be selling day tickets for the Sunday?

If you look at this, it only lists 'Weekend Tickets' ('on sale Thursday'), 'Weekend Tickets - 5 Month Payment Plan' ('on sale Thursday') & 'Saturday Day Ticket ('sold out'):

https://bluedot.ticketline.co.uk

Why not have the Friday and Sunday tickets listed on there as 'on sale Thursday' too? Seems odd. Almost as if you can't buy Sunday tickets.

I have subscribed in the hope that I will get an email when Sunday tickets are available? I was hoping there'd be some sort of pre-sale.

Rorschach - how were you able to order / upgrade tickets prior to Thursday, when weekend tickets are supposedly unavailable until Thursday? Did you get an email etc?

perspexorange wrote: Are they actually going to be selling day tickets for the Sunday?

If you look at this, it only lists 'Weekend Tickets' ('on sale Thursday'), 'Weekend Tickets - 5 Month Payment Plan' ('on sale Thursday') & 'Saturday Day Ticket ('sold out'):

https://bluedot.ticketline.co.uk

Why not have the Friday and Sunday tickets listed on there as 'on sale Thursday' too? Seems odd. Almost as if you can't buy Sunday tickets.

I have subscribed in the hope that I will get an email when Sunday tickets are available? I was hoping there'd be some sort of pre-sale.

Rorschach - how were you able to order / upgrade tickets prior to Thursday, when weekend tickets are supposedly unavailable until Thursday? Did you get an email etc?

I was looking and wondering at this as well. Seems strange, I only really want to go on the Sunday due to cost as last year weekend tickets cost £170. I’ve already seen the Kraftwerk 3D in 2017 at the Albert hall in London.

Went to the last Jodrell Bank New Order gig and it really was a very memorable gig.

they'll be selling weekend tickets as they;ve already sold day tickets for kraftwerk

so they can't sell full capacity of weekend tickets because the already sold tickets would take them over capacity on that day

Fotzepolitic wrote:

Rorschach wrote: I got 2 Kraftwerk tickets off the wife for Christmas. Was able to upgrade them to weekend passes last night and beat the rush for once!!

How much is a weekend pass?

My upgrade from Kraftwerk (Sat) only was £105+booking fee = £115.50 each.

Rorschach wrote:

Fotzepolitic wrote:

Rorschach wrote: I got 2 Kraftwerk tickets off the wife for Christmas. Was able to upgrade them to weekend passes last night and beat the rush for once!!

How much is a weekend pass?

My upgrade from Kraftwerk (Sat) only was £105+booking fee = £115.50 each.

So £115.50 per head on top of what you paid for one day (Saturday)

Don’t know what you paid for one day but I’m guessing less than £100. So a whole weekend pass for , say, £200 tops (per head). That’s actually cheaper than I thought it’d be for a weekend pass.

lee wrote: they'll be selling weekend tickets as they;ve already sold day tickets for kraftwerk

so they can't sell full capacity of weekend tickets because the already sold tickets would take them over capacity on that day

Thought all weekend passes would be rendered unavailable once one particular day had sold out. Once the capacity for one particular day is reached they would go over capacity if people then bought weekend tickets who hadn’t previously bought a day ticket for a particular day ( in this case Saturday). I don’t know, just trying to figure out how these things work.

Edit: just saw The Shadow’s post from earlier stating last year’s weekend passes were £170. So confirms that it would be £200 tops if you had bought a one day ticket then upgraded to a weekend pass. Less than £200 ( or £200 tops) for a weekend pass is a lot less than I thought. I had in mind it might have been more around £300.

Just had an email.

“Friday and Sunday day tickets on sale in the next few months.”

“Months”!!!!?

Yep, no Sunday tickets apparently available yet.Couldn’t get through on phone.

All a bit odd. It’s like the only way you can get to see New Order on the Sunday is by buying a weekend ticket?

Edit: got through on the phone and the woman confirmed Sunday tickets won’t be on sale til a later date but she couldn’t say when.

I’ve booked my tickets. The booking system was a bloody nightmare. A weekend in Cheshire. Cool!

thehim wrote: I’ve booked my tickets. The booking system was a bloody nightmare. A weekend in Cheshire. Cool!

Nice!

I was tempted to get a weekend ticket too. I'm not that far away from Jodrell Bank (1h20m or so), so could even commute each day to avoid the need to crap into a bucket.

I just felt that I couldn't justify £100+, as I'd really only want to see New Order and Kraftwerk.

I've never seen the latter, but have been a big fan for years. I kind of think I missed the boat with them though, with only Ralf being in the band anymore. I'd have rather at least Florian was still there but, to me, it was always the four of them (Ralf, Florian, Karl & Wolfgang). However, that being said, I'm sure they will be brilliant anyway; the clips I've seen of their shows look out of this world.

The rest of the line-up - I have to say that I've only heard of two or three of them (Hot Chip, John Grant, 808 State). Thinking about it, I probably wouldn't mind seeing 808 State. Quite liked them back in the day.

Still, not enough to justify a weekend ticket. I'll wait for Sunday tickets to go on sale.

perspexorange wrote:

Nice!

I was tempted to get a weekend ticket too. I'm not that far away from Jodrell Bank (1h20m or so), so could even commute each day to avoid the need to crap into a bucket.

....New Order and Kraftwerk.

I've never seen the latter, but have been a big fan for years. I kind of think I missed the boat with them though, with only Ralf being in the band anymore. I'd have rather at least Florian was still there but, to me, it was always the four of them (Ralf, Florian, Karl & Wolfgang). However, that being said, I'm sure they will be brilliant anyway; the clips I've seen of their shows look out of this world.

I feel really lucky to have seen Kraftwerk back in the days when it seemed like they had their whole studio on stage. Saw them twice on their summer 1991 UK tour. Once at the now long gone Birmingham Hummingbird and then the very next night at Sheffield City Hall ( spotted Phil Oakey of Human League at that one as we were exiting after the gig).Also saw them at Brixton Academy in 2004 at their later of two shows in one night at that venue. Hard to choose which gig I enjoyed more, they were different but all still fantastic. The 1991 version of Kraftwerk with the stage crammed to the last inch with their banks of equipment or the version they do these days with just each member with just a keyboard and laptop each ( think actually they don’t even have the laptops now). On the 1991 tour when they did Pocket Calculator they had hand held miniature keyboards on the end of a cable and certain points in the song would lean down to the audience front row and invite people to have a stab at playing a few notes, ha! The 2004 gig at Brixton Academy still lives long in the memory though too. I am however disappointed I still haven’t got to any of the 3D gigs they tour now.

Agree with what you say though about there’s only Ralph left from the original line-up.

I read Wolfgang Flur’s book I Was A Robot some years back. An often revelatory story about his time in the group.

checking 2018 at this FESTIVAL and found that some day tickets only released in MAY for festival in JULY..a few months from now is MAY ...GET READY

Fotzepolitic wrote: I feel really lucky to have seen Kraftwerk back in the days when it seemed like they had their whole studio on stage. Saw them twice on their summer 1991 UK tour. Once at the now long gone Birmingham Hummingbird and then the very next night at Sheffield City Hall ( spotted Phil Oakey of Human League at that one as we were exiting after the gig).Also saw them at Brixton Academy in 2004 at their later of two shows in one night at that venue. Hard to choose which gig I enjoyed more, they were different but all still fantastic. The 1991 version of Kraftwerk with the stage crammed to the last inch with their banks of equipment or the version they do these days with just each member with just a keyboard and laptop each ( think actually they don’t even have the laptops now). On the 1991 tour when they did Pocket Calculator they had hand held miniature keyboards on the end of a cable and certain points in the song would lean down to the audience front row and invite people to have a stab at playing a few notes, ha! The 2004 gig at Brixton Academy still lives long in the memory though too. I am however disappointed I still haven’t got to any of the 3D gigs they tour now.

Agree with what you say though about there’s only Ralph left from the original line-up.

I read Wolfgang Flur’s book I Was A Robot some years back. An often revelatory story about his time in the group.

I keep meaning to read that book. Pretty jealous that you got to see them back in the day. I would have loved to have seen them around Computer World era, although I was about 9 when that record came out.

Oh, for that time machine. I'd probably take in a couple of NO gigs. Beach Club, maybe? JD ones too. Derby Hall would be a riot! (see what I did there?).

Rocket Mick wrote: checking 2018 at this FESTIVAL and found that some day tickets only released in MAY for festival in JULY..a few months from now is MAY ...GET READY

Thanks for this. Seems a long way away. I want to firm up tickets and have something to look forward to.

Day tickets for the Sunday go on sale tomorrow (29th March) at 10am.I'm going to try but it seems so bloody difficult these days what with touts.

I’m going to try.

Although I’m sure they’ll sell out quite quickly, I would imagine that as long as you try within the first hour or two, you’ll get one.

Managed to buy 2 Sunday tickets just now.Seems like first time in years I’ve been successful in getting gig tickets.

me too

plus coach tickets and travelodge macclesfield

I got two as well.

Bloody Hell, with booking fees and postage it came to £137.

And I haven’t bought parking (at £15) yet. Nor insurance.

Seems incredible to charge extra for parking, bearing in mind that we are going to the festival anyway. It’s not like we’re going shopping elsewhere.

I bought a parking ticket, £15. But I thought at first as parking option said “ Parking day and night” I would be able to drive home the following day. But I have a feeling that might not be an option.When I got the ticket purchase confirmation the section about parking just says “Day”. So I get the feeling I have to drive out of the site at the end of the night, not sleep in my car til I’ve sobered up the next morning. Gonna have to phone the helpline about this. £152 for 2 tickets, parking pass and admin fees ( booking and shipment fess PER ticket and so on, jeez).

Parking is for a “ Day and night” ticket. Doesn’t mean I can park day and through the night til next day. I was rushing through it all in my break at work.

Oh and haven’t looked into insurance for parking yet!

cancel the parking and get the coach from macc.......travelodge is £23

It really annoys me that they have all these hidden costs. I would much rather that they incorporate the non-negotiable booking fees in the cost of the ticket.

It’s quite frustrating when booking tickets for mates and you tell them it’ll cost £60, then by the time you get to check out, it’s gone up to £75. You either have to try to get hold of friends (which isn’t always easy when you’re sitting in a queue desperate to get tickets before they sell out) or agree to all the extra charges and hope your friends are amenable to the extra charges.

I know that people expect a booking fee, but this Bluedot experience seemed to be taking the piss with extras (both optional and non-negotiable). They give you all sorts of options (pages of the stuff) of paying for additional stuff, that didn’t help when you’re trying to check out as quickly as possible. I skipped over a hell of a lot of things. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything important.

Everything could be avoided if they added at least the booking fee (and possibly the postage) in the ticket price.

the rest of the line up is terrible.....seen the go! team before and enjoyed them

just been watching vidoes of the rest of the line up on youtube....could be a long day

i hate wallace and grommit too

lee wrote:

i hate wallace and grommit too

Yeah but Feathers McGraw, the villainous Penguin lodger, in the Wrong Trousers episode is ace.

I booked a ticket in early evening. At this time of posting this, still available online.

For me, Sunday lineup of Bluedot is not only the best of the Jodrell Bank weekend but also one of the strongest of this year’s festive season — among the small/medium-sized festivals, at least. John Grant is an already established singer/songwriter for some time. I saw Anna Calvi and Gogo Penguin at Festival No.6 last year, and both very, very good. In particular, I was blown away by Calvi’s intense and possessed performance — definitely a force to be reckoned with. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

Blue Dot is a joke, I ain't going on principle - Amateurs!

See you all at Bristol and Portsmouth :-)

Baggie Boiler wrote: Blue Dot is a joke, I ain't going on principle - Amateurs!

See you all at Bristol and Portsmouth :-)

Bluedot has garnered a good reputation for the last couple of years as a themed music festival (i.e. science and technology).

However, being a festival headliner, New Order may well be given a shorter time to play a truncated set, 90 mins or so (along with the Victorious in Portsmouth). If anybody is solely interested in New Order’s performance, maybe you’d better be advised to go to Bristol, where they are expected to play the usual two-hour set.

Hopefully they don't play any joy division then

lee wrote: Hopefully they don't play any joy division then

Ahh, I long for the days when New Order would just play New Order tracks.

It was great in 1998 when they first started playing JD but, ever since, they’ve fallen into the trap of playing them at pretty much every gig.

Barney’s voice doesn’t really suit the songs and I can do without the ‘come on!’ whoops...

Also, much as I love JD (and I really, really do), it’s New Order all the way for me. No bloody question.

Playing four JD tracks per gig eats into the number of NO tracks to be played; tracks that the band could use to revisit some rarely heard classics (Everything’s Gone Green and Hurt, for instance).

Oh yeah that’s a point, that it may well be a shorter set as it’s a festival. Bugger. Hadn’t thought of that. Still, am looking forward to the day and evening.

As regards the JD songs, to be fair Barney has cut out the whoops now in songs like LWTUA. Someone maybe had a word with him. Just a couple of JD songs live at NO gigs I’m ok with, maybe Atmosphere and Decades but no more than that

Tickets arrived in the post this morn

Ticket info says something about Bluedot is a cashless festival and you have to pre-register for a wristband which enables you to pay for drinks, food and check in at talks etc at the festival? You register and "top up funds" enabling you to purchase "extras" at the festival? I guess you are given some sort of electronic wristband on entry and its synced to your "top up funds"? Haven't quite got my head round it yet, will have to phone the helpline.

The wristband thing explained here https://www.discoverthebluedot.com/connect

Yep - mine arrived this morning too. Just went to pick them up from the Post Office a few minutes ago, as I was out when they arrived yesterday (recorded delivery so needed a signature).

The 'cashless' thing confused me too. I wonder if they'll also accept other forms of cashless payment (cards, Apple Pay etc.). Will give the documentation thing a bit of a read and see if I can get my old head around it.

perspexorange wrote: Yep - mine arrived this morning too. Just went to pick them up from the Post Office a few minutes ago, as I was out when they arrived yesterday (recorded delivery so needed a signature).

The 'cashless' thing confused me too. I wonder if they'll also accept other forms of cashless payment (cards, Apple Pay etc.). Will give the documentation thing a bit of a read and see if I can get my old head around it.

They seem quite adamant and final that the only form of payment accepted at the festival is their wristband thing.Got my head around it a bit more now.It is actually fairly simple.I guess you have to estimate how much you're going to spend and top up the funds accordingly though there will obviously be top up points around the festival.And obviously you can get refunded on funds you don't use.In theory the wristband idea should cut out time queuing at the bar, right? No exchanging of cash/waiting for your change etc.

Though i haven't as yet registered my ticket number for the wristband/topped up funds.Will do it nearer the time.Hopefully the website cab handle thousands of people registering and topping up funds as the time gets nearer to the weekend.What could possibly go wrong eh?

IT would be nice if they'd release the drink (and food i suppose) prices so we'd have a rough idea how much to top up

lee wrote: IT would be nice if they'd release the drink (and food i suppose) prices so we'd have a rough idea how much to top up

That's a good point.I might try phoning and asking.

The ticketing arrangements are a joke, I aint going on principle.

Disgruntled Baggie Boiler !

Fotzepolitic wrote:

lee wrote: IT would be nice if they'd release the drink (and food i suppose) prices so we'd have a rough idea how much to top up

That's a good point.I might try phoning and asking.

I asked on twitter but they didn't reply

My coach sets off from macclesfied at 1115 am

Going to be a long day i'm wishing i didn't buy a ticket if i'm honest

So remember how this was the only pro footage that emerged from 2013's Jodrell Bank gig:

Well BlueDot have just stuck 9 mins of Temptation on their twitter:

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Thanks for this. I think this was originally posted on their Twitter back in mid-May, but it's nice to see it again. Makes me excited for two weeks on Sunday.

think there's a pro shot lwtua on their twitter too

there's definately another jd song not sure what

Is the Lovell telescope out of action at the moment? Caught a bit of BBC Breakfast live from Jodrell Bank this morning and the big dish is kind of just lying on its back.Think I read something a while back that it won’t be operating during Bluedot. So if not, I’m guessing there’ll be no visuals projected on to it like there was in 2013? Bit disappointing if this is correct.

Fotzepolitic wrote: Is the Lovell telescope out of action at the moment? Caught a bit of BBC Breakfast live from Jodrell Bank this morning and the big dish is kind of just lying on its back.Think I read something a while back that it won’t be operating during Bluedot. So if not, I’m guessing there’ll be no visuals projected on to it like there was in 2013? Bit disappointing if this is correct.

Think you're right. Weather's gonna be crap too, I hear. Chemical Brothers played last year and the dish was defo on it's back - Jodrell bank said the dish was undergoing maintenenace or something. Can that still be the case a year later?? The Chems got their visuals guys to project on to the base of the dish, which may sound crap. But hit play and take a look at this (not from the Chems):

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Fotzepolitic wrote: Is the Lovell telescope out of action at the moment? Caught a bit of BBC Breakfast live from Jodrell Bank this morning and the big dish is kind of just lying on its back.Think I read something a while back that it won’t be operating during Bluedot. So if not, I’m guessing there’ll be no visuals projected on to it like there was in 2013? Bit disappointing if this is correct.

See my post #10 on page 1 on this thread

for the last couple of years they've projected onto the satalitte in that position.....doesn't look anywhere near as good and also isn't related to the band playing like it used to be

i can't say i'm looking forward to sunday at all....mud,crap line up,a stagment set list and 5 jd songs

Weather forecast is dryer for Sunday which is the only day I’m going for. However, 2 days of rain will have turned the site into a mud bath by then. Not overly excited about seeing NO this time.After last weekend’s madness and insanity at Noisily festival in the woods in Leicestershire ( and partaking of a , ahem, certain psychedelic drug) Bluedot will probably seem very sane and safe. And the Lovell dish is out of action. Ah well, I’ve paid for the ticket now.

Fotzepolitic wrote: Weather forecast is dryer for Sunday which is the only day I’m going for. However, 2 days of rain will have turned the site into a mud bath by then. Not overly excited about seeing NO this time.After last weekend’s madness and insanity at Noisily festival in the woods in Leicestershire ( and partaking of a , ahem, certain psychedelic drug) Bluedot will probably seem very sane and safe. And the Lovell dish is out of action. Ah well, I’ve paid for the ticket now.

It's already a mud bath i've seen some photo's on twitter

I've booked a return coach from macc but it sets off at 11.15 and i don't fancy a full day there so i've spent another £30 on a one way taxi to get there about 6

Why didn't i just book benidorm!!

I'm going to play it by ear. I'm only going Sunday, so will see what things are like that morning. I have a friend there for the whole weekend and she's giving me regular weather updates (currently a 'filth pit'; her words).

If it's still just as bad by Sunday morning (very likely), I'll get pissed in Manchester instead (which is where I'm staying).

I gave up getting soaked through, muddy and miserable in my 20s. Can't be arsed with that nonsense in my late 40s.

Looking at the weather its going to be ok from now on

Hopefully ther've got a load of straw to put down and it'll be fine

getting old is no good is it!

Getting rained on and wet i can handle (well, to an extent), it's when the ground turns to mud i can't accept.

No matter how muddy it's going to be i just can't bring myself to wear wellies or walking boots

Well, the weather stayed fine until ten minutes before NO came on stage. Fine drizzle throughout the gig, which was actually quite pleasant (cooling etc.). Tipped it down shortly after the set. But generally pretty reasonable under foot.

Gig was great. Band sounded good. No surprises in the setlist but some really great performances; Sub-Culture and Blue Monday were highlights for me. The JD numbers sounded good too (SLC, Transmission, Atmosphere and LWTUA). No OTT whooping etc. Barney missed out the bridge in TPK which I thought was odd. I’m not 100% on this but I thought he also missed out the last verse of True Faith too (maybe I just ‘switched off’ and missed it though). I’ve said it before, but I REALLY wish they’d revert back to ‘classic’ True Faith. The version they do live is a bit wimpy, IMHO.

The audience were very appreciative and sang along quite a bit. Lots of youngsters getting into it.

Very glad I went. A good day out.

Setlist.fm

Review: ManchesterEveningNews.co.uk

Pretty enjoyable once I moved to a more central spot facing the stage. For the first few numbers my brother and I were to the right of the stage as you looked at it and the wind was just blowing the sound all over the shop, it was pretty bad sound. In the end after a few songs I said to my brother I was going to find a more central spot. He however didn’t join me as he wanted to stay near easy access to the bar.

Interesting to see the films for She’s Lost Control and Transmission. One of them had an Unknown Pleasures flag fluttering in the wing in various windswept desolate locations, desert or something.

Once I got more central I also made my way nearer to the front and was pretty close by the time they played True Faith, Blue Monday, Temptation and the encore of Atmosphere and LWTUA. Was happy to see them play Atmosphere. Would have taken that or Decades but Atmosphere it was.

Your Silent Face took me by surprise quite early in the set. Expected them to play that much later. Bernard cracked me up after that song; he tried to say he never tires of playing that song but got all his words jumbled up and ended up saying “ I never play of tiring that song “.

Yep I’d seen the weather forecast was rain right about the time NO were scheduled to take to the stage and right on cue it indeed started to rain and continued all the way through the set though mostly just a light spray . Nice to keep cool to though. Rained much more heavily after New Order finished though and the site rapidly turned to very slippery mud again. My brother had by this time called it a night and gone back to sleep in the car. I battled on for a while, grabbing some more food and drink and had a look in the Orbit tent and Nebula tent. Both playing dance music but packed out and getting in was almost impossible. A few little places here and there playing music but my glasses were constantly getting covered in rain so what with the mud also , I finally called it a night and finally found my way back to the car and slept til the morning.

Oh and we caught a Jerry Damners DJ set in one marquee in the late afternoon. He was playing loads of old obscure French music and such , accompanied by weird old clips from obscure old sci- fi films.

Had a bit of a look round the science and moon stuff.

Oh and I quite liked the electronic wristband thing. Made getting a drink at the bar very straightforward.

A fairly good day out but the dish was out of action and there was too much mud at the end of the night but I enjoyed for the most part NO’s set. Their 2013 gig there was better though; fantastic weather that time and the visuals projected onto the dish and the lasers were great. Ah well.

Jerry Dammers, not Damners. Tried to edit but rejected as spam.

Oh and obviously I meant the Unknown Pleasures flag in one of the videos was fluttering in the wind, not wing.

The more I think about it, I'm wondering if Bernard has got rid of the autocue. With the two (possibly) mistakes in The Perfect Kiss and True Faith mentioned above, it seems likely that he was without 'guidance'. Also, he seemed to be all over the stage, which made me think that he wasn't particularly watching monitors etc.

Kind of hope he is 'sans autocue'. I like the idea of f**k ups at a New Order gig. Makes it seem more authentic.

Now I've had time to digest this gig, I really think it was a pretty special performance. They sounded bloody brilliant and the light show and mini-movies looked spectacular. One of my favourite gigs I've ever been to.

Oh, and as always, Steve is just incredible. How that man keeps going like he does, I will never know. He is a machine, I'm convinced.

A rather unremarkable setlist, but a spirited performance well made up for the negative. The weather wasn’t that bad, either. I assume most if not all of the group’s followers had a good time, despite the widely shared dampen (pun not necessarily intended) anticipation to it among us.

Not a FOS person myself, but this time I managed a position quite close to the stage, about ten yards or so from the performers. I can report the sound was impeccable where I was.

Somewhat surprisingly, She’s Lost Control and Transmission turned out to be among the highlights for me — on both performances, the newly introduced black and white visual were quite well-made and effective.

The time slot given to New Order was 21:30-23:00, but they started the show early by 5 minutes (excluding the intro music with the accompanied visual that lasted a few minutes), and finished it almost according to the timetable, which resulted in a slightly longer-than-proposed festive headlining set that consisted of fifteen songs. Rather than that, I’m now more surprised that Bristol was a seventeen-song set (instead of around twenty or so) despite being a non-festive appearance.

After all is said and done, though, it was no Jodrell Bank 2013 — that is unsurpassable in almost every sense, an ultimate audio-visual experience.

I've got to admit i had a great day and thought new order were superb

The line up was terrible though every band or artist i saw was shocking.....a pity the go team cancelled as i don't mind them

Spent most of our day at the little dj stand 'time warp disco' jumping about like baboons with the help of dodgy substances,,,,i was reliving my past after all

Yep - I wasn't that impressed with the line-up for the Sunday, apart from New Order.

Caught a little of John Grant's performance, but not enough to pass judgement.

Really wasn't that impressed with Anna Calvi. I've heard tracks by her before and thought they were pretty reasonable, but I was just very bored watching her. Most of her songs sounded the same (to my ears anyway). I also thought the sound for her gig was poor, with it dissipating in the air. It might have just been the songs though; maybe they don't translate to open air festivals.

Going back to New Order, I've now heard a recording of True Faith from the BlueDot gig and can confirm that Sumner did omit the third verse. It does sound like he missed his cue (rather than a planned omission), as you can hear where he should’ve come in. I was fairly sure during the gig that he either didn't have an autocue or he wasn’t really using it, and this just about confirms my suspicions.

Yeah I caught some of Anna Calvi and then John Grant. I like some of Grant’s stuff but neither him or Calvi really got me interested at Bluedot. Friday and Saturday had a lot more stuff up my street but I wasn’t there on those days.

Not sure I’d go to Bluedot again; it seemed very family oriented which isn’t my bag. Kids and picnics everywhere. Maybe there were more kids this year as parents brought them because of all the moon landing anniversary stuff. Not to say the moon stuff doesn’t interest me but a lot of it seemed more for kids.

The festival could have done more to combat the mud. I didn’t see any straw put down to soak up mud. Also, the stench of toilets never seemed much more than a few feet away wherever we were .

I’ve looked at photos of the last one or two Bluedot and each year the Lovell Telescope is in that lying on its arse position. How many years has the repair and stuff been going on for??? A lot of write ups going on about the telescope being the great focal point of the festival but personally I thought it was massively disappointing that the dish was not upright in all its glory. Would have been great to have visuals projected on to it. A big shame it wasn’t upright for the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing.

On the positive side, I did eat a fantastic Falafel from one of the countless food outlets! Oh and had a great Cornish pasty after New Order. But the drinks were so , so diluted.Ah well.

Fotzepolitic wrote: But the drinks were so , so diluted.Ah well.

The beer at the ‘real ale bar’ was great. Well, the ones I had anyway. Some very decent pints.

The food was great; too much to choose. Ended up with some paella followed by churros. Man, I love churros.

I enjoyed Anna Calvi and John Grant myself (both second time of watching them live for me), but that’s my preference, after all. I even felt the sound making of some of Grant’s tunes kind of New Order-ish! You know, all this sequencer thing and that.

Regrettably I had to miss out Gogo Penguin as half of their time slot clashed with New Order — in the meantime I was occupied to secure my place in the front of the main stage.

I am a Bluedot first timer, too, and fair enough, it’s a very family oriented festival for sure. But that’s Bluedot for you and they are very good at that IMHO.

Yes, it is a great pity they didn’t make use of the Lovell Telescope as a projector screen — even in its current sitting position, which was disappointing to say the least. But what I felt when I saw that glorious light show 2013 with the dish being upright was, gosh, this looks like a lot of dosh thrown in to make this happen...go figure.

Dime

"Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage".

You want to do what with them Bernard??

Sometimes it can be disappointing when you find out what your music/showbiz/sporting heroes believe politically. I was personally disappointed by Jesse of Eagles of Death Metal with the comments he made after their tragic Bataclan gig ("Everybody must have guns". Eh, Jesse why do you think America has so many mass shootings?). But sometimes when their politics/beliefs align with yours, it can be a joy. Especially when the interviewee is in a good mood anyway.

If you're one of the people who got crazy angry on Facebook about the True Faith/EU flag thing, maybe don't watch this...