k-punk

I’m so glad that, after thinking long and hard about it, I decided not to buy tickets for Re~TG; Throbbing Gristle’s ‘one-off’ reunion weekend at Camber Sands last May. Having cancelled the original event due to poor ticket sales, they said that they would curate an All Tomorrow’s Parties in the coming spring. In the meantime they attempted to placate the poor saps who had shelled out £130 each for tickets by inviting them to a ‘free’ recording session (read ‘concert done on the cheap’ with no proper lighting, etc.) in London. I didn’t go, but my spies were distinctly underwhelmed by the whole thing. I think I’ll pass on the forthcoming DVD.
Anyhow, it now turns out that the promised weekend event has been moved to December (should be lovely and warm in the chalets then) and will be curated by the Chapman Brothers, who were originally just going to be the interior decorators. What a bummer to be feted as electronic pioneers and the founders of the industrial genre and discover that, when it comes to putting on a musical event a couple of jobbing artists, whose idea of the extreme is scribbling on Goyas, are perceived as bigger crowd-pullers than you are.
So, something which was originally billed as a celebration of industrial music in the Twenty-First Century now has a line-up which looks like this. Goodbye Coil, Merzbow, and Thighpaulsandra and hello Mercury Rev, Violent Femmes and The Fall (who appear to have some sort of deal to play every ATP event there is). People I know with tickets are less than pleased. Still, at least Thee Majesty seem to have been taken off the bill.
There was some concern that the original Re~TG was going to blight their legacy; this little treat will flush it right down the toilet.