It seemed like the universe was conspiring against me when I attended the Cruel World festival for the third time this year. Everything from the weather (unseasonably cool and rainy) to my plane (late) to my bus (also late) to my Airbnb (disgustingly dirty) went wrong. I even showed up late to see the first act I was interested in, Midge Ure, because I read the schedule wrong. (Fortunately, I’d already seen him in New York). Festival security even confiscated my umbrella at the entrance!
And I’ll explain why that was a problem.
You see, I’d been planning this trip for several months! The one day I needed the weather to be good, it sucked! Several British performers even apologized for “bringing the British weather.”
And I have a history of bad weather with Cruel World.
The first time I attended the festival, two years ago, Iggy Pop’s set was cut short and Siouxsie didn’t perform at all because of “dangerous” weather (i.e., lightning).
And I’m still pissed off about it!
After I was at the concert for about three hours, the rain stopped. Still, three hours of steady drizzle can be pretty fucking annoying!
In spite of the rain, I was happy to be among my people: fans of ’80s music. I even shed a tear, ironically, during Midge Ure’s “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes.”
Some other things I made note of:
- Alison Moyet lost weight!
- The Buzzcocks performed without their original lead singer Pete Shelley, who died in 2018. (Original member Steve Diggle handled lead vocals.) They tore through their set so fast, it was if they were hoping that people wouldn’t notice that the guy singing wasn’t Pete Shelley.
- Madness sounded great and their saxophonist, Lee Thompson, took off his clothes.
- Devo has great visuals.
- The Go-Gos have great harmonies, but they played a different arrangement of “Our Lips Are Sealed,” one of the greatest pop songs ever written. (I suppose bands get tired of playing even great songs.)
- Bernard Sumner of New Order may have a limited vocal range, but the band makes up for it with innovative synthesizer and drum machine programming and by using the bass as a lead instrument.
- I was pleasantly surprised by some bands I haven’t seen before (Blancmange, OMD).
On a more positive note, I finally figured out where the Rose Bowl's free shuttle buses are, so I didn’t have to walk a mile (to avoid congestion pricing) and then wait a half hour for a Lyft.
If I come back next year, I’ll stay at the Airbnb I stayed at last year (which was immaculate).
And maybe, if I’m really lucky, it won’t rain.
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| Midge Ure |
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| Blancmange |
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| Alison Moyet |
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| OMD's Andy McCluskey |
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| OMD's Paul Humphreys |
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| Madness |
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| Devo |
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| The Go-Go's |
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| New Order |
