Chant / Anna Lisa / Memories / Low Life / Public Image / Attack / Death Disco / Another
Public Image showcase at the two day festival with an excellent line up of bands including Cabaret Voltaire, A Certain Ratio / Hawkwind / The Fall / The Only Ones / Echo And The Bunnymen / Joy Division / Teardrop Explodes / Spizz Energy / O.M.D. and a whole host of others. PIL don’t take the stage until 1am and by this time the natives are decidedly restless. Lydon spends the majority of the set with his back to the audience. He later claims he was trying to get Richard Dudanski to keep time, and comments, “We did a shit gig, to a shit audience in a shit place. We all had a horrible time”. This gig was later cited by Keith Levene as the reason PiL decided to play (even) less live shows…
This gig was Richard Dudanski’s (ex the 101er’s) last appearance on the drums for Public Image Limited. Reasonable quality mixing desk tape, indebted to Chris Low for the loan of the cassette.
joly
February 2, 2008 at 8:51 amYeah Better Badges set up a stall at this show. Incredible line-up. Thing I remember most clearly is Leeds drug squad wandering through the seated crowd arresting people at will, a bit like seal-clubbing. Best band was the Only Ones, believe or not!
Tony Puppy
February 2, 2008 at 11:55 pmI believe you joly. That was the impression I got from looking at the list of bands.
Hey joly – good to read you man!
Have you commented on the ‘road to KYPP1’ bit in this site? About Adam turning up at your place as the printing presses were churning out the Ants piece?
brian towse
October 29, 2008 at 1:46 pmhello Tony, came across your web site by mistake while looking up articles on futurama festivals leeds in the 80’s. seems i recognised your name and fanzine. our paths once crossed before in 1980 when i was a punk living in Berlin. swapped a pair of combat trousers with you for some leather jeans. i had a friend called rocky who owned a punk music shop called schlitz, you stopped there for a few days. just also got back in contact with him. feel free to drop me a line if your not to busy. been up to a few things my self over the years (used to promote a few bands in london 1980-90’s) now living back in york area,wife and kids etc etc…..
regards Brian.
Gary
November 11, 2008 at 9:30 amI bought the above poster at the following year’s Festival (I still have it, its screen printed) the 80 fest was also magnificent (Banshees and U2) I remember talking to Spizz at the food stall, it was indoors and over 2 days in a grubby hall in Leeds. We slept in a disused Ice Cream van underneath some Victorian Arches (very Dickensian).. The following years t-shirt lasted me for ages and was very very hip.
Dave
February 9, 2009 at 8:39 pmThe Futurama Fstivals were all good , they were for me as I ran the security for all Johns Futuramas , all those people packed into an old railway shed and no trouble even with Garry Glitter and the Bay City Rollers playing , good times.
Robert Pereno
March 27, 2009 at 7:58 amI played at one of the festivals with my band Pleasure and the Beast; the same night Killing Joke were on as well as The Bay City Rollers; not sure what year that was? Would love a flyer/poster of that night. Thank you Robert Pereno.
margaret thatcher
March 29, 2009 at 5:27 amHey excellent.
Thanks!
I had a great bootleg of these guys once upon a time called “Recorded Live when Nobody Was Looking”. Loved it. There was a version of “Problems” the Pistols song on there…
mohawkrevenge
May 19, 2009 at 12:12 amI remember 3 young punks around 10 or 11 years old in bondage trousers and multi coloured Mohican’s sharing a large party can of tartan bitter, an image that will always stay with me, just wish I’d had a camera, an excellent weekend sleeping inside the queens hall under the fluorescent lighting
duchess
November 2, 2009 at 10:09 pmHey did any of you go in 1980??
alistairliv
November 4, 2009 at 9:07 pmDuchess- I think some of the Puppy crew did go to Futurama in 1980. I didn’t so am a relying on vague memories.
Gary
November 4, 2009 at 11:03 pmI went in 1980 It was amazing! I still have the ticket sent to me personally by John Deehan, we met Vinnie Reilly in a service station on the way, he was coming back from a different gig. Those really were the days, I remember also the 4B2’s (John Lydons hooligan brother) threatening the audience. There was a brilliant perfomance by Soft Cell, but the Banshee’s were magnificent. I am thinking about reproducing the superb t-shirt it was a classic.
Darren
November 24, 2009 at 10:39 pmGreat festival great memories sleeping in Leeds railway car park with mohicans under the car, my mates face when Bow Wow Wow came on n crowd went balistic.
Fraser
February 19, 2010 at 1:39 pmI was there in 1980, Boots For Dancin’ were immense…….Altered Images surprisingly good, or was that due to my fixation with Claire Grogan at the time????
Darren Binns
February 24, 2010 at 11:38 pmPre commercial Altered Images were on from a request by Banshee Steve Severin who went onto produce their early work. Claire Grogan signed a flyer for me as Claire X as she was earlier known.
Jeff
July 13, 2010 at 8:45 pmHi,
Does anyone still have photo’s posters or ticket stubs from Futurama 1980? Please contact me if you are willing to send me scans of them.
Neil
July 28, 2012 at 10:36 amI was in Porterhouse, Retford the night before talking to Claire Grogan and Wall of Voodoo.
The drummer asked me where I got my shinner Doc Martin’s from, so I told him the Australian boot stall in Lincoln.
The next day we met up with them at Futurama only to find he had bought monkey boots, when we pointed out they were what the girls wore he was a little upset.
Gigs were so much better in the days when the bands behave like normal people.
ChrisL
July 30, 2012 at 1:04 pmGreat post. I’m sure there was a feature on the Futurma festival in the issue of ‘In The City’ zine that had the Poisons flexi. Remember it being accompanied by (amongst others) a photo of Frank Tovey of Fad Gadget with a bloody improvised bandage round his head. You might wanna scan those pages if you have a copy Mickey.
Dave Sez
September 7, 2012 at 7:50 pmHi Penguin, long time! Any chance of a re-up on this one, much appreciated! Cheers, Dave Sez.
Penguin • Post Author •
September 7, 2012 at 9:48 pmHey Dave. Hope things in Belgium are fine and dandy. Re uploaded the tape now.
Dave Sez
January 3, 2013 at 5:56 pmTa muchly Penguin! Cheers, Dave Sez.
Graham
September 4, 2013 at 2:20 pmI was at the 1979 Futurama – even better, I was on stage with the Void, as we were one of John Keenens proteges; shared dressing room with PIL. We were normal guitar based punk, but hearing new strange and different bands like the Fall from backstage made me realise something new was coming and I gave up playing for 10 years!