Regeneration Tour 2009

My vot is YES!
Wang Chung would be a great addition, they have not toured the US in about a decade and that was a limited run of just a dozen dates. I did see one of the dates which advertised with Jack Hues & NIck Feldman, but only Hues was in the lineup. Would it be the duo or just Hues?

This would be great on the bill before Heaven 17 and ABC and after Go West.... and Paul Young?

They would be great.
Actually if you had a 48 hour marathon of 80's bands I would be happy.

I checked today and it will be Feldman and Hughes. So I am really just about ready to confirm this lineup of ABC-HEAVEN 17-WANG CHUNG-GO WEST and we will possibly add Berlin in a few cities such as NYC and L.A. and maybe a few others where we are playing venues a little bigger.

What venue were you thinking of in Boston?

This is a winning lineup, great work!!

Hi Rick.

Jeremy here in Atlanta...

Tomorrow, I'm off to London to see Kajagoogoo in Milton Keynes, UK. Brad Snelling, the band's manager, is looking to bring the band to the U.S. Yes, they were definitely a one-hit-wonder, but honestly, fans of MTV hold more vivid memories of that one hit and their fluffy haired, pin-up image than all of Heaven 17's singles combined... Speaking of Heaven 17, I'll be catching them with the Human League and ABC at their homecoming Christmas concert in Sheffield on Sat. evening. Martin Fry, always a gentleman, is going to give us a tour of Sheffield where he wrote and recorded most of the Lexicon of Love record and the follow-up, Beauty Stab in 1983. There are a few other acts from the '80s that have reunited and are touring in the UK next year as well: Ultravox, B-Movie, Blow Monkeys, Simple Minds and OMD are all back on the tour circuit presently or in future months.

There is still hope for a Thompson Twins reunion. Tom Bailey appeared over the weekend at the premiere of Listen to London, a lost documentary of the new wave indy scene in 1981, in Brighton along with members of New Musik and the Papers. The film was recently discovered in tubes in an old garage lot and has been edited and finally released. The Thompson Twins are featured as a 7-piece band before Alannah joined and they became a hit bound trio. Everyone knows the rest of the story after that....

Reporting from Atlanta,
Jeremy Kennedy

HI Jeremy, hope all is well! I sent you a PM!

I would disagree on the Kajagoogoo vs Heaven 17 discussion and I have to sell the show to promoters who were not overly enthusiastic last spring when I pitched Kajagoogoo. The promoters I emailed for feedback last week were very enthusiastic about having Heaven 17 on the bill. As I wrote earlier on the forum, I approached Ultrvox, I would love to have had them on board but Chris thier long-time manager explained that they are only doing the UK reunion to support a best of release and a box set, both of which are only being released in the UK. PLUS he told me how much they are netting from the UK tour and it is phenomenal. He felt, that doing a US tour would likely eat away at those profits and without product to support it was senseless. B-Movie & Blow Monkey mean absolutely nada here in the US on this show and I spoke to OMD's managment last month and he was not willing to commit to US touring until the end of the year or early next year and I have to finalize my bill. I represent Simple Minds and Jim will not do anything as part of an 80's themed multiband tour. I am working with him on a tour for next fall to support the spring CD release they will have via Universal Music. He is going to approach a few acts he personally knows about touring together, OMD is one of them. I heard from him over the weekend.

I've also reached out to various members of The Specials numerous times over the past few months after hearing about reunion tour plans with no response except from Roddy who says he has no say in things and little knowledge of what was happening at that time. I just got their management contact on Friday from their UK agent and have emailed him to see of their interest in touring here, either on their own or as part of Regeneration.

That's it from this end!

By the way, Tom was going to come over here in September for the premier of that documentary but then it went back into editing and I never heard from him about a rescheduled NY showing. We were going to have dinner and catch up. Tom feels it will provoke a fight with Alannah if he tried to go out as "The Thompson Twins" with or without her and he wasn't prepared at this time to get into it with her. He also felt he wasn't up, now at least, for going out as Tom Bailey of The Thompson Twins doing their hits which is an alternative I suggested to him and offered to hlep him put the band together and act as defacto manager to help him organize it as he has no organization behind him to put it all together. He put a few weeks of thought and consideration into all this before declining. I'm not sure how close we are to ever hearing all those great songs again live.

All the best,
Rick

Rick:

I am new to the site but have been following along with interest of late re: info. on the 2009 tour. I was fortunate to have seen the 2008 show in Detroit (it was great!!!).
A lot of us are very excited about the 2009 tour coming up (hopefully we'll have a show in town???) Can we expect to know the who/when/where info. about 2009 before long??? As far as what I have read from you so far, the acts you are looking at sound great (ABC put on a terrific performance in Detroit & I also had the chance to see Martin Fry last winter in London, Ontario with a symphony orchestra providing the musical backing--and that was an awesome show!!!) We are happy with Heaven 17, Go West & of course Wang Chung (& are hoping for Berlin as well as maybe 1-2 others???). Anyway, thanks for the great work and can't wait to see the next version of this tour!!!!

Daryld M.
(Windsor, Ontario, Canada)

Hi everyone. Glad the tour is returning in 2009. The various bands listed above would be great. I have one request for the promoter, PLEASE comeback to North Carolina. Alot of us missed the Booth Amphitheatre show due to the horrible weather. Raleigh, Greensboro, or Charlotte would work, but please make it indoor this time. As far as suggestions, any chance of getting Bananarama on board?? Very excited about ABC, Go West, and Heaven 17. Keep up the good work !!!!!

Hi Rick.

Apologies for not catching up earlier. I just returned back from the UK late Monday night and I'm still sorting through everything online. Thank you for your reply on my suggestions. You've done your homework and just because a band has reunited, they may not necessarily be a fit for the US fans who will buy the tickets for the Regeneration Tour.

I spent a little time with John and Matt Glover and we talked at length about the tour for next year. Go West and ABC are sure crowd pleasers, that we know. Go West still receive American contemporary / adult pop airplay just about every day all of the Country. They of course had bigger hits in the '90s than the '80s- at least here in the States ("King of Wishful Thinking" and "Faithful" were huge!). Martin is geared up for the tour with great expectation. In fact, I may do a little PR work for them on this side of the tour (FL, GA and up the E. Coast). Everyone agrees: Wang Chung is a great addition if you do in fact book them on this tour. In 2001, Wang Chung toured with a few other minor '80s acts (Missing Persons, AFOS and Gene Loves Jezebel) and stole the show. They played venues that were between 1500-3000 seats, including House of Blues theatres. Nick Feldman wasn't touring with Jack then, so having both guys present in 2009 is refreshing.

The Heaven 17 debate continues - even in the UK. Heaven 17 are making a comeback in England. John Glover and I waivered the risk involved with an American tour for Heaven 17. We agreed that there is one common denominator with H17 and the other bands: all are new wave acts and fans of the Human League are more than likely fans of Heaven 17 since both were unified before Phil and the ladies separated from Ian, Martin and Glenn. I saw their Homecoming Show in Sheffield along with the Human League and ABC last Sat. night. The arena was packed! They sold 8000 seats and I must say, the Human League reconciled some of their less-than-par performances on last summer's ReGen tour. The props were stunning. Phil's vocals were on the mark and the hits proved that they indeed OWN Sheffield. ABC were fantastic too as Martin has added a sax player that can wail! This made all of the difference as ABC's new romantic pop sound amplified the arena. Martin somehow rewound the clock and hit every note that he did some 25 years ago. He is a superstar. Ironically, he and his family came back with Michele and I to Atlanta via Delta. They were on their way to Costa Rica and had a lay-over in Atlanta for the evening. We are going to meet again in three weeks when he returns and passes through again.

Kajagoogoo were fantastic! Limahl is back and both he and Nick Beggs share vocals on many of Kaja's UK hits. The band does several new tracks as well. It was nice to hear Limahl's "Never Ending Story" and "Only Your Love" live with the original Kaja lineup. They are looking to get over this way sometime next year if they can find a promoter. I have some of the concert footage on my recorder that I'm going to upload on youtube. By the way, they are surprisingly separating from Brad Snelling. Nothing differential, it is a matter of time and priorities really. Brad's Retrofest has grown exponentially and he is also heading up a few more festivals, including a Country Music festival in Scotland later next year. He told me that he can't commit to the guys like he would want to so it is best that they divide for now.

My personal email now is bandsreunited@yahoo.com

I'm no longer with Infinity Insurance. My position was going to relocate me into Alabama and I chose to stay grounded here with my wife Michele, who works for AIG. Luckily, her division is going to be sold and renamed. I'm looking to get into something else early next year.

Take care.

Jeremy

I spent about 1/2 an hour on the phone yesterday with Jim Kerr from Simple Minds who were finishing up the last day of mixing on the new album in L.A. with bob Clearmountain. We had a great conversation regarding how the plans for next year are shaping up for them. He brought to my attention that Roland and Curt /Tears For Fears had been doing this week's Night of the Proms gigs in Germany (Simple Minds did the Night of the Proms weeks in the Netherlands and Belgium) so maybe at some point we can try and get TFF doing shows here in the U.S. - I previously had nothing but dead ends trying to reach Roland and Curt's manager told me because of his family he didn't want to tour but this shows that the right set of circumstances can make anything happen. Jim is going to speak with them and we'll see!

Jeremy -
Good to hear from you! Was wondering where you had disappeared to after my last post. Matt confirmed to me today that Martin will be bringing the sax player along to America for this tour! By the way I am talking to the folks from Chastain in Atlanta about bringing REGEN back there! Probably will be one of the shows with Berlin on the bill. Right now it looks like Berlin will tentatively be on L.A., S.F., NYC and either Boston or D.C. or both plus possibly Atlanta.

Regards,
Rick

Rick,

The show at Chastain was unforgettable and there were very few empty seats in the venue that glorious August evening. Adding Berlin to the lineup here will be highly advantageous to your effort. Berlin played Lakewood Amphitheatre on a similar tour in 2001 with the Outfield, the Fixx, the Motels and Asia. Terri Nunn and co. headlined and amazed everyone with their synth-pop collection as well as a few contemporary covers. They also supported the Cars - Version 2.0 with Todd Rungren on vocals, in the summer of 2007 at Chastain Park and pleased the crowd even more so than the Cars did. Blondie was initally scheduled but bailed b/c of an illness I believe.

Keep in mind Rick that one reason the Atlanta show did so well this past summer is because WSB-B98.5 FM sponsored the show as a "Welcome Back" concert event for the return of a morning show program that had went on hiatus after being axed by another station last year. B98.5 even ran television advertisements plugging the show. This was a rare occurrence as this station is very conservative regarding concert promotions. When I tried to schedule Martin Fry an interview, they declined which I was perplexed as to why since they were pouring so much $ into promoting the show. However, WRAS GA State Radio (my alumni) invited him in and we spent an hour on campus at the ground-setting 88.5 FM with Pop Goes the World host Jenny Irvin. WRAS is non-profit, student run so there was no conflict of interest, especially after B98.5 declined the offer. WRAS also have played cuts off "Traffic", the latest ABC record.

-Heaven 17
-Go West
-Wang Chung
-ABC
-Berlin

This quintessential lineup is even more exciting than ReGen '08.

Cheers and blessings,
Jeremy K.

Yes, we are in the midst of trying to confirm that they will once again be involved with the show promotion as the promoter agrees it is essential for the show.

Rick

Rick...I will beg if necessary.....please, please come back to SLC again.

I will definitely see more than one date just for Wang Chung... this is an AMAZING lineup if it happens. Southeast again, please! I really liked the North Carolina venue (Koka Booth). Heaven 17 would satisfy me, but Wang Chung for me is mindblowing! Points On The Curve is one of my favorite albums ever.

We are very close to making an announcement on the 2009 line-up! I met today with our webmaster who will work through the weekend getting the new pages ready to go online on www.regenerationtour.com and we will go live with them sometime next week once all the details are finalized. The 2008 tour pages will still be viewable, linked in an archive section and there will be band pages for all the 2009 acts which will also feature some video and audio on them. An email blast to our mailing list will go out once the site is updated.

Regards,
Rick

I'm excited... between the Regeneration tour, the Depeche Mode tour, & the upcoming a-ha album (supposedly out this year), my 2009 is shaping up nicely! I've already got some folks who are planning to join me when I see the Regen tour this summer-- I talked about the 2008 tour so much they've got to check it out for themselves.

Thanks Rick and staff for all you do. We are grateful for your organization to be able to put up these shows (hopefully for every summer here on) and for the success of last summer's tour. I'm very much looking forward to see what the lineup will be for the 2009 tour. Best!

I will be hopeing for a date in New Mexico. If so let me know I have been in radio and the local concert arena for 25 years.

Cannot wait to find out the details (who/when/where)!!!! Very excited about the prospects of this years tour (the acts that have been discussed on this website would all be great to see--especially in such a format). Last years tour was fantastic and here's hoping for even more success this year (& in years to come). Thanks Rick for all of your efforts on this one!!! Congrats for doing such a fine job for all of us 80's music fans out there!!!!

I like the 2009 line up! ABC was great in 2008, so it will be nice to see them again. There are lots of bands I wanted to see on Regeneration in 2009, but you can't see everyone (I love the idea from the person who wanted a 24 hour marathon of 80s bands!). Probably most excited about ABC and Go West. See you this summer!

By the way, the link to this forum from the website doesn't work. I had to find the email sent out a few days ago and link from there.

Let me just add again how excited I am about the 2009 lineup... it'll be a dream come true to see Wang Chung & H17, & I definitely have no complaints about seeing ABC again. I was even thinking of doing a little personal zine documenting my Regen. experience (yes, I am a dork like that ). Also looking forward to any sort of club tour you can come up with. Bravo!

OutlandoGirl wrote:By the way, the link to this forum from the website doesn't work. I had to find the email sent out a few days ago and link from there.

I've been asking the webmaster for a couple days now to update the link to the forum on our website! I thought it would be a good idea to take the "08" out of the URL and I'm not sure why he has not done it yet.

Rick