Can anyone tell me why anyone would get excited about seeing New Order? I saw them at glasto last year just to see them but god they are so past it and they're good stuff doesn't even sound that good anymore. Also this was the Electric Picnic article in the Sindo at the weekend, i thought it was a very lame and unenticing summing up of the festival! Hot dogs galore at Electric Picnic, but watch your sausages 'NEVER trust a man with short legs," Noel Coward once said. "His brains are far too near his bottom." Diminutive Bernard Sumner, however, can be trusted to come up with possibly the gig of the year when he and the rest of Mancunian legends New Order play the Electric Picnic festival in September. The band - formed from the remaining members of Joy Division when singer Ian Curtis committed suicide in 1981 - have given us some ageless moments in electro post-punk adult-pop: Everything's Gone Green, Bizarre Love Triangle, Temptation, Confusion, True Faith, Perfect Kiss, Love Vigilantes and, of course, Blue Monday should all get an airing in the Stradbally country estate in Laois. New Order will need to go some to match the almost hypnotic performance of Nick Cave at last year's Electric Picnic. The Antipodean singer-songwriter was once described by the New York Times as a figure "who often seems as if he has just gotten back from Hell - where he had lunch with the devil". Implausibly, I was having lunch in a local hotel last year when I noticed a bizarrely moustached man at an opposite table. 'Twas only the dark lord himself and his aristo model wife Susie Bick and family enjoying a lively lunch in the Irish countryside. Far from looking like his sabled majesty's BF, Cave crawled on his hands and knees impersonating a dog for the entertainment of his young twin sons. Eight hours later, I stood by the side of the stage with Susie as her husband entertained the masses in Stradbally. His shadowy tales of religion, love and men who dwelt in the shadows where cupid's arrow never would find or hurt them was music at its best. When he sang The Mercy Seat about a tortured man awaiting the final release of execution on Death Row ("I hear stories from the chamber/How Christ was born into a manger/And like some ragged stranger/Died upon the cross") you can see why Johnny Cash chose to cover the the song for American III: Solitary Man. But the Electric Picnic this year should provide many such magical moments. Providers of one of last year's most acclaimed albums, I Am A Bird Now, America's Antony and the Johnsons should prove to be one of the main talking points backstage among Irish rock's chattering classes. Lou Reed described singer Antony Hegarty as "a magnificent singer, an heir to the wondrous Jimmy Scott". Whatever about his warbling tenor that can segue into a falsetto without any notice, Hegarty redefines masculinity with an androgynous look that is akin to a fabulously eye-lashed cherub, a cherub styled by Jean Paul Gaultier. On crack. "For today I am a boy/ One day I'll grow up and be a beautiful woman/ but for today I am a child," he sings. It is not for nothing that the likes of Reed, Boy George and Rufus Wainwright are all admirers of his work (indeed they all sang on I Am A Bird Now). Going from Stax soul to Weill/Weimar-era cabaret and everything in between, Antony and his cohorts are not to be missed. Then, of course, there's Graham Coxon to look forward to. The ex-Blur guitarist is always worth a look - so long as he doesn't get up to any messing at the hotdog stands at the famous boutique festival. Some years ago, Coxon, who was asked to leave Blur during what Uncut magazine dubbed his Bonkers period in 2002, was caught trying to steal a string of sausages from a butcher's shop in Camden Town in London. "A butcher chased me up the road and smacked me in the jaw. I happened to be wearing a denim skirt at the time. There was a whole bus-load of people watching all this. It wasn't my proudest moment," said Coxon. Bristol's pioneers of trip hop, Massive Attack, are also confirmed to play. Their albums such as Blues Lines, Protection, Mezzanine and 100th Window pushed the boundaries of what dance music could be. And it will be a surreal experience to hear Karma Coma ring out all over the fields: "Walking through the suburbs though not exactly lovers/You're a couple, 'specially when your body's doubled/Duplicate, then you wait for the next Kuwait." Often described as the next big thing, Irish artist Damien Rice is on the same stage as Wainwright (solo), Bloc Party, Gary Numan and David Kitt. The Pet Shop Boys might perform their campified cover of U2's Where The Streets Have No Name (the gay dance music duo combined Bono's messianic masterpiece with Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You when they released it as a single in 1991.) All in all, the Electric Picnic should be the business. * Electric Picnic: September 1, 2, 3. Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster outlets nationwide, booking line 0818 719 300. Three-day tickets including camping are €175. Barry Egan

I never read Barry Egan's stuff. He talks s**te.

What off the post said. Complete hack, can't write for s**t, should stick to his gossip column that I don't read, namedropping w**ker.

what off the post and unicron said. times two. charmless lickspittle pig's bladder who can't write for toffee.

Egan is a cvnt of the highest order. How he can call himself a journo is beyond me...although writing for the sindo doesn't automatically qualify you as one. "And it will be a surreal experience to hear Karma Coma ring out all over the fields" Oh f**k off

Completely agree. Barry Egan is a tit. Sunday Indo is a rag, to understate it. Wouldn't wipe me arse with it unless, maybe, there was a picture of said tosser on it.

"gossip column...name dropping" unfortunately, you have to drop names in a gossip column.

that article from the Sindo is hilarious! there's something similar in the Irish Indo every Saturday with equally sycophantic drivel - it really is cringe inducing stuff

ok so everyone hates Barry Egan, fair enough, in fairness that article is crap and as for the gossip column can't say i would ever read that, its not like its gossip anyway when its about the same circle of dublinite nobodies that noone in the country gives a damn about.

blame the NME - once upon a time, bazza egan wrote for the NME and was considered one of their top hacks. its amazing what happens with age

I'd love to do a comedy series closely based on the Irish TV celebrity "scene" where everybody knows everyone else, they all think they're something they're not and NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS! A really savage satire. Not sure RTE'd go for it tho....

Nathan Barley would be a good template for it.

yeah, It's The Unbelieveable Truth. But that's about actual celebrities with international success like Colin farrell, The Corrs, Bono, etc. Id base it around a fictional niteclub and it's VIP area, oh let's call it "Risteard's"... Various sports pundits, stand-up comedians, TV presenters & reality show contestants scrabbling to maintain a public profile, while doing little of merit. "Small Pond" might be the name of it. Ah, the creative process....

Just noticed that theres a breakdown of each days acts on the EP site now FRIDAY Massive Attack Damien Rice Antony & the Johnsons DJ Shadow PJ Harvey Young Blood Brass Band Mogwai Devandra Deus Dulsori Drummers Todd Terje Spank Rock Fish Go Deep Stereotonic DJ's Crazy P Live Digital Circus Live plus more SATURDAY Groove Armada New Order The Frames Bloc Party Belle & Sebastian Super Furry Animals DJ Shadow Graham Coxon Sparks Gang of Four Bodytonic Sound System David Kitt Mundy Broken Social Scene Dancepig Jim Noir 2 Many DJ's Tiefschwarz Aberfeldy Os Mutantes Michael Franti & Spearhead Gary Numan Jape Mad Professor The Boy Least Likely To Psapp Tilly and the Wall Semifinalists Messian J & the Expert Andrew Weatherall Tapes N Tapes Laura Izibor The Rags Krafty Kuts Nathan Fake (live) Yo La Tengo The Skatalites Corrugated Tunnel v Chymera Hystereo Live Radio Soulwax presents Niteversions SUNDAY Basement Jaxx Yeah Yeah Yeahs Pet Shop Boys Gnarls Barkley My Morning Jacket Josh Ritter Tom Vek Laurent Garnier (live) Rufus Wainwright Elbow Discotonic v Backlash The Rapture Saul Williams Francois K The Blue Nile Amado & Mariam Hot Chip Coldcut Pendulum Richard Hawley Alabama 3 Splitloop Dublin Gospel Choir Metro Area Ian Pooley Liam Frost Charles Webster Plus more..