Despite relentless efforts, the pseudogap phase of cuprates and its possible relation to high-temperature superconductivity remain enigmatic [1]. Even more complexity has been added by the experimental discovery of charge order[2], recently demonstrated as a universal property of underdoped cuprates [3-7]. Naturally, this raised the question as to whether the pseudogap is a precursor to charge order? This presentation addresses exactly that issue by means of angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Disentanglement of the spectroscopic signatures from pseudogap physics and charge ordering made it possible to show the different nature of these two phases [8].