Kingmaker and Suede - Folkestone Metronome 19 May 1992

Kingmaker 19 May 1992

Not a particularly interesting looking ticket from my one and only visit to this venue, and the first of many that suffered water damage while being stored in the loft.

So, Kingmaker - I had a real soft spot for them and saw them many times.  First seen supporting The Wonder Stuff and subsequently seen both headlining and supporting others.  Another three piece band that sounded like more than the sum of their parts, they made some cracking singles and were ace live.  I believe Loz Hardy deputised for a poorly Malc Treece in the Wonder Stuff on at least one occasion and also co-wrote material for Elastica.

Anyway, the interesting thing about this gig is not the headliners but the support band.  At that point Suede  were THE next big thing.  They'd been on the front cover of one of the music weeklies who dubbed them 'The best new band in Britain' just weeks before this gig and before they had even been signed to a label.  The music press had been working themselves into a frenzy about them for several months and to be honest I was a bit bored of the hype.  A music paper review of one of the early dates on this tour had the title 'Dog shit and diamonds' which I thought was more than a little harsh on Kingmaker, but nevertheless funny in a 'shit sandwich' type of way.

As usual, I remember little of the actual gig other than buying a terrible long sleeve T shirt with the Killjoy Was Here artwork on it, including luminous yellow dinosaur footprints up the arm.  I do remember thinking that Bernard Butler was a shit-hot guitarist and that is something that has outlived the T shirt by some distance.

Suede - The Drowners