Indie Alldayer - Stanmer Park Brighton, 27 May 1995

The Indie all-dayer took place in a big tent in Stanmer Park.  There was a stage at either end of the tent and the idea was that there would be almost non-stop music because as a band played on one stage the other could be prepared for the following act. Pretty neat idea huh?  Guaranteed to keep dry and limited hanging about between bands, myself, the GLW and our Matt (then aged 11) went along to check it out.

I remember being mightily impressed by Reef, let down by S*M*A*S*H who didn't turn up (a narrow escape), and terrified by Skin from Skunk Anansie who prowled the stage like a caged tiger.  A black, bald, lesbian tiger.  I remember very little about Dodgy (went down well with the GLW), Lightning Seeds (popular with Matt), Teenage Fanclub (highly recommended by my mate Mark but a bit too light and jangly for me) and Gene.  Pop Will Eat Itself however, were excellent.  I'd been a fan for a while and they didn't let me down.  High energy, loud guitars, beats and samples and lots of jumping up and down on the spot.  Nice.  The Charlatans played the hits and Carter USM had added a drummer to the group, which I thought was odd given that they previously relied so heavily on the sound of a drum machine.

Note that the ticket still has the stub attached.  Clearly I did not take advantage of the generous offer of £1 off at HMV on any CD or Video costing £11.99 or more.  Note for the teenagers, CDs and videos are how we used to get music and films before iTunes, youtube and lime wire.

Video is Carter USM - Sheriff Fatman live in Zagreb 1994

Elbow - The O2 28 March 2011

From the earliest ticket in my collection to the most recent.  First things first though - this is not my actual ticket for the gig.  The ticket here is one I collected from a member of staff on the way out so that I had something for the collection.  Tragic eh?  A visit to a gig at the O2 entails you surrendering your ticket on entry in exchange for a wristband, see exhibit A:


This was the first time I'd been to see Elbow and my first visit to the O2.  The date coincided nicely with the GLW's birthday and our wedding anniversary so we decided to push the boat out and booked into the Radisson hotel on Canary Wharf.  This photo was taken from our room after the show.  The O2 looks like a spaceship when it's all lit up.  Apologies for the poor picture quality, it was taken on my iPod.

As for the venue, I liked it.  Easy to get to, especially if your hotel is on the opposite bank of the Thames, plenty of choices for pre gig food and drink but avoid Union Square, the service was lousy - our waitress took our order and then went on a break without placing it with the kitchen or bar staff - and too many items on the limited menu were unavailable.  The food itself was okay but by the time it arrived all the enjoyment was long gone.  And they made us miss the support act.  All the venue staff were smiley and helpful and the view and sound from our viewpoint on the floor was very good.  Drinks in the arena itself though were silly money - £3.20 for a 500ml bottle of Coke, sheesh.

The show itself was a triumph.  The majority of the setlist was taken from their two most recent albums, both of which are very close to my heart.  Guy Garvey's lyrics speak to me in a way that no others do and songs like Starlings and Open Arms can reduce me to tears in seconds flat.  He's a very engaging avuncular stage presence and the crowd were putty in his hands.  And to see these songs performed live with my best girl by my side left me feeling like my heart might burst.  Just gorgeous.

Video is Open Arms live at the O2 28 March 2011

The Wonder Stuff - Brixton Academy 24 October 1989

In early 1989 I saw The Wonder Stuff on television doing Unbearable and was instantly taken with their jangly guitar racket, big hair and the ‘I didn’t like you very much when I met you, and now I like you even less’ chorus.  I mentioned them at work the following day and my boss told me that he had their album.  I borrowed The Eight Legged Groove Machine and that was me hooked.  Shortly after, they announced dates in London and I bought tickets for me and a friend.  It was my first visit to Brixton Academy and my first sighting of The Wonder Stuff live.  I have since seen them live more often than any other band - something like 20 times I think.  The support came from The Sandkings and Neds Atomic Dustbin.

Video is Unbearable - The Wonder Stuff

Tickets please!

When the tickets for my first Wonder Stuff gig arrived, I was very impressed that they were illustrated with the Hup album artwork.  Most of my previous tickets had been black and white and not particularly interesting.  After the show I decided to keep it as a souvenir and so started my collection of gig tickets.  There are some notable holes in my collection, every gig I went to before that one for a start.  There are also some notable holes in the tickets that are in my collection thanks to water damage, but more of that later.  Gigs that I have attended that I do not have the ticket for (grouped by venue) include:

• Bucks Fizz at Hastings White Rock Pavilion (my first gig – the shame);
• Budgie on Hastings pier;
• Carter USM, Electric Six, Big Yoga Muffin and Wrathchild at The Crypt in Hastings;
• Budgie at The Assembly Halls in Tunbridge Wells;
• Gillan at Brighton Dome;
• Monsters of Rock at Castle Donington in 84;
• Accept, Iron Maiden, Robert Cray and Dio at Hammersmith Odeon;
• Thunder, Fastway, Carter USM and Ozzy Osbourne at Folkestone Leas Cliffe Hall;
• Whitesnake, Kaiser Chiefs and Terence Trent Darby at Brighton Centre;
• Terrorvision at The Concorde in Brighton;
• Kingmaker at The Richmond in Brighton
• The Darkness and Eurythmics at Wembley Arena;
• David Bowie (Glass Spider Tour) and Michael Jackson (Bad Tour) at Wembley Arena
• The Fall at The De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill
• Several Miles Hunt gigs at The Half Moon in Putney
• Miles Hunt at the Forum in Tunbridge Wells
• A secret gig by The Wonder Stuff at the Marquee, and
• The Finn Brothers at the Royal Albert Hall.

There are almost certainly others.  We may well come back to some of those listed above at a later date.  For now though, I’ll be concentrating on the tickets I do have.  There are few things as tedious as someone showing you their holiday photos or the visa stamps in their passport so I’ll try to make this interesting by giving some context for the gig as well as my personal recollections of the event, but I can’t promise anything.  So, let’s start where the collection started…

Woof!

This is Dexter.  He is a nine-week-old Golden Retriever and has been part of the family for two weeks.  He is the reason I am up at 5.30 on a Saturday morning.

Although my parents have had dogs for about the last 25 years, and I have had cats for almost as long, this is my first dog.  The GLW recently took early retirement from her busy and stressful job in that London.  Now she is at home all day and I am able to work from home two days a week, so for the first time we have the time to devote to puppy wrangling.  Here are a few things I have learned in my first week of dog ownership.

1. Puppies are an expensive and time-consuming commitment.  The GLW and I have the baggy eyed look of tired new parents and find ourselves having the same type of conversations:  “Has he been good?” “Did he eat all his dinner?” “Has he had a poo?”
2. During house training there is a limited amount of time that puppies can be left alone during the day, which limits your social activities.  However this is offset by the increased frequency of visits from friends and relatives, which is nice.
3. Theories on puppy training seem to be quite different these days.  It’s a lot more focussed on dog psychology and less on you physically dominating the animal, which appeals to the liberal lefty in me.  I’m thinking particularly of how Barbara Woodhouse used to advocate the use of choke chains to control dogs, whereas most current advice seems to be based on positive reinforcement and understanding of a dog’s pack animal mentality.  Rewarding good behaviour and ignoring rather than punishing the bad.
4. And the big one: nothing lifts the heart like being greeted by a dog that is pleased to see you.  Dogs are good for the soul.

The Cult of Personality

The first in an irregular series of posts illustrating my capacity for being a bell-end.

My trainspotter-ish collection of concert tickets tells me that this happened on the 11th of October 1990, but to tell the whole story we need to rewind just a little further.

Sometime earlier that year, I'm going to guess in August, I read in the NME that Living Colour were due to play at the Marquee Club in London. There were no tickets available in advance from the box office so me and my gig buddy Mike decided to turn up anyway and see if we could pick up tickets outside. As we emerged from Tottenham Court Road tube, we spotted a girl from work that we recognised but didn't know. Yes she was also on her way to the Marquee Club, and no, she didn't have a ticket either. Her name was Ruth. All three of us completely failed to get into the gig, shared a pizza and caught the train back home. I got the feeling that she liked me.

When more Living Colour tour dates were announced a month or two later, I asked Ruth if she wanted to go. She said she did. I said that me, Mike and a couple of others were going to drive up to the gig and there was room for her if she wanted a lift. She said she'd make her own way there but a lift home would be great because it was a bit hit and miss as to whether you could make the last train back to Hastings without leaving the gig early. We arranged to meet out front after the show. Come the evening of the gig, strong drink was taken and we had a rare old time, but no sign of Ruth. After about three minutes of waiting around out front after the show, I slurred 'forget it, lets get going'. Simon, the driver, asked if I was sure and I said that there was plenty of time for Ruth to get the last train and we made for home. It's decisions like this that resulted in mobile telephones being invented.

At work the following morning, I had an horrific hangover and at about 9.30 Ruth rang me. She didn't care that I was hungover and feeling delicate. She was considerably more concerned about having had to spend the night freezing her arse off sleeping rough in Charing Cross station before catching the 5.30am train to Hastings. I apologised but of course she was having none of it - and quite right too. I got the feeling she didn't like me any more.

I never spoke to Ruth again and I still feel bad about my shoddy treatment of her. Living Colour were excellent though.

Reeling in the years

Last night I met up with my buddy Toby for the first time in about seven or eight years. When we first met at work in about 1990 we were both long of hair and tight of trouser and bonded over a shared love of loud music and the ability to make each other laugh. We even had a part time gig selling rare and collectible rock records and CDs for a few years, but that's a story for another time.

Twenty years later and we're a bit saggier and the hair is shorter and greyer (alright, that's mostly me) but not only are the original shared interests still there but it turns out that Toby has developed a passion for photography in the intervening years. And he's good. Really good. Check him out at http://www.tobyh.myzen.co.uk/