REM - Hyde Park, London 16 July 2005

The second outing for me and Mrs M to see REM came in 2005. The gig was originally scheduled for 9 July (a week after Live 8 at the same venue) but was put back a week following the London bombings on 7/7. The special guests were Jonathan Rice, Idlewild and Feeder. I remember Idlewild being excellent, though they did prompt Mrs M to say "Oh, they're the Scottish REM".

I also remember enjoying this show a lot more than the one at Milton Keynes ten years earlier. We secured a good vantage point front right and the show was completely different in feel. Where MK had been dark, sombre and moody this was sparky, bright and uplifting. Not even the appearance of Patti Smith for the dirge that is E-bow the letter could spoil the mood. That might have been because it was the last date on their world tour, but whatever the reason they were superb. Stipe in particular was at his electric best. They finished with I'm Gonna DJ which was unreleased and new to me at that point, but stuck in my head for ages after. Inevitably the recorded version when it finally surfaced didn't have the attack of the live version. All in all a great show.

For a much better review of the gig head over http://www.dreamdust.co.uk/2005/07/17/rem-in-hyde-park/

The Wonder Stuff: Brighton Dome, 13 April 1994

This was part of the Idiot Manoeuvres tour. A full-on 30+ dates / six week tour of the UK of the sort no-one can afford to do anymore. The warning signs were there though. Note that the band had managed to secure tour sponsorship from Carling. Almost exactly three months later, the band would be playing their farewell show at the Phoenix Festival.

My good friend Ivan was riding shotgun for this one. I have two vivid memories from this gig. The first is that Miles had had his date of birth tattooed on his leg. He was going through a Henry Rollins phase at the time I seem to remember.

The second is that I genuinely feared for my life at one point. The first and only time that has ever happened at a gig. You will notice from the ticket that the stalls were seated - not something I had experienced at a Wonder Stuff show before. The reason became clear very quickly. When the band came on stage, the crowd went apeshit and there was a huge surge to the front. That surge forced bodies over the rows of seats and we had to climb on our seats and step forward across the rows to avoid being crushed. The crush increased and we were soon standing on the backs of the seats, clinging to each other for support and balance. Clearly the seating was not built to withstand such abuse and the entire row we were standing on collapsed sending us to the floor, also toppling the rows in front and behind. I was convinced we were going to get crushed and we decided to beat a hasty retreat to the back of the stalls. This was all during the first song.

There was no aggression in the crowd, no one was being an arse, it was pure excitement. Having experienced that I can confirm that it was absolutely fucking terrifying. It started as exciting, and even funny but very quickly became scary and dangerous. When a big crowd surges forward, crushing all before it, people can get hurt and even killed: Roskilde; Donington; Hillsborough. This was down to piss-poor planning by the promoter / venue management. Putting the Stuffies in an all-seated venue at the height of their popularity? Madness.

Terrorvision - The Britannia, Plymouth 1 November 1993

I love Terrorvision. One of my all-time favourite live bands and one of those rare occasions when a band I championed early doors actually became commercially successful. The other one was Terraplane who hit me square between the eyes with their first single I Survive. They signed to a major, released a couple of albums that included a weedy re-recorded version of the single, ditched the bassist and found fame shortly after as Thunder. Terrorvision. Terraplane. There's a pattern emerging there....

My memory of how I first heard Terrorvision is muddled. I remember hearing Urban Space Crime played by Mark and Lard on Hit the North - their Wednesday night radio 5 show. I was doing a taxi shift at the time. Remember when Radio 5 used to play music? What I don't remember is whether that was before or after I bought my copy of the Thrive EP from which that track was taken. At the time, I was going to a lot of record fairs and several dealers had piles of the Thrive EP on 12" being knocked out at £1 each. A year or two later, these would change hands for £20 a pop.

On the strength of the EP my sister and I went to see Terrorvision play at the Concorde in Brighton. It's not there anymore but the new Concorde 2 just along the street is brilliant. Support on that occasion came from a local covers band whose name I do not remember. All their mates turned up, filled the place and sang along to competent versions of Play That Funky Music White Boy et al. They then all left leaving I'd say about 20 of us to watch Terrorvision do their thing. And what a thing. They had hard edged rock mixed with clever/funny lyrics and pop melodies and played with energy. Topped with a mad drummer and a singer who danced like no one was watching - they always looked like they were having fun. I loved them on sight. There is also an appallingly disgusting scatological story from that night that I will never tell you, no matter how many Coke Zeros you buy me.

At the end of 1993 I was temporarily working in Plymouth which is how I wound up at this gig. The Britannia is a slightly out of town pub that at the time had regular live shows that were a cut above the usual pub bands. I also saw Freak of Nature there and they kept tripping the fuse and killing the power to the singer's obvious frustration. It was a brilliant place to see an up and coming band like Terrorvision. All of which many tangents lead us sadly and inevitably to a familiar closing sentence. I don't remember anything much about the show at all, more's the pity.

The Almighty: Town and Country Club 2 July 1990

Capital Radio Coca Cola Music Festival presents The Almighty and special guests. Just look at the perspective on that logo. Powerful stuff in a 'look what I did on my Commodore 64' kind of way, I'm sure you'll agree.

I have no recollection of the special guests. The fact that I had ticket number 004 should give you an idea of how poorly attended this show was. I distinctly remember there being plenty of elbow room, but not much else about the show.

Toby and I went along on the strength of their first album Blood Fire and Love, which had come out the previous year. It's one of the albums I had on vinyl but never replaced on CD, so before writing this I went back to Spotify to remind myself what they sound like. I remember really loving that album and yet I have not listened to these tracks in probably almost 20 years. Hearing it again now, it's nothing remarkable but they had some catchy riff-heavy songs with sing along choruses. I'm surprised they don't get more airplay on Planet Rock. Ricky Warwick's gravelly voice is pretty cool if you can get past the mid-Atlantic accent, and he's doing alright for himself these days singing with the reformed Thin Lizzy and more recently the Black Star Riders. Drummer Stumpy Munroe is possibly less in demand. Classic Rock reported in February that the band were going to release some new material this year to mark their 25th anniversary.

Slayer - Brixton Academy 9 November 1994

I can't claim to have ever been a huge fan of Slayer. I own several albums, all early ones, but I have to be in a particular mood to listen to their music. And even then, I really only like the hits: Dead Skin Mask; Seasons in The Abyss; South of Heaven; War Ensemble etc. There is however no denying their place in rock history as one of The Big Four of thrash metal and the influence they have had on those who followed.

When we were running Lard Records, Slayer were a big seller. Partly because they were enormously popular amongst metalheads around the world - oh yeah, we were international baby! - but also because they put out some fantastic limited edition releases of their singles and albums. The blood pack version of the Seasons in the Abyss cd; the red vinyl 7" in the cut out cross with chains version of Criminally Insane. The blood splattered white vinyl version of Live Undead. All highly collectable.

Toby had always been more of a fan than me but I was interested enough to tag along for this. It definitely helped that Machine Head were supporting as I was really enjoying their first album Burn My Eyes. A shame then, that we arrived too late to see Machine Head. Slayer, however were brutal. I cannot remember much about what they played, but from the information on the ticket we can assume they were promoting the Divine Intervention album, but I do remember the crushing intensity with which they played. I remember wondering how the hell they could play so fast and so not miss a note. Paul Bostaph's double bass drums hit with the ferocity and accuracy of a heavyweight boxer working the speed ball. Tom Araya must gargle bleach and have slinkys where his neck muscles should be. Kerry King stalked the stage covered in studs and tattoos looking like the meanest mofo in the room, his fingers a blur. Jeff Hanneman looked like a tougher David St Hubbins but played like a demon. They were immense.

Of course it occurred to me to write this when it was announced that Hanneman had died. Of course I didn't get round to it. Kind of sobering though when musicians your age start dying. Both Hanneman and Adam Yauch were the same age as me.

REM / Blur: The National Bowl, Milton Keynes 29 July 1995

This was REM's 'Monster' tour, which is not one of my favourite albums of theirs but it does include the peerless 'What's the Frequency Kenneth'. That would make it on to any 'best of' compilation I'd ever do. Blur were the special guests and were at the very height of their Britpopularity. The "other groups" were Magnapop and Belly. 

REM were and are one of the GLW's favourite bands so we decide to make the trip to Milton Keynes to see them for the first time. It was a gloriously sunny day, so of course venue security were taking everyone's drinks off them at the door, except for unopened 'tetrapak' type boxes of juice. Inside I seem to remember some bizarre token-exchange system for the beer tent that meant having to queue twice and small cartons of Happy Shopper orange juice costing £1 a time. Result, 60,000 hot, dehydrated, pissed off people. Well done everyone.

Naturally I remember nothing of the first two on the bill. Blur were fantastic, perhaps better even than when we had seen them at Glastonbury the previous year. REM's set was incredibly atmospheric with black and white rear projection and lots of slow tempo numbers. Magnificent, despite the best efforts of the organisers.

I had the genius idea* that we should kip in the car after the show because it would probably take hours to get out of the car park. After about half an hour of that the GLW said, quite rightly, 'this is a stupid idea' and got into the driving seat. We were out of the car park in no time. About half an hour down the road, she got stopped by the police for speeding but managed to flutter her eyelashes sufficiently to get herself out of a ticket.


*stupid idea

The Black Crowes - Town and Country Club 30 September 1991

Still one of my favourite bands, I first became aware of the Black Crowes when I saw the video for Jealous Again on Raw Power. I bought the album at the next Brighton Record fair and I've been a fan ever since. 

The ticket itself is nothing much to blog about, but look! The actual band logo as used on the first album! The special guests were Thee Hypnotics and my sister rode shotgun.

While the support band were on, my sister decided to faint. Luckily we were standing against the back wall underneath the mixing desk, so she just slid down the wall into a heap on the floor without doing herself any damage. I tried to carry her outside to get some fresh air. She probably weighed no more than eight stone (110 pounds) but have you ever tried to carry someone who's unconscious? It's not as easy as they make it look in the movies. We made it as far as the bar when she started to come round. This wasn't the first time she'd done this but it was the first time when I'd been around to see it. Scary. She recovered pretty quickly and we watched the rest of the show from near the back, just in case.

Little Angels - Town and Country Club, 13 March 1991

Little Angels 13 March 1991

Little Angels have recently re-formed for some live shows, so I thought I'd dig this one out. A fairly eye-catching / watering ticket design in three colours. Also another example of a font / logo being used for the band name that I have not seen used anywhere else.

I believe this tour was to promote the Young Gods album but can't be sure. The 'special guests' were Katmandu, a short lived group featuring Dave King, formerly of Fastway on vocals. I hadn't heard them before but was sufficiently moved to buy their CD, which I still have. 

For those that may not be aware of the band, Little Angels are a British rock band from Yorkshire that play a raucous classic rock with air raid siren vocals and an occasional horn section. What's not to love? I have to admit to being a sucker for horns used in rock music and there are some crackers on the Don't Prey for Me album - particularly Radical Your Lover which was co-written with the wonderful Dan Reed. Glorious stuff.

Anyway, all this rambling has probably prepared you for the usual cop out ending to one of these posts. I remember very little of the headliner's set, but I do remember thinking they were every bit as good live as on record. I wanted Bruce's 'Eat my Dust' Les Paul and Toby's corkscrew barnet. I also remember wishing I was as good looking as Michael Lee, the drummer at the time. Great musician, handsome bastard, gone too soon.

The Presidents of the United States of America - Brixton Academy, 8 July 1996

This is a ticket for one of only two gigs I have watched from the circle at the Brixton Academy.  On the one hand, the view is amazing and I get a seat.  On the other, it is so high up that I feel removed from the live gig experience.  Like watching it on TV only the band never look you in the eye.

PUSA were famous for five minutes in 1995/6 when they had hits with a handful of singles from their first album.  Lump and Peaches in particular are perfect slices of punky power pop.  I believe my sister organised this trip - it was certainly her that came with me.  I remember being hesitant because I'm always wary of going to see a band that has only released one album.  They'll only do 45 minutes, you know what you're going to hear and if you're lucky they might throw in a cover version for an encore.  I was persuaded however when it was announced that Kula Shaker were going to be the 'Special Guests'.  I know, I know, but I still really like some of the stuff off their first album.  And I like their version of 'Hush'.  Deal with it.

As for the gig?  I have only vague memories of sitting, I think, in the front row of the circle.  And that's about it.  Look, I promise I'll do one of these soon where I can remember something about the gig, OK?  Sheesh, get off my back already.

Peaches live at Pink Pop 1996

Pantera: Town and Country Club, 11 February 1993

Pantera 11-02-93

This ticket has the band name set out in a font I've not seen used on any album or T shirt. This is something that is reasonably common on my tickets and makes me wonder why they would do it. How much extra effort would it take to use the official recognisable band logo? Perhaps it's just a timing thing - the promoter wants the tickets printed and distributed before the band's management have supplied the appropriate artwork. Perhaps they just didn't think it was important. Who knows? Also note that the ticket shows the 'on the door' ticket price, which is odd. Pantera were incredibly popular amongst  metalheads at the time and the idea that they would not sell out a modest sized venue like the T&CC seems unduly pessimistic. I certainly don't remember there being much space.

Anyway, Toby came with me for this one. He had seen Pantera play at the Marquee the previous year. He told me how great the show had been; how venue security had clearly decided to take the night off; how crazy the mosh pit got; how he and another guy rescued someone from the floor and how Phil had encouraged people on to the stage and he had his first experience of stage diving. None of this adequately prepared me for the ferocity of this show. Pantera played with an intensity that scorched my eyeballs and welded them to the back of my skull. It was like staring into a furnace for an hour and a half. I can't write well enough to describe what it was like but by crikey they were good. And we had my favourite viewpoint at the T&CC too - downstairs on the bar level, at the front next to the mixing desk. It's perfect. You can see right across the top of the pit in front of you - the best view in the house and the best sound. All in all a top ten gig for sure.

Simple Minds - Wembley Arena, 27 July 1989

Here's a gig I remember for  change. Not because it's one of my favourites. The boring ticket - courier font on generic stock - is about the best thing about it. 

This was the tour to promote the Street Fighting Years album, a disappointing affair that  contains the frankly dreadful chart topper Belfast Child. I had been persuaded to go by friends who had lent me their double live album. That had convinced me that they were more of a rock band live than in the studio. 

How hard they rocked was rendered completely moot by the utter shittyness of our seats. We were at the far end of the arena, about two thirds of the way up the back wall. The sound was dreadful and we were so far away that it could have been anyone on stage that night. There were no big screens. One to forget, ironically. The guests were The Silencers. Quite.

Madness - Finsbury Park 8 August 1992

My good friend Ivan likes Madness.  He REALLY likes Madness but was too young to see them live before they split up.  So when, in 1992, it was announced that they were going to re-form and stage the Madstock festival at Finsbury Park it was a given that he would be going.  It was his first opportunity to see them and I was enough of a fan of Madness to want to go too.  The real treat for me though would be seeing Ian Dury and the Blockheads.  Ivan decided that he would go to both the Saturday and the Sunday.  As the line up was the same for both days, I decided that just the Saturday would be enough for me.  Also on the bill were Flowered Up and Morrissey, I am and was a fan of neither of them. Morrissey in particular infuriates me.  I like some of the music he's made both solo and with The Smiths but find his every utterance designed to infuriate me.  He comes over as a cross between Alan Bennett and Dorothy Parker, without the wit of either, and appears to consider it great sport to torture interviewers, particularly those known to be fans.  A flat track bully.  Other opinions are available.

Come the day of the show, I was not well.  In fact knowing what I know now I should probably have been in hospital rather than driving two hours to stand in a park for another six before driving home again.  However I was young and stupid and didn't want to let my buddy down as he was counting on me for the lift - and I was keen to see the show if at all possible.  We drove up to Ivan's Uncle's house, where he would be staying the night, just around the corner from the venue, parked up and walked to the park.

Regular readers of this blog (are there any?) will not be surprised to hear that I remember little of the show itself.  Even the infamous Morrissey union jack incident didn't register at the time as I was in so much discomfort and spent a great deal of time sitting down.  My biggest regret though is that I don't remember any details of the one time I saw Ian Dury with the Blockheads.  I do remember that when Madness appeared, starting of course with One Step Beyond, the crowd went batshit crazy.  Even as far back as we were, everyone was dancing and the euphoria was infectious enough to raise this sick man off the floor and make him forget his worldly pains and worries for an hour or so.  

On day two, Morrissey decided not to return and was replaced by The Farm.

Keeping the customer serviced

My dentist is a lovely guy.  He looks a bit like Des Lynham, always has a calming word and every visit is a physically painless experience.  He is however now way too expensive to keep using, so I need to register with a NHS dentist.  

Being basically an idle bastard, I went to the practice literally around the corner from our house.  It's in a Victorian end of terrace house that's little more than a two up two down.  Reception is in what would normally be the front room and I was greeted by the receptionist, a girl in, I would say her early 20s.  I asked if they were taking new NHS patients and she said yes but the dentist was about to go on holiday for three weeks so he wouldn't be able to see me for a while.  I said that there was no rush and asked if I could get registered in the meantime.  Without leaving her chair, she twisted 90 degrees to her right, took a form from a letter rack and passed it to me saying "There you are, all done for you today."

I don't know where to look when people talk to me like that.  I really value good customer service and make a point of thanking people when they're helpful or do more than they strictly needed to.  But this type of customer service Newspeak just makes me cross. It adds nothing but is designed to give the appearance of having been super helpful.  I'm genuinely worried that people in service industries believe this is how customers want to be spoken to. 

There are of course many and various variants on this theme: the train announcements welcoming us onboard YOUR SouthEast train service to London Charing Cross; the call centre staff with their carefully scripted greetings, and the greeters at your local supermarket asking how you are and whether you found everything you were looking for today.  I'm sure you can think of others...

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Brixton Academy 6 June 1990

This was the Mothers Milk tour that came to the UK two/three times in 1990 according to http://theside.free.fr/tour/tourHistory.php3

My first exposure to RHCP was buying the Knock Me Down 7" single from the discounted box on the floor in Stylus in Hastings in 1989 purely because I liked the name.  That said I didn't like the track and promptly forgot about it.  Fast forward to early 1990 when I saw Anthony and Flea interviewed on Raw Power which also showed video clips of the new single Higher Ground and Fight Like A Brave.  I was really taken with their sense of humour, the energy in the music and the powerful mix of rock and funk.  I was hooked.  Mothers Milk had failed to chart and so wasn't available in any local shops so I wound up buying the CD on import from Tower Records in Piccadilly.

As for the gig... yes, well, uummmm.  Nope, don't remember a thing about it - heaven knows I wish I did - not even who I went with, but I suspect my brother was there.  It was probably good though, don't you think?

RHCP - Out in LA live at the Pinkpop Festival 1990

The Wildhearts - London Kentish Town Forum 27 March 1994

This is a ticket for the 'Full Roar 94' tour date at The Forum - a venue that I will always think of as the Town and Country Club.  Note the missing definite article in the band name.  The special guests were Baby Chaos - no, me neither.

Their debut album Earth vs The Wildhearts contains some amazing tracks including some personal desert island contenders in Greetings from Shitsville, TV Tan, Suckerpunch and Caffeine Bomb (on the re-released version at least).  Ginger has a real knack for writing crunchy songs with a catchy melody that also rock like a bastard.

Toby rode shotgun for this one and he reminded me recently that we stood at the bottom of the stairs to the right of the stage. In addition to a great view of the show we were also able to enjoy watching one overly refreshed punter honk on the floor and someone else slip over in it.  True story.

Anyway, to more relevant details... It's always a risk going to see a band who have only released one album, however good they are.  I have seen bands come out for the encore and play two songs for a second time because they didn't have enough material.  However I am pleased to report that The Wildhearts did not disappoint. High energy - check.  Riff after riff - check. Ginger in a white dinner jacket and bow tie with his pvc trousers - check.  The performance of Suckerpunch was filmed for later use in a promo video - see below although embedding has been disabled so you'll have to view it on youtube. Look out for the continuity spoiling inserts of Ginger singing. Where did those sunglasses come from?

I've not seen The Wildhearts since and to be honest, later albums didn't grab my interest like the debut.  Nevertheless, they'll always hold a place in my heart for the strength of those early singles and this live show.

The Wildhearts - Suckerpunch

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

Reading Festival - August Bank Holiday Weekend 1992

The news that Nirvana and The Wonder Stuff were going to headline two nights of the Reading Festival in 1992 was enough to convince Mark, Ivan and me to sign up for weekend tickets. Reading's reputation was as a Somme re-enactment site where men in black T shirts amused themselves between bands by throwing two litre bottles of piss at each other. With that in mind we booked ourselves into a B&B for the duration.

Wristband

FRIDAY

On the Friday morning we exchanged our tickets for wristbands and entered the site just as Redd Kross were finishing their set. On the gate we were given flyers that showed the running order and were sponsored by a new magazine called IndieCator. I don't think that lasted very long. I notice that I have helpfully ticked the bands that we saw, which is good news as I have no memory of several of these even being on, let alone watching them.  The down side is that this now stands as a permanent record of some (with hindsight) tremendously poor choices we made when deciding which bands to watch.

Running Order - click to enlarge

Of the Friday bands I only remember watching PiL and The Wonder Stuff (annoyingly spelt wrong on the flyer).

SATURDAY

Well look at that - we passed up the opportunity to see Public Enemy in order to watch BAD II.  Not even the original Big Audio Dynamite; BAD II. I'm pretty sure it rained too. Sigh...  I was impressed by Ride and my first live sightings of The Manics and Rollins did not disappoint. 

SUNDAY

The final day was all about the headliners. There had been plenty written in the music press in the previous months (and since) about Kurt Cobain's drug use and speculation was rife that the band were going to break up due to his ill health.  It was therefore quite a relief when they appeared on stage and played a blinding set - their last in England as it turned out. I'll spare you yet another write up of Kurt's entrance and the gig itself, mostly because I have nothing to add to what's already out there, but I will confirm that they were awesome.  There's something about the noise made by three piece bands that really speaks to me and they were on fire that night.  The only down side was that we were further back in the crowd than we would have liked because of another terrible decision on our part - to pass up the chance to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds who were on immediately before Nirvana. Gah...

I believe Kurt had a hand in deciding the rest of the Sunday main stage bill.  I remember very little which is a real shame as I'm a real fan of the Beastie Boys. I do however remember L7 getting pelted with mud and one of the band removing her tampon and throwing it into the crowd to show her displeasure. Nice. 

Front Page

Back Page

Ian Dury tribute concert - Brixton Academy 16 June 2000

Ian Dury died on 27 March 2000.  New Boots and Panties has always been one of my favourite albums - one of those rare 'don't skip a track' ones -  and so it seemed only right to go and pay my respects when my good friend Ivan suggested we attend the tribute concert.

The idea was simple: each act would do a couple of their own songs in the first half before returning to perform Dury's songs with The Blockheads in the second.  The proceeds from the show would go to Cancer BACUP.  The ticket shows some sort of sponsorship from Dr Martens, which seems appropriate.

There were rumours before the show that Joe Strummer and Mick Jones were going to appear together, but in the event only Jones showed along with other contemporaries Glen Matlock, Wreckless Eric and Tom Robinson.  The first to get the crowd excited though was Wilko Johnson with his trademark staccato guitar and bug eyes, he brought energy and attacked the songs with everything he had.  Chas and Dave also got the crowd nicely warmed up with a cockney sing along before Madness closed the first half.

During the break, a nice lady from Cancer BACUP, who looked like someone's auntie, came on stage to say thank you and a little about their work.  However, this being a rock show, someone from the crowd shouted "show us your tits" which completely threw her.  Shame.

The second half saw The Blockheads (still tight as a gnat's chuff) performing with all of the above plus a right bunch of herberts including  Keith Allen (Blackmail Man), Kathy Burke (Billericay Dickie), Saffron from Republica (Mash it up Harry), Mark Lamarr (Blockheads and stage diving), Kirsty MacColl (Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick) and longtime Blockheads collaborator Phill Jupitus (Reasons to be Cheerful).  The finale saw Robbie Williams come on for Sweet Gene Vincent before everyone returned for a riotous Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll.  It was a joyous night and a fitting tribute to a true original and a national treasure.

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