My first and so far only Miranda Sex Garden gig was a mesmerising night of musical discoveries.

In September 2023, I was doing my best to Get On With My Life despite facing some of the worst hurdles I’d ever faced, with the aftermath of my Dad’s death the previous year creating traumatic ripples in many directions. I was not in the best place mentally, but as we wandered through a month still suffused with summer heat I tried to stay upbeat and engage with my passion for music as much as I could. So I was in pretty good spirits as I strode out to Islington this stiflingly muggy day in 2023.

This turned out to be my final gig of 2023, and was one I went to on something of a whim. I’ve been an admirer of Katharine Blake’s other band the Mediaeval Baebes for quite some time, but my knowledge of Miranda Sex Garden amounted to a few dim memories of seeing their early single “Gush Forth My Tears” on the Australian all-night music video show Rage in the early 90s, back when they were a pure madrigal band and not the goth-metal monster they turned into.

But somewhere in 2023, a random Instagram post from the Baebes promoting this gig got me listening to their back catalogue, which impressed me enough to buy a ticket to see them live, on an evening which turned into an extraordinary night of musical discovery, or as I recorded in my unfortunately very brief diary entry for the gig: ‘a revelatory shot of adrenaline to the cobweb-draped corridors of my musical world’.

Venturing into the Islington Academy for the first time in many years – not since I went there to see Canadian tunesmith Daniel Powter in 2005 – I was surprised and intrigued to be greeted by operatic tunes emanating from the stage. This was German singer Bleeding Blackwood, an entirely new discovery for me. With his gorgeous, mournful voice and congenial presence, he set the tone for an evening of exciting idiosyncratic music.

The second support act was even more of a thrilling new discovery for me, Kristeen Young. Armed only with a keyboard she took us on a roller coaster journey of shocking melodic twists and turns, with her voice scaling ever more dazzling heights. Delving into her back catalogue later on I discovered she’d duetted with David Bowie in the early 2000s, so it seems improbable that I did not become aware of her at this time. It’s a great oversight of mine that I did not continue to follow her career from that point onwards.

Miranda Sex Garden came on stage with Katharine Blake barefoot and in a stunning white dress which I immediately coveted. Their set maintained a mesmerising intensity throughout the evening, but held enough moments of light and shade for it to never become wearisome or monotonous. An early highlight for me was the sinister and portentous yet gorgeously soaring “All There Is”. Earlier in the summer when I’d been contemplating whether or not I wanted to see this band, it was my first listen this song that decided it for me, as I absolutely had to hear it live, and it did not disappoint.

Katharine was a spellbinding frontwoman, maintaining an aloof charisma whether she was twisting her voice around capricious melodies like “Sleeping Beauty” or providing impish recorder interludes. The slow burning drama of “Ever and Ever” was another highlight, as was the violin-thrashing instrumental “Escape From Kilburn”.

Culminating in a blaze of light and noise with “Are You The One?”, I left this gig feeling energised and ready for whatever might hit me next in this wearying year of my life. Unfortunately, this elated mood did not last even long enough for me to record more than one sentence in my diary about the gig, but luckily my immediate thoughts are available in my vlog of the evening.

And unfortunately that was it for me as far as gigs were concerned, for another six months. My already fragile mental state shattered completely a couple of months later when the first anniversary of my Dad’s death came around, and although I had recovered enough from that in December when I had gigs from Noel Gallagher and Jesus Jones planned, COVID-19 had other plans for me, gracing me a second visit just in time for Christmas – especially thoughtful of the virus given that its first one had come on my birthday the year before.

And then it was 2024, which was, to my great relief, a much happier and more peaceful year, although not without its own challenges. But most importably of all, it contained some absolutely spectacular gigs. And while my gigging life in 2023 didn’t quite end as I had thought it would, this fierce and revelatory evening of musical surprises was definitely a worthy one to close the year with.