In May 1997, I had epic plans for the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend: travelling up to Manchester for the mega Manics/Mansun gig at the Nynex Arena on the 24th of May. I decided to make an even longer weekend of it, travelling up on Friday the 23rd, returning […]
Election Day 1997. A new dawn for Britain was approaching. And I celebrated the best way I knew how: by going to a gig.
My first ever Mansun gig. If I were pressed to name one gig and one gig only as the greatest of my life, it would be this one.
“So here I sit in the middle of The Day. The reason I’m still here and not swirling aimlessly around Perth again.”
What an introduction to the world of Suede live: a fan club only, B-sides only gig.
My first gig as a Proper Londoner, living and working in the city I’d dreamed of for years, was to see the flamboyantly orchestral My Life Story. But it was the support band I really wanted to see that might, a band I thought, for a few glorious […]
The triumphant, emotional finale to my trilogy of Manics gigs in London in December 1996.
My second ever Manics gig, in which I discovered the true nature of Home, and that Moshpits And Me Don’t Mix.
21 years old, in a new country, and here was my favourite band in the world, three nights in a row. Three nights which decided the course of the next 21 years of my life.
There is a kind of narrative that the journey of a music fan starts with generic chart pop and gradually develops towards Proper Music like rock and indie. There are a lot of problems with the narrative, in particular its inherent sexism – it’s no coincidence that Proper […]
SCRUFFY STORMS 