In a few weeks’ time on this blog, I will reach gig no.11 of All The Gigs Of My Life, a truly astonishing night that completely turned my little music-obsessed world around: my first ever Mansun gig in April 1997. But for now, I have my 149th and […]
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 […]
“It’s only now, as midnight approaches, that I realize how many songs they didn’t play. I’m barely able to breathe let alone move or walk. I may never listen to guitar music again.” This gig marked my introduction into the most joyous and life-affirming experience that I have […]
Exactly one year after my first gig came my second. And it was exactly the same thing – the Big Day Out Festival at the Fremantle Oval. Just nowhere near as good.
By January 1993 I was 17, nearly 18. Since becoming a music obsessive via David Bowie and the Pet Shop Boys at age 13, I had wandered through the early 90s in search of My Scene. I stumbled through a varied landscape including Faith No More, Seal and […]
Gig zero? Why on earth is this gig zero and not gig number 1? The simple fact is, I was not me when I went to this gig. By which I mean, I was not the music-obsessed, gig-seeking nutter that I was shortly to become and who writes […]
SCRUFFY STORMS 