- This topic has 77 replies, 26 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 5 months ago by
.
- Posts
Status Quo (group venture, a lot of twenty somethings taking their parents out to see the two chord wonders!)
I have to take umbrage at the above comment. I have little to no time for the Quo’s output of the last 35 or so years but if you delve back even further, long before they were consumed by denim, they did some fantastic, if rarely heard stuff. Tracks such as Pictures Of Matchstick Men and You’re Just What I Was Looking For are pure psychedelic bliss.
Bring it all back.
Modern life is rubbish.
Apart from the whole ‘mini break with rock gigs’ thing
Okay modern life is great
It just needs Sleeper and Elastica
REM x 3
Oasis
Alanis Morisette
George Michael
Bryan Adams
The Dubliners
The Cranberries
Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine
Kila
Billy Joel & Elton John TOGETHER
The Eagles
The Pale
Several others at Feile many moons agoThey Might be Giants Jeremy that’s a blast from the past.
Time to get youtubing to see if I can find Birdhouse In Your Soul and Istanbul Not Constantinople.
Status Quo (group venture, a lot of twenty somethings taking their parents out to see the two chord wonders!)
I have to take umbrage at the above comment. I have little to no time for the Quo’s output of the last 35 or so years but if you delve back even further, long before they were consumed by denim, they did some fantastic, if rarely heard stuff. Tracks such as Pictures Of Matchstick Men and You’re Just What I Was Looking For are pure psychedelic bliss.
For what it’s worth they did rock the living hell out of Norfolk
Then I overtook their tour bus (after buying some flashing fluffy pink bunny ears for a lark)
The lark was very grateful and is now supporting her family by dancing in Vegas
I’ll shut up now
For what it’s worth they did rock the living hell out of Norfolk
It doesn’t take much though, does it?
You’d be amazed. When nobody’s looking, we can’t half rock
Honest
Yeah ok
Maybe not
Sigh
Some jedi knights had a fight though!!!! (long story)
They Might be Giants Jeremy that’s a blast from the past.
Time to get youtubing to see if I can find Birdhouse In Your Soul and Istanbul Not Constantinople.
You’ll also find about a dozen albums they did either side of these hits in 1990 – they’ve been going for over 20 years now and never went away. People just stopped looking! Well, not everyone, cos the Nasty Asty was absolutely rammed when me and Mrs Column last saw them 18 months ago.
They’re terrific value for money. With a back catalogue of around 300 songs commercially available, and about the same number again still waiting to be recorded, their sets are inevitably veeeeeeeeeeeery long. And rarely the same one twice.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Baby One More Time – Travis hurrah – that’s why I couldn’t find it under S [yes folks, my cd collection is in alphabetical order] am now listening to it – brilliant!
Good thread. I love music
.Best gig EVER – Faithless at the rather compact Newport Centre. I can only describe the experience as comparable to the highest high you can get without chemical assistance- and I’ve never dabbled
.Bands also seen:
U2 twice
Depeche Mode twice
A-ha twice
Manic Street Preachers
Oasis
Ian Brown
Queen – at Cardiff Castle when Freddie was alive
Duran Duran
Tears for Fears -most boring band I’ve ever seen
Recently saw Blackmore’s Night, the band Ritchie Blackmore leads. They do sort of Mediaeval rock, folk stuff. Hugely entertaining.
Marc Almond
Pet Shop Boys twice
MeshThere’s loads of others but some too embarrassing to mention. Right now, I really like KT Tunstall, The Fray and The Hoosiers
.I saw The Jam five nights in a row in 1979 (or possibly 1980). Firstly at the Rainbow in London and then down in Brighton – sleeping on the beach, completely zonked. 17 years old and living like someone out of Quadrophenia, (but at a posh grammar school!).
However, the best gig I ever went to was also in 1980. In Llandewi Brefi village hall (a place now famous for different reasons). The Thompson Twins played there only a week after lining up at the Lyceum who used to do fantastic Sunday night specials. I was at University down the road at Lampeter and we got together a minibus. The only other audience were a bunch of teepee-dwelling hippies, who put on an anti-nuclear war play and passed around the magic mushrooms. The gig ended with the entire audience on stage with the Thomson Twins, playing along on dustbin lids, whatever.
They hit the charts a month later, seemingly minus four of their band members, who probably couldn’t hack the pace, or are still lost in deepest Wales.
Just from memory, I’ve been to see the following;
Aniseed Couch * Baxendale * Belle & Sebastian * Blaggers ITA * Blessed Ethel * Blind Melon * Boo Radleys * Billy Bragg * Brenda System * Breeders * Captain Sensible * Cardiacs * Chrome Hoof * Circulus * Clientele * Coping Saw * Cornershop * Dead Moon * Dub War * Elliot Jack * Erase Errata * The Fall * The Freed Unit * Futureheads * Gabrielle’s Wish * Godsister Helen * Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci * Half Man Half Biscuit * Hayseed Dixie * Helen Love * Humousexual * International Strike Force * Jazzfinger * Kyuss * Le Tigre * Lonesome Organist * Low * Lung Leg * Magnetic Fields * Margerine * Marine Research * Milky Wimpshake * The Mission * Montgolfier Brothers * New Model Army * Nina Nastasia * Orrin De Forest * The Otto Show * Peanut * Piney Gir’s Country Roadshow * Pixies * Emma Pollock * Polythene * Pop Will Eat Itself * Puppy Fat * The Real Tuesday Weld * Red Monkey * Reef * Rubbish Men * Scaramanga Six * Seasick Steve * Shellac * Shrug * Frank Sidebottom * The Silver Apples * Silver Wizard Project * Sally Skull * Jill Sobule * Soundgarden * Spraydog * Stereolab * Sudden Infant * Teenage Fanclub * They Might Be Giants * Third Eye Foundation * Threatmantics * Thrush Puppies * Trembling Blue Stars * Urusei Yatsura * H T Virgo * Rick Wakeman * Wedding Present * Wire * Wonky Alice * Yo La Tengo * Yumi Yumi * Yummy Fur
Yoinks! That’s appreciably larger than I thought it would be. At least I know now where a couple of hundred nights of my life disappeared to…
The most-seen act out of that lot is easily CARDIACS, and I’m off to see them again at the Nasty Asty in London in November. Good times!
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)You just haven’t earned it yet Jeremy !
Been to many but the one that sticks out most,
"The Smiths" SFX Dublin May 1985, simply unforgettable.
Anglo Irish angst at its brilliant best.Tooting – this excerpt from Wikipedia may help explain the amazing, shrinking Thompson Twins line-up;
[i:1hbkkg1h]The band signed to Arista Records [in 1982] and released the [second] album “Set”… “Set” contained the single “In The Name Of Love”, sung and largely written by Bailey. It became a substantial dance club hit in the U.S., and the “Set” album would be released as “In The Name Of Love” in the U.S. to capitalize on the song’s popularity; it entered the Billboard 200.
After the success of “In The Name Of Love”, Bailey, Currie and Leeway, liking and wanting to pursue the first single’s different sound, toyed with the idea of starting a new band on the side, which they planned to call “The Bermuda Triangle”. When the single and album failed to make a substantial impact in the UK charts, manager Hade convinced Bailey, Leeway and Currie to downsize the Thompson Twins to a core of the three in April 1982.
On UK TV, [former bassist Matthew] Seligman explained it so:
“ We were all given a piece of paper that we had to sign, which said that we were to be paid 500 pounds, and we could keep our instruments and equipment. It sounded like quite a good deal at the time…”[/i:1hbkkg1h]
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
not a band, but really wanted to see Damon Albarns Monkey Musical that was on at the Manchester festival for only one week then shot off to Europe [remember Monkey on Friday nights]…really hope it comes back here so I can see it – and also Tom Stoppards Rock’,n’Roll which was only on on the West End and then went to America…so hope they come back and tour but will probably not have Rufus Sewell [sigh]…..
There’s a lot, so I’ll just put down those that are worth a mention:
Pixies (1989?)
Jeff Buckley (twice)
Velvet Underground (twice in 1993)
Oasis (free in Paris, Place De La Republique, 2000)
Johnny Haliday (also free, Champs De Mars 2000, surpisingly decent)
David Halliday (Johnny’s son, supported Oasis above)
Elvis Costello
Bob Dylan (in Glasgow around 1990)
Jesus And Mary Chain (various times in Glasgow, once in Edinburgh)
PJ Harvey
10,000 Maniacs
Tindersticks (at least 3 times)
Elastica (Paris 2000)
Jonathan Richman (once in Edinburgh, once in Paris)
Waterboys
Sonic Youth
Radiohead (St Denis, 2000)
There are loads of others, many of whom turned out to be shite in hindsight (remember the Primitives?) and many who were obviously shite at the time (Echobelly).
Plus, I was drunk (and other things) for most of 1986 – 1989 so, from time to time, I get flashbacks of gigs I had forgotten.
(many of which these took place at a hellhole called "Calton Studios")
Steve
God this takes me back down memory lane. In roughly chronological order.
Wishbone Ash – We were 13 and went on the recommendation of my mate’s Dad who was a biker, it was at the Spa Centre in Leamington Spa, we were the youngest there by about 25 years, let there be rock!
The Black Crowes – We were 15 and went with a mates Mum because we were deemed too young to go on her own – mind you she was a big Faces/Zeppelin fan so was more rock n roll than us anyway.
The Ramones – My 16th birthday present they were supported by the then unknown Terrorvision and managed to play about 35 songs in just over an hour. This was the first tour the Ramones did without DeeDee. The drummer Marky looked like he was going to keel over due to the exertion of playing the same beat at warp speed for 70 mins.
Australian Doors Show – Northampton Roadmenders, it was so hot sweat was dripping from the ceiling, if you closed your eyes you could almost believe it was JM and the boys.
Royal Trux – They were supporting Teenage Fanclub on their national tour but we left before TF came on to catch the last train home. Me and my cousin got one of my RTX CD’s signed by the band out the back of the venue, it must be worth at least 50p now!!! One of the best night’s of my life and it was in Wolverhampton.
Spiritualized/Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – First gig to promote the album “Ladies and Gentlemen we are Floating in Space,” with a gospel choir. Superb night out.
Pavement/Royal Trux – A great set from Pavement, I sat in an “I preferred their earlier stuff” harrumph during most of RTX’s support slot. Some wag shouted “play something we like” between songs.
Red House Painters/Mojave 3 – Great support and a superb set from RHP, worth hazarding Shepherds Bush for.
Boney M – 3 middle aged women and a lad of about 20, the old bloke was my favourite one I felt cheated – didn’t actually go to see them per se but they were at a Uni ball.
Tindersticks – Another brilliant night Stuart Staples sang like a depressed Fozzy Bear as usual and we all went home happy after they played a mixture of old and new stuff.
Watford Rainbow Festival – Free festival now defunct saw Edwin Starr one year who was great and Alexander O’neal another (who wasn’t.) ES was a true showman and a real singer – one of a rapidly thinning generation we won’t see the like again.
V2000 Festival – Pee-ed it down from the get go, i found to my cost that shelling out a princely £30 at Argos doesn’t ensure a tent is waterproof. I took to wearing a bin bag. The acts were mostly MOR snoozers like Coldplay, David Gray and Turin Brakes who all turned into megastars (shows what I know,) Red Hot Chilli Peppers were good though as were long forgotten “the next Fugees” Spooks.
Misteeq/Jamelia – If I get hit by a bus tomorrow this will go down as the last gig I ever went to. I attended this at the behest of my wife for her mate’s birthday.
Happy Days – I’ve probably forgotten loads…
.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.