London gigs 12/87-08/96

* Notes come from hand-written diaries from the time; they appear here largely unedited – apologies for the liberal use of “excellent”, “brilliant”, “great” etc. After years of reading NME from NZ I couldn’t wait to go see the bands I had been reading about, and to listen to John Peel’s radio show. Gaps in the timeline will be for holidays/travelling and lost (or no) diary entries… Huge thanks to Andy Fyfe, my main gigging buddy, and all these cool experiences.

December 1987

12/06/87: Age of Chance (Town & Country Club). Sharp mix, blistering sounds, Beasties-ish banter, closed with “Kiss”. With Chrissie.

12/20/87: The Mission – whilst walking/sightseeing around the city we saw the band being filmed near London Bridge.

12/21/87: The Gun Club, support from The Hook and Pull Gang (Mean Fiddler). H&PG from Edinburgh, slow-paced heavy punk style, cool – three-piece with two girls, one a singing drummer. I couldn’t believe that one of the first bands I would see play live in London was the Gun Club, amazing: crowd calling out to JL constantly, in adoration, he dressed in black, Kid Congo Powers manic and feedback freak, Romi Mori on bass, Nick Sanderson (ex-Clock DVA) on drums; full-on, loud, awesome gig, crowd slam-dancing right through, all albums covered including latest “Mother Juno”; JLP only spoke once, in the second encore, which closed with “Sex Beat” (missed third encore of “Death Party” – argh!). With Chrissie and Rodney Hewson, maybe others.
Video of an LA gig from just a few months later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3nJHjWxdTw

1988

01/23/88: The Triffids (Astoria). New album “Calenture” was played with a rougher live touch, along with plenty of “Born Sandy Devotional”, “In the Pines”, older tracks “Red Pony”, “Raining Pleasure”, etc, sing-along hoedown “Once a Day”; after two encores closed with “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You”. Excellent gig. With Chrissie, and other friends.

02/02/88: That Petrol Emotion (Town & Country Club) – (Anti-Contra) Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign gig. First band was Slab: mean, bloody, raw, like Birthday Party, heavy drum-rhythm-bass, distorted guitar. Then Voice of the Beehive, melodic and poppy but with raging guitars and tough rhythm section. Top of the bill TPE: dynamic, pulsating, brilliant – good sound, loud – “Good Thing”, “Swamp”, “Big Decision”, “Creeping to the Cross'“, cover of “Cinnamon Girl” in second encore. With Chrissie and Jeff Thompson.

02/04/88: Aztec Camera (Town & Country Club). Support from Benny Profane – country/rockabilly sound, fast, great, singer with cool Elvis voice; then Goodbye Mr McKenzie – unique sound, clever compositions, two female singers backing a male singer, searing guitar. Aztec Camera very classy show: two drummers, two black women on backing vocals for Roddy Frame, about 1.5 hours. The old songs (“Oblivious”, “Lost Outside the Tunnel”, “Walk out to Winter”) fitted in perfectly with the new material. Acoustic set included “Birth of the True”, “Mattress of Wire” and “Down the Dip”; show ended with “Somewhere in my Heart”. With Chrissie and other friends, including Kieran Scott and Christine Morse I think.

02/19/88: The Wedding Present (Town & Country Club). A very ragey crowd. The Flatmates on first, female singer, fast, blazing guitar music, punk-ish. The Close Lobsters next: a bit drone-y live, spark missing. Wedding Present were literally screamed on stage by the crowd, bearing bags of balloons, then full-on – David Gedge playing 100mph non-stop, stage presence awkward and yet confident. Excellent gig; all their great material performed faithfully and with much fervour; encores of Altered Images’ “Happy Birthday” and Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual”.

02/21/88: The Woodentops (Brixton Academy). Support from Yargo and African Headcharge – dubby, with throbbing bass and cracking drumbeats, awesome live experience. Woodentops: Rolo McGinty very happy, smiling and talking a lot, rolling, flipping and falling all over the place; Benny Staples is the backbone, absolute machine, drumming while standing most of the time. Great to hear songs from “Giant” plus the just-released new album. Gig spoiled a bit by being way too loud. With Rodney and Jeff.

03/13/88: Luxuria (Howard Devoto) (Town & Country Club). Disappointing support acts of Rain Gods (ordinary and unoriginal, evoking Simple Minds and Bowie) and Xymox (a boring version of Depeche Mode without melody). Didn’t know any of Howard Devoto’s material (except for the three Magazine covers) but it sounded good, and he had a great band – the crowd went wild when he introduced the band at the start, but he cautioned “Wait, you don’t know if we’re any good yet”. The third song was “A Song From Under the Floorboards”, played Magazine-perfect, and “Parade” was superb too. In the first encore Morrissey appeared to read a Proust poem; second encore closed with “The Light Pours Out of Me” with Barry Adamson on bass. Beautiful.

03/15/88: The Pogues (Town & Country Club). A HUGE PARTY GIG – the second of six straight nights at T&CC plus a seventh at Brixton. Main support was an excellent funk/reggae-style outfit called After Tonight (I wrote that they displayed the most enthusiasm by a band I’ve yet seen at a concert, tight and talented). A DJ warmed up for The Pogues with Undertones, Ruts, Clash etc. Amazing atmosphere with all the Pogues classics, and Shane McGowan was so pissed he missed lines all the time, but no-one cared. Kirsty McColl was there for “Fairytale of New York”, and they both got covered in “snow”; then Steve Earl came on for one of his songs; Joe Strummer played us “I Fought the Law” and “London Calling” – fantastic! At the end of the second encore two of The Specials came on for “A Message to you Rudy”, then all the special guests were on stage with The Pogues and After Tonight – so good. With Chrissie and heaps of friends.

03/18/88: The Fall (Hammersmith Odeon). Due to Friday evening traffic, missed support Shack. My first (by no means last) time seeing The Fall live, absolutely loved it, no frills, all class. MES dressed formally with jacket, strolling around the big stage area, Brixton with hair wild and playing almost heavy metal style, even lying right back onto the stage. Lots of “Frenz Experiment” (new album) stuff, plus “Pay Your Rates, “2X4”, “Mr Pharmacist” (I think this has been played at EVERY Fall gig I’ve seen), “LA”, three encores. With Rodney.

03/29/88: Pere Ubu, Mekons, Ut (Town & Country Club). UT, three women who swap instruments, play like an extreme version of Gang of Four, with Sonic Youth-ish guitar; not melodic but rhythmic, bass played with a drumstick sometimes, chaotic but interesting. Mekons live are country music wearing Doc Martens, punky, fantastic; Jon Langford announced: “We’re here, the new messiahs”, all the boys in white shirts, black jeans and shoes/boots, the two women in what looked like wedding gowns; infectious, danceable, fun. Pere Ubu were very tight, like fast funk with neat bass and guitar forming rhythm with the two drummers. David Thomas has a strange singing style, but when all the band joined in it made me think of Talking Heads (not a bad thing). Despite being quite large, Thomas moved around early, going from hammering metal to accordion to tuba to maracas. At one point he angrily told the cheering crowd to stop it: “I’m not Jim Morrison.” Loved the whole gig.

04/10/88: James (Town & Country Club). Support from The Man From Delmonte: great, fast stuff, poppy, rockabilly-ish, tight, original. Smiths comparisons for James are common, and not without place, but they played their rhyming/chiming music well. Very popular: introducing one song Tim Booth said “this is about those idiot journalists who see us as some Buddhist vegetarian wimp band – well, we’re not!” And they rocked. “So, if you’re expecting a Buddhist vegetarian party, fuck off!” Good gig.

04/21/88: The Exponents (Fulham Greyhound). Debut London gig, packed to overflowing, huge Kiwi crowd of course, band visibly overwhelmed but also happy, a huge party of both old and new songs. With heaps of (Kiwi) friends!

04/29/88: The Soup Dragons (Town & Country Club). Irish band Something Happens! on first, kind-of U2/REM but more hard rocking, good sound. Then The James Taylor Quartet, jazzy, instrumental with moog; we didn’t love it. Soup Dragons good but not great – fast and punky sometimes, then hard rocking; “Hang Ten” and “Majestic Head” were great, no “Head Gone Astray” though; finished with “Substitute” (Sex Pistols style) and “20th Century Boy” With Chrissie I think.

05/01/88: Pixies and Throwing Muses (Town & Country Club). Apparently one of the ‘legendary’ gigs, with the venue set up for filming. Support was from Jnr Manson Slags: dirty, sleazy, smelly, loud, hard, punky, metal, ‘grebo’ – got tired of it eventually. But not Pixies: about half the songs were from “Surfer Rosa” and I didn’t know the rest, but loved it all. Volume was just right, great playing, sound crystal-clear. Loved Pixies. Throwing Muses were louder, so sound was not as good; they have a unique sound, sometimes like frantic folk-rockabilly but generally featuring reverberating bass and loud guitar; I didn’t know a lot of the material except for “The Fat Skier” songs, but the set climax of two encores was tremendous, especially “Cry Baby Cry”. Loved this gig. With Jeff Thompson.

05/11/88: The Primitives (Town & Country Club). Short support set from Goodbye Mr McKenzie, which was good. Primitives were also good but not amazing; very Blondie-ish and songs too similar so they blend together; Tracey Tracey’s singing was a bit flat and hard to hear over the too-loud mix. But great stage set-up: ‘32 roadster and old (‘59?) Chevy with backdrop of ‘50s car crash cartoon – “Crash” was the highlight, more than “Out of Reach”, but there was a nice cover of “As Tears Go By” sped up in the band’s style.

05/21/88: Nick Cave book signing of “King Ink” at Compendium Books, Camden. Queued for over an hour; he wrote in each book and chatted with each person; I wrote that he “is small: short, thin and pallid”. I didn’t know what to say, so he just wrote “To Greg, from Nick”. Cool though.

05/21/88: The Sugarcubes, supported by Jesus and Mary Chain (acoustic) (Cambridge Theatre, near Covent Garden). Early evening gig, only saw half of JAMC – one Reid on loud fuzzy guitar, the other on acoustic, someone else with a tambourine; my only time seeing them live so, cool. Sugarcubes on at 8.45, Björk and Einar speaking in Icelandic and then they started: soaring, youthful vocals from Björk, offset with gruff sounds from Einar, wrapped in their unique, unusual ‘rock-for-the-80s’: many songs were performed in Icelandic including “Deus”; best songs “Cold Sweat” (powerful, raging beauty) and “Birthday” (coolly seductive), “Mama”; they can be lovely pop (“Deus” and “Motorcrash”), startling and mesmerising when rocking out, and just downright weird. Excellent. With Chrissie.

05/24/88: Swans (Mean Fiddler). “Swans are the living definition of the term ‘wall of noise’”. A crescendo, so intense, full of power, so good (ears rang for two days). Gig a bit over an hour long, including two encores, only 8-9 songs quite long. Couldn’t see the guitarist (behind a speaker) but loved watching the bass player and drummer, while Michael Gira was completely immersed, thrashing about with head bowed. No support but Jarboe opened with a solo vocal piece, a bit like Patti Smith; she also performed “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, the JD cover a single for her/them. Stunning. With Jeff and other friends.

05/26/88: Exponents, supported by King of the Slums (Fulham Greyhound). Smaller crowd this time, but still loving the band. Good sound – it was the famous A&R man gig. Lots of fun, and good new songs; “If Only I Could Die” was the best of the night. A good night out, with Kiwi friends again of course.

06/03/88: The Bats (Fulham Greyhound). Good support from a band called Mussel Shoal. Great to see The Bats live again, but short, only about ¾ hour set; loved hearing “Claudine”, “Chicken Bird Run”… With Jeff.

06/18-19/88: Amnesty International benefit gig (Milton Keynes Bowl) – 18th: The Stranglers, Aswad, Howard Jones, All About Eve, Martin Stephenson and The Dainties, Joe Strummer, Sam Brown, Runrig, Do Re Mi, Furniture, Rhythm Sisters, Buddy Curtess / 19th: The Damned, B.A.D. (Big Audio Dynamite), Aswad, Aztec Camera, New Model Army, Joe Strummer, Bhundu Boys, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, The Screaming Blue Messiahs, Ghost Dance, World Domination Enterprises, Michelle Shocked. With Andy Fyfe, Annie Clegg, Jeff and Barrie Thompson, Sue Jones, Kieran Scott, plus Bernie and Daryl Jones on the Sunday.

SATURDAY: Rhythm Sisters were like Topp Twins; Furniture, good synth-pop, “Brilliant Mind” great; Do Re Mi excellent, good sound; Runrig a Big Country copy, but crowd loved them; Joe Strummer had bad sound but played great music, full-on, played “Police and Thieves”, “London Calling” and “I Fought the Law”, and his song “Love Kills” was a beauty; Martin Stephenson and The Dainties played a beautiful set, mellow and acoustic-like; Aswad had a great sound and were superb, dancey, excellent music; Stranglers arrived onstage to “Waltzinblack” and did “Always the Sun” first, great live show with good sound – “Peasant”, “Toiler”, “Strange Little Girl”, “Tank”, and loved “Nuclear Device” in the encore.

SUNDAY: World Dom Enterprises were awesome, loved hearing “Jah Jah Calling You”; Screaming Blue Messiahs were fantastic, one of the best bands – Bill Carter cool with bald head and mirror shades, rough on his guitars; The Men They Couldn’t Hang were enjoyable but not as much as I had expected, dodgy sound; Bhundu Boys played beautiful African sounds, excellent; Joe Strummer sounded better this time; Roddy Frame was greeted as a real pop star with screams, Aztec Camera were great; Aswad also great again; BAD were amazing live, but only song from first album was “E=MC2”, a great band; The Damned were brilliant – old stuff from “Damned Damned Damned” was meatier live (“Neat Neat Neat” and New Rose”); Joey Ramone appeared for “Blitzkrieg Bop”, Captain Sensible was really funny, “Smash It Up”, “Love Song”, “I Just Can’t Be Happy Today”, but “Looking at You” was long and a bit boring; Joey Ramoine came back for a cover of “The Last Time”, kind of weird. But I loved seeing The Damned, better than I had thought it might be. Comperes were Janice Long and Alexei Sayle (hard case, very funny).

06/24/88: Aztec Camera – Chrissie (Royal Albert Hall).

06/29/88: The Weather Prophets (ULU – University of London Union). The Bats on first, great support gig for them – sharp sound, warm, embracing, “North by North” was fantastic (when has it ever not been?), they went down really well. The Wishing Stones next – liked them; raw, a bit manic at times, ‘60s-style pop; then McCarthy, who were good but the songs a bit samey. Weather Prophets were really great, with a harder live sound, quite a few songs from “Mayflower”. Excellent sound, good live band. With Andy Fyfe and Annie Clegg.

07/12/88: Big Pig (Astoria). First support The Raingods were like a Magazine-wannabe, and then Head! were like a heavy Rolling Stones and trying to be ‘sleaze-rock. Big Pig were excellent, opening with “Devil’s Song”, a subdued version that ended up crashing into the original; “Money God” was terrific and “Hungry Town” the hot favourite; beautiful mix, new songs were good, accented toward dance with a strong r’n’b content. Great to watch and hear, and to see them live again (after two years). With Chrissie, Sue Jones and Bernie Jones.

07/14/88: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Kilburn National Ballroom). Awesome gig. Mick Harvey on bass, Kid Congo Powers on guitar, Thomas Wydler on drums, Roland Wolf on keyboards, and Blixa Bargeld on guitar. As Nick arrives a sea of black and mohawks and coloured, sticky-out and -up hair screams with delight. “Hey Joe” is first then straight into “Jack’s Shadow”. Intense, with so much energy and a good atmosphere. Nick wears a suit and red bowtie but soon strips off and his slicked-back hair becomes a mess. We got: “Long Time Man”(beautiful), “Your Funeral, My Trial”, “Knocking on Joe”, “By The Time I Get to Phoenix”, “From Her to Eternity”, “She Fell Away”, “I’m Gonna Kill That Woman”, plus two new songs that were magnificent; don’t think he did “The Mercy Seat”. Loved it, and the venue.

07/21/88: Wire (Astoria). “We’re Wire – you must be the chosen few”, spoke bassman Lewis, and he was right. Gotobed drummed with only one kick drum, one snare and one high hat; Gilbert maintained more-or-less the same pose all night; Colin Newman did most of the singing (Lewis most of the talking), and took a stance resembling a predatory lizard, with oblong shades shining. The sound was spare but beautiful, nothing was played as we knew it, just new and different versions of Wire’s fantastic pop. Most of new album “A Bell is a Cup…” was played: “The Queen of Ur and the King of Um” first, highlight was “Silk Skin Paws”, “Finest Drops”, “It’s a Boy” just kept winding up, and “Kidney Bingos”; new song “Eardrum Buzz” was excellent. Closing song was a huge version of “Drill”, with almost-visible tension. They came back with “some aural excitement for music lovers everywhere” (Lewis), and played a beautiful version of “Ahead”, followed by the last song for the night’ “Over Theirs”. Brilliant gig. Support was Loop – good sound, with heavy, fuzzy guitars, hard drums and throbbing ‘Colin Bower’ bass, but lacking in melody… With Andy Fyfe.

07/23/88: Pop Will Eat Itself (Astoria). Yeah God were on first (“Welcome to the thrashburger”), hardcore but not too fast, a bit like early Damned, Chrissie said. Boys Wonder were awful, bad taste 70s heavy rock styles, like Uriah Heap and even a cover of Alice Cooper’s “Elected”, yucky. Then The Bubblemen, people in big blobby outfits singing childish lyrics, which was a weird thing at a rock gig, and we found out later they are actually Love and Rockets (ex-Bauhaus). The Poppies were brilliant and so much fun – synthetic drums but good guitar sounds, incredible crowd atmosphere. Most of “Box Frenzy”, plus “Def Con One”, finale was “Beaver Patrol”, encore was cover of Zodiac Windwarp’s “Prime Mover” – grebos go wild. Excellent. With Chrissie.

07/25/88: Crowded House (Town & Country Club). In Tua Nua (Irish band) were support: liked by the crowd by actually pretty boring, like a more lively Fleetwood Mac with U2 guitars. Crowded House opened with “Massive” (as they did when we saw them in NZ 18 months ago), but still good; Tremendous atmosphere, played most of new album, plus all the old hits that everyone went crazy over, singing along etc. Three encores, a great night, Chrissie wanted to go back again the next night.

07/28/88: The Go-Betweens (Astoria). Caught only a couple of Corn Dollies songs but they sounded really good; on next, Shack were great, melodic guitar pop with good hooks, very complimentary to the main act.. The Go-Betweens were very casual, and so was the crowd, just busy taking in this aural treat. Full house. “Bye Bye Pride” and “I Just Get Caught Out” were first, so many beautiful songs to remember and relish again; “Apology Accepted” was wonderful, but no “Bachelor Kisses”! Lots of “Talulah” but not my fave “Spirit of a Vampyre”. Excellent gig, with three encores, including the two girls doing a Shangri-Las-type song, then the boys solo. Top night.

08/01/88: Prince (Wembley Arena). Well, what a night. Arrived for 7.30 and the queue for our door was 15-20 minutes long. The stage was in the centre of the venue, and so were our seats – good view. 8.00 start, to an ear-splitting crescendo from the crowd. Prince arrived in a car that moved around the revolving stage, which was like polished marble, with bits that raised and lowered. Didn’t know much of the first material, but it was great to watch, theatrical, with Prince and Cat playacting, simulating sexual manoeuvres. Good sound, the sets changed a couple of times, flowers popped up, things fluttered down from the roof twice, it was excellent. “1999”, “Alphabet Street”, “Kiss” were among the best, but so much more. Wouldn’t have missed it. With Chrissie, Sue Jones and Nic Robson.

08/26/88: Reading Rock Festival, Friday only – The Wonderstuff, Ghost Dance, The Godfathers, Fields of the Nephilim, Ramones, Iggy Pop. Arrived for The Wonderstuff – most of their set from the new album, excellent pop and good to watch, hard cases. Throughout the day and night the sound was not the greatest. Ghost Dance boring. Godfathers were dressed in suits and ties (of course); great music, cool band but some aggression lacking and needing more volume; very enjoyable though – at one point the vocalist said “if you spent as much time chatting up girls as you do throwing bottles of piss at us, you wouldn’t be such wankers in the first place”, which stemmed the onslaught of bottles for a short time. Fields of the Neph were as bad as I had thought they would be – dry ice, coloured lights, gurgley vocals over dodgy sounds. Great to see The Ramones live, although it was an hour of unrelenting “1, 2, 3, 4” and then the next song - fun! We got near the front for Iggy Pop, lots of moshing, so much dynamism and energy, an amazing performer; “Five Foot One”, “The Passenger”, excellent stuff. Driving, heavy, great music, a long set. During one song he said “I gotta destroy” and smashed up a microphone stand; climbed down off the stage twice. What a climax to the day/night. With Barrie, Andy, Annie and their friend Robyn.

08/27/88: Michael Jackson – Chrissie (Wembley Stadium) with Christine Morse.

09/01/88: Hunters & Collectors with The Triffids (Dominion Theatre). H&C were so brilliant, tight, great sound, crisp and clear, good volume. Going again in two weeks. Triffids good again too – opening with a song from “Born Sandy Devotional”, then all the goodies: “In the Pines”, “Wide Open Road”, “Keep Your Eyes on the Hole”, “Stolen Property” for the encore closer. They also did “Get Into the Groove”, not so good (because Sonic Youth gave the song new cool?), and a Pet Shop Boys cover, a surprise.

09/15/88: Hunters & Collectors (Town & Country Club). Sound not as good this time, but still a good night. A slow start until, about six songs in, “Throw Your Arms Around Me” got everyone going. Two great new songs, “Wishing Well” and “Crimes of Passion”, with other favourites “Inside a Fireball”, “I Believe”, “Do You see What I See?” and beautiful closer “This Morning”. Still shouts for “Talking to a Stranger” and “Towtruck” but these are laughed off. Sold out in advance, a good sign for the band, Mark Seymour visibly pleased.

09/20/88: Siouxsie and the Banshees (Royal Albert Hall). First time in the RAH, so beautiful, ornate, so big – and great sound for what looked like a small PA. The Banshees began standing at the front of the stage with a striped marquee backdrop, then left Siouxsie there after the first song. Gradually three backdrops fell away (the first collecting Siouxsie, the third bowling over the guitarist), to reveal Budgie drumming in the middle of a circular catwalk, great to watch. Mostly new material, but early on we got “Christine”, then later an amazing version of “Nightshift” and “Red Light”. At the end of three encores there was “Arabian Nights”, “Spellbound” and “Hong Kong Garden” to finish off the 12th birthday party. We were all impressed with a night that turned out better than expected. With Chrissie, Barrie, Sue, Jeff, Andy and Annie.

09/21/88: Harry Crews (Kim Gordon and Lydia Lunch) (Mean Fiddler). Loud and heavy – girl drummer, Kim Gordon on bass (Sonic Youth sound, even playing with a drumstick at one stage), and Lydia Lunch on vocals and guitar. The music was biographical of the novelist Harry Crews, pretty cool, set of about 45 minutes. Lots of the f-word from Lunch, finishing up with a vocal piece that was spell-binding and attention-drawing. Excellent, worth going to.

09/23/88: Butthole Surfers (Brixton Academy). Amazing gig, nothing like I’ve experienced before, but close to Swans. Primal Scream supported (missed The Seers) – loud, Mary Chain-ish, each song ending in feedback; 60s-derived sound, very enjoyable, but didn’t enjoy the long feedback whine after they left the stage… Some well-produced acid-type music played next, building atmosphere, while someone danced in the darkness at stage right. Movies played on the screen at the back, upside-down car racing which changed to a very explicit sex-change operation (for 15-20 minutes), then nature shows, Charlies Angels, car racing, westerns, until the Buttholes arrived on stage. The music was loud, heavy, incredible – Gibby topless in jeans, the dancer is now a naked woman at the back, under a strobe; two drummers, one standing, bashing maniacally, while the guitarist thrashes and the bassman booms. You just had to be there. 4-5 tracks from “Hairway”, “Gerry Floyd”, “The Shadow Sleeps”, “Sweat Loaf”, “22 Going on 23” with its filthy guitar, all brilliant. With Andy, Barrie and Warren Prentice.

09/28/88: I Am Curious, Orange – Michael Clark & Company v. The Fall (Sadlers Wells Theatre). A ballet written by Mark E. Smith, live music performed by The Fall, dance performed by Michael Clark and Company, including Leigh Bowery. A new experience, it was really good. The dancing was great, with unusual effects (giant Big Mac, fries, a soccer game with net, giant baked beans can, knife, fork, etc). Music was excellent, looking forward to an album. Fall so cool. With Andy and Annie.

10/03/88: That Petrol Emotion with The Young Gods (Town & Country Club). The Young Gods were amazing live, so full of vitality, so much feeling from the vocalist (singing in Swiss-French), and brilliant drummer – excellent sound. Loved the new songs as much as the familiar ones. Annie said “stunning”. TPE were hot again. Steve Mack crazy, jumping around the place, excellent gig, heard all I wanted except “V2”. With Barrie, Andy and Annie.

10/05/88: Pixies (Mean Fiddler). Fantastic seeing Pixies at the Mean Fiddler, a great venue. Great sound and they played almost everything from the album, mini-album and Peel sessions, plus a couple of new songs – this time including “Cactus”, awesome, and “Levitate Me” was blinding. Kim Deal looked off her nut, smiling and grimacing and staring with unseeing eyes, all about the place – weird to watch. Superb gig, but just one long set, no encore (I thought there might be a riot). Support was Perfect Disaster, sounding good, 60s-style grunge rock.

10/15/88: Sonic Youth album signing (“Daydream Nation”) at Rough Trade, Neals Yard, Covent Garden. The shop was not long open I think, quite new. Very hot in there that day, underground, no windows or fresh air, packed… got a copy of the album on CD signed for me, and a vinyl copy signed for Warren. Stoked.

10/16/88: Sonic Youth with Rapeman (Astoria). First time seeing SY – disappointing. I had heard they can have bad nights (like any band), but most of this gig sounded (to me) like a band tuning up at max volume, just sounded self-indulgent. Andy said, if this wasn’t Sonic Youth the band would be bottled off stage. Best parts: “Brother James”, the only ‘old’ song they did, along with “Confusion is Sex”, and the instrumental parts of “Silver Rocket”. Almost the whole concert was “Daydream Nation” which had only been released the day before, so no-one really new it (I had thrashed it for a day so I might know it for the gig). At the end was “The Counting Song” which was a load of noise and Thurston literally counting over it – I had had enough by then. First support Die Kreuzen were close to heavy metal, Iron Maiden… sounded okay for a wee while. Steve Albini and Rapeman were not warmly received, supposedly due to bad press and bad vibes around the name (deserved). Power guitar noise but not like Big Black, with full, throbbing bass and hot drummer – somehow didn’t really work, but a couple of great songs including a cover of ZZ Top’s “Funky President”. Albini was continually abused and spat at, giving some verbal back at the crowd; no encore, no calls for one. Bad feeling between him and SY, Thurston and him tangled.

10/21/88: Sneaky Feelings with Dead Famous People (Fulham Greyhound). Dead Famous People were great live, playing their EP, but with dodgy mix. SF played really well, tight and even dancey. “Throwing Stones”, “Wasted Time”, “Husband House”, and lots of new songs.

10/23/88: Julian Cope with Something Happens! (Dominion). Not as good as this could have been, some spark was missing. Still, we got “Strasbourg”, “Sunspots”, a weird version of “Reynard the Fox”, The Teardrop Explodes’ “Read It In Books” and “Reward” – the latter finally got things going, in the encore. Good to have seen him.

11/03/88: The Three Johns (Boston Arms, Tufnell Park). Liked the venue: nice size, rectangular with bar along one edge. Support was excellent, Stitched Back Foot Airmen (now just Stitch) – three-piece of stunning talent, playing fast avant-dance/noisy guitar music. The Three Johns are looking a bit old! But sounding mean. Blonde John sings, bass John looks like Hugh Cornwall, and John Langford is quite portly; drummer was a machine of course. I only recognised “Death of the European”; the set was full-tilt noise but far too loud, the worst ringing ears. They covered “Jumping Jack Flash” and encored with “the only song we’re gonna play”, the Stones’ “Satisfaction”, which was good. With Andy Fyfe.

11/17/88: The Chills with Dead Famous People and Stitch (ULU). DFP got off to a slow start, but ended up great again, despite the same bad mix and feedback. Stitch were brilliant agin too, a great live band discovery. The Chills were “stunning”, as Andy said. Beautiful music: “Pink Frost”, “Leather jacket”, “Great Escape”, “Wet Blanket”, “Good in Others”, “Creep”… top night.

11/19/88: The Blue Aeroplanes and John Cooper Clarke (The Sir George Robey, Finsbury Park). Young guy Rodney Allen played first, solo, really good and talented – passing off the Billy Bragg sound-alike as ‘unfortunate coincidence’. Andy reckoned ‘the lyrics of Madness with guitar of Bragg’. The Blue Aeroplanes (including Rodney Allen) were much more raucous than we expected – excellent, intelligent pop from three guitarists with bass and drums, plus singer, and (crazy) dancer. Loved it. JCC came on for about half-an-hour, looking so skinny and not well (2020: he’s still here). Really good, and funny doing classics like “Beasley Street”, “The Day my Pad went Mad”, “Love Story in Reverse”, with jokes and limericks in between. Great to see him live.

11/30/88: Steve Earl and the Dukes (Town & Country Club). Guitar town. T&CC chocka with guitars on stage, at least 20), and rednecks, Americans and all sorts off stage. The Bible din’t show so the Dukes came on stage at 8.30, opening with “Copperhead Road” – backdrop to the stage was a huge rendition of the album cover, with DUKES at the top and HEAR NO EVIL at the bottom, and red lights for eyes. After about 1.5 hours Steve said if anyone is feeling tired to let him know, cos they were gonna be there for a long time – after two encores they finally finished around 11.15. Great sound, not too loud, superb musicianship, band included four guitarists and a amazing keyboard player (great honky-tonk intro to “Snake Oil”). They played all of “Copperhead Road”, “Exit 0”, tons of other stuff, with “Guitar Town” at the end. Steve Earl attacked politicians, especially George Bush, but pushed for Children’s Aid (homeless) and farmers – a man with a big heart, scruffy long hair, beardy face… always smiling and laughing, neat guy. Good band, good night.

12/08/88: My Bloody Valentine (Boston Arms). First on, the Sperm Wails, a bit silly, trying to be punk (singer a bit Rotten-ish), but sounding okay. Good to have a chance to see The Membranes – cries of “get off, you’re shit” as they arrived on stage, but they carried on; better than expected, they were just ‘good punk’ I guess. MBV had a very fuzzy/filthy sound which was most enjoyable. Loud Sonic Youth-isms going on, with melody and enticing tunes – “You Made Me Realise” was lovely, and encore song “Slow” (personal fave) delicious. With Andy.

12/12/88: Laibach (Town & Country Club). “Young Gods meets Swans”. Doors opened late, waiting in the cold, no support, boring PA music – with the crowd demanding it, the band came on at 9.00. Two drummers with snares at the front, topless with army trousers and boots; drummer at the back, bass, guitar, and singer dressed in army trousers, red shirt and hat with long back and sides, braces and leather belts. Backdrop of four hatchets roped together to form a swastika device (usual for them I think). The music was intense, amazing; a Yugoslav opera singer came on for some songs, stirring stuff; great guitarist. Was interested to see this band, I enjoyed it.

12/14/88: Sugarcubes (Kilburn National). Kitchens of Distinction support – ‘squeally’ female vocals, villains and other stringed instruments, and a good sound. Sugarcubes were screamed on stage; started with two new songs and played more amongst all of “Life’s Too Good” except “Birthday”! – despite encores and shouts for it; but two versions of “Cold Sweat”, so cool. Another good gig. With Andy, Annie and their friend Adam.

12/19/88: Ladysmith Black Mambazo (Dominion Theatre).

12/20/88: The Fall (Town & Country Club). Solo guy on guitar on first, note bad, then Benny Profane, good again. Great start with The Fall: “Carry Bag Man”, “Wrong Place…"; most of “Kurious Oranj”, even “Totally Wired”! “Bremen Nacht” sounded the end after what seemed like just a short time, but three encores followed: “Ghost in my House”, “Big Prinz“. With Andy and Annie. So good, I had to go again tomorrow…

12/21/88: The Fall (Town & Country Club). Went right up the front this time. Benny Profane only support, really enjoyed them. Slightly different Fall set, crushed and sweaty at the front. Brix was like a rock star giving away scarves, tambourine, guitar picks. MES so cool, never showing emotion, even when old punks are robbing on him; Steve Hanley didn’t show a lot either, until a balloon hit him on the head – big smile. We got “Victoria” this time. Excellent gig.

1989

01/09/89: Happy Mondays (Camden Dingwalls). First time at this venue – small, long, about Mean Fiddler size. Happy Mondays were not brilliant – Shaun Ryder sounded flat and appeared drunk/stoned, the rest of the band playing sloppily, songs blending together. First up was “24 Hour Party People”; “Wrote For Luck” was good’ “Lazyitis” closed the show, second in the only encore. First support were great, I think called My White Bedroom, a bit Velvety, great sound, lots of bass. I didn’t like Jesus Jones, noisy with no bass, but the crowd loved them.

01/13/89: Head of David (ULU). Actually supporting Prong, but I came to see Head of David. Arrived late, and slow to get punters in, missed Terminal Cheesecake. Saw Boltthrower, who were fast and heavy with growly/gruff vocals (although the singer spoke normally between songs). On next, HOD singer took the piss out of that, which was funny, and they were great: three men and drum machine, did lots of stuff from “Dustbowl” but not my fave “Pierced All Over”. Lots of stage diving and slam dancing, very entertaining. Hated Prong – 3-piece heavy metal band, I left after a few songs, happy to have seen HOD.

02/19/89: Youssou N’Dour (Independence Stadium, Banjul, The Gambia). We took the opportunity to go to this gig while Chrissie and I were on a backpacking holiday in West Africa. We arrived early evening and trickled inside with the crowd, which was local people well dressed and made-up, about 70% women and lots of children; armed soldiers were everywhere for crowd control. We got good seats facing the stage, waited a couple of hours before any music started. We felt a kind-of “what are you doing here?”, being a couple of the very few white people there, but after a while no-one seemed to care anymore. There was a very short warm-up support, and then just after 7.00 Youssou N’Dour came on: he performed for two hours, and it was excellent. The Senegalese singer has an amazing voice, strong and powerful, and the music was in that wonderful, gentle, rhythmic, dance-inducing African style. A colourful show, great instrumentalists, dancing on stage, fans rushing up to touch the star. A treat.

03/22/89: Spacemen 3 (Notre Dame Hall, Leicester Square). Andy and I missed support The Wishing Stones, but we had our names on the door via singer Bill Prince who works at NME with Andy. The venue is round-shaped, there is no alcohol. After being there for about 15 minutes Spacemen 3 came on: music designed for when yer off yer nut, grinding guitar and keyboards with thudding rhythm (Andy said ‘The Gordons were so ahead of their time…’). Lovely guitar sound, the general drone fluctuating every now and then; after about 50 minutes the band left one-by-one to leave a keyboard whining on and on… we left. On the way in Alan McGhee (Creation Records boss) and Guy Chadwick (House of Love singer) were at the door. A good night.

03/23/89: Sonic Youth (Kilburn National). Andy and I again, the second night running – and having a beer for too long across the road we missed support Mudhoney – grrr. Sonic Youth were great this time, although the volume was a bit low (!). After some noodling about they launched into a scorching version of “Bother James” – goosebumps. In between songs there were snatches of The Carpenters’ greatest hits, and comments from Thurston (“Happy Birthday to Epic Soundtracks, who’s tripping. Here’s a song for him – it’s called “Eric’s Trip”.). A beautiful version of “Madonna, Sean and me”, tapering off into its quiet ending, a fitting finale. Sonic standouts were “White Kross”, “Silver Rocket”, “Teenage Riot”, “Candle”. As people were leaving Thurston Moore came out and said “Hey, don’t go”, and there was a treat: members of SY, Mudhoney and other support Killdozer together performed “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, which was great. An excellent night.

03/30/89: Tackhead (Mean Fiddler). MY CONCERT EXPERIENCE OF THE YEAR. The PA was pumping, thumping, booming, screaming with Gary Clail and Adrian Sherwood playing their mix tapes. The awesomeness of that was surpassed when Tackhead arrived onstage: Keith Le Blanc creating the most incredible sounds from a drum kit ever, Skip McDonald on lead guitar, Bernard Fowler fantastic vocalist, and Doug Wimbish with more funkiness in his bass fingertips than … anyone else. It was the best of punk, rap, soul, heavy metal, rock, everything – Tackhead have to be seen and heard to be believed, I loved it so much. I only recognised one track, from “Tackhead Tapetime”, but it didn’t matter at all. With Andy again, both ecstatic.

05/12/89: Mudhoney (LSAOS – London School of African and Oriental Studies). I wrote that this was an “awful, wee, characterless venue”. Hated support band Soundgarden, and when Mudhoney came on they seemed to take the piss out of their 70s-style metal, in a punkish way. They got everyone to invade the stage at the start, and after about ¾ hour they had played 1 ½ songs and created a situation they couldn’t handle… it all came right in the end and was a lot of fun. “Sweet Young Thing” was great, but no “You Got It”. With Andy again, and his friend Marc, a French designer from NME.

05/19/89: “Til Things Are Brighter”, Johnny Cash covers gig (and album), AIDS benefit (Powerhaus, Islington). What a great gig; started with a ‘support’ slot from John Langford and Rico (?) doing C&W songs with synthetic drums and bass (all the players sporting “John” tattoos). Frank Sidebottom next on, with an original song about JC; then Pete Shelley with “Straight A’s in Love”, album-perfect, followed by Brendan Croker, great – everyone was great! Loved Mary Baker doing “A Boy Named Sue”, with Steve Mack as special guest; the penultimate hoedown was Marc Riley and “Wanted Man”, but things hit the roof when John Langford said “there’s no more famous people, so you’re left with us – the Mekons”, and they finished with “Fulsom Prison Blues”. Finale was with everyone on stage for “Burning Ring of Fire” – superb. With Barrie and Jeff.

05/26/89: The Shamen and Inspiral Carpets (ULU). I got my name on the door as Andy Fyfe! But went alone. A heavy dance DJ mix started things, and then the Inspirals: really loud but sounding good, with a twin slide show of record covers, daleks, Sunday Sport pages… like Julian Cope on vocals with Doors/Stranglers keyboards, raging guitars and crisp drum-machine-perfect drums. Unpredictable, I wrote. “Keep the Circle Round” was the encore, after 30-40 minutes which was perfect. I didn’t really know The Shamen but liked their set: synthetic drums and bass, sonic guitar; “Jesus Loves Amerika” was excellent, quite a discoey, acidy, heavy sound – the crowd went crazy, never seen it as full-on as that there before.

06/05/89: Tim Finn (Borderline). Free tickets from Andy for us to go to this gig. Tim Finn had peter Gabriel’s band, they were fantastic of course. Good new material, quite dancey; amazing vocal range but he waffles a lot, and some of that is odd – he looked wild with long, curly, messy hair, suit jacket and loud tie. The crowd loved hearing “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” and “I Hope I Never”. Enjoyed it.

06/08/89: The Brilliant Corners (Sir George Robey). Walked in to The Ryecatchers – not bad, but standard indie guitar/pop/feedback/woolly haircuts… next band were a bit too ‘nice’ for the gig (Candymen?). Terrible sound quality for the whole gig, so hard to enjoy The Brilliant Corners, but their songs were great and different enough from many other post-C86 bands around to be interesting: new material “I Didn’t See You” and “She Comes at Night” proves it. With Chrissie.

04/14/89: Swans (Kilburn National). First up: Wolfgang Press, short set, good songs but vocalist stuck on Cave/B.Party style (“very 1983” said Andy). Band of Holy Joy were just okay, kind of manic folk/cabaret, lots of angst. Swans are different now: still intense and beautiful, M. Gira now plays acoustic, although they still rock/smash out when they feel like it – the wall of noise now has more texture, more reason. Didn’t know anything played but loved it; At the end, after half the crowd had gone, Gira returned with acoustic to perform “a song about America and me” called “Failure”, very touching. With Andy, Annie and Marc.

06/22/89: REM (Wembley Arena). Loads of us went to this, and it was better than expected, for the venue (for seeing REM), although the sound could have been better. “Worksong” was first; “Pop Song 89” the first from “Green”. A few songs in they really kicked off with “Cuyahoga” and “King of Birds”; “Begin the Begin” was great, “Gravity’s Pull” all feedback to start with. The lighting was boring but got better; at one point Stipe was wearing a suit and dancing in a strobe, like a demented David Byrne. He sang from atop a chair, at times invoking tears (“You Are the Everything”), his vocal range truly stunning; he did a spiel at the end, downing Reagan and Esso/Exxon, upping Greenpeace, expressed with meaning. They began “World Leader Pretend” with a snatch of Gang of Four’s “We Live as we Dream, Alone”, and ended with Velvets and Television covers – about 1 hour 40 all up. Great. We all left feeling pretty satisfied; Kieran was rapt.

07/05/89: Pixies and Pere Ubu (Kilburn National). Another excellent Pixies gig, crowd was berserk, singing all the words of some songs (“Hey”); played for just over an hour, then back for one encore “Into the Light”) – perfect. Pere Ubu ‘supported’ – even better than I remembered, brilliant, so tight. “Waiting for Mary” was first, “Cry” amazing – Baz was impressed. Miracle Legion also played, fairly ordinary, kind of like REM. With Barrie.

07/28/89: Mega City 4 (Fulham Greyhound).

08/24/89: Butthole Surfers (Subterrania). New club in Ladbrooke Grove. God on first: much noise, much volume, no melody, no like. On my way to the bathroom I passed Gibby in dirty old denims, a mean looking dude. Buttholes were loud too but great again; people were diving from the balcony into the crowd, and Gibby carried a woman from the stage and deposited her into the crowd. I went right up to the front for the encore, got thrashed around and stage-dived onto. Ended up with just Gibby and the guitarist on stage, Gibby going from guitar to drums and back, and the guitarist doing most of the singing, even on some old C&W cover. Another ‘special’ night, loved it. With Chrissie’s sister Helen.

08/25-26-27/89: Reading Festival, compere John Peel. 25th: Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine, That Petrol Emotion, Tackhead, Swans, House of Love, Sugarcubes, New Order. 26th: Something Happens!, Bhundu Boys, Green on Red, Billy Bragg, The Wedding Present, The Pogues. 27th: World Domination Enterprises, Head of David, Loop, Jesus Jones, Crazyhead, Pop Will Eat Itself, Voice of the Beehive, Butthole Surfers, The Wonder Stuff (didn’t stay for The Mission). The weather had been wonderful for ages but turned to crap for Reading… an hour to drive there, two hours to drive through town to the site. Then about an hour queuing to swap tickets for wristbands – when the bands started they just had to let us all in. Tents and cars were all jammed in, big queues for toilets/washing, and food – not enough of everything, not well organised. But the band scheduling was pretty good. Great sound on first day, rough on the next ones due to wind. Peelie was a good compere, very funny, very him, even giving out football results (of course).

FRIDAY: arrived halfway through Spacemen 3, they were fine. MBV had a bad start but ended well, with “Slow”. TPE were good, great new songs and covers of MBV and Butthole Surfers! Tackhead were very dancey and great to watch again but maybe wrong for this festival, hassled by those at the front. Swans were like when I last saw them, great, even Chrissie liked them (except when Jarboe sang). House of Love were cool when doing the songs we knew and loved, but otherwise a bit boring, maybe not a great festival band. Sugarcubes were weird and sounding awesome, playing almost everything except “Birthday” again; great new songs. New Order were amazing tonight: excellent laser and lighting show, raging dancey performance, perfect sound from the PA; “Ceremony”, “Temptation” and all the cool new hits, but the finest moment for me was “True Faith”; encore was the new version of “Blue Monday”.

SATURDAY: Hot and sunny, then soaking rain later. Listened to the first bands while eating food and wandering around stalls selling stuff, also chatting with friends we met. Missed Les Negresses Verte, unfortunately, and then The Men They Couldn’t Hang and Mary Coughlan due to sheltering from the rain in the car (we slept in the car [no tent], which was horrible, and not comfortable either with no reclining seats). Green On Red sounded good but had to listen from a distance while chatting with Bish, O’Neills, etc. Billy Bragg was brilliant, touching on the Tories, miners, nuclear disasters/wars, politics, even the people in the stalls “selling racist crap”; a selection of great songs including “Walk Away Renee” with piano accompaniment, beautiful, and with funnier lyrics. Wedding Present weren’t great, average for them. Skipped New Model Army, returned for The Pogues: slack night, bad sound, feedback and PA hum, all very pissed so a boring show really, lacking in spark (average “Body of an American”), we left halfway through.

SUNDAY: World Domination Enterprises had the best sound of the day, loved them again with their filthy-sounding and yet danceable poppy music, a fine performance. HOD okay, better suited to smaller venues; Loop also average; Jesus Jones and Crazyhead nothing special. Poppies were okay but also not brilliant – only two songs from “Box Frenzy” and no “Beaver Patrol”, they were crowd-hassled. Queued for food through Voice of the Beehive but they sounded okay. Made it almost to the front for Buttholes, the odd band out, third from the top of the bill when maybe quite unknown? Gibby appeared while the roadies were still setting up, the crowd loved it (him); opened with “The Shah Sleeps…'“ and the crowd moshed around me to this punk; later, the guitarist and bass player smashed their guitars and I thought it was over, that would’ve been fine with me, but no. I had headed back to Chrissie now, and they did “Hey”, “Two Part”, “Psychedelic Jam”, “Graveyard”, “X-Ray of a Girl”, “Sweat Laof”, it was fantastic, although the sound had been better up front. At the end the guitarist was throwing his guitar up and catching it (just), while Gibby smashed another – great entertainment, maybe some new fans made. The Wonder Stuff seemed to get the pace fuller than any other band, including New Order, and the crowd went crazy as they played both old and new material; we both had a turn getting a view from up on Brent Narby’s shoulders – fantastic. We left then, and so did heaps, before The Mission. It looked like the Wonder Stuff got the best crowd, but for me it was, to quote Gibby, “the best goddam band in the history of Austin, Texas – the Butthole Surfers!” (after which he went back to the mic to say “No…”, then walked off smiling). With Chrissie.

09/18/89: The New Christs (T&CC2, Highbury). Loved the album but live they were a letdown – Rob Younger spent the whole time trying to be Iggy Pop, and I just got nothing out of this gig. Support was The Cateran, who were good and would have been fantastic if Hüsker Dü hadn’t already existed; excellent musicians. With Chrissie.

09/19/89: Public Image Limited and Philp Boa (Hammersmith Odeon). Einstürzende Neubauten also turned up playing on this night but I already had tix for P.I.L., so that was a tough call. Only saw about four songs from Philip Boa but loved them. A punk with full gear and mohawk was in the front row for P.I.L. chanting “Sid lives. Sid lives…”. They were resplendent in dayglo suits with ‘ethnic’ patterns, and massive (lovely) sound. Lydon was on good form, enjoying the stardom, shaking hands (we were sitting up on the second level), signing a programme and insulting people. A remarkably straight-looking crowd (probably including us!), but the mohawks down the front went berserk to oldies like “This is Not a Love Song”, “Public Image” and “Religion”, which were great to hear. Loads of stuff from “Album”, best received was “Rise”, and the new material sounded a bit more tame by comparison. But, an excellent band and a good night. With Chrissie.

09/26/89: Jason and the Scorchers (Mean Fiddler). Loud, full-tilt American rock’n’roll, almost ‘pub rock’ (as Andy had advised it would be); pretty heavy at times, one guy even wearing an AC/DC t-shirt – but it was good. With my sister Shelley.

09/29/89: Bad Brains (Astoria). Sold out, with about 100 punters outside hoping for a ticket. Missed Bomb Disneyland, saw The Senseless Things playing 12-year-old punk music in a Buzzcocks F.O.C. t-shirt – the crowd loved them. Bad Brains were amazing, blitzing the crowd with fast, thrash's hardcore, then slipping into something decidedly heavy metal, before relaxing completely to immerse us in sublime dub music – each style seems to come easy, but I loved the dub the best. Visually they are a dub band, all black guys with dreads and the drummer wears a hat; the singer does backflips and flings his dreads about, great to watch. The crowd was about the meanest- and heaviest-looking I’ve seen at a gig, loads of spikes, mohawks, skins, you name it, all grubby and sleazy (and quite scary for me on my own).

10/05/89: The The, including Johnny Marr (Hackney Empire). In contrast to Bad Brains, the crowd for this gig was the straightest-looking yet; arrived just as it was starting. First was “Sweet Bird of Truth”, in clouds of dry ice, then “Armageddon Days Are Here Again”, a song from “Soul Mining”, and eventually we got nearly all of “Infected” and about six each from “Mind Bomb” and “Soul Mining”, and a new one near the end. Highlights: “Infected”, “This is the Day” and “Good Morning Beautiful” through which Johnny Marr played feedback guitar, perfect; finale was “Giant”. Loved the old theatre, small but beautiful, we were sat near the front, really close. Neat going somewhere different. With Chrissie.

10/08/89: The Sons of the Desert (Elephant & Castle). Free gig, afternoon, heavily smoke-filled pub – Irish crowd, and a mostly-Irish band, playing ‘traditional’ music with double bass, acoustic and electric guitars, fiddle, sax and other brass, and a mix of female/male vocals. Lovely waltzes through to full-on numbers, including covers of “Jolene” and Slade’s “Mama Weer All Crazee Now”. With Chrissie.

10/27/89: Nirvana and Tad (LSOAS). The Cateran opened – loud, quite mean, not sounding like Hüsker Dü anymore. On this tour, Tad and Nirvana swapped spots on the bill each alternate night. Tad were next, a 4-piece with Tad himself fronting ( a big man, hence, ‘Tad’). They were so sloppy and loose, sounding like a band that’s still rehearsing after a few weeks together (the epitome of the punk ethic?); I was disappointed. But not with Nirvana, a band I discovered on Peel’s radio shows, and I had bought “Bleach” after that. They had the right guitar sound, mean, and much more interesting material. They opened with “School” and went on to sleaze through more of the same evil metal, slow and menacing. They ran out of songs but wanted to carry on, so did new single “Been A Son” again, and as I was leaving I think they came out again. Good to see the gig full of young ‘pop kids’.

10/29/89: Maria McKee (Duke of York’s Theatre). Greg Sutton on first, ex-Lone Justice, doing a Joe Cocker on piano, and guitar. Not bad. The old theatre was a great gig venue, and perfect for seeing Maria McKee, who was great. The crowd was so quiet we could hear every sound, even her foot tapping, etc. She did most of her album plus LJ songs “Shelter” and “Wheels”, accompanied by keyboardist Bruce Brody, with her going from guitar to piano to solo voice. Greg Sutton co-sang one song; “Panic Beach” was one of the best. For the first encore we got a full band, Moby Dick from Ireland (including U2’s Adam Clayton’s brother on bass) for two great hoedowns; then a second encore of another song from the album. With Chrissie, and my sister Shelley I think.

11/05/89: Edwin Collins (Town and Country Club). Front row seats upstairs. First support Cactus Rain had a good (Björk-like) singer but played boring café music; His Latest Flame were like a second-rate Voice of the Beehive, not good. But Edwyn was great, and the band too. He did most of his new album plus OJ songs “What Presence?” and “Salmon Fishing in New York”. Really cool, he’s so young and boyish looking, jumping around and enjoying himself; funny to listen to as well. With Chrissie, Christine and Kieran, and we saw Andy and Annie there.

11/08/89: Galaxie 500 and Straitjacket Fits ((Powerhaus). Onionhead played first, not bad but typical jangly indie fare. S.Fits next on, winning all punters over as they rendered a stunning set of pure “Dunedin sound” from end to end, fitting in perfectly here. The “Life in One Chord” material was top, especially “She Speeds”, just magical. (Andy reckons Shayne Carter is a pop star in the making, with the looks, personality and songs – 2020 note: we all know now how it went in the end, not quite like that, unfortunately). Galaxie 500 seemed to arrive on stage quietly, and proceeded to play a set of laidback material like I’ve been hearing on Peel’s shows – nice but not amazing, and not exciting to watch. With Chrissie, Andy and Annie.

11/07/89: The Pastels/Pale Saints/Ride (ULU). This night Andy and I were going to see Fugazi at LSOAS but the venue cancelled all gigs suddenly, so we went to this instead, and it was free! Teenage Fanclub (already being talked about) were on when we got there, followed by Ride – I described them both as “MBV/Sonic Youth-type bands”, with TFC a bit more raucous, and Ride sounding good but a songs a bit samey. Pale Saints were good, “Sight of You” was excellent. Then The Pastels, at last I’ve seen them, playing music that ranges pretty much right across what the Flying Nun roster does, sounding really good., particularly one long song that was heavy-ish.

11/23/89: Bob Mould (Astoria). We were actually quite ill with tummy trouble for this gig, so feeling tired and not well at all. It was hard to take in the gig, sadly. But Bob was great, really what I could have imagined a HD gig being like. Powerhouse sound, long songs and good band; he was playing acoustic when we just had to go home – we missed an acoustic set of HD songs. With Chrissie, Gary O’Neill and Nic, Wayne Brown, also Andy and Adam.

11/29/89: Fugazi (Boston Arms). This time. Late decision to go, missed Joyce McKinney Experience, and The Senseless Things were doing there second-last song, the excellent “Awkward Kid”. Half an hour of Public Image over the PA and then on came the Washington skinheads, who were really great. They did all of “Margin Walker” except “Promises” and loads of other cool stuff. Quite dub live, some songs going on for ages with just a drum/bass beat. Other songs were were quite heavy, punk, but not really thrashy. I remember the whole crowd singing along with “The Waiting Room”, which was awesome, something I’ll never forget. I felt like I would have been the straightest-looking person there, but I didn’t care, I loved it.

1990

01/30/90: Tackhead/Gary Clail (Kilburn National).

02/07/90: World Domination Enterprises and Godflesh (T&CC2).

02/23/90: Yargo (ULU).

02/28/90: The Cramps (Brixton Academy). Was glad to see the Cramps, although about 10 years earlier would have been better… (Chrissie and I almost saw them on a holiday in Sydney in June 1986 but their tour ended up being cancelled). Lots of friends were also at this gig I think.

03/12/90: NME party, with Carter Unstoppable Sex Machine (Subterrania). Chrissie got asked by Joe Strummer for a light for a cigarette. She could only manage “No, sorry” while we all looked and didn’t speak. With Andy and Annie, maybe others.

03/21/90: The Fall (Kilburn National).

04/08/90: The Chills and Wild Flowers (Mean Fiddler).

04/27/90: Nomeansno (Boston Arms). I enjoyed this gig. I remember coming back from the bar with two pints and a guy with a blank face pushed his empty pint glass at me, and I had to give him some beer, no way to refuse. With Andy.

05/10/90: New Fast Automatic Daffodils (ULU).

07/27/90: The Starlings (Camden Falcon).

08/22/90: Wire (Mean Fiddler). I remember I didn’t enjoy this gig – it was that “Manscape” period I think, and too ‘electronic-y’ for Wire for me. I didn’t stay to the end. Barrie was there, not sure who else.

09/19/90: Fugazi (Kilburn National). Ill with the flu, hard to get into the gig, although they were great. Support bands Didjits and Silverfish were both terrible; there was loads of stage-diving and the bands got pissed off with it – Ian Mackaye kept making physical contact with them. With Chrissie I think.

10/14/90: The Gun Club (Town and Country Club). A great gig that just got better; began with “Give Up the Sun”, two high pints were “Thunderhead” and “Fire of Love”; guest guitarist Tony Chmelik (a.k.a. Cypress Grove) played on “The Breaking Hands” but I didn’t rate this live rendition (for some reason). With Barrie and Pete McFarlane.

10/24/90: The Johnny Cash Show, including June Carter (Kilburn National). No review but I remember this as being a fantastic gig.

10/28/90: Janet Jackson – Chrissie (Wembley Arena) with Sue Jones.

11/16/90: Giant Sand, with Crawling King Snakes (Mean Fiddler). This was an absolutely brilliant night out. We liked Crawling King Snakes and they went down really well tonight, sounding great over the Mean Fiddler PA. Giant Sand were amazing live: Howe Gelb is completely mad and incredibly talented, at times playing two guitars or guitar and piano at once, and the music ranged from C&W (sort of) to boogie-woogie (sort of) to Neil Young-style guitar-distorted excess… stunning. Band included Vicki Peterson (ex-Bangles and Cowsills), and I think Pappy (old guy, friend of Howe) was there too. A best gig. With Chrissie, Andy and Annie, their friends Rich (ex-Blue Aeroplanes) and Helen, and a load of people from Chrissie’s work.

11/23/90: Teenage Fanclub (ULU). Not a bad gig but they made me think of Dinosaur Jr. With Andy and Annie.

1991

01/21/91: Crawling King Snakes (Borderline).

01/25/91: The Grooveyard (West Hampstead Railway). Not a bad band, very 60s, psychedelic, including flute… With Andy and Annie, Rich and Helen, Jeff and Mandy Jones.

02/14/91: Jah Shaka and the Fasimbas (Powerhaus). Great to go see this, but in the end I found it a bit repetitive and boring, despite the expert musicianship. With Wayne Brown (who didn’t enjoy the preaching).

03/03/91: The Wonderboy Preacher (Mean Fiddler Acoustic Room). Small, nice venue. Andy and Annie’s friend Rich was asked to join this band of two guys who had been playing together for years, so we went to see them – good songs, some really great, but the singer seemed to annoy everyone, kind of overacting. With Chrissie, Andy and Annie.

03/14/91: Throwing Muses with Anastasia Screamed (Town and Country Club).

03/23/91: REM (Borderline). A secret gig, two nights, impossible to get tickets. I went down there and spoke to a tout outside who wanted 100 quid for a ticket, so I flagged it and went back home (but regretted that later). Andy managed to go to the second gig (through NME connections), said it was fantastic.

03/25/91: Maria McKee (Town and Country Club). Good gig, quite full-on and hard rocking; highlights were the LJ songs, especially “I Found Love”; she also did “A Good Heart”, written by her and a hit for Feargal Sharkey. With Chrissie.

04/03/91: Nova Mob (Underworld, Camden).

04/13/91: On-U Sound presents The Pay It All Back Tour (Town and Country Club). Dub Syndicate, Mark Stewart, Gary Clail, African Head Charge, Bim Sherman, Akabu, On-U Sound System, Little Annie, Alan Pillay, Jesse Rae, live mix by Adrian Sherwood.

04/15/91: The Replacements (Marquee). This was a great gig. I bumped into Paul Westerberg and told him I was “a Kiwi who loves your music” – he just stared at me blankly, seeming drunk and/or stoned.

05/25/91: Paul Simon (Wembley Arena).

06/02/91: Living Colour (Brixton Academy).

1992

12/91: Virginia Purple (Lion Tavern, Timaru, NZ). Just arrived in NZ after months of travelling, feeling pretty tired; went to see our friends’ band – Barrie Thompson, Brian Graham and Mark Venmore.

01/92: Chris Moore, ex-Pop Mechanix (Swan pub, Motueka, NZ). Solo on guitar with drum machine, great original songs, many pro-NZ and environment; said he “could do hundreds of covers but didn’t need to tonight”; bought him a beer. With my sister Debbie, her then-husband Mike, brother Rob, his girlfriend Suzie, Vicki Farrant and Chrissie.

01/92: The Warratahs (The Globe, Takaka). The Globe was out in the country, a lovely old wooden place with verandas and garden at the back where the band played. Weird crowd of mainly locals, yokel-types, a few tourists, hippies, middle-aged people, us… good atmosphere, plenty dancing; best songs: “Moving On” by Hank Snow, “I’m on Fire” by Springsteen, and their own stuff to their musical theme. With Rob, Suzie and Chrissie.

05/19/92: The Fall (Town and Country Club). Back in London, great to be at a concert again. Support was an American band God Machine: wall of sound, very noisy, not bad. The Fall were great, with a loud, crisp, meaty sound (heavy with Steve Hanley’s bass, typical), playing mainly new songs I didn’t know, but loved them. Second song was “Blood Outta Stone”; amazing versions of “US 80s 90s” and “Mr Pharmacist”, and encore of “Dead Beat Descendant”. Throughout, Mark Smith had his usual detached, almost bored, air, strolling around the stage, knocking things over and fiddling with things as if looking for something to do. At one stage a roadie was fixing the drum mic and MES casually pushed him off stage while singing. Bought a poster.

06/03/92: Suede (Underworld). New, hot band – venue so packed we couldn’t see anything but the music was great. Andy described it as “Bobby Gillespie fronting the Smiths doing T-Rex covers” – which is about it, although I’d maybe have said Morrisey fronting Primal Scream (halfway between their old and latest styles). Singer Brett Anderson (managed to get a look: scrawny, Beatles-hairdo, Jordan Luck-looking, op-shop body-hugging clothes) has a great voice; the music of gutsy guitars with good lines has a real inviting feeling/atmosphere about it. One song, maybe the single, was very late-60s/early-70s (vocals and music) and could even have come from “Diamond Dogs”. Glam-is music, but not retro, quite exciting. With Andy, Annie and Chrissie.

06/05/92: The Geography of Love (Moonlight Club, West Hampstead). Support was The Planes: great sound, confident but not pretentious, poppy with loud guitars; Andy thought they were a bit Stone Roses, I thought Ride or early U2; they have potential but need a bigger venue, and it was too loud for the small club. Rich’s band GOL played excellent music, I didn’t know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised – Australian singer, which explained the NZ/Aus sound evoking all kinds of things: Triffids, Mekons, NDTs maybe, Lloyd Cole in the vocal style; Rich’s younger brother played violin, which was a great touch. With Andy, Annie, Helen (Rich’s partner) and Adam.

06/??/92: Gallon Drunk (The Russell Arms, Mornington Crescent). Arrived at this pub to find rows of motorbikes lined up outside and walked into a bar full of bikers that turned to look – one of them tipped his head toward a doorway and (quickly) I went through to the actual venue: small but full of enthusiastic followers. Great atmosphere, they played rough but ‘alive’ and exciting (“scary” said Andy); it’s rockabilly’s bastard offspring, with singer James Johnston at first Nick Cave (a la BP) but actually Nick Seymour (a la early H&C, even a touch of Deadly Hume). They’re all slicked, back-combed hair and sideburns, cool; a rumbling baseline is the vehicle, with the beating from a stand-up drummer, and Johnston distorting his guitar or bashing at keyboards – maracas hold it all together. Free gig thanks to Andy; with him and Annie.

07/06/92: Glen Frey, ex-The Eagles (Town and Country Club). One for Chrissie. Never been to a concert like this before… support was a 70s-sounding MOR band fronted by a black woman, perfect for the gig but a bit boring; they went down well. Glenn Frey’s band stood in dim lighting while a keyboard set the scene, and then a row of 4-5 guitarists stepped forward to the beat, into the light, all dressed in smart jackets, baggy trousers, shirts and ties, looking like a gang of surfies ready for a wedding – I nearly laughed but remembered I was here for the night. However, the second song was about a ‘sexy girl’ and we both did laugh. “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and “New Kid in Town” were perfect, and later we got “Lyin’ Eyes” and “Take it Easy” which were great – the crowd went berserk at the Eagles songs, and Chrissie was stoked. But in between it was boring stuff, and even comparing the lyrics of “Heartache Tonight” compared with the early stuff made you realise the Eagles’ split was a good thing. And I never imagined I would be watching “The Heat is On” played live… but there were even worse songs than that. Frey’s onstage persona was somewhere between being a goober and a nice bloke. He did “Desperado” for “the people in Don Henley t-shirts”, and a rousing version of “Rocky Mountain Way”. In the end Chrissie was pleased, and we agreed The Eagles songs were great to hear but the rest was boring.

07/22/92: Pavement (ULU). Much hype around this band. Missed Belly (support) due to arriving while they were on and getting drinks. I liked Pavement; they play pretty loose, and some songs were very Hex Enduction Hour-period Fall; Chrissie likened them to Dinosaur Jr, Andy to The Clean (they were a bit NZ-ish). Glad we went. With Andy, Helen and Chrissie.

08/01/92: Sugar (ULU). Back to the ULU sweatbox for Bob Mould’s new band – exciting and excellent, although quite like Hüsker Dü (not a bad thing). They only played material from the forthcoming Sugar albums, no BM solo or HD stuff (and fair enough, the new songs are so good). A tight little three-piece, bass player also sings, but Bob’s Dü poppy style is really that of Sugar also. Bob said “hi” when he came on, and hardly stopped through the whole set, which was mostly full-on. Some of the stage-divers kissed and touched him. At the end, after two encores (most songs short) he just said “see you in September”. We will. With Chrissie.

08/09/92: Madness (Finsbury Park). Muggy day; we bussed there – people everywhere, Madness booming from stereos, throngs of fans spilling out of pubs and all over the footpaths… very cool, although Chrissie didn’t enjoy the big crowd. Just missed Gallon Drunk, and then Flowered Up were like a bad Happy Mondays; sound not that great. Ian Dury was well-received, the crowd loved him, and went absolutely berserk for “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick”, the highlight. Wilko Johnson came out for “Sweet Gene Vincent”, great. Morrisey was supposed to be on next but had been injured onstage on Saturday, so then out came the Nutty Boys to a rapturous welcome, and sounds of helicopters and a voice saying “madness, madness…”. Straight off, Suggsy croaked “Hey you, don’t do that…” and we were into “One Step Beyond”. The atmosphere was great but it only really took off about halfway through. Wouldn’t have missed it for the world though. We didn’t know all the songs but it was amazing to hear everyone singing all the words of every song. Superb lighting, and during the “Madness” song a massive M over the stage was lit up. At the end was “Baggy Trousers” complete with saxophone player flying by wire – a “final little bit of fun indeed”. We left as they were repeating “House of Fun” and others. Drunken boys had climbed up onto the beer tent, which, luckily for them, held up. With Chrissie.

09/01/92: Magnapop with support Radiohead (Underworld). We got a good view here for a change. Radiohead were good, sounding a bit Pixies-ish at first but soon developed their own sound, which we liked a lot; the guitarist was like a posey shoe-gazer but quite manic at times. Micheal Stipe produced Magnapop’s album, and that’s why we came to this… they were said to be like Pixies but were actually not at all – live they were kind of like Sonic Youth crossed with Babes in Toyland, with Go-Gos vocals! Girl singer was incredibly straight-looking in checked frock and adopting scarecrow stance; girl guitarist was more manic than Radiohead guy; bass player had guitar hung low, playing with a throbbing sound. They were very loud and sonic, but after a while we had had enough and left. With Chrissie.

09/04/92: Edwin Collins and Vic Godard – NME “viva! eight” 40th Anniversary gig (Town and Country Club). We got free passes to this from Andy, but I had to work late and we got there about 9.30 for Edwyn’s last song (he didn’t play top of the bill for some reason), “50 Shades of Blue”. But he did come back on to play with Vic Godard. It was weird atmosphere – downstairs only, and that not even full; half the crowd loved them and the other half were booing them. They opened with a great instrumental but went on to play fairly average ‘rock’ music; Edwin had lots of guitar trouble and Vic’s voice was not up to it; they slaughtered “What Presence?”. With Chrissie.

09/09/92: The Young Gods with support Meat Beat Manifesto (Kilburn National Ballroom). A night of hard beat and industrial sounds. Meat Beat Manifesto were on when I got there, reminding me a lot of early Tackhead with the cutup voices and slamming beats, mercilessly grinding while the packed dancefloor swayed and jumped, and all kinds of magical kaleidoscopic lights played over the band. I had a bit of a bad stomach and had to run to the loo twice during The Young Gods’ set (but wasn’t sick); I couldn’t get into them tonight, they weren’t as dynamic as the other time, kind of overly-dramatic with the singer swooning around the stage and off the mic. “Jimmy” was the only song I recognised, and I didn’t enjoy it due to feeling ill. A bit apprehensive about the bus ride home due to reports of attacks at night on people travelling alone, including men, and even sexually.

09/15/92: The Grooveyard, The Geography of Love and I Ludicrous (The Orange, Kensington). I Ludicrous are a guy ‘singing’ (narrating) while the other operates a synth of programmed music or plays guitar; they are appreciated by The Fall and even come across as a kind-of comic Fall, with the music having that same sloppy early Fall feel to it, while the lyrics are like ‘alternative comedy’. GOL played well again, really tight, and with a few guests (guitarists, violin); a pity the singer is going back to Aus; Chrissie really liked them, as I was sure she would. We watched 20 minutes of The Graveyard, the singer all decked out in a weird robe and pixie hat, the band well-liked (crowd obviously there to see them) and swinging away with its cool 60s vibe – but somehow a bit too cool. Nice to see Rich and Helen briefly. With Chrissie.

09/25/92: Ed Kuepper (The Borderline). About half full when we got there but gradually filled right up, mainly with Aussies. Support band Looking for Adam were like a young U2, similar songs and exuberance, not bad. Ed Kuepper didn’t look anything like what I expected: quite big and stocky, with red hair. The music disappointed, unfortunately, not up to my expectations: too loud and rocky, a lot of the recorded songs’ sensitivity went out the window. “King of Vice” was just a drone, racket, of noise, believe it or not. They came across like Crazy Horse, Kuepper’s guitar even sounding like Neil Young’s. Some old Laughing Clowns songs were good, although the long instrumentals became a bit boring; they did a moody version of the single (“Eternally Yours”?) from “Law of Nature”, the girl saxophonist driving it. “Honey Steel’s Gold” was too ‘hashy’, but the climax of “The Way That I Make You Feel” was where things almost came together but ended up dragging a bit. Played for an hour or so, the crowd stamped for more but after 5-10 minutes the house lights came on, no encore. With Chrissie.

09/27/92: Dwight Yoakam with support The Jayhawks (Hammersmith Odeon). A gig that exceeded expectations. The atmosphere in the foyer was great, lots of people in cowboy hats and awful redneck shirts – when Dwight came out they went berserk, as did everyone; they all ended up at the back whooping’ hollering’ and chanting “U-S-A”. Dwight was real cool, in a sparkly jacket, big white hat, leather trousers, boots, etc. His jacket made curious reflections in the shiny floor of the big stage, and he made amazing movements around the place, seemingly gliding across it and bowing and bending his legs. Brilliant voice and great songs: didn’t know that many but it didn’t matter – enjoyed “Little Ways, “Little Sister”, “It Takes a Lot to Rock You Baby”, “Guitars, Cadillacs”. He raved about his music for ‘white trash, trailer trash’ while the rednecks yelled, and he played a George Jones song. About an hour or so, plus encore; first UK concert in five years, what a goodie, we loved it. With Chrissie.

10/07/92: Pond (underworld). American band that I had discovered, once again, thanks to ‘Peelie’. Small crowd but it was a nice atmosphere, I appreciated being in London and the opportunity to go out to something like this. Support was Rollerskate Skinny, who I didn’t really enjoy – kind of a bad version of AC Temple or early Sonic Youth. Pond were ‘nice-looking’ American boys but rocked out in a Dinosaur Jr kind of way; ace single “Young Splendour” was third up, great. Glad I went.

10/19/92: Rough Trade store – diary entry says I went to Rough Trade despite a Covent Garden pub being blown up by the IRA at 2.00pm; tubes running, streets closed.

10/16/92: Action Swingers (Underworld). Arrived to support band Scum Pups: arrogant Sex Pistols poses, shiny shirts and metal sound (at the time I thought: Mudhoney playing Slade); they had a ‘music is shit’ air about them but played well, I liked them. The Action Swingers (great name) were pretty fast, almost like Metallica (etc), with Axl Rose-type vocals; only played half an hour, then returned for an encore as I left. They were okay but pretty same-y, only liked a couple of songs; nothing like I was expecting.

10/17/92: Robyn Hitchcock, Concert for Refugee Relief in Bosnia (Powerhaus, Islington). Peter Buck guested at this gig, but the rumour of it being a secret REM gig proved unfounded; but, consequently, it was packed out. However when Robyn Hitchcock appeared on stage the crowd went wild – evidently they were there to see him after all. After a couple of songs Peter Buck appeared but he stayed well in the background and didn’t say anything over the PA, seemed a nice bloke. Good songs but we got bored due to not knowing them, plus we were tired; they ‘reformed’ The Soft Boys onstage and everyone loved that. A couple of encores, with Buck, and the best songs at the end: very jangly guitars, goods bass, good show. With Chrissie.

11/??/92: Western (Bull and Gate, Kentish Town). Rich’s (GOL) band in its new format and with new name, new singer, new songs. Their first gig, a bit wobbly at the start but it got better, and the last songs were all guitars blazing away, very good. Rich sang a bit to help the singer who was a bit flat. Pokey venue, a bit grotty.

11/09/92: The Bats (Powerhaus). Aussie band The Moles played first – I found them okay but soon got sick of them (“too miserable” someone said). But The Bats were brilliant (as usual), desperately plugging their new material despite the calls for their old stuff; Paul Kean told us about “Fear of God, our new album”, from which I only knew “It’s a Lie”, great. The encore was treat of “Miss These Things” and “Made Up in Blue”, while “North by North” was superb (Andy said: “the entire career of the Velvet Underground in one song”). With Andy and Della.

11/14/92: Ministry and Helmet (Brixton Academy). Packed. Helmet were on when I got there; ‘the next Nirvana’ – I doubt it but I quite enjoyed them, pretty heavy, muddy sound. I got near the front for Ministry – loads of gear: two movie projectors (one back of stage, the other one above it), two slide machines (either side at back), with the predictable images of war, politics, religion, operations, etc, and heaps of lights. “We’re gonna do NWO first” said Al Jourgenson, which was great, but the next few songs started to sound a bit same-y until they hit their stride and it got better. “Psalm 69” was good, “So What” with a guest vocalist (who also sang on “TV Song”), “Just One Fix”, “Superdrug”(?), and near the end a song with “When the Levee Breaks”-type harmonica, it was superb. It was a heavy monster mix, loads of guitars sounding great, good bass, big drums, and plenty of samples flying about. Jourgenson was all in black with with his checkered ‘policeman’ hat and shades. The lights were really good, building up to a blaze of white at the end.

12/??/92: Bailterspace (Islington Powerhaus). Support the Mambo Taxis were five incredibly cool women: one guitarist wore a shiny gold short dress, high heels and had quiffed hair, reminding me of Poison Ivy mixed with the B-52s; bass player was short, in a black designer dress, short bob hairdo; second guitarist was quite chubby with frizzy bob; keyboard player was skinny as a rake, permanently holding a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale; and I couldn’t see the drummer but she sang most of the songs, with the others joining in. The music was a mix of surf guitar, psychedelic 60s pop, punk, all sorts… the best song was second last, 50s doo-wop singing with punk music. Lots of fun, they went down well. Really looking forward to seeing Bailterspace so I went right up the front where it was loud but the sound not so great (better at the back, as I found out later). It’s a wall of sound, sometimes going g on a bit too long, but great to watch Alistair Parker: he played a Rickenbacker most of the time but produced a white Fender Stratocaster for one song, which he left on the floor and kicked out of the way at one point. “Skin” was first; the songs have a great ‘chorus feel’ in the chord changes rather than vocally; I didn’t know many of the songs (“Vortura” was brand new, I bought the CD here), but they did “Grader Spader”, although a bit differently. Parker mucked about tuning after every song, responding to criticism that it was necessary, brushing it off; he swapped onto bass and played it fast, definitely the band leader, starting all the songs. When John Halvorson sang his songs were faster, more ‘punky’. So glad I went. Quite intense most of the time, ‘a serious band’.

1993

02/14/93: Henry Rollins – spoken word gig (Astoria). Clever, funny, witty and intelligent; some ‘scenes’ went on a bit too long, but we enjoyed it a lot. With Chrissie.

02/27/93: Dinosaur Jr (Brixton Academy). Support band Come were too droney, needed some more-uptempo songs, although their actual sound was good. Dinosaur came on after a long break – didn’t know anything until about four songs in, then I got more interested: “Start Choppin’”, “Just Like Heaven”, “Get Me” … “Freak Scene” was the last song, pretty wah-wah-ed up, but a necessary airing. Worth going but not a fantastic gig (I wrote).

03/??/93: Giant Sand (Mean Fiddler). Was so excited for this gig but it was disappointing, mostly a drunken country rock shambles. Howe Gelb was playing with Debbie Peterson from The Bangles, and a girl from The Cowsills. With Andy, Rich and Helen.

03/14/93: Belly and Radiohead (Town and Country Club). Radiohead are getting bigger all the time; they’re sounding more like Pixies and yet more commercial – now Pixies are finished they could fill that gap nicely… Belly were great, really rocking out and choosing to either give back or reply to the shouts from ‘the boys’ in the crowd. Gail the bass player bobs around like a metaller, and Tanya is so small but has a big voice (when she wants to) and plays superb guitar, such lovely sounds. It was a great concert. With Andy.

03/17/93: Th’ Faith Healers (Powerhaus). This was a Smashed! gig, Steve Lamacq’s club night for music biz people (and punters), and this was its 1st birthday. I went because I wanted to see Th’ Faith Healers, and they were as good as I’d hoped they’d be: a lot of stuff I didn’t know, but I was pleased to hear “Moona Inna Joona”, “This Time”, “Love Song” (brilliant), although they butchered “Spin ½”, which became long and horrible; only thing missing for me was “Hippy Hole”. A late night. With Andy and David Quantick.

04/17/93: Einstürzende Neubauten (Clapham Grand). I described this as an “amazing experience”. It was a nice evening (weather); I picked up Andy and we drove to Clapham, sat in a beer garden until Marc Pechart arrived, and then we crossed the road to The Grand, a wonderful old red brick building with arches and pretty windows, on the High Street at Clapham Junction. It is a renovated theatre with standing area downstairs, gallery and boxes upstairs; all the ornate fittings are still on the walls and ceiling, and there are lovely arched leadlight windows behind the upstairs bar. The venue has a nice feeling about it: fresh and new, a successful renovation of its original character. Miranda Sex Garden were on, the female vocalist crooning and wailing over Goth music (to put it simply) – okay I guess, as background. Then, finally, after waiting five years (or more) I saw EN. Metal scaffolding everywhere, and amongst it all manner of metal and plastic drums and objects … Blixa and Mark Chung (bass) wore suits, the other guitarist with long hair looked like Peter Hook; percussionist F.M. Einheit wore a big flared apron-thing, not sure about the other. First song was “Zebulon”, third was “Interim” – SO GOOD, all I could have hoped for and more. Downstairs was full so we had to view from the top of the seating gallery, which was good for the whole stage and, although, due to the nature of the music, you can feel and hear the performers’ expressions, I wanted to see them. They did “Headcleaner” and other tracks from “Tabula Rasa” – one song the percussionist was on his knees beating two plastic, strapped-together, mic’d up jerrycans, and moving them around the stage. We could view both percussionists beating all kinds of metal and plastic objects, including chains, the scaffolding, and a mic’d up plastic 44-gallon drum. Suit jackets were now gone. About half-way through I went downstairs and got near the front, to one side, in front of the PA – the combination of kick drum and bass went up my legs and threatened to dislodge the back of my head. When I got there one band member was up the scaffolding burning some metal which was dripping onto the stage; another was pouring gravel down a metal chute (and all over the stage) – great sounds, all mic’d, while Mark Chung was swinging a microphone around his head with a cigarette in his clamped-shut mouth. Visually and aurally stunning. They came back on for an encore all grinning like madmen, which I found introduced a human element to the metallic, mechanistic proceedings (apron bloke grinned all the way to the end). First encore was “Prolog” from “Haus der Luge”, a totally vocal piece by all, with two stamping poles, and Blixa closed it with a solitary cowbell chime – fantastic. They started “Yu-Gung” but Blixa said “No”, so then into “Seele Brennt” but he said “no” again (I would have loved to have heard either or both) but then they did “Letztes Biest” from “Halber Mensch”, and then “Der Tod Ist Ein Dandy”, a screaming piece to finish with. I watched the encore with only five people between Blixa and me. I felt tired before but totally absorbed the experience, could have watched/listened for hours… incredible. Drove Andy home with NME writer Johnny Cigs and his girlfriend. (At that time I had a homemade EN sticker on the car, the only sticker on it.)

05/24/93: PJ Harvey and Gallon Drunk (The Forum, ex-T&CC). Arrived as Gallon Drunk stepped out to the instrumental track from “The Heart of Town” over the PA and album cover projected at the back (with other images through the set); they weren’t as good in this bigger venue, kinda muddy sound and their manic impact lost, unfortunately. I think they opened with “Some Fool’s Mess” and went on to play most of the goodies from the new album; I think singer James apologised for the sound; I still think they’re brilliant. The best reception (and better sound) was reserved for PJ Harvey, the place full to bursting on this second night of two. A sextet in tux and ties set up at the front, and Polly arrived in a slinky black number with feather boa for “Man Size Sextet” – it was a nice way to start I thought (everything was being filmed), although at the end of the song the guy next to me started shouting “you pretentious bastards” … what? After a gap of five minutes or so the band came on, Polly now in red dress, gold high heels and shiny snake-skin-type jacket – they did “Rid of Me” first and went on to play a fantastic set (so good I nearly bought a t-shirt), but no “Yuri G” or “Ecstasy”, sadly. A one-song encore of the rockin’ version of “Mansize”, an excellent way to finish. Love this band right now, a superb gig.

06/08/93: Maria McKee (The Forum). Support was one of the guys from her band again (Marvin..?), who arrived onstage via the audience, carrying a ukulele thing, and looked like Barton Fink. He started off kind-of weird, eccentric, manic folk-like, but after he played “The Star Spangled Banner” a la Jimi Hendrix on a twin-necked guitar his set became really rockin’. He was joined by the full band, including Tracy and Melissa Beehive, and they finished of with some good songs. Maria McKee started with “East of Eden” and went on to play a great set. I watched from near the front for a while – she is really tiny, but looks cool these days, having changed from her hippy looks of last time to short, bobbed hair and leather. She also played “You Are the Light” and “Ways to be Wicked”, as well, as stuff from her first solo album, some changed a bit; the clamour for an encore was huge and we got a couple more songs, but the house lights stayed off for ages so people kept on for more but there wasn’t any. With Vicky Farrant, Aogán McGuinness and Chrissie.

06/11/93: Therapy?, Cop Shoot Cop and Fundamental (The Forum). Fundamental already on when I arrived, and they were brilliant, I was even boogying away on the dance floor to their throbbing bassy beats and ‘ragga-rap’; they were dressed in robes and head-dress with a backdrop of slides of Islamic imagery. They went down okay considering it was a ‘punk’ gig, although the words of the band leader (Aki Nawaz) were drowned out by the PA the second the music stopped. NYC’s Cop Shoot Cop were next, and got off to a plodding start but halfway through the set kicked in, and then they were great, interesting – the drummer stands behind a ‘scaffold’ of mesh and things to bash; as well as the guitarist, bassist and keyboard player was another guy who sometimes played guitar, trumpet, or danced around chucking stuff into the audience (toilet rolls, shredded pillows – feathers everywhere). They suddenly quit when something went wrong with the bass guitar, which was a shame as the set was peaking. But the crowd was really there for Therapy? and it went truly berserk from the second the very first note was struck – a huge noise for a three-piece, the bass player jumps and bounces around the whole time, while the singer/guitarist (he of the goatee) also runs around a bit; things were pretty loud by now, the songs sound very similar to me, but overall the night was what I’d hoped for.

06/13/93: Great Xpectations, Xfm gig – The Cure, Sugar, Belly (Finsbury Park). This is Sunday; yesterday the Fleadh Festival was here and it was raining – today, a gloomy morning became a bright, warm and sunny afternoon, although the evening was quite cool, with a chilly breeze. Arriving at 4.30 we had missed The Family Cat, Kingmaker, Catherine Wheel and Senseless Things; the Frank and Walters were on while we wandered about the food stalls. The stage was flanked by giant video screens which made for a good view (also showing videos in between bands’ sets). Before Belly came on Damon Albarn did a solo acoustic song, then we watched Tanya Donnelly interviewed by Janice Long. After Belly played, Guy Chadwick did three solo acoustic songs, “Shine On”, which was lovely, and two new ones. Robert Smith was interviewed before The Cure played, but some git was sound-testing the drums right through it, a waste of time! The sound was not brilliant for Belly or Sugar but they made the best of it. Belly, openly awed at the size of the crowd, started with “Low Red Moon”, great song but a bit ploddy today; not the best version of “Feed the Tree”, but overall they were not bad, just lacking in something. Their set seemed short but the good stuff was there: “Slow Dog”, “Gepetto”, “Star”. For some reason Sugar got a bit of a bad reception, with heckling and missiles (so bad that eventually the cameramen at the front left and the monitors switched to a static Xfm logo). They opened with the first three songs from “Copper Blue” and continued with a blistering set, seemingly to annoy the hecklers, and I think it worked – Sugar seemed to play a long set. We had ‘dinner’ while Carter played – they were enthusiastically received but they ‘laddish boisterousness’ doesn’t interest me. The Cure got the best of the evening, playing with the most ‘dark’ so they could maximise lighting, which was good. Nice to hear (see) them again after 10 years, although, after a while, the songs started to blend a bit; “Just Like Heaven” was great, but most of the main set was newer songs I didn’t know. Back for an encore, and the first was new single “Friday I’m in Love”, but then they went back to “Three Imaginary Boys”, “Inside You” (“been a while since we played this, don’t know if we’ve ever played it”), “Fire in Cairo”, “Boys Don’t Cry” and “A Forest” – brilliant finale, good day. With Chrissie.

06/25/93: Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (The Garage, Highbury). Only saw the last song of support Credit to the Nation, but seemed good. Hiphoprisy were a good live band, jumping all over the place and bouncing rhythms, and even a guy with a grinder sparking away on the stage; I got a bit bored with the more jazzy bits but they were still great to see.

07/05/93: Sugar and Madder Rose (Brixton Academy). Caught up with Andy, who had just returned from the States; we missed Bivouac, saw most of Madder Rose (who weren’t as good as I had hoped they’d be – they ‘noised up’ their theme song too), and listened to Come from outside the auditorium while we chatted. Sugar were loud and awesome, the difference of being in front of a crowd that wanted to see them this time. Same set initially (as at Xfm), until breaking for a cool acoustic set of “Hoover Dam”, “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” and a nice new one. Bob was really into it, boogying all over the stage, especially during an instrumental. They played all of “Beaster” in order, with the encore break coming after “Tilted”, with a droning guitar feeding back for a few minutes until the band returned. The songs all sounded amazing – “Feeling Better” had most of the place moving, as it should, and Bob finished by singing “Walking Away” guitarless over taped keyboards, beautiful. Sugar are a power surge live, electric, and a vehicle for wonderful power pop; a long set that flashed by, phew. With Andy.

07/11/93: Neil Young with Booker T. & the M.G.s, plus Pearl Jam and James (Finsbury Park). After three weeks of hot weather the last couple of days have been sunny to start with, then cloudy and showery – including today (Sunday). We arrived about 4.30 to have missed Teenage Fanclub (a shame) and James were playing – we found them very average, just a maudlin noise really, and seemingly not outdoor-concert-ish (surprising for a band that has been touring the US with Neil Young). Pearl Jam were next, metal mush that was not to our tastes (even if Neil likes them). After dinner we got as far forward as we could, for a good view as there were no screens this time. The sunny/cloudy day had just turned to light rain but luckily only for about half-an-hour. Neil came on about 7.40 with the Booker T boys and began with “Mr Soul”, “The Loner”, “Southern Man”, then “Helpless” while playing piano, “Like a Hurricane” (a bit early but great anyway) and “Motorcycle Mama”. It was really brilliant, after waiting half my lifetime to see this. I don’t think Steve Cropper etc were as wild as Crazy Horse would have been but they were still great (Cropper’s guitar work in “Separate Ways” [?] was superb). Neil said “thanks a lot for coming, great day for a concert!”; and “you guys gotta swear more – if you can’t swear, get a job”; and “we need fog, we gotta have fog – I’ve been waiting months to come to London and there’s no fog”. The only time he had the stage to himself was for “The Needle and the Damage Done”. We also got “Love to Burn”, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” (Neil on piano again, lovely); as he sat down with an acoustic guitar, and with Steve Cropper on electric, for “Harvest Moon” he said “what’s that noise? I hate feedback … I love feedback, wait a minute; I’m having an identity crisis up here”; the song was as beautiful as ever. After 1.5 hours he left, then returned for an encore of “Dock of the Bay” (written by Cropper of course) and “All Along the Watchtower”. Another exit, then a finale with members of the support bands for “an old folk song”: “Keep on Rocking’ in the Free World”. A superb night; his ‘axe’ was on top form, with that distinctive Neil Young sound, and winding songs up with droning feedback. We loved it, he is a god, a hero, still (48 years old now). Forgot to mention “Powderfinger”, which was superb also, of course). With Chrissie.

08/18/93: Iggy Pop (The Forum). I enjoyed this a lot more than Chrissie did – she wasn’t impressed with all the exhibitionism but, of course, that’s all part of the show! A few mic stands went west, he dived into the crowd a couple of times, exposed his willy and danced around with his jeans around his ankles; he forsook most of his newer material for the old faves, which made for a good night: “Raw Power”, “1969”, “Real Wild Child”, “China Girl”… “The Passenger” was a bit metal-ish unfortunately; when he performed “I Wanna Be Your Dog” the vols went right up. Overall: good fun, but the band a bit metal-ish. With Chrissie.

09/01/93: “Noisyland” Flying Nun tour with The Bats, Straitjacket Fits and JPSE (Marquee). The night before we were leaving to go to France for a couple of weeks – consequently I didn’t expect to be going, but Andy got me a ticket, so… It was a brilliant night (once it got started), but a sweatbox in there. JPSE played first (after enduring ¾-hour of The Tubes’ music), then S. Fits, then The Bats – they could have been in any order but this turned out to be perfect; the sound was great, and we watched from the top bar, where we could marvel at the drummers. JPSE were tight, really good, played well; I would have been happy to just hear new album material, and they did play a bit (“Into You”, “Bleeding Star” and others – but no “Breathe”), but also “Elemental”; “here’s an old one” and they did “Flex”, superb; and closed with the excellent “Crush” (no “Precious”). Straitjacket Fits opened with one of the meaty songs from “Melt” (“sounds gutsy” said Andy’s new girlfriend Tracy, who is really nice, chatty), and they went on to play a good set where I knew about half the songs (“She Speeds” was, quite simply, stunning, out of this world), and they played really tight. Some songs were not so interesting (we described one as ‘dreadful’), but I was well pleased to see them. Then, as I said to Andy at the time, whenever The Bats play it’s an outright celebration of pop, quite euphoric, and this night was just like that. They have their distinctive style on record, but it’s live where they excellent – they had everyone moving the whole set, even the new songs went down well (amid the inevitable cries for “Mr Earwig” – not tonight); “These Things” is beautiful, but in the two-song encore they blew us all away with “Block of Wood” and “North by North” (Andy had his VU ref out again). Absolutely loved it, what a brilliant night. With Andy and Tracy.

10/18/93: Teenage Fanclub and Superchunk (The Forum). Missed The Posies but caught Superchunk – better than expected, thrashy at first but generally good rockin’ out American stuff, a bit loud. Teenage Fanclub were brilliant, just like a modern but noisier Byrds – beautiful songs and singing, and nice guitars. They are cheeky and funny on stage, and obviously enjoy their current fame. They played a few songs from “Bandwagonesque” which I enjoyed (“The Concept”, “What You Do To Me”, “Star Sign”, “Metal Baby”) but loads of the others I also loved. It was funny watching the bouncers pushing back into the crowd the guys who were hoisted up to get to the front – they always seemed to kind-of panic. TFC are very aware of what gets said about them: “This is a song from before we got into Big Star, when we were like Dinosaur Jr”, or something like that. They appeared for the encore wearing identical football jerseys with 13 (the new album title) on the back, and each person’s name. Apparently two members of Big Star were there playing on the final song – which actually was a horrible, big messy ‘jam’.

10/28/93: Uncle Tupelo (Mean Fiddler). Support Drugstore were okay, good musicians, with a tiny girl singer with a voice like Marianne Faithful. Uncle Tupelo were much younger-looking than I anticipated (don’t know why I thought that), came across as real nice people; drummer (Ken Coomer?) looked the oldest, in a Woodstock T, with glasses and dreads. They played a lot of country hoedowns and were great; I enjoyed “Fall Down Easy”, “Nothing” (encore song), “watch Me Fall” and “True to Life”. I was stood at one end of the stage and saw everything well: a band of multi-talented members. It was sold out, but upstairs closed.

11/01/93: Mazzy Star (Mean Fiddler). Had to queue in freezing cold to get in – sold out, and packed with ‘cool’ people. Sat and talked through the support, then took up a good standing spot, right in the centre, during the break. Mazzy Star were superb, so tight, with the perfect mix, especially for the drums (all ‘echoey’ and Doors-ish). Knew all the songs except one, they did all the good ones apart from “Taste of Blood” and “Fade Into You”; “Ride It On” was greeted with enthusiasm, but the best for me were “Turn to Stone” and “Blue Flower”. Hope Sandoval was tiny and waif-like at the front in black sleeveless satin dress and long black boots, looking down when not singing, and never spoke a word; Dave Roback enjoyed drawing all manner of effects out of his guitar (breaking for a short acoustic set at one point), and the drummer was superb; the bass player held his guitar like a rifle. A great gig, most satisfying. With Chrissie.

11/11/93: Grant Lee Buffalo (The Forum). Love the GLB album, which moves up and down with moments of real emotion, but actually I would rather have been at Subterrania for Trans-Global Underground this night because, live, the band couldn’t lift things above one muddy (emotionally and sand-wise) level – the mix was terrible, only Grant Lee’s vocals and guitar having any clarity (and the guitar had a horrible, trebly sound), while they bass and drums were thudding in a background murk. They came across as very much revelling in their five minutes of fame, and relishing the idea of rocking out in larger venues some time in the future… The lovely songs from the album (“Shining Hour”, “Jupiter and Teardrop”, “The Hook”, but no “Pixie Dimestore”) were flattened by the bad mix. Only at the beginning of “America is Snoring” did I feel something, fleetingly. In the middle of the set, curiously, was Neil Young’s “For The Turnstiles” – flattened also. Disappointing; a band without any of the subtleties of its recordings.

11/25/93: Ray Charles (Hammersmith Odeon). Nope. I got the day wrong – we turned up a day (night) late on the 26th to huge disappointment. And the tickets weren’t cheap: booked on credit card, 45 quid all up. Long journey from home as well.

11/20/93: Maria McKee (Astoria). She was in fine form again, full of loads of energy, really belting everything out. She put a lot of soul into the songs, think this was the best we’ve seen her. The old Lone Justice songs still seem to go down the best. With Vicky, Aogán and Chrissie.

12/09/93: Jesus Lizard (Astoria). Caught three songs from Bivouac, a bit boring really, they’re better on record. Jesus Lizard play with a meaty sound, I liked them a lot. The bass player (ex-Scratch Acid) had a Big Black kind of sound; vocalist David Yow was drunk and kept diving into the crowd, becoming topless a la Iggy Pop; he kept singing though. I didn’t know any of the songs but enjoyed the concert – I wrote that the bass sounded the same through each song, like in Pixies’ songs… funny.

1994

01/12/94: Afghan Whigs (Astoria). Worth a look but a bit disappointing, although reviews have all been glowing. They opened with “Gentlemen” and played a lot of material from the album; the sound was good and clear, meaty, but kind-of full of nothing… it came across as a real ‘rock gig’ to me (kept thinking of Pearl Jam but critics put the Whigs way up on them). With Andy (he hated it) and Fiona (Andy’s now longtime partner) and Rodney Hewson (who didn’t mind the gig).

01/16/94: Trans-Global Underground (Astoria 2 – just a few doors along from the other one). A neat place with a kind of open balcony affording a good view of the dancefloor and band. This was an NME do, with Mark Lamarr as compere, and four bands. Missed the first; saw about six songs by Shed Seven (okay); then Tiny Monroe, kind of Pretenders (Andy said), they were fine but forgettable… TGU are fantastic on record, and live they are amazing (live instruments but lots of tapes of course) – there are few of them. It’s all very visual with singer/belly dancer Natacha Atlas in exotic-looking Egyptian garb, bringing a lot of mysticism to the music. There are a couple of big guys singing and moving around, one black in a gold robe, the other white in black hat and t-shirt, with the drummer and guitarists in masks (a clarinetist was also around). I knew all the songs except one, there were eight or 10; “Temple Head” was second and everyone loved it, but “Earthtribe” was probably the best. Will go see them again next chance I get! With Andy and Fiona.

01/28/94: Mekons (Garage). This was a loud gig, too loud really, but pretty good. They began with the first three songs from “Mekons Rock’n’Roll”, a great way to start (Jon Langford announced “we’re still the Mekons”, as it’s been a while for London). Sally Timms looked very 70s (hairdo, studded DJ); about halfway through Susie Honeyman showed up with fiddle but she was actually pretty drowned out by the rest of the band. They did “Curse of the Mekons”, “Sorcerer”, a few I didn’t know (some old punky ones I think, one sung by a black guy, maybe one of the roadies), and the new single “Millionaire”. Was thinking of going to see Senser at Megadog at the Rocket afterwards, but Andy pulled out with flu… maybe next time; want to go to that.

03/16/94: Trans-Global Underground and Loop Guru (Astoria 2). Superb. Loop Guru were also brilliant – they’re more ‘electronic’ while TGU are more ‘live’, I would say, but both are really great. Andy was ill but Fiona was there.

04/07/94: Meat Puppets (Garage). Named-checked by Nirvana, with songs covered at recent concerts. Support acts were English locked-in punk outfits – first Travis Cut (?) were a bit Dinosaur-ish, second Rugrat (?) were Mötorhead-ish, terrible really but popular with the crowd. Meat Puppets looked like surfers with their long hair and clean, straight-looking clothes, but they played mean and good; the only song I knew was “Sam”, near the end. Prior to that they did a nice, short, country-tinged acoustic set. Glad I went to this.

04/08/94: Kurt Cobain kills himself. From the diary: “A very sad thing. He overdosed in Italy about a month ago, and checked out of detox a few days before doing this – killed himself with a shotgun in Seattle. I felt no cynicism about it, just shock and sadness.” Note: I heard John Peel talk about this live on radio, he was very distressed.

04/12/94: David McComb and the Red Ponies (Borderline). Presumably a thrown-together band, which included “Evil” Graham Lee from The Triffids and McComb’s brother, a wild man on violin. They began with “Unmade Love”, and did “Trick of the Light”, “Raining Pleasure”, other Triffids songs, and a few VU covers – closed with “What Goes On”, which was actually great. McComb has a brilliant voice, great to hear it (live) again, and he showed no mercy on his guitar either. They rocked. With Andy and Chrissie.

04/19/94: Chris Knox (Mansion House pub, Kennington). Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see Chris Knox do a solo set in a wee pub. It was superb, just him with a (sometimes loud) guitar or his diddy-wee Casio-type keyboard which features some amazing sounds. Strong Kiwi accent, and his bantering revealed his as a ‘normal’ Kiwi bloke despite the punk (The Enemy) history. The songs he said were from the new Tall Dwarfs album sounded great; didn’t know much until the end: “Not Given Lightly” was beautiful (despite him stopping mid-song to yarn about how listeners can be emotionally manipulated by songs, i.e. the one he was singing – and he was right), “Meat”, and Alec Bathgate joined him for “Nothing’s Gonna Happen”. He did John Lennon’s “Mother” faithfully with screaming lyrics and great emotion – scary. And after 7-8 years I finally met Roger Shepherd there (he used to send me Flying Nun albums and band stuff when I was at The Timaru Herald newspaper); loved meeting Alec as well. Only about 30 people at the gig. With Andy – and off we went again tomorrow night to:

04/20/94: Tall Dwarfs (Astoria 2). We met at a bar with a load of others who were going next door to see Killing Joke (with original lineup) at Astoria, wouldn’t have minded myself… But, excited to see Tall Dwarfs – Roger said it was “a great Tall Dwarfs gig”. The material seemed different to the night before, didn’t know much again, although they did do a few songs from “Slugbucket”: “Brain”, “Phil’s Disease”, others; final song was “Nothing’s Gonna Happen” again, with Alec’s guitar sounding fantastic. Both nights were real treats. With Andy and Fiona.

04/26/94: 3Ds (Borderline). Saw Roger Shepherd again, and Sue Morrison was here too; Andy didn’t make it this time. 3Ds were brilliant, so tight, they play so well and the music is dynamic, right on the button with what seems to be popular right now, but retaining their individuality (a very NZ music sound). They ended with “Outer Space”, then “Hey Suess”, “Ice”, then back for a one-song encore of “Hellzappopin’”. Very pleased to have seen them; would have loved to go again tomorrow night to see them at that Mansion House pub…

05/10/94: Nelson Mandela inauguration. On stopover from a holiday in Vietnam in a Bangkok Airport hotel, watched this live on TV, South Africa’s first black president – a fantastic event to see.

05/19/94: Virginia Purple (Warners, Christchurch, NZ). Great original songs and cool covers: Shadowy Men’s “Good Cop”, a rockabilly version of “Ring of Fire”, and Neil Diamond’s “Cherry Cherry”, superb. A big crowd, cool.

06/04/94: Crowded House (Bournemouth International Centre). Support band Blink were not bad, Irish rockers in a kind-of ‘indie’ way. Crowded House were superb, fine without Paul Hester – Neil Finn and Nick Seymour are just as nutty, and everything they do is loved by the crowd. They did quite rocky versions of their music, nothing from “Low Men” but a few from the first album.They did a funny thing with “I See Red”, running through the chorus a couple of times raucously but lapsing into silent periods, and it just didn’t really work – eventually they burst into a CH song. Also featured was a bit of “Six Months in a Leaky Boat”, which was nice, and well received. They had ‘Crowded House Story Time’ but people were too scared to come forward, except for one guy who shaved his head because his friend with cancer has no hair, and a girl who told a bad joke. The crowd sang along with large portions of “Weather With You”, but the highlight was the appearance of a large number of Māori and Pasifika people to beat rhythmically and sing harmoniously – absolutely wonderful. A short ‘solo’ spot featured everybody singing in te reo Māori while one guy played acoustic guitar – too short, but I guess they had to think of their UK audience; it made us feel a bit nationalistic… With Chrissie.

06/07/94: Palace Brothers (Borderline). Only one ‘brother’ turned up, with an acoustic guitar; although some people were into it, a lot thought it was disappointing, and we found it boring, lacking any atmosphere or feeling. With Andy.

06/14/94: Reverend Horton Heat and Sulphur (Mean Fiddler). Supprt band Sulphur was a three-piece of rocking ‘teen angst’, with grunge clothing, Brett/Suede/Morrisey-type singing, and hard-rocking indie guitar sounds. I thought they were really good but it took a while for a rockabilly-wired crowd to show much enthusiasm. But, they left with a good response. RHH were also a three-piece: the Reverend himself was almost straight-looking in black pants, white t-shirt (with US flag etc on it) and baseball cap; the drummer was grunge-looking, with long hair and black t-shirt and shorts; the double-bass player did look the part with black shirt, jeans, boots, hair, goatee, chains and tattoos. The quiffs in the centre of the crowd went pretty mad during the set, which was mostly full-on rockabilly, generally fast, with the drummer playing amazingly, the bass player going berserk, and the Rev. getting into it with loads of twangy, echoey guitar. Didn’t know anything for the first 20-25 minutes until they did “Wiggle Stick”, “400 Bucks”, and so it went. An instrumental from the “first CD” was brilliant; after an half-an-a-half they finished with a ripper version of “The Devil’s Chasing Me”.

06/??/94: Dodgy (Garage). Dodgy Club Night, they were good, and we heard “Lovebirds” sounding a bit more Who than Byrds. With Andy and Fiona.

07/05/94: Elvis Costello and the Attractions (Royal Albert Hall). Featuring the original Attractions, we were expecting something brilliant but it wasn’t quite; maybe because we were up too high and the sound was a bit crap. But with so many great songs, we were glad to be there and hear them.

07/09/94: Bailterspace (Garage). Not many songs that I knew, and it was pretty loud (of course), but I enjoyed it. Support act Cable were good, like Nirvana but original in their own way (I bought their cassette), and next on were hotly-tipped Helium, who were all girls and kind of rough in that early punk kind of way, not bad.

10/02/94: Sugar (Brixton Academy). A good gig but not brilliant, I thought. A lot of stuff off the new album which I don’t know, but near the end we got “Tilted”, “Man in the Moon”, which were really great; good to also hear “Changes”, “Hoover Dam” and an almost unrecognisable “If I Can’t Change Your Mind”. With Andy and Fiona.

10/22/94: Headless Chickens with Julie Dolphin (Powerhaus). A good night. Headless Chickens were the support, and they were great but the sound not so much. “Gaskrankinstation” was first, then all the goodies: “Juice”, “Donde Esta…”, “Choppers”, “Railway Surfing”, “Mr Moon”, but no “Cruise Control” surprisingly when it’s just been released here as a single. They played slickly and quite hard. Julie Dolphin were top of the bill, more Kiwis (most of them) with a girl singer; they seemed really good but we ended up getting a bit bored. “:A bit generic indie” said Andy accurately, but they did have a good sound – chunky bass, indie guitars, Lush-ish vocals (maybe). With Andy and Fiona, and Chrissie.

10/28/94: Elastica with Shriek (Astoria). This was really great, a glorious pop noise firmly rooted in punk, and good sound system – but short, as they don’t have a big repertoire yet; it’s all short, sharp, perky bursts. They played extremely tight; they’re much loved at the moment, this year’s Belly in terms of popularity. I had heard most of the songs before, but the faves were great – “Stutter”, “Connection”, the one that goes “oh no, I think you should know”, and they finished with “Vaseline”. Support Shriek (I missed Blubber) were also good, a real Gary Crowley-type band, chunky indie-pop stuff which went down well.

12/14/94: Massive Attack (Galtymore Ballroom, Cricklewood). I made Chrissie come to this, on the promise that it would be something special, what with the rising of Massive Attack; plus I was excited to see them. If I remember rightly, the gig was in a venue of several different rooms with their own DJ; but as the night went on we got a bit bored (we were there on our own), until we eventually left without seeing MA because it was getting quite late on a work night. A shame for us. With Chrissie.

1995

01/31/95: Paul Kelly (Garage). First time seeing him live, an acoustic solo set – great, but a bit spoiled by the over-enthusiastic crowd. “Dumb Things” was excellent, and I remember “Other People’s Houses”, “So Much Water”, “Don’t Stand so Close to the Window”… looking a bit old but the will and worth is still there.

01/20/95: NME Brats: Renegade Soundwave and Dreadzone (The Rocket). A good experience but these Rocket gigs are designed for people off their head, to enjoy it properly I reckon. Saw Dreadzone, and Renegade Soundwave were brilliant once the posing singer buggered off. With Andy.

02/17/95: Senser and Skunk Anansie (The Forum). Senser are a superb, brilliant live band, with loads of energy and great songs. Support was Skunk Anansie, the speed-metallish punkers fronted by a black girl with an amazing voice.

03/10/95: The Fall with Voodoo Queens (The Forum). A good gig. Caught about 20 minutes of Voodoo Queens in support (“Supermodel”, “Kenoo-ey Eyed”), spritely pop with a hard edge, fronted by “the girlfriend from hell” (?) (but she was great). And then more hard-edged pop, from The Fall, but not exactly spritely, was belted out to a good standard. MES arrived in black with white buttoned-over dinner jacket, and wandered around the whole gig looking for things to fiddle with (his usual MO), pulled out a guitar lead once, and got his mic cord tangled in the stands. He was in total control of the gig but later Brix sang 2 or 3 songs, which was good (“Don’t Call Me Darling” was great live). Oldest songs were “Dead Beat Descendant” and “Big New Prinz” with bass only, but we also got “Edinburgh Man” and “Free Range” (superb), “Behind the Counter” – mostly new stuff. “Feeling Numb” was excellent, and finale “Life Just Bounces” was too. Sadly, no rockabilly tonight – I was expecting “Hey! Student” but no; still, I was happy. Good backdrop, colourful, with “Shiftwork” album cover panels at the side and, in the centre, a simple big diamond with THE FALL across it.

03/28/95: Dick Dale with Vibrasonic (Garage). Dick Dale is popular again thanks to “Pulp Fiction”, and I just had to go. Very cool, loud.

04/11/95: Chris Knox with Charles Napiers (Garage).

06/09/95: Dodgy with Cast (The Forum).

07/13/95: Man-or-Astroman? with Gold Blade (Garage).

07/26/95: Remy Ongala with Toto La Momposina (Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank).

07/28/95: Fun-da-mental (Bottom Line, Shepherd’s Bush). I loved this gig, as I love the band. It was very cool, with a section performed with traditional Pakistani singing (the performer made me think of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). It was an Anti Nazi League gig, and I was quite wary when I left the gig of who might be around, waiting to beat up the punters – I was on my own, but got home safely, no trouble. Phew.

08/18/95: Muttonbirds (Borderline).

09/26/95: Tap Dogs (Sadlers Wells).

09/29/95: Stereolab (Astoria). I was so happy to see Stereolab live.

12/13/95: Freakwater with Lambchop (Borderline). Modern C&W (called alt-country now), so cool; on album they’re a bit sparse and thin, but live they were warm and wonderful. Two women singers: one skinny and dark with ‘wobbly’ country voice of sadness, while the others was blonde with excellent vocal range, a good singer. They both played guitar, with a chain-smoking bass player of greased-back hair and sides, black cowboy shirt with white edgings, plus a long-hair guy also on guitar including pedal steel. They did about four songs from the album we knew, and then a few more, up-tempo dancey numbers. Second song was “Wild and Blue”, and in the encore they did a great version of “In The Ghetto”. Excellent concert, so glad we went. Lambchop were a bit mellow for us, we didn’t really watch them (him). With Chrissie.

12/23/95: Neville Dickie’s Rhythm Makers plus Alan Elsdon trumpet (100 Club). I think we went to this with Montserrat and Mick Robinson.

1996

01/19/96: Tindersticks with Baby Bird (Astoria, NME Brats). As with Stereolab, I was so pleased to able to see Tindersticks live before leaving London.

02/16/96: Mike Flowers Pops (The Forum).

08/07/96: Patti Smith (Shepherd’s Bush Empire). Tube strike this day, we ended up walking all the way from Oxford Street to Shepherd’s Bush. Got there to find Patti Smith already on (only about 5 minutes), and it was a fantastic gig. Really. She came across as really nice, full of humility, and seemingly modest of her importance – although, in an acoustic moment someone shouted “you’re the coolest, Patti” and she responded “ain’t I?”; she made mistakes on her guitar and said “even my mistakes are great”. She was dressed in an old worn suit with white shirt and tie, and shiny gold platform shoes which she discarded during “Dancing Barefoot”. She did a Dylan song, Prince’s “When Doves Cry”, Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” (with son Jackson singing and playing guitar), Springsteen’s “Because the Night”, the Doors’ “Crystal Ship” and finished with “Gloria”, with John Cale guesting on bass. Tom Verlaine was in the band. Patti was clearly enjoying herself, which made for a great atmosphere in the lovely theatre surrounds of the Empire. “Summer Cannibals” was great, and “People Have the Power” had two readings: early on as the song, and half-an-hour later as a poem. She did a reading of (dead) brother Todd’s favourite poem over an own-number by Lenny Kaye; there were also lots of references to Fred “Sonic” Smith. In a word, the evening was ‘special.’ With Chrissie.