That gig meme that’s been knocking around on the Facebooks

FIRST GIG: Cliff Richard at the London Palladium in 1983 with my parents.

LAST GIG: Incredibly luckily just sneaked in before lockdown it was me as m-orchestra supporting Pye Corner Audio at the Wild Card Brewery in Walthamstow. It was just after Andrew Weatherall had died and Martin Jenkins finished his set with a glorious version of Weatherall’s Come Together remix. Nadine Shah at the tiny Moth Club in Hackney was a couple of weeks before that. Not a bad way to head into months and months without gigs.

WORST CONCERT: I mean presumably there must have been worse but the one that immediately comes to my mind is Tears For Fears at Wembley Arena on the Seeds of Love tour as a bloated yawnfest.

BEST CONCERT: I think either the first time I saw Nine Inch Nails on the Pretty Hate Machine tour or the first time I saw LCD Soundsystem which must have been just after Yeah came out. Both were at London Astoria.

LOUDEST CONCERT: Crushed up the front watching Swans at Kentish Town in 1987 and it was so loud the police came in and shut it down 👀

SEEN THE MOST: Gary Numan (14 times). Depeche Mode and The Fall are next (12 times each).

MOST SURPRISING (part I): Either Let’s Eat Grandma at Latitude (like weirdly being invited into somebody else’s private dream) or Drenge the first time I saw them and didn’t know anything about them or Black Midi the first time I saw them having not heard anything before.

MOST SURPRISING (part II): I initially thought this was supposed to be bands who surprised me the most, but I have seen some people are doing it as artists you will be surprised that I have seen, so for that answer I would say The Shadows at Walthamstow Assembly Hall or David Essex at the Royal Albert Hall. Hey, did you rock ‘n’ roll? Rock on.

NEXT CONCERT: In person, who knows? I have tickets for something like 26 concerts booked for 2021 and I’m not really expecting any of them to happen. Online? I’ll be playing at and watching EMOMN on Twitch on Thursday night.

WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN: Joy Division. The Manics with Richey. Thompson Twins. Simon & Garfunkel at Hyde Park when they had the Everly Brothers, aged 1,057, in a guest slot. The very obscure band Slab!, but earlier on than I did, when they still had the brass section with them. Actually, to be honest, the answer is “most of the artists I still go and see now, but in 1982 instead”.