With the country still in the midst of lockdown and no sign of any live music in the foreseeable future if at all this year I thought I would take the opportunity to look back in the archives, sounds posh I know but it’s just an spreadsheet, and revisit gigs I attended on this day down the years. I will keep this going until I can attend my first gig again in person so hopefully this also brings back memories for my gig going chums who have joined me on this great musical journey down the years.
We are now in June which like May is typically a very busy month for gigs being part of the usual album release cycle and there’s a few today for my trip along memory lane for you down the years.
1997, Teenage Fanclub, Astoria, London
A long step back in time for this one with the Fannies and it’s the first time we had seen them. This would have been the Songs from Northern Britain tour and looking back at setlists around that time the show was reasonably split between that album and in my opinion their masterpiece ‘Grand Prix’. It was a fine live introduction for the three amigos to witness three great singer songwriters coming together in perfect harmony. This was the first of many Fanclub concerts culminating in a farewell show of sorts a couple of years ago.
2003, Chuck Prophet, the Borderline, London
Another day, another Chuck show. What more can I say for someone who I have seen more than anyone else. It’s the ‘No Other Love’ tour which is up there in his top five albums and most of it is played tonight. As is his want Chuck no longer plays tracks from his older early albums but we did get three tracks from the classic album ‘Homemade Blood’ and it was great to have a first airing of his feel good summer pop song ‘Summertime Thing’ which should have been a hit. I managed to get the setlist so a nice souvenir of a typically great Chuck gig.
2007, Pearl Jam, Wembley Arena, London
It’s Alex and myself tonight and I hadn’t seen Pearl Jam for over ten years since their early tours with Ten and Vs. whilst they have certainly had their moments PJ don’t get much better than those two albums. Anyway onto this show. It’s their only UK date for their European tour which has taken in all of the big festivals around the continent.
Tonight though it’s Wembley Arena which by any ranking is not up there at all as being a good venue in London. There was a massive queue to get in and you had to have wristbands to get onto the floor and it seems a little chaotic.
Onto the show itself and I think my relative ignorance of their more recent albums did not help my appreciation of the show and I didn’t know well a lot of the tracks. Looking back now at the setlist and quirky and left field are two of the big takeaways. At that time Alex was massive fan and even he hadn’t heard of a couple of the tracks which included obscure b sides, covers, etc.
All that said the second encore ended really strongly with ‘World Wide Suicide’ ‘Rockin in the Free world’ and closing with ’Indifference’. Not up there with my favourite PJ shows but they rocked as hard as ever.
2018, Pearl Jam, O2 Arena, London
PJ part two and having secured a couple of tickets in my firm’s box we settle down in our comfy seats with a perfect view of the stage and I reviewed the gig on the blog here. A stunning show despite Eddie’s voice which forced him to cancel the following nights show but he and the rest of the band certainly left everything on the stage that night. I think this show was only bettered by the rearranged show a month later where down in the stalls you could take in the visuals as well as the atmosphere of the 20,000 strong fans.
That’s it for today’s trip down memory lane. Here’s hoping we can get to some form of normality soon. Support your small local venues and smaller artists in these difficult times, stay safe and keep on rockin y’all.