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.
Just a couple today for my look back trip down memory lane for you down the years.
1991, Squeeze, Town & Country, London
Another Squeeze gig, this time the ‘Play’ tour which is a fine album and probably their best after the eighties classics with of course ‘East Side Story’ being the pinnacle. Who knows who was in the line-up at this time such is its fluid nature but obviously Difford and Tillbrook were front and centre.
Nothing to really say about the gig itself. I have reviewed them multiple times on this page and there’s never a bad show so chalk this one up as another goodie.
1981, Gillan, Hammersmith Odeon, London
This was only my fourth ever gig some thirty nine years ago and with this show I completed seeing the whole of the Deep Purple MK II line-up with Whitesnake and Rainbow coming before this.
This was the Double Trouble show and the line-up had Janick Gers on guitar and the great John McCoy on bass a hulk of a man, bald head, thick goatee who would be hitched to some wires and would fly around the stage. He also had an interesting bass style with his left hand coming over the guitar neck and not underneath. They provided the perfect foil to Gillan, who has that most unique rock voice with a very large range.
I think Budgie may have been the support act with their one hit ‘Bread Fan’ and then it’s the main act themselves and I remember this being a very short set. I am sure they went off after about forty five minutes before the encores. They were brilliant and this was probably the most metal gig I had been to. My abiding memory though was walking back to the bus stop and all you could hear around Hammersmith was the cries of ‘Whoa whoa whoa whoa’ that classic metal chant. For a young pup of a thing it was probably my first experience of that collective feeling of live music and at that time the metal community.
That’s it for today’s trip down memory lane. Here’s hoping we can get to some form of normality soon but I have had several gigs slated for early 2021 already being moved to the back end so that will take it to a full twelve months at least between gigs.
Support your small local venues and smaller artists in these difficult times, stay safe and keep on rockin y’all.