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.
A busy day with a couple of corkers today for my trip down memory lane for you down the years
1993, INXS, Brixton Academy, London
For younger listeners there was a time before the internet and mobile phones and you often had to actually go to the venue to get tickets. Today though it’s an early morning start to queue for tickets at HMV in Oxford Street. Beating me there though was uber fan Christine. After a bit of negotiation with those around her I was allowed in the queue. Tickets duly secured I still managed to get into work almost on time.
This was quite a low key tour after the Wembley Stadium show a couple of years before. This would have been the ‘Get out of the house’ tour following the release of ‘Welcome to Wherever you are’ followed quickly by ‘Full moon, dirty hearts’ albums that’s fair to say don’t live long in the memory.
Sadly most of the set drew from those two albums although of course there is plenty of room for a lot of mega album ‘Kick’. Another tragedy was just one track from both my favourite INXS album ‘Listen like Thieves’ and the one before ‘Swing’. They never put on a bad show and it was good to see them close up but it would take something monumental to top that Wembley Show. This was however a band on a sharp decline which obviously culminated in Hutchence death a few years later.
2003, the Blasters, Robert Randolph, Dingwalls, London
It was hot, damn hot, even the sweat drops on my body were sweating. First up was pedal steel virtuoso Robert Randolph. I didn’t know much about him before the show but I certainly left being a fan. He has a tight band and does actually possesses a good voice although most of the tracks are instrumental and very much a groove thing. I remember he also had a bass player with a really high falsetto who took lead vocals on a couple of tracks.
Onto the main course. The Alvin brothers have had a tempestuous relationship to say the least over their very long careers. I think it comes from a mutual resentment that one is a great songwriter and the other is a great singer. Luckily for us they have reunited probably off the back of a new best of box set that came out recently. Highly successful in his own right Dave earnt his chops with Brother Phil in the rockabilly band The Blasters who have reformed for this gig.
All the hits are here including ‘American Music’, ‘Border Radio’ and ‘Marie Marie’ and it’s a brilliant ninety minutes of classic rock and roll music. This is up there in my all-time top twenty gigs I think and I would think that John and Graham would agree.
The only down side is the heat and at one stage I did fear for Phil’s life as he was sweating so much and was so red I thought he was going to pass out. That aside a truly memorable night and after seeing them again together a few years back it’s a classic case of the whole is better than the sum of the parts. Epic stuff with a sample set list below form that tour.
2007, Rock the Bells with Rage against the Machine, Randall’s Island, New York
After some tough years health wise for Alex we take a trip across the pond for the ‘Rock the Bells’ mini hip hop festival on an island in the Harlem River with the likes of Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, Wu Tang Clan and the main reason I am there, Rage Against the Machine.
It’s fair to say the weather gods like the sun were not shining on us today and another reminder that outdoor festivals are a lottery. Luckily I had bought VIP passes which provided some tented areas with bars which were a blessed relief to take shelter from the rain. Sadly this didn’t help the terrible organisation to actually pick up the tickets on the day with us wasting probably two hours queuing in the rain missing a couple of acts.
Dodging the rain we caught all of the above shows and our VIP passes also meant that Alex go to meet I think Cypress Hill back stage who by all accounts were off their tit$.
Onto the main act, the weather gods decided to have a breather as 30,000 are finally rewarded with the main act, reformed RATM. The opening acts all seemed to be peripheral for the headline slot.
My first experience of a Rage gig and I’m not I was fully ready for the carnage I witnessed in the crowd that night. Mosh pit didn’t come close to describe the whirling dervishes forming increasingly large circles of full contact mixed martial arts in the mud.
The band were on fire and delivered a jaw dropping set of hip hop rock or whatever genre they are. That first time seeing Morello live and the sounds he gets out of that guitar are incredible. A frustrated DJ, Morello turned to the guitar to get those incredible effects out that sounds like records scratching. De la Rocha is in good form with a few choice words for Bush at the time screaming out the lyrics to tracks like set opener ‘Guerrilla Radio’, ‘Sleep Now in the Fire’ and of course set closer ‘Killing in the Name’.
It’s all over in a flash as we make our weary way back across to the city via bus, subway and foot as we reach our hotel in the early hours the next day tired, wet, hungry, thoroughly exhausted but completely exhilarated after what we had witnessed.
2009 Hayes Carll, the Luminaire, London
Around this time we used to go the Luminaire regularly. A bit of a trek in sunny Kilburn but a good venue that had the right attitude to gigs with signs reminding people to respect the artist and shut the eff up.
Tonight is American singer songwriter Hayes Carll who treats us to a fine night of country tinged Americana with his thoughtful songs armed with just an acoustic guitar. Nothing special stands out and it’s a solid set form an artists who continues to deliver great music.
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.