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.
May is typically a very busy month for gigs being part of the usual album release cycle and there’s three today for my trip along memory lane for you down the years.
2008, Bruce Springsteen, Emirates Stadium, London
First up on this day is another Bruce gig. This time at the home of football, the Arsenal Stadium. It will probably be the only time I will get on the hallowed turf as we take our position just outside the obligatory golden circle for those that want to fork out a few more schilling.
I’m guessing that this was the ‘Magic’ tour which is not an album that lives long in my memory and similar to some of his other albums at this time suffers from a harsh production, predominantly setup for apple headphones rather than a decent hifi. It’s a usual long set with 28 songs with most the ‘hits’ covered. It doesn’t stand out for me as one of his truly great shows but at least looking back at the setlist he did play four tracks from my favourite album ‘Darkness on the edge of Town’.
But at the end of the day it’s Bruce and he’s playing at The Arsenal.
2017, Cale Tyson, Moth Club, London
I reviewed this gig at the time here and gave it five notes. I was flying solo for this gig at this new venue for me and it was such a great show. The venue was good too with reasonably price decent beer set in the quirky surroundings of a working man’s club with gold glittering ceiling. I am certainly looking forward to a new album and tour for this super talented singer songwriter when the world sorts its crap out at the moment.
2018, Anderson East, Jazz Café, London
This gig was reviewed at the time here. Fantastic stuff musically but the whole experience was let down by the either lack of air con or by the management not switching it on. It was so hot and uncomfortable that it just took the edge of such a great show. This them was repeated the last time I saw St Paul and the Broken Bones at the same venue. Come of Jazz Café sort it out.
Aside from that Mr East is a superb soulful singer and certainly deserves a wider audience.
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.