Monthly archives: June 2017

An ankle injury scuppered any hopes of a wild and crazy end to 2003, but 2004 started with a fresh and promising collection of gigs to look forward to. One short-lived but welcome venture was the ‘Pity For Monsters’ nights run by the Devlish Presley duo and a number of allied friends. Despite co-operation from members London’s deathrock revival scene, the bands they put on were varied in style and fanbase and it was one particular hidden gem that provided my first truly memorable gigging moment of the year. Continue reading →

The focus of the last part was my discovery of the wonders of European festivals. It may therefore come as a surprise that my one overseas trip of 2003 came as very much a last-minute thing. There were many other things to distract me closer to home, and the move to a London-based job meant that I was never far away from some kind of gigging action whenever I felt like it. And I felt like it a lot. Rather too often, in fact, as my first major gig of the year would reveal. Continue reading →

At the end of 2001, my stagnant life finally turned around and come January 2002, I entered a continuous period of employment that leads right up to this day. This of course meant more money for gigs, CD and (for the first time) full-blown music festivals.

What the year didn’t provide was any one performance that really stood out….it was a year where the event as the whole was more that the sum of it’s parts. It was also the first year I saw more that 100 bands over the course of the year. Though the tendency for the same bands to crop up time and time again made bagging the last few quite hard! Continue reading →

The first part of this feature saw how I began to dip my toe into the world of live music. But with the exception of Gotham, these gigs were all about ‘going for one band’. Come 2001, and I began to push the boundaries at bit further. But not much further. Outside of scene events, 2001 was a dead year for me. The only work I could get was mind-numbing temporary admin work (including that bloke that could make all of Australia sound boring), which left me turning up to several events in no state of mind to enjoy myself.

Despite that, there were a few stories to emerge from the years gigging adventures, concluding with a show that I still maintain is the best I would ever see. Continue reading →

I was a late starter to live music. My first ever gig ticket was an 18th birthday present. It would be another few years before I caught the gigging bug. But even those early shows gave me stories to tell. Continue reading →