A trip down memory lane
I figured I'd allow myself some wholly self-indulgent reminiscences. This will be the first in a series, if I can be bothered...
15/12/86 The Surfin' Druids/Don't Call Me Shirley/The Heretics at The Perse School, Cambridge.
My first 'gig', three local bands playing in my school hall. I think The Heretics were from Long Road, and they wanted to be just like The Cure. Which is a laudable enough ambition in itself: but unfortunately they were just awful. But still more memorable than Don't Call Me Shirley, who -- as best I can recall -- were a wholly ordinary pub rock band. But The Surfin' Druids were great. They had some snappy little tunes of their own, and they also did a cover of The Housemartins' 'Happy Hour' -- big hit of the day! -- which got everyone on the dancefloor.
06/06/87 Stormed/Indiscretion/Big T-Total & the Half-Cuts at the Strawberry Fair, Cambridge.
You'll see a lot of local bands represented in these early years. Virtually no one from Cambridge ever got any recognition outside it: but, locally, the scene was massive. The local bands could sell out the Corn Exchange more quickly than the big names; and they didn't get much bigger than Stormed. Very theatrical goth/ska, if you can imagine that, in facepaints and tailcoats. I still enjoy their one and only release, a three-track 12" single (even though the smell of glue has faded over the years). And one of their singers also doubled up as singer for Big T-Total, who opened the show at lunchtime, and they were absolutely extraordinary. Picture the scene: a psychobilly band with a singer in dungarees, straw hat and a footlong quiff, two guys playing (and climbing on) upright double basses, a saxophonist, and a standing drummer with just one snare drum and one cymbal. Marvellous! Indiscretion, meanwhile, were one of those rare cases where one of them, at least, did get some recognition outside Cambridge. They were a fairly ordinary band on the whole, with the exception of their lead guitarist, who -- aged just sixteen, from Hills Road -- could play just like Eddie Van Halen. Not that that impressed me musically, even at the time, but I had to acknowledge his talent. And then, just a year later -- still aged only seventeen -- he got hired as the lead guitarist in Dio, and was instantly thrust into playing arenas around the world!
09/10/87 Mötorhead at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
There was a long queue to get in, due to some rather overzealous security checks, and the crowd was pretty rowdy, throwing plastic pint cups at the stage. Lemmy did not like that. "If I get hit with another one of these, I'm walking off the stage." Luckily, we did make it to the end.
13/11/87 Dr Feelgood at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
I saw them again the following year, and one could certainly make a case for saying that's two times too many. And, yes, in many ways they were an appalling band: but, at that age, it was kind of fun.
16/01/88 Marillion at the Hammersmith Odeon.
Definitely not the sort of thing I'd go and see today, but I make no apologies for it. I was right at the back of the circle (on the left hand side), and it was brilliant.
21/01/88 Nutmeg/Indiscretion at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
This was one of the heats in the 4th Cambridge Rock Group Competition (from which I still possess a t-shirt!). I didn't realise, until I looked it up, that Indiscretion had been among the six bands playing that night: I only had eyes for Nutmeg. I've seen many great live acts since that time, but I'd still rate Nutmeg alongside any of them. Their music wasn't terribly interesting in itself -- derivative Rolling Stones-esque R&B -- but visually they were spellbinding. Tom, the singer, would throw himself all over the stage, even climbing up the PA stack in order to stage-dive, not into the audience but simply hurling himself head-first onto the stage itself. Remarkable. They won the heat, and eventually the competition as a whole. I missed the final, myself, because I was more interested in drinking vodka and smoking fags with my droogs on Midsummer Common.
18/02/88 Housegrinder at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
Another heat, and another six bands played, but this was the only one that actually made an impression on me. This was the era of Acid House -- second Summer of Love, and all that -- but what set Housegrinder apart was that they were playing that kind of music on actual musical instruments. Intriguing.
03/03/88 Nutmeg/Housegrinder/The Wood at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
This must have been one of the semi-finals, and I was surprised to discover recently that The Wood played. Because I remember The Wood, and I actually liked them, and yet I have no memory of seeing them. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the heat where The Poppyheads played. Never saw them at all. Shame. They came last in their heat, which probably says a lot about Cambridge. But they were another of those bands that got some recognition outside Cambridge, if you count a couple of John Peel airplays and a single on the Sarah label as recognition -- I'm sure I needn't tell you that I regard this as more impressive than playing arenas around the world.
05/03/88 Stump at the CCAT canteen, Cambridge.
I was really into Captain Beefheart at the time, and so naturally -- having first seen them doing 'Buffalo' on The Tube -- I was drawn to Stump. And they were fantastic, they really were. And more serious than you'd think, too, but in a good way. Not overly po-faced-serious, certainly not that, but not as clownish as some of their records might suggest either. They really meant it.
21/05/88 Stormed/The Moment/Nutmeg at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
I don't really remember The Moment, except that they weren't much cop. But Stormed and Nutmeg, together on the same bill! Now, that was exciting! It was like having The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, playing together at your local.
04/06/88 Nutmeg/Infernal Death/Late Road Lunatics at the Strawberry Fair.
Infernal Death were cut from the same cloth as Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror: i.e. brilliant fun. I don't remember Late Road Lunatics as being very good in general, but they did have one magnificent song which I can still happily hear and sing along to. And have, indeed, sung to myself while out and about on my bicycle lately.
19/07/88 Jethro Tull/Fairport Convention at Wembley Arena.
I wouldn't have gone if I hadn't won tickets in a radio 'phone-in, but I'm not sorry I went. I was never really a fan of Fairport Convention, but I do have a soft spot for Jethro Tull. Strange to think that this was their twentieth anniversary show -- and it's now twenty one years ago.
10/10/88 Julian Cope at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
Back when he was still a sexy popstar with leather trousers, rather than a dodgy old hippy with big hats.
18/11/88 Dr Feelgood at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
Yup, them again. Oh dear.
10/02/89 Stormed/Pluck This/The Frantics at the Perse School, Cambridge.
The Frantics were some of my schoolfriends -- I designed a leaflet for them, no less! As for Pluck This, they were a deeply wonderful cajun-style folk band. And absolutely everyone I knew loved Stormed.
15/04/89 Fat & Frantic/Nutmeg at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
I went because Nutmeg were supporting, obviously. And it's a good thing too, because the headliners were just awful. Skiffle. Christian skiffle. With some preposterously 'worthy' song about refugees or apartheid or something like that. I don't think I had seen a worse band up to that point, and I'm not at all sure I've seen a worse one since either.
03/06/89 Stormed at the Strawberry Fair, Cambridge.
I'm sure I must have seen other people there, but they're insignificant. Oh, except Pluck This: was it this year that I saw them there, or was it another? Dunno. Maybe both.
23/06/89 Throwing Muses/Band Of Susans at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
My main reason for going was because I'd passed up the opportunity to see Pixies at the same venue a couple of months earlier, and regretted it the next day (and still regret it today). This was a year after they'd actually toured together, but the two bands still seemed inextricably linked at the time, and I just didn't want to make the same mistake again. But I'm so glad that I did go to this one, because my love for Throwing Muses has been, if anything, even more profound and enduring than that for Pixies. I remember that some wag in the audience jokingly yelled out a request for 'Gigantic'. "Wrong band!", observed Kristin... only then Leslie started picking out the bass line. Sadly, they didn't break into a full impromptu cover version: that really would have been rather special. But I swear that Tanya was gazing at me when she sang 'Dragonhead' :o)
23/09/89 Daevid Allen at the Cambridge Sea Cadet Hall.
The Sea Cadet Hall was a strange sort of place for concerts, but much used prior to the building of The Junction. It was a small room, with a very low ceiling, and a trestle table at the back for a bar. I drank lots of vodka before going in, threw up royally in the toilets and lay on the floor for a while, and then enjoyed a great concert. And wrote a review for John Peel, who was doing a Radio Cambridgeshire show at the time and was inviting concert reviews from listeners, and he read it out on air.
19/12/89 David Byrne at the Brixton Academy.
Talking Heads had split up a year or two earlier, and he was touring with a salsa band. It was actually rather wonderful. As most of these things were.
15/12/86 The Surfin' Druids/Don't Call Me Shirley/The Heretics at The Perse School, Cambridge.
My first 'gig', three local bands playing in my school hall. I think The Heretics were from Long Road, and they wanted to be just like The Cure. Which is a laudable enough ambition in itself: but unfortunately they were just awful. But still more memorable than Don't Call Me Shirley, who -- as best I can recall -- were a wholly ordinary pub rock band. But The Surfin' Druids were great. They had some snappy little tunes of their own, and they also did a cover of The Housemartins' 'Happy Hour' -- big hit of the day! -- which got everyone on the dancefloor.
06/06/87 Stormed/Indiscretion/Big T-Total & the Half-Cuts at the Strawberry Fair, Cambridge.
You'll see a lot of local bands represented in these early years. Virtually no one from Cambridge ever got any recognition outside it: but, locally, the scene was massive. The local bands could sell out the Corn Exchange more quickly than the big names; and they didn't get much bigger than Stormed. Very theatrical goth/ska, if you can imagine that, in facepaints and tailcoats. I still enjoy their one and only release, a three-track 12" single (even though the smell of glue has faded over the years). And one of their singers also doubled up as singer for Big T-Total, who opened the show at lunchtime, and they were absolutely extraordinary. Picture the scene: a psychobilly band with a singer in dungarees, straw hat and a footlong quiff, two guys playing (and climbing on) upright double basses, a saxophonist, and a standing drummer with just one snare drum and one cymbal. Marvellous! Indiscretion, meanwhile, were one of those rare cases where one of them, at least, did get some recognition outside Cambridge. They were a fairly ordinary band on the whole, with the exception of their lead guitarist, who -- aged just sixteen, from Hills Road -- could play just like Eddie Van Halen. Not that that impressed me musically, even at the time, but I had to acknowledge his talent. And then, just a year later -- still aged only seventeen -- he got hired as the lead guitarist in Dio, and was instantly thrust into playing arenas around the world!
09/10/87 Mötorhead at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
There was a long queue to get in, due to some rather overzealous security checks, and the crowd was pretty rowdy, throwing plastic pint cups at the stage. Lemmy did not like that. "If I get hit with another one of these, I'm walking off the stage." Luckily, we did make it to the end.
13/11/87 Dr Feelgood at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
I saw them again the following year, and one could certainly make a case for saying that's two times too many. And, yes, in many ways they were an appalling band: but, at that age, it was kind of fun.
16/01/88 Marillion at the Hammersmith Odeon.
Definitely not the sort of thing I'd go and see today, but I make no apologies for it. I was right at the back of the circle (on the left hand side), and it was brilliant.
21/01/88 Nutmeg/Indiscretion at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
This was one of the heats in the 4th Cambridge Rock Group Competition (from which I still possess a t-shirt!). I didn't realise, until I looked it up, that Indiscretion had been among the six bands playing that night: I only had eyes for Nutmeg. I've seen many great live acts since that time, but I'd still rate Nutmeg alongside any of them. Their music wasn't terribly interesting in itself -- derivative Rolling Stones-esque R&B -- but visually they were spellbinding. Tom, the singer, would throw himself all over the stage, even climbing up the PA stack in order to stage-dive, not into the audience but simply hurling himself head-first onto the stage itself. Remarkable. They won the heat, and eventually the competition as a whole. I missed the final, myself, because I was more interested in drinking vodka and smoking fags with my droogs on Midsummer Common.
18/02/88 Housegrinder at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
Another heat, and another six bands played, but this was the only one that actually made an impression on me. This was the era of Acid House -- second Summer of Love, and all that -- but what set Housegrinder apart was that they were playing that kind of music on actual musical instruments. Intriguing.
03/03/88 Nutmeg/Housegrinder/The Wood at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
This must have been one of the semi-finals, and I was surprised to discover recently that The Wood played. Because I remember The Wood, and I actually liked them, and yet I have no memory of seeing them. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the heat where The Poppyheads played. Never saw them at all. Shame. They came last in their heat, which probably says a lot about Cambridge. But they were another of those bands that got some recognition outside Cambridge, if you count a couple of John Peel airplays and a single on the Sarah label as recognition -- I'm sure I needn't tell you that I regard this as more impressive than playing arenas around the world.
05/03/88 Stump at the CCAT canteen, Cambridge.
I was really into Captain Beefheart at the time, and so naturally -- having first seen them doing 'Buffalo' on The Tube -- I was drawn to Stump. And they were fantastic, they really were. And more serious than you'd think, too, but in a good way. Not overly po-faced-serious, certainly not that, but not as clownish as some of their records might suggest either. They really meant it.
21/05/88 Stormed/The Moment/Nutmeg at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
I don't really remember The Moment, except that they weren't much cop. But Stormed and Nutmeg, together on the same bill! Now, that was exciting! It was like having The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, playing together at your local.
04/06/88 Nutmeg/Infernal Death/Late Road Lunatics at the Strawberry Fair.
Infernal Death were cut from the same cloth as Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror: i.e. brilliant fun. I don't remember Late Road Lunatics as being very good in general, but they did have one magnificent song which I can still happily hear and sing along to. And have, indeed, sung to myself while out and about on my bicycle lately.
19/07/88 Jethro Tull/Fairport Convention at Wembley Arena.
I wouldn't have gone if I hadn't won tickets in a radio 'phone-in, but I'm not sorry I went. I was never really a fan of Fairport Convention, but I do have a soft spot for Jethro Tull. Strange to think that this was their twentieth anniversary show -- and it's now twenty one years ago.
10/10/88 Julian Cope at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
Back when he was still a sexy popstar with leather trousers, rather than a dodgy old hippy with big hats.
18/11/88 Dr Feelgood at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
Yup, them again. Oh dear.
10/02/89 Stormed/Pluck This/The Frantics at the Perse School, Cambridge.
The Frantics were some of my schoolfriends -- I designed a leaflet for them, no less! As for Pluck This, they were a deeply wonderful cajun-style folk band. And absolutely everyone I knew loved Stormed.
15/04/89 Fat & Frantic/Nutmeg at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
I went because Nutmeg were supporting, obviously. And it's a good thing too, because the headliners were just awful. Skiffle. Christian skiffle. With some preposterously 'worthy' song about refugees or apartheid or something like that. I don't think I had seen a worse band up to that point, and I'm not at all sure I've seen a worse one since either.
03/06/89 Stormed at the Strawberry Fair, Cambridge.
I'm sure I must have seen other people there, but they're insignificant. Oh, except Pluck This: was it this year that I saw them there, or was it another? Dunno. Maybe both.
23/06/89 Throwing Muses/Band Of Susans at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
My main reason for going was because I'd passed up the opportunity to see Pixies at the same venue a couple of months earlier, and regretted it the next day (and still regret it today). This was a year after they'd actually toured together, but the two bands still seemed inextricably linked at the time, and I just didn't want to make the same mistake again. But I'm so glad that I did go to this one, because my love for Throwing Muses has been, if anything, even more profound and enduring than that for Pixies. I remember that some wag in the audience jokingly yelled out a request for 'Gigantic'. "Wrong band!", observed Kristin... only then Leslie started picking out the bass line. Sadly, they didn't break into a full impromptu cover version: that really would have been rather special. But I swear that Tanya was gazing at me when she sang 'Dragonhead' :o)
23/09/89 Daevid Allen at the Cambridge Sea Cadet Hall.
The Sea Cadet Hall was a strange sort of place for concerts, but much used prior to the building of The Junction. It was a small room, with a very low ceiling, and a trestle table at the back for a bar. I drank lots of vodka before going in, threw up royally in the toilets and lay on the floor for a while, and then enjoyed a great concert. And wrote a review for John Peel, who was doing a Radio Cambridgeshire show at the time and was inviting concert reviews from listeners, and he read it out on air.
19/12/89 David Byrne at the Brixton Academy.
Talking Heads had split up a year or two earlier, and he was touring with a salsa band. It was actually rather wonderful. As most of these things were.