Right, let's have another...
21/02/90 The Sundays/Band of Holy Joy at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
I went to this for one reason and one reason alone: because the local newspaper said that Galaxie 500 were going to be supporting. It was only when I got there that I established that, yes, they had indeed been supporting, but only for the first half of the tour, and their leg had concluded the previous night in London. So instead I had to endure The Band of Holy Joy, who were truly dreadful. The Sundays themselves were okay (and they did have that one fantastic song), but I was never what you could call a fan; and Harriet had a sore throat that night, so the performance wasn't all that great even by their standards.
14/03/90 Martin Stephenson and the Daintees at the Cambridge Junction.
This was much better. I had been tremendously disappointed to be unable -- refused permission -- to go to his show at the Corn Exchange a year or two earlier, but this one was a substantial consolation. I think The Junction had opened that January, so it was still shiny and new.
05/04/90 S.E. Rogie at the Cambridge Junction.
The king of Sierra Leonean palm wine guitar music. He was so lovely. I got his autograph after the show. Dead now.
02/06/90 The Cardiacs at the Strawberry Fair, Cambridge.
I know that they played, and I know that I saw them, but I have no memory of their set.
02/08/90 I, Ludicrous at the Cambridge Junction.
I, Ludicrous had a big following in Cambridge, thanks to Trevor Dann, who played them to death on Radio Cambridgeshire. But that would have been earlier: I suppose they must have been on their second album by this time.
30/10/90 Grateful Dead at Wembley Arena.
I was in the tenth row, and it seemed like half the people there were American. I'd quite liked the Grateful Dead for some years by this point, and I'd always been a little sceptical about the notion that one couldn't properly appreciate them on the basis of their records, even live albums, and that it would only really begin to make sense when one actually saw them in concert. But it was true. It hit me instantly, in the first few chords of a souped-up version of 'Jack Straw': it just suddenly clicked. I knew this band were good, but I never knew they were that good.
??/??/90 Nutmeg at the Perse School, Cambridge.
I couldn't find a record of the date of this one, but I think it must have been some time in 1990. I hadn't seen them for a while, and they weren't at their best, although they did do a cover of 'Interstellar Overdrive' which was pretty awesome.
13/03/91 Throwing Muses at the Junction, Cambridge.
Two years on, in a smaller venue, and with another album under their belt (this would have been the Real Ramona tour). I think it was my first introduction to 'Not Too Soon', which really is a superb pop song; and 'Mania' was good too (but then it always was great live). But one seemed to sense a certain tension within the band, and I wasn't surprised by the news shortly afterwards, when Tanya announced that she was leaving.
27/05/91 Frank Sinatra at the Royal Albert Hall.
He'd played in London a couple of years earlier, but the tickets were £75, which was simply ridiculous. But here there were a few tickets at just £18.50, so cheap because the seats were up in the gods with restricted viewing. Admittedly, £18.50 was still a lot of money for me: but I just had to go, whatever it took. I could only see him when he was on the right hand side of the stage, and yet, and yet.... Well, he had been doing this for more than half a century, and, even if his voice and his memory were beginning to falter, he really knew how to perform. He made every single person in that hall, even in the highest balcony, feel like he was personally grateful to them for coming to see him, and that he wanted to repay us for that honour by putting on the best show he possibly could. And, from 'Luck Be A Lady' and 'I've Got You Under My Skin' to 'New York, New York' and 'My Way', he definitely did that. "I hope you all live to six hundred and five," he said, "and that the last voice you hear is mine": and he made this sound like a jolly good idea.
01/06/91 Daisy Chainsaw at the Strawberry Fair, Cambridge.
I dare say I saw some other bands (was this the year The Levellers played? though I doubt I'd have made an effort to see them even if they were there), but this was the only one that stood out. It was before they broke through with 'Love Your Money', so they were first on the bill at about 12:30 in the afternoon. And I shouldn't wish to exaggerate the paucity of the crowd: but there probably were only about two dozen people in the tent. But they put on one hell of a show regardless. Glam punk at its very finest.
??/08/91 Nutmeg/Blue Aeroplanes on Jesus Green, Cambridge.
I'm not sure of the exact date of this one, but it was right around the time the A-level results came out. And it was Nutmeg's last show. They split up, and one of them actually went and died a couple of years later. But we gave them a proper send-off. They were only halfway up the bill, but they got the biggest crowd of the day, and there would have been a riot if they hadn't been allowed back for an encore. Cud also played that day, but I don't think I bothered to wait around for them.
27/10/91 Grateful Dead at the Oakland Coliseum, California.
I had a year off after my A-levels, and spent two and a half months travelling around the States, my first visit to that country. And got to three of the four shows the Dead were playing in Oakland. I couldn't snag a ticket for the fourth, on Hallowe'en, and I was sorry to miss it because Ken Kesey came out and did something with them. Paying tribute to the concert promoter, Bill Graham, who had just died in a helicopter crash. But never mind. The deadheads had a game of volley ball going on the arena floor before the show, and then the band came on and played for four hours.
28/10/91 Grateful Dead at the Oakland Coliseum, California.
More of the same. Except I think they only played for about three hours this night -- one of their shorter sets.
30/10/91 Grateful Dead at the Oakland Coliseum, California.
Likewise.
02/11/91 Grateful Dead/Joan Baez/Kris Kristofferson/John Fogarty/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young/Santana/Journey Golden Gate Park Polo Field, San Francisco.
So like I said, Bill Graham had just died, an important figure in San Francisco. And, in just one week (indeed, six days, as I recall), they managed to organise a free tribute concert for him, and a third of a million people turned up! It was quite extraordinary. Journey and Santana played their dreary music; Robin Williams and Wavy Gravy did comedy sets; and I think Bobby McFerrin played before I actually arrived. But then they pulled out the big guns. There were rumours that they might be able to get Jefferson Airplane out to play: well, that didn't happen, but we did get Crosby, Stills, Nash and (most importantly) Young, singing 'Ohio' and 'Only Love Will Break Your Heart' among others. And then the Dead played. They'd done 'Sugar Magnolia' at one of the Oakland shows, but had omitted the 'Sunshine Daydream' coda at the end... and then played it here instead. I thought that was rather neat. And Neil Young came out and sang with them ('Forever Young', the old Dylan song). And then John Fogarty came out and did some Creedence Clearwater Revival numbers with them ('Bad Moon Rising', 'Proud Mary', 'Born on the Bayou', and another one that's slipped my mind). And they did lots of their own songs, of course. And then Joan Baez, Graham Nash and Kris Kristoffersen came out and sang 'Amazing Grace'. And the mayor of San Francisco addressed the crowd, and there were people in the treetops, and an aeroplane circling around, dropping rose petals.
15/11/91 John Cage at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C.
Still on the same trip, but now on the other side of the country, staying with my great great aunt (who sailed on the Titanic, no less). They played some of Cage's music, in the presence of the great man himself. (I went down during the interval and got his autograph). And then he got up onto the stage and chatted for three quarters of an hour or so. He had the loveliest speaking voice you could ever hope to hear, and was really funny too. I remember he told a story of how he had been curious to get the experience of hearing a really loud noise, and so he had gone along to a concert by some thrash metal band or other -- he must have been nearly eighty by this time -- and had stuck his ear against the speaker. And then, when he felt he'd had enough, he turned around and stuck the other ear against it. And then he went home... and found that he couldn't hear anything. And so it remained, for the next three days. Finally, though, his hearing did return, and he went back to how he had been before, with just one difference: he had now had the experience of hearing a really loud noise.
I went to this for one reason and one reason alone: because the local newspaper said that Galaxie 500 were going to be supporting. It was only when I got there that I established that, yes, they had indeed been supporting, but only for the first half of the tour, and their leg had concluded the previous night in London. So instead I had to endure The Band of Holy Joy, who were truly dreadful. The Sundays themselves were okay (and they did have that one fantastic song), but I was never what you could call a fan; and Harriet had a sore throat that night, so the performance wasn't all that great even by their standards.
14/03/90 Martin Stephenson and the Daintees at the Cambridge Junction.
This was much better. I had been tremendously disappointed to be unable -- refused permission -- to go to his show at the Corn Exchange a year or two earlier, but this one was a substantial consolation. I think The Junction had opened that January, so it was still shiny and new.
05/04/90 S.E. Rogie at the Cambridge Junction.
The king of Sierra Leonean palm wine guitar music. He was so lovely. I got his autograph after the show. Dead now.
02/06/90 The Cardiacs at the Strawberry Fair, Cambridge.
I know that they played, and I know that I saw them, but I have no memory of their set.
02/08/90 I, Ludicrous at the Cambridge Junction.
I, Ludicrous had a big following in Cambridge, thanks to Trevor Dann, who played them to death on Radio Cambridgeshire. But that would have been earlier: I suppose they must have been on their second album by this time.
30/10/90 Grateful Dead at Wembley Arena.
I was in the tenth row, and it seemed like half the people there were American. I'd quite liked the Grateful Dead for some years by this point, and I'd always been a little sceptical about the notion that one couldn't properly appreciate them on the basis of their records, even live albums, and that it would only really begin to make sense when one actually saw them in concert. But it was true. It hit me instantly, in the first few chords of a souped-up version of 'Jack Straw': it just suddenly clicked. I knew this band were good, but I never knew they were that good.
??/??/90 Nutmeg at the Perse School, Cambridge.
I couldn't find a record of the date of this one, but I think it must have been some time in 1990. I hadn't seen them for a while, and they weren't at their best, although they did do a cover of 'Interstellar Overdrive' which was pretty awesome.
13/03/91 Throwing Muses at the Junction, Cambridge.
Two years on, in a smaller venue, and with another album under their belt (this would have been the Real Ramona tour). I think it was my first introduction to 'Not Too Soon', which really is a superb pop song; and 'Mania' was good too (but then it always was great live). But one seemed to sense a certain tension within the band, and I wasn't surprised by the news shortly afterwards, when Tanya announced that she was leaving.
27/05/91 Frank Sinatra at the Royal Albert Hall.
He'd played in London a couple of years earlier, but the tickets were £75, which was simply ridiculous. But here there were a few tickets at just £18.50, so cheap because the seats were up in the gods with restricted viewing. Admittedly, £18.50 was still a lot of money for me: but I just had to go, whatever it took. I could only see him when he was on the right hand side of the stage, and yet, and yet.... Well, he had been doing this for more than half a century, and, even if his voice and his memory were beginning to falter, he really knew how to perform. He made every single person in that hall, even in the highest balcony, feel like he was personally grateful to them for coming to see him, and that he wanted to repay us for that honour by putting on the best show he possibly could. And, from 'Luck Be A Lady' and 'I've Got You Under My Skin' to 'New York, New York' and 'My Way', he definitely did that. "I hope you all live to six hundred and five," he said, "and that the last voice you hear is mine": and he made this sound like a jolly good idea.
01/06/91 Daisy Chainsaw at the Strawberry Fair, Cambridge.
I dare say I saw some other bands (was this the year The Levellers played? though I doubt I'd have made an effort to see them even if they were there), but this was the only one that stood out. It was before they broke through with 'Love Your Money', so they were first on the bill at about 12:30 in the afternoon. And I shouldn't wish to exaggerate the paucity of the crowd: but there probably were only about two dozen people in the tent. But they put on one hell of a show regardless. Glam punk at its very finest.
??/08/91 Nutmeg/Blue Aeroplanes on Jesus Green, Cambridge.
I'm not sure of the exact date of this one, but it was right around the time the A-level results came out. And it was Nutmeg's last show. They split up, and one of them actually went and died a couple of years later. But we gave them a proper send-off. They were only halfway up the bill, but they got the biggest crowd of the day, and there would have been a riot if they hadn't been allowed back for an encore. Cud also played that day, but I don't think I bothered to wait around for them.
27/10/91 Grateful Dead at the Oakland Coliseum, California.
I had a year off after my A-levels, and spent two and a half months travelling around the States, my first visit to that country. And got to three of the four shows the Dead were playing in Oakland. I couldn't snag a ticket for the fourth, on Hallowe'en, and I was sorry to miss it because Ken Kesey came out and did something with them. Paying tribute to the concert promoter, Bill Graham, who had just died in a helicopter crash. But never mind. The deadheads had a game of volley ball going on the arena floor before the show, and then the band came on and played for four hours.
28/10/91 Grateful Dead at the Oakland Coliseum, California.
More of the same. Except I think they only played for about three hours this night -- one of their shorter sets.
30/10/91 Grateful Dead at the Oakland Coliseum, California.
Likewise.
02/11/91 Grateful Dead/Joan Baez/Kris Kristofferson/John Fogarty/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young/Santana/Journey Golden Gate Park Polo Field, San Francisco.
So like I said, Bill Graham had just died, an important figure in San Francisco. And, in just one week (indeed, six days, as I recall), they managed to organise a free tribute concert for him, and a third of a million people turned up! It was quite extraordinary. Journey and Santana played their dreary music; Robin Williams and Wavy Gravy did comedy sets; and I think Bobby McFerrin played before I actually arrived. But then they pulled out the big guns. There were rumours that they might be able to get Jefferson Airplane out to play: well, that didn't happen, but we did get Crosby, Stills, Nash and (most importantly) Young, singing 'Ohio' and 'Only Love Will Break Your Heart' among others. And then the Dead played. They'd done 'Sugar Magnolia' at one of the Oakland shows, but had omitted the 'Sunshine Daydream' coda at the end... and then played it here instead. I thought that was rather neat. And Neil Young came out and sang with them ('Forever Young', the old Dylan song). And then John Fogarty came out and did some Creedence Clearwater Revival numbers with them ('Bad Moon Rising', 'Proud Mary', 'Born on the Bayou', and another one that's slipped my mind). And they did lots of their own songs, of course. And then Joan Baez, Graham Nash and Kris Kristoffersen came out and sang 'Amazing Grace'. And the mayor of San Francisco addressed the crowd, and there were people in the treetops, and an aeroplane circling around, dropping rose petals.
15/11/91 John Cage at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C.
Still on the same trip, but now on the other side of the country, staying with my great great aunt (who sailed on the Titanic, no less). They played some of Cage's music, in the presence of the great man himself. (I went down during the interval and got his autograph). And then he got up onto the stage and chatted for three quarters of an hour or so. He had the loveliest speaking voice you could ever hope to hear, and was really funny too. I remember he told a story of how he had been curious to get the experience of hearing a really loud noise, and so he had gone along to a concert by some thrash metal band or other -- he must have been nearly eighty by this time -- and had stuck his ear against the speaker. And then, when he felt he'd had enough, he turned around and stuck the other ear against it. And then he went home... and found that he couldn't hear anything. And so it remained, for the next three days. Finally, though, his hearing did return, and he went back to how he had been before, with just one difference: he had now had the experience of hearing a really loud noise.