We're still only a quarter of the way through
29/04/99 Kristin Hersh at the Knitting Factory, New York City.
When I bought the ticket, the girl in the box office observed: "She's the best, isn't she?" I contemplated this proposition for a while, before finally replying: "Yeah, she really is!"
03/07/99 Alcopop at The Boat Race, Cambridge.
This was another of those R*E*P*E*A*T bands, and the only one I actually liked. But I liked them a lot. I liked them an awful lot. I first heard their song, 'Last Of The Secret Agents', on a compilation album that came with the fanzine the previous winter, but I didn't manage to get to see them on that trip. I certainly made up for it this summer.
08/07/99 Alcopop at the Portland Arms, Cambridge.
They were wonderful. They had a bassist with a penchant for feather boas (sound familiar?); and a guitarist who's still playing now, in a band with the ill-advised name of The Vichy Government; and a drummer, presumably, but I don't remember him; and then two girls with scars up their arms, the one singing and the other playing a little Casio keyboard and doing backing vocals. And they weren't the most competent musicians in the world: but they had some cracking tunes. They sounded like a lo-fi version of Heavenly, and they claimed that the highlight of their career had come when they were invited to support Marine Research in Cambridge, and Amelia Fletcher had danced along to them. And John Peel played them at least once; and they even got a quarter-page article in Melody Maker later this year. And you have to admit: they had the best name of any band ever.
09/07/99 Hefner at the Notre Dame Hall, London.
The Notre Dame Hall is just off Leicester Square, tucked away downstairs: you wouldn't notice it if you weren't looking for it. They were selling cans of Stella that were literally ice-cold, and they had round tables, and it was spacious and comfortable, and Hefner put in a mesmerising performance.
14/07/99 Alcopop at The Boat Race, Cambridge.
"Back again for more", I hailed Sarah, Alcopop's singer, as I sauntered along Burleigh Street. This was the one where they were supposed to be supporting Bellatrix: only (as she proceeded to explain to me at the door) Bellatrix had got a better offer to play at some higher-profile music-industry-type event in London. So the admission charge was waived, and Alcopop played on their own. And they were great, as usual (though, frankly, I'd have happily paid my £4, or whatever it was, if I could have got to see Bellatrix too). They played to about a dozen people, most of whom weren't paying attention anyway, which was entirely normal for them. I couldn't understand why they weren't drawing huge crowds. And it made me feel really conspicuous. I think this was also the one where their EP had just come out, and I eagerly bought a copy of it from Sarah.
30/07/99 Alcopop at the Portland Arms, Cambridge.
I don't remember seeing them twice at the Portland Arms, but I guess I must have done. Oh, no wait, that's right: they were supporting Astrid at this one, whom I didn't wait around to see.
09/08/99 Angelica at the Portland Arms, Cambridge.
Alcopop weren't playing this time, although they were present in the audience. Sarah advised me before the show that Angelica were "even better than Kenickie!" They weren't.
11/08/99 Alcopop at The Boat Race, Cambridge.
This time Andrew, the guitarist, came over and had a drink with me at the end. Like I say, I felt really conspicuous. I'm no good at talking to popstars. But I never saw them again, alas.
19/08/99 Rosita/Pop Threat at the Bull & Gate, London.
Someone else played too, but I didn't think much of them. I thought Pop Threat were quite interesting: but I was really there to see Rosita. Tragically, I never did see Kenickie, because I was always in the wrong country when they were touring: but I adored them and I still do. And this definitely went a long way towards making up for missing them.
21/08/99 Manic Street Preachers/The Beautiful South/Supergrass/Travis/Mel C at Hylands Park, Chemlsford.
So this would be V99. It was nowhere near as good as the earlier ones. Mel C covered 'Anarchy In The UK', which came across as a bit desperate: she certainly didn't get the reception Robbie got the previous year. And the Manics debuted 'Masses Against The Classes'. This was when the news that they'd written a new song was actually quite exciting: hard to imagine now.
26/08/99 Kristin Hersh at the Knitting Factory, New York City.
Again?! Well, apparently.
13/09/99 Manic Street Preachers at the Bowery Ballroom, New York City.
This should have been magnificent, the Manics playing in a 500-capacity venue (they played some even smaller ones elsewhere on the tour). But unfortunately I drank too much beforehand, and I really don't remember it very well. But never mind, I thought, I'll just take care to keep a clearer head the following night. But then, the following night, five minutes after they were due on stage, it was announced that this second show was cancelled because the singer had lost his voice. "I'll do it!", yelled some boozy Welshman in the crowd: but 'twas not to be.
16/09/99 Man Or Astroman in the Debasement Bar, Princeton University Graduate College.
I didn't pay them much attention. The Debasement Bar, incidentally, wasn't so-called because anything truly debased ever happened there, but rather because it was located in the basement. Cute.
03/10/99 Trenton Avant-Garde: Celebrating George Antheil at the War Memorial, Trenton NJ.
We all piled into a car and drove to the state capital, to hear 'Ballet Mécanique' and other Antheil works played in the great man's home town. Would they have been celebrating the hundredth anniversary of his birth? That would make sense.
15/10/99 Robbie Williams at the Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City.
For a few months, they were really pushing Robbie in the States. It failed, of course, but they can't be accused of not giving it a jolly good try. And, to be fair, he did manage to pull in a decent crowd -- the Hammerstein Ballroom is probably about the same size as the Forum -- and everyone had a good time.
28/10/99 Marine Research at the Bowery Ballroom, New York City.
In the UK, Marine Research were playing at places like the Portland Arms, while the Manics were playing at places like Wembley Arena. In the US, they were on the same level. Calvin Johnson was also playing this night, but unfortunately I stayed in the downstairs bar during his set. I did actually like Beat Happening, but I just never put two and two together and realised that it was the same guy. Amelia Fletcher herself was manning (womanning?) the merchandise stand, and seemed awfully lonely, sitting there on her own with no one paying her any attention. But I was much too star-struck to go and talk to her. One of the other support bands featured a guy who was playing a drumkit and a keyboard at the same time, which struck me as awfully clever. And then Marine Research were deliriously wonderful.
19/11/99 Hefner at Brownies, New York City.
Brownies was a lovely little venue, and Hefner were a lovely little band. When they released a collection of live recordings a few years later, the liner notes stated that anyone who had been present at any of the following shows -- and they then proceeded to list half a dozen -- probably shouldn't listen to the album, but should just trust their memories instead. This was one of the shows they listed. At one point, they announced that they'd prepared a special song for the New York audience. "This is a song by a man who understood the mean streets of New York, because he walked those streets. This is by Hutch, out of Starsky & Hutch." And they proceeded to play 'Don't Give Up On Us Baby'.
07/12/99 Simon Shaheen at Princeton University.
He played the oud, and he may have been Egyptian, but that's all I remember.
When I bought the ticket, the girl in the box office observed: "She's the best, isn't she?" I contemplated this proposition for a while, before finally replying: "Yeah, she really is!"
03/07/99 Alcopop at The Boat Race, Cambridge.
This was another of those R*E*P*E*A*T bands, and the only one I actually liked. But I liked them a lot. I liked them an awful lot. I first heard their song, 'Last Of The Secret Agents', on a compilation album that came with the fanzine the previous winter, but I didn't manage to get to see them on that trip. I certainly made up for it this summer.
08/07/99 Alcopop at the Portland Arms, Cambridge.
They were wonderful. They had a bassist with a penchant for feather boas (sound familiar?); and a guitarist who's still playing now, in a band with the ill-advised name of The Vichy Government; and a drummer, presumably, but I don't remember him; and then two girls with scars up their arms, the one singing and the other playing a little Casio keyboard and doing backing vocals. And they weren't the most competent musicians in the world: but they had some cracking tunes. They sounded like a lo-fi version of Heavenly, and they claimed that the highlight of their career had come when they were invited to support Marine Research in Cambridge, and Amelia Fletcher had danced along to them. And John Peel played them at least once; and they even got a quarter-page article in Melody Maker later this year. And you have to admit: they had the best name of any band ever.
09/07/99 Hefner at the Notre Dame Hall, London.
The Notre Dame Hall is just off Leicester Square, tucked away downstairs: you wouldn't notice it if you weren't looking for it. They were selling cans of Stella that were literally ice-cold, and they had round tables, and it was spacious and comfortable, and Hefner put in a mesmerising performance.
14/07/99 Alcopop at The Boat Race, Cambridge.
"Back again for more", I hailed Sarah, Alcopop's singer, as I sauntered along Burleigh Street. This was the one where they were supposed to be supporting Bellatrix: only (as she proceeded to explain to me at the door) Bellatrix had got a better offer to play at some higher-profile music-industry-type event in London. So the admission charge was waived, and Alcopop played on their own. And they were great, as usual (though, frankly, I'd have happily paid my £4, or whatever it was, if I could have got to see Bellatrix too). They played to about a dozen people, most of whom weren't paying attention anyway, which was entirely normal for them. I couldn't understand why they weren't drawing huge crowds. And it made me feel really conspicuous. I think this was also the one where their EP had just come out, and I eagerly bought a copy of it from Sarah.
30/07/99 Alcopop at the Portland Arms, Cambridge.
I don't remember seeing them twice at the Portland Arms, but I guess I must have done. Oh, no wait, that's right: they were supporting Astrid at this one, whom I didn't wait around to see.
09/08/99 Angelica at the Portland Arms, Cambridge.
Alcopop weren't playing this time, although they were present in the audience. Sarah advised me before the show that Angelica were "even better than Kenickie!" They weren't.
11/08/99 Alcopop at The Boat Race, Cambridge.
This time Andrew, the guitarist, came over and had a drink with me at the end. Like I say, I felt really conspicuous. I'm no good at talking to popstars. But I never saw them again, alas.
19/08/99 Rosita/Pop Threat at the Bull & Gate, London.
Someone else played too, but I didn't think much of them. I thought Pop Threat were quite interesting: but I was really there to see Rosita. Tragically, I never did see Kenickie, because I was always in the wrong country when they were touring: but I adored them and I still do. And this definitely went a long way towards making up for missing them.
21/08/99 Manic Street Preachers/The Beautiful South/Supergrass/Travis/Mel C at Hylands Park, Chemlsford.
So this would be V99. It was nowhere near as good as the earlier ones. Mel C covered 'Anarchy In The UK', which came across as a bit desperate: she certainly didn't get the reception Robbie got the previous year. And the Manics debuted 'Masses Against The Classes'. This was when the news that they'd written a new song was actually quite exciting: hard to imagine now.
26/08/99 Kristin Hersh at the Knitting Factory, New York City.
Again?! Well, apparently.
13/09/99 Manic Street Preachers at the Bowery Ballroom, New York City.
This should have been magnificent, the Manics playing in a 500-capacity venue (they played some even smaller ones elsewhere on the tour). But unfortunately I drank too much beforehand, and I really don't remember it very well. But never mind, I thought, I'll just take care to keep a clearer head the following night. But then, the following night, five minutes after they were due on stage, it was announced that this second show was cancelled because the singer had lost his voice. "I'll do it!", yelled some boozy Welshman in the crowd: but 'twas not to be.
16/09/99 Man Or Astroman in the Debasement Bar, Princeton University Graduate College.
I didn't pay them much attention. The Debasement Bar, incidentally, wasn't so-called because anything truly debased ever happened there, but rather because it was located in the basement. Cute.
03/10/99 Trenton Avant-Garde: Celebrating George Antheil at the War Memorial, Trenton NJ.
We all piled into a car and drove to the state capital, to hear 'Ballet Mécanique' and other Antheil works played in the great man's home town. Would they have been celebrating the hundredth anniversary of his birth? That would make sense.
15/10/99 Robbie Williams at the Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City.
For a few months, they were really pushing Robbie in the States. It failed, of course, but they can't be accused of not giving it a jolly good try. And, to be fair, he did manage to pull in a decent crowd -- the Hammerstein Ballroom is probably about the same size as the Forum -- and everyone had a good time.
28/10/99 Marine Research at the Bowery Ballroom, New York City.
In the UK, Marine Research were playing at places like the Portland Arms, while the Manics were playing at places like Wembley Arena. In the US, they were on the same level. Calvin Johnson was also playing this night, but unfortunately I stayed in the downstairs bar during his set. I did actually like Beat Happening, but I just never put two and two together and realised that it was the same guy. Amelia Fletcher herself was manning (womanning?) the merchandise stand, and seemed awfully lonely, sitting there on her own with no one paying her any attention. But I was much too star-struck to go and talk to her. One of the other support bands featured a guy who was playing a drumkit and a keyboard at the same time, which struck me as awfully clever. And then Marine Research were deliriously wonderful.
19/11/99 Hefner at Brownies, New York City.
Brownies was a lovely little venue, and Hefner were a lovely little band. When they released a collection of live recordings a few years later, the liner notes stated that anyone who had been present at any of the following shows -- and they then proceeded to list half a dozen -- probably shouldn't listen to the album, but should just trust their memories instead. This was one of the shows they listed. At one point, they announced that they'd prepared a special song for the New York audience. "This is a song by a man who understood the mean streets of New York, because he walked those streets. This is by Hutch, out of Starsky & Hutch." And they proceeded to play 'Don't Give Up On Us Baby'.
07/12/99 Simon Shaheen at Princeton University.
He played the oud, and he may have been Egyptian, but that's all I remember.