Nearly there
11/01/07 Kristin Hersh at the Arts Theatre, London.
I was in one of my occasional 'early to bed, early to rise' phases at the time, and to be sitting in a comfy chair in a darkened room at that time of night... well, it was just inviting trouble. Yes, I'm afraid I fell asleep. Deary me.
03/03/07 Nurse With Wound at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
When I was younger, I had really yearned to see Nurse With Wound live. Now that I finally did, it was something of an anticlimax.
15/03/07 The Arcade Fire at the Brixton Academy.
I got a ticket on the morning of the show. I liked them fine, but I couldn't really understand why other people were raving about them quite as much as they were; and so I wanted to inspect them at first hand for myself, to see whether there was something I had missed. I'm still not persuaded. Don't get me wrong, they're a perfectly decent band: but they're not that good.
11/04/07 Peter Doherty, Bert Jansch, Lethal Bizzle at the Hackney Empire, London.
This, however, was absolutely sublime. Peter played for about three hours, with various guests (like Jansch and Bizzle, in amongst his usual cronies) going on and off, guesting on different songs. Unlike on so many other occasions, he actually seemed really healthy and happy, and everything just came together. The highlight was probably when Peter sang Bert Jansch's song, 'Needle of Death', accompanied by Jansch himself on the guitar. It's a pretty spectacularly sad song in itself: but for tabloid Pete to be singing it lent it a colossal poignancy. It's just a pity that I didn't get a ticket for the second night, which saw him reunite with Carl Barât for a dozen or so Libertines numbers.
16/04/07 Wolf Eyes/Consumer Electronics at The Man On The Moon, Cambridge.
I loved this one too. Consumer Electonics were one half of Whitehouse, and doing much the same thing as they do; Wolf Eyes were a noise combo, I think from Ann Arbor, Michigan. And both were pretty good: but what made it so special was the setting and the audience. A London audience, I'm sure, would have been a bit blasé about it all. But, with forty or fifty people in the back room of a pub in Cambridge... well, I've been toying with adjectives to use at this point, but the best one I can think of is: cosy. Warm, happy and friendly. It felt like home. :o)
10/05/07 Pink Floyd/Roger Waters/Kevin Ayers/Vashti Bunyan at the Barbican Hall, London.
Not to mention Damon Albarn, Chrissie Hynde, Captain Sensible (who was actually pretty good, surprisingly), Martha Wainwright, and many more. It was a tribute to Syd Barrett, who had recently died, and they were all singing his songs. I went there mostly to see Vashti and Kevin Ayers: the former did 'Love Song' (and another one? 'Scarecrow' perhaps? yes, I think so), and it was really sweet. I don't remember what Kevin played, but it was not good. But then, at the end of the first half, Roger Waters came on as an unbilled surprise guest. Only he decided to play a new, acoustic song of his own, and that wasn't good either. But then, at the end of the second half, the other three came on, as equally unbilled surprise guests. And they played 'Arnold Layne'! And then the full cast (except for Roger, who'd gone home) assembled on the stage and sang 'Bike' together. This must have been the last time that Rick Wright played in public before he died. For a long time (like, since I was about eleven) I had harboured hopes of one day getting to see a proper Pink Floyd concert: and now I never will. Shame.
26/05/07 Throbbing Gristle at the Tate Modern, London.
We sat on red cushions and watched them play a live soundtrack to a selection of Derek Jarman shorts.
30/05/07 Manic Street Preachers/The Enemy at the Astoria, London.
I did enjoy the song, 'Send Away The Tigers', at these concerts, more so than I'd done on the recent album of the same name.
31/05/07 Manic Street Preachers/The Enemy at the Shepherds Bush Empire, London.
This would have been the last indoor concert I attended where I was still allowed to smoke.
01/06/07 Throbbing Gristle at the ICA, London.
Most peculiar. They decided that it might be a nice idea to demystify the recording process, and so they turned the ICA theatre into a recording studio and allowed the public in to watch a series of six two-hour sessions. And, yes, this did mean that there were periods of waiting around while not much happened, or sitting through three or four takes of the same vocal line. But those moments were mercifully in the minority: most of it did still qualify as a performance in a more traditional sense of the term. The only trouble was that the piece they were recording was a reinterpretation of Nico's 'Desertshore' album, and I couldn't help but wish that they might have picked a different one: a TG reinterpretation of 'The Velvet Underground & Nico', for instance, would have been out of this world.
02/06/07 Throbbing Gristle at the ICA, London.
Another two hours in the afternoon, and then I cycled down to Vauxhall for Choco's birthday party.
03/06/07 Throbbing Gristle at the ICA, London.
And another afternoon session, before going to see...
03/06/07 Faust at Corsica Studios, London.
Guitars, drums, angle-grinders and chainsaws. Now that's what I call music! And they had a unique way to close the show: with a smokescreen. A couple of machines started issuing smoke, and I initially assumed that it was just the normal little bit of dry ice. But dry ice doesn't normally reduce the visibility in the entire auditorium to about a foot (or two feet very indistinctly; three feet barely at all), within about thirty seconds. And then, in another thirty seconds, do the same for the foyer too. With feedback still screaming out all the while. Marvellous!
05/06/07 Paul McCartney at the ICA, London.
'Blackbird', 'Back In The USSR', 'The Long And Winding Road', 'Get Back', 'I'll Follow The Sun', 'Lady Madonna', 'Let It Be', 'Hey Jude', 'I Saw Her Standing There'. Oh, and his solo work of course.
12/07/07 Daniel Johnston at the Union Chapel, London.
This was fabulous. He did a few songs on his own, on both guitar and piano, and was then accompanied by a succession of guests for other ones. To hear 'Living Life', 'Silly Love' and 'Grievances' played back to back was truly wonderful; while the real highlight of the night was a heart-rending 'Story Of An Artist'. I've now got the DVD of this concert, and it makes me cry. My sole regret (aside from the participation of Adem: I fucking hate that guy!) was that he played 'Rock 'n' Roll/EGA' instead of 'Fish'. The latter would have made the setlist absolutely perfect.
07/09/07 Regina Spektor at the Royal Festival Hall, London.
She was glorious, even though I couldn't actually see much of her, obscured by the lid of the piano.
24/10/07 The Courteeners at the Water Rats, London.
I've seen worse. I've definitely seen better.
31/10/07 Boyd Rice at Electrowerkz, London.
Deeply disappointing.
08/11/07 Sex Pistols/The Cribs at the Brixton Academy.
Yay! Get pissed, DESTROY!
12/11/07 Sex Pistols/Goldie at the Brixton Academy.
Yay! Though the moshing was a little disappointing at this one. Too crushed. And I couldn't help but feel a little concerned at the gusto in the audience's response to Vera Lynn's 'There'll Always Be An England', which they played over the PA before coming on stage. I did rather feel like I was at a BNP rally. I really don't believe that the Pistols themselves are guilty of racism -- if anything, precisely the opposite -- but I am deeply suspicious of a lot of their fans.
14/11/07 Sex Pistols at the Brixton Academy.
Yay! I remember skipping -- literally skipping -- into the bar as they played the opening chords to 'Holidays In The Sun'. Happy days.
12/12/07 Manic Street Preachers at the Brixton Academy.
I got to listen to some of the previous night's show from the handy vantage point of my own backyard. Janine was staying over: that was the last night I saw her, alas.
13/12/07 Penguin Café Orchestra at the Union Chapel, London.
A one-off reunion, to mark the tenth anniversary of the death of Simon Jeffes. I felt very middle class. Again.
16/12/07 Peter Doherty at the Rhythm Factory, London.
There was another one a couple of months later, and it's hard to distinguish between the two of them in my memory. Except that it was very cold at this one, when I had to go outside to smoke.
I was in one of my occasional 'early to bed, early to rise' phases at the time, and to be sitting in a comfy chair in a darkened room at that time of night... well, it was just inviting trouble. Yes, I'm afraid I fell asleep. Deary me.
03/03/07 Nurse With Wound at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
When I was younger, I had really yearned to see Nurse With Wound live. Now that I finally did, it was something of an anticlimax.
15/03/07 The Arcade Fire at the Brixton Academy.
I got a ticket on the morning of the show. I liked them fine, but I couldn't really understand why other people were raving about them quite as much as they were; and so I wanted to inspect them at first hand for myself, to see whether there was something I had missed. I'm still not persuaded. Don't get me wrong, they're a perfectly decent band: but they're not that good.
11/04/07 Peter Doherty, Bert Jansch, Lethal Bizzle at the Hackney Empire, London.
This, however, was absolutely sublime. Peter played for about three hours, with various guests (like Jansch and Bizzle, in amongst his usual cronies) going on and off, guesting on different songs. Unlike on so many other occasions, he actually seemed really healthy and happy, and everything just came together. The highlight was probably when Peter sang Bert Jansch's song, 'Needle of Death', accompanied by Jansch himself on the guitar. It's a pretty spectacularly sad song in itself: but for tabloid Pete to be singing it lent it a colossal poignancy. It's just a pity that I didn't get a ticket for the second night, which saw him reunite with Carl Barât for a dozen or so Libertines numbers.
16/04/07 Wolf Eyes/Consumer Electronics at The Man On The Moon, Cambridge.
I loved this one too. Consumer Electonics were one half of Whitehouse, and doing much the same thing as they do; Wolf Eyes were a noise combo, I think from Ann Arbor, Michigan. And both were pretty good: but what made it so special was the setting and the audience. A London audience, I'm sure, would have been a bit blasé about it all. But, with forty or fifty people in the back room of a pub in Cambridge... well, I've been toying with adjectives to use at this point, but the best one I can think of is: cosy. Warm, happy and friendly. It felt like home. :o)
10/05/07 Pink Floyd/Roger Waters/Kevin Ayers/Vashti Bunyan at the Barbican Hall, London.
Not to mention Damon Albarn, Chrissie Hynde, Captain Sensible (who was actually pretty good, surprisingly), Martha Wainwright, and many more. It was a tribute to Syd Barrett, who had recently died, and they were all singing his songs. I went there mostly to see Vashti and Kevin Ayers: the former did 'Love Song' (and another one? 'Scarecrow' perhaps? yes, I think so), and it was really sweet. I don't remember what Kevin played, but it was not good. But then, at the end of the first half, Roger Waters came on as an unbilled surprise guest. Only he decided to play a new, acoustic song of his own, and that wasn't good either. But then, at the end of the second half, the other three came on, as equally unbilled surprise guests. And they played 'Arnold Layne'! And then the full cast (except for Roger, who'd gone home) assembled on the stage and sang 'Bike' together. This must have been the last time that Rick Wright played in public before he died. For a long time (like, since I was about eleven) I had harboured hopes of one day getting to see a proper Pink Floyd concert: and now I never will. Shame.
26/05/07 Throbbing Gristle at the Tate Modern, London.
We sat on red cushions and watched them play a live soundtrack to a selection of Derek Jarman shorts.
30/05/07 Manic Street Preachers/The Enemy at the Astoria, London.
I did enjoy the song, 'Send Away The Tigers', at these concerts, more so than I'd done on the recent album of the same name.
31/05/07 Manic Street Preachers/The Enemy at the Shepherds Bush Empire, London.
This would have been the last indoor concert I attended where I was still allowed to smoke.
01/06/07 Throbbing Gristle at the ICA, London.
Most peculiar. They decided that it might be a nice idea to demystify the recording process, and so they turned the ICA theatre into a recording studio and allowed the public in to watch a series of six two-hour sessions. And, yes, this did mean that there were periods of waiting around while not much happened, or sitting through three or four takes of the same vocal line. But those moments were mercifully in the minority: most of it did still qualify as a performance in a more traditional sense of the term. The only trouble was that the piece they were recording was a reinterpretation of Nico's 'Desertshore' album, and I couldn't help but wish that they might have picked a different one: a TG reinterpretation of 'The Velvet Underground & Nico', for instance, would have been out of this world.
02/06/07 Throbbing Gristle at the ICA, London.
Another two hours in the afternoon, and then I cycled down to Vauxhall for Choco's birthday party.
03/06/07 Throbbing Gristle at the ICA, London.
And another afternoon session, before going to see...
03/06/07 Faust at Corsica Studios, London.
Guitars, drums, angle-grinders and chainsaws. Now that's what I call music! And they had a unique way to close the show: with a smokescreen. A couple of machines started issuing smoke, and I initially assumed that it was just the normal little bit of dry ice. But dry ice doesn't normally reduce the visibility in the entire auditorium to about a foot (or two feet very indistinctly; three feet barely at all), within about thirty seconds. And then, in another thirty seconds, do the same for the foyer too. With feedback still screaming out all the while. Marvellous!
05/06/07 Paul McCartney at the ICA, London.
'Blackbird', 'Back In The USSR', 'The Long And Winding Road', 'Get Back', 'I'll Follow The Sun', 'Lady Madonna', 'Let It Be', 'Hey Jude', 'I Saw Her Standing There'. Oh, and his solo work of course.
12/07/07 Daniel Johnston at the Union Chapel, London.
This was fabulous. He did a few songs on his own, on both guitar and piano, and was then accompanied by a succession of guests for other ones. To hear 'Living Life', 'Silly Love' and 'Grievances' played back to back was truly wonderful; while the real highlight of the night was a heart-rending 'Story Of An Artist'. I've now got the DVD of this concert, and it makes me cry. My sole regret (aside from the participation of Adem: I fucking hate that guy!) was that he played 'Rock 'n' Roll/EGA' instead of 'Fish'. The latter would have made the setlist absolutely perfect.
07/09/07 Regina Spektor at the Royal Festival Hall, London.
She was glorious, even though I couldn't actually see much of her, obscured by the lid of the piano.
24/10/07 The Courteeners at the Water Rats, London.
I've seen worse. I've definitely seen better.
31/10/07 Boyd Rice at Electrowerkz, London.
Deeply disappointing.
08/11/07 Sex Pistols/The Cribs at the Brixton Academy.
Yay! Get pissed, DESTROY!
12/11/07 Sex Pistols/Goldie at the Brixton Academy.
Yay! Though the moshing was a little disappointing at this one. Too crushed. And I couldn't help but feel a little concerned at the gusto in the audience's response to Vera Lynn's 'There'll Always Be An England', which they played over the PA before coming on stage. I did rather feel like I was at a BNP rally. I really don't believe that the Pistols themselves are guilty of racism -- if anything, precisely the opposite -- but I am deeply suspicious of a lot of their fans.
14/11/07 Sex Pistols at the Brixton Academy.
Yay! I remember skipping -- literally skipping -- into the bar as they played the opening chords to 'Holidays In The Sun'. Happy days.
12/12/07 Manic Street Preachers at the Brixton Academy.
I got to listen to some of the previous night's show from the handy vantage point of my own backyard. Janine was staying over: that was the last night I saw her, alas.
13/12/07 Penguin Café Orchestra at the Union Chapel, London.
A one-off reunion, to mark the tenth anniversary of the death of Simon Jeffes. I felt very middle class. Again.
16/12/07 Peter Doherty at the Rhythm Factory, London.
There was another one a couple of months later, and it's hard to distinguish between the two of them in my memory. Except that it was very cold at this one, when I had to go outside to smoke.