Author Archives: seeyoudownthefront

Bands that should be better thought of, part one… U2 are truly a great band. Live, they’re as good as anyone I’ve seen, they’ve recorded a slew of fantastic albums and, for a long time, they were brave enough to try different things which many bands in their position just wouldn’t do. And yet… AndContinue reading “28th of August, not 4th of July”

1995 was all about Oasis. There was the glorious headline set at Glastonbury which introduced the phrase ‘Rock n Roll Star, yeah?’ to mine and Gill’s frequently used lexicon. Then there was the recently chronicled cancellation in support of REM at Huddersfield. And by the end of the year they had set out on theirContinue reading “Look back with clangour”

By many people’s reckoning, Radiohead have been the greatest British band of the last 25 years Their body of work stands comparison with anyone else’s and they have at least one genuine masterpiece in their back catalogue in OK Computer – released in 1997 and which, along with that year’s Fat of the Land andContinue reading “So much more than OK, and yet…”

When I got my ticket to see Kings of Leon back in 2003 I hadn’t been as excited about seeing a band for a very long time. I’d got the debut album for my birthday and their appearance on Later had whetted my appetite even further having been the most incendiary performance I’d seen onContinue reading “We Four Kings”

Conscious that it has been a while I thought I would come back with a bang. No small hall, barely remembered indie hopefuls. Instead, the mighty REM at probably their stadium-sized peak. Whether you consider stadium-sized to be their actual peak is a different matter but by the time of this gig they certainly bestrodeContinue reading “I’ve got a bag from Weaver D’s!”

I’m going to do what is, by now, a familiar cheat where I use one ticket to refer to something else that I can’t find the ticket for because it is, inherently, more interesting than the ticket I have in my possession. I also appreciate how confusing that opening sentence sounds. Anyhoo… Thirty years agoContinue reading “The one we’ve waited for”

I’ve been thinking of giving the whole three-day festival thing a miss in future unless I’m lucky enough with next year’s Glastonbury, so this could very well have been my last and, if it was, then it wasn’t a bad way to go out at all. I’d never been to Green Man before but asContinue reading “Green and pleasant bands”

For the second year in succession, the Saturday immediately following my birthday was spent in the wonderful surroundings of Splendour – Nottingham’s immensely likeable one-day festival. It knows its audience and books acts accordingly, so a largely lower end middle-aged crowd were able to enjoy a clutch of acts they loved in their more youthfulContinue reading “If you want to have a good time”

More often than not these days gigs involve venues of a certain size. Too often for my liking, arena-sized venues, as even bang average acts seem to have made the step up to arenas seemingly without trace. So it was good to be back in a basement watching up and coming bands for a fiverContinue reading “Get on the good Foot”

Hey, guess what? I’ve been to see Terrorvision again. Like my birthday and Christmas, it’s an annual event. Still, I love them dearly. This time it was at The Ritz in Manchester and they were doing the ever-popular anniversary of an album tour thing that so many bands do now. Me and regular Tony rockedContinue reading “A Ritz cracker”