Author: seeyoudownthefront

Hitten Treasures

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With nothing better to do one Sunday morning I was flicking around the music channels and came across a new music segment.

This showcased three bands in a 15-minute programme.

One was eminently forgettable and the other two on this occasion were The Ting Tings and Those Dancing Days, so a 66% success rate.

The latter’s song was a kind of rough around the edges indie pop with a rousing chorus that evoked great girl bands like The Go-Gos and The Bangles.

A quick Google search revealed that they would soon be playing in Manchester, so I got on board.

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Unfortunately the night clashed with something else but I thought they might be haphazardly late and the Night and Day wouldn’t rush them on, so I didn’t worry too much about getting there on time.

A dash down the M62 and a few tours around the block eventually saw a parking space open up on Oldham Street and we got inside with five minutes to spare.

And, while they weren’t on that long, it was the kind of gig you long to go to over and over again.

It was small scale, cheap, and with a band who were clearly enjoying themselves.

Disappointingly they didn’t break much bigger, but they left behind a few fizzing reminders of what good pop can sound like when it’s played by the young  and the enthusiastic.

Too good to be forgotten?

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At the last count I’d seen close to 700 shows all told. I guess I’m missing some, but the memory’s not what it was.

And, as if to prove the point, along came this ticket.

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I genuinely could not remember a thing about The Pierces, the gig itself, their style of music, what drove me to buy a ticket or any of their songs.

All I could recall was that it wasn’t in Academy 3 like the ticket says but had been moved to Academy 2.

That alone led me to believe that they must originally have had a small tour scheduled, but became a bit more popular in the interim and scaled up some shows.

I’m not hurting the integrity of the blog by admitting that I looked them up on both Spotify and Google to find out a bit more, then played a few tunes and found out that they were a bit like Haim but with less of the indie attitude. Very West Coast, some Mamas & Papas and Fleetwood Mac influences creeping in, but I still couldn’t recall the songs I must have heard that compelled me to think that I should get myself along to see them.

Having re-heard their stuff I’m quite sure I’d watch them again given the opportunity, but it was alarming that after only two and half years I couldn’t scrape up the tiniest smidge of information about them or what they were like.

I can think of a few, however, that I’d like to have expunged. More about one of them later.

Kinky Aggro

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Hometown shows by bands with a `following’ are never great. Too many people wanting to be seen to be there. The size of the guest list queue is usually a good indicator of the kind of blaggery going on.

Happy Mondays at Manchester Central – what was G-Mex – fell right into the above category. Plus it was near Christmas so plenty were in a `festive’ frame of mind.

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Festive as newts, and the atmosphere could best be described as `challenging’. Lots of did you spill my pint-style fronting up by kagoul-clad scallies.

Good vibes in the area were few and far between especially as The Twang were the support. Heralded as the return of a Madchester spirit, they were actually a tuneless, shouty mess.

That didn’t spoil the main event, but actually led quite seamlessly into it.

The Mondays have obviously got a bunch of absolutely killer tunes and were a visceral live experience on the right night, but this wasn’t one of them. Even trading on old glories would have been too kind a description.

Poorest sound I’ve ever heard didn’t help them either.

I’ve given them a wide berth since although by all accounts – and by that I mean a few people who’ve seen them recently – they’re a good deal better now than the mess they were in then.

Maybe time to give them another chance. I mean, who doesn’t love this…a blinding remix of an already great track.

As Anthony said to Cleopatra

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To be honest this wasn’t that much of a gig. The support had been noisy in an inconsequential way and Morrissey didn’t get through two songs.

So, in fairness, it hardly constitutes a show at all. But there was something comforting in the fact that having had a pint thrown at him Morrissey decided he wasn’t going to come back on. Notoriously a difficult character, he was only really living up to the legend.

Having got through a robust version of This Charming Man the signs had been good that his return to Liverpool after an underwhelming show at the Empire would be one to remember.

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Then some clown decides that we’d remember it for other reasons entirely. It’s difficult to understand the thought process that results in thinking chucking a beer at someone of Morrissey’s temperament would be a good idea.

You could see the beer splatter in the lights and Moz headed for the sidelines. A restless few minutes later we were informed over the PA that he wouldn’t be coming back.

To be honest I can’t say that I was too disappointed. I’d seen him many times both with and without The Smiths and there was something different about them all. I might have felt differently if I was there for the first time, but a Morrissey walk off just added to these various experiences.

Know your NME

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In common with many NME tours, in 2009 I deliberately chose not to watch one of the bands.

In previous years this had usually been an opening act which, in the case of The Coral, I would later regret, but when it was Starsailor and Coldplay I wouldn’t regret for a second.

One year I managed to miss everyone on the bill as when it came time to find the tickets for a show headlined by The Killers and also featuring The Futureheads, Bloc Party and the Kaiser Chiefs, they were nowhere to be found. An apologetic `I might have thrown that envelope out’ explained a lot.

I managed to miss Coldplay on the way up twice as I also had a ticket to see them co-headline a tour with one-album wonders Terris. When it was reported that Terris had cancelled for the show I had a ticket for, I didn’t go.

In 2009 it was Glasvegas topping the bill and I hadn’t been remotely enthused by their sub-Mary Chain efforts so got off early.

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Much more entertaining – and the biggest reason for buying the ticket – were Friendly Fires who rattled out some energetic, indie-dance and looked set for bigger things.

But of course they, and everyone else on the bill, were quickly eclipsed by that year’s opener Florence and the Machine who went on to be a festival-bestriding colossus within about 12 months. Watching her here, I can’t say I saw it coming.

They call it Madness

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Like everyone who starts the year with good intentions, I began 2014 clearing out some drawers with a view to ridding the house of mountains of accumulated junk.

Within five minutes I’d stumbled across a handful of old ticket stubs and stopped what I was doing to talk about the gigs that these stubs were from.

A day earlier, on New Year’s Eve,  I was at a party and mentioned to a friend that I’d booked my first festival tickets for the year ahead. Immediately someone I didn’t know had overheard but began a conversation because he’d just booked for a different festival.

It was apparent that live music has been a massively important thread of my life for the last 30-odd years.

Gig-going for me began in February 1980 when Madness appeared at the Liverpool Empire. Technically the Mo-dettes were therefore the first band I ever saw live since they were the support, but it wasn’t them me and two schoolfriends had gone to see.

With a stalls seat ticket in hand, and wearing a new button-down shirt purchased for the occasion, I got a lift from my dad into Liverpool and pitched up for what would become a massively eye-opening occasion.

From that moment I couldn’t get enough and was grateful to older friends for allowing me to tag along with them. They were mostly metal fans and while I preferred New Wave and Ska at the time, I didn’t mind as long as I was getting a live music fix.

My second and third gigs were The Stranglers and Rory Gallagher, but after that it becomes something of a blur.

I was lucky enough to see Prince’s Parade show, the Def Jam package tour and, on many occasions, The Smiths but, equally, I might as well have burnt the money it cost to see the likes of Texas and Kings of Leon – the latter leaving me distinctly underwhelmed around the time of their first album when I was practically bursting with excitement beforehand.

I’m going to use the tickets to feed the blog, so I won’t be claiming to have been at a secret Clash reunion or upstairs in a pub when Beyonce was trying out some new material.

Hopefully a few memories will be stirred for anyone who reads this about their own experiences.