Not a meme

[caddyman]

It's terrible. I listed all the bands/solo artists I've ever seen perform to see how it measured up to the 30 bands meme thing that's going around. By adding three pub bands and one tribute band, I can make the list up to fifteen. I have seen more, but they were even more obscure pub bands whose names I can no longer remember, if ever I did. I have a nagging feeling that there is a 'name' band that I saw sometime in the late 70s or early 80s and have forgotten to list them. Clearly a great gig, then.

Hall & Oates
Paul McCartney
Jane Siberry (4)
21st Century Schizoid Band (3)
Kevin Ayers
Deaf School (2)
The Darts (2)
Dire Straits
Judie Tzuke
Mighty Joe Young
Buddy Guy
Johnny and the Icebergs
Supercharge
The Groove
Regenesis

I saw a whole heap of bands at the old Lafayette in Wolverhampton, but after all this time, The Darts are the only one I can put a name to. Too much expensive, warm lager and stuff, combined with standing too (painfully) close to very loud stacks, combined with the passage of time, has robbed me of any clear memory of most of these acts. This is probably a mercy, upon reflection. I can recall enough to realise that I was probably about two gigs from going deaf at one point, but since then the old lugs seem to have picked up quite well.

I took a sabbatical from gigs in the late 70s because:

a) I wasn't a great fan of punk,
b) I generally dislike being gobbed on by the band and the crowd, and
c) I dislike paying to get gobbed on by the band and the crowd¹.

These days, the bands I'd like to see are either dead, split up, don't tour in the UK, or are prohibitively expensive - this last being the reason why my interest in May's Cream reunion died a-birthing. Seventy-five quid? I think not.

Bloody hell. This has got me thinking about theatre and stuff, and how I used to toddle off to the RSC every couple of months, and take in a few plays here and there, reasonably regularly. I haven't done any of that for years, either.

I am getting old before my time…

I am stopping now before I depress myself, as I am actually feeling quite chipper.

¹ Admittedly b) and c) are almost the same observation, but I thought it important to note the parting with cash for the privilege in some cases should receive due note.

Comments

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

I can claim only McCartney and Dire Straits from your list, and I only make it anywhere _near_ 30 because of the show I saw them both in. Without that and another large show the previous year, I'd probably struggle to make it to 20 (unless I could remember all the support acts for the shows I've seen)

[the-hooded-crow.livejournal.com]

What if you've seen the same band 30 times? Does that count? ~g~

[romney.livejournal.com]

I used to toddle off to the RSC every couple of months

Isn't that the upmarket Gastropub in Highgate?

[matte-kudesai.livejournal.com]

Hmm, Mr Ayers, eh?

What's he like in the live setting? I've only recently turned on to his stuff and found it quite intriguing, has a little bit of that skewed Stanshall Innes sounds goin' on...

[cybersofa.livejournal.com]

I think you'd be lucky to see Cream for £75. An agency was asking £1,000 a couple of weeks ago. I shall be away on holiday and I reckon the saving, by my not going, is paying for the trip.

Simon & Garfunkel in Hyde Park last summer were £100, and that was the first I'd heard of the hundred quid gig. Impressive.

What is this meme, pardon my higgerance? Thirty bands you've seen and three you'd like to?