These are not reviews. I wouldn't do that very well. They're just memories. I have called the segment "I 'n' Gigs" (a pointless pun on the name Ryan Giggs)... that is a good indicator of the quality writing to come ...
The first gig I went to was a band called Slushfund. I saw
them five times. Either the first or the second was at the Garage in Highbury,
which is a pretty impressive venue, considering they were a band started by
some boys from school.
I was friends with the drummer Andy. Then there were three
on guitars, all extremely tall. Two brothers and a cousin. I’d known one of
them, Tom, for a long, long time from cricket – he’d always been pretty surly
and sarcastic to me, but now that surliness all made sense – he’d been
rock’roll along. The singer was one of the brothers’ girlfriend – she, as I
recall, wore a red cocktail dress, whereas the boys all looked suitably grungey
and dishevelled. It was a solid well-considered all-round look.
I was, by that stage, into that thing called Britpop in a
very nascent and ill-informed way, so Slushfund weren’t quite my thing, as I thought
all songs should be about markets and roast dinners.
But they were really very good, I think in retrospect.
Andy, my friend, was, in particular, excellent at drumming. I think I watched
him for most of that gig. I didn’t do much else. I was literally and physically
petrified. I was stone. I had no idea how to be in the space. There were some
boys from the year below me who were also there, and they were dancing and
singing along and punching the air and I remember thinking “how have they even
got the nerve to do that?”. I didn’t even tap my toe. I know that, because I
remember watching the Flaming Lips about four years later and thinking “wow,
this is the first time I’ve ever tapped me toe at a gig, I’m wild, I’m
elemental”.
So, I’m not sure I massively enjoyed the experience. I went
five times out of duty and I suppose because it was going out and I hadn’t done
much of that by that point, so it was something. I don’t think I drank. I began
to recognise their pretty catchy songs, and that helped me find a little more
ease from gig to gig.
As well as the Garage, I’m trying to remember where else I
saw them … those classic North London venues, maybe the Monarch, maybe the Bull
and Gate … I remember one of them was a kind of “Battle of the Bands” and one
of the other bands had this blonde lead singer who looked like Joe Elliott from
Def Leppard and one of the lyrics he sang was “the soul is dead, long live the
skin” and, even then, I knew that was years out of date and naff beyond any
reckoning.
Tom, his brother and cousin, looked the part and could
really play - I remember thinking “god, some people have spent their
adolescence well. I wish I’d done that.”
It’s a frustrating habit to always think “dammit, I’ve
missed my chance”. I was 17 and I already thought I was too old to learn
guitar, too old to catch up with that level of competence. So I didn’t (pretty
certain I’d have been shit with my fat fingers, but anyway …). When you’re
young, the point where you’ve missed your chance is often later than you think,
isn’t?* With cricket, I went through most of my youth being, you know, pretty
good, and then, at 16, I went up to actually really pretty good for a few
months, and it still pains me that I didn’t grasp that nettle and spend the
next couple of years trying to get from that to noticeably very good and thus
give myself a small chance. But, at 16, I already thought it was too late. * of
course, it’s just as true that sometimes your chance is gone before you know
it.
Anyway, those were the thoughts I had watching Slushfund. It
didn’t get me into gig-going. My university town was desolate in that respect
(or so I thought, that’s another story I’ll get to), and it wasn’t until
99/2000 that we started going through to Glasgow fairly often for some decent
shows.
Slushfund were, I believe, offered a deal but turned it down
to go to uni and be sensible. Aah, youth…
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