Category: Miscellaneous

Gig Miscellaneous – Part 1

Over the next few articles, I am delving into the extensive miscellaneous minutiae of all things gig related. The first question I would pose here is why would you choose to listen to or want to see a particular band?

Initially for me this was influenced by my background and my dad who was a music fan and had a decent back catalogue so I first picked up on records by Del Shannon and Buddy Holly moving onto Bob Dylan and also instilling a life long devotion to Neil Young who also contributed (not literally!) one of the songs for mine and Gill’s wedding.

Then the pervasive influence of schoolmates kicked in resulting in an Adam Ant and a mercifully brief Heavy Metal phase. Around 1982, a significant event happened where as a stunningly shy 14-year-old I was navigating the unremitting awkwardness of a school disco where the DJ was spinning the soporific tunes of Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. Suddenly an Irish lad called Aidan Callaghan requested ‘At the Edge’ by Stiff Little Fingers and then proceed to pogo around an empty dance floor for the next three minutes. I was spellbound by the joyous urgent racket and his unabandoned enjoyment, it was literally a life changing moment for me that music like this existed. I still adore that track to this day!

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Stiff Little Fingers. Image credit Discogs

My elder brother also introduced me to various below the radar American indie bands such as Husker Du, Minutemen and Meat Puppets. Those specific bands reminded me of a decent book called ‘This Band Could Be Your Life’ penned by Michael Azzerad. This commendable tome covers 12 bands between 1981 and 1991 and outlines the commercial constraints of the pre-internet age and the more imaginative way (i.e. flyers and fanzines) they chose to spread their gospel though quite often being restricted to pop up gigs in basements and shop doorways. One unusual stat for you, the Meat Puppets referenced above, generated the longest gap between the first and second time I have seen a band. I saw them play their first ever British date on 18/09/87 and didn’t see them again until 03/09/15 – just shy of a 28-year gap!

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Meat Puppets live. Image credit WordPress.com

It is somewhat difficult to imagine now with all information at our fingertips (arguably too much!) that it was very much a word of mouth existence to keep yourself updated. To exemplify this, I recall Rick Clegg and I on our first holiday in Majorca in 1986 trying to find out the latest Preston North End score. There were very limited options available to us, one an eyewatering cost to ring home and the second to wait for the English papers to arrive which would be 3-4 days later. We managed to circumvent this via a third option by identifying a dingy bar that had World Service transmitting via a tinny radio. It was all worth it as it was announced that we had beaten Cambridge 1-0.

The weekly music magazines Sounds, Melody Maker and especially NME greatly assisted in identifying new bands. I learned to became somewhat adept in gauging my future interest in a band from reading their LP or Live reviews. Their periodic 45’s and more so C86 which was a fine influential mix tape of new shoegaze type bands introduced me to the likes of The Pastels, The Shop Assistants, Half Man Half Biscuit and We’ve Got a Fuzzbox and We’re Gonna Use It.   

I soon discovered at this point after dabbling with various instruments, guitar and drums that I was musically inept, so my future lay in being a listener only, but I was going to make sure I was damn good at it!

Definition of a Gig and a Venue?

If you are anything like me, I am sure you periodically cogitate on the meaningful questions in life such as: –

How did I get here?

Where does that highway go to?

What is your favourite flavour of bonbon? – For the record mine is Toffee (the white ones) though the Vimto ones run them close.

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I was struggling for an inspired picture this week, so I have selected a bag of bonbons for you! Image credit moresweets.co.uk

However as this is a musical related blog, today I am going to consider the two tricky conundrums, what is the definition of a gig and of a venue? This has sparked numerous debates with friends in many taprooms in many towns over the years and what follows are my thoughts on these vexing questions.

Looking at the Oxford English dictionary the definition of a gig is ‘a single performance by a musician or group of musicians, especially playing modern or pop music’.

In my early gig going days I was very rigid in my interpretation of a gig in that I had to be actively intending to attend a gig beforehand to add to the list and would not count any random walk up gigs e.g.  a band on in a boozer where I have gone for a cheeky libation. As time progressed, I gradually revised this opinion leading me to cast my memory back to recall earlier gigs which met this criterion, however I am sure I am still missing a few, which shall forever be known as the ‘lost’ gigs!

Does the gig have to be a certain length of time or number of songs? I don’t personally adopt this approach as to me any length of time playing on a stage constitutes a gig, thus applying the principle of a single performance outlined in the dictionary definition above.

An anecdote springs to mind here as a couple of years ago the annual lads trip ended up in Den Bosch via Eindhoven in Holland and unexpectedly there was a Jazz Festival in full flow. One of the lads Hughie at that stage was endeavouring to attend 50 gigs in his 50th year and his strict definition was that a gig had to constitute a full five songs. Now Jazz is one of the few genres I have never really embraced, a sentiment that was shared by the whole group but a gig geek like me does not turn away a gift horse of bonus gigs like that! Thus, we were stood beer in hand at one of the stages watching ‘Groupo Des Cargos’ whose fifth song was an absolutely epic opus with at least a couple of false endings. The roar that greeted the end of the song attracted very bemused looks from the band!

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One of the stages at the Den Bosch Jazz festival. Image credit denboschtips.com

Is there an argument to say a gig should only count if you pay? I again do not embrace this ethos as you would miss out on a plethora of fine bands in a variety of settings outside the accepted norm.

In relation to outdoor Festivals such as T in the Park, I would count as one gig and one venue as it is in an enclosed outdoor setting though may have several stages. I would always count bands individually so may have 20-30 listed over a whole weekend.

However, I apply a different principle to other wrist band events such as the Dot to Dot indoor festival which involve bespoke venues, so I have been known to undertake 20 gigs and conversely 20 venues at these events.

Now, this might be a controversial one. If I go a separate individual area in the same venue, I count these as individual venues. As an example, I once attended Chorlton Irish Club and there were bands playing in the upstairs bar, downstairs bar and a separate acoustic room at the front so three venues in total were counted.

If a venue is refurbished or changes its name, I will only count this as one venue as it is the same floor space just under a different moniker!

Now, over to you as I would be fascinated in your thoughts on my personal guidelines above and whether they mirror yours.