Tag: Against Me

Liverpool Venues 2 and 3

Liverpool has always been a challenge to access via the train network, so it has not been a regular haunt for gig attending. I must grudgingly concede that the many of the Northern trains are now being improved but the Liverpool routes appear to be at the bottom of the upgrading schedule.

I regularly commute to Liverpool with work thereby having to tolerate the inferior rolling stock. Recently I arrived at Lime Street for a return journey and was astonished to see a new Northern train waiting on the platform, with advanced accessories such as tables, though my joy was short-lived as I realised there were two trains on the platform and sighed when I saw my actual commute of Ivor the Engine was awaiting behind!

I have witnessed Jesus and Mary Chain nine times in total across the years ranging from that infamous show in Preston Clouds in 1985 through to a gig at Manchester Albert Hall a couple of months ago. Many of those shows have been chaotic but their gig at the Lomax takes the biscuit!

Gill, John Dewhurst, and I headed over on a Friday night in 1998, with Gill generously offering to be the designated driver. We scouted around a couple of boozers then headed over to the venue on Cumberland St, off Dale St in the city centre.

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An ultimately unsuccessful gathering to save the Lomax. Image Credit Liverpool Echo.

The club was a three floored iconic site for up-and-coming acts with a 300 capacity. Bands such as Radiohead and Muse had graced the stage there.  It was also known as Foxys and it looks like the venue was permanently closed in 2015 following a police investigation where the owner was jailed for six years for openly selling cocaine on the premises.

It was an intimate venue, but the band were literally falling apart on stage exemplified by continuous acerbic exchanges between Jamie and William Reid and many false starts, Gill was ready to jump on stage and bang their heads together! It was a raggedy set with a far proportion off their latest album ‘Munki’.

The only song that really stood out for me on the night was a rousing version of ‘Reverence’ with its haunting screaming refrain ‘I Wanna Die Just Like Jesus Christ’. Based on that performance it was absolutely no surprise it transpired to be their final tour, prior to their reformation around ten years later.

On five occasions, I have attended gigs on my birthday, Neil Young on my 19th birthday, Against Me on my 32nd, an Alicante gig on my 50th and a King St event on my 51st. They have also generously allocated me an extra bank holiday this year the day after my birthday to attend a Lovely Eggs gig. Rumours that it is due to a Queen Jubilee event are patently untrue!

The fifth occurrence was on 02/06/11, my 43rd birthday. Gill and I had booked a night in Liverpool and after visiting a restaurant in Liverpool One, we dived into a random pub called The Ship & Mitre on the way back to the hotel.

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The Ship & Mitre. Image Credit Liverpool Echo.

It was approaching last orders and we sat quietly in an alcove in the corner and were soon the last punters in the establishment. Then somewhat bizarrely and unprompted one of the bar staff grabbed an acoustic guitar and the other chap called Simon Cities provided the vocals. We watched three to four songs of their sea shanties to not appear impolite before taking our leave, requiring them to unlock the door for us, it was literally a bonus closed door gig!

A postscript is that the documenting of the JAMC gig completes all the gigs I attended in the 20th century, however do not be too perturbed as there are veritable shedloads of 21st century gigs yet to review!

Manchester Venue 16 Academy 3 – Part 2

In totality, I have attended Manchester Academy 3 nineteen times thereby placing it in 6th place on my most populated venues list.  

Early in 2001, I began to become aware of the Strokes who released their terrific first album ‘Is This It’ later that year. I adore the way that record is recorded, sounding like they are in a New York basement, in a good way. I read in the NME they were playing Manchester and was fortunate to obtain four tickets from Piccadilly Records to a much-touted band for a sold-out gig.

John, Uncle George and Gill were in attendance on a filthy Thursday night in June. Walking up the steps to the top floor we passed Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy). He was later ensconced adjacent to us at the bar where a cliched fanboy approached him with the snappy refrain ‘love your album dude…’

The support band was Moldy Peaches followed by the main act who looked nervous initially, but they were excellent and had such admirable poise beyond the tender years.

I was perfectly content in the mosh pit when out of the blue somebody unseen threw a haymaker catapulting me halfway across the pit. Even the band looked taken aback. The assailant must have had a ring on as I had a proper bruise the next day.

Now I am a very chilled chap, but I was incandescent with rage at the sheer injustice of this unwarranted attack. There are unwritten rules for mosh pit etiquette and they were emphatically breached by this muppet!

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The Strokes. Image Credit NME

In April 2005 John Peel faves 65 Days of Static were in town. They had a couple of entries in the previous year’s Festive fifty and were supported by Sons of Slaughter. They were decent live but a tad Mogwai lite.

A couple of years later we headed over to see Goldblade supported by the punk poet Ted Chippington. Everything about that gig was loud including John Cooper Clarke booming out of the speakers in between acts.

Goldblade were thunderous with John Robb vamping it up in his inimitable style. I had imbibed a few sherbets, so when they offered ‘Iggy Pop’ style for punters to enter the fray I grabbed a rare opportunity and leapt on stage with many other like minded folk.

Implausibly, it was even louder up there, and I found myself next to the drummer so proceeded to assist him by slapping away at the drums for one track which was very exhilarating! Another new nickname was christened – ‘Jimmy the Sticks’.

On 22/11/07 an exceedingly rare event happened, namely me driving to a gig! The reason for this unusual anomaly was that we were driving to Centreparcs at Penrith the following day for the weekend.  

We landed in the venue just to catch the last two songs of a rather poor support act Son of Albion and somewhat cringingly for the band you could hear a pin drop when they finished, not even a polite smattering of applause!

The main band was the Raveonettes, a duo from Copenhagen with their fabulous names of Sune Rose Wagner on guitar and Sharon Foo on bass with the assistance of a drum machine. They excel in fuzzed up Mary Chainesque (made up word but describes it perfectly!) sound with gorgeous harmonies but with the additional bite of razor-sharp lyrics.  

To exemplify those contrast shades, they have in their cannon a sugary sounding track in the vein of Strawberry Switchblade, but it then contains contextually the understandingly brutal title ‘Boys Who Rape Should Be Destroyed’. They have produced a suite of excellent albums across their lineage.

They were a captivating experience in the live setting and were immensely enjoyable.

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The Raveonettes. Image Credit Ents 24.

When approaching my 42nd birthday I fancied attending a gig on the day so instigated a search and found that Against Me, a Florida punk band, were playing that night. Uncle George, Dave Keane and I sallied over on the quick train.  

This remains one of the four gigs I have attended on my actual birthday, Neil Young on my 19th and I saw a band in Liverpool and Manchester respectively on my 43rd and 51st birthdays.

They were one of those bands that seem to instil intense loyalty from their fans and that was evident in the fervent atmosphere at the gig. They had an individual sound and it was a fun night.