Tag: Nada Surf

2021 Gigs – Part 1

I think it is about time that we conversed about the elephant in the room, namely the small matter of the worldwide pandemic that ripped our normal lives apart. Early breaking news stories in January and February 2020 began to indicate that something extraordinary was about to happen resulting in the first lockdown in March which for us in the North of England never really lifted for nigh on eighteen months.

There was a certain surreal novelty to the first few months as we pounded the deserted streets on our daily exercise, inadvertently serving to appraise us of our still new local area and the weather was thankfully very kind. We organised home offices with trips to the horror establishment of IKEA to purchase desks and got used to queueing everywhere and discovering new words like furlough and lateral flow tests!

Once the initial spell wore out, the isolation kicked in and both Gill and I had unpleasant bouts of Covid and I personally found the period astonishingly tough and it wasn’t even as if I was living on my own, so I can only imagine the challenges faced by millions of other people, and I am sure we will all have our personal tales and experiences. I know people who took it all in their stride and I am glad they could cope admirably with the enforced change, but I was not in that number.

I think the absolute nadir was reached at Christmas 2020 when the ability to gather with family and friends was severely curtailed. On a very cold 29th December we arranged to meet our good friends Jo and Paul at a local park, resulted in us finding a muddy picnic bench to sit on.

On the bench was left abandoned a plastic sword which we christened the sword of Gryffindor, which at the very point became the overriding pandemic symbol for us! We imbibed whiskey and brandy laced coffee until it went dark and then we separately walked home with tears in our eyes because we had nowhere else to go and like 99% of the population, we were compliant with the Government rules!

The Sword of Gryffindor. Image Credit shpock.com

Music also dropped off my radar for a fair while and I didn’t invest in the podcasts or live streaming gigs as I stubbornly wouldn’t settle for anything less than the real live experience. Now people who know me would say I am generally by nature a pragmatic, glass half full kind of chap, so apologies for the maudlin tone of this article, but it has tended to pour out of me as I was typing away, however I think it is high time l lifted the mood now.    

So, three very instrumental elements contributed to the upturn in fortunes. The first was the very existence of this blog and the therapeutic weekly routine it instilled. Alongside this, was my burgeoning interest and following on Twitter via interaction and invaluable support from some terrific and knowledgeable like-minded folk who shared my musical passion, who I have affectionally coined as ‘muso geeks’!

The second was the introduction of the vaccines which led to the very exciting third development, the return of live music. So, from the last rather strange pre-pandemic gig of Nada Surf on 12/03/20, it was 477 days or 11,448 hours to 03/07/21 (but who’s counting!) before I witnessed another gig, which is not unsurprisingly my longest dry spell ever!  

Nada Surf. Image Credit Rolling Stone

Preston Venue 23 The Mill – Part 2

For the three-year golden period of 2003 -2005 at the Mill, I was living a handy 15-minute stroll away at Lane Ends, and post gig would happily tumble up Tulketh Brow or Shelley Road in a warm glow after a top night of music.

I had a very noisy double bill of gigs at the tail end of 2003, the first being the old influential stalwarts Killing Joke who formed in Notting Hill in 1979. I was in attendance with super fan Tony Dewhurst who has seen them over 100 times. I recall Tony saying he had a chat with lead singer Jaz Coleman that night and there was a possibility Tony could be hired to write his autobiography, but the interesting offer never reached fruition. They produced a very noisy industrial set.

The second was the Irish punk band Therapy? and I recall them playing their cover of Husker Du’s Diana.

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Therapy? Promo picture. Image Credit conversationabouther.net

In between those two gigs, I saw Brighton band Electric Soft Parade who I had picked up on initially from their stellar debut album ‘Holes in the Wall’ which was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. They were very accomplished and enjoyable on the night.  

Next up in April 2004 was to see Marky Ramone. Originally born Mark Steven Bell he was originally a drummer for Richard Hell and the Voidoids. When Tommy Ramone stopped drumming to become the manager in 1978, he stepped in as the new drummer and changed his name to Marky Ramone. The show consisted of a slide presentation talk with Q&A which was amusing as had a bone-dry wit and there were many Ramones tales to impart. The second part consisted of playing a selection of Ramone songs drumming behind of UK Subs, which was the weaker portion of the evening’s events.  

In April 2004, I saw a Cardiff post-hardcore band called Mclusky led by Andrew Falkous and they produced an urgent slab of noisy rock. After the band split up Falkous created the bands Jarcrew and Future of the Left, I was a fan of the latter band’s off-kilter sound. The support bands on the night were Papa Boon and My Code Name is Milo.

On a very warm Friday night during Euro 2004 we sauntered down to watch Longview, an indie rock band from Manchester. They had formed in 2002 and honed their craft with many gigs at the Night and Day café. They also had the German musician/record producer Ulrich Schnauss in their ranks from 2005 to 2010. Remarkably despite them being in existence for 12 years they only ever produced one album. I recall they were very melodic in the mould of Nada Surf with House of Love tinted vocals and were a perfect summer night band. Just listening to their music now and it still sounds remarkably fresh.

Five months later I saw Hope of the States, a post rock band from Chichester. They were good value and were supported by The Open. When the headline band subsequently disbanded the members ventured into bands such as The Northwestern and Chapel Club.

In March 2005 a group of us went to a multi punk bill and we saw Mere Dead Men (MDM) and Broken Bones who evolved from the band Discharge. Also, on the bill was the local punk legends Pike, one of seven times I have seen them. I recall they played a rarely heard cover of a Naked Prey track, which I think was ‘Train Whistle Blows’ from their lost gem album ‘Under the Blue Marlin’.  Naked Prey were from Tucson, Arizona and in the desert rock genre and subsequently were members of Green on Red and Giant Sand and you can hear distinct similarities in their sounds.  If I have got the name wrong of the covered track, I am sure Pike’s bassist and music encyclopaedist Jez Catlow will graciously correct me!

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Naked Prey ‘Under the Blue Marlin’. Image Credit Amazon.

In the gap between bands, we headed up to the local pub Moss Cottage, known as the Hogshead for an aperitif before returning to see the headliners Conflict, who formed in Eltham in South London in 1981. They were always combative souls and highlighted issues around animal rights, anarchism and class war. During their gigs in the 80’s in the particularly dark days of Thatcherism they regularly stoked up the crowd leading to riots and disturbances post-gig. Even 25 years on, they still cut an aggressive and spiky presence on stage.