In with the new ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On New Year's Eve, in days gone by, there'd only be one thing on my mind as I drove into work that morning. Was it a revue of the year just gone? Or my resolutions for the next? Hell no, I'd be wondering where I was going to be when the clock struck twelve. At home, alone? (Sod that!) In a Manchester nightclub, for which I'd have had to buy a ticket at some outrageous mark-up and spend a fortune on a taxi home (if I could find one)? Or at a house party in some far-flung corner of either Manchester or Warrington, almost impossible to reach as the night buses went onto limited service?..

Well, nine times out of ten it would have been the house-party. The journalists I worked with were always good at throwing a bash, and so a night in a crowded pub and a race back in time to bring in the New Year was my general mode of celebration. They must have been good nights, because I can't remember any of them. All I know is that I'd get home about ten the next morning and, in what became a tradition, throw U2's 'New Year's Day' on my turntable as the first record of the year. Forty years on, I think I'll just play the record! I hope you have a great night, and I'll catch you in the new year ..

A day without music ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's not a lot of moshing going on at the moment, is there? Not that I go gigging very much these days, but it's a shame for 'the kids', who are being deprived of a very vital part of their lives. I couldn't have lived without bands and music when I was in my twenties ..

As if to illustrate the point, I happened upon my diary for February 1981. It tells me that, this exact week forty years ago, I went to see Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Bad Manners and the UK Subs, and also that The Spliff Radio Show were on the Old Grey Whistle Test and there was a new single from a band with the very apt name of The Photos ..

Just to show that's not a fluke, the next week I went to see The Drones, the Expressos, U2 and The Freshies, and the week after that I saw Duran Duran, Discharge and The Revillos ..

Out of all those I can only remember the U2 gig, which was at Manchester Poly, where there was a big painting of Dennis the Menace on the wall. Gives a bit more meaning to their song 'A day without me' ..

Foreigner?...

I know, another shot of a band on my blog, but stick with it! I was searching for an insurance policy in a box of old documents this morning, and came across an old diary from 1981 - the year I was 21 and working for the Warrington Guardian. It was a timely find because, yesterday, I was talking with a pal about going to gigs 'in the old days'. His son, it seems, was going to his second gig of the week last night. Second gig of the week! I only managed three in the whole of last year .. and one of them was an eighties' tribute night! Anyway, I started reading through this old diary, and in particular, the February of 1981. You would not believe the listings in there! In just that one month I went to 12 gigs and saw acts as varied as John Cooper Clarke, The Rezillos, Bad Manners, Discharge, OMD and the UK Subs. There was even U2 at Manchester Poly, and Duran Duran although, tellingly, I can't remember anything from that gig! I once photographed Devo - that's them in the picture! - in 1980, and remember the ticket cost me £4. When I went to see 'em more recently the same band cost me 40 quid! Anyway, the thing that shocked me most whilst looking through my history was a listing for Foreigner! Foreigner? I don't even like Foreigner, so why would I go and see 'em? Then it dawned on me! It wasn't a listing for the band, it was a booking to shoot for somebody other than the Warrington Guardian. It was a foreigner, not the Foreigner! Phew!...