Live Is Life...

Once upon a time in  a faraway place...in fact it was just the other night we were reminiscing in the pub (as you do) about first and best gigs. You know the kind of night where you get a couple of slightly inebriated blokes of a certain age who love their music and whenever the opportunity arises they start talking bollocks about their fave tunes, albums, singers, gigs etc...

I genuinely feel blessed to have been to the amount of gigs over the years that I have. I was a relative latecomer to the gig scene, going to my first gig at the age of sixteen. I had always loved music but going to see a live band was a whole new experience. Anyways my first taste of live music was The Cramps at the ever wonderful Glasgow Barrowland. One of the best live bands ever at one of the best venues ever. It could only really go downhill from there but fortunately it didn't.

Within a few months I had seen New Order, The Wedding Present, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Stranglers and New York's finest, The Ramones. Just in case anyone was thinking that it was a role call of all that was good in music at the time suffice to say I did go and see a lot of pish also - step forward Fields Of The Nephilim, The Mission and many other equally dodgy bands...

Picking a fave in over 20 years of gig going is of course very subjective and nigh on impossible to choose. Would it be The Strokes at King Tuts, Springsteen at Hampden, Edwyn Collins return to live performance at Oran Mor, The Pixies at the QMU. Who knows really but what I do know is that I owe a big thank you to the lads who persuaded me to go to see The Cramps all those years ago for instilling in me a lifelong passion to see someone perform live no matter whether it is in a tiny backroom pub or a stadium.

And yes, like the great man Peely I will still be traipsing along to see some live music when most "normal" people have chose to grow up.