I've often been asked in which era would I like to have been around in when I started going to gigs. Before I move onto that I was lucky that when I started going to gigs there were so many fantastic bands to see live. I started going to gigs when I was sixteen years old and within a few months of my first one I had seen the likes of The Ramones, New Order and The Stranglers at The Barrowland alongside bands like The Shop Assistants, The Wedding Present and The Pastels at smaller venues, usually one of the Glasgow Universities or Glasgow Tech. For the next few years barely a week or two went by without going to see someone perform live.
Much as I love that I saw many of these bands when they were just starting out, there is one period in particular for me that would have been the perfect one for me to have been about sixteen in and that is around 1978. Post Punk, New Wave, whatever you want to label it this is the period for me, followed by 2 Tone, The Mod Revival and early Orange Juice. The roll call includes the likes of Gang Of Four, Public Image, The Cure, The Bunnymen, Joy Division, The Fall and Magazine, The Specials, The Jam and Postcard Records.
For me, to have seen those bands in their early shows would have been something pretty special. That period from about '78 - '82 produced so mant great bands whose influence is still being felt today. Although short lived, here in Scotland we had two of the most influential independent labels of that time in Fast Product and Postcard. Without Fast would we have had Factory? Perhaps, but it was ceratainly an influence on Tony Wilson and Co. Fast boss Bob Last even jokingly said that Factory Records was Fast13.
Only twelve singles were released on Fast (including three samplers), but what a collection of singles. The Mekons, The Human League, Gang Of Four, Joy Division and The Dead Kennedys amongst them. Not too shabby for an independent label from Edinburgh. It may have only lasted a year or so but it set the template for others to follow. Just as Fast was winding down, over in Glasgow we had The Sound Of Young Scotland courtesy of the wonderful Postcard Records. Founded by the inimitable Alan Horne, initially as a vehicle for Orange Juice, it had a huge influence later on with the likes of the C86 bands. Like its East Coast predecessor, Postcard only released eleven singles from Orange Juice, Josef K, The Go Betweens and Aztec Camera before imploding.
One of the best descriptions I recall seeing to describe Post Punk was : "these were musicians interested in seeing where music could go". That seems a fairly decent description to me. Punk had limitations for most of the bands involved, whereas the bands that followed seemed to have no limitations, with much of the music still sounding like nothing before or since.
It would have been great to have been sixteen at the start of R'n'R in the 50's, or the 60's when the world was introduced to the sounds of The Beatles, The Kinks and The Stones, or the early to mid 70's when Bowie was at his best, or '76/'77 when Punk was at its height, but '78 would have been the optimum year for me.
In saying all that I was incredibly lucky to have been sixteen when I was and to be in one of the best cities in the world for bands to play in.
