My name is David Rose, I live in Swindon, UK, and for 30-odd years I've been going to gigs and keeping a gig diary of my experiences at said events. This started out as a scrapbook in which to keep set-lists, tickets etc. I'd accumulated on the way, with gig reports being a secondary feature (in those early days, often even only one sentence long!). However, since about gig 150 I've been expanding these reports and using them as an outlet for my frustrated music journo tendancies.
I've long since meant to set up a blog to share my scribbles, but I've only just gotten the impetus to do so.
Hope you enjoy my reports. Please note that any views expressed are my own inflated opinion only! Please also note that by and large, I'm going to be complimentary of the bands I've seen, as I'm a fan, I've paid my hard-earned cash for tickets to go to these shows. When I'm critical, it's because I've been genuinely disappointed, as I wanted them to do and be better than they were. (Unless you're a support band, in which case you're fair game...!)
Good luck with this chap.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing where I went with you in the 80s and 90s because I can't remember!
This is also a test to make sure the comment facility is set up correctly!
Glad you enjoyed our gig (25 years ago) at the Western Star Domino Club - there were old men there actually staring one another intently and slamming down dominos (not while we were playing - or maybe they were)
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed Nada Surf at Koko in Feb (2012) as you did- the ticket my 50th B-day present from Pete (guitar)
Rock on! (as David Essex said)
Ciao!
Russell
Bass Guitar
Mighty Mighty
Great blog!
ReplyDeleteHi David,
ReplyDeleteGood to chat with you about Gigolo Aunts on the platform sunday night. Spent a couple of hours reading your reviews - a true labour of love! At a rough guess, I think we may have been at the same gigs over 100 times! Small world,eh?
Anyway, if you're still OK for burning me a copy of the lost Gigolo Aunts album, please contact me at martin.cook@blackwell.co.uk.
It'd be great to hear from you - there's a lot on your blog I'd like to discuss!
Best wishes,
Martin
Hi David. Thanks for all the mentions! I didn't know I was your favourite female Canadian bassist, not that I imagine there were a whole lot of us in the UK in the 90s ;) Am I still the only musician you ever saw in 4 different bands?
ReplyDeleteI'm on my third country now but do hope to circle back around to Canada again one of these days... Thanks for sharing your gig diaries!!
Best,
Colleen
Hi David, do you have an e-mail address I can get you on? Or failing that, can you give me an e-mail? I write an online magazine and would like to get in touch as I enjoy reading your reviews. Cheers. behindthesceneglos@yahoo.co.uk
ReplyDeleteHi David, Great stuff here. I stumbled upon your blog trying to remember the exact date of the sebadoh/bis gig in the bierkeller, back in the day when I used to live in Bristol. You got to see most of my favourite bands and I really enjoy your gig reports, they will fill my evenings for a long time going through most these. Cheers from Greece.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome gmayo! Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog - been on here about an hour already. So good to see such an awesome list of gigs attended. Pretty certain there's a few that I was at too, but you know, memory not too great these days :)
ReplyDeleteHi David, I found your blog while trying to confirm some dates of gigs I had been to. We seem to have been to a number of the same gigs (I'm based in Bradford on Avon). Certainly I was at both BSP & Grandaddy in the last few weeks. I agree with your comment about the rather 'slow' middle to the BSP gig. Also seem Blossoms and Gaz Brookfield in recent weeks. In the next few months I have Skinny Lister, Besnard Lakes, Kraftwerk and Mercury Rev (all Bristol). You going to any of those? I've been gig going since 1978 (ELO at Wembley!) but have only managed about half of your total. Perhaps we'll run into each other at some point.
ReplyDeleteHey JR, thanks for your comments and for checking out my blog in the first place! I'll be at that Mercury Rev Colston Hall show; tried to get tix for Kraftwerk but jumped too late... I've also got the likes of Honeyblood, Gaz Brookfield, Mew, The New Pornographers, Chameleons Vox, The Skids and Martha on my Spring/ Summer dance card... trying to avoid Bristol at the moment as getting out of the city afterwards is a bitch! Keep on gigging and we may meet up soon. All the best.
DeleteI wish I had seen The Heart Throbs. I never really went to concerts. Nice to read about them here though!!
ReplyDeleteHi David - I've been really enjoying looking through all your gig reports, you've seen some amazing bands, and we've been at a few of the same shows, too. I'm writing a book about the Bristol indie music scene, and would really love to have a chat with you about this. Do you have an email address where I can contact you, please? Thanks! Jane
ReplyDeleteHi Jane, thanks for your kind words and good luck with the book. I'm at davidtherose@sky.com if you want to contact me, but in any case feel free to use anything you find of any use on my blog, i.e. dates, setlists etc. or even my own demented ramblings...
ReplyDeleteHi, I saw your review of my band The Roves, I was quite disappointed and hurt by your critique of our ‘average material’ however can understand how and why our performance that night was as you say a ‘countrified mulch’. Hope you listen to some of our material to see what you think and that we can turn your head at a future gig.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous... wow, let's unpack this a little... Sorry you were disappointed and "hurt", I thought my comments were objective, fair, balanced, offering my opinion about the performance, and not personal. I did like the early stages of your set so would happily check you out again. However, I have an opinion and reserve my right to express it. What is it they say, OALAEGO; Opinions Are Like Assholes, Everybody's Got One? Also, I'm an amateur blogger who gets about 40-50 hits per article, so frankly, if that's enough to make you "hurt", it's probably best you weren't around when the music press used to routinely savage bands in front of their hundreds of thousands of readers...
ReplyDelete