27 LLOYD COLE AND THE COMMOTIONS, DEL AMITRI, Brighton Top Rank, Wednesday 15 May 1985

A 2 car convoy of 8 of us drove down to the South Coast, making a day of it and playing football on the shingle beach during the day! The unexpectedly excellent support Del Amitri left photo booklets of themselves liberally sprinkled around, and their fine strumalong set prompted me to write for inclusion on their "Hit List". The start of something...

Lloyd Cole, looking slightly more confident, played a fine crafted set, which included a truncated "Perfect Skin" due to a scuffle on the dancefloor (!), and a splendid encore version of Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman", showcasing Lloyd's excellent dark baritone. A long way to go for a gig, but well worth it!

36 DEL AMITRI, Swindon Rifleman's Pub, Monday 7 October 1985

Yup, that's Swindon Rifleman's pub! Del Amitri decided to fill a few spare dates on their current tour by hanging out with Del aficionados in various towns, and Swindon was chosen! Took the day off and wandered around town, eventually meeting up with the Dels about 4.30, then sitting around in the college cafe, outside the Wyvern and the ABC cinema waiting for the pubs to open. Eventually, we hit the Rifleman's pub, and the band persuaded the landlord to allow them to play a set! A fine and fun set of originals and some well-chosen covers ensued, with acoustic guitars and maracas providing the musical embellishment, much to the bemusement of the cinema goers and "Bubbles" nightclub crowd trendies! A good time was had by all, nevertheless!

The set was; "Brown Eyed Girl", "This King Is Poor", "Ceasefire", "Keepers", a lovely "Ignorant Heaven", "Tired Of Waiting For You", "I Was Here", "Nothing Goes (According To Plan)", "We Better Go", "Ever Fallen In Love", "Hammering Heart", "Sticks And Stones Girl", highlight "Out In The Wind", "Heard Through A Wall", Orange Juice's "Felicity", "Lines Running North", and a reprise of "Brown Eyed Girl".

38 DEL AMITRI, Bath Moles Club, Friday 25 October 1985

Drove down with some friends, then abandoned them in the pub above this hole in the wall venue; instead, I sneaked into the Del Amitri soundcheck, then went out for a curry with Justin, Iain and Paul from the band before the gig!

Hung out in the cupboard-like backstage with the band and other local Dels fans, before their excellent, jangly and increasingly familiar set. They also managed to get an encore, after hanging out by the side of the stage following their set and cheering for themselves to come back on!

41 DEL AMITRI, Bedroom Fear, London Marquee, Friday 28 February 1986

Took the day off work and took the train up to London to see Del Amitri, increasingly becoming my favourite band of this mid 80's moment. However I got utterly pissed on the journey up and before the gig! We snuck in without paying as well!

Support Bedroom Fear impressed, covering Liverpool band Dalek I's splendidly spooky "A Suicide" in their set. Lounged backstage with the Del's before they went on, however by now I was totally pissed and increasingly hungover, so the Del Amitri set went by in a drunken haze. I'm told they were brilliant!

47, 48, 49 DEL AMITRI, Kevin McDermott, Swindon Level 3, London Marquee and Sheffield Leadmill, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 13, 15 and 17 May 1986

A triple-header following my current "live" faves, masters of introverted yet verbose (in a nice way) jangle pop Del Amitri, seemingly halfway around the world! It nevertheless started locally, with a gig in Swindon that I had a hand in organising (although not in financing, I'm glad to say..). Helped the band unpack and set up as well! Only 46 people paid to get in, though; at one point guitarist Brian asked if people could go to the loo one at a time! The Dels played a razor-sharp set nonetheless.

Two nights later, and on the first anniversary of my first Del Amitri gig, we reconvened in London early for an advertised "extra special support", which turned out to be The Dels themselves, along with support and friend Kevin McDermott, playing cover versions such as "(Come Up And See Me) Make Me Smile", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "Let's Go Crazy" and "Venus", under the name of Bob Dylan And The Libyans! McDermott then played an impressive and emotive solo singer-songwriter set before the Dels themselves headlined with an excellent and enjoyable set of their own numbers!

Finally, a weekend visiting Craig at Sheffield Poly concluded my first gig triple-header; wandered past the Leadmill on a drizzly Saturday afternoon at 4.30, and helped the Dels unpack and set up again, consequently getting in on the guest list! Del Amitri again played a fine set, this time in the face of an indifferent audience, rounding off an impressive three in a row!

65 DEL AMITRI, The Dentists, London Marquee, Friday 5 December 1986

Took the opportunity of this gig to visit and stay with a friend at Brunel University; or was it the other way round? Either way, I got very pissed indeed at this gig, meeting up with a number of other Del Amitri mega-fans (Dels fans of the world unite!), hanging out with Sushil and other Soup Dragons in attendance, and also bumping into Lloyd Cole, being terribly rude to him about his glasses and unshaven state. He still signed my Dels set-list, although on the back...

Del Amitri, despite my drunken state, were memorably excellent, premiering lots of new and impressive material, particularly catchy opener "When I Want You". They also threw in a cover of the Rolling Stones "It's All Over Now" in their set.

91 DEL AMITRI, Red Moon Joe, London Marquee, Sunday 8 November 1987

Took the train up on a Sunday afternoon for this, my 10th Del Amitri gig, albeit my first with the new line-up, Mick Slaven replacing Brian Tolland on guitar. Met North Of Cornwallis vocalist (and Dels fan) Lester Noel there! After ignoring the support band in favour of the bar, popped back in for the Dels, who celebrated their recent signing to A&M Records with a set of primarily new numbers, which were well rocking, with new guitarist Mick contributing dollops of feedback, a little incongruous for Del Amitri but suiting the tougher new material. Highlight was Justin Currie's solo ballad "This Side Of The Morning", which was lovely - complimented him afterwards after a set, which will provide the launchpad for greater things for Del Amitri...

300 REM, The Cranberries, Del Amitri, Belly, Cardiff Arms Park, Sunday 23 July 1995

A 2 car posse convoy travelled down the M4 for this one, including last-minute addition Paul Crowfoot, who unexpectedly turned up at Level 3 the previous night and availed himself of our spare ticket! We parked the convoy up at 3, following a dazzling Ady diversion around Cardiff docks, completely avoiding the congested Cardiff city centre but still parking in the shadow of this monolith of a stadium. Queued up and got settled into the rapidly-filling huge bowl of a stadium, in time for the first band.

Prompt at 4, Belly, our openers tonight, entered the stage and burst into "Gepetto", following that up with a great selection of singles and choice cuts from the angular, shimmering new LP "King". I piled into the moshpit down the front and experienced their excellent, bright, dynamic 40 minute set of pure, clear college pop first hand, getting a soaking from rock guitarist Gail's water bottle in the process!

Met up with the crew afterwards, then took a vantage point to the back of the stadium, up in the Gods, for Del Amitri, next up. It's been 8 years since I've last seen The Dels, my old mid-80's favourites, during which time they've deteriorated from being bright, optimistic Scottish tunesmiths with catchy strumalong tunes and guitars in their hearts, to AOR-oriented cynical soft rock hairy hobos, with the occasional bright moment serving just to throw their mostly dodgy plodding rock material into sharp relief. Such was this set; the excellent "When I Want You" and "Stone Cold Sober" totally outshone the rest. Tonight Del Amitri equalled The Parachute Men in being the band I've seen "live" most times, but for them it was an unwanted record. I don't begrudge their success, it's just so very sad they had to change everything to achieve it.

Anyway, I then took a wander around the by-now very full stadium, getting some food during The Cranberries moody but dull corporate careerist angst-rock. The mix was terrible - too much bass - but at least it drowned out Dolores' irritating yodelling voice!

Back up in the gods again for mid-evening, so had a great view for the entrance of headliners REM at 8.40. In contrast to my last headliners at this venue - U2, a couple of Summers ago - REM had a sparse set-up, and no gimmicks, preferring to let the music do the talking. They hurtled into "What's The Frequency Kenneth" and "Crush With Eyeliner", two growling rock anthems from their new, slightly disappointing "rock" LP "Monster". Like U2, however, they initially struggled, both with poor sound and a slightly leaden and unenthusiastic atmosphere. Lots of repetitive wah-wah in the new material probably didn't help, either...

However, just under an hour in, "Man On The Moon" unexpectedly took flight, and suddenly the sound was sorted, the crowd hyped up and jumping as one, and REM responded accordingly. A superb rest-of-set, including a colossal "Losing My Religion", firmly stamped REM's credentials as not only a stadium rock draw of monolithic proportions, but a damn fine band in the process. An unexpected encore of "So. Central Rain" (this jangly anthem being 14 years old now!), following a heart-cracking double of "Let Me In" and "Everybody Hurts", was another highlight of a set with, overall, much more good than bad, and a final, breathless "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" sent everyone - including me! - home happy!