Top 10 shows of the year?
- Tove Lo, Shepherds Bush Empire, London, 17th March
- Lorde, Brighton Centre, 30th September
- Kesha, Electric Brixton, 14th November
- Lucy Rose, Electric Rooms, Southampton, 24th November
- Blondie, Hyde Park, London, 30th June
- Marmozets, The Haunt, Brighton, 22nd August
- Sainte, Hoxton Square Bar & Grill, London, 11th August
- Lucy Rose, Whelans, Dublin, 11th November
- Billy Lunn, Prince Albert, Brighton, 16th August
- Phil Collins, Hyde Park, London, 30th June
Total number of shows?
A scant 21, down eleven from the year before (and six down from 2015)
First show of the year?
Gabrielle Aplin, at the Haunt in Brighton on Valentine’s Day.
Last show of the year?
Lucy Rose, at a roller rink in Southampton on November 24th.
Most surprising show?
Blondie. I hoped they’d be good, I didn’t expect them to be that great!
Most disappointing?
Paramore at the Royal Albert Hall. It was stinking hot, and the new stuff didn’t grab me at all.
Farthest travelled?
Dublin! First show outside England since Garbage in Paris, May 2012. Dublin was around 700km away from home.
States attended shows in?
Cheerful, grateful, euphoric, terrified, bored, knackered.
Venue most visited?
The Haunt and Resident Records, both in Brighton, both visited twice. The Haunt would’ve had a third entry but Against The Current took on the mantel of the We Are The In Crowd curse and we had another funeral the day before.
Worst injury?
A digestive issue before the Lucy Rose instore at Pie & Vinyl, Southsea. Also the Gabrielle Aplin gig was two days after I ran a half marathon so my legs were protesting somewhat.
Most expensive ticket?
The Phil Collins/Blondie ticket was by far and away the most expensive.
Band seen the most?
Lucy Rose again, six times this year (up from four the last year, and down one from 2015).
Best new discovery?
Cheating a little bit, because my new discoveries this year have mostly been away from gigs, but Sigrid, Camilla Cabello, Julia Michaels, Kesha, Now Now, and Louisa Johnson all popped up on my radar this year.
Bands seen this year that also broke up this year?
None! Yet. Thankfully.
Friends made at shows?
I mostly went to gigs with Dana so didn’t really talk to anyone else. However, about a week after I handed in my notice at my job, I got talking to one of the new joiners and found out that our music tastes overlapped to the point where a Venn diagram of the two would be pretty much a circle, so that was nice.
Band members met?
Lucy Rose, but she doesn’t count. Billy Lunn, but he doesn’t count either. Chronologically - Rose Elinor Dougall, Oh Wonder, Tay Jardine, Lorde (veeery briefly), and Jamie and Becca from Anavae.
Best souvenir from a show?
More Lucy Rose tea, but that was more of a replenishing of my supply than anything else. My Sainte tee is lovely coloured, my Lorde tee fits me very well, and my Tove Lo long sleeve tee is comfy even though I can’t wear it because of the naughty word embroidered across the front.
Longest time in line?
An hour or so on a cold Brixton street before Kesha. An increasingly irritated hour outside Tove Lo afterwards subjected to the karaoke of her hits by her fans.
Shows seen from the barricade [front row]?
Billy at the Prince Albert, Rose in London and Lucy in Hove and Dublin.
Most shows in one month?
July, August and November had four apiece (not all of which were Lucy Rose!)
Most shows in one week?
Four in a week in July, and we also fit in a pub quiz, a cinema trip, and had some friends come down too! It helped that 3 out of the 4 gigs were in-stores, and 3 were in Brighton (2 in-stores and a post film concert) but that’s still good going for anti-social animals!
Biggest crowd?
Phil Collins and Blondie in Hyde Park was around 50,000.
Any drunk encounters?
I had beer at pretty much every gig that didn’t take place in a record shop, including the one at a vintage clothing shop, and the video shoot (I was a barman. I had to pour beer for the video. I didn’t want it to go to waste.) However I drank in moderation, so was not drunk at any of them.
Top 5 best 2017 concert moments:
1. Lucy Rose playing it super cool when Dana and I popped up in Ireland without warning (in fact, explicitly telling her we would only see her at one more tour date).
2. Before Kesha came on the (90% camp gay) crowd was warmed up by a Spotify playlist of 70s rock classics. When the opening riff to this blared out you could feel the crowd getting ready to sing along to the Destiny’s Child roll call, expecting Bootilicious. When Stevie Nicks’ vocals kicked in the disappointment was both palpable and hilarious!
3. Tove Lo’s “give no fucks” attitude. Both her gigs were great, but the London gig - on St Patrick’s Day, and at a venue I’ve had issues with shitty crowds at before - was a feedback loop of crowd and artist adoration.
4. A 20 year old New Zealander holding 4,500 people in the palm of her hand.
5. A 72 year old American showing the kids how it’s done at Hyde Park.
6. BONUS MOMENT Oh Wonder having trouble with Dana’s camera, resulting in this wonderful selfie.
Top 3 worst 2017 concert moments:
1. The atrocity that took place in Manchester in May, which (justifiably) prompted the cancellation of the Ariana Grande gig we had tickets to.
2. A dodgy pie resulting in a dash to the loo at one of the Lucy Rose in-stores, losing my front-row spot.
3. Dua Lipa’s headline gig. To relieve the experience, shuffle her album with half a dozen “generic stage banter” mp3s, to have a very similar effect.
