December 13th 1989 – Leicester University I don't remember the two support bands much, nothing at all about Rumble Fish, although I'm pretty sure Huge Big Massive were another Leicester band (as were Diesel Park West) and maybe shoe gazer type music (I apologise if I've just done them a complete dis-service, someone help me)... Continue Reading →
November 12th 1989 – Leicester Poly This was another exciting day, having been a Psychedelic Furs fan for a few years now, they had announced a surprise gig under their cover name of "Book of Days". I don't think this happens anymore, but a few times in my teens, bands did this, Naz Nomad and... Continue Reading →
October 15th 1989 – Leicester University We had spotted this one in the local paper (The Mercury sometimes did things well ;-)). Naz Nomad and The Nightmares? Who? There was a thing in the 80s which was real fun, where bands would tour under false names. Usually when they wanted to trial out music or... Continue Reading →
October 7th 1989 – Birmingham NEC The Who, iconic, this would be their 25th anniversary tour.......25 years and still rocking the hell out of venues, well, after a break from each other! The Who broke up in 1983, reforming for Live Aid in 1985, so I'd heard a fair bit of stuff by now and... Continue Reading →
September 7th 1989 – De Montfort Hall Funny old band, Black Sabbath.....you were never quite sure what the line up would be. Suffice it to say, for this tour, Ozzy Osbourne had been gone a while. Sort of didn't matter, as this will always be Tony Iommi's band. So the line up for this tour... Continue Reading →
July 15th 1989 – Birmingham NEC Ah, back to my favourite venue...not! Sound usually rubbish, view fairly poor, food and beer extortionate.....oh, and the NEC is a bit of a pig to get to from Leicester. Needs must though, as bands like the Pet Shop Boys just didn't bother with Leicester, so if we wanted... Continue Reading →
May 7th 1989 – De Montfort Hall This was a bit of a nostalgia pub outing. We used to watch Robin of Sherwood in the DeMontfort pub on New Walk, Leicester and had seen Clannad back in 1986. This was their greatest hits tour as they had just released the "Past Present" album which was... Continue Reading →
March 17th 1989 – Royal Centre, Nottingham I still love my pop music, I just really enjoy it more with strong vocals and guitars. Mark Shaw was a case in point with Then Jerico. They were an amazingly musical band producing two spot on albums quickly, but I only really followed them for those first... Continue Reading →
August 20th 1988 - Donington Park "don't fuckin' kill each other " Axl Rose addresses the audience during the Guns N' Roses set..... The saddest day in my music gig going and a quote from Axl which was borne from his frustrations as the huge crowd surge at the front, he didn't know what was... Continue Reading →
June 17th 1988 – Leicester De Montfort Hall Aztec Camera would be a frustrating enigma all my musical life! That sentence says nothing about my love of Roddy Frame's music (the lead protagonist...in fact The band!) There was something really special about Roddy's talent and yet no one seemed to get him (that's how I... Continue Reading →
February 15th 1988 - Leicester De Montfort Hall I couldn't get enough of The Alarm and Mike Peters singing in these days. I won't be surprised by the time I end going to gigs if these guys are one of my most watched bands over the years. The Alarm had now done 3 great albums,... Continue Reading →
December 18th 1987 – Leicester Poly Road trip!!! At least it was a Friday! I reckon in 1987 I would have had my Ford Cortina Mark 4, but I don't think I drove to this one? Somehow we squeezed 5 into a car, I think it was two fellas and three girls.......I feel like maybe... Continue Reading →
September 15th 1987 – De Montfort Hall It was just over a year since we saw Def Leppard make their UK comeback at Monsters of Rock. Now, surprisingly, they were coming to lil old Leicester! We had been having problems as a city attracting bands to play here. They tended to go to Nottingham and... Continue Reading →
June 13th 1987 - Wembley Stadium Only the second time I would have seen U2. Still very, very exciting. We had cars now and in those days it was relatively cheap to drive and park in London. I think there was 4 of us went to this gig, seem to remember only one car load.... Continue Reading →
May 15th 1987 - Birmingham International Arena (NEC) 1982 Duran Duran came to Leicester on the Rio Tour, that was the height of their fame and a fascinating time for me getting into music. Due to a combination of no money and tickets selling out super quick, I didn't get to see them. Then, they... Continue Reading →
March 14th 1987 - De Montfort Hall Now, the newspaper article I have seems to suggest the concert was at the university......this isn't my recollection or that of Setlist website or other websites. I'm pretty sure it was the De Montfort Hall, although I don't have this ticket either to prove it...another pissed up youthful... Continue Reading →
November 8th 1986 - Birmingham International Arena (NEC) Supported by: Zerra One Now this was a strange time in my life, alot was going on. I was finding my feet in the work place having started at Alliance and Leicester in April 1986. I was slowly building a really nice social of friends here to... Continue Reading →
August 16th 1986 - Donington Park Monsters of Rock.......the home of Metal, the church of Rock.....it's difficult to sum up what the feeling was looking back to a 21 year olds first ever full blown heavy rock concert! To this point in my musical adventure, I'd touched on what would be classed as true rock... Continue Reading →
May 6th 1986 - Leicester University Now with 3 albums out, including big hit "The Whole of the Moon", The Waterboys were a well known band, but still hadn't really hit the big time. They had a great cult following, which included me, but to a certain extent, we were all a little bit disappointed... Continue Reading →
April 19th 1986 - Leicester Poly Cactus World News were an Irish band who had come to my attention through U2. Bono was producing them and i had got a free cassette tape, I think with Melody Maker featuring Worlds Apart and The Bridge. The band sounded a bit like The Waterboys with a slightly... Continue Reading →
February 25th 1986 – De Montfort Hall Robin of Sherwood was a massive television hit at this time, with Jason Connery playing Robin (yep - Sean's son). Clannad were an Irish folk band and were fast gaining a reputation for haunting classical Irish folk music. They had already created the theme tune for Robin of... Continue Reading →
February 7th 1986 - De Montfort Hall This gig was originally scheduled for 8th November1985 but had been rescheduled Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark were still a firm favourite with me and the Crush album was pure pop! You knew you were going to get a great live show. The only issue for me was... Continue Reading →
January 29th 1986 - De Montfort Hall This concert was due on September 29th 1985 (ticket date) but was cancelled due to Fish (the lead singer) having laryngitis. Marillion were now a force to be reckoned with and producing some fantastic music. Their latest album, Misplaced Childhood was being toured and had what have turned... Continue Reading →
December 9th 1985 - Leicester University I'd seen a few bands by now a couple of times, Ultravox and OMD....The Alarm would become the first band I'd see for a fourth time, although were were to be far from finished with the other two bands mentioned. I remember 1984 and 1985 and a very special... Continue Reading →
November 5th 1985 - Birmingham Odeon Birmingham!! New venue for me, new town for me, starting to grow up and travel, but the musical direction still involves Midge. Ultravox were on a break for a while in 1985, which gave all the guys a chance to focus on their own projects. In truth, there would... Continue Reading →
November 4th 1985 - Thomas Cook Public House This is a shout out to the local Leicester music scene and at the time, some guys we knew, not well, through musician friends, but it was the first time we would get close to a band trying to make it in the business. Ultimately, they wouldn't... Continue Reading →
October 11th 1985 - Leicester Polytechnic The first Waterboys album I bought was A Pagan Place in 1984 on a recommendation. "The Big Music" and "The Thrill is Gone" were the two feature tracks, but the stand out track for me was "Rags". It was such a mix of sounds, rock, pop, orchestra and piano.... Continue Reading →
October 5th 1985 - Leicester University I'd say the Pogues were at their peak in 1985, for a number of reasons. They had just released their second album, Rum Sodomy and the Lash, which for me is still their greatest album (quite possibly because it was the first one I bought!). Secondly, in the years... Continue Reading →
October 3rd 1985 - De Montfort Hall It was great to see Spear of Destiny tour not long after being part of U2's Longest Day concert and to actually come to Leicester as well. As a town of kids growing up, we were starting to realise bands often missed us out and went to Nottingham... Continue Reading →
June 22nd 1985 - Milton Keynes Bowl This..........was exciting!!! In the mid eighties there were quite a few bands making the headlines as BIG bands, after all, we didn't have many TV channels to watch, Leicester City weren't all that good hovering around the lower end of Division 1. I'd waited a long time to... Continue Reading →
