LOCKDOWN LINKY – Will Graves
LOCKDOWN LINKY – Will Graves
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Sanctify Yourself
Simple Minds
The first proper gig I went to was Simple Minds at Cardiff Arms Park in 1989. I had loved them for years and I had no idea what to expect from a live concert. The Darling Buds, Silencers and Texas supported and I discovered what live music was all about. When Simple Minds came on I was blown away. It was pompous, silly, loud and totally overblown. They had past their best by quite a few years at this point but it was in every important way brilliant. I didn’t go to another stadium gig until 2005. I can’t help but raise smile when I think of them these days. Still touring and the fans love em. Simple Minds, Sanctify Yourself. KINKY LINKY
Unbearable
The Wonder Stuff
The first proper gig I went to was Simple Minds at Cardiff Arms Park in 1989. I had loved them for years and I had no idea what to expect from a live concert. The Darling Buds, Silencers and Texas supported and I discovered what live music was all about. When Simple Minds came on I was blown away. It was pompous, silly, loud and totally overblown. They had past their best by quite a few years at this point but it was in every important way brilliant. I didn’t go to another stadium gig until 2005. I can’t help but raise smile when I think of them these days. Still touring and the fans love em. Simple Minds, Sanctify Yourself. KINKY LINKY
The Cutter
Echo & the Bunnymen
I grew up the youngest of four children in a large house in rural Lincolnshire and there was always music and noise as you can imagine. My eldest brother went to manchester uni when I was 9 to take drugs and fuck up his degree. He came back with an amazing collection of cassettes and stories of the gigs he went to. Queuing to see if he could get ticket on the door for Dexy’s one hot summer night and a mate of his went in opened the fire door and let a good 100 students in before the bouncers managed to get it closed again! I’m not posting a Dexy’s song though because Jon was the first person to teach me about music, and the first song that really got me was Echo and The Bunnymen The Cutter
Darl
Buffalo Tom
Discovering new music as I’m sure you all know is like the sweetest crack! Addictive and deeply gratifying even if it does leave you wanting more. I can remember the day I discovered Buffalo Tom. 1992 I was in a music shop in Hull (in the old town Hull AF Gang I can’t remember the name) and a the guy behind the counter had just taken delivery of some new albums and he took out Let Me Come Over and in my minds eye I can still see him putting the needle down on the record and hearing it leap to life. I didn’t say anything we just both stood there with shit eating grins on our faces and I bought the CD. With I had the vinyl now (I probably do) anyway the song that means the most to me from that album is Darl
Rubbish
Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine
Back in the early 90s there was a largely ignored explosion of indie pop that paved the way for the britpop scene. Without these bands Blur, Oasis et all would have hardly troubled the charts. In July 1990 at the Astoria I saw Carter USM on the Rubbish tour. It was wonderful. Three bands (Bob and Beef), too many expensive pints, I got off with a blond girl who’s name I never found out and rounded the evening off smoking weed in a garden in Ealing. I was 17. My Mum only knows I went to the gig and stayed in Ealing!
Put The Replacements On
Nebraska
Ok to bring us back up to date a little I have always tried to go to a few gigs a year but kids, money and life have got in the way many times but a few years ago there was a band the drew me back to live music in a way I could not ignore. They have made me dance, weep and cheer in the space of moments and their sad demise as a touring band has left the world a poorer place. The music business goes not work and we all suffer because of it. Augustines with Chapel Song
Spanish Bombs - Remastered
The Clash
Do you remember when Facebook first started and all the people you had ever worked with added you to their friend groups? Well when that happened to me and I got involved with a conversation about Guns N Roses I met my first “Imaginary Friend” he knew the guy I worked with. For a few years that’s all we were despite being at a number of the same gigs. Eventually we met and have forged a beautiful friendship and without him my life would be poorer and I certainly would not be listening to Idles. We call him Big Dog these days but to me he will always be MJH I love him. He will hate this but I love the band he was in a few years ago so I’m posting it here without apology. Don’t ask him to hit those high notes, he was not built for that!
Chapel Song
Augustines
How can this be number 10? Fuck! Ok there are 1000s of songs I could have put here but I guess I will have to choose a banger to go out on! Well that was never going to be easy but I would never forgive myself for having the opportunity to thank St Joe Strummer. I met him briefly in a pub in north London once. I still get goosebumps thinking about that. I often say to myself “What would Joe do” the answer is drink ten pints then run a marathon. I miss him.