Artist: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Venue: First Direct Arena, Leeds
Date: 18.4.21 [Originally scheduled: 12.5.20 / Subsequently cancelled]
Another great gig that was never to be. With social gathering and international travel in stasis during COVID lockdown, such events became an impossibility. Sadly this tour was never rescheduled.
Artist: Baxter Dury
Venue: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Date: 23.3.21 [Originally scheduled: 17.4.20 / Subsequently cancelled]
Rescheduled time after time and then cancelled due to COVID restrictions. In a world without live music we were compensated with a live streamed gig from Baxter Dury’s home. Dark days and strange times.
Gigography stats for a year locked-down and crushed by COVID. At least I went to 9 gigs before the music stopped.
Artist: Nightmares On Wax
Venue: Leeds Town Hall
Date: 20.9.20 [Originally scheduled: 1.4.20 / Subsequently cancelled]
This should have been an awesome night. We had central front row balcony tickets for a special 25th anniversary, orchestrated performance of ‘Smokers Delight’, against the beautiful backdrop of Leeds Town Hall. The tour was only due to visit select worldwide locations with Leeds being the hometown gig.
The real life nightmare of the COVID lockdown put and end to this dream.
Artists: Various
Venue: Leeds Festival [2020], Bramham Park, Leeds
Date: 28.8.20 [Cancelled]
The combination of Rage Against the Machine and IDLES would have made it worth enduring a day with Generation Y. Cancelled due to the COVID lockdown.
Artist: Gary Numan
Venue: Live from the Drive-in, East Yorkshire Airport
Date: 21.8.20 [Cancelled]
Here in my car, I feel safest of all . . .
Under lockdown the gig scene was in stasis. It seemed like large gatherings in hot, sweaty venues wouldn’t happen for the foreseeable future – but for a moment there was light at the end of the tunnel.
A drive-in gig, where everyone stayed in their own car, within a designated grid square, safe and sound from anyone else. Such social distancing seemed like an alien concept but in a world without live music it was a viable option. However, it was never to be. With COVID levels going from bad to worse, lockdown ensued and all plans were grounded.
Artist: Various
Venue: Bluedot [2020], Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire
Date: 23-26.7.20 [Cancelled]
Having thoroughly enjoyed a day at the prevoius year’s Bluedot festival, we booked tickets for the full 2020 event . . . little did we know what was to come that year. As the entire live music scene (and much else in life) was halted by a global pandemic, the festival was postponed for a year.
Assured of a similar line-up when things got back to normal, we held-on to our tickets but 12 months later COVID chaos still reigned. Spikes in virus levels, the need for quarantine ‘bubbles’ and near-impossible international travel scuppered any plans for large gatherings with international line-ups. As tickets rolled-over for a second year, we decided to cut our losses and cash them in.
After an enforced 2 year hiatus, Bluedot triumphantly returned with a very similar line-up in 2022. Sadly on this occasion we missed-out and Björk remains on my ‘must see’ list.
Artist: Baxter Dury
Venue: Royal Albert Hall [Online]
Date: 17.4.20
In the early days of the first COVID-19 lockdown there were no gigs. Venues had to close their doors. Artists and audiences had to stay at home and live music was no more. However, musicians are an innovative breed and quickly adapted, using online tech to collaborate and stream live performances to their homebound fans.
This live session (streamed from Baxter Dury’s home) took place on the evening when I was originally very much looking forward to seeing him play at Brudenell Social Club. It was also my first ever virtual gig. Simply not the same but at the time we took whatever live music we could get. Hats off to all of the artists who kept music alive in those long lockdown days.
Artist: Prettiest Eyes
Support: Dense
Venue: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Date: 10.3.20
I judged a book by its cover, and it paid off. Knowing nothing about Prettiest Eyes, I went to this gig because the flyer caught my eye. I wasn’t disappointed by the usual Brudenell seal of approval.
Little did I know that this would be my last gig for over a year, as COVID-19 and lockdown life quashed the live music scene.
Setlist: La Maldad / Prance / Don’t Call / Mira Nena /. / LSD / Marihuana / Alright, I’m Ready to Go / The Eye / Sorry / The Shame / It Costs to Be Austere
Artist: Dave Haslam
Event: Leeds Lit Fest 2020
Venue: Hyde Park Book Club
Date: 8.3.20
It turns out that superstar DJs can also be perfectly amiable people. Dave Haslam comes across as a real people person; hence his success at authoring fascinating insights on the lives of others.
With few places to hide at the intimate Hyde Park Book Club, Haslam seemed happy to mingle at the bar and enjoy the atmosphere of one of Leeds’ most laid back venues.
A concise but informative talk (in the basement) reflected the nature of Haslam’s ‘Art Decades’ series; short reads of intriguing detail that leave you wanting to further investigate the subject matter. I contently left the evening with three signed books from a collection which will hopefully extend to many titles.
Artist: Morrissey
Venue: First Direct Arena, Leeds
Date: 6.3.20
With typically misjudged mirth, the bequiffed buffoon strides on stage with a mock cough and splutter; thanking the crowd for being brave enough to venture out. Morrissey is making reference to COVID-19, which is swiftly spreading but at the time is dangerously underestimated. To paraphrase the man himself, ‘Oh, we could smile about it then but in time it would be terrible’. He then proceeds to power through the best live set I’ve ever seen him perform, rarely relying on The Smiths’ back catalogue. Often one to offend but never one to disappoint.
Setlist: You’ll Be Gone / I Wish You Lonely / The Boy with the Thorn in His Side / Jim Jim Falls / At Amber / Morning Starship / Lady Willpower / That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore / Once I Saw the River Clean / If You Don’t Like Me, Don’t Look at Me / Munich Air Disaster 1958 / World Peace is None of Your Business / Seasick, Yet Still Docked / I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris / Home is a Question Mark / Love is On Its Way Out / Back on the Chain Gang / Never Again Will I Be a Twin / I’ve Changed My Plea to Guilty / Some Say (I Got Devil) / Jack the Ripper / Jacky’s Only Happy When She’s Up on the Stage // Half a Person / Irish Blood, English Heart
Artist: Moses Boyd
Support: NikNak [DJ Set]
Venue: Headrow House, Leeds
Date: 5.3.20
Lights down low (hence no photos); it was all about the music as Moses Boyd and his band performed the Mercury nominated ‘Dark Matter’ album at the suitably intimate Headrow House. The cool is born again.
Artist: The Wants
Support: IMI / Novymir
Venue: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Date: 1.3.20
I wanted to go to a gig. I went to a gig. Do what you want.
Artist: Hyde Park Brass
Support: In the Morning Lights
Venue: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Date: 21.2.20
Where there’s muck, there’s Brass. The north’s finest brass funksters got down and dirty with their unique sound and style. Brudenell was packed with a hometown crowd who have seen these guys go from strength to strength over the last few years, mixing their own ballsy brass tunes with ‘full-blown’ covers of club classics.
Artist: Woody Woodmansey
Interviewer: Dave Simpson
Venue: Trouble at Mill, Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, Leeds
Date: 15.2.20
From Mars to Farsley; another rock legend lands at Sunny Bank Mills.
The Spiders from Mars were Bowie’s northern contingent, with the original line-up all hailing from the Yorkshire & Humber region. It therefore seemed fitting for the evening’s gathering to take place in an old mill, where we were treated to stories from the inner sanctum of the Stardust era.
At the end of the night I met the man himself, who signed my gig poster and original copy of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars. An LP that once cost me a quid in a charity shop is now priceless.
Artist: Shaun Ryder
Interviewer: Gavin Puszczalowskyi
Venue: Trouble at Mill, Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, Leeds
Date: 7.2.20
Never mind Manchester; Farsley became the scene for 72 hour party people as Shaun Ryder took up a three night residency at Sunny Bank Mills.
Uncertain of his stamina, we opted for the first night (let’s face it, Happy Mondays were never the most reliable band back in the day). Ryder provided an evening of surprisingly detailed and sometimes scathing memoirs with witty takes on his hedonistic history. Apparently each of the three evenings covered different topics with equal wit and wisdom.
A favourite quote came from his view of real life events and their portrayal in the ‘24 Hour Party People’ biopic; refering to the film as ‘Carry On Haçienda’.
There was strictly no ‘meet & greet’ but I managed to leave my ‘Bummed’ LP to be signed and returned before Ryder rode out of town.
Artist: Twin Temple
Venue: The Key Club, Leeds
Date: 23.1.20
Started the year in magnificently macabre style with some santanic doo-wop. (Perhaps a sign of dark things to come). Who knew that grovin’ with the goths could be such fun.
My Gigography 