Here at Gigslutz we are celebrating our one year anniversary as a website! That’s a whole year of bringing you loyal readers the very best in gig coverage, loads of album and track reviews, the most up-to-date news anywhere on the web, interviews with your favourite bands and much much more besides!
It’s been a year of major milestones; we’ve made it into the national music papers with exclusives on The Stone Roses, launched the popular For the Record feature, released the first essential piece of merch of 2014 with the official Gigslutz T-shirts and the Gigslutz radio show has found a new home with the lovely Hoxton Radio. We’ve achieved all that while continuously expanding our output with the help of our ever-growing team of contributors up and down the country.
To celebrate, we’ve put down the bubbly and stopped singing Happy Birthday to ourselves like a bunch of Billy No-Mates just long enough to talk about our firsts. Collected below for your reading pleasure is a candid look at those crucial moments and experiences that have shaped us as music fans. Why not send us yours by tweeting @Gigslutz_ with the hashtag #GigslutzFirsts.
Enjoy and here’s to many more years of Gigslutz to come!!
First Gig
Melissa Svensson: R.E.M., I think? I was a cool 13 year old…
Tom Hancock: Muse at Wembley Stadium, 2010.
Nicky Lee-Delisle: Elliot Minor at The HMV Forum in Camden was where it had all began for me. My memory on the details of the night isn’t that great, which could be due to the fact that it was so many years ago or that I was young, stupid and surrounded by alcohol. Despite this, it did leave a lasting impression on me as it was there and then that I got my taste for live bands and the atmosphere which they can create.
Steve Aston: I can’t quite remember what came first. It was either 16 year Ben Kweller’s Radish at the sadly now defunct Riverside, or Oasis on their Be Here Now tour at Newcastle arena. The Oasis gig was something of a let down after building up for it throughout my pubescent years but I loved every minute of the Radish gig. We bought our tickets from Hot Rats Records in Sunderland the weekend before, with the kind gentlemen behind the counter telling us not to let on where we got them from because of our age. I also bought a Nirvana live bootleg on the same trip. Happy days.
Dan Bull: Spice Girls at Wembley in 1998. I was pissed off because Geri had left, and we had shit seats so we got it on Sky Box Office later that week to see what actually happened on stage.
Allan Nersessian: Carlos Santana at Hammersmith Empire, with my Mum. Was an amazing gig despite Carlos interrupting his own songs to bang on about God.
Nick Harland: Arctic Monkeys at The Leadmill in 2007. Seeing one of the best bands around in what was voted the best music venue this year at The Fly Awards is one hell of a first gig! Growing up in Sheffield, Arctic Monkeys were pretty inescapable. I loved their first album, it absolutely soundtracked my late school years, and my brother managed to snag us a pair of tickets playing this intimate venue when they were already fully-fledged superstars. Unforgettable.
Kate Tittley: My first gig was the Foo Fighters at the NEC Birmingham on the One By One tour… 2002 maybe? Either way, they rocked my socks and blew my tiny mind! And it was the first time I’d ever heard ‘Everlong’ and ‘Monkey Wrench’, both are now cemented in my heart as faves.
Silvia Rucchin: My very first gig was Muse live in Milan on 12th April, 2006. Queuing outside the arena for a day whilst wearing the most comfortable pair of Converse to end up in the very FRONT row. Easy to say, that is still the best day of my life.
First Piece of Merch
Emily Burrows: The first merch I brought was a Vaccines vest top which I was very happy to find in the Miss Selfridge sale a few days before Leeds Festival!
Fran Welch: I rocked a Rolling Stones hot pink t-shirt with matching shorts as my pyjamas when I was 6. I was totally oblivious as to how cool I was being, but worship my dad now for buying it for me.
SA: My first bit of merch was the old school pale blue Oasis T Shirt. Embarrassingly I would proudly sport this with a 1996 circa identical Liam haircut and a pair of lime green Lennon glasses. My favourite piece of merch from that era was an Ocean Colour Scene bucket hat with zip pockets on it. A scouser nicked it off me in Glastonbury 1999. Twat.
Paul SNG: A Ramones T-shirt (despite never having heard a note – Slash had one, I copied him).
NL-D: During my teenage years my wardrobe only ever consisted of band T-shirts. My favourite, and most probably first one I bought, was a Manic Street Preachers piece. It was of course leopard print with the slogan ‘Culture, Alienation, Boredom and Despair.’ Sadly, it no longer fits but I’ll be keeping hold of it for many years nonetheless.
Lindsay Home: The first one I remember was for a support band – I’d never heard of them before (and haven’t since) and I don’t even think I liked them that much. The band were called Cartoon and they opened for Kenickie at the Electric Ballroom (my second ever gig). It was a shapeless, baggy sky blue number with 4 stickmen and the band name on the front. Truly awful, and God knows what I was thinking. The following night I went to see Garbage at Brixton and made up for it by buying a bright orange skinny fit number.
Beth Kirkbride: I have a habit of buying band shirts in Men’s mediums so that no matter how fat I get they’ll still fit me (also oversized band shirts are a nightwear essential) – and the first one in what is now quite an impressive collection was my Noah & the Whale shirt… unless of course we’re counting the ‘Hakuna Makata’ T-shirt which I bought having seen ‘The Lion King’ in London, age 9. But let’s pretend I never wore that out in public.
First Album
SR: ‘Pay Da Cost to Be the Boss’ by Snoop Dogg, a very unsuitable artist for a 12-year-old girl. I’m still not too sure why I was into gangsta rap, all I know is how much I enjoyed his music without really understanding the lyrics. Admittedly, I’ve never bought a rap record ever since but I still respect this man and his spontaneous way of life.
LH: The first decent album I ever bought was ‘Sgt. Pepper’s…’ – on cassette, from Our Price in Dalston Cross Shopping Centre. Sadly, this shop was also responsible for me buying East 17’s ‘Steam’ and PJ & Duncan’s seminal ‘Psyche’. (Don’t judge me; I was 10.)
Andy Chandler: Daft Punk – ‘Homework’.
SA: In keeping with my previous answers, my first album was quite predictably Whats The Story (Morning Glory) bought winter time 1995 from Our Price in Washington Galleries.
Zoe Cameron: Kings of Leon’s ‘Aha Shake Heartbreak’.
Elliott Homer: Possibly the only instance where I manage to escape embarrassment when reminiscing my childhood is when I get to tell people my first CD was Manic Street Preachers’ ‘This is My Truth, Tell Me Yours’. Up until a few years ago it still had its Our Price sticker, left on it as a symbol of pride. Now that it’s finally fallen off, I don’t get to point just how obscene a price £11.99 was to pay for an album.
DB: Take That’s ‘Greatest Hits’. I’m not even embarrassed about that one, I’ll be at the front of the queue for tickets to the next tour!
Mari Lane: As I was lucky enough to have a Dad with an expansive record collection (most of which was to my taste), I didn’t often think about buying myself music – I would simply go downstairs and pinch whatever Rolling Stones/Beatles/Pulp album I desired at the time and put it in my CD player. However, there were certain things that my Dad wouldn’t buy that – in my confused 12-year-old head – I thought it would be a good idea to; like All Saints’ first album – the first album I ever bought. If anyone asks, it was Foo Fighters…
MS: I didn’t used to buy too many albums, stole my parents’ instead. Probably ‘The Libertines’.
Steve Britton: Green Day – ‘Dookie’.
First Rockstar Encounter
Jack Rowberry: I’m not sure if he is classed as a ‘rockstar’ but certainly a legend in my book: James Walsh from Starsailor. When I was about 16 years old I went to a Starsailor show with a good friend of mine at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh. We bumped in James in the bar area (whilst avoiding the bouncers who would throw us out for being too young), he laughed at us and loved our S.A.S.-style sneaking. He spent a good 10-15 mins chatting to us before we finally got chucked out. Many years later I have supported him live twice and have finally got that drink in. I can confirm he is a top bloke who always has time for people and to top it he remembered the full story of that night when I reminded him. Like I said, ledge!
ZC: I met Liam Gallagher at a Beady Eye in-store gig and told him I loved him and he laughed and said “alright”. (I was not alright.)
TH: Technically two, Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards from Deap Vally.
SA: I think the first “rock star” I met was probably Roddy Womble from Idlewild when they were on their first ever tour and just before the release of their Captain EP. I’d guess this was sometime around early 1998. There was about 35 people at the gig in the tiny room upstairs at the Riverside so had a chat after the show. My memories are of them being outrageously Scottish and quite obviously being on whizz, or some other kind of cheap 90’s amphetamine.
ML: The first rockstar I met was Richard Hawley. It was whilst I was at uni in Leeds and had gone for a night out with my cousin in Sheffield. We started the night in a pub that my cousin’s boyfriend had informed me was owned by the Pulp guitarist – they’d been there a few times, and it had nice beer. As we entered the pub, who should we see propped up against the bar? The man himself, Mr. Hawley. All pretty massive fans of Pulp, we ventured over, breaking the ice with informing this rockstar that he was wearing very similar glasses to my cousin’s boyfriend… They proceeded to swap glasses, and we all tried on Richard’s pair. Not quite as exciting as Jarvis Cocker giving me a kazoo…
FW: When I was three months old I met Johnny Depp and Kate Moss because they rented our house for Christmas. They’re not rockstars though… (Captain Jack Sparrow has played on more Oasis records than the vast majority of us have so he counts. – Ed.)
DB: After appearing on Colin & Edith’s Radio 1 ‘5 Decades’ quiz someone from Duran Duran’s team got in touch to ask if I wanted to go backstage to meet them on their tour. (That’s who I was answering questions on; it wasn’t just a random polite offer.) I bought a brand new digital camera for the event but the batteries ran out after taking about three photos. Luckily the girl I took with me had a disposable camera with her; Nick Rhodes was very impressed with it. I can’t look at the photos now though as my hair looks worse than the band’s did at any stage of the ‘80s.
EH: Returning home from a particularly lairy night out at university and carrying an enormous, heavy take-away pizza, I popped in the student radio station where I worked to hang out and, in no uncertain terms, stuff my face. Little did I know that Matt and Kele from Bloc Party had come down from their gig in Manchester that night to record an interview and some trails. A little bit starry eyed, I politely offering them a slice or two, only to have almost all of my pizza demolished in seconds before my very (hungry) eyes. I’ve been oddly protective of food around musicians ever since.
BK: My GCSE history teacher was Joe Carnall – I doubt many people can say that their old teacher is in Reverend and the Makers!
AN: Met Liam Gallagher in the crowd at a Fun Lovin’ Criminals concert. Neither of us wanted to be there and he kept sticking 2 fingers up at Huey. Was chatting to him when a girl approached asking for an autograph and he stuck a five pound note straight into her drink.
PS: Once met Bez and he spent five minutes talking to me like a long lost pal – before realising he had mistaken me for someone else.
SR: My first proper encounter with a rockstar (apart when I see Liam in the local Tesco in Hampstead) happened after an indescribable Killers gig in the beautiful city of Verona in Italy. I remember feeling super overwhelmed by the gig and when I’ve met guitarist Dave Keuning strolling in the park near the massive arena we were both at our… most lost. I hadn’t been sleeping for 2 days and he was clearly enjoying his well deserved booze after the gig. All I remember is me, Dave and my sister talking about the small village in the middle of nowhere where I am from originally. He promised me he would come to visit me. Shame I didn’t give him my Camden address. I wouldn’t mind going out for a few, I really like his wild curls.
First Obsession
ML: Not taking into account my inherited-from-my-dad loves of life-changing bands such as The Stones, The Beatles, Carole King and The Stone Roses, the first band that I seemed to find myself ‘obsessed’ about was, mockney rebels, Blur. A poster of Mr. Albarn was also my first band poster ever bought, a dance to ‘Country House’ the first dance I ever choreographed, ‘Parklife’ the first song I ever memorised every single word to…. I was pretty obsessed. And, though that obsession has since been replaced by others, I will always have a bit of a soft spot for Damon, and am pretty in awe of everything he does.
SA: You can probably guess! Oasis in the summer 1995 was the first obsession for me. Too right as well! Halycon days.
KT: I decided as a teenager I wanted to know more about Punk, so read Jon Savage’s ‘England’s Dreaming’, bought a tartan skirt and played The Sex Pistols farrrrrr too many times for a 20 minute album. And I had an unhealthy interest in Death Row Records, lots of swearing, and Mom’s hate swearing songs…although totally worth it when my little sister – who was only 2 at the time – had learned all the words to ‘Gin and Juice’, weirdly adorable!
NH: The Libertines! They were my gateway band into guitar music. Everything about them was so exciting – the music, the lyrics and their antics especially. Such a shame that they split up just as I started obsessing over them!
AN: The Beatles…still am….BECAUSE IT’S THE BEATLES.
EH: I spent a fair whack of my student loan hunting down and paying over-the-top prices for just about every single Radiohead release. Most of the B-sides were worth it like ‘Talk Show Host’ and ‘Lull’ but so many weren’t i.e. ‘Maquiladora’, ‘Paperbag Writer’ etc. Speaking of, if anyone’s looking for a copy of the God-awful ‘Pop is Dead’ single, please get in touch.
FW: I don’t know whether to be embarrassed or not, but my first obsession was the Vengaboys, ‘Shalala La’ was a right tune.
JR: Ocean Colour Scene – It is all my sister’s fault this one. When I was a bit younger and during the T.F.I. Friday phase, my elder sister used to play me ‘Moseley Shoals’ on cassette tape. I’m sure we wore it out! Their music has never left me, and ‘The Riverboat Song’ is the reason I play guitar myself. In a way my sister and OCS are responsible for my music career.
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