Reasons to love the Web, part MCMLXXVIII
It's genuinely mind-blowing the things you stumble across online - things you'd never expect to find.
Exhibit A: just came across this old newspaper clipping, probably from the Birmingham Mail, advertising one of the most extraordinary gigs I ever went to, way the hell back on October 24th, 1979, featuring not only the utterly fantastic Buzzcocks as the lead act, but also the no less brilliant Joy Division at the absolute height of their brief arc of success.
I remember queueing up at the back of the old Birmingham Odeon several months before the night of this gig, to get the tickets as soon as they went on sale. We scored seats bang in the centre of the front row - giving us an extreme close up view of Ian Curtis in all his frenzied glory. Even got to sneak around the back after the gig and hang out with Steve Diggle and Pete Shelley from the Buzzcocks - sharing their lukewarm cans of Heineken and making a point of being far too cool to ask for autographs.
Ace.
Exhibit B: (Thanks to my brother Kieron for unearthing this one) a fine bit of TV footage from deep in the BBC2 archives, featuring The Clash belting out a ragged but right version of "Clash City Rockers".
Crikey - check out Simenon's hair! And they're all just so darn...young.
Scary thing, of course, is to see poor old Joe Strummer, God rest him, looking so young and gorgeous, and then to realise how much younger I was when I was lying on the carpet at 17 Castle Lane watching this on the Beeb's "Something Else". Yikes. Great bloody time to be alive though.
Exhibit A: just came across this old newspaper clipping, probably from the Birmingham Mail, advertising one of the most extraordinary gigs I ever went to, way the hell back on October 24th, 1979, featuring not only the utterly fantastic Buzzcocks as the lead act, but also the no less brilliant Joy Division at the absolute height of their brief arc of success.
I remember queueing up at the back of the old Birmingham Odeon several months before the night of this gig, to get the tickets as soon as they went on sale. We scored seats bang in the centre of the front row - giving us an extreme close up view of Ian Curtis in all his frenzied glory. Even got to sneak around the back after the gig and hang out with Steve Diggle and Pete Shelley from the Buzzcocks - sharing their lukewarm cans of Heineken and making a point of being far too cool to ask for autographs.
Ace.
Exhibit B: (Thanks to my brother Kieron for unearthing this one) a fine bit of TV footage from deep in the BBC2 archives, featuring The Clash belting out a ragged but right version of "Clash City Rockers".
Crikey - check out Simenon's hair! And they're all just so darn...young.
Scary thing, of course, is to see poor old Joe Strummer, God rest him, looking so young and gorgeous, and then to realise how much younger I was when I was lying on the carpet at 17 Castle Lane watching this on the Beeb's "Something Else". Yikes. Great bloody time to be alive though.
