One of the most obvious ways that my memory has been affected by my crash, is the bit that remembers Band names.
For the life of me, I can’t remember who sang what etc, so I had a look on my iTunes Match to jog my memory.
Thought I’d write down all the bands/ singers that I can remember seeing live, at mostly London venues.
There’s no accounting for taste, but here goes ..
Anastacia
Athlete
Audio Bullys
Badly Drawn Boy
Basement Jaxx
Beck
Black Eyed Peas?
Brand New Heavies
Cake – twice
Cast
Catatonia – after which I did a bungee jump, from a crane, pissed.
The Chemical Brothers
Coldplay – when they’d just had one hit..
The Coral
The Darkness
David Gray?
The Divine Comedy
Editors
Elbow
Everything but the girl.
The Feeling – 3 times
Feeder – twice
Finlay Quaye
Florence and the machine -3 times
Franz Ferdinand
Gabriella Cilmi
Goldfrapp – twice
Gorillaz?
The Gossip -3 times
Groove Armada – twice
Hard Fi -3 times
The Hives?
Hot Chip
Ian Dury and the blockheads?
INXS
JacK Johnson
James
James Blunt
Kaiser Chiefs?
Kasabian 3 times
Katy Perry – Lily’s first gig.
Keane
Kelis
The Kooks
La Roux
Lily Allen
Lostprophets – if only I’d known.
Macy Gray – she was off her head, but still great.
Manic St Preachers
Marina and the diamonds
Massive Attack -3 times
McAlmont and Butler
Moby
Nelly Furtado
Oasis- twice. Love Liam or hate him, he’s incredible on stage.
Ocean Colour Scene
The Pigeon Detectives
Plan B
Portishead – at their best.
The Prodigy – twice.
Pulp – Jarvis was so good.
Radiohead – past their peak.
Razorlight
Reef
Richard Ashcroft
Rolling Stones – don’t ever watch a band at Twickenham rugby stadium. It’s worse than watching England there..
Scissor Sisters – I think Dani and I were the only straight people there..
Skin – best live performance of the lot.
Skunk Anansie
Snow Patrol
Space
Stereophonics – so polished.
The Streets
Katy B
Supergrass
Texas
Tinie Tempah
Tom Jones -3 times. The first time, in Hammersmith, was the funniest. Total sell out.
We weren’t Tom fans, but went for a laugh.
In his early days, Tom used to get ladies knickers chucked at him. So I bought a pack of ten pairs down the market and wrote Welsh type messages in the gussets – things like ‘Slam in the Lamb’ and ‘How wet is my Valley’.
My brother Alwyn and I were about 50 rows back. You try throwing knickers that far.
People in front of us were catching them and throwing them on. At least one pair made it to the stage.
Me and my brother laugh about it still – funny night.
And we bumped into Shakin Stevens outside, after, and had a laugh with him – though he’s not the sharpest tool in the box…
Tori Amos
Turin Brakes
Zero 7
The Zutons.
The Couterfeit Stones – ten times at least – far better than the ‘real’ thing.
There might be more.
The question marked ones are bands that I probably saw, but really can’t be sure.
Oh, missed one :
The Goldie Lookin Chain… From Newport. If you’ve not heard ‘Your mother’s got a penis’, google it.
2000 people in the crowd singing the chorus was one of the funniest (2) times of my whole life.
That’s quite a few nights out.
Probably won’t be quite the same in a wheelchair, but hey.
You must’ve been to the Mud gig at the union in Cardiff? All I can remember is everyone stampeding to Tiger Feet……………..!
No, but I saw Gary Glitter there… Fantastic performer…. Pre revelations… Possibly pre perversion?
Russ don’t forget the tickets you got us all to see ‘The Script’. Great work/ friends night out- I swear you were singing along to ALL their amazing songs ;). Unveil the truth Dawkins…. I know I was too! You love ’em really. Lol
You’ll get great seats down the front now. But stay out of the mosh pit, mate. x
Hey Russ Wussy,
I read the last anonymous comment from one of the trolls and I am relieved that you have closed the original blog. I find the comments from these anons deeply disturbing and am pleased that they will no longer be able to share their unpleasant comments with us.
I started the blog on my return from Toulon a week after your crash when we were not sure if you would pull through. Your friends and relatives were desperately concerned for you. Not a minute went past for most of us when you were not in our thoughts and everyone was hungry for information; meanwhile Dani and your parents needed to focus all their energies on being with you and willing you to get better. On some days I received over one hundred emails from people who genuinely cared. I was absolutely staggered by how many friends you and Dani have, not just peripheral friends but friends who were deeply moved by your plight and were prepared to share the burden of this difficult journey with you both in every way they could. The fact that you only had a few hours spent without a friend at your hospital bed side out of the 6 weeks in Toulon is a testament to your solid friendships…..not bad for someone who is ‘up himself’! 😉
I doubt if the trolls could have ever had the same bonds that you have with your friends and it seems that their pleasure comes from relishing in someone else’s misfortune. You may have lost the use of your legs but unlike the trolls atleast you have a heart, a brain, a brilliant personality and bags of spirit. xxxxx
Russ, you forgot to mention that in addition to the messages on the knickers, we treated each pair to a small dose of HP sauce! Which is why the women who’s heads the knickers landed on started screaming! Hilarious night!
You’d have made a fortune in Japan!