As regulars will know, as my history degrees might indicate and as the Earworms of the Year overload of the next few days is going to underline again and again, I am deeply drawn to pointless cataloguing. With that in mind, and given that I keep a nicely scored list of all of the gigs that I attend, if you had to guess, what did you think was going to happen eventually, as sure as night follows day?
I can't quite match Mike's 63 gigs this year (63!), but I am an amateur....and I reckon that 27 is still a pretty respectable number, don't you? (compared to 19 last year, 21 in 2006 and 18 in 2005...see, told you I liked lists.). It's plenty enough really, but even then there are gigs that I've missed in Nottingham or elsewhere over the last twelve months. With time, tour schedules, budget and stars all being aligned, perhaps I'll get to see a few more in 2009.
So, for the sake of completeness and my own warped sense of wellbeing, here they all are, all of the gigs I attended in 2008. They are sort of stacked by the scores that I gave each gig when I wrote then up, but that's so arbitrary as to be no scientific guide to anything, so as usual, I've ranked them on a combination of gut feel and an ever fading memory (which is one of the reasons I record these things in the first place).
I've put Glastonbury at the top simply because it can't be compared to anything else and is such a special weekend..... so, with thanks to LB, Hen Mike, Sarah, Rich, Laura, Ali, the two Johns, Peter from Vienna, anyone else I've attended a gig with in the last twelve months....even, on occasion and if she's in the same country as me, C.... I give you my gigs of 2008.
1. The Glastonbury Festival - 27-29 June 2008
2. Elbow @ Leicester De Montfort, 16th October - 9.5 / 10
3. Elbow @ Rock City, 14th April - 9.5 / 10
4. White Denim @ Bodega Social, 7th July - 9 / 10
5. Fleet Foxes @ Nottingham Trent Uni, 2nd November - 8.5 / 10
6. Billy Bragg @ Rock City, 19th November - 8 / 10
7. James @ New Theatre, Oxford, 19th April - 8 / 10
8.The Feeling @ Rock City, 10th March - 8 / 10
9. Gilad Atzmon and the Oriental House Ensemble @ Porgy & Bess Jazz club, Vienna, 17th March - 8 / 10
10. Laura Marling @ Rescue Rooms, 4th November - 7.5 / 10
11. Coldplay @ Birmingham NIA, 2nd December - 7.5 / 10
12. REO Speedwagon @ Rock City, 9th June - 7.5 / 10
13. Tina Dico @ The Maze, 4th March - 7.5 / 10
14. Iron Maiden @ Twickenham Stadium, 5th July - 7 / 10
15. Tina Dico @ Rescue Rooms, 4th December - 7 / 10
16. Joan as Policewoman @ Rescue Rooms, 10th December - 7 / 10
17. Wonky Pop Tour feat. Alphabeat @ Stealth, 15th April - 7 / 10
18. Martha Wainwright @ Rock City, 3rd November - 7 / 10
19. Futureheads @ Rescue Rooms, 3rd June - 7 / 10
20. Heavy Trash @ Nottingham Bodega, 30 September - 7 / 10
21. NME Awards Tour 2008 with The Cribs, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, Does it Offend You, Yeah? and The Ting Tings @ Rock City, 12th February - 7 / 10
22. Palladium & Alphabeat @ Bodega Social, 10th February - 3/10 (Palladium) & 8/10 (Alphabeat)
23. Nouvelle Vague @ Rescue Rooms, 7th February - 6.5 / 10
24. Def Leppard, Whitesnake & Thunder @ Nottingham Arena, 17th July - 6.5 / 10
25. One Night Only @ Rescue Rooms, 23rd February - 6/10
26. Seasick Steve @ Rock City, 9th October - 5.5 / 10
27. The Mighty Boosh @ Nottingham Arena, 8th November - 4 / 10
Elbow, eh? Go figure. Who ever heard of them anyway?
...and I think I mark too generously. Far too many 7s this year!
Not yet sherlocked
4 days ago
You beat me hands down due to a quiet start to last year.
ReplyDeleteI've started cataloguing my gigs on dipity - I don't know if you're aware of it, but it's quite a useful little site...
http://www.dipity.com/rolhirst/Rols_Gigs
You might enjoy it being a fellow list gatherer.
Wow, so I've been at 11 of your 27 gigs?! Interestingly, we've ranked them in much the same order, with Nouvelle Vague the only significant discrepancy. I also note that you're harsher with the high marks, and more generous with the low marks... but then I was deliberately stretching mine out from 1 to 10...
ReplyDelete..I actually enjoyed that Nouvelle Vague gig too. At least, that's what my memory is telling me. I do seem to remember C. moaning that the singing was all off key though, so perhaps that swayed my scoring. I'll have to re-read the review. I'd happily go and watch them again.
ReplyDeleteIt's a rare gig that I score really poorly, but there do seem to be lots of "so-so" scores. Perhaps that's an accurate reflection of the gigs I've attended: a few really good (Elbow!), a few poor ones, and most somewhere in the middle. I tend to form an opinion on what score I'm going to give a gig as the night unfolds, and I'll have the score before I write up the review. I score *my* experience of a gig too, so if I'm standing next to some idiots at a brilliant show, then my score will reflect the presence of the idiots.
ST