My Life in Concert.com

After years of devoted fandom, I finally get to see the one and only Siouxsie Sioux and her plucky Banshees in a cavernous—but wonderfully air conditioned—venue on Toronto’s outskirts.  I’d been following Ms. Sioux since the early days of punk rock reporting in the UK press, and fell in love with their debut 45, “Hong Kong Garden” in 1978.  It was a UK smash hit and remains one of my favourite sin...

Birmingham UK’s reggae outfit UB40 made two trips to London, Ontario, in the mid-80s, playing to a packed and joyous Centennial Hall on March 7, 1984, and then returning a year later almost to the week, to pack out Alumni Hall on the Western University campus on March 14, 1985.  The first show came on the heels of their international breakthrough with the “Red Red Wine” single and its accompanying...

The Stray Cats arrived to rock London, Ontario in 1983 at the peak of their fame. With this episode, I’ve once again jumped backwards in my story, just not as far back as that cabaret show I saw with my parents in the UK in 1977 that was the focus on EP 31, Mum’s the Word . This time, I jump back to March 26, 1983, when the Stray Cats rocked Alumni Hall here in London, Ontario. Technically this sh...

With this episode, the series jumps back in time to a Cabaret show I saw in Portsmouth, UK, in August 1977 with my parents when I was 14.  The cabaret took place between my first ( Roxy Music at the London Arena, February 8, 1975 ) and second ( Bob Seger at the London Gardens on May 19, 1978 ) official concerts.  My initial plan was to include it as part of an upcoming compilation episode.  Howeve...

My final 1983 gig-going-entry recaps a couple of shows I took in during a crazy/nuts four-day trip to NYC.    While I will be discussing the performances by hardcore titans The Circle Jerks and post-Throbbing Gristle offshoot Psychic TV, I’ll also be looking at the madcap trip to Manhattan as a whole, recounting the hijinks that MZ, Miss B, myself, and others got up to.    If you’ve heard or read...

This is the big one! THE ultimate! The single most anticipated show I ever attended, when I—along with my co-hort Miss B—and 60,000 other fans, all of whom who were going Absolutely Freakin’ Bananas, moseyed on down to a packed CNE Exhibition Stadium during a sweltering Labour Day weekend in 1983, for David Bowie.  He was on his global Serious Moonlight tour for his worldwide smash hit album, Let’...

David Bowie’s Labour Day Weekend concert in 1983 at Toronto’s CNE Stadium remains the most anticipated and exciting show I’ve ever attended. He was on his global Serious Moonlight tour for his worldwide smash hit album, Let’s Dance , with the great Rough Trade opening the show and warming up the troops.  I discuss the show itself in Part 2 — (EP 29b, no.22b) Let’s Dance: David Bowie with Rough Tra...

Ten days after the final Police Picnic in Toronto at the massive CNE Exhibition Stadium, I took in a more intimate, but hotly anticipated, show by the legendary Marianne Faithfull. The by-then gravel-voiced ‘60s pop icon and former Jagger paramour was in the final throes of a triumphant, early ‘80s comeback.   She was undertaking her first-ever tour of Canada, where her records had performed very...

It’s the third and final Police Picnic on August 5, 1983, once again at CNE stadium as well as the 4th and final consecutive summer of attending a huge, open air festival.   This time around the fest featured James Brown, Peter Tosh, King Sunny Adé, Blue Peter, and The Fixx along with the titular hosts.  While the first fest ran overlong but otherwise smoothly, the 1982 edition was the worst conce...

The Velvet Underground’s John Cale comes to Fryfogle’s and plays an intense, riveting solo set in June 1983.   It was particularly extraordinary for me that I finally got to see him at this point in time, not only because I was way deep in Velvets-mania in the early 80s — with all the original Velvets albums finally being widely and easily available, arriving alongside “Edie: An American Biography...

Flipper, San Francisco’s sludge rock contrarian refuseniks, come to town one month after that  Beat/R.E.M. show from April of 1983.  An evening of debauchery and over-indulgence ensues for myself and crew of people on that night, with Flipper — both as persons and performers — interweaving with us at various points of our night (and their lining up to see Return of the Jedi, too). Tune in for miss...

This concert crystalizes a moment in time, representing a changing of the guards in the alternative music world, when The Beat—or The English Beat as they were called on this side of the pond—come to Alumni Hall in London, Ontario with a new, unknown American band called R.E.M. in tow as the opening act.   The show took place as The Beat were in the last throes of their career but also peaking in...

Welcome to my first anniversary episode, celebrating the second anniversary of the mylifeinconcert.com podcast (I didn’t do one the first year so I’ll be doing two this year to make up for that).  For these anniversary EPs, I will be jumping into the future of my series and selecting gigs from throughout my concert=going years that are personally significant for me or that I really want to highlig...

In February 2020, Caribou returned with his first new album after an absence of six years.  It was released to universal critical acclaim and commercial success, and an extensive world tour was planned.  And then …. Suddenly …. Everything was off, as the Covid pandemic shut down the planet, including live music.  2020 turned out to be the first year since 1976 wherein I did not see a single live m...

Leeds’ furious and funky post-punk innovators The Gang of Four make an indelible, unforgettable visit to London, Ontario’s Wonderland Gardens, four months after the chaotic Iggy Pop gig at the same venue.  Euphoria ensues.  I had been listening to the band incessantly during that 1980-83 corridor and was thrilled they were coming.   This March 1983 concert was not only my first ticketed gig of a m...

Three weeks after the Joe Jackson concert , Iggy Pop comes to town with Toronto’s bandaged electronic mummy, Nash the Slash, in tow.  I first and finally got to see Iggy the previous year when he gave a spirited performance at Police Picnic ’81, a festival I covered in EP 15: The Boiler .  So how did this second appearance, this time at the historic Wonderland Gardens, stack up against that first...

One month after The Clash —and from one Joe to another—I take in a second, very different five-star, three-hour show from Joe Jackson .  This marathon set is the subject of Episode 19,  Night & Day .  Once again, the effervescent triumvirate of Lady B, Le Chateau et moi take in another concert together: one that far surpassed all our expectations.   And with the best view in the house.    The...

It was one of the best and most exciting concerts I have ever seen.  After five years of obsessing over my favourite band in the world, I finally get to see The Clash as part of a huge, passionate, and excited audience at the CNE Grandstand.  Black Uhuru also delivered a stunning and memorable opening set.  It was also one of the best double bills of my lifetime.  To say that this visit to CNE Sta...

It was Friday the 13th in more ways than one.  Dear Listeners and Readers: Welcome to THE WORST CONCERT EXPERIENCE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!  One poster for the show read “ …make this your lucky night.” Yeah, right.   While Police Picnic ’81 was a fairly sober and orderly experience for me and my compadres, the ’82 edition felt like a sadistic joke that wouldn’t stop.  It was a day of being trolled by th...

Electropop comes to London, Ontario on a freezing March evening with Liverpool’s Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark , or as they are more simply known, OMD . Their set may have been egregiously delayed amid a brutal Ontario winter storm, but OMD more than made up for it, playing a blazing show to a small but dedicated audience who danced right through the whole thing.  London’s own Mettle, featurin...

My next podcast jumps ahead 17 months (as I have already covered The Ramones and the Heatwave festival ) to August 1981 and the first of three consecutive, annual Police-headlining festivals. It was the second of four consecutive summers where I went to a big open air festival following Heatwave in 1980, and then followed by Police Picnic '82 (concert no. 11) and Police Picnic '83 (conce...

Dublin’s Boomtown Rats surfaced at the London Gardens in March of 1980: my first live show of the new decade.  They had been an obsession of mine over the previous 2.5 years since I had picked up their debut 45, the charging and furious “Lookin’ After No. 1,” on a trip to the UK in ’77.   At this point, they were three albums in, superstars in the UK, and just coming off an international smash, “I...

My last live show of the 1970s was an even smaller and more intimate gig than The Jam’s Toronto concert seven months earlier , featuring a trio of the city’s then most-prominent punk bands: NFG, The Regulators, and Sinners. I’ll be discussing how important our local scene — but also local music scenes in general — were and are, especially to and for marginalized people and communities. 1979 was th...

This was a seriously thrilling gig from UK Mod-Punks The Jam, six months after the Elvis Costello show in November 1978 ( EP8: This Year’s Model ).  It also coincided with a fresh tray of live concert firsts (A gig outside of London!  In Toronto!  At a tiny theatre!  With an authentic ***punk*** audience!).  The Jam’s debut LP “In The City” was the first punk rock album I purchased, on a visit to...

Since this was Covid Summer of 2020—The Summer Without Live Music—I have paused my story and am presenting the second of two podcast episodes devoted to performances that were missed rather than remembering those I attended. In this episode, I pick the 20 artists from the past who I would most like to have seen between the 1920s and 1980 but have now sadly missed forever. Hindsight is 20/20, or so...