somebody special looking at me

howdy pop pickers

so here i am again, then. it is once more the fifth of november, look you see, and so i celebrate, remember, commemorate and reflect on how, on this date in 1991, i was fortunate enough (with a friend, and i hope she is out there somewhere doing well) to see the band tin machine perform at the Newcastle Mayfair. 

as the world at large cares greatly for rounded (or perfectly decimal) numbers, my assumption is that my celebrations this year are not without significance. should my maths be on the button, this is the thirtieth anniversary of that particular gig. no, i do not presume that any of the band do (or did) make a point of marking the date of this concert, at least not to the extent which i have. highly likely that not everyone at the gig with me does either, but i do. 

for those of you viewing this on a device which allows (or is enabled to have) video playback, as has become more frequent in my marking of the anniversary, here you go. below is another clip from the actual, as in very, gig what i was at. somehow someone (to tell the story once more) smuggled in a video camera (which were big devices then) and did a comparatively good job of recording just about the entire concert. many years later a fellow fan went to great efforts to get a copy of it to me. 

here, or rather below, for your viewing and slight listening pleasure is a song from the first half hour of the gig, the cover of If There Is Something what featured on the Tin Machine II album. something of a warning before you click - the sound and video quality from the first half of the gig is very much of bootleg quality, and perhaps not as enjoyable as other clips i have added here. 

perhaps understandably the person doing the bootlegging elected to concentrate the lens on Bowie. this should not be seen as disrespect to Hunt, Reeves or Tony, as they were (indeed are) ace, but of course all interest and focus was on the frontman. 

no, i had little or no idea that If There Was Something was a Roxy Music cover until i opened up the booklet what came with the Tin Machine II CD and noted (or if you like observed) the lyric credit for the song was Ferry, as in Bryan. yes, i absolutely did go and seek out the Roxy original version not long after, and was rather surprised. in its original form the song is about twice as long and a good deal slower paced. still good, but i prefer this one, thanks. 

once again i am uncertain if there is all that much more i can say on the subject of this gig or this band, considering how much i have written over the years. let it be so that all of you who have taken the time to have a gander at this have enjoyed the pictures and video. 

more of the same this time next year? quite possibly, if i still have the technology and devices which allow for the bootleg to be edited down into just the one song. should that not be so, well, it is not like there aren't many other celebratory posts across this blog.............

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!