and so to the first gig of the year. well, no, there's been loads, obviously, but the first one what i have been to since the dawn of 2023, look you see. of two planned, or that i have (had) tickets for, yet who knows how many i shall, in real terms, get to.
this first one (see qualification for use of that terminology above) wasn't exactly the one i had planned to go and see. kind of. as in they went right ahead and changed (dramatically, yet by only one person) the bill for it, which prompted a rename of it all. initially it was the Tony Fox Sales tour, featuring he (a member of Tin Machine, no less) and an excellent selection of musicians performing arguably the most famous, most celebrated album he (and indeed Hunt Sales) played on. that would be Iggy Pop's Lust For Life.
so, on the table was the chance to see Tony Sales on his first tour of the UK since 1991. a tour that, as it happens, i went to, and have mentioned once or twice. for a plus, two of the venues (at least) fell into the category of iconic, if not plain legendary, in terms of rock, being the 100 Club in London and the Cavern Club in Liverpool. going to either was vaguely viable.
but then, no. quite early in the year this year (2023), after the tour was announced late last (2022), it was put out that Tony Fox Sales would not be on the tour, for reasons unspecified but it was oddly stressed his health was fine. i had suspected or expected that meant the tour was cancelled, but then, no. instead it was going ahead, with a certain Glen Matlock standing in on bass duties. which made at least one choice simple; if i were to be in the presence of this then of course it was going to be the gig at the 100 Club. and so it came to be.
reasonably and realistically, yes, one could call the idea of the tour going ahead as bonkers. it was so that, after all, the only person who was to be on the tour that had actually played on the Lust For Life album was no longer going to be on stage. but went ahead with it they very much did. far be it from me to argue with the celebration of any classic album in any form.
for clarity, then, the touring band i and the lucky others saw comprised of Glen Matlock (out of Sex Pistols) on bass, Katie Puckrick (off of The Word) on vocals, a certain Clem Burke (out of Blondie!) on drums, Kevin Armstrong (most famously Bowie's guitarist at Live Aid and other gigs) on guitar and a couple of others. true, each and every one had played with Iggy Pop at some stage, but not on the album they were to play in full. quite remarkably the tickets for this were south of £25.
how about some really badly recorded video with shocking sound? that is, i would like to think, what i am partially famous for delivering to you, the people, here on this blog. quite the dilemma struck when my favourite track off the album (except the titular song, of course) came up, because i was very much determined to get my groove on for it, but also for no apparent reason felt compelled to document it. so, click on the below for a little bit of Tonight.
usual apologies for the poor quality video, etc. anyway, Tonight is my favourite because, of course, i first heard Bowie's version of it on the album of the very same name. which is Tonight to clarify, and gets far too much bad coverage. of course Bowie turned it into a romantic lullaby ballad duet thing with Tina Turner, whereas on the Iggy Pop original it's a tale of someone watching their loved one die of a heroin overdose. certainly the Bowie version is nicer; the Iggy Pop version is better.
why celebrate the Lust For Life album? i forget the exact words Katie used when explaining how class it is, but they included or were similar to how the album is funny, dirty, sexy, salacious, dangerous and just beautiful. yes, the album was played in full, and in the order as the songs appear on the record, and no there was absolutely no holding back on any of the lyrical content. had this record been composed and done today, there's every chance some lyrics might not have been used as they were (looking at Turn Blue here) and some songs may well not have seemed wise to do (Sixteen). but we should not really keep rewriting history.
many of you, i know, will have no interest whatsoever in how i am doing and even less than that in how i presently look. so, be warned, a selfie is below.
it is with thanks to my travels for verk that i was able to be able to go to the gig. nice one. indeed i do appear to be spending more time in exile in London (innit) that my usual place of exile. which is fine. how very fortunate (ahem, thanks skipper) that i was placed in a hotel that let me get to the gig via the tube, then. not just any tube, but this fancy new Elizabeth line. which is class. and i got to go to the much vaunted Tottenham Court Road station, although it now looks totes different from how it did in the motion picture An American Werewolf In London.
statistically yes, this is the first gig i went to since passing the milestone age of 50. hence the title of this post, of course, not that it matters. certainly all of this could well be taken as evidence of my three quarter life crisis going full tilt. but i am not sure if i have a quarter to go still.
yes, then, to the left in the above is of course Glen Matlock. i want to state this again, and make it clear, thanks - i got to see an actual Sex Pistol perform at the 100 Club. there are a finite number of people who can say that. with my passion for and obsession with rock legend and mythology, i am unable to play that down in any way, shape or form. it's frankly one of the most excellent things what has happened in this life of mine, thanks. utterly, utterly bizarre that the disappointment of not getting to see Tony Sales again turned into such an epic moment of existence.
not so much got played in the way of Sex Pistols songs as such, but there was at least the one. for your enjoyment, if your enjoyment involves bad video with poor sound, here, have a song from the second part of the set, No Fun.
oh yeah. to give food to the pretence that this post is in any way an actual proper review, the ensemble band did all of Lust For Life, and then moved into a set filled predominantly with other Iggy Pop tunes. nods were given to other acts, too. a Blondie tune turned up in the form of Rip Her To Shreds, and Glen himself did a couple of songs.
giving an honest review of the show would be that the performance of Lust For Life was mindblowingly brilliant, and an event i shall remember fondly. the second half felt like it kind of lagged a bit. in no way did the band run out of steam, far from it. as it turns out i was more familiar with songs by Iggy Pop than i had imagined, but not that familiar. so some tunes went over my head.
big major shout out to one of the support acts, Fifteen Lions. please please please click here to go and hear his album. what a fantastic bloke and a remarkably talented musician. at this stage i believe he only has a dozen or so followers on that "Spotify" thing. hopefully that audience grows, because it would mean more people are discovering some excellent vibes, man.
indeed i went alone to the gig, for so very few would choose to be in my presence, less (fewer) so in actual public places. but this was an event attended by like minded people. during the evening i got chatting to a wonderful lady who had come over from Berlin (the Germany one) just to see the gig, and three blokes from Belgium had made a similar (as in exact purpose) journey. certainly there were one or so people from actual London (innit) there too, all impressed that some of us had come so far to see this. distance tends to become irrelevant for once in a lifetime chances,
a bit more video for you all, then. this is off of the encore, just south of 11pm. of course Bowie had to make a more direct appearance on the setlist, and to that end here's a substantial chunk of Be My Wife.
what made this special, to state the perfectly obvious, is that it shall not happen again. there is little chance of Lust For Life having another 45th anniversary, and i am not sure the assembled musicians shall play together again. unlikely not, since they weren't supposed to be playing together in the first instance.
for anyone who was there with me, or went to a different show on the tour, may it be so that you carry all the fond memories that i shall from this.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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