Radiohead in 100 gigs
The day after the Manchester gig, Val invites me to go with her to the band’s Christmas party. I am speechless and she explains that she’d thought long and hard about who to ask and realised that she trusts me to behave myself. “You’re not a screamer.” I go back to Glasgow and spend the… Continue reading 6*. Oxford, Courtyard Studios, 18 December 1993 (not a gig but I count it!)
1994. January. After our adventures in deepest Oxfordshire, I keep in touch with Val by phone, with increasingly lengthy calls. I have to go out to a phone box at the end of the street or use the payphone in the University Library foyer. My hall of residence has one card-operated phone between about 20 people… Continue reading Love Out Of Concrete. January-May 1994
It’s all waiting with Val. I’m itching to get into the centre of Manchester to check out the venue, but she’s still getting ready. She sends me out to the big Sainsbury’s near her flat for NME, Melody Maker and a packet of fags (the first time goody goody little me has ever bought cigarettes).… Continue reading 7. Manchester, University, 25 May 1994
The next morning, Val has a couple of errands to run, so we take a series of bus journeys around the outer reaches of Cheetham Hill before we head to the centre of town. We decide that taking the train will be the best bet as Wolverhampton beckons. It’s a relatively short journey, when we… Continue reading 8. Wolverhampton, Wulfrun Hall, 26 May 1994
Caffy has to be up and out quite early to get a train to take the Maker people back to London, so we share a cab back to the town centre. Val and I go for a wander and a breakfast in a greasy spoon in the shopping precinct. We wander round in a daze… Continue reading 9. London, Astoria, 27 May 1994
As a warm up for their performance at Reading Festival, the band have announced a low-key gig in Gloucester. As we’ve already decided to go to Reading, it makes sense to go to this gig on the way. Val comes to my parents’ house and Rebecca picks us up in her beige Mini Metro. When… Continue reading 10. Gloucester, Guildhall Arts Centre, 25 August 1994
The next day we make an early start, dine in the railway station and then motor on to Reading with American Music Club on the car stereo. The rivers of indie kids streaming through town to the festival are a jaw dropping sight. We drop Val at Sid’s place in Caversham (they both have passes… Continue reading 11. Reading Festival, 26-28 August 1994
5th: Videohead, a big feature in Select with pictures from the band’s extensive collection of camcorder footage. 12th: Val sends tape of the MIL tracks – There is something that reminds me of the Cure about some of the songs, they sound dark and beautiful. 13th: Hear My Iron Lung on Radio 1 and… Continue reading Diary. September 1994
Val phones. She is coming today after all. Rebecca arrives in the Metro and we hit the M1 listening to the new REM album. In Leeds we see the tour buses outside the University venue. I go and wait for Val near the Union. Her hair is dyed a darker shade of magenta. We bump… Continue reading 12. Leeds, Metro University Union, 29 September 1994
We leave Manchester without Val and it takes an hour to get out of the city. Then we have a slightly hairy drive across the moors in the Metro. Another one-way system slows our entrance into Sheffield, but eventually we see the tour buses parked up by the Octagon (aka the University Refectory). We end… Continue reading 13. Sheffield, University Refectory, 30 September 1994