The Sex Pistols - Brixton Academy, London 12.11.07

The gig that started it all again! Yep gigging has offically begun again after a 15 year break.
It started with an advert on the radio stating that the Sex Pistols were going to do a few dates again. Next thing I know, I have bought two tickets for me and a mate, Steve, to attend the gig at the Brixton Academy. We arrived in plenty of time and Steve managed to get a parking spot outside the Academy, so us old gits didn't have far to walk afterwards. After a bite to eat and a few beers we were refreshed and so entered the Academy ready to see four guys who started it all for us.
The support band were the Cribs, they were ok and I quite enjoyed a few of their tracks and the audience seemed ok wih them but you could tell that everyone was really here to see the Pistols.
After what seemed like an age of waiting The Sex Pistols finally took to the stage.
The line-up was back to the original with Johnny Rotten, Glen Matlock, Paul Cook and Steve Jones, however I did not expect them to have the same energy of the past as looking at them on stage they did look a lot older and rather fat!. That said the show was absolutely brilliant with 'Anarchy in the UK', 'God Save the Queen', 'Pretty Vacant' and 'Holidays in the Sun' in fact it was the whole of the first album with a couple of b-sides thrown in for good measure. They just seemed to go on and on even with the encores, it was a superb evening. Johnny did still try to be his old sneering self and he did it quite well, although time and age had rounded off the edges of his anger.
That's the first gig over and that old flame has been rekindled! We were handed a flyer outside the Academy for a gig at the Astoria with the UK Subs and Discharge .. is this the start of something?

UK Subs / Discharge - The Astoria2, London 7.12.07

We're back! our second gig is at the Astoria 2 in Charing Cross Road
We took the train this time and after a bite to eat and a few beers we entered the Astoria ready to see two influential Punk bands. Steve was excited as he had seen both before in the 80's and the Subs are one of his favourites, I had only seen the UK Subs before and I was hoping Discharge would live up to my expectations.
We managed to get places up overlooking the stage, next to the bar. First up were The Strawberry Blondes who were only ok. Their drummer had broken his wrist so they had drafted in another drummer which was fine, except that the original drummer was also on stage in plaster trying to sing along. It didn't work! and we were quite glad to see the back of them. Next band on were Discharge with Rat on vocals. They were very very good and blasted out tracks like 'Decontrol', 'Fight Back', 'Never Again', 'Why' and 'Realities of War'. We did enjoy Discharge, they were heavy, fast and very raw and hopefully a sign of good things to come. Having only heard Discharge when Cal was with them I was a bit concerned that something would be lost, but Rat was excellent with the vocals. Last up were the UK Subs, they took to stage and blasted their way through all the hits 'Warhead', 'Teenage', 'Stranglehold', 'She's Not There', 'C.I.D', 'Party in Paris' and 'Tomorrows Girls'. This was the original line-up of Charlie Harper, Nicky Garratt, Paul Slack and Pete Davies and they were good .. very very good. With both the UK Subs and Discharge together they filled the venue and the the crowd were going mental.
So that's it, we are officially hooked back on gigging .. it was an excellent evening and now we're looking forward to more.

Anti-Nowhere League - The Forum, Tunbridge Wells 22.12.07

Our third gig and this time it's a bit closer to home
We were in Tunbridge Wells for this gig and at a venue called the Forum which apparently used the be the old public toilet block. We weren't sure where the venue was so we spent a good 3/4 hr driving around trying to find it. Eventually we realised it was a large block situated part way up a hill, so we parked in the town, had a KFC and couple of beers before getting into the Forum. The gig started with a couple of support bands who were not really very good and they lost power completely half way through the set. The last support band was Zombie Met Girl who I think were local as they brought a large following with them, but they were actually quite good and we really enjoyed them.
Finally on came the Anti-Nowhere League and they just blasted their way into 'Streets of London', 'Woman', 'I Hate People', 'We are the League' and an encore of 'So What'.
This was a tremendous gig and the League were really on form as this is their end of year gig back in their home town. The venue was packed and the crowd lapped them up, at one point both Steve and myself threw ourselves into the melee at the front which was a real laugh and brought back memories of the old days.
That's it for this year, not sure yet what next year will bring, but i feel this is just start and things can only get better from here.