MTV

Was going to post about lots of things tonight.  Things like how #3 snuggled up against me on the sofa only to fart on me, giggle furiously (to the extent he nearly vomited) and leg it.  Or how the Royal Wedding yesterday looked like fantastic fun.  But that was before.

Before I got sucked into MTV land.  And the Vault and Q and so on.  Firstly, it's nerve racking when the new bands you like are, ahem, many years younger than you.  Secondly, the music I had my twenties in rocked!!!  So far tonight I'm watched the videos of The Beastie Boys (You gotta fight) 1986.  I can remember uproar in the media over people stealing the badges off cars.  The uproar of how they'd corrupt the youth of Ireland and the UK if they were ever allowed to set foot on these shores.  I saw them twice in the nineties, once in The Tivoli and once in the RDS and they were brilliant.

Then INXS came on, wow.  I can remember the first time I ever heard them.  Art Class in 3rd Year - Inter Cert year for those of you old enough to remember doing the Inter.  Niamh Hughes was a huge fan and was using their name as inspiration for an art project.  Jesus, the things you remember.  I can't remember most of yesterday but I can remember stuff like that.

Then Creep came on by Radiohead.  The first date I ever went on with Himself ended up in the Rock Garden.  Radiohead were playing downstairs and it only cost £4.00 to see them.  Don't know what's more shocking?  The fact that my kids have no idea we ever had other money or that it was so cheap to see them or . . . that venue no longer exists.  Not as we knew it anyway.  Nor does the Tivoli by the way.

I have a box upstairs and it holds the ticket stubs to nearly every gig I went to.  Some nights we'd leg it from one venue to the next (that's how I first discovered Himself - he was at The Rock Garden for Pulp and then I saw him later at The Tivoli for Fatima Mansions or was it A-House??.  Anyway, I have tonnes of stubs:

That Petrol Emotion, The Stunning, Something Happens, The Prodigy, Bjork, Pulp, A-House, Manic Street Preachers, Suede, Massive Attack, The Christmas Rocks at the Olympia, An Emotional Fish, Rage against the Machine, Ice-T (fucking scariest gig I'd ever been to - it was with Body Count, mental metal) in the SFX (that doesn't exist anymore either, sigh.  Hot House Flowers, Boo Radleys, Grant Lee Buffalo, Henry Rollins, The Pixies (many happy times), Pulp again and again.  Prince (swoon).  Bloody P.J. Harvey, who I still don't get.  Space who ROCKED.  Jeff Buckley in Whelans.  First time he played in Dublin.  We were this close to him (picture me spreading arms so wide), I could feel his breath.  The fella who was with us was called Eoin, he loved my earrings and me.  Jeff signed the cd Himself had with him.  Saw him again in the Tivoli but by then everyone knew it was the gig to be 'at' so they were 'at' it and talked the entire bloody way through.  

Chemical Brothers, Orbital and the Orb.  Primal Scream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH.  Nirvana in the Point and then when we had tickets to see him again when they played Dublin they cancelled the gig and Kurt Cobain shot himself instead.  I still have the ticket for the night they were to play in Dublin.  The night Kurt killed himself.  

Oh, Bill Hicks.  Not a singer or a band but what a man.  

Black Grape and Blur and Oasis (I loved them all).  The Stereo MCs and U2 of course  Lots of U2.

The Frames (whom you may know as Glenn Hansard), My Bloody Valentine, Mundy, Pavement, Pet Shop Boys, Spiritualised (I was mesmerised (drugs perhaps?) by the beautiful lights in the POD and the music and the mirror ball that Himself bought me a mirror ball one Christmas  now hanging in my kitchen - but I didn't remember and thought it was a giant Christmas tree decoration).  Prefab Sprout - I still love them.

Red Hot Chili Peppers (the day after the first time me and Himself slept together - in a bid to impress we were so energetic I ached.  So did my friend Q, who ached for similar reasons - we were such dirty hussies, love it).

Beck.  Beck.  Beck.  The Farm.  Faith No More - when The Red Hot Chili Peppers didn't show up for that gig (the morning after).  Saw them years later in Dublin.  I saw Sonic Youth - the woman who introduced me to great music (being great herself) said I had to see them.  They weren't for me but Colette I salute you for all of the above.  

Seal, The Verve and The Black Crowes.  Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (Colette again), The Flaming Lips, Supergrass, Super Furry Animals, Hole, Disposable Heroes    . . . and ........................... the list goes on and on and on.  Doesn't include the likes of Therapy and Joyrider or that other mad band that Sherman shouted at.

All that wonderful music and I can remember so many of the gigs so clearly.  I can remember me and Q lamenting that only ugly fellas stripped off their shirts at gigs.  This was at Rage Against The Machine, and everyone was giving it loads.  We'd gotten out of the mosh pit (me????), found each other and hid down the back only to have this God appear, all hot and sweaty and fuck me . . . Himself.  I was delighted with myself. He was mine.  Phroar etc.  

Fenton rocks but no, they turn straight to Phantom.  They are indie kids at heart and it fills my heart with joy.

Oooh, am so pleased and sad (only a twinge for lost youth) recalling how I went to all these gigs.  All the boys I kissed (and one girl), the boys who made mix tapes for me.  One in particular gave me a tape with 'Me and Mr. Jones' on it..  That man was a great kisser.  I raced from venue to venue with a couple of girls, now women, who are still my ultimate friends.  I got one into smoking by always lighting up when I was pissed although I never smoked when sober.  We each held each others hair in Bruxelles when we inevitably threw up every Christmas.  

I have mix tapes from these lovely ladies too.  Lots of them upstairs in a box, near the box with the tickets and I think that box of tapes ("Tapes???" - boys!) needs an airing but I need either a Walkman or a tape deck.  Sure there is still one in the house.  Damn ipods to hell etc.  

Oooh, REM.  In Slane!!  I think Q's sister took a shine to Himself.  It took bloody hours to get home from the place.  Carol (her with the now FOUR children) had made a beautiful picnic for us all but had her ma's knives and forks confiscated at the gate as being too dangerous.  She also forgot the fillings to go with the bread rolls.  We ate lots of M&M's.  This was the days before mobile phones too so if you lost someone you had to pretend you'd lost your asthma inhaler so the Red Cross would post it on the big screens "Would Niamh Meier's friends please meet her at First Aid Tent whatever with her inhaler".  That type of thing. 

Just remembered Mercury Rev and Lambchop!!!!  The Divine Comedy and Afghan Whings at the Rock Garden, again.  Being so poor that I had to run for the last bus and not getting to hear their cover of When Doves Cry by Prince.  

Republic of Loose.

Sultans of Ping.

Cornershop - took four bloody hours to come on stage, a ferry being late or something, then played for ONE  hour.

Sterolab!

Ride.

Air.

Tom Waits (I'm a newbie to the man and saw him in a Circus Tent in the Phoenix Park a year or so back.  It pissed rain but it was brilliant.

Yup, hope my kids love music as much as I do.  I hope they make as many wonderful friends as I did through music and get to see the same faces even now.  Same t-shirts  Just older.

I hope music is a huge part of their life.  Good music.  Not just manufactured pop, that has to play a part, but good bands  Live bands.  I hope they live, love and laugh and love it.  Love, love, LOVE IT. 

I did.

Hey, wait till I tell you about the best pubs, clubs, venues, cafes and  . . . oh.  But I had my 20's in an absolutely fabulous decade.