We arrive at our destination unfashionably early, but that doesn't matter. We've been told that Retford Porterhouse is a small place and we want to get good seats... (do you sit down at a gig?). Unsurprisingly, we have been misinformed by our elders... Not only do you not sit down at gigs, you should also DEFINITELY not wear cheap and hastily bought woolen suits in order to fit in with the 'in' crowd!
The memories of my first gig are still very clear even though it was over 30 years ago. My friends Jono, Power and I had been getting into the latest musical scene after deciding that Ska and Mod was just too 1981! Synthesisers were now the way forward, and there was lots of exciting bands coming forward with exotic clothes and weird sounds. I had bought the infamous Some Bizzare Album a year earlier which had introduced us to lots of bands who would go on to become household names: Soft Cell, Blancmange, Depeche Mode, The The. But there was one band who we all agreed would go on to greater things...... B-Movie! and this was the band we had come to see.
The first act was the very oddball The Loved One. A guitarist / synth wizard duo who played very loud, very experimental and pretty disturbing electropop. My friends hated it... I loved it!
Then came our heroes. The band were amazing! Although I had at that point only heard a handful of their songs (The Some Bizzare Album track and the singles Remembrance Day and Marilyn Dreams), I loved everything they played that night. The highlight however was their new single, Nowhere Girl, which I felt then, and still feel now, is an epic pop track. We danced, we drank beer, we took fashion notes from all the über-cool New Romantic types in the crowd, and generally had the night of our lives.
Somehow, after the gig, we found ourselves backstage with the band and their manager (legendary Some Bizzare label boss Stevo), who took the p**s out of our cheap suits, but also gave us beer, offered us fags (which we declined), and autographed our newly purchased copies of the new single!
Unfortunately, the single was not the big hit it deserved to be (#61 in the UK charts), and the band soon left these shores to try and crack America... They failed miserably and recorded one album which contained watered down versions of their best songs, before splitting up.
On a happier note, since 2006 they have sporadically reformed and sometimes play the odd gig. I was even lucky enough to see them at their 'homecoming' gig in Nottingham on the 11th of November 2007: Remembrance Day!
Mat.
The Loved One "Further Observations" can be bought here. B-Movie "Remembrance Day" can be bought here. You can listen to their new track "Echoes" here.