23 June 2004: Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, UK

With this being the first time I'd seen the Red Hot Chilli Peppers live, and my first time at a stadium concert, I had a few concerns about what this gig would be like. Would there be a complete lack of intimacy because of the size of the venue? The Red Hot Chilli Peppers attract such a varied audience - old, young. Rock fans, pop fans - would this mean that the atmosphere in the crowd was dull, with mums scowling at you for accidentally pogoing onto…

04 September 2004: Ginger - The Rig, Rock City, Nottingham, England, UK

I don't know why but there always seems to be a decent football match on the telly when I'm meant to be watching a gig at Rock City/The Rig. This occasion was no different, meaning that I missed most of the support act; a girl unknown to me doing an acoustic set of covers from what I did manage to hear. It was alright but the Alanis Morrisette number automatically got my back up a little.

And so on to the main attraction. The Rig was distinctly empty…

04 September 2004: Ginger - The Rig, Rock City, Nottingham, England, UK

Ginger, the legendary hard rockin' hard drinkin' frontman for the Wildhearts, has been doing these small venue acoustic sets for a couple of years now, but I've never been in the right place at the right time to catch one. Until now that is.

I have a copy of the album "Grievous Acoustic Behaviour" so I had a good idea of what to expect, and I was looking forward to being entertained with witty banter and some more laid back versions of some of…

Sat 4…

05 December 2008: Levellers + Divokej Bill + Frank Turner - Engine Shed, Lincoln, England, UK

Having ended up on the wrong side of the River Witham I missed Frank Turner, but arrived in time to grab a drink before Divokej Bill appeared.

With what seemed to be an infinite number of musicians (well, eight at least) and a bass guitar that tested the eardrums, Divokej Bill pounded through their rock/folk/country/nu-metal cross-over repertoire and managed to keep the attention of the majority of the audience for most of their set.

I failed to catch any of the track titles,…

21 October 2004: The 22-20s + Cathy Davey +Willy Mason - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, England, UK

This was to be my first gig at the rescue rooms, a fairly new venue in Nottingham, so the first priority was to find the place. This didn’t prove too taxing however and we were in plenty of time to get a beer and get ready for the support. The venue is quite a small place but the stage is well positioned and a 6 footer like me had no problem seeing what was going on, however as I had the pleasure of accompanying…

25 October 2004: Sarah McLachlan + Butterfly Boucher - Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, England, UK

Sarah McLachlan is big, and I mean big, in North America. She is responsible for the Lillith Fair tours which have brought together some of the finest female singer songwriters in the world together in one show, but this as far as I am aware is the first time she has been seen live in the UK. This does not mean that she doesn't have a sizeable following over here, getting tickets for this gig wasn't too difficult although we did end up sitting right…

30 October 2004: Ginger + The Rockitts - Junktion 7, Nottingham, England, UK

This was the first time at Junktion-7 for me, which was a very welcome change of scenery and bar service. Downstairs, the venue appears to be a reasonably normal pub for punters on the alternative side of the spectrum but it's upstairs where the magic happens. In truth, it's nothing more than a dark little room with a low ceiling but when it's full and the glitter balls are spinning constantly with some music playing it ends up being a cosy little venue.

First on stage were…

06 November 2004: T23 and The Psychedelic Circus - Borderline, London, England, UK

'T23 and The Psychedelic Circus' rocked a packed Borderline club in London on Saturday November 6th. Their unique mix of cutting edge beats, psychedelic sounds and rock guitars sent a cool London Warholesque audience beyond the bizarre until they couldn't help jumping up and down and screaming for more.

This was the launch of their debut album, 'When the Going Gets Weird' which is currently being sold on ebay…

Sat 6 Nov – T23 And The Psychedelic Circus

23 November 2004: Levellers - Queens Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, England, UK

The Queen’s Theatre in Stoke appears to be the only place in Stoke-on-Trent that isn’t sign posted by a large brown sign. Consequently and regrettably, I missed much of Dan Donnelly’s set and only arrived in time to hear part of the second to last song and all of his final number, which was a song about how he "Sounds like David Gray". Good stuff.

The venue itself was all seating (with the exception of a small space right at the front), with the downstairs, which had originally…

Tue…

30 November 2004: ariel-x - The Victoria Inn, Derby, England, UK

Well, this was unexpected. For two reasons.

Reason number one was that I made it to the venue in time to see the support band.

Reason number two…

Tue 30 Nov – Rachel Stamp, Ariel-X
Ariel-x