Well, hip-hip-hooray it’s Saturday …

Yes, I know it’s a day late and undoubtedly a dollar short but here goes anyway.

MM did my birthday proud with, amongst other things, tickets to see Mumford & Sons in October. It was a genuine hand-waving-jump-up-out-of-the-chair moment of pure delight. Proving that you’re never too old (!) to get excited about music (well, the good stuff anyway). Awake my soul.

We mackerels can be pretty good at spotting the talent before it’s headed around the first bend and so often see those much beloved bands before they’re playing the bigger and less intimate venues. I don’t go a bundle on big venues and Oxford has come up short too often in the last 12 months: too many tribute bands and bands that have reformed for financial reasons. And actually, bands that should have never got together in the first place … well, music is subjective, is it not?

Reminds me (of course) of a few of my favourite gigs that caused me to get over-excited: The Smiths (Newcastle upon Tyne, just before they split); The Stone Roses (Oxford Poly, just before they became big); The Raveonettes (Oxford O2 Academy, when I wasn’t expecting anything special); Julian Cope (London, 1993, first proper date with MM) – I could go on (and on).  Memorable gigs for you? Let it not have arena in the title …

So make the effort and go out there and support live music.  Something old, something new, something borrowed and, of course, something blue.

Download the massively under-valued Raveonettes – That Great Love Sound mp3 (from The Chain Gang of Love)