All in All

First gig of the year goes to New York band, Vampire Weekend.

First venue of the year is the Hoxton Bar and Grill. Full of people who watched Nathan Barley thinking it was cool without realising it was laughing at them, not with them.

First support came from Damn Shames, three young lads from Edinburgh who we also saw support Wildbeests at the same venue a few months back. They were crap then and sadly have not improved with age. I’d rather not have them support anyone else I see this year if possible.

First audience irritants go to two painfully trendy twats wearing old men’s shirts with skinny ties and (on one) skinny red braces. They danced like friendless students to Damn Shames and then in the break, what rebels! They had a few sneaky cigarettes! Take that smoking ban, your law doesn’t apply to us Hoxton wannabees! Now, I’m a non-smoker but have been largely indifferent to the ban – yes, it’s nice not to go home stinking of cigarettes but people smoking around me rarely bothered me. But a law has been passed so why did these twats think it schoolboy-cool to break the rules? People around them complained but they just laughed. They didn’t laugh when the security guard came and threw them out! I cheered because they were twats. They were let back in eventually but did miss over half of Vampire Weekend so that’s a form of justice I suppose.

Vampire Weekend were great. Jangly guitar pop-rock. I loved them. They are one of the 10 tips for the greatness this year in many papers. We shall see and if they are, we were there at the beginning. (I shall be saying that again in a few weeks after Black Kids, too)

!!!, 65 Days of Static, A Hawk and and Hacksaw, Adem x 2, Air, Alistair Roberts, Amiina, Apples in Stereo, Arcade Fire x 6, Bad Plus, Bat For Lashes x 2, Battles x 3, Ben Folds, Bjork, Black Kids, Bob Lind/Richard Hawley, Bobby Conn x2, Bonnie Dobson, Bonnie Prince Billy, Boredoms, Brett Anderson x 2, Bruce Springsteen, Cat Power, Chemical Brothers, Christophe somethingorother, Chromeo, Clinic x 3, Cold War Kids x 2, Concretes, Crippled Black Phoenix, Damn Shames, Danielson, Datarock, David Sylvian, David Vandervalde, Decemberists x 2, Deerhoof, Devo, Dirty Feel, Dirty Three, Dragonette, Duke Special, Earth, Easy Allstars Radiodread, Editors, Edwyn Collins, Electrolane x 2, El-P, Espers, EST, F*ck Buttons, Faun Fables, Feist x 2, Forest of no return, Francoiz Breut, Fujiya & Miyagi, Gas Giants, Glenn Branca, Gossip, Gravenhurst, Grinderman, Grizzly Bear, Gryff Rhys, Her name is Calla, Hold Steady, Hot Chip, Hot Hot Heat, Interpol, Jarvis, Joanna Newsom x 3, Joel Gideon and the Shark x2, John Barry, Juana Molina, Justice, Keren Ann, Kontakte, Kylie Minogue, Ladytron, Lark, Laub, LCD Soundsystem x 3, Les Savy Fav, Lilac Time, Lorraine, Lou Reed, Low, Lucky Luke, Maccabees, Malajube, Malcolm Middleton, Manic Street Preachers, Mark Almond, Mark Kozelek, Marlena Shaw, Martin Stephenson and the Daintees, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Massive Attack, Matmos, Maxi! Gelb & Colt Party, Men An Tol, Michael Fakesh, Michael Gira, Mogwai, Monroe Transfer, Motorhead, Mum Smokes, My Brightest Diamond, Nick Cave, Nina Nastasia & Jim White, Nouvelle Vague, Nurse with Wound, Of Montreal x 2, Oneida, Oorutaichi, Paranoid Critical Revolution, Parts and Labour, Patrick Wolf x 2, Patti Smith, Pet Shop Boys, Pink Mountain, PJ Harvey, Polar Bear, Portishead, Pravda, Priestbird, Prince, Prinzhorn dance school, Psarantonis, Rachel Unthank & the Winterset, Richard Galliano, Richard Swift x 2, Rickie Lee Jones, Roy Harper, Rufus Wainwright x 2, Sandra Bernhard, Scritti Politti, Shaker Heights, Siouxsie, Slint, Sondre Lerche, Sons & Daughters x 2, Spiritualised x 2, St Etienne, Sunn O))) x 2, Super Furry Animals, Super Jupiter, Susan Christie, The Artery, The Blessing, The Enemy, The Fall, These New Puritans, Throbbing Gristle, Tortoise, TurboNegro, Tuxedomoon, Two Gallants, Van der graaf Generator, Vashti Bunyan, Vetiver, Voice of the Seven Woods, Wendy Flowers, White Magic, Wildbeasts x 2, Yo La Tengo.

168 different bands for 2007, a new record and one unlikely to be beaten, but what a year that was. Obviously, a lot of these bands are support acts or acts at festivals which I wouldn’t normally be bothered to see, and indeed many support acts were poor (I’m sorry, I just don’t get the fuss over Maccabees or The Enemy), and to be truthful many I can’t remember a thing about (what are Parts and Labour like? No idea), but if I saw them perform more than three songs they get a mention on the list unless they were embarrassingly dull (step forward Helen McCookerybook). My game, my rules.

Anyway, highs and lows and general comments.

Obviously it was the year of Arcade Fire, with a stunningly intimate show at the start of the year in St John’s church, followed by two nights in Brixton, a trip to Paris and ending the year with two trips to the Alexander Palace (Mac can separately add his trips to Glasgow, New York and San Francisco to see them on top of that). Are they worth the hype? Of course, but as always happens, with greater fame and larger venues comes a worse and worse audience. We were fairly lucky but a week before the final shows I read how some idiot in Nottingham threw something at Win effectively ruining the show, and they commented in one magazine recently that they just can’t play in the audience any more as people were trying to jostle the horn players out of the way to get closer to Win etc. As much as Mac could watch them every week, I’m hoping their year or so off now will allow the less dedicated fans to dwindle off to the next big thing.

An unheard of year of big names and big venues, with two trips to the new O2 Dome and a jaunt to Wembley Arena. Prince stunned with his 21 nights show, Springsteen was everything I could have hoped for (and I won’t even moan that he didn’t play The River), and Kylie proved why she’s the nation’s showgirl.

Venue of the year. The Luminaire in Kilburn again. I find this place faultless and look forward to many more nights there in 2008. the Magpie’s Nest in Islington was a nice little intimate venue too. Worst venue? ULU is pretty poor and always seems to have the worst organised bar and most annoying crowd (although all the acts we saw there this year were great).

Festival of the year? Jarvis’ Meltdown was a joy. Stradbally’s Electric Picnic was also fun. Latitude sounded like it would have been good but Secure Mail Services misdelivered our tickets so we’ll never know what it was really like. Worst festival? Field Day, no question. Poorly organised, vastly under-equipped, unapologetic organisers.

New bands of the year. Cold War Kids, Dragonette, Black Kids.

Disappointment of the year. Martin Stephenson and the Daintees perform ‘Boat To Bolivia’. When will I ever learn? Nostalgia is bad, never try to recapture the past. In fairness to the band, I didn’t dislike the gig because of anything they did, it was just the worst audience I have ever had the displeasure in being part of. Biggest bunch of (rhymes with) hunts I have ever had to endure. Constant chatter, one man emailing throughout on his blackberry, no possibility in letting people through, such as Mac when he tried to get back after going to the gents. We left with a good 4 songs to go. Sorry Martin, and I could tell you despised the audience too, especially considering how bad they behaved during Helen McCookerybook’s set. (That’s two mentions to Ms McCookerybook, maybe I should have added her to the list seen after all. 169 bands then.

Surprises. Fujiya & Miyagi

Heroes of the year. Andy from the Luminaire, for running such a great venue and getting great acts to play; Mac, just for being you; Jarvis, for putting his all into Meltdown. Edwyn Collins, for his recovery even if it was shocking to see how far he still has to go meaning exactly how bad he must have been (and kudos to Roddy Frame for being a great band leader, fantastic guitarist, and most of all great true friend to Edwyn)

Villains of the year. Secure Mail Services. Worst. Couriers. Ever. Could ticket agencies at least offer us the choice of having a courier deliver tickets or just regular post?

Hopes for 2008. More Dragonette, how many Sparks shows will we manage (at least 5, I reckon)? More Luminaire.

post script. I forgot Rochelle, who supported Dragonette, so that makes 170 bands all in. Can I tell you anything about Rochelle? They were young, slightly mis-matched together, the singer's voice wasn't as strong as she hoped, the guitarist was annoying and the weakest link, and standing behind us during the interval was obviously their manager bragging to some young lady he was trying to chat up about how they had at least three killer tracks in that set (wrong!)