ON THE UNRELIABILITY OF MEMORIES

 

Gigs in the past. I was there, or I wasn't. Simple.

But sometimes, it seems, my memories can't be trusted. Maybe I WASN'T there, after all? Maybe I only THOUGHT I'd been there. Or perhaps I WAS there, but don't quite believe it.

Ah, you say, that's just because you're really old and you're losing your grip on history.

Well, no.

I have, for example, been NEARLY convinced for years - decades, in fact - that I saw PARADISE LOST playing the QUEEN'S HALL in Edinburgh,sometime back in the 80s.This despite having NO EVIDENCE of the fact. No ticket stub. No photographs. No record, even, that they actually played that venue around that time. I have no idea why I remember a gig which may never have happened

Again, I was convinced for years that I'd seen SIMPLE MINDS playing at the first LOCH LOMOND ROCK FESTIVAL. 1979 I think it was. I had, I was certain, been queueing to get in when they played, first band on the first day. There is NO evidence that they were ever there. They weren't on the bill. Nobody else has ever mentioned them. I HAVE to believe that this is an entirely false memory. Once again, I have no idea where that memory came from.

But it's NOT an age thing. Yes, I am very old, but I have been telling people about that gig for the best part of 40 years. I haven't been old for that long.

Conversely now, THE CURE. I like The Cure, always have. I would have paid attention if they played. However, they DID play at the READING FESTIVAL,back in 79 or 80, in the middle of the bill, but I have ABSOLUTELY NO MEMORY of seeing them. They definitely were there, because there are mentions of their set out there in Internetland, but they simply do not exist in my head. File deleted. And before you jump in with the obvious reasons, I DID NOT drink or take ANY mind altering drugs during the entirety of the festival. I just didn't. A cup of oxtail soup at the Salvation Army booth, maybe, but I doubt they slipped anything untoward into my food.

Other bands from the 2 old Reading Fests I went to I remember very well. An Australian folk band called THE COBBERS, who were excellent. ROOT BOY SLIM AND THE SEX CHANGE BAND, who were dreadful. SLADE (who were brilliant), THE POLICE, PETER GABRIEL, MOTORHEAD, BUDGIE, all that. Even the atrocious SCORPIONS,whom I wish I COULD forget. They're all there.

But The Cure? Nothing. And that annoys me.

So. That's why I decided,a while ago,to make a record of all of the gigs I go to, including all of the old ones I've got evidence for. Inevitably, since the total number is somewhere up near 1000, there will be a lot that I've forgotten, but that's just REGULAR forgettery. I'm not infallible.

Sadly, back in the old days, camera/recording bans were much stricter, and enforced, so photos are few and far between, and obviously video cameras didn't exist, so I can't smugly show you that time that PHILCOLLINS joined Peter Gabriel on stage at Reading, or when BUZZCOCKS played in the rain at Loch Lomond, or when my future wife sat on the stage as IRON MAIDEN played at TIFFANY'S night club in Edinburgh(1980 that was. £2.00 a ticket). But I'm trying to make up for it now.