Last year BBC Radio One came to Brighton and organised a week of live music. This year, there’s no sign of auntie Beeb but local promoters have organised a week of music anyway.
As part of this music-filled week, Salter Cane headlined a concert on Wednesday night. The turnout was very very good and yet there was a strange atmosphere, as if a pall was hanging over the proceedings. It wasn’t just the miserable weather. Something was missing. More accurately, someone.
Everybody missed him… The sound man, the promoter, the DJ, the other bands. The night was dedicated to him, as is presumably every other gig going on in Brighton this week.
We paid tribute with a cover version of Joy Division’s Shadowplay. Four minute’s noise seemed more fitting than one minute’s silence.
Now, I don’t want sound superstitious but on the day that Johnny Cash died, Salter Cane also played a concert. I hope we’re not jinxed. Maybe we shouldn’t book any more gigs without first checking that say, Bob Dylan is in good health.
Anyway, Wednesday’s performance went off well in the end although it was definitely a lot more angry and raucous than our typical live show. I can’t blame that entirely on John Peel either. We were also trying to deal with the technical issues attendant with trying to record the concert for a local radio station.
We succeeded in the end (sort of) and you can listen to the radio show online. Honestly, we’re not normally that punky.
With all of the technical and musical issues to be dealt with, I didn’t even have the chance to hang with the the Brighton Bloggers who came along. For that, I am extremely sorry.
The rock’n’roll excesses continued last night with a fun Clearlake gig followed by a post-concert chat with some of the Caramel Jack folks.
It would seem that I am not as young as I once was. After two nights of loudness and beer, I need at least one night of staying in with a movie, a pizza and perhaps a nice glass of wine.
I’m even going to give tonight’s BD4D event a miss.