Regrets, I’ve had a few

“Regrets, I’ve had a few. But then again too many to mention.” So sings Morrissey at the start of his live DVD “Who Put The M In Manchester?”

We received an email from listener Huw asking us about what were our biggest gig regrets, gigs we’ve missed for whatever reason. He told us of gigs he’d missed out on by that man Morrissey as well as Sparklehorse, The Pogues and a Beastie Boys / Henry Rollins double bill.  Prompted by that and by this article  (about a gig that Chorizo Garbanzo was at but did not hear a single note of), the wizards got to talking about this  on podcast number 6. Therein lie tales of gigs missed through drunkenness, unfortunate diary clashes, drunkennes, lack of finances, drunkenness, friends who didn’t want to go and drunkennness.

Here are a few of the artists whose gigs we’ve missed, quite a roll call! Listen to the podcast to find out the reasons why. As Jim Bowen would say, here’s what you could’ve won! (click on each one for a video)

• The Smiths at Kilburn National Ballroom, 1986 (the gig they recorded for the Rank album)
• The Redskins at Manchester Poly
• REM, Portsmouth Guidhall, Green tour, 1989
• Wreckless Eric, unidentified pub venue somewhere in north London
• Crowded House, Manchester Apollo on Neil Finn’s birthday, 2010
• Morrissey first solo gig, Wolverhampton Town Hall
• Manic Street Preachers, Aldershot Buzz Club, 1991 (by the way you should vote in our Manics poll)
• Pop Will Eat Itself, Guildford, 1989
• Joe Strummer, HMV shop, London, 2001
• Eels, Manchester Academy, March 2013
• Chuck Prophet solo gig, The Radcliffe Centre, Buckingham
• Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Glastonbury 1985
• Damien Dempsey, Manchester, 2012
• Guided by Voices, various gigs

So let’s hear from you then, send us your stories of missed gigs and we’ll discuss them on the next podcast.

In the meantime, make sure you take the plunge and buy that gig ticket you’re procrastinating over. Otherwise one day that gig might be on your regret list!

One last thing: the other wizards would probably like me to include Nick Cave’s gig at the Manchester Apollo on this list because I was supposed to buy us all tickets for that one and I screwed up! They gave me some fully deserved grief for that on the last podcast but I’m not going to include it on the list of regrets for the simple reason that it hasn’t happened yet. Unlike me, neither of them have seen him live before but if Kicker and Rebel are so desperate to go, then they should stop bleating about it and spend the next 7 months saving their pennies so they can turn up on the night and buy one from a tout.

Anyway, here especially for my fellow wizards is some fantastic footage from one of the many, many Nick Cave gigs I’ve seen.