I was at a Damned concert the other day – great fun. My feeling about concerts by heritage acts these days is that the audiences are becoming warmer with each other, and it’s becoming like we are a regimental reunion for our grandfathers. There is the shared experience, the passing of time, the continued love of a particular act, the recognition of particular moments, the characters who emerge (Jonno, who has seen The Damned over 1000 times)… Hawkwind gigs are similarly communal as are ‘Ver Maiden. Is it that people have given up on cool at last? Not that it is easy to be cool without without a trendy barnett, carrying at least 30 spare lbs of lovingly acquired gut, and a slight wish for the gig to be over by a time which means you can be in bed by midnight.
Gig audiences as social groups
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There is a wonderful book celebrating the tribes of music, with photos of the attendees at various gigs across the genres.
Can’t remember it’s name but I recall the photos of Cure attendees and Dylan attendees in particular.
Is this a book written by a woman, who was interviewed for a Word In Your Ear podcast a while back?
Pass, but I hope someone can remember as I have some book money to spend.
An American-born Sociology professor, if I remember correctly, focussing mainly on the UK Indie scene.
Don’t know what the book was like but the chat with Heppo was interesting.
Is this it?
I think she wrote some stuff in the Guardian a while back too.
That’s the one.
That isn’t the one I was thinking of but looks good. The one I had in mind was more a photomontage selection. This seems similar (or was maybe it, but I don’t see the trench-coated Dylanophiles.)
https://www.neogaf.com/threads/photos-of-fans-from-different-concerts-show-how-people-will-emulate-their-idols.591496/
http://danvers.wickedlocal.com/article/20140630/Blogs/140639807
This one?
I gave up on being cool 25 years ago but I still go to what might be considered ‘cool’ gigs – but I also go to the odd ‘heritage’ gig too – they’re fun and yep I’ve been to a Damned gig and seen their hardcore following – they all seemed lovely folk and I totally understand that social thing that grows up around bands
I saw Numan a couple of years ago and he was supported by the excellent Liverpool band Outfit – I went down the front to watch their set and a woman came up to me and said “not as good as the support band last night were they” – she just assuming that as I was near the front I was a diehard waiting to secure a space as near as possible to the polypropylene thatch of Sir Gareth of Numanshire. She beat a retreat when I explained I was a fan of them and this was my first Numan gig.