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Soda Jerk

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The first ever gig you ever attended.

Terrorvision at the music hall. Same as Dave. Awesome gig as soon as they started with Pretend Best Friend. Brilliant.

The best ever gig you ever attended.

Idlewild doing Hope Is Important at King Tuts a couple of years ago was great. Muse with Soulwax on the Showbiz tour at Glow303 was pretty awesome. At the opposite scale Muse at the AECC and Foo Fighters at the AECC were fucking brilliant shows despite the AECC's sound. Olafar Arnolds at Peacocks was pretty special too.

The worst ever gig you ever attended.

Loads of terrible local band gigs. Worst touring gig was probably Cortizone and Cyclefly at kef. Supposed to be a co-headlining tour but they turned up later and one of them took so long to soundcheck they left the other with only 10 minutes and we as support got fuck all. They were shit and angry with each other. Rubbish.

The first ever gig you ever played.

Red By Choice's first gig at Exodus. There was crowd surfing.

The best ever gig you ever played.

Probably Dos Dedos opening for Capdown on their sold out two night slot at Kef. Great fun. Also enjoyed our last gig at Dr Drakes. Played every song we'd ever done and walked off with cigars in hand.

The worst ever gig you ever played.

Dos Dedos supporting some shite Irish alt band in Kef. No-one turned up. Our drummer didn't bring his snare pedal and the bassist turned up late and pissed. We played shit and the band split up straight before we'd left the venue.

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The first ever gig you ever attended. - Stereophonics at the Music Hall circa 2000.

The best gig you ever attended. - My mind always draw a blank when this question is asked. However, the one that always sticks in the memory is Stapleton at the City Function Suite. I didn't think i'd see them play again and they announced a short UK tour to coincide with their last album release. There was only about 60 folk there, the venue was ace, probably the best vibe i've ever witnessed. Drove down with Skacel, Zippy and RossP. Met up with Maxi in Dundee, everyone singing the words ect

The worst ever gig you ever attended. - Working in-house sound has meant iv seen some pretty bad ones. The most recent memory is the open stage reggae jam i worked a few months ago. 7 hours of constant reggae with no stops.

The first ever gig you ever played. School talent show, doing a RHCP cover, with a wireless system - what a total mess.

The best ever gig you ever played. - Probably doing the APB support at the Lemon Tree in 2006.

The worst ever gig you ever played. - A show i put on in Cellar 35, it clashed with Idlewild at Moshulu so was totally dead. It was embarrassing enough having Juliet Kilo and State of Affairs playing to no people. When we went on we played to drunk family and friends, hated every minute of the set...not to mention we were really bad anyway.

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The first ever gig you ever attended. This would be Smashing Pumpkins at the SECC in 2000 on the Machina tour. It was pretty great. Some band called The Catherine Wheel supported? I got in halfway through their set and al I could think was 'Crikey, that's loud!'. I pouted a bit when they did the acoustic version of 'Today' but the rest of the set was really good.

The best ever gig you ever attended. Front and centre for Sleater-Kinney in a packed Oran Mor in 2006. Best fucking thing ever. It just edges out Deftones at the Barrowlands in 2003 and Biffy Clyro at the Lemon Tree for a BBC Evening Sessions gig that topped a day where I'd skipped school to see the band do an instore for the release of 'Blackened Sky'. Those are my three top ones, and that's not including massive gigs like Kylie at the SECC or Bjork at Connect. FUCK. I almost forgot, Explosions in the Skys at Drummonds. But I was working behind the bar so didn't get to enjoy it as fully as I'd have liked, but a chap in a Pedro the Lion t-shirt did try to chat me up. Bless.

The worst ever gig you ever attended. Nothing immediately springs to mind. Saw some shocking local bands when I was in school. I remember going to see some dodgy nu-metal band called Defenestration at Lava, they were a bit guff.

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The first ever gig you ever attended. - Divine Comedy at the Lemon Tree. 1999, I think.

The best ever gig you ever attended. - Paul Buchanan at the Music Hall a few years ago. Was five rows from the front but felt like the only person in the venue. Milky tears of joy, that night.

The worst ever gig you ever attended. - Alcohol dims the memory but it was probably a non-descript shitey metal local gig when I lived in Aiibrrdeen and was going to loads of 'em. Most disappointing 'big' band I saw was Paradise Lost at Bloodstock 2003, I expected them to be really good but they had an absolute shocker, and the audience turned on them, making it worse......

The first ever gig you ever played. - Maiden Taiwan at the SLH in Laurencekirk. 2002. We did 3/4 songs IIRC, and we were beyond rubbish.

The best ever gig you ever played. - Any of the Elgin gigs with SPD/WB. It's like a great football away day, except even more unhinged and with better banter. If Donnie is still doing them and you get offered one, dae it.

The worst ever gig you ever played. - Loads, but the standout was an Ascension gig at the Tunnels with Mind My Weapon at the height of our online 'japery'. I couldn't really be arsed with the gig and went to the pub to watch the Milan derby and enjoy a couple of pints of Guinness. This rapidly became four, six, eight, possibly more, followed by half a bottle of OVD. I don't actually remember playing that night, only waking up the morning after in a pool of black stouty sick. It was bound to have been horrid.

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The first ever gig you ever attended: -All Saints at the AECC, I was about 11 at the time, my friend's folks had to accompany us, they sat stone cold sober at the bar while we were down the front giving it all: "I'M NOT CRAAAAAYYYZAAAAYYYY, sure I ain't done nothing wrong..." etc. At the time, this was fucking incredible.

The best ever gig you ever attended. -Toss up between:

Rilo Kiley at Slowdown, Omaha, NE, 2008. This was just not long after my least favourite RK record came out, but I just happened to be over there and caught them in such a wee venue with such an amazing atmosphere and they played mainly old stuff. There was a lot of Saddle Creek folk there which led to lots of wee collaborations.

Stapleton, Moshulu back room (2004 or 2005?) Fuck me. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that band, and this was a great venue and a great gig. I remember Christiansen and Small Enclosed Area playing a gig here at around the same time too, brilliant.

MBV Barrowlands, 2009? Loud. Ace.

Low, Mohawk, Austin 2011, pretty much the first time I've been totally taken in by a band playing their as-yet-unreleased new record in almost its entirety.

All Saints, AECC., "I'M NOT CRAAAAAAAAYYYYZAAAAAAY, SURE I AIN'T DONE NOTHING WROOONG." "I'm movin' I'm comin' can you hear what I hear..." etc.

The worst ever gig you ever attended.

All Saints: AECC "Brush your teeth and pour a cup of black coffee out, I love to watch you do that every day, the little things that you do". That song was just ding.

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The best ever gig you ever attended. Front and centre for Sleater-Kinney in a packed Oran Mor in 2006. Best fucking thing ever. It just edges out Deftones at the Barrowlands in 2003 and Biffy Clyro at the Lemon Tree for a BBC Evening Sessions gig that topped a day where I'd skipped school to see the band do an instore for the release of 'Blackened Sky'. Those are my three top ones, and that's not including massive gigs like Kylie at the SECC or Bjork at Connect. FUCK. I almost forgot, Explosions in the Skys at Drummonds. But I was working behind the bar so didn't get to enjoy it as fully as I'd have liked, but a chap in a Pedro the Lion t-shirt did try to chat me up. Bless.

Bloody amazing. Right up there with my top gigs.

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The best gig you ever attended. - My mind always draw a blank when this question is asked. However, the one that always sticks in the memory is Stapleton at the City Function Suite. I didn't think i'd see them play again and they announced a short UK tour to coincide with their last album release. There was only about 60 folk there, the venue was ace, probably the best vibe i've ever witnessed. Drove down with Skacel, Zippy and RossP. Met up with Maxi in Dundee, everyone singing the words ect

I was talking about this the other night. Seriously good gig.

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First gig. The Seahorses at the Barrowlands. Was a really good gig.

Best Gig. Tough call, but I'd probably go for REM at Balloch Castle. Was a brilliant gig from start to end and the entire atmosphere was great.

Worst gig. Probably Glasvagas at Aberdeen music hall. It was a poor performance and really flat atmosphere.

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First gig I think was New Found Glory at Barrowlands. I loved every minute of it.

Best gig - I have a few. I very rarely come out of a gig thinking 'WOW!' Even my favourite bands I seem to build up in my mind to the point where I'm inevitably a little disapointed no matter how well they play. A truly great gig needs to be a mixture of music and atmosphere and circumstance. The one time this has been just right was a small French dub band called Doei - everything about it was fantastic. First of all, the setting was a clandestine bar on the outskirts of an alpine village, basically in someone's converted garage, took ages to find. Crowd was small enough to be intimate, large enough to create an atmosphere. The band themselves were just brilliant. They had a zoned-out hippy sitar player on a rug in the middle of the stage who didn't open his eyes the whole 2 hour set, the drummer must have been about 12 but still to this day one of the most talented drummers i've ever witnessed and their DJ/sampler dude was just about the happiest looking muthafucka on the planet who seemed to be so into what he was doing it just rubbed off on everyone in the room. Beer-soaked dreadlocks hitting your face every 5 seconds, the nuttiest of nutty skunk aromas, Bass that rattled your bones, a good mixture of non dub-loving friends and jah-blessing crusty friends... it all added up for a truly memorable night.

Worst - The one that springs to mind is Jeans team at the tunnels. I was just stood there with about 5 other people feeling too awkward to go to the bar/dance/move at all. Nothing to do with the music, they were fucking excellent, there was just nae cunt there and you were left thinking how great it would have been if there was a decent audience, which makes it worse than any other busy gig with shitty music in my opinion.

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The first ever gig you ever attended. - Aside from shite school bands, there was the Dead Pets, Write Offs and Homebrew in Thirsk Town Hall. Was Dead Pets 1st ever gig in fact I think

The best ever gig you ever attended. - No question...Nirvana at Wulfrun Hall in Wolverhampton back in 1991, was only a nipper but had been my favourite band since Bleach and I was too young to go see them at The Dutchess in Leeds in 89.

Seeing Jimmy Eat World play twice in a day at the Leeds Fest in 2007 (I think) was pretty awesome too.

The worst ever gig you ever attended. - Aside from small local bands, has to be when my girlfriend dragged me to see either The Airbourne Toxic Event or Glasvegas. Both horrible, horrible gigs by boring boring bands. Oh...and Vampire Weekend. Gads.

The first ever gig you ever played. - My 1st band put our own show on in a local community centre. Played Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana covers and all our mates pretended it was ace.

The best ever gig you ever played. - The last night of my first ever tour, played to a heaving Arches in Barnsley and everything just went right. Sound was spot on, everyone was dancing, the beers were flowing and we sold out of shirts.

The worst ever gig you ever played. - Played a hardcore all-dayer at Joseph's Well in Leeds, which would have been awesome had we been a hardcore band. Got bottled, abused, lit fags flicked at us and all before we finished the 1st song. Not pleasant....

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First gig ever attended A wee gig as part of Haddfest in the bonnie confines of the railway hotel in Haddington. About 2003 or something and my brothers band The Schitzophonics were playing.

Best gig ever attended Last year as part of the Fringe, Field Music played Sneaky Petes. On the very first hit of a drum the snare bust what was to be the first of two times. They just put the music back on, the bassist popped down to have a chat, got sorted then kicked straight back in. They were unbelievable.

Worst gig ever attended RHCP at Hampden for the Stadium Arcadium tour. Fir some reason everyone else thought they were fucking awesome. Unfortunately, my friend and I knew different. They sucked.

First gig played Some random shitty school charity bollocks.

Best gig ever played Booking out Cellar 35 for the last gig by HalfJack. Got RockAustin to get us a brass section together. Possibly not musically the best gig ever but fun as fuck.

Worst gig ever played Solo piano thing at drummonds a few years ago. Pretty quiet night, only chappie playing pop, and I was on a piano so obviously wasn't as good as the guy playing Sweet Home Chicago. Just reminded of the fact I hate playing alone. A bands the way to be.

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The first ever gig you ever attended. - Aside from shite school bands, there was the Dead Pets, Write Offs and Homebrew in Thirsk Town Hall. Was Dead Pets 1st ever gig in fact I think

What an amazing first gig to see, I used to love all of those bands!

Was really fucking great! They all had interchangable members back then, Aaron, Katy and Bob from Write Offs joined then quit Dead Pets. And then Jimbo was in Freaks Union, and the guys from Homebrew were in Joe 90 and on and on it went. All really good mates, but Sweeny Todd now in US doing stuff with the guys from Dropkick Murpheys I think. We used to gig with them all the time and was just really happy times!

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The first ever gig you ever attended.

Essentially, Jimmy Nail at the AECC with my mum and older sister. I think this was in 1994 or 1995. The few things I remember from the show include falling asleep during Jimmy's set, and a Canadian support band called The Cock's Crow, which amused me as a 14/15 year old. In fact, it still amuses me now, and I'm fucking ancient.

The best ever gig you ever attended.

Tough question, this. Seeing Josh T. Pearson at Homegame this year has been a massive musical highlight for me. This guy is so fucking important, and he really hit home to me that the vast majority of music in the world just pales in comparison to his. But that's not an individual gig, so I'm not counting that one.

Thus, my answer is seeing The Twilight Sad at The Tunnels in June 2007. I thought The Twilight Sad were just majestic. Nobody had heard much of the band at this point, and only about 100 people were there on a Wednesday night; but having seen them about eight or nine times since that show, I don't think they've ever topped that gig. Nor have they played such ideal surroundings. What a fucking stoater.

The worst ever gig you ever attended.

Belle & Sebastian at The Music Hall circa 2006. They were so bad that I became angry. They put fuck all into the show and looked as if they were going through the motions. I didn't even pay for the ticket and I still got angry. I will never get those two hours of my life back, and I am seriously fucking bitter about it.

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The first ever gig you ever attended Louise at the Capitol when I was 11. A week later I saw The Seahorses at Music Hall which is slightly more credible and I enjoyed a lot more.

The best ever gig you ever attended. I usually prefer seeing bands in smaller venues but my two favourite gigs were both Paul McCartney (2010) and Bruce Springsteen (2009) at Hampden. Both just perfect days, amazing sets.

The worst ever gig you ever attended. Tons of terrible local shows including a couple I've put on myself. However, I think Arctic Monkeys at AECC and The View at Lemon Tree where equally terrible due to the ammount of absolute morons in attendence.

The first ever gig you ever played I organised a gig in a working man's club in Hull, December 2002. Was told halfway through that it was over 18s only and I had to ask everyone underage to leave (difficult seeing as I'd just turned 17), a lot of old people were angry that the bingo had been cancelled. Anyway, my first band opened the night and I was so nervous my hand was shaking. We did two cover versions including a RHCP cover. I was on vocals and didnt learn the words and pretty much got booed off.

The best ever gig you ever played. I played in a pop punk band some off here may remember called The No Pints. We were quite terrible - decent songs I reckon but couldnt' play them very well. However, we did a mini-tour and played in a cellar in Goole (2004) with The Dangerfields, Shuriken and The Dregs and were actually amazing!

I've played better gigs performance wise with Escape to Victory, but in terms of atmosphere, playing Bannermans in Edinburgh (April 2009) was amazing.

Notable mention for Elgin St Giles Hall with The Planeteers too - people were carrying me and Bobby on their shoulders while we were playing, it was a BYOB affair with lots of drunken underagers but great fun.

The worst ever gig you ever played Played in Tayport two days after the mentioned gig in Goole, got drunk on white cider, heckled the covers band on before us, shouted abuse at the rest of my band, shouted abuse at everyone in the audience then caused trouble outside the venue. Not my proudest moment.

Also put on a gig in Drummonds in 2005, started drinking at about 10am, could hardly do the door to count the door money and had to play with The Planeteers, I remember I couldn't even see my guitar to play it and abandoned it during the set to do vocals. I spoke a lot of rubbish on stage too. In hindsight, it probably didnt sound too different from our usual gigs. It was with Shotgun Love Affair and At Long Last. I apologise to those two bands and everyone that had to witness that one.

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Was really fucking great! They all had interchangable members back then, Aaron, Katy and Bob from Write Offs joined then quit Dead Pets. And then Jimbo was in Freaks Union, and the guys from Homebrew were in Joe 90 and on and on it went. All really good mates, but Sweeny Todd now in US doing stuff with the guys from Dropkick Murpheys I think. We used to gig with them all the time and was just really happy times!

What band was you in back then? I used to go a lot of punk gigs in Hull so knew a lot of the Yorkshire punk bands around at that time.

Yeah Sweeney is in an oi band with the old guitarist from Dropkicks, forgot their name...

I liked the band Aaron and Katy did later on called Bosseye, had a bit of a rap meets ska thing going on, Aaron's hip-hop thing as Aaron Beat Up was quite good too.

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First Gig: The first 'proper' gig was The Senseless Things at the Black Lion, Northampton early in 1989. I think I was about the only person there who was younger than the band. A lot of old punks in attendance. I did see Chas and Dave and Dexy's Midnight Runners at a recording of Crackerjack that our school went to, sometime in the early 80s. I don't think that counts though. It was during the Stu 'I could crush a grape' Francis era.

Best Gig: I don't have a real favourite but a few outstanding ones were PJ Harvey, Roadmenders, Northampton 1992; Huggy Bear playing at a launderette in Lubbock, Texas in 1993; Fugazi, Manchester Academy 1994; the Maher Shalal Hash Baz/ Tenniscoats/ Bill Wells show at the Lemon Tree in 2006; stumbling across a show by Teacups in Auckland, NZ in 2008 and them pretty much becoming my favourite band; David Thomas Broughton at the Huw Scott Hall, Anstruther, at the Fence Homegame in 2009.

Worst Gig: I've seen lots of bands I wasn't that keen on, and a few bands I like being a bit disappointing for one reason or another. The Fall only doing 20 minutes at the Lemon Tree a couple of years ago was quite poor, although it was a good 20 minutes.

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What band was you in back then? I used to go a lot of punk gigs in Hull so knew a lot of the Yorkshire punk bands around at that time.

Yeah Sweeney is in an oi band with the old guitarist from Dropkicks, forgot their name...

I liked the band Aaron and Katy did later on called Bosseye, had a bit of a rap meets ska thing going on, Aaron's hip-hop thing as Aaron Beat Up was quite good too.

Ah mate, sounds like we've probably been to a lot of the same shows then! I was in a band called Glorybox, which was a bit different to the punk/ska scene cos we were very early AFI/Alkaline Trio-eque but everyone in those days just went to each other's shows and hung out. Also played with Katy in a riot grrl type band called The Tidy Housewives, and we were mind blowingly pish!

I remember Bosseye very well! Used to know Kristian and Becky really well and of course Jamie who played bass (and was married to Katy) and Rob on guitar who was Jamie's brother. Such an incestuous scene round there. Jamie's over in the states now too, but can be found online as Mr Bear doing a lot of dubby, Mr Bungle type stuff.

Aaron started singing in a band called Mafia Vs Ninja, then also Deadbeat At Dawn who are both great. My hometown Thirsk really was a hotspot for punk rock! Aaron Beat Up still going strong too as far as I'm aware....

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The worst ever gig you ever played. - Loads, but the standout was an Ascension gig at the Tunnels with Mind My Weapon at the height of our online 'japery'. I couldn't really be arsed with the gig and went to the pub to watch the Milan derby and enjoy a couple of pints of Guinness. This rapidly became four, six, eight, possibly more, followed by half a bottle of OVD. I don't actually remember playing that night, only waking up the morning after in a pool of black stouty sick. It was bound to have been horrid.

Oh i remember that night!! The whole, "we're going to blow you off stage" threats between both bands, good times!!!

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