My Life in Concert.com

Welcome to the My Life in Concert podcast! Join me, your host Various Artists, on my musical time travel as I look back on (almost) every live gig I have seen from 1975 to the present. This podcast series started life as a blog on Salon.com’s late, great OpenSalon.com in 2010. It gained a regular readership there until OS closed in 2015, and is now being resurrected as a podcast in February 2020. I’ve been a lifelong tunehead and fan of many genres with a particular passion for live shows, big and small. And while I’ll be discussing the music played, the podcast won’t simply be a critique of the performance.People recall a gig’s small moments that can end up defining the event in one’s mental hard drive sometimes more than the tunes: what happened before and after; things seen and heard; technical malfunctions, musicians passing out on stage, etc. Therefore, the podcast is about the “concert-going experience” rather than simply being a description of the performance: a mixture of concert review, music history, memoir, and philosophical musing. While my main musical bases in the 70s were glam in the earlier part of the decade and punk in the latter half, my tastes have exploded through the years. The podcast will go on to encompass live concerts in many genres: r&b, jazz, folk, pop, electronic, hip-hop, country & Americana, pop, blues, reggae, and more.I grew up in and have returned to London, Ontario, Canada (with a 20-year stop in Ottawa). While I will be remembering shows from a variety of locations including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Detroit, NYC, and more, many of the early episodes will focus on concerts that took place in the Forest City from the 70s through the 90s … and now again in recent years (it will be Ottawa-heavy in-between.) There will be notable local visits by Elvis Costello, The Smiths, Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithfull, Radiohead, Joe Jackson, Steve Earle, k.d. lang, Gang of Four, and more. I’ll also have special episodes devoted to the local and regional live bands I saw regularly from the late 70s through early 90s. Along the way I’ll be dropping back into dearly departed local live venues including Fryfogle’s, the Cedar Lounge, the London Arena, the London Gardens, Bullwinkle’s, Wonderland Gardens, and the Embassy along with ongoing stalwarts like Centennial Hall and Call the Office. Outside of London, I’ll also be remembering great nights at long-gone venues such as NYC’s Danceteria, Toronto’s CNE Stadium, and Ottawa’s Barrymore’s.While London was my starting base, I’ll also be looking back on shows in Canadian and U.S. cities where I saw Neil Young, The Clash, Lou Reed, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Janelle Monae, Sonic Youth, The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Ornette Coleman, Laura Nyro, Bootsy Collins (who head-butted me), The Jam, Paul McCartney, the Buzzcocks, Al Green, and plenty more. You can also check out the mylifeinconcert.com blog for written entries, original ticket scans, and related visual and audio; VATV My Life in Concert on YouTube for live clips; and follow us on Facebook. (Instagram coming soon!)Come out and join me at the show!

Podcasting since 2020 • 36 episodes

My Life in Concert.com

Latest Episodes

(EP 34, no.027) Siouxsie & the Banshees with Images In Vogue: Cities In Dust, The International Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Tuesday July 10, 1984 with Phil Robinson

After years of devoted fandom, I finally get to see the one and only Siouxsie Sioux and her plucky Banshees in a cavernous—but wonderfully air conditioned—venue on Toronto’s outskirts. I’d been following Ms. Sioux since the early da...

June 22, 2024 • 1:31:52

(EP 33, no.026) UB40: So Here I Am, Centennial Hall, London, Ontario, March 7, 1984 & Alumni Hall, UWO, London, Ontario, March 14, 1985 with Phil Robinson & Skye Sylvain

Birmingham UK’s reggae outfit UB40 made two trips to London, Ontario, in the mid-80s, playing to a packed and joyous Centennial Hall on March 7, 1984, and then returning a year later almost to the week, to pack out Alumni Hall on the Western Un...

March 24, 2024 • Season 1 • Episode 33 • 1:54:49

(EP 32, no.015.5) The Stray Cats: Rock This Town, Alumni Hall, UWO, London, Ontario, Canada, Saturday March 26, 1983 and Dr. Rockits, Wednesday, October 5, 1988 (also London) with Phil, Noelle, and Marc

The Stray Cats arrived to rock London, Ontario in 1983 at the peak of their fame.With this episode, I’ve once again jumped backwards in my story, just not as far back as that cabaret show I saw with my parents in the UK in 1977 th...

December 29, 2023 • 1:23:45

(EP 31, no.1.5) Mum’s the Word!—In Town Tonight—In the City—UK ’77: My Mother’s Life in Music + a Portsmouth Cabaret with Susan Maughan, Tessie O’Shea, Pam Ayers, & more + Our UK Trip Amid Punk Rock Mania, August 1977

With this episode, the series jumps back in time to a Cabaret show I saw in Portsmouth, UK, in August 1977 with my parents when I was 14. The cabaret took place between my first (

October 08, 2023 • Season 1 • Episode 31 • 1:37:04

(EP30, nos.23&24) The Circle Jerks/Psychic TV, The Reggae Lounge, Wednesday, November 16/Danceteria, Thursday November 17, both in New York City, USA, 1983: Back Against the Wall with Discopravity

My final 1983 gig-going-entry recaps a couple of shows I took in during a crazy/nuts four-day trip to NYC. While I will be discussing the performances by hardcore titans The Circle Jerks and post-Throbbing Gristle offshoot Ps...

March 28, 2023 • 1:36:02

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