My Life in Concert.com
Episodes
36 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...
(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...
(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...
(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 (
(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...
(EP 29b, no.22b) David Bowie with Rough Trade: Let’s Dance, CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday September 3, 1983
This is the big one! THE ultimate! The single most anticipated show I ever attended, when I—along with my co-hort Miss B—and 60,000 other fans, all of whom who were going Absolutely Freakin’ Bananas, moseyed on down to a packed CNE Exhibition S...
(EP 29a, no.22a) Changes: Bowie, The ‘70s, and Me (A Prelude to EP29B, Let’s Dance: Bowie @ the CNE in ’83)
David Bowie’s Labour Day Weekend concert in 1983 at Toronto’s CNE Stadium remains the most anticipated and exciting show I’ve ever attended. He was on his global Serious Moonlight tour for his worldwide smash hit album, Let’s Dance, wi...
(EP28, no.21) Marianne Faithfull: Dangerous Acquaintances, Fryfogle’s, London, Ontario, Canada, August 15, 1983
Ten days after the final Police Picnic in Toronto at the massiv...
(EP 27, no.19) Police Picnic ’83 featuring The Police, Peter Tosh, James Brown, King Sunny Adé, Blue Peter, and The Fixx: Walking on the Moon CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Friday August 5, 1983
It’s the third and final Police Picnic on August 5, 1983, once again at CNE stadium as well as the 4th and final consecutive summer of attending a huge, open air festival. This time around the fest featured James Brown, Peter Tosh,...
(EP 26, no.18) John Cale: I Keep A Close Watch, Fryfogle’s, London, Ontario, Canada, Monday June 13, 1983
The Velvet Underground’s John Cale comes to Fryfogle’s and plays an intense, riveting solo set in June 1983. It was particularly extraordinary for me that I finally got to see him at this point in time, not only because I was way d...
(EP 25, no.17) Flipper: Fucked Up Once Again, Fryfogle’s, London, Ontario, Canada, Monday May 30, 1983
Flipper, San Francisco’s sludge rock contrarian refuseniks, come to town one month after that Beat/R.E.M. sho...
(EP 24, no. 16) The (English) Beat with R.E.M.: End of the Party, Alumni Hall, UWO, London, Ontario, Canada, Tuesday April 12, 1983
This concert crystalizes a moment in time, representing a changing of the guards in the alternative music world, when The Beat—or The English Beat as they were called on this side of the pond—come to Alumni Hall in London, Ontario with a new...
(EP 23, no. 51) Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos: Connection, Fox Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, USA, Thursday December 8, 1988
Welcome to my first anniversary episode, celebrating the second anniversary of the mylifeinconcert.com podcast (I didn’t do one the first year so I’ll be doing two this year to make up for that). For these annivers...
(EP 22, no. 205) Caribou: Suddenly, London Music Hall, London, Ontario, Canada, Saturday November 20, 2021
In February 2020, Caribou returned with his first new album after an absence of six years. It was released to universal critical acclaim and commercial success, and an extensive world tour was planned. And then …. Su...
(EP 21, no. 15) The Gang of Four with The Hoi Polloi: I Found That Essence Rare, Wonderland Gardens, London, Ontario, Canada, Saturday March 5, 1983
Leeds’ furious and funky post-punk innovators The Gang of Four make an indelible, unforgettable visit to London, Ontario’s Wonderland Gardens, four months after
(EP 20, no. 14) Iggy Pop with Nash the Slash: Gimme Danger, Wonderland Gardens, London, Ontario, Canada, Wednesday October 27, 1982
Three weeks after the Joe Jackson concert, Iggy Pop comes to town with Toronto’s bandaged electronic mummy, Nash the Slash, in tow. I first an...
(EP 19, no. 13) Joe Jackson: Night & Day, Alumni Hall, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, Monday October 4, 1982
One month after The Clash—and from one Joe to another—I take in a second, very different five-star, three-hour show from Joe J...
(EP 18, no.12) The Clash with Black Uhuru: Clash City Rockers, CNE Grandstand, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Sunday September 5, 1982
It was one of the best and most exciting concerts I have ever seen. After five years of obsessing over my favourite band in the world, I finally get to see The Clash as part of a huge, passionate, and excited audience at the ...
(EP 17, no.11) Police Picnic ’82 with The Police, Talking Heads, The (English) Beat, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, A Flock of Seagulls, & The Spoons: What A Day That Was, CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Friday August 13, 1982
It was Friday the 13th in more ways than one. Dear Listeners and Readers: Welcome to THE WORST CONCERT EXPERIENCE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE! One poster for the show read “…make this your lucky night.” Yeah, righ...
(EP 16, no.10) Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) with Mettle: Electricity, Centennial Hall, London, Ontario, Canada, Tuesday March 9, 1982
Electropop comes to London, Ontario on a freezing March evening with Liverpool’s Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, or as they are more simply known, OMD. Their set may have been egregiously delayed amid a ...
(EP 015, no.9) Police Picnic ‘81 with The Police, The Specials, Iggy Pop, Killing Joke, The Go-Go’s, Nash the Slash, John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett, The Payola$, Oingo Boingo, and the David Bendeth Band: The Boiler, The Grove, Oakville, Ontario, Canada
My next podcast jumps ahead 17 months (as I have already covered The Ramones and
(EP 14, no.6) The Boomtown Rats with B.B. Gabor: The Fine Art of Surfacing, London Gardens, London, Ontario, Canada, Wednesday March 19, 1980 + A Meditation on the Amorphous Nature of Memory & Why the Present Is Always in the Past
Dublin’s Boomtown Rats surfaced at the London Gardens in March of 1980: my first live show of the new decade. They had been an obsession of mine over the previous 2.5 years since I had picked up their debut 45, the charging a...
(EP 13, no.5) NFG’s Second Annual Halloween Bash with The Regulators and Sinners: What’s In The City, Polish Hall, London, Ontario, Canada, Friday November 2, 1979
My last live show of the 1970s was an even smaller and more intimate gig than The Jam’s Toronto concert seven ...
(EP 12, no.4) The Jam w/The Dwight Twilley Band: This Is the Modern World, Rex Danforth Theatre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Tuesday April 10, 1979
This was a seriously thrilling gig from UK Mod-Punks The Jam, six months after the Elvis Costello show in November 1978 (
(EP 11, no.20a) You Won’t See Me: 20 Acts I Wish I’d Seen (1920s-1980) featuring Billie Holiday, The Sex Pistols, Fela Kuti, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, and more.
Since this was Covid Summer of 2020—The Summer Without Live Music—I have paused my story and am presenting the second of two podcast episodes devoted to performances that were missed rather than remembering those I attended.In ...