1. Kentish Town Forum, London, September/ October 1996
Pre gig. Whilst in the queue they walked nonchalantly through the stage door
in a gesture that was entirely missed by almost everyone as no one knew who
they were, although, in the strictest sense of the word this can't be classified
as a genuine meeting. I just looked at them and smiled in a kind of I Know Who
You Are And You're Famous, (sort of), type way after having seen them a week
or two before.
2. De Montfort Hall, Leicester, October 1996
They were supporting the Manics who I like just a bit too and me, Alice and
Liz, were waiting around at the back of the building after successfully convincing
the security that everyone had fucked off and that they could go home, for the
Manics just so we could stutter at them and look really stupid in a way that
can't be explained adequately to anyone who doesn't love them on a similarly,
entirely over the top, ridiculous considering we don't know them, manner and
spend all of their seventeen year old days dreaming about meeting them and having
a conversation with any one of Cod's four guises, except in this instance there
were three.
Whatever.
Anyway, John, Euros and Euros R all came out really pissed. I don't know where
Megan and Richard were. And my friends asked them for their autographs. I didn't
because I was overcome with fear and displayed the type of self restraint that
I rarely show now.
And then regretted it. A lot.
But Euros offered us all a buy of the boiled sweet variety, complete with square
plastic wrapper around the top and we all said thankyou very much and they stumbled
off, I gave mine to Alice as it had gelatine in it, then we made fools of ourselves
in front of Messrs. Wire, Bradfield and Moore.
3. In Bristol at The Fleece, Halloween, 1996
I can be sure of this date as I was wearing a set of luminous teeth until I
bit them in half.
Part a) Pre gig. Me and my trusty cohort Richard, otherwise known as my gigging
buddy, misread the ticket. We thought, somehow, it said 'doors 7.30'. It infact
said 9.30 as we discovered when we got to Bristol two hours early, leaving time
to find the place as neither of us knew Bristol well. The Fleece wasn't open.
The pub next door was, so we went in and drank coke and played pool three times,
where I won twice, an amazing feat considering Rich plays weekly, and generally
got very bored and cursed our stupidity and 'keener' style natures towards all
things music that we like. Gradually, after about three hours, more people came
into the pub and the place became fairly full and then it happened. Gorky's
walked through the door
mingled with their Welsh speaking friends and roadies and the pub was heaving.
They hadn't had their tea as their van had broke down which was why they were
all so late so they ordered various things accompanied with the standard British
limp salad of ice berg, a slice of cucumber, a quarter of a tomato and a bit
of cress, and chips and looked around for an empty table, but there were none.
So we said they could sit at our table and they said "och thankyou very much"
in the way that polite people do and ate their dinner and talked in Welsh most
of the time so we didn't understand it, but I chipped in with a feeble thankyou
for the lolly Euros and he didn't know what the hell I was talking about ("We'd
had a few that night" was offered in explanation) and we cleared off after finishing
our drinks because we didn't like to impose.
part b) Pre gig, but inside the venue. On going into the toilet I saw Megan
washing her hands and she smiled, WITH RECOGNITION, at me, a feat not all that
remarkable considering we had just been sat next to each other.
part c) Post gig. Rich and I were waiting on a lift from my lovely friend George
who felt guilty about not being able to come so promised to pick us up to make
up for it in a typically warped George kind of way so we naturally took her
up on the offer, my mum having point blank refused earlier. George didn't finish
work until 11.45 so we had time to kill as the gig ended at eleven. Everyone
filed out of the room leaving about 20 people, most of whom knew, or were involved
with, various members of the band, and us. Right, I thought, I shan't let another
opportunity to get their autographs slip through my fingers, so after about
twenty minutes of hiding in a corner thinking I Can't Possibly I went and asked
Euros and he said yeah, yeh of course and obliged and then offered to take me
backstage and get the rest of the band to sign it too so I followed him. And
then said incident with the apple occurred. And then all the rest of them signed
my issue of NME which happened to be opened on a GZM interview and I was very
happy. Richard (James, not my friend) asked me if I liked Everret True's style
of writing and said he did And I said I didn't think I'd read anything by him
before. And then felt stupid because I had and I do and I didn't know why I
had just lied. And later when we were waiting by the door looking out for Georgio
John was trying to put his trombone away only he couldn't get it undone so he
asked Rich to hold one end of it and pulled and they both went very red in the
face with the effort and it took ages, and I offered the use of my lipsalve
as a form of lubricant and John said no and I felt stupid and then we left because
George had arrived but it was ok because I was on a high still because I'd got
all of their autographs and had an apple and spoken to Trisha and Steve from
Broadcast for most of the night who were extremely lovely and helped them carry
their guitars out to their transit van in the rain after they'd finished playing.
4. I think I need to start abbreviating these as this is getting incredibly
long, probably tedious for you reading if you haven't given up, painful to my
arms, and coffee cups are beginning to fall on the floor as I have no more table
space left. I don't really have much more to say, except for two occasions.
All the other times I have seen Gorky's, except for last time, I have seen them
before hand and Euros has always acknowledged my presence and said hello and
asked how I was in a very touching manner. When this happened at the Bierkeller
I was most chuffed as I hadn't seen them in a while and he recognised me and
asked how I was before I'd said anything at all. Actually, I lie. I did see
three out of five of Gorky's at Dingwalls but Euros was not amongst them and
he's the only one who's ever talked to me really.
Another time I saw Euros and Megan at a Super Furry Animals gig in the audience
and couldn't convince the people I was with that it was them, but anyway, I
didn't get a chance to say hello (which would have been roughly all I would
have said as it's not like I exactly know them) as they were with their friends
(or rather Euros had his tongue down his ones throat) and I was with mine, so
we beat a hasty retreat.
5. Ok, next occasion proper. I went to see Gorky's at the Astoria- the bill
having the added advantages of Broadcast (Yeay. Want to see them now aswell)
and Mogwai. I bumped into Euros in the audience for Pavement, who I failed to
mention were headlining as I don't like them, when me and Rich were pushing
our way out after tiring of moshing for the sake of it. I then made a complete
tit of myself. We exchanged the usual hellos and I asked if Euros Rowlands was
related to Rheinalt H. Rowlands. Doh. (I'd just like to point out this was because
Rheinalt appears In the credits on Bwyd Time and not purely because he comes
form Wales and they share the same surname)
Euros laughed and said "och no no no" and then laughed again and the crowd moved
around us and we were gone. I then got home the next day and actually bothered
to read the back of "Buckowski" and found "the mythological Rheinalt H. Rowlands..."
and felt very stupid indeed.
6. And yes this really is the last one, I was at a Melys gig down the road from
me, (because I'm all grown up now and have moved out of home and live right
in the centre of Bristol), with my friend Tasha and ALL of Gorky's walked through
the door and whilst I was busy telling the ignorant Miss. Alden the identities
of the new arrivals and thinking How Sweet, They Genuinely Are Friends And Go
Out Together As A Group, Euros smiled at me and nodded and I was most pleased.
I think Tasha may describe it more as a kind of smugness, but either way I was
very happy. Easily impressed you see. And then after Melys had played a stonking
set and we were coming down the stairs running from the dreadful noise that
is Campag Velocet I bumped into Euros and we exchanged slaggings about the aforementioned
band and I asked when Gorky's were next on tour and he said hang on a minute
and gave me a piece of yellow post- it paper that I photocopied just so you
can see how sad I am~that is stuck in pride of place on my cupboard door next
to a Neon Space Dog set list seeing as I can't get a Gorky's one.
So, there you go- a little insight into my pathetic Gorky's groupie lifestyle,
only I've just remembered that groupies are meant to sleep with the band, so
I take it back. I'm not even that.
