I launched the mylifeinconcert.com podcast on February 7, 2020, in tandem with re-launching the blog which I had started over on OpenSalon.com in 2010.
In that time, there have been over 12,000 downloads and listens from folks across the world.
I appreciate all my listeners, both new and returning. As listenership has increased, I have been getting more and wonderful feedback from those tuning in. One of the very best parts of doing this podcast series has been (and is) the many wonderful new people I have been getting to know and connecting with—and sometimes re-connecting with.
As my life is pretty busy these days with work while also working on another educational degree, I haven’t been able to publish episodes as frequently as I would like (in a perfect world, I’d be putting out a few a month … calling all sponsors and investors!!!) and that will probably continue in 2023 but rest assured, lots more is coming.
Owing to general busyness for now, I haven’t had much time for crunching podcast numbers and or analyzing stats from this past year, so I will simply throw in these quick and dirty observations:
- The USA, Canada, Germany, Mexico, and the UK are my Top 5 Countries for listeners.
- Cities are more difficult to tally as greater urban areas are captured separately with my metrics, but it looks like Toronto/GTHA, Canada remains the city/urban area with my most listeners. My hometown of London, Ontario is also way up there (Hello London, and Thanks!) along with Frankfurt, Germany (a big wave to my particularly dedicated Frankfurt listeners); Santiago, Chile; São Paulo, Brazil; London, UK; and Mexico City, Mexico. New York and LA are also starting to pick up.
- My most popular 2023 episode was EP 23, Concert no. 51, Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos: Connection, Fox Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, USA, Thursday December 8, 1988.
- And the Top Five Podcasts most-listened to podcasts from the last three years are:
- EPISODE 001 (Concert no.000) Ticket to Ride: An Introduction to My Life in Concert.com
- EPISODE 004 (Concert no.076) Flower: Lollapalooza ’92 w/Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, & Lush, Molson Park, Barrie, Ontario, Canada Wed Aug 5, 1992
- EPISODE 002 (Concert no.001) The Thrill of It All: Roxy Music with Devotion, London Arena, London, Ontario, Canada, February 8, 1975
- EPISODE 017 (Concert no.011) What A Day That Was: Police Picnic ’82 with The Police, Talking Heads, The (English) Beat, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, A Flock of Seagulls, & The Spoons, CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Friday August 13, 1982
- EPISODE 015 (Concert no.009) The Boiler: 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, August 23, 1981
I originally launched the written blog on OpenSalon.com on June 3, 2010, and celebrate every year on that date with my own mock-up of a favourite album cover: it was Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain for 2022.
I had intended on doing a special EP for each podcast anniversary, where I would jump into the series’ future and look at a special gig from further down the line.
I did do so last year, looking back on that unforgettable show by Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos at the then-recently—and beautifully—refurbished Fox Theatre in Detroit, on December 8, 1988 (EP 23, Concert no. 51). As mentioned above, it became my most popular entry released last year.
However, right now it’s hard enough for me to find time for the main podcast series, so I am going to put that idea on the backburner for now but will probably return to it next year.
Special Thanks go out to my guests (especially regular guest Special Guests/Phil Robinson) who have appeared and will be appearing in the podcasts. I so appreciate your involvement and what your memories and observations bring to the podcast.
Extra Special Thanks to Cublet for doing all the tech, participating in interviews, and, well, Everything! Xoxo
For those of you who have been listening and enjoying, please spread the word about mylifeinconcert.com. Tell your tunehead friends! Tell your stoner Aunt Susan! Tell your rambling Uncle Ron with that rare original stereo pressing of The Beatles’ Please Please Me LP. Tell the live music junkies in your life! Tell the lady who puts the little plastic robins on the Christmas cakes!
JUST TELL THEM!
In the meantime, stick around as there will be podcasts this year looking back on shows in New York City, Toronto, and here in the Forest City by David Bowie, Psychic TV, The Circle Jerks, UB40, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Brue Cockburn, the London, Ontario punk rock scene 1977-1985, and more.
See you at the next show. Cheers!
Next On Stage –> 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 Stadium on the Sunday night of a swelting Labour Day weekend in 1983, for DAVID BOWIE.
He was on global his Serious Moonlight tour for his worldwide smash hit album, Let’s Dance, with the great ROUGH TRADE opening the show and warming up the troops.
On the exact same weekend a year earlier I had seen The Clash. In the podcast for that show, I discuss how seeing them made for the most-anticipated gig I had attended up until that time.
Well, this David Bowie concert one year later—at the same venue but utilizing the full stadium—left that prior show’s sense of anticipation in the dust as I finally got to see the performer who had long occupied the No. 1 spot on my “Must See” list.
Bowie and his ‘70s output made a seismic and enduring impact on my life. In this episode, I not only look back at this CNE show on that gorgeous Labour Day weekend in 1983—ending one of the most memorable summers of my young life with an unforgettable climax—but also at 1970s themselves, especially the rock music and how it intertwined socio-culturally throughout the decade as marginalized communities broke through and asserted themselves; Bowie’s influence on the ‘70s; and his seismic impact on me and many other outsiders during this era.
I also take an in-depth analysis and journey through his entire recording career, from 1964’s “Liza Jane” through 1983’s Let’s Dance. (I discuss all this in 022A, Changes: Bowie, The ‘70s, & Me)
Also: the great Rough Trade, another act I love and who also made an impact on me in the 70s and 80s, was the opening act, and I will be talking about them as well.
Tune in next time for life-changing radio oddities, bamboo steamers among the Bowie masses, and the most exciting show of my life.
22. (EP 28) Let’s Dance: David Bowie with Rough Trade, CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday September 3, 1983
© 2023 Various Artists
