Here’s for all today’s and tomorrow’s anniversary parties. (Graphic by VA)
Whoopsy-daisy and Egad!—I missed my blog’s 14th Happy Birthday!
Well isn’t that a bowl of fuckness.
Unfortunately, yours Various came down with a very, very nasty bug right after the brilliant Damned show at the Music Hall in Toronto, which knocked me on my ass for some time. In focusing on feeling like crap-on-toast, I missed marking my 14th year of blogging, on June 3rd.
That is the date when I first hit “Publish” back when I started on the late, great OpenSalon.com. And here I am over on my own site marking Year 14.
It’s still a thrill when I hit that “Publish” button on the blog or with a podcast these many years later. My passion remains undimmed even if I wish I could have more time for it.
Owing to that, I have restructured/contracted/compacted my series of planned episodes, with future EPs tending more toward accumulating all of an artist’s shows I’ve seen in to a single episode EPs. And there will be more short-bite compilation EPs as well.
If I don’t do this, I will never finish the series + I am also eager to talk about some later, incredible gigs as well.
A heartfelt Thank You to everyone who has been tuning into the podcast series and taking the time to read the blog entries. Thanks for joining me on this ride of vintage concert-going and hope you’re enjoying it as much as I have been.
If only we could have a Real Time Machine.
In lieu of that, mylifeinconcert.com is your next best bet.
Extra special thanks to my podcast guests including regular Phil Robinson, my Mum, Cublet, Noelle, Skye Sylvain, Colin, Marc Hodgkinson, and Rob.
Thanks to producer Robert Margouleff, writer Bob Klanac, and filmmaker Kinga Syrek for your My Life In Conversation appearances.
My audience is global and I appreciate all my listeners, and am sometimes really blown away by having people tune in from places I would never have expected. However, an extra thanks goes out to the many from London, Ontario and Toronto areas who are particularly tuning in.
And Frankfurt, Germany! There’s a pile of you there: thanks peeps!
I’m continuing my tradition of marking each anniversary by “personalizing” some of my favourite album/covers. This year is the ultimate, with my salute to my Favourite Album of All Time: The Velvet Underground and Nico, from 1967.
Luckily, I had finished most of the graphic early on.
As I continue my series, I’ll be your mirror from the past, reflecting what we all were. And are.
And stay tuned for some new and exciting future events.
And if you see me around, hit me up for a biz card. Swag coming soon.
Let’s meet up at the next concert. See you then and see you there.
Love and rhubarb: yours Various.
… OH, AND ON THAT VELVETS NOTE …
I have links to my two Spotify playlists saluting the album: one all of alternate takes, the other all covers: VA’S ALTERNATIVE THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO and VA’S THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO UNDER COVER.
I’ll also be looking back on seeing Lou Reed twice in 1989 and in 1992 down the line in the series.
I have written about seeing the Velvet Underground’s John Cale, playing a very intimate show here in London at Fryfogles’ in 1983. I was lucky enough to get to sit on the stage directly in front of him as he played the set!
Here are all of my previous anniversary covers and their original inspiration:
One Year Anniversary … Crivens!
Original Album: Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977)
I went with the North American version of the cover as that is the one I own and played a 1,000 times. I had yet to start up the stand-alone blog so it was a strictly OpenSalon.com-based anniversary. Never Mind the Bollocks also appears on my Top 15 LPs list.
It Takes Two: My Second Anniversary
Original Album: The Beatles’ A Hard Days Night (1964)
I added my pen name to this one. Nice to see the back of the head of our much-missed cat, Thurston.
Three Is A Magic Number: My Third Anniversary
Original Album: Talking Heads’ Fear of Music (1979)
I also wrote about the Heads playing possibly the best set I have ever seen at Heatwave in 1980, and reflected back on the whole day/weekend in a 40th Anniversary podcast..
Four & (Hopefully) More: My Fourth Blogiversary
Original Album: Judy Garland’s Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961)
I was trying to remain upbeat about OpenSalon’s then-perilous future at the time of this post. Sadly, hope wasn’t enough and this turned out to be the last anniversary cover ever posted on the site as it went belly-up in late winter, 2015.
As for Judy, she is among the list of 20 (ok, 21) artists I wish I’d seen and never will.
Take Five: My 5th Anniversary
Original Album: Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation (1988)
OS is gone and no longer mentioned. I posted this one entry and then it was largely siesta time for this project until this year (2020). As for Sonic Youth, this album is another one in my Top 15. They are also coming up many times in this series, down the road.
Blackstar: MLIC’s 6th Anniversary (Belated from 2016)
Original Album: David Bowie’s Blackstar (2016)
This graphic was created at the time but it never got published as I had too many fires to put out. And just like my life at the time, the graphic is fittingly upside down. I have also written and/or podcasted about seeing Bowie in 1983 and 2004. I’ll also be podcasting/writing about seeing him in 1987, 1990, and 2003.
Getting Better: MLIC’s 7th Anniversary
Original Album: The Beatles’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
I admit, it’s getting better. While the larger world was in its early dumpster-fire stages, my personal life took a massive swing in the opposite direction, something long overdue. I did manage to work on and publish this anniversary image at the time, also marking Pepper’s 50th.
In The Light: mylifeinconcert.com’s 8th Anniversary (Belated from 2018)
Original Album: Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti (1975)
While this was the time of a very sad event, the passing of my father, the rest of my life continued to throb sunshine, basking me in the positive light. Ah, balance! I thought I’d pick this cover as I went through a period during this year of replaying Physical Graffiti repeatedly. For months. I kind of haven’t stopped.
And with this title for the entry, I now celebrate the actual series rather than my anniversary as an blogger/podcaster, as that was OS-based to begin with.
The Things We Did & Didn’t Do: mylifeinconcert.com’s 9th Anniversary (Belated from 2019)
Original Album: The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs (1999)
I did try to restart the podcast in early 2019 but didn’t go ahead with it as I wasn’t satisfied with my initial results, and then got super-busy with school. It would take a second kick at the can a year later to get it right. And here we are.
Ceremony: mylifeinconcert.com’s 10th Anniversary (2020)
Original Album: New Order’s Substance (1987)
For my 10th, I thought the elegant austerity of New Order’s classic 1987 compilation would make a perfect ceremonial visual.
Rolling Right Along: mylifeinconcert.com’s 11th Anniversary (2021)
Original Album: The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers (1971)
I stuck with the Stones’ most iconic cover for my 11th anniversary. For the podcast’s first anniversary, I podcasted/wrote about seeing—and standing directly across from—Keith Richards in Detroit in 1988 in Episode 23/Concert no. 51, Connection: Keith Richards & the X-Pensive Winos, Fox Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, USA, Thursday, December 8, 1988.
The Stones themselves will be coming up with Concert no. 61, Start Me Up: The Rolling Stones with Living Color, CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Sunday September 3, 1989.
Miles Ahead: mylifeinconcert.com’s 12th Anniversary (2022)
Original Album: Miles Davis Sketches of Spain (1960)
Sadly, I never got to see Miles live, and he is one of the artists featured in Episode 11, You Won’t See Me: 20 Acts I Wish I’d Seen.
Songs Are Like Tattoos: mylifeinconcert.com’s 13th Anniversary (2023)
Original Album: Joni Mitchell Blue (1971)
There was nothing to feel blue about on my 13th anniversary. Joni will be coming up way down the line re: an incredible show I saw her play in Ottawa in 1998.
NEXT ON STAGE> 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 days of punk rock reporting in the UK press, and fell in love with their debut 45, “Hong Kong Garden” in 1978. It was a UK smash hit and remains one of my favourite singles of the ‘70s.
I was a Banshees nut from then on, and when I finally got to see them live in 1984, I was pretty damned stoked.
HOWEVER ………. this gig is Another in an ongoing sub-thread in the mylifeinconcert.com series that could be called Concert Disasters, with said Disaster happening before, during, or after the show—OR during all 3, for those extra-lucky occasions.
Frequently they involve some of the cheap and old cars I was driving in the 80s malfunctioning in some way. And this is the first of those Car Nightmare EPs.
Phil Robinson will also be back again to detail his memories of the show. We each went down with other people with meant Phil was spared the “journey” that the other 3 of us went through.
There will also be a new blog entry for this show.
So what the hell happened with this one? Tune in next time to find out. You’ll be hearing all about leg casts, “rumours of a gig,” smoking fuses, the little Honda that couldn’t … and cities in dust.
And that is the name of upcoming Episode 34, Concert no. 027. Cities In Dust: Siouxsie & the Banshees with Images In Vogue, The International Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Tuesday July 10, 1984.
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