Spike Island
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Probably a good thing - I was about 30 rows from the stage and couldn't hear a thing during the Roses set - best part of the day was a huge beach ball being smacked around the crowd. Recently went to see Ian Brown and was pleasantly surprised about how much better he was live these days
Johnny wrote: Never went to the Roses gig there in 1990.Never decided if that was a good or bad thing .
The Roses were alright, the day was a bit of a farce though. No support acts, just DJ's, so there was no real focal point for festivities. It really was just a case of sitting in a field in the middle of nowhere waiting for one band to come on.
Made the mistake of telling the girlfriend at the time (who'd travelled up separately) that I'd meet her 'by the merchandise stall' at 3pm then on the hour, every hour, until we finally met up.
Got there to find there was about twenty-fcuking-eight merchandising stalls. Never got to see her all day.
My mates and I thankfully brought a carry out with us and sat outside and got pissed. Twas just aswell because the queues for the beer tent were horrendous. Combined with everything else the whole day was a bit of a farce, seemed to be no organisation whatsoever. The whole atmosphere was rather subdued when the band finally took stage about 9ish and my abiding memory is of the sound being terrible, i could hardly hear the band or Brown's voice. All in all it was a bit of a let down, but the enormity of the event at the time was such that you just had to be there.
I was at the Glasgow Green gig a couple of weeks later. The last time they ever played as the original four-piece and recognised by most as being a far superior experience to Spike Island (although I wasn't there). The biography refers to it as their best gig of alll time as I recall.
Through the eyes of a 16 year old, just finished with school for good, decked out in a Joe Bloggs hoody, 20' flares and a bit pissed on Hampden Lager it was fuckin incredible and to be honest I've experienced nowt like it since. Just that combination of growing up, being dead into a band and seeing them at their peak.
A few years back Muffy dug me out a CD bootleg of the gig and it's one of my most traesured posessions. It's a crowd recording and it takes you right back there. Unbelieveable.
