When you get to a certain age, you still kid yourself that your peers are somehow older than you. After all, you are young. Nothing has changed despite the advancing years. You like the same things you always did – gossip, lipgloss, bags, jewellery (like Patsy, I seem to have forgotten the word accessories). Not to mention the things everyone else loves too, from family to theatre to music.
And it’s music, or at least live music, that does my head in. I made a private pact a few years ago only to see bands where I could either sit down, knew all the words – or preferably both. It generally means that the rest of the audience will be my age. Which means they are old. And I am not.
Last week we were at an excellent gig at Bush Hall. Green Gartside. Not an absolute favourite but a real love from my 19 year old self. I looked around at the grey beards, the tent dresses, the specs, the bald pates and tasteful earrings, and thought, dear God do we look like this? And yes, I guess we do.
And then I thought, everyone in this room has the best musical pedigree. They have probably seen the greats the first time round, as well as the second and third. They have experienced music in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 21st century. In real time. Not as back catalogue.
Yes, I realized, these guys are the original festival goers, as kids, as grown ups, and now with their own kids. Like me, they’ll have under their I-have-seen belt a selection of the following: Bowie, Lou Reed, Roxy Music, The Stiff. The Tubes, Two Tone. Springsteen. The Cure, The Flaming Lips, Primal Scream, Pulp. Kraftwerk. Dury, Dr Feelgood. The Stones, Sparks. Elton John, Joe Jackson, The Who. Not to mention the obscure bands that only you seemed to love, the flashes in the pan.
My kids and our younger friends drool at the idea of some of the things we have seen and again revisited. They are in awe of tales of the great venues – The Rainbow (Roxy supporting Bowie), Hammersmith Palais, The Music Machine (KOKO two brandings ago) where we saw Dexys Midnight Runners supporting the Clash. Even The Town and Country before it became The Forum.
Don’t get me wrong. I do ‘modern’ too. Sometimes I break my rule and go to see someone I don’t know well, a contemporary I have grown to love in the comfort of my home (thank you 6 Music).
This is where I encounter the opposite problem. The crowd are half our age. We have to stand and all the songs are unfamiliar. The performer gives a shout-out to their Mum and Dad, and eyes turn towards us before finding the other middle aged folk in the room with the proud smiles. But it’s still great.
So until the day comes when live music no longer appeals, I have to get over myself. Feel proud and privileged of my past and of present. Be dignified. And know that whoever is on stage, I am in the audience, a fan, and an integral part of the love in the room.
Words: Susie Innes
Why It Matters comes in association with Discount Insurance, whose big boss bloke Steve lives in NW5, so he’s offering Kentishtowner readers a £10 M&S voucher with every new policy. Which seems like quite a nice deal to us.
9 thoughts on “Why It Matters: Gigging for the Over 50s”
Never a truer word ……
As fully paid up members of the 50+ generation, we might have to conserve our energy a bit these days – but it doesn’t mean we have to stay home at night with the cat and a cup of cocoa. It’s only when we catch ourselves unaware in a mirror that we see our parents staring back.And the moral, of course, is – don’t look in mirrors! If Jagger and Springsteen can still do it, so can we (- well, once a week anyway………)
Soooo true!!
I remember seeing The Stranglers at the Roundhouse and I simply couldn’t here for three days after.
We saw The Selector at a party before Christmas and my legs ached for three days due to all that standing!!!
Yep – not quite in the 50s club, yet but enjoyed reading this well observed and written article made me LOL and have noticed that have recently started wearing my own ‘The Smiths’ t-shirt again to remind the pretenders in Dalston (where I live) that I was indeed there the first time around when we still had cassettes Laddie Jim.
My oh my, I think you’ve hit quite a nail on the head here! Is it wrong to feel so smug about being there the first time round, when current bands rework our classics? Great piece, nicely written!
I’m glad we shared so many gigs, Susie, particularly Bowie, Dury, Robert Palmer and even, I seem to remember, Kid Creole. It was a lot easier to get tickets in the 70s and, even proportionately, a lot cheaper. That said, my biggest regret is that I didn’t see the Stones at the Roundhouse in 1970, considering that I spent every Sunday there anyway, because the tickets at £1 were too expensive. I bought a T-shirt instead.
Ah but it was a Biba Tshirt! This is a shout out to my lovely big sister who, at the age of 16, took her 12 year sibling to Finsbury Park to stand in line on a Saturday morning to buy tickets for Ziggy Stardust. And so it begins
and a shout out to my darling husband Robert, who took over where my sister left off and is responsible for pretty much every gig I’ve been to for the last 30 years. Indebted to you both.
Loved this – really made me laugh as I always ask for seating
Town and Country Club! Fond memories! I still very much enjoy live music, even though I’m sometimes the oldest in the crowd, there’s no harm in being a little more choosy about what you go to see, as long as you are still going!