Lloyd Cole - Lloyd Cole

Going to gigs requires a great deal of energy, commitment and enthusiasm for the person or persons you are going to see. It is not something that is done lightly. I'm sure that most performers really appreciate this but sometimes, just sometimes, they don't really help at all.

Like the time Lloyd Cole decided to tour in 1990, or more precisely the timing of the tour in 1990. Now most rational artists who embark upon a national tour to promote a new album would wait until the album was actually released before packing their suitcases and heading out on the road. It would seem like the sensible thing to do. Oh but not our Lloyd. Oh no. He decides that it would be a good idea to get a head start and start the tour before his debut solo album hits the high street. Not by much. Just a few days. But enough.

'Thankfully' by the time he got to the north-east the album had been released.....that very day. So I faced a choice; buy the album later on CD and hear all of the songs cold or rush to HMV at lunchtime, buy the inferior cassette and spend the rest of the afternoon trying to memorise the songs. Well those who know me will know already which option I took.

So, like cramming for an exam, I tried to force an album's worth of new songs into my head. It didn't work. Maybe I was trying too hard? Maybe the songs weren't 'catchy' enough? Even if concentrated really, really hard they wouldn't go in. It must've been the pressure of knowing that I wouldn't know many of the songs that he was going to play that night. I got a headache from the effort, and from having the music too loud on my walkman - I'd decided that maybe playing them louder might help them penetrate my obstinate aural pathways.

In the end, it didn't really matter I suppose as I was in the same boat as everyone else at the concert. He even made an apology (of sorts) for people not having the chance to have heard the songs before.

And so in the following weeks, the new songs slowly made their way into my consciousness; 'No Blue Skies', 'Don't Look Back' and the upbeat miserableness that is 'Undressed'.

I've since been to many gigs where I didn't know the songs and have realised that it doesn't really matter. Not really. If a band is good then a band is good. If they're not then knowing the songs won't make it any better so don't bother trying...it'll only give you a headache!