1. Blink 182, Nottingham Ice Arena, December 2003 - Their last UK gig to date. I never expected this gig to be at all good. Everything I'd seen of Blink's live stuff had been terrible. On the night...they completely blew me away. They went from a terrible punk group to a completely competent act. Not just competent, brilliant. They did a glorious medley of older songs they didn't have time to play in full (like 'Dumpweed' and 'Man Overboard'), their between song banter was actually really funny, the stuff from Untitled was soaring, and best of all was 'Dammit,' the set closer. A stunning show.
2. Audiogene, Mid-2003, some church in the Nottinghamshire suburbs - One of their final gigs before they broke up (having STILL not delivered their third album, meaning they essentially signed off with the double A-side single 'California Dreams/Come On,' their two most accomplished songs ever) there were barely 100 people in the entire place, and they've never been better.
3. Nick Cave, February this year, Nottingham Royal Centre - One of Nick Cave's 'solo' dates, backed only by three Bad Seeds on drums, bass, and the ever-brilliant Warren Ellis on violin. With this tiny band and a piano in front of him, Nick Cave made more noise than anyone I've seen live outside of Muse. It was astonishing. Warren Ellis' distorted violin was brilliant. He played so many of his great songs ('Tupelo,' 'The Mercy Ceat,' 'Abattoir Blues,' 'Babe, You Turn Me On,' 'God Is In The House,' 'Oh My Lord,' 'Stagger Lee,' 'Hiding All Away..') and a few less obvious ones. The ones he completely swapped round and messed up were even better. The version of 'Henry Lee' was epic, loud, and mind-fucking. Great stuff, even if I ended up waiting for ages to have to see him.
4. Oasis, Sheffield, February this year - Outside of the profuse vomiting I experienced from travel sickness, this was a great gig. They may not be what they used to be, but they played almost all of my favourite songs. 'Bring It On Down' had me spunking in my pants (almost literally; I went with my girlfriend at the time, and...well, moving on) 'Champagne Supernova' was brilliant, 'Mucky Fingers' was top-notch and 'Rock 'n' Roll Star' sounded as good as it did twelve years ago...the only thing I missed was 'Gas Panic!'. I know they aren't really that band any more, but I miss the prog-indie wig-out they used to end it with.
5. Snooke, Waller And Friends, August this year, Ellesmere College hall - A thrown-together group of mates playing old songs of their own (from the Exalt group, and Adam's solo sogns), a handful of covers and some they've never played before on acoustic instruments(Redefined songs, Somewhere Beyond The Star). It was a brilliant performance. I'd go through the songs but none of you would know any of them.