Sarah L Dixon Writer

The last Gigantic Indie All dayer I went to was in Manchester in 2019. I went with an online date (our first date and we only had two, hi Dana!). Great place for a date – music, food, beer & dancing to favourite bands! Line-up that day was:

Graham Crabb (PWEI) DJ set and MC

Crazyhead

Jesus Jones

The Juliana Hatfield three

Jim Bob

The Bluetones

The Wonder Stuff

Echo and the Bunnymen

Bristol Move & Venue

The all-dayer has now moved to The Marble Factory in Bristol (a venue that is due to close shortly which is a big shame as I felt is was a perfect venue for this event, more about why later in this blog)…

Raffle

This was a good way to get people to the stage – not enough people made it over though maybe hand raffle tickets out on the way into the stage room rather than at the gate, then fewer re-draws. So many redraws as people were outside eating and drinking and sitting in the sun.

Gig Friends proper festival catch-up

So, one thing about the all-dayer which was lovely and the reason I missed one and half sets was that I could actually talk to people I had known for years, people who my sum conversation with had consisted of ‘great!’, ‘Hi!’ and half a dozen Messenger messages after gigs. I met a lot of them in July 2023 and they have become good friends. We had built friendships over dancing together, nods and shouting to each other before and between bands.

Firstly, Kate and Dan. I met them in the pub in Brighton and we were several pints in by that point as it was the night the Jim Bob gig didn’t happen due to the Albion Fire. We met again on the rescheduled gig night and we danced to We didn’t start the Fire by Billy Joel at the end of Jim’s triumph of a set at Chalk. I saw them at Jim’s 40 songs 40 years gig (review of this to follow soon). 

And then I met Sarah and Jez two weeks later in Nottingham Rock City for The Wonder Stuff.  We met right at the end and had a bit of a chat as the venue emptied. They were both lovely and have always come over to say Hello! when they have seen me at gigs since. We were at the barrier together for The Franks and Jim Bob at Skegness Shine. I met Graham that night too.

The Rock City night was the gig where Prowsey was support for Stuffies and I met him and we chatted about the challenges of having teenaged children and then I saw him again when I was on my way back in to the venue when it turned into a club and I was first in the queue. I said ‘ Wish me luck!’ and Ian gave me the biggest hug (I now realise all his hugs are huge).

I had been to see Prowsey in Manchester the night before travelling to Bristol for the all-dayer.

PROWSEY INTERVAL ————————————————————

Prowsey gig Friday 2nd May – Gorilla

Prowsey delivered though the crowd was oddly still, they did sing and there were a lot of t-shirts around, I did not understand the lack of dancing… it didn’t stop me bouncing along though with some Prowsey Lockdown gang friends who have adopted me even though I wasn’t there then (and Johnny Barlow pogoed along with a grin).

I am looking forward to seeing Prowsey again several times this year:

11th August – Monday Club, Cavern Pub 8-midnight. any original material – I will be performing new poems from my show and ones from the book.

14th-16th November – Prowsey & Amsterdam, Miles, Jesus Jones, Steve Lamacq, The Inspirals, Soup Dragons, James Atkin and Jonn Penney and I are all on the same bill and Rob Newman and many more.

6th December – Prowsey & Amsterdam Big Knees up. Special guest, Miles Hunt.

7th December – Venue TBC – hopefully The Casa – book reading and open mic.

8th December – Monday Club, Cavern Pub – reading book & show 8-midnight.

END OF PROWSEY INTERVAL——————————————————

The Darling Buds

They were very good and I liked what Andrea did with her arms, I always wonder what my thing would be if I fronted a band and didn’t have an instrument, would I grip the mic tightly, dance or leap across the stage or use my arms a lot (and I think this would be most likely as I use my hands  a lot when talking about things). I only stayed for half the set though as the songs (which admittedly I did not know well) all began to sound similar to each other. I would give them more of a listen if they were on the line-up for another festival.

I am sorry I missed Northside but I heard good things and will catch at Shine!!

The Soup Dragons

Okay, I admit I didn’t know more than the one song people were amused the band made people wait until the end of the set for…

This was a bold move and it worked. Though by the time they played it they had won me over already and I was impressed by the show they gave us and enjoyed this set mightily and will be seeking more of their back catalogue and will try to catch them again at Shiiine On in Minehead in November.

Jim Bob & The Hoodrats

They were the tightest I have seen them for a few years at Shine and 40 years, 40 songs. There was a little more ‘we might have been at the green room drinks’ about this one but still totally delivered. Could tell Jim was enjoying the crowd joining in too.

Aware I have seen Jim with and without Hoodrats 6 times in the last 7 months which when I put it like that seems a little excessive. Two of the events were Literature Festivals, which to be fair is my home turf and another was Louder than Words (which is on my turf geographically).

I will give them a break and am busy on summer holiday adventures with Frank on the two dates for the playing of the full new albums in London record shops, plus I couldn’t really justify the cost of another stay in London for Jim 😊

At the moment I think there are still some tickets for the live album and signing on Saturday 23rd August at 7pm, Rough Trade East, but be quick…

I am loving the Gigantechque t-shirt design though and that single and can’t wait for the new albums. I hope they all have a good break. Jim has two new singles coming out on 20th June too.

I am hoping Cousin Ben (Hoodrat drummer) might announce a tour at some point soon as his new album is my favourite for the last year or so. I am sad I can’t go to Christopher Thorpe-Tracey’s sold out event in November but I will be pretty busy dancing at Shiiine On that weekend, so I can only wish him well with it.

Goosebumps Alert

I rarely get goosebumps from listening to live music but this happened 4 times at Gigantic – twice for Neds songs, twice for Jim ones. It was the combination of the space, the crowd, the nostalgia, maybe the heat and sun exposure. Just utterly being in the moment and everyone loving it.

Ned’s Atomic Dustbin

A friend who had not seen Neds before was mesmerised by this set. I am not sure what it is about Jonn Penney and the Neds. As a front man, Jonn’s enthusiasm, his utter joy, bouncing around the stage as if he is in the crowd, the fact he evidently buzzes off crowd reaction and at being up there doing this thing. But there is a definite positive feedback loop going on between him and the crowd.

I was also delighted to have a brief catch-up with Jonn and I was having a great time and was out in the sunshine and said – ‘This is great, mates, beer, good food, great music and sun, now, all I need to Jonn to appear and sign my book then I have all the signatures…’ Then, Julia, I think, said ‘Isn’t that Jonn at the wristband desk?’ And it was, he came over, gave me a hug and big grin and signed my book for me at we talked a bit about Shiiine On and then he was off to get set up to play. Brilliant timing universe… Thanks!

I am looking forward to Jonn’s book due to be released later in 2025.

The Inspiral Carpets

So, not fair on the Inspirals and I hear the singer, Stephen Holt, is a regular in my local pub now, so our real ale paths may cross soon. I stayed close to the front for the first 5-6 songs and particularly enjoyed She comes in the Fall (a personal favourite) and I felt I had paced myself pretty well only having had two pints of beer by their set but the strain on my feet of dancing to three full sets before this was being felt.

I was the person who could hardly walk my way through the crowd as my feet had forgotten that function and were in quite a lot of pain. We found a bench and I drank some alcohol-free beer as the stuff with alcohol in had run out. I had a catch up with more friends I hadn’t had chance to talk to properly before. This is one massive plus of multi-day festivals and all-dayers to me

Bernie is a new Shiiine friend and Debbie and Steve founded a Gig Life Crisis group for people going to gigs solo or ones who want to share gig stories and photos (it was a couple of hundred strong when I joined last summer and now has 12,000 members) and I see them at a lot of gigs. It was also their one year anniversary of meeting at a gig.

Shiiine DJs and Bez

After an hour or so sitting down and chatting we were ready to give Bez a chance and I had never seen him Bezzing before. Even having lived in or close to Manchester for the first 4 decades of my life I could only catch about every 20^th word so not got a clue what he was on about but it all seemed to be in pretty good humour so just went with it and the music was good.

Getting used to being a minor celebrity

People calling out Sarah – I looked for the first few and then I must admit I did ignore a few because I needed food, drink, the loo or to catch a set more than I needed to stop for people who might have been calling out to another Sarah. Sorry if it was me and that was you…

Photos with me – Aren’t you the poet who writes about this music, can we have a photo with you? It seems a little baffling to me and when people say their friend wanted to talk to me and ask me if I had any books to sell and found it too scary to talk to me. I feel I am pretty approachable and friendly.

I am finding I am becoming more guarded with accepting friend requests just because we have half a dozen shared friends now and I think this is necessary.

My favourite person from the Gigantic festival turned around when we were at Bez disco and said ‘Chatham Library! Yes?’ put his thumbs up and said ‘It was great!’ then we carried on dancing 🙂 (for Chatham Library Jim Bob interview visit my blog from November 2024).

A different kind of celebrity

A poetry friend once asked me if I knew every poet in the North West and this is a thing that does feel natural now, having been a pretty active poet on the UK scene for around a quarter of a century. And it is lovely to see so many friends when I go to literary festivals across the country. This feels more like a respect for the years put in, the fact I put on three Arts-Council funded tours as The Quiet Compere with funding to pay 10 poets on each local showcase and built this brand and when the funding wasn’t there ran crowd funders to make gigs happen or teamed up with festivals.

I think the reason the 90s indie crowds fame is stranger to me is that the whole scene is about the music, the musicians and being in a crowd and yes I wanted to capture that in my poetry and my photos and I am glad the book is being received better than I ever hoped by fans both sides of the barrier.

Gigantic Praise

The venue was a brilliant shape and I actually had goosebumps twice in Jim Bob and Hoodrats set and twice during Neds set (worth mentioning again as it is goosebumps!) This is unusual for me. It was a combination of the music and musicians being up for it and the crowd communicating this two-way thing. Brilliant line up and all delivered their best.

I have also been enjoying the festival playlist which was the music playing in the courtyard. It introduced me to some bands I didn’t know well and will be listening to more of World of Twist, New Fast Automatic Daffodils, Flowered Up, Bridewell Taxis, The Real People. It also reminded me about Dinosaur Jr., Ministry and Therapy?

The sound was a little muffled and unbalanced at times but generally pretty good from the first couple of rows.  

Small grumbles

Ran out of beer before 10pm. Ran out of food before 1015pm. I ate about 2pm and then was totally ready for more food at about 1030pm and wanted to stay for Bez disco so didn’t want to leave for food. I think one or more trucks may have let them down at short notice… Maybe they mis-calculated how much we could eat and drink…

And I will leave the last photos to Sarah from 1990.

See you at a gig soon!