Just reading through stuff here and my mind drifted to bands I saw before they became big. The best one was Roxy Music, at The George Hotel in Burslem-Stoke-on-Trent, Bryan Ferry was pinning up album covers to advertise their first about to be released album....so I nicked one and he gave me a dirty look. Another good one was Cockney Rebel at Manchester Uni....30p to get in.

Driving home from work listening to Neil Young on the mp3 my mind drifted off into wondering about my desert island disc choice; what it would be etc when they finally get round to asking me. I always struggle with this because I'm always sure that the 8 allowed tunes wouldn't be nearly enough. Desert Island Albums.....now that's more like it.......So in no particular order.......

Graceland - Paul Simon
Tell Tale Signs - Bob Dylan
Delicate Sound of Thunder - Pink Floyd
The Seldom Seen Kid - Elbow
Neil Young - Old Ways
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks Live
The Band - Greatest Hits

Book - The Beatles Anthology
Luxury - A Solar powered radio/IPod for spoken word podcasts

was maybe David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust days....Bowie had just started to become known again (by me anyway) but I hadn't heard Ziggy yet....so when tickets went on sale my reaction was "David Bowie 80p a ticket! I'm not paying that; he hasn't done anything since "Space Oddity" Mind you I wasn't the only one it would seem; as a mate who did "invest" told me that only a couple of hundred turned up anyway! Another similar experience happened a few years later when at university in Manchester;the Rag Ball headliners were announced and tickets were outrageously priced at £1.00....no chance of me paying that to see "Queen"...in my defense they weren't that big yet and had only had one single out.A few years later I opted to stay for pint rather than go and see U2 at my local 800 seater venue; same place me and my mates turned up too late to get into the Stiff tour with Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and all.Oh well; never mind -none of them ever amounted to much anyway --unless you know different.

As I drove down to Birmingham last night my mind wandered back to Earls court in 1978; queuing overnight for the tickets, begging for an hour off work so I could get down to London, the excitement of seeing Bob for the first time; even if he was a mere dot in the distance….pure magic. Then onto Blackbushe, then the gospel shows at Earls court again. Then along with Santana at Wembley stadium; singing “It’s all over now baby blue” with Van Morrison…more magic. Onto the N.E.C. shows in the 1990’s…fantastic versions of “Girl from the north country”…brilliant…brilliant stuff. So I settle down into my seat still thinking back to those past shows, lights go down, Bob comes on….I can’t tell what the first song is; the hall is so big and the sound is only this side of bad. My ears become accustomed to the boom and echo of the hall. On it goes into the next song, Bob on guitar…this is a bit more like it. As the show goes on and each song begins to sound more like the one before, I started to think again. “I wonder how Manchester United are doing in their Champions league semi final?” and then the it came to me…. Bob Dylan had turned into the Leeds United of music. Leeds United are an English soccer club who at one time were the top of league, they were the best in Europe; the world even; then it all went horribly wrong, and they now languish in the lower divisions of English football. Trading on their past. Still have a loyal following, still able to be surrounded by some adoring fans wherever they play; but lower league by anyone’s reckoning; and they can only dream and think back to their glory days. This is where Bob Dylan is at the moment. Lets hope he can still make a comeback. He was a contender. But if you do go to see him for the living legend that he is, please don’t applaud too hard, it will only encourage him to do more shows like this one!

Steve Gell