It was the year I went to my first full weekend music festival at Reading (this was just before they would introduce the closer option for me of Leeds), with that great rock Sunday of Metallica, the year's big rock hype Marilyn Manson (plus surprise guest Jonathan Davis), Bush, 3 Colours Red and Feeder among others. Not to mention a legendary headline set on the Saturday from the Manics with Nicky discarding their recent 'Man at C&A' image and busting out the camo dress.
My gig count for the year was 21, if you count Reading as one big gig, most of them coming from bands playing around the weekly indie night at Middlesbrough Arena. Some of them were excellent, some of them were made up of fifth division indie bands, lost to the mists of time (I mean Travis, who are they?!). The full list is below:
17/01/97 Groop Dogdrill, Soul Bossa (@Middlesbrough Arena)
31/01/97 Gold Blade, TC Hug (@Middlesbrough Arena)
07/02/97 Perfume, Spacemaid (@Middlesbrough Arena)
11/02/97 Suede, Mansun (@Middlesbrough Town Hall)
14/02/97 Space Monkeys, Hardbody (@Middlesbrough Arena)
21/02/97 Silver Sun, Grass Show, Montrose Avenue (@Middlesbrough Arena)
07/03/97 18 Wheeler, Formula One (@Middlesbrough Arena)
14/03/97 Speedy, Rude Club (@Middlesbrough Arena)
18/04/97 Travis, Spacemaid (@Middlesbrough Arena)
25/04/97 Smaller, Montrose Avenue (@Middlesbrough Arena)
09/05/97 Corduroy, Mantaray (@Middlesbrough Arena)
16/05/97 Jesus Jones, A (@Middlesbrough Arena)
23/05/97 Carter USM, Midget (@Middlesbrough Arena)
06/06/97 David Devant and his Spirit Wife, The Smiles (@Middlesbrough Arena)
13/06/97 The Hybirds (@Middlesbrough Arena)
01/07/97 Teenage Fanclub (@Newcastle HMV)
03/08/97 China Drum, Velma, Helter Skelter (@Stockton Festival)
22/08/97 Sick of it All, Symposium, James, Millencolin, Silver Sun, Kenickie, A, Incubus, Carrie, Strangelove + Suede, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Dust Junkys, Period Pains (@Reading Festival)
23/08/97 Manic Street Preachers, Space, Super Furry Animals, Republica, Gold Blade, My Life Story, Stereophonics + Wannadies, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Lemonheads, Rude Club (@Reading Festival)
24/08/97 Metallica, Marilyn Manson, Terrorvision, Bush, 3 Colours Red, Descendents, Dog Eat Dog, Feeder, Radish + Bis (@Reading Festival)
12/09/97 China Drum, Cable, Carrie (@Middlesbrough Arena)
18/10/97 3 Colours Red, Bullyrag (@Middlesbrough Arena)
06/12/97 Teen Spirit, White Negroes (@Middlesbrough Arena)
After me and my brother met Dave from China Drum at Stockton Festival in August, he got us in on the guest list for their Boro gig a month later, where we ended up meeting Gerry from Mega City Four who was roadie for Cable and I also had a chat with future Kerrang editor Paul Brannigan who was doing an on the road feature of the tour.
In terms of my own music I moved away from my two main solo bands during that year (in fact Spraypaint still haven't released anything since), completing the third Uranium album (my industrial act) and the only Vein album (grunge, some great songs that I must upload at some point) as well as two Pyf Belly Machine albums and a Personnel EP with my brother.
I also worked on some new metal-based ideas, basically picking several bands or sounds (Cradle of Filth, My Dying Bride, Napalm Death, Korn, Megadeth, Gabber with guitars - kind of an Atari Teenage Riot type thing) and recording two songs each in their style to see what came out. The results can be found here with the two Cradle of Filth-style songs going under the name of Beneath Utopia, a name I swiftly moved across to take the place of my main metal band, then called Oakenshield.
That name change coincided with the first of my 5 appearances in national rock/metal magazines (he says in the style of Les McQueen), consisting of TWO demo reviews by Dan Silver in the October 1997 edition of Metal Hammer. Harsh but fair comments too.
But back onto chart matters again, 1997 was obviously a year of me digging deeper below the surface for new music, delving into the black metal world on the Feuersturm double CD compilation starring Emperor, Dark Funeral, Immortal and many more, plus the Cacophonous compilation The Unholy Bible, which introduced me to Bal-Sagoth, Abyssos, Vergelmer and more. The 21st Century Media Blitz compilation was also a great introduction to The Gathering, who would eventually rise pretty high among my favourite bands, plus other-worldly metal from Strapping Young Lad and Samael.
But quite a lot of the chart came to be dominated by British rock bands, A, 3 Colours Red, Feeder, Silver Sun, Reef, Paradise Lost, Stereophonics and Ash all took either several places or prominent placings in the chart. And my first festival was pretty influential too, 24 of my top 75 came from bands that played Reading festival, 30 more were on the shortlist.
The competition seemed even more ridiculous than usual this time, the songs that just missed out seemed more than deserving of a place but it wasn't to be. So honourable mentions this time to the bands that made the shortlist but not the chart as follows: Chemical Brothers, James, The Ataris, Chumbawamba, In Flames, Nightwish, Rollins Band, Deftones, Sigh, China Drum, Dimmu Borgir, Blackstar and Coal Chamber.
1. Foo Fighters - Everlong
2. A - No. 1
3. Paradise Lost - Say Just Words
4. 3 Colours Red - Nuclear Holiday
5. Paradise Lost - One Second
6. Faith No More - Ashes to Ashes
7. 3 Colours Red - Sunny in England
8. Emperor - With Strength I Burn
9. Silver Sun - Lava
10. Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get
11. The Gathering - The Earth Is My Witness
12. Stereophonics - Local Boy in the Photograph
13. A - Foghorn
14. A - Bad Idea
15. Will Haven - Mason
16. The Gathering - On Most Surfaces (Inuit)
17. Mindset - Nosebleed
18. Ash - A Life Less Ordinary
19. Life of Agony - Weeds
20. The Gathering - Third Chance
21. Shelter - Whole Wide World
22. Shelter - Refusal
23. Strapping Young Lad - All Hail the New Flesh
24. Mindset - ihateudon'tleaveme
25. Metallica - Fuel
26. Will Haven - I've Seen My Fate
27. Metallica - The Unforgiven II
28. 3 Colours Red - Pure
29. Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
30. Napalm Death - Breed to Breathe
31. Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
32. A - Cheeky Monkey
33. Paradise Lost - Another Day
34. Napalm Death - Lowpoint
35. Mindset - Psycho Sound Wave
36. Feeder - My Perfect Day
37. Symposium - Drink the Sunshine
38. Symposium - Fairweather Friend
39. Vergelmer - Her Harvest is my Prey
40. The Gathering - Nighttime Birds
41. Machine Head - Struck a Nerve
42. Abyssos - As The Sky Turns Black Again (Love Eternal)
43. Machine Head - Take My Scars
44. Megadeth - Trust
45. Silver Sun - Dumb
46. Foo Fighters - My Hero
47. Feeder - Tangerine
48. Green Day - Redundant
49. A - Winter of 96
50. A - Out of Tune
51. Green Day - Nice Guys Finish Last
52. Feeder - Cement
53. Emperor - The Loss and Curse of Reverence
54. Metallica - The Memory Remains
55. The Prodigy - Breathe
56. Rammstein - Du Hast
57. Silverchair - Abuse Me
58. Reef - Come Back Brighter
59. Reef - Place Your Hands
60. Supergrass - Richard III
61. Blur - Song 2
62. Charlatans - One to Another
63. Machine Head - Ten Ton Hammer
64. Paradise Lost - Cruel One
65. Metallica - Prince Charming
66. Lacuna Coil - Falling
67. Emperor - Ye Entrancemperium
68. Will Haven - Foreign Film
69. Immortal - Mountains of Might
70. Strapping Young Lad - Underneath the Waves
71. Silver Sun - Wonderful
72. Faith No More - Last Cup of Sorrow
73. Feeder - Polythene Girl
74. Feeder - Crash
75. Helmet - Like I Care
