Preston Pixies

Pixies at the Guild Hall in Preston on Saturday 6th October 1990. 

 

According to the ticket, I paid by cheque but it doesn't say how much. A quick look on eBay reveals that admission for their gig at Aston Villa Leisure Centre the following week cost a whopping £7.50, so a bargain in retrospect, even factoring in the petrol there and back.

So, why did I hop into my Mini Metro, pick up my friend Stuart and drive from Bristol to Preston, three hours up the M5 then M6 when we could have made the much shorter trek to see Pixies at Gloucester Leisure Centre a week or so later?

 

Well, that would be fellow school friend, Matt, who was at university and was just as much of a Pixies fanatic as we both were. So, off we went, with the promise of a takeaway, a great gig and at the very least, a clear bit of space on the floor of Matt's student house share to lay our weary heads. To date, it remains the one and only time I've been to Preston.

 

If the truth be told, I don't remember a lot about the journey there or back, the pre-gig preamble (I think pizza was involved) or, sadly, the support act. 

 

I do remember that they were called Barkmarket, as I recall thinking what a crap name it was. I hadn't heard anything by the band prior to the gig...or since, until I started writing this post. Fronted by Dave Sardy, who I'm familiar with from his subsequent career as producer for the likes of The Dandy Warhols, Oasis and Jet, musically they sound like a good fit for Pixies. 

 

I've found a John Peel session that Barkmarket recorded a week before the Preston gig, with a brief introductory interview with an out of breath Dave, which you can listen to here. Three decades on, I have absolutely no recollection of Barkmarket's set, though arguably I may have forgotten it by the time I completed the near-200 mile trip home.

Pixies, though, were another matter entirely. Incredibly, I've discovered not one but two bootleg videos on YouTube of the entire show. Remember, this was 1990, no recording devices that you could slip into your back pocket. Goodness knows how either one of them snuck a video camera into the venue and filmed the gig, but there we are. 

 

The sound is atrocious on both, the image not a whole lot better, though it does capture some of the sweaty, frenetic energy of the concert. I've included a link to the one posted by Suzuhara, which appears to have been shot from inside a bag for the first couple of minutes, but comes good later on and provides the sole band photo for this post.

Matt, Stuart and I were right in there in the thick of it, as Black Francis screamed his way through song after song, Dave Lovering leading from one to the next with barely a pause, Joey Santiago nearly setting his guitar alight through the sheer speed of his playing and Kim Deal looking cool as hell throughout but especially when she took lead vocals for Into The White, Gigantic and (kind of) Tony's Theme.

The hazards of writing short, fast-paced songs is that when a band grows to playing headline sets for an hour and a half, that's a lot of songs. Pixies pack in thirty (30!) songs, before leaving the stage briefly and coming back for one more encore. 

 

What's even more incredible when you scan the set list is the number of songs that Pixies left off: River Euphrates, Monkey Gone To Heaven, Cactus, Isla De Encanta...Most of these were played, along with brilliant B-side Dancing The Manta Ray and the then-unreleased Subbacultcha, at the Gloucester gig, which in retrospect makes me wish I'd gone to both. 

This was the third time I'd seen Pixies and this tour was promoting the Bossanova album, with 9 of the 14 songs getting played, including Havalina. Not my favourite Pixies song at the time, it didn't get played much after and it appears the 21st century reunion was a nearly a decade in before they dusted off the song onstage again in 2013. I have a lot more affection for Havalina - and Bossanova - these days, and as a set, it's hard to argue with any of the song choices that night.

As usual, I've recreated the show as a Dubhed selection. It runs a few minutes shorter than the bootleg video on YouTube, though it kind of works if you play the latter with the volume muted. Oh, and all versions are lifted from the respective studio albums, unless stated.

The prompt for today's post was that, by sheer coincidence I'm travelling to London to meet Stuart and go to a gig, exactly thirty four years on from this memorable Pixies concert. It's going to be a fantastic day and I'll tell you all about it sometime in the next week.

For now, it's Pixies. Play loud.

 

1) Cecilia Ann (1990)

2) Levitate Me (1987)

3) Debaser (Clif Norrell Mix) (1997)

4) Rock Music (1990)

5) Dead (John Peel Session) (1988)

6) Hang Wire (1990)

7) Is She Weird (1990)

8) Broken Face (1988)

9) Crackity Jones (Demo 2) (1988)

10) Something Against You (1988)

11) All Over The World (1990)

12) Allison (1990)

13) Velouria (1990)

14) The Happening (1990)

15) Into The White (John Peel Session) (1989)

16) Here Comes Your Man (Simon Mayo Session) (1988)

17) Gigantic (Single Version) (1988)

18) Hey (1989)

19) Havalina (1990)

20) Caribou (John Peel Session) (1988)

21) The Holiday Song (1987)

22) Nimrod's Son (1987)

23) I'm Amazed ('The Purple Tape' Demo) (1987)

24) Ed Is Dead (1987)

25) Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf) (1989)

26) Where Is My Mind? (1988)

27) Vamos ('Come On Pilgrim' Version) (1987)

28) Tony's Theme (1988)

29) Gouge Away (1989)

30) Tame (1989)

31) Wave Of Mutilation (Album Version) (1989)

1987: Come On Pilgrim: 2, 21, 22, 24, 27

1988: Gigantic / River Euphrates EP: 17

1988: Surfer Rosa: 8, 10, 26, 28

1988: The BBC Sessions (bootleg): 16

1989: Doolittle: 18, 29, 30, 31

1989: Here Comes Your Man EP: 25

1990: Bossanova: 1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 19

1997: Debaser EP: 3

1998: Pixies At The BBC: 5, 20

2002: Pixies: 23

2014: Doolittle 25: B-Sides, Peel Sessions & Demos: 9, 15

Preston Pixies (1:21:20) (KF) (Mega)