Entry for April 24, 2007

I was talking about the first gig I ever saw today. It was Whitesnake at the Glasgow Apollo and it must have been about 1983 I think. Six pounds for a ticket and the thrill of the trip to Glasgow; waiting in the queue beside all the big boys in their green combat jackets covered in patches with the names of bands I'd heard on Tom Russell's Friday Night Rock Show. It was the stuff of an adolescent boy's dreams.
I didn't have a combat jacket. Not for me the beautiful green canvas coat of a post-Beatles Lennon, for I came from times when boys were bought their clothes by their mums. So, the best I could muster for the gig was a green anorak. Not too impressed? Well wait for it...
My anorak had a detachable hood. It doesn't get much better than that does it? What other garment can double nicely as a practical, showerproof coat by day and a powerful statement of rocking intent by night.
And thus, that night of my first gig, with one swift swipe of the zipper I was transformed from a specky schoolboy with chronic acne into an ubercool, young rock god in waiting.
That is how cool I was.