Every minute of receeding daylight heralds the approach of the end of the year list and the NME kicked things off in their paper issue today with their top 25 gigs of the year, as voted for by you, the reader. Well it says that but with categories of Most Pissed (The Duke Spirit in Cheltenham), and Best Costumes (Circulus at the Tapestry Festival which as far as we can tell had only the one NME reader/writer down there) the numbers don't really add up. So will that be the NME making it up? Even just a little bit? And the addition of Doherty at Live 8 which they describe as an off-the-rails moment of danger and excitement is just ludicrous. Dangerous? Any old buffoon can shamble about on stage like a drunken gibbon having mistaken a lighter for a cigarette. There's more danger in a cereal bowl, more excitement in deciding which pair of socks to wear for work. Still it did make us feel sorry for Sir Elton so that's a first.
A quick run down of the list shows only 6 London bands and 11 London venues and it got us thinking about our own end of the year lists and our own favourite London gigs (Arcade Fire at ULU). Which then got us thinking about what you lot loved this year. So drop us an email or add your comments and start playing my gig was better than your gig with your fellow readers. We'll collate them all into our own end of year list thingummies when we do them.
In no particular order the NME's list goes like this:
Green Day - Milton Keynes Bowl
Arcade Fire - Reading
Coldplay - London ROund Chapel
Oasis - V, Chelmsford
Pete Doherty - Live 8
Arctic Monkeys - London Astoria
Thom Yorke - Westminster Methodist Hall
Iggy & The Stooges - Hammersmith Apollo
Gorillaz - Manchester Opera HOuse
Circulus - Tapestry, Cornwall
Mystery Jets - Eel Pie Island
The Magic Numbers - Glastonbury
Giant Drag - London Barfly
The White Stripes - Glastonbury
NME Shockwaves Tour - Lots of places
QOTSA - Brixton Academy
NAS - Brixton Academy
Kasabian - Glasgow Academy
The Cribs - Leeds Cockpit
Antony And The Johnsons - Royal Festival Hall
Devendra Banhart - Regent's Park
The Rakes - Reading
The Duke Spirit - Cheltenham
Kanye West - Abbey Road
The 25th on the list is for best merchandising which is not really a gig and therefore doesn't count. And who wants a White Stripes 3" record player anyway.
