For The Dead
- serialmiller
- Mar 28
- 2 min read
Well, it's only been a year since I last posted here.
30 years ago today, I saw Gene at the Northampton Roadmender. I'd been excited about the band for some time and I think this show, on the back of the Olympian LP which had just been released, was the first time they played in Northampton. I can't remember much about it - was it busy ? What did they play ? No idea - and the internet doesn't really fill in the detail for me.
I do know that they rapidly became my favourite band. When the compilation LP "To See The Lights" came out a year later, I was down the front at the Astoria, and I saw them many times more before the farewell show at the same venue in 2004. Now, 30 years from that first show, and 21 years since that final gig, they've announced a reunion show at the Hammersmith Odeon, a far bigger venue than the ones they were gracing by the end, and it's sold out in the blink of an eye. I'll be there of course, and I've roped in some of the friends that I dragged along the way - it's not just a reunion for the band - it's a reunion for the audience.
Gene gigs were always about community - yes, the band were amazing, and it was fantastic to see Steve up there throwing himself into his guitar moves, or Martin leaning out from the stage and talking specifically to you. But the crowd were singing as well - it's first apparent on the version of Olympian on "To See The Lights, with the crowd leaning into the refrain at the end, and it became a feature of the gigs with the crowd singing along to the likes of "You'll Never Walk Again" and "We Could Be Kings" - it feels genuinely warm to be in the midst of a crowd shouting out "It's time to tell my friends I love them"
I'm happy to see them coming back and I think they deserve the payday. It was apparent back in 2004 that the record companies had moved on, and that they had a devoted fanbase that wasn't really getting any bigger. Twenty years later, we all want to recapture those days. Where Are They Now?
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