Swig
Check out all the gigs I've been to. Yes, folks, I've seen everyone from Joan Baez - described as the 'Madonna of her generation' (though I don't think she ever gave Melanie a "tonguey") - to the Butthole Surfers. And that's just the letter B.

Things got off to an inauspicious beginning with Buddy Williams who toured the very small country towns. I saw him with my parents at Beacon Town Hall. Seeing Jimmy Little recently was like coming full circle to the old style country road show where the singer mingles with his fans during the intermission.

I was not enamoured of country music; it was what my folks listened to. And it was more convenience that led me to see Slim Dusty in Northam. After that there was the first show in the 'Big Smoke';a solo by Cliff Richard (so solo that he banged on his acoustic guitar for percussion) We drove down in the Youth Group bus for that one (another highlight in the group's activities was seeing Colonel Sanders - a surreal experience when you consider his act was dressing as a southern colonel and frying chicken. He didn't even do any cooking on stage like Jamie Oliver)

The first show I went to of my own volition - rather than just tagging along - was a fitting choice , Elvis Costello at the Perth Entertainment Centre; once the largest centre of its kind in the southern hemisphere. He was my favourite artist for many years and still figures very highly despite all the MOR stylings. He's my role model as a lyricist; apart from being supremely clever in wit and wordplay, his range covers the political and the personal equally well. Of performers who began their career in the seventies, he is one of the songwriters eminently worthy of having his songs covered. They have a lasting quality separate from any raspy rendering Costello might give them.
I've seen him three times so far.

Two that got away were John Cale; I went to the autoteller and found I didn't have enough for a ticket, and Big Black; saw them advertised in Phantom Records but didn't know who they were. When I found out how powerful they were I was spitting chips.
Of course there have been many other gigs I would have loved to have gone to. But I figure, looking at this lot, that I've done okay.