Gig

For some reason I completely forget to commemorate this particular gig anniversary (the 20th) on this day last year. So, today I'm commemorating the 21st.

On the rainy Thursday night of 20th February, 1997 me and my mate Ian went down to The Venue in Edinburgh to see Autechre, us both being fans of their, at times, punishing if often melodic strain of electronica. Support band were a couple of fellas up on stage in bobble hats nodding away as they brought their equipment to life with visuals of volcanoes, forests and ice floes playing out behind them. Me and Ian thought they were really good but had no idea who they were. Turns out that it was only the third gig that Boards Of Canada had ever played, and they would only go on to play another seven in the next four years - retiring from live performances it seems in 2001 after a mammoth total of ten gigs.

I had no idea of any of the track titles, but a year later when I realised who it was I'd seen, and when I purchased 'Music Has The Right To Children', I recognised one in particular that I'll link to at the end.

There were also a couple of other significant Boards Of Canada events in my life. One was when I was working at a record shop in Edinburgh and we all got invited to one of Warp's listening parties for the release of 'Geogaddi' (one of only six worldwide). The Edinburgh one was in St Johns Church at the end of Princes St on 28th January 2002, a Monday night if I remember, and we all piled down to the church after work to sit in the pews, have a beer or two, gawp at all the blue hexagons that decorated the church and listen to the forthcoming album. For all I know, Boards Of Canada were there in person, nobody really knew what they looked like after all.

Another time in the same record shop, I found a handful of copies of the debut mini-album 'Twoism' in the stockroom at the back of a cupboard. Turns out the band had hand-delivered them at the time of release to sell in the shop and they'd just never got booked on to the system. I got 'em booked on and bought a copy for a fiver., as did half the staff. They ended up being hugely collectible...we were tempted to ring up the number on the invoice and see if they had any left.... ;-)

Pete Standing Alone