Gigaholism

Ray Morrisey hit the news yesterday for, at the age of 49, he has just achieved the milestone of attending 5000 separate gigs over the course of the last 35 years. On his website, he lists all the bands that he's seen. It looks as if he would go and see anyone but his great favourites are the punk bands. Nowadays, he is something of a gig-going celebrity and he can blag his way into most venues.

I was talking to my punk rock buddy Gary about Ray Morrisey. It could be said that we are contemporaries of Ray and may have rubbed shoulders or moshed with him. Gary reckoned that Ray wasn't terribly discerning in which bands he saw but was willing to forgive him this in view of his consuming passion for punk rock.

Gary is another of those people who keeps a close record of all the gigs that he's seen. He's well into his hundreds and points out that as Ray lives in London he has far greater opportunity of seeing a wider variety and greater quantity of bands that we do stock out on a limb in the West Country.

A mutual mate, Rich, has been exhibiting signs of gigaholism for some time. It could be said that attending gigs is Rich's principal hobby (with the possible exception of Plymouth Argyle) and he's attended one or two with us. Although he doesn't drive, he gets around a lot, principally using the train. One occasion, Rich was marooned in deepest Somerset but was extremely lucky to get a lift from the lead singer of the band -- PJ Harvey herself. Rich is now an even bigger fan of Ms Harvey then he was before.

"She's just a really nice person," he explains. It struck me that there can't be many rock stars who would do that for their fans these days.

I haven't seen much of Rich, recently. Neither has Gary. It seems that Rich has truly got the gig-going bit between his teeth and is trying to see as many bands as he possibly can. Using public transport, this takes some doing but Rich is already far in excess of Gary's total and reckons he's up to 540.

Me? I'm still into double figures. It's quality of gig I'm after. I want them all to be memorable rather than just a mixed up blur.

Last night Gary saw Rich and the subject of Ray Morrissey's achievement inevitably came up.

"He may have seen 5,000 bands," said Rich, "but I reckon I've travelled more miles to see my 500."

Ray lives in London. Rich lives in Plymouth. If I were a betting man, my money would be on Rich's air guitar miles.

But Gary doesn't mind Rich overtaking him the numbers of gigs he's been to. "All I have to do," he says, "if Rich starts going on about the latest band he's seen, is just say how much I enjoyed seeing New Order when they were still unknown."

Needless to say, New Order is one of Rich's favourite bands and the one he would most would most liked to have seen. But he'll never get the chance now.

Maybe that's the whole point of live music. It's epehemeral so make the most of it while the bands are around.