Rose of Avalanche was the first gig I went to in 1989 – which was the year which really saw me explode on to the gig scene (I’d seen 1 gig in ’87, 5 in ’88 and 1989 would go on to see me go to 27 gigs – which wasn’t the most in a year by any means – I think that was 1995 when I went to a massive 65 concerts!). It was also the first time that I saw a band for a second time, as I’d seen Rose of Avalanche the previous year supporting Ghost Dance.

Rose of Avalanche had become one of my favourite bands at the time and so a trip down to ULU (University of London Union) was pretty much a no-brainer. Rose of Avalanche were, unsurprisingly, brilliant and whilst their main support act – Dawn After Dark – were also very good the surprise package of the night was a band called Claytown Troupe whom I would go on to see live a number of times and also got to meet the lead singer quite a bit. Claytown Troupe had played a lot in their home town of Bristol but I’m not sure they’d played London often prior to this gig, That soon changed with 1989 becoming their breakout year with two singles (“Prayer” and “Hey Lord”) breaking the UK Top 100 and getting video plays on TV as well as the release of their debut album (“Through The Veil”) through Island Records.