My first gig of 1997. It was a Monday evening and I’d spent most of the weekend moving everything I owned back to my parents house for a few months whilst I was between leases. I was moving out of the place where I was a lodger as my friends who owned the house were going to be having a baby in a couple of months and my room was going to be converted into the babies. The place I was going to move in to, where a couple of friends currently lived, was not going to be free for me for a little while until one of my friends had moved out to her new place, thus freeing up her room for me to move in to. It was all a bit musical chairs.

I primarily got a ticket to this NME show because of the Sneaker Pimps, who I adored. Their Becoming X album is still a favourite of mine today. I also fancied seeing Space again, who had come along way from the first time I saw as the opening act at Dublin Castle almost a year earlier (GIG 261) – to the headline act at the Astoria with a best selling album and a string of hits under their belt.

The Pecadiloes were the opening act of the evening. They were an indie rock band who started touring in 1996 and released a critically acclaimed (but not commerically successful) album in 1998 and a handful of EPs. They had a burst of activity and demand around them but for some reason never really caught on and none of their music made it on to Spotify or the like so unless you have their original releases you’re sadly unlikely to hear them. I thought they were ok live, but certainly worth the opening slot for the evenings entertainment.

Camden based Silver Sun were up next. They had formed in 1995 but were still a few months away from releasing their debut album, that would reach #30 in the UK album charts and include a number of Top 50 singles. Silver Sun certaily benefited from the Britpop era and the scramble by record labels to sign up as many indie bands as possible looking for that next success. Silver Sun, unlike The Pecadiloes, did manage to get a slice of that success and their second album in 1998 did even better and saw a Top 20 and Top 30 single from them. I quite enjoyed enjoyed them live, but never picked up any of their music for some reason – and don’t think I saw them live again. They continued playing until their singer, James Broad, died of cancer in 2020. 2020 also saw the release of their sixth album.

Sneaker Pimps were the main reason I was this gig. They had released their debut album, “Becoming X” in August 1996 and it’d reached #27 in the UK Charts. “6 Underground” was their breakthrough single and initially reached 15 in 1996 before being reissued in 1997 and making it all the way to #9. Other hits from the album included “Spin, Spin Sugar” and “Post Modern Sleaze”. I loved their trip-hop sound and Kelli Ali’s vocals. Becoming X was probably one of my most played albums between 1996-1999.

The band did not disappoint live either. They were fantastic and, unsurprisingly, my favourite band of the evening. I was lucky enough to see them live a few more times but Kelli Ali left the band before the second album as the founding duo of Liam Howeand Chris Corner felt that female vocals didn’t suit the new albums sound so Chris took over vocal duties (which he also handles in his solo IAMX project).

Space had achieved phenomenal success since I last saw them the previous January as the support band to Sunshot at The Dublin Castle. In the intervening tweleve months they had seen their debut album, “Spiders”, hit #5 in the UK Charts when it was released in September 1996, and had already three Top 15 singles off it (“Neighbourhood”, “Female of the Species”, and “Me and You Versus The World”), with a fourth track (“Dark Clouds”)released shortly after this gig that also hit the Top 15.

I’d enjoyed them at The Dublin Castle and thought they were very good. I was surprised at just how quickly they’d jumped from pub venue opening act to headlining The Astoria with a string of hits already behind them, but they were certainly handling things well. They put on a great show and, if it wasn’t for Sneaker Pimps also playing on the bill, would have been my favourite act of the night on many other occasions.