Symposium had been heralded as the “Best Live Band in Britain” by Melody Maker in March 1997 and the band was riding high having scored a #25 hit, “Farewell to Twilight” earlier in the year, with their following up single, “The Answer To Why I Hate You” currently sitting in the Top 40 at the time of this gig.

They’d go on to have another #25 topping single in August with probably their best known song, “Fairweather Friend”, and their debut 8-track mini-album “One Day At A Time” would hit #29 in the album charts when it released in the autumn.

Supporting a host of great acts such as Metallica, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters, No Doubt, Rancid and others the band had all the ingredients to be “The Next Big Thing” ™, but for whatever reason they only went on to release a second album in 1998, a live record in 1999 and had a handful of singles which generally nudged in to the Top 50 but never went much further. By 2000 they were without a record label and split up due to the ever popular “musical differences”.

But in the summer of ’97 they were becoming big news, and I had a ticket to see them at The Electric Ballroom in Camden. I unfortunately missed the support band as I had a meeting after work that meant I didn’t get into Camden until almost 9pm, but got in before Symposium took to the stage.

With Melody Maker proclaiming them to be the Best Live Band in Britain they obviously had a lot to live up to. Now, whilst I certainly wouldn’t say they were the best British live band around at the time they were certainly very good with their blend of pop punk keeping the audience jumping.

I was interviewed after the gig by Japanese TV and, perhaps slightly a bit drunkenly, declared that Symposium would take the country by storm and be bigger than Shampoo (a fun female duo who had been having a fair bit of success over there). Just goes to show that no one should ask a drunken Angus to predict the future…