Manchester

Then on the Friday, I went to see Mogwai for the first time ever.

I met Carl around four and we went to have a cup of coffee at a nice cafe. I'd been told Mogwai would be arriving around 5 o'clock so we wandered back to the Roadhouse for, well ten to five. I guessed Mogwai had arrived as there was a van parked outside with a picture of Princess Leia in the window...

When we got inside the stage was being set up and Mogwai were skateboarding around the venue. I spotted Stuart just as he spotted me and he came over and remembered my name and everything. They were all very excited because they'd just got the tape of the Kevin Shields remix which they were dying to hear. They were harassing people to put it on but were advised to wait ten minutes until they were allowed to have the PA on. Obviously me and Carl were rather honoured to be able to get such a sneak preview and were soon treated to sounds of a loudness you don't normally get to experience. Stuart stood in between the speakers to hear it and everyone looked rather pleased. Much waiting around and soundchecking assumed so we sat about and wrote questions. We were also asked to keep an eye on the ceiling as one of the pipes started leaking all over the place - not dangerous at all, oh no.... There were no more leaks though and eventually Stuart came through and led us into the dressing room.

<< read the interview >>

Once the tape is switched off we stay and chat for a wee while longer partly because it's so comfy on that sofa but we drag ourselves away upon hearing Hirameka Hi-Fi are in the building. We go through to the venue somehow imagining we'd recognise Hirameka but obviously we don't so I have to go back through and ask Stuart to point them out. I speak to Tom and Matt (of 'Damn You!') - "do you smoke?", they ask, offering cigarettes. And when we say 'no', "do you eat Pringles?", offering said potato product. Of course we eat Pringles...

We sit around for ages and ages - Carl realises he's not going to have time to go home and get his ticket so I offer him my +1 since Alex can't make it. I'd forgotten about the Press losing their +1s though and have to do some slight pleading and reasoning with the guest list girl. She relents but is pretty hard on other fanzine people expecting just to be allowed to stay. We go to buy T-shirts but I'm horrified that I only have one choice as the other two T-shirts are frankly rather sexist featuring a naked woman - gah! I wish I'd known so I could have harassed Mogwai about it in the interview. I buy the Miracleman one as does Carl.

I meet lots of Carl's friends and we all sit at the front of the stage. Aerial M are really wonderful. I loved how the band all watch David Pajo, waiting for the signs of where to go next - it's obviously his band although they work together really well. I find it a little difficult to concentrate as Stuart Mogwai is standing near the backstage door and waves at me from behind Aerial M so that I laugh and look silly.

Finally it's time. I wanted to be at the front so that I could watch Mogwai and see how on earth they made the noises they do with their own hands - I wanted to see them do it in front of my eyes, prove they weren't magicians or pawns in some evil mind game.

Nothing can prepare you for Mogwai live. Believe me, I did all the preparing I thought I could (apart from playing Mogwai at top volume with my head against the speakers, but I've done similar things in my life). I knew they would surpass any expectations I had, I knew it would change the way I looked at things forever, I knew it would change the way I felt but still... Nothing, nothing nothing on earth can prepare you for 'Mogwai Fear Satan' live. Nothing. I just could not believe it. Even though I was standing there watching, watching everything they did. They built their mesh of noise, then one by one, they left their guitars and one by one they took up percussion until finally there was only drumming. But you couldn't see the join, you couldn't have told when the guitars stopped and the drumming started. Because Mogwai give new meaning to noise, they can make noise with everything. Maybe noise is like colour, like how when you mix exact quantities of red, yellow, blue, you get neutral. And you can't tell there's all the colours of the rainbow there, condensed into one colour.

It was one of those gigs where you feel you could stay up forever - what does sleep matter anymore? But you also want to be alone in the dark to hug it all gleefully and revel in the fact that you've seen it happen, you were there and you saw it. And as I lay there in the dark I was never more pleased that I'd decided to go to Edinburgh as well.

Edinburgh >>