Ned's Atomic Dustbin

The first gig I ever went to, at least the first one I can remember, was Ned's Atomic Dustbin at the late and lamented Duchess of York in Leeds. It was the summer of 1990, I was in the middle of my GCSEs, christ alone knows how I managed to convince my parents to let me go.

I remember seeing the advert in the NME and being so excited I had to rush to school and tell my friends and convince them to go. I remember that it was Gareth (who was at the Bob gig with me below) and Si. In later years these two were to lead me astray more than any other people since, but they were up for it so off we went.

At the time the band only just released Kill Your Television, so they can only have had about 8 songs but it didn't matter, this was my introduction to proper rock and roll. And watered-down piss-awful beer and stage-diving. And the late train back to Huddersfield.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin were part of the same West Midlands indie scene that gave us The Wonderstuff and Mega City 4. They were so rock and roll they had two bassists and by God they were good live. More than anything though, they sold t-shirts like nobody else alive. Jon the singer couldn't so much as go to the shops without the band releasing a celebratory shirt.

As I typed that last line I remembered that I've still got a t-shirt from that very first gig, it's old and fucked and faded and I've been carting the sodding thing around ever since even though it doesn't fit me, but I've still got it and if I have any say in the matter it'll be buried with me.

I know that the band have cashed in over the past couple of years and you can get pretty much everything on CD now, but "Plug Me In" from the very first Ingredients EP is still one of my favourite 150 seconds of music so here it is in all it's scratchy vinyly goodness.