Thirty Five To Forty People To See Matthew Dear On A Friday Night In Liverpool

It's happened to me before, as I'm sure it's happened to most of you. I remember it particularly when I went to Brixton's George lV in 1998. Terry Francis was playing in his South London heartland, (even though he's from Leatherhead). Wiggle was at it's peak, selling out parties, as it always has and continues to do. It was a Saturday night, £5 to get in, the George was normally packed to the rafters for "Come Shake The Whole" (it's monthly house hoedown), surely it would be the same, if not more so, for Terry. Well, apart from me and my mates, maybe five or six others made it in. There were no more than fifteen of us all night. We had a great time all the same but I found it quite inexplicable why the night had been so poorly attended.

That feeling of incredulity returned last weekend when a friend of mine, let's call him Colin, told me that only around thirty five to forty punters were in attendance to check out Matthew Dear on the Liverpool date of his tour, playing at the O2 Academy. I was very surprised, Liverpool being a city with a reasonably well-developed club scene and one where live music has traditionally always found a very willing and responsive audience. All this and only £8 to get in on a Friday night, what could possibly go wrong? Well, under attendance on a grand scale. Check this link to see how many people - and they're just RA members - went to see him in Glasgow. The ultimate kick in the nuts was the presence of a poster advertising a Shakin' Stevens gig at £22.50 a shot.

In any case, Colin enjoyed the evening very much, chatted to a very unassuming Matthew Dear and came away happy, which is how it should be. He'd just been to great gig, the star attraction of which was one of the worlds foremost electronic artists who, as a side order, is also an exceptional DJ and has just released one of the years best albums of any genre. What could possibly have gone wrong?