137 BIRDLAND, Rumblefish, Bristol Bierkeller, Monday 10 July 1989

Had a few pints and games of pool on arrival; a good evening always guaranteed at the Bierkeller! This was the calm before the storm, however...

Also on arrival, I was pleasantly surprised that the very fine Rumblefish were supporting; they put on a great show of their jangle pop, which had shades of C86, The June Brides and even Echo And The Bunnymen. Great stuff, with "Medicine" a standout track. Spoke to Rumblefish mainman Jeremy Paige afterwards, and bought a t-shirt from him for the princely sum of £2.99!

Birdland, current much hyped punky media darlings, came on to a manic welcome, and played a loud, punky, brash set in a blur of energy and blond moptop hair, totally wrecking the place during their barely half-hour set of blistering amphetamine bullets. Encores? Ha! No chance of that as the stage was destroyed! Got a set-list - God knows how!

169 THE PARACHUTE MEN, Rumblefish, Oxford Jericho Tavern, Friday 6 July 1990

Drove down on my own for this one and met up with the Parachute Men and their entourage for beer and banter in the pub downstairs beforehand. I've got Paras vocalist Fiona's favourite phrase, "you wouldn't let it lie!" permanently imprinted on my brain now, the amount of times I've heard it in the last week...

Got in on the guest list (hooray!) and went upstairs to the small room venue for the Rumblefish set of bouncy, quality pop music with good honest memorable tunes, the kind that no-one seems to listen to any more, sadly. I liked it though, and commended main Fish man Jeremy Paige afterwards.

As for the Parachute Men; the one thing I've noticed about their recent slew of performances is the added dynamism. Tonight, they put on yet another determined set of kick-ass rock and roll, and heartfelt sobbing ballads, with a superb encore version of "Norwegian Wood" (featuring Fi's friend Joanne... "plucked at random from the audience!" Yeah, right...) and brilliant oldie "Tell Everyone". I'll tell everyone about 1990's new, resilient Parachute Men, no worries!