Fan Fare: Lucy Nichol on buying, selling and then rebuying The Breeders tickets

For the next Fan Fare installment, the author and self-pegged "flunked punk" flies solo to see the Deal sisters live for the first time and reflects on why being shy is a waste of a good gig

Kelley and Kim Deal of The Breeders (Photo credit: Ben Houdijk)

One of my favourite live stories to roll out is always around The Breeders’ 20th-anniversary tour where I met a guy named Sam¹ outside Kentish Town station. He was buying the second ticket I had for the show after contacting me on (then) Twitter. As we did the exchange, I was looking up the street towards the venue when Sam (I horrifyingly realised) was beginning to make small talk while keeping pace with me.

Being the unwavering people pleaser I am, Sam and I stood in line together, and even for the opening number before thankfully the tell-tale vocal sounded for enormo-indie-disco-staple ‘Cannonball’ and he bounded off into the mosh pit. But the best part, aside from the anecdote, is that when the band finished up with Last Splash’s celebrations, they came back on for an encore and proceeded to play the entirety of their first record Pod too. Glorious indeed.

I’m not the only one to be charmed by the Deal sisters as today’s special guest and fellow Substacker Lucy Nichol can attest as she shares her recent gig-going experience with you which involved buying, selling, and then rebuying tickets to the band’s Leeds shows after an unstoppable bout of FOMO. And if you like this nod to the 90s, I can’t recommend Lucy’s books, The Twenty Seven Club and Parklife, enough².

1. Your cherished live moment is with indie icons The Breeders who you confessed you never saw during their original rock reign. Who was the first band or artist that you saw perform live?

Do I need to mention Chesney Hawkes here or can I dive straight into what I will call my actual gig-going career? In all honesty, yes, the above was the first, for a friend’s 12th birthday party. I wasn’t a fan, and neither was she especially, but she had started going to lots of live shows and this was the next on her list so we all went together to celebrate. But I’d rather not waste this answer delving into the details of that one as it had no bearing on my actual taste in music!