This page is generally devoted to the concept of feeling sorry for support bands. We have very very rarely missed a support band. This is not to say we generally love sitting through a set of sometimes mindblowingly bad music, it's just that we do feel you deserve an audience just for having the guts to get up on stage and play. And though it's a harsh thing to say, most main bands don't want their support to be better than them. Think about it.

Invariably at least one member of the band can play an instument really well. You know that in years to come this person will probably turn up in a really good band somewhere and bootlegs of early dire appearences will sell for a song (no pun intended) on ebay.

It can also be an entertaining experience, for example the support for me man Bernard at the Lemon Tree had a lead singer despite most of the songs being instrumental...evidently one the drummer wrote, he hadn't got as far as lyrics....

Our gold standard of utterly dire is probably Sunhouse (this is a song about a bad trip...this is a song about a friend who had a bad trip...oh SHUT UP AND GO AWAY!!!). The gold standard of entirely naff but somewhat endearing has to be the Hybirds. Bless 'em.

That is not to say that some support bands aren't good.....Gorky's, bless 'em, supported Teenage Fanclub, Teenage Fanclub, bless 'em, supported Radiohead, Astrid (from Shetland) supported Roddy, the Manics usually have excellent support (Catatonia, Super Furries, Feeder etc, they've also toured with the Stereophonics).......but these bands are generally competent enough to know that their fans may love their support bands, but they are also devoted to them.

There is the odd occassion when the support is above and beyond better than the headliners....for example, we weren't there of course, but Travis supported Oasis, there can be no competition....and there was the "interesting" gig at the Glasgow School of Art....

Can't remember the date exactly (around July 1998), but Sharon turned up at the Rennie Macintish designed venue with 2 friends, one who had literally just flown in from San Francisco - no time for jet lag!! At the gig they met Anna who introduced them to Stephen pastel of the Pastels...she should have known better.....speak to an important person????? No way!!

Support that day came from National Park...utterly beautiful Glasgow band who should be way more famous than they are, and The Pastels, who seem to have single handedly motivated the Glasgow band scene for many years, in a quiet way. Both bands were exceptional.

National Park: they are very shy..

Then the main band.....a Japanese psychedelic outfit by the name of...wait for it....Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO......snappy huh? It's pretty difficult to describe their music as what we did hear was through the fingers in our ears as we rapidly backed off towards the door, out of the door and in to the realtively quiet and safe confines of the corridor before permanent deafness set in.

And the moral? Always turn up for the support bands, you never know when you may discover something beautiful, you may witness something unexpected, and you will certainly be entertained.