My musical obsession with the Pixies starting in 1999 when I bought the compilation album, 'Death To The Pixies', during one of my frequent visits to HMV in Leeds, when I should have been attending lectures. For a wee kid brought up on metal, then Britpop, the Pixies seemed like they came from another planet. Deranged chants in Spanish, songs about monkeys going to heaven, Oasis this was not. The band were almost perfect. Super slinky bass lines and gravely whispers from Kim Deal; heavy ass drums that bounced, rather than plodded from David Lovering; unique, spikey guitar parts from Joey Santiago, and monolithic riffs and vocals from Black Francis.
Most people who say they "love music" are really using the word 'love' as a synonym for 'don't mind' or 'quite like'. I genuinely love music. So much that even my girlfriend, best friends and family don't really understand. And I'm aware how 'teenage' that last sentence sounds thankyouverymuch. Dude. Anyway, with that in mind, I hope you can accept that when I say the Pixies changed my life, it isn't hyperbole. My guitar style evolved as a direct result of listening to Joey Santiago. Black Francis taught me that, rather than exclusively being about girls and feeling sorry for yourself, songs could reference all manner of nonsense, from Buñuel to religion, aliens to French engineers. I discovered scores of bands while looking for the same rush I'd experienced when I first heard "Debaser" and "U-Mass". Perhaps most importantly the Pixies made me realise that there was nothing wrong with being an individual, liking what I wanted to like and exploring less obvious paths in life.
The Pixies split in 1993 so I thought there was no chance I'd ever get to see them play (thankfully I was wrong, but more about that later). The next best thing was to see Frank Black (nee Black Francis), who'd begun to include Pixies songs in his solo shows and had recently added Joey Santiago to his backing band, The Catholics. I could not believe it when he announced a show at the Cockpit at the beginning of 2001. Not one, but two, of my heroes playing on the same stage that my own band had performed on. I simply had to be there dahling...
The rest of Novcain weren't into the Pixies, but Mike and particularly Suggy, had broad minds when it came to music, and both said they'd come with me. I met them at the train station and we headed to the Cockpit. One of my favourite Leeds bands Lorimer, who we'd played with at Joseph's Well in December 1999, were meant to be opening the show, but they cancelled a few weeks before so we thought there wasn't much point getting there super early. I later found out that Richard Hawley, on his first UK tour after leaving the Longpigs, was the support. Balls. We also managed to miss Black's first few songs. I'd forgotten that there was a club night at the Cockpit on a Wednesday night which meant gigs had to finish early. Double balls.
Thankfully the rest of the show was fantastic. Despite the fact that the Cockpit was rammed and I was behind Tall People and couldn't see a thing for most of the night. Sob. Predictably the highlights were the handful of Pixies songs that appeared in the set. My melon was WELL & TRULY TWISTED (man) by the likes of "Holiday Song", "Monkey Gone To Heaven" and "Gouge Away" played by Black and Santiago right in front of my little face, on a small stage, in a small venue, in my town. Wow. The solo / Catholics stuff was good too, although I've always felt that Black's songs sound like they're missing something. Namely the bleedin' Pixies. We got a mixture of old singles, such as the Pixies-lite "Los Angeles" and straight-up college rock anthem "All My Ghosts", along with a bunch of tracks from the really rather good, recently released record 'Dog In The Sand'. Real. Black did his best Elton John and Neil Young impressions on "If It Takes All Night" and "I'll Be Blue" respectively. Santiago seemed more at home with the mariachi vibe of "Llano Del Rio" and the stunning Rolling Stones-esque "Hermaphroditos". It was bloody AMAZE.
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