When their elevated smartphones obscured my view for the live Instagram broadcasts they began filming (of this performance they had no interest in actually listening to), I can only hope their followers could hear me in the background of the clip, shouting 'FOR FUCK'S SAKE!' I've suffered two fools chatting in front of me through all the early songs in the set of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

I witnessed Kim Gordon's silvery boot get pelted with beer and if I knew who'd hurled that plastic cup they would have found themselves on the wrong end of a hard stare à la Paddington Bear. With the smooth comes the rough, and I have effortlessly rekindled my disapproval of fellow flyers, tourists and festival goers.

It was merely a moderate strain of old-fashioned man flu. Then I thought I'd immediately caught Covid for the second time. I've even been to a music festival in - get this - a whole different country. As anticipated, I had a bit of a cry during 'Do You Realize?'. In Leeds, I finally attended the Flaming Lips gig that had been postponed several times since whenever it was meant to happen originally. All those moments will be lost in Tyne, like tears in rain. I watched Ryley Walker mullet in The Cluny near The Cumberland Arms. Fat Whites on fire as they warmed up for Liam. I've seen things our past selves of 2020-21 wouldn't believe. I could still taste the acrid Lemsips, so got off lightly. Imagine that! I caught Covid almost immediately, obviously, and spent a week or so feeling sorry for myself. So much has happened since April's edition of Columnfortably Numb, it feels as though my life has leapt from Xavier de Maistre's A Journey Around My Room to a Rocky montage directed by Michael Bay (albeit with less actual violence, little in the way of self-improvement and a much better soundtrack if I do say so myself).įor one thing, I began attending gigs regularly again. After the enforced inactivity of the lockdown era, this year is flying past faster than Speedy Gonzales on Lance Armstrong's pep pills.

Psyche rock opera