Suede, Brixton Academy, 11/05/11

It is difficult to explain how big an effect Suede's debut album had on me when I first heard it as a 16 year old back in 1993. I had already gone through through fairly obsessive phases with other bands (mainly REM and The Smiths) but this was the first time I had was immersing myself in a band that was happening now and didn't have a history to get to grips with. Looking back on the album now it is the lyrical preoccupation with (homo)sexuality and drugs that appear most striking but at the time I barely recognised these factors, being blissfully unaware. It was the feeling of entering into a different, exciting world that attraced me to it, a sense of "other" that I could attached myself to with pride and passion. I really hadn't experienced anything quite like it up to that point and I felt almost compelled to align myself with bands such as Suede as a means of rejecting the mainstream, alienating culture that I hated and perceived to be proliferating around Newcastle at that time.

Fast forward 18 years later, and Suede announce they were going to play their first three albums in their entirety at Brixton Axcademy. I immediately decided I would go to see the first show. Listening to the album again in the week leading up to the show seemed to reinforce how great an album it is.

They were excellent. So Young, Moving and Metal Mickey were the highlights for me. After playing the album they played a selection of early b-sides and finished with Trash and Beautiful Ones from third album Coming Up. Nothing from Dog Man Star sadly (being saved for the following evening).