General »   Gigs

If we can get enough fans to cough up, maybe we can PAY Bob to do a one-off show. I'd bloody pay for that :)

Goodness, a 25th anniversary reunion, now that would be one hot ticket!

Some sort of competition would be a great idea.

I bet that gigography will be huge. You lot seemed to be on tour every four months in support of every EP for about four years!

Of course, if you were going to reform, we would insist the PA involved a rewired toaster or kettle at the very least...

2011, eh? - Getting excited already - went and bought a new guitar lead this afternoon, and I've been checking out new amps ... light ones. Played along to the album as well - plenty of homework to do, but I actually enjoyed hearing it, which hasn't happened since we recorded it...

Here we go! S.

Saw Richard and Simon at the Harlesden Mean Fiddler around 1990 with Twa Toots supporting. It was a covers set - "Rain", "She Moved Through The Fair" etc.

The Leicester Charlotte gig was ripped from hand held cassette by my goodself. I shared it on Soulseek a few years back and it seems to have made it's way around as intended. Still the only full BOB gig i've come across though.

That Charlotte gig was brilliant though - we travelled over from Derby and my mate John ended up a bit tipsy (the one shouting "Esmerelda" between songs..)

Do you have the missing songs, old chap?! Thanks for taping the thing in the first place..it was good to hear after all these years! I've just listened to Live in Munich from 1991 and Live in Lucerne from 1992. Both pretty good...and complete...will put up soon. There are several others...Simon's got some too :)

The two missing songs are now in place, and the set list sequence has been restored! Thank you ally, thank you frankosonic.

Will try and put Munich up this weekend.

RvB

True, yes. We were also supported by Blur in Cambridge. I guess if we'd hung on a bit longer, we'd have been part of that whole Brit Pop thing, but we stopped just before it kicked in.

We were courted for a while by an A&R guy from EMI called Dave Ambrose. He was trying to decide whether to sign us or this other band called Radiohead...

...and he made the right decision, frankly ;)

Glad to hear we're still fondly remembered in Shrewsbury. We had fun in The Fridge. There's at least one live recording of us playing there, and also a video, methinks. Will enquire...

RvB x

I first saw Bob at the Piece Hall in Halifax in 1990 (if my memory serves me correctly). I originally went to see Pulp who were playing on the same bill (aswell as Blammo - what happened to them?) but Bob were much better. I knew from the moment that the band started to play 'convenience' and do their guitar jumps that this was gonna be my new favourite band and you still are, even to this day. Bob's music always cheers me up and one of my favourite gigs will always be that eventful night in Halifax in 1990. If anyone has a copy of this gig please put it up, I would be ever so.

PS. I also saw Bob at Burberrys, Broad Street. Seem to remember Jon Fat Beast being there.

Bolton Institute of Higher Education, a Wednesday night sometime in January/February (at a guess -it was a dark night, at any rate) 1990. I seem to recall 'I Don't Know' had been released, and maybe it was the tour for 'Stride Up' a single which managed to make it into Bolton's 'Our Price', saving me (John) the usual trip to Manchester to buy it.
Turned up ridiculously early, and had to leave before the end because the last bus did not take into account rare gigs at the BIHE. Shared a slice of Pizza with Jem, and got t-shirt signed - now faded :-(
We will trawl through our stuff and see what other dates we can find. The Mean Fiddler rings a definite bell with Jo too...

Bob Bob Bob. What a delight it is to nosey around your site. Been waiting 20 years to hear Scarecrow again!

I first saw you with a group of mates, Stratford Moat House I'm guessing from your gig list. We drove up from Cheltenham after someone heard you on John Peel and gave a glowing report. All of us were blown away that night. Especially remember Brian Wilson's Bed, Kirsty and So Far So Good. Fantastic. Also seem to remember Richard at a keyboard?

Next time live I think was at the Fleece & Firkin in Bristol. The keyboard was gone (think you said it broke) but great gig again. I remember two things from after: 1)trying to persuade you (without success) to part with your misprinted 'No Stopping' Bob badge - the printer got the red and blues mixed up. 2)Simon being knackered and sitting by the side of the stage with his head in his hands after the last encore. I felt awkward asking him to sign my Bob poster, but he did: "Have My Children!" he wrote.

There were at least three other gigs - Bristol Bierkeller, somewhere odd and hall-like in Birmingham and Jericho Tavern Oxford. I missed out on a lot by spending a year in France, but I did once see a write-up for Esmerelda Brooklyn in "Les Inrockuptibles" (think cross between Q & NME in French)that compared your writing skills to Lennon & Macartney. Just thought you might like to know, if you didn't already.

Anyway, I've waffled far too long. Thanks for the site, thanks for the great memories, and here's to a reunion gig in the near future. If you could give me some notice that would be good - I live in New Zealand now, but I reckon I could wangle it. And bring along at least 15-20 mates who still live in the UK. One of them would be a chap called Rod who I believe put you up in Stoke one night after a gig(?). Think he might even have got that prized badge off you in return....

Cheers

BM

Hiya, Bibster & the Myspace folks -
Good to have some action round here after a while; I've been having a lovely summer so far (cricket notwithstanding), hope y'all have too...

- I remember that night in Bristol - a couple of times that happened, all the jumping up and down got too much, and having a bit of a collapse seemed like the only option. Those tours were quite hard work...

Which does remind me - we never had any accommodation lined up for any gigs in this country -it was always a question of crashing on somebody's floor (or settee if you were quick out of the van), so a good night's sleep could be hard to come by. It's no wonder we were jiggered sometimes.

But if we did ever take over your house, flat, parents house, room or pub all those years ago, a big BOB THANKYOU is probably long overdue... Couldn't have done it without you. Leave a post on here if you're still talking to us - it would be a treat to hear from you again.


Some of those '91 dates were with the mighty Carter, I'm pretty sure. Others we headlined with a great outfit called Langfield Crane. Another day we'll natter about all the other top acts we had on with us - I've certainly got a little mental list of favourites ...

Anyway, another time . Cheers, Everybody... S.

Anyone remember the Rotherham gig in the early 90's?...shame to admit it but I was one of those fresh faced young lads who got up on the stage to sing convenience & what a performance...brill that you even let us get up there to do the vocals!

Saw you at least 4 times 'up north' and always had a chat with Simon et al afterwards...best times of our lives.....bloody great that you're back!

Steve

Hi All,

Got to echo what Steve says about the best times of our lives etc. I'm a 44 year old adult, but I still wish that someone would hurry up and invent an affordable time-machine. Seriously!

Cheers
Mark

Not strictly supported - we tossed a coin. I thought they had nice guitars too...

Hello,Jukka & Shrewsbury and a very happy late new year everyone else, too. Hope you're all fine... We always had a good time in Shrewsbury. That's where we were when the Berlin wall came down, although I'm fairly sure we were more interested in getting to the cafe... Anyone seen Neville?
Oh, and who were the PA company there? They always seemed to do Birmingham gigs too - nice blokes with decent monitors; all too rare, I'm afraid. S. xx

Hi Neville - Justin here. You mentioning the Hardy Boys had me digging through piles of Vinyl and finally finding my copy of Wonderful Lie - 20 years !!??!! frightening!
Would be a great gig though.

I remember seeing you guys at the fridge in Shrewsbury, sadly the club folded which was a real shame.

I recall that the support was called OBO, and really it was you guys!!

Great gig, sadly my BOB tshirt bit the dust along with the huge amount of family cat ones i also had.

Please do a tour boys, there are plenty of 30 / 40 somethings ready to greet you!!

I saw the popguns possibly around the time of Esmerelda Brooklyn and I think Bob supported them or vice versa. The thing with the fridge due to cheap red stripe, it could have been anyone.

Had my bob logo t-shirt up until about 10 years ago and then also like my family cat t-shirts they became solely for using when my wife dyed her hair. I may still have a setlist from a fridge gig and possibly in some box somewhere a badge.