Headphones On

I got home from a party tonight, sat down at my computer and decided whatever came up on random in iTunes would become my song of the day. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you...

Suede - Black or Blue
Somehow my random generator, my computer, my itunes, whatever force lives inside my little laptop, just had to pick one of those life changing songs. I remember this song, this whole album really, as if it was yesterday.

It was February 1995. Technically, I was still in high school although realistically I'd "graduated early" and stopped going to pack up and move from Chicagoland to West Michigan. It was a change in my life I was not looking forward to by any stretch of the imagination. At the same time, Suede (ahem, The London Suede) finally released their sophomore album Dog Man Star upon the world, and most importantly my small corner of the world.

They were due to play the Metro (with new guitarist Richard Oakes) just days before I was scheduled to move. I had practically been living at 3730 N Clark over the preceding months¹ but this would be THE SHOW before I left. The one that I knew I'd remember forever as the last day as a Chicagoan. The one that would bring tears to my eyes as I crossed the Illinois border into Indiana never looking back.

The day of the show, I was driving somewhere in my car. Per the usual I had the radio dial set on WCBR, a now defunct "college" radio station² and heard the DJ announced they'd have Suede on the air for an interview in a half an hour. I pulled a U-turn at whatever intersection I was at, picked up my best friend Anna and headed up the radio station³. We sat in the parking lot unsure of what to do for about five minutes before a limo pulled up. A limo.⁴ Out stepped Simon Gilbert and Brett Anderson along with some manager bloke. Some unknown force got me out of that car and into their path. I don't know how we introduced ourselves or even explained our presence at this random radio station in the Chicago suburbs. I do know that whatever we said was good enough to get us invited in to listen into the interview from the green room and share some lunch with them. I can still picture Brett sat in the studio, separated by only a window. He sat with one leg crossed, ankle resting on his knee, his hands folded on the back of his head. I remember thinking the diamond studded Rolex on his wrist was far more impressive than the limo and wow, was their actually money in making music that I liked?

Cut to a few hours later. We are downtown now, we lined up early⁵ and are in the venue waiting out the opening band (whom I have absolutely no recollection of). The show in general is a bit of a blur⁶ but I remember the encore crystal clear... "Black Or Blue" with only Richard on piano and Brett at the mic lounge singer style. That was the very image burned into my brain as two days later I left my friends and life behind and moved to Michigan. I'm not sure if there were more tears at the show or in the car as I watched the Chicago signs fade into the distance in my rear view mirror.

¹ Lord knows how I afforded it all with the meager earnings I made life guarding and teaching wee kids to swim.
² In no way affiliated with a college and in a random office building in Arlington Heights.
³ In a strange turn of events, I had been to this station a few times. The band I was in in high school played live on the air there once and I'd been in the studio a night or two.
⁴ Oh those were the days when whomever the NME christened the best-band-in-the-world actually BECAME the best-band-in-the-world for a few days.
⁵ As one had to do during the era of "Britpop" if they were only 5' tall and needed to stand up front for the show.
⁶ Insert pointless but bad Blur vs Suede joke here.

Buy some: Suede