Welcome…

… to Gourmet Gigs, the mostly-music website. Our focus is on up and coming artists. The other big part is festivals with reviews and recommends. Why ‘gourmet’ gigs? Because this site started with food and music, but the music won out. Still an appropriate name as we love a gig that’s gourmet standard. And we’re still up for featuring food!
A note about venues… sadly Manchester’s Night and Day yet again finds its future in the balance. Let’s hope that the council see sense and find a way to soundproof the flats next door, built during the pandemic. Brixton Academy has its licence suspended for three months after the deaths of two after a crowd crush in December 2022. I’ve attended countless gigs, never with a problem. Let’s hope this matter can be resolved because Brixton Academy is a vital part of the London gigging scene. Too many are closing such as Nambucca in north London last year… Frank Turner played on its final night. He’s a huge supporter of grassroots venues and as he says: keep going to those venues, folks…
Our history
Gourmet Gigs began on June 3 2012 with Field Day festival in Victoria Park where I saw the elusive Mazzy Star, review here. I’ve had some memorable moments like seeing David Bowie in Hanley, Staffordshire in the Ziggy Stardust days. My first festival was Buxton in 1972 with John Peel announcing the bands. It took place on a freezing cold windy moor but I remember absolutely loving the whole experience. People were shouting ‘Wally’ at night… was that the forerunner to ‘Alan’… or was it a callout for ‘substances’?
Please write for us…
Get in touch if you’d like to recommend bands, DJs, gigs, new releases, festivals or venues. And also if you’d like to contribute and offer a guest blog piece – the chances are that we’ll say yes. Emails are checked on a daily basis.
You can help Gourmet Gigs too…
The site is managed mainly by me plus occasional guest writers. We prefer to use our own band photography so, PRs please note: we’re grateful for opportunities for pit access at gigs and festivals.
Please support the site running costs by tweeting, messaging, generally spreading the word.
And… a big thanks to our guest bloggers.
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Photography by other photographers is always reproduced with permission and credited when appropriate.
I have and now need to upgrade a Nikon d40 a basic 6mp camera and it has improved my life greatly, even going upto a 10mp will make no difference as the sensor is exactly the same,and we all know that Mpixels are only to do with how big yr blowing up an image,for blogging it’s not needed. before my nikon (Baby) i used a simple Fuji film s1000 and as you may see with my Kitty Daisy and Lewis pics they’re the best I’ve taken no credit to nikon.. it really is important NOT to use flash,as I’m sure you prob know? hope this helps 🙂
Totally agree about no flash, for many reasons. I decided to get a good point and shoot, as wielding an SLR around at gigs, if you aren’t there as a photographer, I found to be annoying and can detract from enjoyment of the gig. I got the Canon XS240 and it’s a lovely little camera (12mp and 20x zoom) but so far my results (on King Charles, from Tier 1) are not exactly to be commended! iphone can work just as well. Love those pics of Kitty Daisy and Lewis!
and it’s about what you see or what do you think the reader likes to look at in a photo
Thanks for your comments. I think capturing the atmosphere is the main thing. And if the photos don’t work out too well I still think it’s better to have something on the page rather than nothing. I prefer to take photos at festivals, you can usually get closer to the stage, and there’s the opportunity for random shots. Have you decided what camera to get?