A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
Photos and audio: Galaxie 500 in London in 1989
Update: This post suggests that this was Galaxie 500’s first London show - subsequent evidence has come to light that shows that Galaxie 500 actually played a low-key show in a South London pub a few nights before
At some point later this year A Head Full of Wishes will pass its eighteenth birthday, over those eighteen years I've been lucky enough to have been sent/emailed hundreds of photos (sadly a lot of them are not currently online.. but I am working on that!). Obviously in the age of the digital camera this was not really a surprise, I have been given lots of Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and late-era Luna photos, photos of Galaxie 500, who left us in the days of analog photography, however have been less common, so you can possibly imagine the thrill when Lori got in touch with me earlier in the week...
While going through some old photos we found some pictures that we took at the Galaxie 500 gig at ICA together with ticket stubs etc. Can I email to you?
My reply was "yes" only with more words and over-excited gibbering. So here are some great pictures of Galaxie 500's first London show at the ICA in London on 26 September 1989 (click on the thumbnail to see the full picture).
In Black Postcards Dean wrote about this show…
Out first English gig was at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, a show sponsored by Time Out London. A big stage. Lots of people. It was quiet as can be between songs. Does this mean they hated us? No, it means the room was filled with journalists and A&R people and the like.
David Cavanagh of Sounds loved our show. He wrote some pretty silly things:
About Damon: the grooviest and most judicious arbiter of swing, violence, and whatever else armoury a drummer needs.
Naomi: I thought she was a bit like Peter Hook until Galaxie 500 played New Order's "Ceremony" and it was obvious she was far better.
Me: Wareham's guitar and vocals make him the focal point, but one to glimpse rather than gawk at. Shyness keeps him to the side of the stage... [Wareham is] in the great guitarists' Bundesliga.
(Sounds, October 1989)
I'd like to thank Lori (and her "hubby") for absolutely making my week (month, year etc.)
As a bonus here's a recording of Galaxie 500 at that ICA show.
Update: I've just dug out the other Galaxie 500 photos I was sent and popped them on Oblivious - these were from what turned out to be Galaxie 500s last show.
If anyone else has anything like this kicking around in a shoebox please, please get in touch!