Show Notes: MaFT: "I still hold onto my memories of seeing them at Manchester Apollo in 1995! Great gig."

"Oh, how I annoyed my mate Jowett during the summer of '95 with constant reminders to him that me and my brother Nat were going to see Green Day in September. I think eventually he hit me, but I can't remember fully. After buying 'Basket Case' (the first CD I bought, ever) and having been bought Dookie on tape for my 15th birthday from Andy and Nat, I really started to like Green Day. So when I saw an advert in the T&A (local newspaper) for an all-inclusive trip to see Green Day in Manchester including return coach travel. I made my mum use her credit card and order two tickets. I think they were about £20 each which I thought was OK. That was until we got to the coach and got given our tickets and saw that the face value was £8! £12 for coach travel in a knackered old coach?! Oh well, that wouldn't stop us, we were going to see Green Day on the last night of their European tour on which they also played at Reading Festival. We had standing tickets so were very near to the front throughout the whole night. The support band, Riverdales, were very good and finished with a cover of the Ramones song 'Blitzkrieg Bop' in which Billie Joe came out to sing. Green day started off with 'Welcome to Paradise' and from that point on the mosh pit went mental! Remember, this was my first standing gig, but I did not feel threatened at all, as Billie Joe kept telling the crowd to pick people up. I think this was the last tour when Tre Cool picked up the guitar to play 'All By Myself' and 'Dominated Love Slave'. Considering Kerplunk! was the album before 'Dookie', it was strange seeing so many blank faces when they played songs from this album. I don't really remember much of the set (it was mostly from Dookie) but we were treated to hear three songs from their next album, Insomniac ('Geek Stink Breath', 'Stuck With Me', 'Jaded'). For their encore Billie Joe switched from his trademark guitar, Blue, to a nice Cherry Red Gibson SG which, after the final song, 'Jaded', he threw into the air to smash the damn thing to pieces. Tre also wrecked his drums and a lucky kid got to take the bass drum home and someone else got half a guitar. All in all, it was a brilliant night, my first experience of a a proper mosh pit and my first taste of Green Day live! If only they could have stayed the way they were in '95. On the coach home I was accused as being a know-it-all by a complete stranger who had asked what Green Day's drummer was called, so I told them and then received the insult... We got picked up again by mum at the same garage as after Terrorvision."

Opening Band(s): The Riverdales