The “extraordinary” first gig that Edgar Wright ever went to
British director Edgar Wright first came to the limelight with his sitcoms Asylum and Spaced before going on to create the Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy comprised of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, all of which star British actor Simon Pegg.
Following his initial success in the United Kingdom, Wright has been afforded to make movies across the world, particularly in the United States, where he has taken the lead on a number of acclaimed features, including Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Baby Driver.
In a feature with NME, Wright once took a journey through his past from a musical perspective, tracing his first memories of exploring the world of music. The first gig he ever went to is an absolute belter, an honour for anyone to attend regardless of their taste in music. He saw none other than the legendary David Bowie.
“It was the Sound+Vision tour,” Wright explained. “I was a big Bowie fan. I was 16, and I was working in a supermarket in Somerset.” Wright was fortunate that he knew a few kids who were older than he was who were going to catch Bowie at the Milton Keynes Bowl.
He continued, “An older kid that was in my brother’s year, Julian Thorne – shout-out to Julian – he was driving to Milton Keynes to see Bowie, and he said, ‘Do you want me to get you a ticket?’ It was a lot of money at the time – it was £20. The gig was extraordinary.”
What a privilege for a young Bowie fan to catch the man himself doing his thing. It’s a memory that the director clearly holds close to his heart even today. Wright’s first musical experiences, though, came way earlier.
He said of his very first memory of listening to music, the song ‘Tiger Feet’ by Mud, “I have dim memories of this on Top Of The Pops, which is weird because it came out in January 1974, and I wasn’t born until April 1974. I have memories of them doing their silly dance.”
As for the first album he bought, Doctor Who Sound Effects by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Wright noted, “I wish I had a cooler answer than this, but maybe this is so dorky that it’s cool. It has 30 tracks, including ‘The Dalek Control Room’, ‘Distillation Chamber’ and, crucially, ‘TARDIS Interior (Stationary)’. I highly recommend it. I’m sure at one point we tried to use it for something in Spaced.”
