THE HISTORY

I do air guitar. Not just in my bedroom - or even at a gig when the riffs start to involuntarily effect my arms, legs, hands and fingers drawing them into a metal salute - but on a large scale - one bigger than I could ever have imagined.

Now, whether this was the unconscious result of growing up in a bedroom next door to my brother Greg’s rock guitar obsession [he was one of the members of Ceremony along with Steve Tucker and Pat O’Brien - who you will maybe know as members of Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel] My brother now often guests with Disastronaut and is a DJ and a proffesional American Gigilo .

As I write, The U.K. Air Guitar Championships are on the eve of its 10th year of existence and it is wildly out of control. It seems to have entered the popular consciousness of the country so much so that everyone you meet seems to know “someone who won last year”

This bizarre pastime has developed into more than I ever intended, especially after its more than humble beginnings. The UK Air Guitar Championships were ENTIRELY accidental and this is how they came about.

In the winter 1994 I moved back to London. Then to Brighton where I opened the Brighton Cinematheque. A few months later I ended up doing shows at a small dive called The Lift above a rough pub called the Pig in Paradise which sold £1 pints and was famous for its violent pub fights. The Lift, in a former incarnation, was a Swiss-themed fondue restaurant that had a lovely fireplace, carved wood panelling and wood floor that was a magical acoustic space. Aside from the constantly complaining neighbors and the ultimately cretinous leaseholders [who eventually turned it into an empty pool hall above a vacant wine bar] The Lift was, for a moment, the best venue in the UK where bands like the Strokes - even in the year they stole the show at Reading festival - played to 250 people in a venue that officially held 60 standing / 40 seated. And Local bands like Britsh Sea Power, Electric Soft Parade [then performing as Feltro Media], The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Electrelane, Turin Brakes, etc. used it as a home away from home.

And in the Lift’s 7 year run over 2,000 bands played there with a French performance artist named Costes, Louisville’s The Rachels, Fatcat’s Him, British Sea Power and V/VM being some of the more memorable nights - as well as Anna Moulson’s Melting vinyl night - which kind of came of age there.

Now in Brighton, especially in the late summer when everyone heads for the beach on a Sunday night for the sunset - running a club in the middle of town was a chore. The regular acts - Pilote, Bonobo, DJ Dead, Mat Consume, Ziggy, etc. were a motley crew. Even they would leave for the beach eventually. So evermore I would have to invent ever more complex schemes to promote a non-happening night [Me usually DJing to 1 or 2 people] - so in the listings it might read “Naked Poetry Slam” which became a self-fufilling prophesy when people showed up stark naked or an “Ego Tanning Booth” and on one especially desperate night - “An air guitar playing contest”. And so the myth was born.