October 17th 1990
Pixies had recently released their third album Bossanova and they were coming to Portsmouth Guildhall on tour.
This was big news for a teenage schoolboy who had been given a copy of Doolittle on cassette a year earlier and had gotten pretty obsessed.
For sometime I had no idea what this band looked like, in my mind I had conjured an image of a rag-tag crew of leather clad, punky, weirdos with back-combed hair. I bought Come on Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa and various 12” records none of which gave away the true identities of the band members, the Vaughan Oliver designed covers only fuelling their off kilter image in my mind.
On the night of the gig myself and some other schoolmates headed early to Portsmouth Guildhall with a plan to try and meet the band.
We arrived at the venue in plenty of time, and found our way to the back of the building via a side entrance.
We stood there looking up at the edifice wondering what to do next when we spotted the band walking past an open window.
“Kim!” we shouted, “Joey!”, and amazingly they stopped and waved to us. We ran over to the window, clambered up some railings to get nearer and one by one they came over, shook our hands and signed scraps of paper for us. Well, everyone except Black Francis, but that didn’t matter. To be honest, all I really wanted was to meet Kim Deal.
As you can imagine, our teenage minds were blown by this encounter. The idea that these people were actually real, let alone that we had met them and they had been so friendly and generous was unbelievable. And so, we went in to the venue ridiculously excited that this had happened and watched a gig that felt like it was being performed just for us. I was mesmerised, enjoying what felt like the best night of my life.
And I’m pretty sure Kim kept smiling at me :)
At the end of the gig the band threw the setlists into the crowd and I somehow managed to bag one. Where it is now I don't know, I’ve been though al the 'boxes of my past' in the loft but to no avail…
And so, almost 35 years later I’ve created my first bit of Pixies fan art! The band split quite suddenly in 1993 but have enjoyed more recent success after reforming, albeit without Kim :(
This poster is a nod to that special night in 1990 and the fact that the band are going strong and performing live ‘All Over the World’.
Swipe along for the autographs as well as a review of the gig form our local paper. I’ll keep looking for that setlist…
