Nostalgia is a powerful thing, especially when it comes to music. So, I thought I’d share some music moments that have rocked my world and cemented themselves into my mind forever.
“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” – Johnny Rotten
By the time Sex Pistols adorned the stage of Winterland Ballroom in 1978, they’d had enough. The whole tour had been a half purposeful mess. Dynamics in the band were strained, the chore, punk message of the band seemed to be muddied by bright lights and fashion. Their manager, Malcom McLaren had long been prioritising aesthetics and media chaos over the band’s welfare. Reducing Sex Pistols to industry puppets.
When the encore, No Fun (Stooges cover) was announced, frontman Johnny Rotten was over it. Crouched at the side of the stage like a punk goblin, he asks the crowd “Ahaha, ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” Before walking off stage. Coinsidently, this would be the last show that would feature bassist Sid Vicious. Later that year, Vicious would plead guilty to stabbing Nany Spungen – his then girlfriend, to death and would take his own life in February 1979.
Rotten’s phrase would go on to be used as a slogan for the end of the first punk movement. However, it would also help to lead future generations through their frustrations against exploitation.
Annie Lennox and David Bowie at Freddie Mercury’s memorial gig.
Never have I seen more sexual tension in a performance than in Annie Lennox and David Bowie’s performance of Under Pressure in tribute to Freddie Mercury. In 1992, Wembley Arena hosted a concert in tribute of Freddie Mercury and AIDS Awareness less than a year after Mercury’s death from complications of the disease.
Bowie had never performed the duet live with Mercury, making this performance all the more meaningful. It’s no secret that I am a diehard Annie Lennox fan so there’s no other voice I’d rather have join him and the surviving members of Queen.
The crowd of 72,000 lost their minds as they took the stage, despite this, the vocals rang clear through the air. Towards the end of the performance, Bowie and Lennox came together in an embrace. Lennox sung into Bowie’s cheek. Personally, I can’t imagine a more fitting tribute and a more perfect musical duo.
Green Day Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Reading 2013
This performance is the most personal to me. I was 15 at the time and was coming to the realisation just how important music was to me. I was desperate to go the Reading Festival but alas, it wasn’t something my family could afford. A friend of mine, Reece, coming from a much more affluent background would unintentionally rub salt in the wound by getting tickets to go himself. In dramatic teenage despair, I resorted to watching it alone in my bedroom.
Green Day took the stage to a massive crowd of 90,000 people, showcasing how their music had withstood the test of time. As the opening riff to Boulevard of Broken Dreams echoed across the field, the crowd began singing the first verse. Billy Joe Armstrong started to sing himself but quickly realised that the crowd were doing his job for him. Turning the mic to the audience, he sat on the stage and watched, slack jawed. A real ‘we made it’ moment. I didn’t miss a single lyric, even alone in my room with tears streaming down my face. I’m almost certain that was the first time I’d ever cried at a music performance.
Jack White’s Letter to Meg, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2025
The Rock & Roll induction of White Stripes in 2025 was long overdue. Drummer Meg White, renowned for her shy temperament, couldn’t attend, leaving Jack White to accept the recognition. The first half of his speech would be what you might expect at an award show. But the latter half blew me away. In a letter to Meg. –
“One time a girl climbed a tree, and in that tree was a boy. Her brother she thought. And the tree looked so glorious and beautiful, but it was just an oak tree.
These two so loved the world that they brought forth a parade float, one they built in their garage behind the oak tree that they built with their own bare hands. Ans the boy looked at this giant peppermint on wheels, and felt pride. Pride that it was produced in the Motor City, just like the big factories, but it was just in their garage. He looked at the girl, his sister he thought, and like the little rascals they said “let’s put on a show!”
They paraded this float through the Cast Corridor, standing atop the peppermint, pulled by white horses, or maybe it was a red Econoline van. And many of the blocks they travelled were empty, but some had people. Some of those people cheers, and some laughed, some even threw stones. With their bare hands the two started to clap and sing and make up song.
Some people kept watching and swaying and moving. And then one person even smiled. And the boy and the girl looked at each other and they also smiled. An they both felt that sin of pride but they kept on smiling. Smiling from a new freedom, knowing that they had shared and made another person feel something. and they thought the person smiling at them was a stranger. Someone they didn’t even know. But it wasn’t just a stranger, it was God.”
A sermon in itself. The letter painted a picture both simple and poignant, poetically describing the incredible domino effect creating can have on the world, whilst encouraging other grassroot garage bands to follow in their footsteps. White perfectly captured the feeling of their early days as a duo so beautifully, solidifying that I will always worship at the altar of Jack White.
Shane Hawkins drums on Hero 2022
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins would lose his battle with mental health in March of 2022. Leaving behind a wife and three children, one of which was 16-year-old Shane. Just months later Wembley Stadium would host yet another tribute gig. There had been tears throughout the performances as the world came together for grieve, but the moment that really got me was when Shane stepped up the drum kit to play alongside his father’s bandmates.
Showing incredible strength and composure, he absolutely smashed it. The passion he felt for playing and undoubtably his father, is plundered into the kit while the crowd backed Grohl’s every line. Shane being so brave in the face of a such a monumental performance after such loss has earnt my ever-lasting respect. It’s a performance that will forever send a shiver down my spine.
What are your top moments in music? Let me know on the blog’s Instagram @under.the.frequency.