‘My first gig was a Beyoncé concert’

19/08/2014
Rife Contributor

Credit: Nocturnal Magazine/Emma Blake Morsi

Emma Blake Morsi, one of the original Bristol Talent Lab‘ers has just released the 2nd issue of her online magazine Nocturnal, and Jon is one of the featured writers.

When Emma asked me if there was anything music-related that I wanted to talk about for the next issue of Nocturnal, I realised that there was something bugging me for quite a while – people’s reaction to my terrible taste in music. And so, an article was born. Read an except from my piece below and follow the link to read the whole article in Nocturnal Issue 2:

Bad taste by Jon Aitken

‘My first gig was a Beyoncé concert.

I love telling people that, purely because of the reaction that it gets. Some people look at me in absolute horror; others cautiously rearrange their features into something akin to pleasant surprise, and then there’s the odd one who screams in delight – then I know I’ve found a new friend.

In the following years I went on to see Lady Gaga on two separate occasions, Katy Perry’s ‘California Dreams Tour’, Ed Sheeran and even managed to slip Bruno Mars in there too.

I’d like to say at this point that I am aware of how completely and utterly privileged I am. Those artists cost a lot of money to see, money that most people don’t have in general let alone to spend on frivolous luxuries like shows. Privilege, however, is a whole other article and now is not the time to delve. Instead, let’s examine the trend we can see before us:

The artists that I mentioned are all internationally famous, I saw them in stadium-sized venues, and they all come under the wonderfully divisive genre that is ‘pop’. And that, people, is my musical taste summed up in one sentence.

I went to Glastonbury this year…’

Want to read more? Explore Nocturnal Issue 2 below, just click ‘expand’ (pst, the rest of this article is on page 13.)

You can also find the magazine on Facebook and talk to the lady behind it all (Emma) on twitter – go and send her some love