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I went to my first gig in February of 1981, a coach trip arranged by someone in the year ahead at school to the UEA to see Iron Maiden.

This was at the end of my headbanging phase, something of a swan song really.

We had no idea what to expect, so to find the Lower Common Room full of Hell's Angels, all dressed from head to toe in denim and leather, with the strong whiff of patchouli oil. We were spotty teenagers, so we tried not to make eye contact with the Angels and other adults, waiting for when the support band, Tank came on stage, when we could headbang to our heart's content. Iron Maiden were great, I think. By the end of the night, my ears were ringing so much I could hardly hear.

We went back to the coach happy.

Nine months later we were back to see The Stranglers.

I wasn't a huge fan, but a trip was going and we were begged to fill the coach up. It was back at the UEA, and in the LCR, so we waited for the main act to come, but had to suffer what I found out a couple of years later were The Flying Pickets. The Stranglers came on stage, and tore into the set. But there was an argument after about 15 minutes, the band walked off. The came back to play one more song, and walked off again, the house lights came on and the evening was over.

Within a month, Golden Brown came out and the band were huge again. I would not see them for 30 years until I went to see them in Folkestone.

It was a few years until we went to see a gig again, I seem to remember being taken to Norwich again to see Blancmange at the EUA. Always a great live act, for a synth band. And at the beginning of 1984, taken to see Echo and the Bunnymen in Ipswich at the Gaumont.

That remains one of my favourite gigs. They were magnificent that night, doing songs from Ocean Rain. Everyone wore long overcoats, and was moody even though we had a great night.

I was always a socialist, so seeing billy Bragg in concert was a great wish for me, so, oddly, he played a disco in Norwich, built into a multi-story car park. A grim venue, but a great night, as they were supported by Hank Wangford. I took my friend Simon, who was turning into a young conservative and yuppie. He did not have a good night at all the Thatcher bashing from the stage. Simon and I drifted apart after that.

By that time I had passed my driving test, so could go to as many gigs as I wanted. Just as well as Lowestoft was a dead zone for concerts. We had one large venue, the South Pier, but few bands ever played there. So it was either Norwich or Ipswich, or up the coast the West Runton Pavilion. No hope if you don't drive.

Getting tickets was the problem, as was paying for them if you didn't have a job.

In 1985, friends I worked with got tickets to Live Aid. I had no credit card to buy tickets via the phone, so could not go to the big gigs at Wembley. But by 1987 I did have one, so I started to drive down to see a series of huge gigs, all crap though. Madonna in 1987, Prince and Michael Jackson in 1988 and Whitney Houston and Stevie Wonder in 1989 and Madonna and Prince again in 1990.

Gigs at Wembley were horrible. Gates opened at something like four in the afternoon and the main came on stage at about nine Four or five hours sitting watching people on the pitch, dodging bottles of piss being thrown about, or "enjoying" the support acts. Hue and Cry, Black Box or the Bhundu Boys I remember being three of them. And then the main act, the star looking tiny on stage from our seats halfway down the stadium. These were the days before video walls. Madonna liked to put on a show, all dancing and changes of clothes between songs. Whitney aso changed clothes between songs, or maybe went to snort a like of coke. The band stayed on stage doing an extended version of the song they had been playing. Whitney would come back on stage, thanking God for her family.

As for Jackson: well, a long wait, and it felt then as it does now, a freak show. It was all choreographed and was spectacular, but left us cold. We left early to catch a train back to collect the car. We were walking down Wembley Way as we heard The Way You Make me Feel.

Prince was wonderful. The first time. I went to see him at what was the Empire Pool, the Wembley Arena as it was then, and for the only time I got good seats near the front, and Prince was just wonderful, doing the Lovesexy album. For many, many year, the best gig I had ever seen.

As well as the UEA, which in the 80s only put gigs on during term time, so seven months of the year there were no concerts. But then a new venue opened: The Arts Centre.

I went there a few times, saw the Primitives there a couple of times. It was a former church, and is still going and is very nice inside, but in the 80s, it seemed very downmarket.

But it was the UEA I went to most weeks, or so it seemed.

Best ever gig was in December 1986 when I went to see Big Country, supported by The Wonderstuff. Wonderfuff were incredible, unsigned then, and still the only support band I had seen get an encore. Big Country were, at the time, as big as U2, so them playing the UEA was a big thing. They had not played for 6 months, so were having as much a great time as we in the audience were. I think there were at six encores, and was wonderful.

Went to see them 6 months later, on a hot and sweaty night in June, the band played for 45 minutes, not three hours as before, while sweat ran in rivers down the walls.

I went to see Salt n Pepa, 10,000 Maniacs, Big Audio Dynamite, and every time being the designated driver, so my friends were all pissed as farts, I was sober as a judge.

But it all came to an end in 1990, when I joined the RAF, and my gig going days ended for a few years.