Writers’ “I was there” memories spotlight landmark pop and rock shows, from Talking Heads in 1977 to Beyoncé and more

On July 6, 2026, The Guardian published a feature that asks writers to revisit concerts they say have stayed with them, framing the exercise as a way to understand how live music becomes history. The piece, titled “I was there!,” ranges across multiple decades and genres, with writers describing performances they witnessed by artists including Beyoncé, Brian Wilson, Britney Spears, Oasis, Daft Punk, Amy Winehouse, Kanye West, Talking Heads, and others.

Several sections focus on specific venues and turning points. One account takes readers to a Talking Heads show at the Rock Garden, a small basement club in London’s Covent Garden Piazza, described as the later site of an Apple Store. The writer anchors the memory to a date of 13 May 1977, noting that the band had recently moved from a three-piece configuration to a four-member lineup that included Jerry Harrison, and that work was nearing completion on their debut album.

In that London performance, the account describes the set as “crisp” and fully formed, with “Psycho Killer” presented as a climax. The audience, the writer adds, included Brian Eno, who subsequently invited the band to his flat the next day for a meeting that the writer says helped lead to collaborations. The feature links that meeting to later work associated with albums including More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light, and to Byrne/Eno projects such as My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

The roundup also includes personal details about how the writer prepared to attend. The piece recounts what the writer wore, including an described 1950s charity shop raincoat, black slacks, and a vintage “grandad” shirt, topped off with an “atrocious” attempt at a quiff. The account connects the styling choices to the cultural pull of the Smiths, with the writer saying many people in the scene scrambled to adopt the band’s restyled retro look to feel part of their group.

Another memory in the feature centers on the immediacy of band presence on stage. In that account, the writer describes seeing Johnny Marr stage right, with riffs cascading as he played, and characterizes Morrissey’s onstage manner by noting clothing details and microphone work. The writer also emphasizes how crowd interaction and lyric delivery shaped the moment, including a reference to Morrissey stressing “crack on the head” during the performance.

Beyond individual concert portraits, the feature situates these remembrances within a wider festival and city landscape. It mentions Amy Winehouse at the North Sea jazz festival and Kanye West at Glastonbury among the artists covered, and it frames the overall project as writers trading notes on what made these shows feel singular at the time.

The Guardian’s format, which blends narrative recollection with music-industry context like lineups and nearby creative networks, spotlights a particular cultural function of criticism and reportage: recording conditions around live performances while they are still legible as events that can be revisited. For readers who follow artists across albums and tours, the piece offers a view of how specific evenings, small rooms, and informal meetings are described as precursors to later work.

As of publication, the feature stands as a collection rather than a single reporting investigation, with its authority resting on the writers’ direct attendance and memory. It does not present new documentary findings about the concerts it recalls, but it does compile concrete time markers, venue descriptions, and names tied to those performances, inviting readers to treat the accounts as cultural records of what listeners say they saw and who they say they encountered.