Went to the @fieldmusicmusic Zoom Q&A last night (of course) and I was once again struck by how lucky I am to have been following them for 15 years (God, that’s almost half my life). This is gonna have to be a thread, I think.

The first time, I saw them live as a support, I wrote them off. The band before them had been a bit extra and the band after I was already deeply in love with. But they were on my radar.

My friend (who - some 6 years later I would marry, but that wasn’t on the cards at the time) wasn’t so swift to dismiss them and maybe that was important too.

Anyway, two things made me reconsider. The first, an article in Q magazine which compared them to early Genesis. My dad had put me onto their stuff when I was about 11 and it was wild to see them being compared to a modern band. Exciting.

(Subnote - that article was probably written by John Harris who compered last night’s Q&A and it turns out that Genesis was a red herring in terms of influences - except it wasn’t because it communicated an unconventional approach that excited me!)

Secondly, http://NME.com  had this proto-spotify feature where you could stream whole albums a week before they came out (and they never took them down - you just had to click through A LOT of pages to find them).

So that’s how I managed to find Write Your Own History - and just fell in love with them. It’s an EP of re-recordings of songs they wrote growing up. And they’re a bit embarrassed by them now - but I’d give a limb to have written anything so brilliant.

I remember the day that Tones of Town came out, I went to RPM in Newcastle to pick up a CD copy but the release had been delayed and they only had vinyl. So instead I went down to alt-vinyl, another Newcastle record store who let you listen to their records.

You didn’t even have to buy the record - you could just whack on some headphones and listen. My first experience of Tones of Town was standing in a record shop with headphones on and listening to it all the way through. Magical. What an album.

Over the years I’ve seen them live many times. They often played The Cluny in Newcastle twice on their tours - which meant I went twice. Then they’d often play their again after the tour had finished. So 3 times a year wasn’t unusual.

But even more special were the countless times I would bump into Peter around Newcastle. The first time it happened I presumed he would act like a rock star - and he actually just spoke to me like I was a pal and asked me what music I was listening to.

Weirdly - the first date my wife and I ever went on - we bumped into Peter twice. Once on the metro - and we told him we were going to the Museum and Winter Gardens. Then we bumped into him at the MaWG about 5 hours later. Not stalking I promise, but our teenage minds were blown!

Since then Peter has always recognised us at gigs and said hello and been really affable. The gigs have been a bit busier lately - so we’ve not had as much chance, but he’s such a great guy. He’s never made me feel stupid for being star struck (I usually am).

I’ve only bumped into David once in the wild (I think). I was working for a church and carrying a massive box of flyers for a Diamond Jubilee street party. Good move, @thestripyjumper. Tell your favourite anti-monarchist band about the street party.

But once again David was really lovely, and in fact I’ve spoken to him many times at gigs and even more, here on Twitter. I’m not sure if he’s been able to put a face to a Twitter handle, but that’s probably for the best.

But all of that is just context for what I really want to say, which is this: I’m at a stage of my life now where I’m pretty sure about the person I want to be. I want to be someone who is decent to other people rather than fighting for success.

I want to be someone who amplifies voices other than my own, especially as a straight white man. I want to be someone who is proud of his North East roots - working to bring out its best qualities and fight against its marginalisation.

I want to be someone who speaks out against injustice. I want to be a man who eschews being cool - but ends up achieving something far more attractive.

I honestly can’t think of a better embodiment of all those ideals than Field Music. Honestly it’s a pretty wild that all those things can be represented by even one band - but here they are.

I’m sure - because they are properly actually humble - they would say that they don’t achieve all those things. And maybe they don’t. But it certainly seems to me like they’re getting pretty close.

So that’s why they’re my favourite band. I’m not saying they made me this way - although I’m sure they’ve been an influence. But it’s been very special to grow as a person kind of in parallel to them growing as a band.

When Open Here came out, I couldn’t believe they’d written a song about gender stereotypes (No King No Princess) and cultural capital (Count it Up) because the only two substantial pieces of academic writing I’ve ever written were on those topics. (Frozen and Bourdieu)

So, maybe it’s my Mackem blood that gives me affinity - or maybe it’s the North East air - or maybe we’re just kindred spirits. Or maybe it’s easier to make the person you want to be when you can see people who are bit older than you, being those people already.

That’s the thread. I proof read about half of it - so sorry if it’s got errors. I really enjoyed writing it and it’s mainly for me, but hey - someone else might get something from it.