Kenickie – Leeds Cockpit 7th October 1998

Kenickie and Lauren Laverne before she was famous…..I think this was 1998? Could’ve been the year before when they played here in May. My memory is hazy here. I first saw Kenickie at Reading Festival 1997 and was going to see them at Breeze Festival in Leeds in 1998 but we left before they came on as the festival was a shambles.

Anyway….. me and a group of friends (all obsessive Kenickie fans) definitely saw them at Leeds Cockpit. I was pretty familiar with the Cockpit spending many a Friday night at “Brighton Beach” or the occasional Saturday at “The Garage” club night.
Some of my mates bought Jelly Babies for Johnny X and handed them to him before the gig. I don’t remember much about the gig itself but I do recall hanging around afterwards trying to meet Lauren Laverne. She eventually came and talked to us. We all had a chat with her, she gave me a kiss on the cheek and I took the photo below.

One of us (not me) made a lasting impression on Lauren which formed the headline in an NME article a few weeks later. I remember the surprise of opening that NME and seeing that on the bus home from college one day. But that’s another story.

Some of my treasured Kenickie stuff…