While some teenagers still wouldn’t be caught dead with their parents at a gig, there’s been a marked number of multigenerational gatherings of parents, kids, uncles and aunts at recent tours such as Pulp, Bruce Springsteen and the Oasis reunion. We spoke to four families about why they enjoy watching bands together.
‘It felt like a multi-generational event’
Mark Taubert, his seven-year-old son and his 12-year-old daughter were one of many families in attendance at Stevie Wonder’s Cardiff concert in Blackweir Fields, Cardiff, in July. “He came on to the stage and lit the place up with his charisma and magnetism. I was surprised to see quite a few different age groups in the crowd. Then Stevie Wonder brought two of his own children on stage, and it felt even more like a multigenerational event,” he says.
“My son Idris even had a brief restorative snooze during Living for the City, but then woke up for Sir Duke – one of his favourites.”
Even if Idris didn’t fully appreciate the whole show, Mark hopes his son will in future. “In 80 years’ time, Stevie Wonder will just be this sort of legendary figure of the past, and my son will be able to say that he saw him.”
It was quite the contrast to the gigs of his youth, Mark says. “My worst was Guns N’ Roses in Mannheim when I was 16. There was a riot at that show. It wasn’t necessarily something I’d take my kids to.”
‘We combined Jesus and Mary Chain with a trip to the skatepark’
Before the Oasis reunion tour commenced in July, The Jesus and Mary Chain played Tramshed in Cardiff in June. The gig was a bonding experience for James Cooper and his daughter Astrid.
“As a fan of the Jesus and Mary Chain since I was 15, I was delighted that my daughter Astrid declared that they were her favourite band too,” he says. “I recalled to Astrid that JAMC were the precursors to Oasis – being warring brothers on the same label and paving the way for Oasis in many ways – but loads better! We are both skateboarders, so we combined the day with a trip to the skatepark. I considered ourselves very lucky that we got to see the far superior band in a small venue.
“My daughter loved the day and the experience. She didn’t get emotional like I did, though. It was maybe more significant for me, as she is almost same age as I was when I first saw them at 15. These experiences with one’s daughter don’t happen very often.”
‘It’s the best concert I had seen since Sting in 1990s’
Alice Witter and her 18-year-old son travelled 200 miles to see Billie Eilish play Co-Op Live in Manchester last month. “We both like her albums equally. I told him there’s not one song we won’t be able to sing along to,” she says.
“The crowd was amazing. It was all mixed generations, but mostly my son’s age or a bit older, and everybody was dancing and singing. My son took some videos, so we came home with a whole visual record of what we saw, and played it through the car stereo on the way home down the motorway, on high volume. It’s the best concert I had seen since Sting in 1990s.”
‘We never did this with our parents’
“You definitely notice more and more families at concerts nowadays,” says Jo Ortlieb, 58, an English teacher who lives near Lille in France. “Our parents didn’t go to concerts, whereas we did, so I guess it’s the age we live in. It’s really nice to see.”
Her family’s first gig was Dizzee Rascal at Sziget festival in Budapest in 2013, when her sons were 11 and 13. “It was such a great feeling to be dancing and singing along to all our favourite songs, although there was a lot of swearing. A young Hungarian couple even came up to me at the end to say they thought I was cool.”
More recently, Jo, her sons, now 23 and 25, and her husband have seen Nick Cave at the O2 in London and Asian Dub Foundation in Lille. “My husband and I are big fans of Nick Cave, so the kids grew up listening to him at home. I get quite emotional when they play songs that we all used to sing together in the car or in the kitchen. We like to think we’ve given them an eclectic taste in music. We never did that sort of thing with our parents, so it’s really nice to be able to do it now.”
