When talking crap in the small hours the concept of fantasy gigs comes up from time to time.

Who have you seen? What gigs do you regret missing? If you could choose any band from history who would you most like to see?

Gigs I’ll never forget include the Stone Roses at Whitley Bay, just weeks before they split. Billy Bragg at Glastonbury’s Leftfield Tent takes some beating but then again the same artist playing in Durham, at an event to remember the miner’s strike, was especially poignant.

Radiohead at Glastonbury was incredible. So were REM and the Flaming Lips.  Years earlier I remember the less-well-known Jah Wobble playing a Glasto set that blew everyone away.

On Tyneside the Baghdaddies never fail to leave a room smiling and sweating. As a kid I have happy memories of the Lindisfarne Christmas concerts – a fabulous, and much missed North East tradition.

Gigs I missed? Radiohead the year the big rains came – largely seen as the greatest ever Glasto performance. I never did see The Smiths either. This year Wilco cancelled the UK part of their tour without any real explanation. For the life of me, I can’t remember why I passed over the chance to see the Stones Roses at the legendary Spike Island gig. I still would love to see the Shins.

As for fantasy gigs, that’s a difficult one. I would, of course, have loved to have seen The Beatles. Than again they split before I was born, but this is fantasy, right?

Whenever I think of that impossible gig I always imagine some level of intimacy. My fantasy isn’t going to place me at the back of the stadium watching the action via video screens. It isn’t also going to have me at the front in a sweaty crush.

I don’t want a private audience - I just want to be part of a small one.

I’d love to see Tom Waits, but in a surrounding conducive to really enjoying him. In a jazz club where smoking is not only allowed but also doesn’t give you cancer.

There are so many bands I’d love to see under those conditions (even without the smoking) from Beth Gibbons right through to Van Morrison.  I should point out that I have see Van The Man three times before and he was desperate each time. At least in my fantasy gig he’d be superb and, for once, he’d be arsed to actually make an effort.

There is a point to these ramblings. Because I have actually found my fantasy venue. Okay so it’s not a smokey club and its size means only smaller bands will play there.

Having said that I saw the Cowboy Junkies there not so long ago. Seeing them singing their version of Sweet Jane in such close proximity will stick with me forever.  Totally spellbinding.

The venue of my dreams is Hall Two at the Gateshead Sage. Never have I been so close to artists. Never has my view been better. Never has the sound been so good. Never has a venue felt so intimate.

I’ve booked two more gigs to see at Hall Two and I am starting to get the impression that I’m buying the tickets more for the venue than the bands.

I just wish Tom Waits would play there.