Steve Lamacq marks 30 years in the music industry at Birmingham’s Glee Club on Wednesday 15 November 2017, in which he’ll be discussing his (and the audience’s) obsession with music, revealing the stories behind the headlines, and recounting his meetings with many legendary artists.

From local journalism, Lamacq moved to the then hugely influential NME as a sub-editor, soon overseeing it’s gig review section. From there he moved onto XFM, BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6Music. In his time, he’s met everyone from Springsteen, Nirvana and Oasis, to Catfish and The Bottlmen and tipped newcomers Superorganism, while he famously witnessed Manic Street Preachers’ Richie Edwards carve ‘4 Real’ on his arm in 1991.

What's the format for the show?
It’s actually ‘an evening with …’, so I’ll be wandering around the stage talking, telling stories, and it’ll be illustrated by various gestures and actions at key points. It’s me trying to share my love of music. The audience will be asked, upon entry, to fill in a form, so they can tell us their best gig, the first record they ever bought, and also make requests for anecdotes about specific bands. It’s about the joy of being a music fan, or becoming a music fan, from that point when you can still back out – when you buy that first single – to the slippery slope to severe and absolute fascination; from the highs to hitting the lows, like when you notice that your favourite band has gone bad … or worse still, not noticed that your favourite band have gone bad. So it’s trying to explain all that.

You interviewed so many stars over the years, can we expect some juicy anecdotes? 
Without giving too much away ... I talk about interviewing Nirvana in a bed and breakfast in Shepherd’s Bush [London] before they broke, about talking to the Gallagher brothers, and Blur, so it’s illustrated with some strange stories. It’ll be a nice evening of community, sharing stories about records and bands, and also sane behaviour to insane behaviour.

Insane behaviour?
Yeah, like standing at gig and thinking, ‘I’ve seen this band five times before; I bet that person in front has not even seen them once before … I should be standing in front of them!’ When you start thinking like that, you know you’ve got a problem.

Do you have a favourite act? Someone who - in your eyes - can do no wrong? Someone you've stayed with over the last 30 years?
Most of the bands I’ve fallen in love with over the last 30 years have not reformed, like most bands – many of whom have reformed and it’s not gone well. But I guess we all have someone we hold on to, and for me that’s Billy Bragg. I saw him in Harlow at The Square, the promoter knew the Newtown Neurotics and they knew Billy, and they’d put on a benefit for the miners. Harlow is only half-an-hour’s drive from London, but it’s another land, it could not be more different. We were all a bit niave then so when Billy Bragg turned up, it was ‘… look! Someone off the telly! He’s been on [Channel 4 pop programme] The Tube!’ I’ve followed Billy ever since then, and that was one of my favourite gigs.

Everything about music has changed now, to when you started out - from the recording and distribution, to how/ where it's covered in the media, to touring ... It also seems less tribal ...
There are so many layers to music now. If you look at electronic dance music, how it’s fractured. I’m sure there are people whose favourite music comes from some obscure branches of techno, a sub branch with a strange sounding name. People do still fixate, but that’s not reflected in the gangs and fashion trends like we used to have. People do share their obsessions around, but just differently. You can still finds towns split – over there, they like indie music; over there, they’re into pop. You’ll find a town with one indie club, or one night a week, where everyone will go! That’s a representation of that old school tribal nature.

Do you still consume music, do you still hunger for music ...
More than ever! It’s hard just trying to keep up. I’ve started bringing mail home from work and I’ll bring back a large mail sack which, to go through, will take me 6-7 hours on a Sunday, even skimming through CDs. You get sent so much! I remember John Peel explaining to me [about the obsession of discovery], and there’s still that sense of if you’re known for new music you get this continual ringing of paranoia, that if you listen to 19 out of 20 CDs … it will be the 20th CD that’s the best. It’s all day and every day, it’s unrelenting. I tend to listen to music for two hours, then take half-an-hour off or you just become deaf to it. I have a very untidy room full of CDs at home.

You've travelled far and wide to see and review bands - any Brum gigs stick in your mind?
I remember seeing the James Taylor Quartet at The Hummingbird as I was a big fan of The Prisoners and James used to be in The Prisoners. In Birmingham, when you turn up, you find that all the venues have changed their names! [laughs] When I was at the NME I took a week off and followed Mega City Four around and ended up in Birmingham. I also remember driving from Norwich, or Northampton, to see the Beautiful South on their first tour, at The Irish Centre, and they were great. Stereolab … they shared a house in Brixton, not far away from me, and I remember it was their third ever gig at the Digbeth Institute and they couldn’t get up, so I ended up driving them from London – that was the nearest I ever got to being a tour manager.

Do you ever wish you were working more with bands - managing, or the label side?
I set up Deceptive [in the early '90s], and we signed Elastica and Collapsed Lung but within a year I’d started at Radio One and they had strict rules and regulations, so I had to step away, otherwise I’d have been playing my own records. I’m not cut out to be an A&R man. I like to be friends with them ... I don’t want to tell bands those home truths, that actually, that album they’ve just handed in is not very good.

Who should we be listening out for at the moment? Who would you recommend we check out?
I’m into punk rock bands, or punk of a sorts. Idles' Brutalism is one of my favourite albums of the year. And Shame, a South London band of very young lads. They’ve been around for a couple of years but vanished and I asked someone who knew them, ‘What ever happened to Shame?’ and they said ‘Oh, they’ve been doing their A-levels!’ The Shame album is going to be one of the big alternative guitar records of next year, when it comes out. One of those records that people write about.

Steve Lamacq: Going Deaf For A Living is at The Glee Club, Birmingham, on Wednesday 15 November 2017. 

For tickets and information visit: glee.co.uk/performer/steve-lamacq