Why this 74-year-old retiree attends live music every night

As It Happens6:29Why this 74-year-old retiree attends live music every night

Roger Mairlot, 74, is wildly passionate about two things: live music and getting out of the house.

A concert a day keeps his insomnia and depression away, so this retired car mechanic from London has made it his mission to attend at least one live music event somewhere in his city every night of the year. 

Mairlot hit 725 nights in a row of shows before the pandemic stifled his streak. He hasn't managed to beat his own record since, but says he's determined to get out and experience as many gigs as he can for as long as he can. 

Here is part of Mairlot's conversation with As It Happens guest host Aarti Pole.

Who are you seeing tonight?

Grandma's House. That's what they're called. I've seen them once before. Punky. It should be good. 

So at one point before the pandemic, you had attended 725 concerts in a row. How did you do it?

Well, it was difficult. And to be perfectly honest, I had to count listening to an organist in church on Christmas Day because there were no gigs on Christmas Day. But I hate to be defeated. 

And so you found a solution. You found a way to get out there and see all of these concerts. Why did you want to do that? 

Well, in 2016, I discovered that I'd been out 360 days, and I thought to myself, "What the hell?" I thought, "I've only got six more days and I've done a year." So the next year, I carried on and I found gigs every night and I went out and did it. 

I always try to find what I call a "worthy gig." I don't want to go to one that I don't think is worth the trouble. I try to go for bands that I think will be good or exceptional, or ones I've seen before. 

There's always lots going on in London, but is it ever difficult to actually find gigs to go to? 

It can be, yes. When it's a free gig and it's first come, first served. I try to look up a reserve gig just in case there's a problem and I can't get in.

Now I have to ask, are you going to all of these gigs by yourself? Do you have some buddies that you go with? 

Oh, I generally go by myself. It's easier. Not many gig-goers live out where I live, but I do see regulars at gigs. We don't all attend the same gigs, but there's a bunch of us — at least 10 or 12 people — I might come across at various gigs. It's very rare if I go to a gig and don't see anybody who knows me.

It sounds like a lot of fun. I'm wondering for you what the purpose of it was, what the goal was in starting to do this.

Well, in the '60s there were bands around that were unbelievably good, you know, up and coming. The Rolling Stones. The Kinks. The Who. There was a band called Cream, and there were so many bands around and we just didn't worry about it. We just thought they'd be there forever. But then suddenly, it's gone. 

And they all went to prog rock in the '70s — big stadium stuff. And I think to myself, "Well, yeah, OK, I made a mistake and should have hit more. I should have gone to see Pink Floyd, the original." And eventually I discovered that there were people around I'd never heard of who were extremely good. And it didn't really matter about seeing the old bands. 

There's a lot of older people who go and see bands from their youth. I don't really bother to do that anymore because a lot of them are quite frankly past that and there's a lot of new talent around. It's fantastic what is coming out of places like Canada, New Zealand and America, and they come over and they play these tiny little venues with a capacity of about 200 people and nine times out of 10 they're free gigs. 

Who's your favourite artist you've seen so far?

Well, in my life it's going to be The Kinks, but they're never going to play again together. They're split up. The two brothers, they always argued. They play separately. They're never going to play again. 

But there is a band I like very much from Australia called RVG. They played a free gig one Sunday. Sunday gigs are very hard to find, and they played for an hour in an up-and-coming, dirty bit of London on a Sunday night, for free. I mean, what more do you want?