Twenty-first century Brighton is crawling with musical ghosts – Burger Kings and Sports Directs occupy airspace where rock history was once laid down in long-gone clubs and venues. Here’s a decade-by-decade exorcism from the Broken Brighton 2 issue’s interviewees, lest we forget.

1968: Jimi Hendrix, Brighton Dome
Jimi Hendrix was huge in ’68 – this was just before ‘Electric Ladyland’ but it wasn’t like he ever really played a set to plug any particular album. He played whatever he felt like playing, sometimes just one massive jam. Amen Corner, The Move, The Nice and The Pink Floyd were all on the bill, all for 7/6. Jimi just came out the back door afterwards with a couple of roadies, stuck the gear in the bus and hung around chatting with us. All very relaxed, no security. I’ve still got the whole band’s autographs framed on my wall. (AF)

1971: Pink Floyd, Brighton Dome
This was before ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’, around the time of ‘Atom Heart Mother’ and ‘Meddle’ – I remember the amazing bassline to ‘One Of These Days’ that opens that album. They didn’t have the whole live extravaganza with the flying pigs and the special effects then – that was later on at Wembley, but I remember they’d rigged up a surround sound system. It was more about the music than the visuals, but it was certainly very impressive. If you were into their music that was what carried you away. (DC)

1985: Sonic Youth, Zap
I saw a lot of great gigs in the 80s but the best would have to be Sonic Youth. The Zap wasn’t just a club then; it was a performance art place that did abstract things in the daytime and this was just one of them. I was one of about 40 people there. I just discovered it on YouTube, which was weird; you can see my black Mohican. You see people now going around in their Sonic Youth T-shirts and they don’t know what it’s about or who the band are, but I was there. (TP)

1997: Lo Fidelity Allstars, Concorde
It’s hard to pick out a single Big Beat Boutique night but one in particular will always stay with me. I can’t remember the exact date, but it was definitely 1997. It was the first appearance at the club for Lo Fidelity Allstars and they were superb, encapsulating everything about the club in one performance. As they came off Norman Cook played ‘Rockerfeller Skank’ for the very first time off an acetate. Two minutes in, the whole club was singing along. (DH)

2005: LCD Soundsystem, Concorde 2
“I was there…” sang James Murphy on the decade-defining indie-dance anthem ‘Losing My Edge’ – before reeling off boasts about being at the Paradise Garage, Suicide rehearsals, and the first Can show. All lies, of course, and we can imagine people making up being at one of the trio of LCD’s Brighton gigs in the future. Difficult to choose (Murphy’s bad mood at The Event, now Oceana, made the music so amazingly aggressive), but the ending of the second Concorde gig with ‘Yeah’ was as intense as live music gets. (JK)

2010: Mirrors, New Hero
There’s a toss up between the satisfaction of finally seeing your idols play a greatest hits set, and seeing a band out of the blue that blows your mind. This was Mirrors’ first ever (public) show, and rumours of rucks at record label showcases only fuelled the intrigue. It was like a project cooked up for a scene set in my dream nightclub. Literally. I woke the next day with their tracks still fully formed in my head – the words, the melodies, but most importantly, the thrill. (MB)

Words by Matt Barker, David Courtney, Allen Fowler, Damian Harris, James Kendall, The Perv