I'd been living in London for less than a month when one of the editors at UK weekly rock magazine Kerrang! offered me two tickets for a secret Red Hot Chili Peppers gig. The Los Angeles band - then featuring frontman Anthony Kiedis, guitarist Dave Navarro, bassist Flea and drummer Chad Smith - were officially due to kick off a lengthy world tour in support of their new One Hot Minute album at Dublin's 9,000-capacity Point Theatre on October 1, 1995, but the secret show at the 600-capacity Subterania in west London four nights earlier would be a rare opportunity to see the Los Angeles band back in the sort of scuzzy club they've long since out-grown.
The Chili Peppers were on fire that evening. Casually kicking things off with Give It Away and Suck My Kiss, two of the defining singles of the decade, the quartet then knocked out what would be the first three singles from One Hot Minute - Aeroplane, Warped and My Friends. And within half an hour, their decision to recruit the second best alt. rock guitarist in Los Angeles (former Jane's Addiction man Navarro) seemed like the best idea that Kiedis and Flea had hatched since they added teenage guitar hero John Frusciante to their ranks back in 1988.
