Hello, hey, hi, it’s me! I’m Stephanie O’Keefe. My main blogging obsession is music. If you’re not into that, you probably should leave ;-). I started this blog to catalog the project me and my husband, Mike, created to celebrate reaching 50. Although that’s since wrapped up, I enjoyed having a place to record our experiences. Now, it’s a personal space for me to blog intermittently about music, gigs, and life in general. I’m a Global HR Business Partner at Automattic. We’re actually called HR Wranglers, but that’s not such a well known job title (although it definitely should be). I live in Sheffield, UK with my husband, sons and dog.
The 50-50 project
We are Steph and Mike. We love music. The 50-50 project was our 2022 goal to attend 50 live music events in one year. The purpose; celebrate music, life, and 50 years (each) on this planet.
Some gigs were small and intimate. Some were arena style, open-air festivals, and experimental settings. We attended DJ sets, big bands, and orchestras. We saw new bands and music theater. We enjoyed bands of our youth and bands our kids love. We wanted to try out all the music.
We wanted to experience local bands. We were excited to find different types of music from across the world.
Anything was fair game. It just needed to be live. We had to be there in person to experience it. It was harder to achieve than we imagined but a lot of fun! We cataloged the gigs for our own indulgence.
See the Gig list with linked posts here
Firsts
My first gig:
OMD and Depeche Mode at the Radio One roadshow, c. 1986. I’ve not yet found any online evidence of the show, though I do have band member autographs somewhere.
My first record:
I asked and received ‘Super Trouper’ by Abba for Christmas in December 1980. This is the first time I remember being interested in pop music in my own right. It was different from whatever music my parents were listening to.
Mike’s first gig:
Either Hothouse Flowers at the Appleton Arms, Warrington c. 1987, or the Earthbeat festival at Sefton Park, Liverpool, 1987
Fifty gigs 
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