I was at all three astoria gigs, travelled down from scotland and basically stayed at the astoria for 3 days! There were queues from early on for each night, made some good friends and there was a nice atmosphere. I remember the run inside each night when the doors opened and hurling ourselves at the barrier, was front row on richey's side each night. I remember the crush was intense, also there was a lot of red smoke used onstage and blowing my nose later that night looked like I had a nosebleed! To answer Tetsuo, the gigs were average price at the time and the Dust Brothers supported - you'll know them better as the Chemical Brothers! And Strangelove as well one night.
It felt very final on the last night when they smashed up the instruments. I remember being scratched to pieces by people trying to grab any part of what was coming off stage (bits of guitar, set list, richey's flowers). I took some terrible photos with a shitty camera, but they were so important to me at the time! One of james in his christmas hat! Security gave out some after show passes, i got one on the second night, but none of the band showed up. I didnt meet any of them then, but I think James came out briefly whilst we were waiting outside for one of the nights and he signed some stuff in the queue and Richey popped out for some sweets at the shop next door and a few people spoke to him. For a long time, these were the best gigs I had been to.