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One of th' Four Or Five Guys© had a swell notion for a feature to follow the Your Top Two Albums Of All Time feature or whatever it was. That feature garnered over three million page views and just under four thousand comments! These figures are necessarily vague because I made 'em up, but at the very least they serve as an indicator of your enthusiasm.
This year, Kreemé is hosting the Live Gigs What You Can Actually, Like, Remember? feature as part of our groundbreaking Celebrating Diversity initiative here on Fabulous False Memory Foam© Island. Let's listen to her arousingly breathy voice as she explains the rules, adapted to even the meanest intelligence. Which is yours, ya doofus.
As an inducement to join in the fun - as if it were needed! - the Four Or Five Guy© getting the biggest show of hands from the panel of Random Diversity Babes [pictured above - Ed.] will win a Luxury Champagne Hamper Of Some Food!
Oboy! Crack yer knucks and leap into the comments!
Oh boy, the first to comment that Luxury Champagne Hamper Of Some Food is practically mine.
ReplyDelete1- My first gig, still at school 1978, very naive. Sat 3rd row right in the middle for Whitesnake (when they were good pre-82). Support band Magnum arrive on stage, singer wearing silver trousers. Then the bass guitar started, wow I'd never 'felt' music like this, the bass went right thru me. Magnum were great, then Whitesnake came on stage AND they had a new keyboard player, it was only Jon Lord from Deep Purple, this was all very exciting. At one point there was Quadraphonic keyboard sounds. As I said I was very naive and when they played Mistreated (an old Deep Purple song) everyone rushed to the front of the stage, suddenly I'm surrounded by hairies, bikers and people wearing leather jackets smoking 'funny' smelling cigarettes. I have never looked back, I still believe early Whitesnake were a brilliant band.
2- Motorhead 1982, went to the bar during most of support group. Could hear Motorhead start up their set, walk into hall, the sound is 'LOUD' too loud, I can't tell what song is playing, and it hurts. Leave hall, others are leaving too. Try again 20 minutes later. Still shit sound, early train home.
Can you leave my hamper by the back door, if I'm not in when you deliver.
We'll have to wait for the Diversity Committee to evaluate all responses. I know they're keen to break the tradition of awarding the entitled Stale, Male, and Pale demographic.
Deleteok, if I don't win the hamper with those two. How about the time I saw Prince in 1988. My mates girlfriend persuaded about 6 of us to go to the usually awful Wembley Arena for the Lovesexy Tour, I knew the singles but little else about Prince. Anyway we took our seats and found the concert was 'in the round' and we had just about the best seats. The musicians were fantastic Price was playing great guitar solos, and 2 hours went by in a flash, I think the last song was Lets go Crazy, and by then we were all air guitaring along. Superb night.
DeleteThe best triple bill I went to was at the Philly Spectrum in December, 1971. The whole show was through a quad PA at the four corners of the rink floor. King Crimson came out first and was absolutely killer. Drum solo that swirled round the auditorium. Next up was the J. Geils Band. At the time I knew nothing about them. So good, and this was before they had radio-friendly hits. The closer was Humble Pie fresh on the heels of their double live album. Peter Frampton had just left the band, but Clem Clempson, late of Colosseum, filled that spot right nicely. Steve Marriot was quite the showman.
ReplyDeleteNext best triple bill was at the same venue in April, 1972. Fleetwood Mac with Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch on guitars was the opener. Not quite the same without Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, but very good nonetheless. Next up was Spirit. Ed Cassidy walked out alone and played a killer drum solo to start the set. He played part of it with bare hands. The rest of the set was ho-hum as the core of the band, Jay Ferguson and Randy California, had already left the group. The closer was billed as Cream o' Mountain - West, Bruce & Laing. Sheer volume!! May ears rang happily for days.
Can we have a minute of silent appreciation for Danny Kirwan? It may have been Bob Welch who kept Fleetwood Mac afloat during the lean middle years but it was Kirwan who kept them musically relevant and even briliant in the right circumstances, before flaming out much too soon. He's the connaisseur's Syd Barret.
DeleteBy the way: envious of the time when they had triple bills and you could watch a couple of first rate bands for, like, pocket change (compared to what concerts started to cost in the 1990s and beyond)
I saw Fleetwood Mac in '69. They played most of Then Play On, with no song breaks. Peter Green wore a white floor-length Jesus robe - a worrying look for anyone who is not the Son of God. They were outstandingly great, but Jeremy Spencer was the irritating twat's irritating twat, and did his best to reduce the set to whatever it was he was trying to reduce it to. Never understood why he wasn't thrown out of the band - you could have done it with one hand.
DeleteSpencer's Skip James imitations and Sun records parody stuff is just awful. I've heard the argument - and it's a pretty good one - that this kind of stuff would break up the more formulaic blues stuff around it in concert, and that might be true, but on record his shtick is pretty unbearable.
DeleteI've been to a few "historically important" gigs, but they're not the ones I remember best, and I'm not sure why. A couple of gigs I do remember both featured sax players; Roland Kirk and Sonny Rollins.
ReplyDeleteKirk was playing an Arts Festival, and his co-star was the Mandala light show, at that time the largest in Europe. The screen stretched the entire width of the hall, floor to ceiling, with a massive scaffolding structure at the back supporting the projectors. It was mindblowing, so much going on, huge patterns and little details (I remember a Tom and Jerry cartoon projected at TV size just above my head, nearly lost in the explosions of color). Kirk was equally mindblowing, his saxes hanging from him like ju-ju sticks. I have no memory of any other musicians, just him, standing like this ebony god blowing hurricanes of sound from a whirlwind of light too big to take in. It was overpowering. During a break, someone shouted out a request for My Cherie Amour, and I thought he was taking the piss until I found out, much later, Kirk had recorded a version. He didn't play it. I don't remember any tunes as such.
First concert was in early September of 1976.
ReplyDeleteIn order of appearance:
Stars
Rick Derringer
Lynyrd Skynyrd <-------(no show/auto accident)
Jeff Beck (w/ Jan Hammer Band)
Aerosmith
...at The Big 'A' in Anaheim!!!
It was a long hot day and everyone in attendance was inebriated.
I was instantly turned off of stadiums. Universal Amphitheater only after that... Went to Inglewood forum three nights in a row to see McCartney in 1989. Best show I ever saw was Moody Blues at Universal for Long Distance Voyager!
A comprehensive list of favourite gigs would be to tiresome for any reader to endure but I feel I must remark on the strange career trajectory of 1960s rock n' roll revivalists Sha Na Na.I saw them at my second ever concert; third on the bill to Paladin and Uriah Heep at Falkirk Town Hall in June 1971. Please recall this is less than two years since Woodstock and barely months since I saw the movie at a local flea pit. It probably wasn't the real band and their greaser routine went down badly with an audience full of real tough guys. But still, it was like Hendrix moving on from Yasgur's Farm and playing village fetes.
ReplyDeleteThen again, wasn't both the inclusion of Sha-Na-Na in the line-up and the success they had at Woodstock one of the strangest things?It seems like those flower children weren't all against the old stuff, the 50's and early 60's revivalism must've been a strangely nostalgic reminder of their childhood and early teens, maybe?
DeleteIn Vancouver at the Georgia Auditorium. It was billed the “Show of Stars for ’57” and featured Paul Anka, Buddy Holly & the Crickets, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Knox, The Drifters, Eddie Cochran, Clyde McPhatter, Chuck Berry, Laverne Baker, Frankie Lymon, and the Diamonds.
ReplyDeleteWere you conceived backstage, Clar?
DeleteNo, I'm an old fart aged 80. I was a sprigthtly 17 at that show.
DeleteWell, allow me to congratulate you on you handwriting!
DeleteThe marbles are mostly still there, though the body needs some rehab. I'm scheduled to have knee replacement surgery in 2 weeks.
DeleteWhat are you getting it replaced with? I had my hip replaced with a Mr. Coffee 5-Cup. I can't stand up any more but at least I have fresh java within reach at all times!
DeleteI've asked for the weed wacker option. Doesn't matter. With fake knees I can stand corrected.
DeleteI didn't think my knee replacement surgery would help.
DeleteI stand corrected.
But seriously, I hope everything goes well, Clarence.
Good luck with the knee surgery, Clarence.
DeleteI think the surgeon will do well. I have compromising photos of him and the ward comfort dog which will be released if problems occur. But thanks for the good wishes.
DeleteKin I have yer old knee, Clar? Kin I huh? Huh huh? Kin I?
DeleteSorry, but I promised it to a Taiwanese noodle place around the corner.
DeleteI got first dibs on yer spleen, then.
DeleteSince we just talked about the Big Man, most memorable gig was definitely Bruce and the E-Street Band (sans Clemons, sadly) in 2012, the Wrecking Ball tour. Alwys wanted to see Bruce and figured after Clemons and Frederici had died it was now or never. Checked for tickets in France and Germany, both ridiculously expensive, tha scoured the rest of Europe to see where ele you could see him. Decided that some miniholidays with a concert was the way to go. Settled on Prague. For the same money that in France or Germany would get you the nosebleeds with a lighting tower in front of you we had the best places available in the stadium odf Prague, preferred standing area right in front of the stage. It was warm and agreeable weather, Bruce was in top form and at age 70 put all of us young wusses to shame energy-wise, Little Steven was at that time for more than a decade Fat Steven and looked grumpy and uninterested, Soozie Tyrell was a fantastic addition to the E-Streeters. Concert ran up to almost three hours, me and my friends that I had roped in all liked the "Wrecking Ball" album and material that was played almost entirely. The only downside we hadn't considered enough: Prague is not a metropole. Given the early starting time we hadn't dined and by the time the concert was over, every restaurant was more or less closed. So we found a pub and our dinner consisted of the ridiculous ly cheap Czech beer and the big snack pretzels they had as only food option.
ReplyDeleteMost disppointing gig (not for the music): Centr-O-Matic in Hamburg in 2004 or so. Couldn't get any friends to go, since none were into this type of indie music. Concert started late, so boredly I had to walk the Reeperbahn and its sex shops. When the concert started, I saw that we were less than 20 paying customers. Even for a small band on a DIY European tour that had to suck as turn out. Talked with the merchandise guy who desperately wanted to sell me something to minimize losses. Couldn't even buy anything as a token of appreciation and encouragement as I literally only had money to take the train home in my pocket. Band was in and out in 80 minutes. The gig was okay, but the depressing circumstances really hindered the enjoyment.
ReplyDeleteSaw The Miles Davis Quintet, two nights at The Village Vanguard in 1968. The first night was very good, but the second night was totally amazing. Tony Williams and Ron Carter were mind-blowing, and Miles was in good spirits (for Miles).
ReplyDeleteA show I have no memory of was New Year's Eve 1976. A triple bill with Television as the opening act, followed by John Cale, and Patti Smith headlining. By all account I had a great time, I vaguely remember Television. Way too much alcohol.....
Attended and Wrote about (AMPLIFIER) THe 3 day Power pop fest in Harrisburg, PA.
ReplyDeleteThe International Pop Overthrow came much later and I believe was inspired by this event. The Shazam, Greenberry Woods, Andy Bopp, and...A whole lot of other people!
Iwas gonna cheat and get the article out, but I forget where I put it...wait I think it has something to do with my loafers or some other thingy...You know?
Not a gig per se but one of my most memorable musical moments came in Miami's Liberty City district in 1987. I was attending "Da U" for a year and on Martin Luther King Jr's birthday I headed up to see a parade in his honour. Needless to say I was the only 30 year old Scotsman in the crowd and while not entirely uncomfortable watching kids do Michael Jackson routines on the back of flat bed trucks I began to question what exactly I was doing there. Then from the distance I heard a familar organ riff and recognised the tune from the UK charts in the 70s.
ReplyDeleteCreeping towards me came Timmy Thomas performing an extended version of "Why Can't We Live Together" (did he have another song?). I immediately waved in Timmy's direction and decided that this was the correct time to catch the monorail back to Coral Gables.
"Catch the monorail back to Coral Gables ..."
DeleteThere's a song in there. I'm hearing Christopher Cross.
Yeah, that's Cross territory. Monorail is too "ghetto" for Jimmy Buffett.
DeleteSome great stories here. If you're enjoying them, why not add your own? Don't forget there's a Luxury Champagne Hamper Of Some Food for the lucky winner!
ReplyDelete@Dr. D - thank you! Your comments will apear as a blog piece in the next few days. Be sure to alert your family and friends!
ReplyDeleteSometime in June, 1970 I was at a CSNY gig at Boston Garden. That's a big sports arena, but I was only about 30 feet from the stage. That night had the first public performance of their new single, Ohio, and was only about 30 days after the Kent State Massacre. The energy was electrifying.
ReplyDelete1975 - a friend from New Jersey talked me into accompanying her to a concert at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre (only holds approx 1800). Never heard of the guy, but she was good looking, so why not. Was Bruce Springsteen, a few months before Born to Run was released. Show lasted over 3 hours, and Boz Scaggs came out and played the last hour or so with them.
ReplyDelete1974 - went to see Fleetwood Mac at The Warehouse. They had a nice size crowd on hand. Band walks out and can't recognize a single musician. Instead of a tall, gangly, guy behind the drum kit, short, fat guy is there. Band sounds awful (think of a bad sports bar cover band). Left after about 4 songs. Few weeks later read an article in RS that the band and its manager had split and somehow the manager had the rights to the band's name, so he hired different musicians to tour under the FM moniker.
ReplyDeleteHey pmac, that below par FM band you saw in 74 went on to become Stretch, who released 4 (rather good imho) albums and had a hit single in the UK called 'Why did you do it?' a song about that tour experience.
DeleteQuite a collectors' item that gig, pmac!
DeleteDid not know that, Bambi, thanks. But, still wasn't kosher for them to play the faux FM card. The Warehouse had egg on their face (they also booked the acts) and they did make good on it by offering a free pass to future shows.
DeleteI think Mick Fleetwood was going to drum, but the manager was such a ***t, that he bailed after those gigs were booked and contracts signed, so another drummer was recruited.
DeleteApparently the entire tour fell apart right after the NO show. Word started to get around that this wasn't your father's FM (or any other relative's).
DeleteA show I remember fairly well was Kirsty MacColl at the Troubadour in Los Angeles (1995). She seemed very shy in front of the audience, but she was still great. Highlights included her then-current "Caroline" as well as her tribute-like covers of Little Feat's "Roll Um Easy" (with -- I would say -- superb guitar accompaniment by Pete Glenister) and of the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated."
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, a show I can remember just barely was Lou Reed at the Rainbow in London (1974). I was 14, and not a single one of my friends was interested, so I had to go by myself. For the first half, Lou pointedly avoided interacting with the audience -- except for when someone yelled "Play something from 'Berlin'!" and Lou said "No." But he did warm up (and even played something from "Berlin") during the second half. I mainly remember liking all the loud guitar playing, and I also remember liking the song "Fireball" by the supporting act Ducks Deluxe.
Then again, a show I don't remember at all was Black Sabbath, sometime in the late 70s, and someplace in Southern California. I reportedly got drunk and passed out even before the band came on.
Roughly 20 yrs ago I was one of FOUR paying customers to see Dale Hawkins in a bar in Philadelphia, 3rd stop of a 3 city mini-tour. Needless to say this means I also got to speak with Dale Hawkins, have a beer with Dale Hawkins, and apologize profusely for the turnout to Dale Hawkins. He was backed by the North Mississippi All Stars, and I hung out with the bassist for a bit outside while while smoked, all hilarously to me catcalled the suburban, mostly probably NJ, young women who were headed to the many dance clubs in the neighborhood. About the last thing one would expect at the time and place would be a very loud good ol' boy "WOOOOOOOWEEEEEEE LOOK AT Y'ALL!" and this I recall as much as anything. Very nice people all around, and enjoyable music, they deserved better promotion and a better reception.
ReplyDeletePhiladelphia not a big college town.
DeleteMusically speaking, my memory of gigs is entirely unreliable. Around 1972 seems like every weekend I saw the Pink Fairies, often on double-bills with Hawkwind. And all those gigs must’ve been amazing cos otherwise why did I keep going back for more? But now all I can say for sure is Hawkwind were a drugged-out drone, the Fairies (always my faves) a wall of guitar noise. Seems like it takes more than music to make a memorable gig. For instance … I was at the 1974 Windsor Free Festival, but not the exciting bit. We had left the festival a few hours before the police moved in and started tearing down tents and arresting people. I remember nothing of the music from that festival, but I do remember what an extremely close shave it felt like, watching scenes on the national news of people getting dragged out of tents and thrown into police vans. And at the festival on that last day I remember a police helicopter, which had been buzzing the fest relentlessly much to everyone’s annoyance, landed close by. And instantly we all got up and started running towards it. It’s the only time I ever felt the power of the mob, swept along with the crowd, wishing I’d brought my pitchfork and flaming torch, and really wanting to hurt that flying machine. It took off and we roared triumphant abuse as we aimed at the terrified whirlybird with handfuls of mud and twigs. Ideal nesting material in fact, but of course whirlybirds dont nest. And as things turned out, the peasants’ victory that day was short-lived. And talking of close shaves with the Old Bill and my mates from that Windsor fest, a few months later and in need of a top-up for my stash tin, I was executing the special secret code knock on the front door of the squat where most of them lived, when a neighbour appeared and said “You missed them by half an hour mate, they’re all at the police station.”
ReplyDeleteChrist yes, the Fairies. It was them and/or Stray you couldn't get away from. Music for Mandies. Hawkwind were a Mandrax [US: quaaludes - Ed.] band, too, in spite of their *cough* "psychedelics.
DeleteChrist yes the Mandie freaks, I’d managed to forget them. At a Fairies gig in my home town the worst of the local Mandie idiots kept trying to climb up at the front of the stage and falling back (falling over was the Mandie boys big move, I seem to recall). Eventually Paul Rudolph in mid solo kicked him in the head, causing him to abandon his climbing attempts for the evening.
DeleteSee also: getting your knob out on the last bus home (Mandy Manual).
DeleteI gots to say, youse bums, that the length and quality of these comments is on the whole greater than my blog pieces. I am in discussions with the Random Diversity Babes about awarding multiple Luxury Champagne Hampers Of Some Food.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 16 I saw Yes, supported by Donovan at Wembley. "My hair was getting good at the back", and I had sneaked in some leaves of a miserable dope plant grown form the hemp seeds in bird food. Donovan did as dippy a set as you'd imagine, but it added to the atmosphere. Yes were dippier, cosmic, sweet, pretentious, and very entertaining. Having shared a belt of the homeopathic bifter to the other kids in our patchouli-cloud, after the show, they took me backstage to the party as they had a relative working on the show's production. I saw Rick Wakeman in his underpants standing at his dressing room door, surrounded by soft toys, whereas Jon's dressing room looked like Stevie Nicks's underwear drawer (something at 16 i often thought about). I had a beer at the party, and got the band to sign my programme. At 1.30am I had to leave the party, and as I was 16, this meant a long trudge back through the shabbier and dodgier bits of north-west London as I didn't have the money for a taxi. I managed not to get mugged. It was worth it.
ReplyDelete"I saw Rick Wakeman in his underpants standing at his dressing room door, surrounded by soft toys" rivals "Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion" for sheer emotional heft. Bravo, Mr. Grimsdale!
DeleteMost surprisingly great gig: Mumford & Sons at a small music "festival" in Strasbourg, France in 2010. This was just before they became HUGE. The festival was actually really good, two local French acts, Mumford & Sons and as headliner Midlake who had just released "The Courage Of Others", a record I couldn't really get into (and to this day don't). Opening act A Second Of June (indie rock meets The Cure) was so good that I picked up their mini album right there. Then on came Mumford and Sons and blew everyone away. I had listened to one or two of their songs on Youtube before proposing to my (soon to be) wife to go. But it was clear that France they were almost completely unknown, unlike on the other side of the border. The Germans might love David Hasselhoff and , uh, The Hooters unconditionally, but they also were ahead of the curve for Mumford & Sons. There must've been a busload of Germans that were going complelety crazy for everything the Mumfords did, pogo-ing all over the place to such ravers as "Little Lion Man". And then, just as quickly, the huns were gone. They had no fucks to give about Midlake or the third act whose name I've forgotten. They tired themselves out to Mumford & Sons who just had great energy and even got their slower stuff to come off good (unlike Midlake, as we'll see soon). So the bigger concert hall and essentially the festival itself emptied out completely after half-time.
ReplyDeleteIt has to be said that the Germans might've had a good idea, or a better instinct. Because, man, Midlake as headliner were completely fucked by going on after Mulford & Sons. The fact that they played almost nothing from "Van Occupanther" and "The Courage Of Others" in its entirety including freaking minute-long flute solos to a tired and spent audience meant a severe anti-climax. The low energy from the band swept over the audience in the same way that the high energy of Mumford & Sons had swept over the unsuspecting audience (with an assist from ze German before, and I saw several people more or less fighting not to fall asleep. We held on until the end, but man, that Midlake gig pretty much sucked, even though they were put in an unenviable position due to one of their "supporting acts" just rocking the audience. I think they should've called an audible and play a bit more of the audience-friendly "Van Occupanther" stuff rather than trying to be Jethro Tull circa 1977 but what the hell do I know. Totally worth it for the Mumfords, especially as it was nice to see a band just before breaking through world wide. Their first album was mostly great, everything after was huge diminishing returns: too much sensitive ballads instead of uptempo ravers and then a very unfortunate leap into U2/Coldplay territory...
Great gig, though.
In 1980 I went to see Robin Trower at a local gig. I wasn't really familiar with much of Trowers' material, but I went mainly to see the heavy support act Samson (who's singer was Bruce Dickinson soon to be in Iron Maiden), anyway Samson were good. After a quick beer break Trower with James Dewer on vocals came on, and were so good, so polished. Promoting Victims of the Fury album they also played the 2 or 3 tracks that I knew. Within a few weeks I bought the first 5 Trower albums, the Live (1974) one is one of the best live albums ever, even at only 40 minutes long.
ReplyDeleteDewar's vocals on those first two Trower albums are amazing. I still occassionally listen to the first album. Apparently, Trower was still touring up until the pandemic shutdown.
DeleteBeen missing y'all, tbh. Too many memorable gigs to say, but 3 stand out:
ReplyDelete1) 1985 three of us--3--showing up on a snowy, bitter night at bar in St Paul for Jorma Kaukonen, him being like "what the fuck?", laughing, and asking us what we wanted to hear. My grad school buddy and I obliged, Jorma played and chatted with the two of us, and after about an hour asked the third person if there was anything he wanted to hear. "Nope." He played for another hour or so and then had a few beers with us.
2) November (October) 1974 Lou Reed's Rock & Roll Animal Tour (mebbe it was called Live & Alive Tour? Tbh, Lou looked anything but alive) hit Baton Rouge. They played the famous intro to Sweet Jane with Hunter, Reed, and Wagner's backs to the audience and then, on cue, swung around for Lou to start singing "Sweet Jane" (which if my fading memory serves briefly morphed into "Vicious" though at least half of them were still playing "Sweet Jane"). Also if memory serves, the night before they played in Chalmette, pmac, at the St Bernard Civic Center south of NOLA...what, NOLA had no room?
3) The band I was briefly in was, even by the low standards of ATX punk, pretty bad, but one surreal night at Raul's we were rejoined by Jon Dee Graham who had gone on to the Skunks and he brought Alejandro Escovedo up.
bonus: for a few years I had a joint appointment with a University in northern Sweden (from which I will bizarrely get a small pension when I retire...wetf?). One of those summers, our elderchild--I am blessed with a family as music obsessed as I am--was smitten (when she could tear herself away from The Dandy Warhols) with a band from even farther north in Sweden, The Sahara Hot Nights. Reader, we drove up to the tiny town of Robertsfors and rocked out with maybe 100 other people. No reindeer were in evidence.
The then named St Bernard "Cultural" Center hosted some pretty decent gigs at various intervals in the past. I was at the Reed show. St Bernard's finest had undercover cops throughout the crowd and started busting folks during the opening of Reed's set. Redd shut down the band and started staring at the cops hustling people out. Place started to go wild and chairs started to get tossed. Cops quickly stopped, Reed and the band started playing again, and rest of the show went off without a hitch.
DeleteThe concert bookings ended when on the night of their show, Jefferson Airplane canceled and the huge front plate glass windows of the building were smashed by some of the digruntled ticket holders.
Back then NO had some sizable taxes they would extort from concert promoters, so they saw St Bernard as a more economically viable alternative.
Oh, and welcome back, my friend. Glad to see/read you, again.
Deletethat is amazing and no word of that had reached BRLA by the next day, but I can imagine it. They sure put on a show. I don't think I ever made it to a show at St Bernard and love they called it a cultural center.
DeleteYeah - yat culture. The rassling shows were there weekly. Nohing else.
DeleteCan't compete with these casually-thrown-in anecdotes of seeing various God-like figures of popular music from the Dreamtime. Seen more Jazz gigs than anything else.
ReplyDeleteBiggest(!) act I ever saw was probably that midget dynamo Prince at Manchester City's old ground in Summer 92. Or maybe Zappa's last tour at the Birmingham NEC 88. Or Miles phoning it in at Mcr Apollo 1989.
I still cared enough to see Kraftwerk touring 'The Mix' in Manchester in July 1991. Ralf & Florian with a pair of very good musical workers engaged to fill Karl & Wolfgang's shoes. Pre-digital-bluetooth-microwave-RSS everything was still big, clunky and with wires hanging out the back. And the robots...
Ten years previous the robots were just four inert mannequins dressed to enable the Hutter/Schneider "The future is here" hype that the press loved to have write their articles for them. This time around they were crude mannequin heads atop skeletal tubular rotating torsos on plinths whose arms moved up and down as they "danced" to their song ('The Robots', naturally) during an interval where the group buggered off.
One of them wasn't playing ball though, remaining totally unmoving whilst the other three strutted their naff stuff in unison. Soon we were able to observe a roadie trying to surreptitiously creep onstage from the wings as if under fire. He vanished behind whatever rig was bearing the cornball animated trinkets with number four still immobile. Presumably he soon located whichever plug/cable had fallen out, as the dud 'robot' shuddered into life in a welter of buffered commands before catching up with its chums, only to fail again at the end of the routine when all were to return to their starting postures, the delinquent remaining with one of its arms still aloft in an uncanny echo of a half-hearted Hitler salute.
Irving Irving with another legacy comment here. He can write everything except his name.
DeleteSex Pistols. Winterland. Chaotic, shambolic, wonderful.
ReplyDeleteTruuuuuu....worked (backstage door) their show at the Kingfish in BRLA, went back to ATX determined to get in a band. Clash (ATX) were amazing too.
DeleteYeah, I figured the same. Didn't play, but got good enough on guitar to realize I was bad, switched to bass, spent two years actually gigging clubs, bars, frat parties, UC Berkeley Lower Sproul Plaza. Had the time of my life!
DeleteI think you'll find that Mike & the Fuckin Mechanics was a pick-up band formed by unscrupulous management to exploit the name and defraud the customers. They were successfully sued to cease and desist.
ReplyDeleteI saw the Thelonious Monk quartet at the Five Spot in December 1965. Cover charge was $4.00. The Five Spot was very small and crowded, and we sat at tables just feet away from the stage. You could order a meal there (I nursed a beer) and many ate their dinner during the set. Monk (and Charlie Rouse) were brilliant, of course, but I remember Monk getting distracted by someone sawing away on her steak, and while Rouse took his solo, Monk walked to the table, picked up her plate, and carried it back to the stage where it rested until the set was over.
ReplyDeleteWotta fantastic story!!!!
DeleteI bow down before you, sir.
DeleteMy other Memorable Sax Gig was Sonny Rollins at some Victorian theater in Geneva. Men in audience: crisp jazz beards, crisp silver hair, crisp "jazz" shirts. Women: wardrobe uncertainty - pearls with pumps? scarf n' slacks or Little Black Dress? Venue is like a narrow chocolate box, ornate, prim, more used to leider or string quartets. We (my first wife) are on the side balcony, with a great view of the nodding gray heads in the audience. Sonny and his percussion-led funk band are blowing up a storm to hushed golf applause. It's the dregs of our marriage and I'm sick of puckering my ass in Swiss society. I leave my seat, stumble along the row to the evident annoyance of the good burghers of Geneva, and find my way down and around to the empty orchestra pit in front of the stage and start moving to the music, right in the shower of sweat coming off the band. I am some way past giving a fuck. At the end of the gig, Sonny comes over and does that finger-snap point at me with a grin a mile wide, and I see his eyes through his shades. I will never forget those eyes.
ReplyDelete"the good burghers of Geneva" - classic.
DeleteGot to see Rollins (again) at Jazz Fest about 3 years ago. Was somewhat conflicted about seeing him then, since I was concerned that at his age, he wouldn't be able to blow like he had when I had seen him in the past. Proved me dead wrong that day.
Fantastic Geneva story. You certainly get around. Are you sure you're not George Swingin Soros? Or Bill Groove-master Gates?
DeleteThank you, Irving, for those kind words. And yes/no, I'm certain.
DeleteThey were thick, black shades, the kind you wear in bright sunlight, or if you don't want to see your audience. And when he bent to grin at me his eyes were like lights.
Sonny Rollins, for BBC2, Childs Hall University of Reading 1967 (or 8), John Surman supporting. Quite the thing.
ReplyDeleteLittle Richard & Sam Cooke, Walthamstow Odeon 1962. A high bar was set which Ray Charles, Hammersmith 1963 failed to clear. Cyril Davies Richmond Festival 1963.
ReplyDelete