Your Finest Evening of Live Music...

[Gern]

Only ever been to one concert. That was Melanie Safka who did a UK tour - must have been 20-25 years ago now.

[The Smythe Meister]

I was there, behind the stage or possibly running a follow spot! I did all the Pyromania tour, including the US, which was...errr...memorable. I will never forget the hill on which the trucks were loaded and unloaded, one at a time, outside the Colston Hall. I think that will all change when the renamed venue eventually re-opens.

Blimey.... I bet you could tell some stories!!
I do remember the access to Colston Hall being somewhat "tight" all round... and that was just for the queing crowd.... must've been an absolute pain in the arse unloading stuff!!

[stona]

Blimey.... I bet you could tell some stories!!
I do remember the access to Colston Hall being somewhat "tight" all round... and that was just for the queing crowd.... must've been an absolute pain in the arse unloading stuff!!

Blimey.... I bet you could tell some stories!!
I do remember the access to Colston Hall being somewhat "tight" all round... and that was just for the queing crowd.... must've been an absolute pain in the arse unloading stuff!!

Yep. The truck(s) were unloaded on what felt like a 1:5 hill. It wasn't but it was steep enough to make life interesting. Everything was pushed into the hall and along a corridor (or through the hall) all the way to the front of the stage, then up a ramp onto the stage. Space was 'limited' particularly for storage. There was a small area near the load in door and then empty cases ended up adorning one side of the backstage corridors. It was always a bit of a mess, even with just one truck. The real problem was when bands turned up with three or four! You can get a lot of 'stuff' into three forty-five foot trailers!

The whole place is being redone, so we'll see if they make a mess of that...or not. I've pretty much stopped touring now, so I'll probably never know

[Dave Ward]

Wow, that must have been incredible Dave!!

Not the sort of thing you expect to see ( and hear ) on a Midlands street - they were on tour & the TV cameras were getting a sample ( It was the Russian National Anthem, as well )
Hand is now aching more - I'll be breaking out the Ibuprofen for tonight!
Dave

[davecov]

I have been to many concerts over the years and saw The Jam, Sham 69, Ultravox, Tubeway Army, The Stranglers, Japan, Billy Idol, China Crisis, Spandau Ballet, Simple Minds, Dexys Midnight Runners, The Specials, Heaven 17, Ian Hunter, Ian Dury, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Jean-Michel Jarre, Snow Patrol, OMD, Soft Cell and some others I can't recall at the moment. Two concerts that stand out were Kid Creole and the Coconuts which was spectacular and lasted three hours and the 2005 Live8 concert at Murrayfield where James Brown gave a stunning performance and over-ran his set by about half an hour.

Now I am in my Sixties, my memories have faded and I don't get to gigs much now. The last concert I went to was Richard Hawley, one of my favourite artists. It was in 2019 at the iconic Barrowlands in Glasgow and even now I get goosebumps when playing his music and reliving that night.

Dave

[Jon Heptonstall]

I forgot Kid Creole and the Coconuts.Manchester Apollo and only because I fancied the singer in the middle.They were brilliant.

[minitnkr]

Dancing the night away w/my two brothers and our wives in front of Chicago in a small Buffalo, NY club before they hit it big. The horns still stand out in memory.
Dayton Philharmonic & an unremembered choir at the Mason Hall venue playing O-Fortuna Carmina Burana. It brought the house down, and the memory still gives me the chills.
Brit Live at Klienhans Music Hall, Buffalo NY, where the female solo vocalist outdid the original. Totally transported the audience.
Leon Redbone at a small club in San Diego (maybe 20 people) where at the end of his gig he thanked those in attendance & took photos of us.
Many others, but those stand out as special memories.

[Dave Ward]

The two pubs in the village both have live music, sensibly alternating between Friday/Saturday so they don't clash. Tribute bands & singers are a good part of the acts, but you do get some local bands, folk, country, rock, who go their own way. One of the pubs has an annual ''Battle of the Bands' in a marquee set up in the beer garden. Quality varies from very good to being asked to leave! Midweek entertainment is still Karaoke & quiz nights - with the occasional Charity Race Night. Both pubs are the centre of activity, running darts, skittles, football, dominoes teams, although crib seems to have vanished. Coach outings are organised mainly to seaside resorts ( at one time they used to go to France & Belgium, but fuel prices killed that ). The village pub does still exist, but getting fewer:sad-face:
Dave

[Richard48]

Im a big music fan.Since meeting my wife we have been to several concerts.She got me into Steeleye Span a few years ago and seen them 4 or 5 times.Great musicians and folk rock classics.Saw Marc Almond at Cambridge regent and he did a 60s inspired set.Lots of Northern soul covers which were amazing.
OMD were great at the same venue bringing back school memories as a teen in the 80s.Saw Erasure at Ipswich as well and have always liked them and i even got up and danced.Last November i had to go to see Saxon at Ipswich regent.My wife loved it and i had ear plugs in as i end up deaf afterwards.Two door cinema are another great gig.Irish indie pop and rock group.Saw them at the O2 and boy they are loud.
NOW THEN GUYS.I put this to you all.What past group or singer would you have liked to have seen.????
A great post Mr.D!!!!.
Richard

[Tim Marlow]

Hawkwind put on a great show.Wolverhampton Civic Hall 1980.The whole sound was a big mind blast with added Ginger Baker.
Rory Gallagher anywhere was always fun.
Another one that sticks out was Hugh Masekela playing in Bridgetown,Barbados just because of the whole friendship vibe.

I was still playing in 1980, but had started moonlighting behind the stage to augment my all too irregular income. I'm almost certain that I worked on that Hawkwind tour, if it was the one with Patrice Warrener and his laser. Also Lloyd-Langton on guitar. The laser was far from familiar (or reliable) technology then, and local council jobsworths were scared to death of the supposed 'death ray'!

Huw was playing along with Harvey Bainbridge,Dave and Tim Blake.That was the Levitation tour.
I would have liked to have seen Tim with Gong but that was before my time.

Definitely the Tim Blake one. Saw them twice on that tour, once with and once without Ginger Baker…….Southampton Gaumont and Poole Art Centre I think…..around that time people stayed in Macdonald’s longer than they stayed in Hawkwind LOL…..excellent gig though.

Saw them a year or so later, again at Southampton, after Nik Turner returned and they were a far tighter band. Saw Nic Turners inner city unit a couple of years after that at Bournemouth town hall (I think) and that was a totally different animal. Great gig though…..

[Neil Merryweather]

The Eagles Hotel California tour at Wembley in 1976 WOW!
we were late and just caught the end of the 'Mystery Guest Artist' who turned out to have been Fleetwood Mac! OMG grrrr
I saw a combination gig at the Rainbow Finsbury Park in 1981 with Ultravox, Landscape, Depeche Mode and a couple of others (Pretenders?)-pretty awesome- Midge didn't disappoint in 'Vienna'.
Judy Tzuke supporting Japan in Nottingham .
One of the best afternoons EVER was at Twinwood Festival in 2021, just after Lockdown ended. SWMBO and I are keen jive dancers (along with most other styles) and we danced ourselves into the ground to Mike Sanchez (think Blues Brothers-esque..)
And for my fiftieth birthday in a jazz club in Paris called Le Caveau de la Huchette we danced Lindy Hop(look it up ) until 3 in the morning to an unknown swing/jazz band, then limped back to our hotel because the metro was on strike!
And lastly we danced Argentine Tango in a dilapidated upstairs room ,unchanged since the 20's probably , called Clarchen's(umlaut missing) Ballhaus in Berlin in 2019. The sense of history was palbable

[Tim Marlow]

Im a big music fan.Since meeting my wife we have been to several concerts.She got me into Steeleye Span a few years ago and seen them 4 or 5 times.Great musicians and folk rock classics.Saw Marc Almond at Cambridge regent and he did a 60s inspired set.Lots of Northern soul covers which were amazing.
OMD were great at the same venue bringing back school memories as a teen in the 80s.Saw Erasure at Ipswich as well and have always liked them and i even got up and danced.Last November i had to go to see Saxon at Ipswich regent.My wife loved it and i had ear plugs in as i end up deaf afterwards.Two door cinema are another great gig.Irish indie pop and rock group.Saw them at the O2 and boy they are loud.
NOW THEN GUYS.I put this to you all.What past group or singer would you have liked to have seen.????
A great post Mr.D!!!!.
Richard

A friend of mine saw Saxon in a club up north a few years ago. Said the audience was the archetypal three men and a dog, and the bloke with the dog left at half time. Said they were good though, fully professional despite the low turn out…..even if it did have a spinal tap feel to it.
I saw them on their first two tours when they were attached to the NWOBHM band wagon that destroyed my interest in contemporary rock music. Thought they were excellent first time, and derivative the second…..……

As to who would you like to have seen, well, too many to list really, but Hendrix (natch), his alter ego Paganini, AC/DC on the “if you want blood” tour, The Ramones early on, Muddy Waters, and Mozart come immediately to mind…..

[Jon Heptonstall]

Saxon the first few couples around were great.Remember Diamond Head and some of the others.UFO played a storm at the Civic

[rtfoe]

Wow, would have been great to see the New Wave groups. Being this part of the world we get some off shoots. Got to see Commodores, Kool and the Gang, James Ingram, Bon Jovi(this one we literally were sprayed with water to cool down at the stadium) and then Phil Collins in Singapore where the audience was behaved which dampened the atmosphere but the performance was great. I missed both Sting and James Taylor when they came around. SWMBO loves two Hong Kong artists and where better to see their huge concerts but in Hong Kong itself...crazy isn't it so I tagged along.
Still sorting the recent show pictures.

Cheers,
Wabble

[stona]

A friend of mine saw Saxon in a club up north a few years ago...Said they were good though, fully professional despite the low turn out…..even if it did have a spinal tap feel to it.

Saxon were another lot I regularly toured with and, yes, they often had a Spinal Tap feel to their shows. One of my claims to fame is that I fitted the lights into and wired up the original eagle, as manufactured by 'Bunt', one of the Bishampton bodgers,* at Light and Sound Design, then based at an old swimming baths on Gooch Street North, Birmingham. The 'budgie' went on to have a long and varied life, being reimagined by successive suppliers as Saxon (or rather their management(s)) were not good at paying their bills. It even got a foot plate and belts so that Biff could fly about on it.

I once spent a couple of weeks on an abandoned 'spaghetti western' film set in a Spanish desert near Almeria, simply to look after the 'budgie', for a video shoot. It sound fun but there was nothing there apart from us, the band, a film/video crew and a bloody great truck. It was also very hot!

*A long story, if I ever write the book various people have urged me to do, all would be revealed.