Your Finest Evening of Live Music...

[Tim Marlow]

In 1981, I was due to see The Stranglers at Portsmouth Guildhall with my mate, Pete, who was stationed in the barracks in Pompey. I lived in married quarters at Eastney and went to the barracks to collect my mate. The guys at the main gate asked if I was meeting Pete and I said we were off to see The Stranglers. They laughed and told me that he had been rushed to hospital with acute appendicitis. I suddenly found myself with a spare ticket and so I caught a taxi home, rushed indoors and told my wife to get her coat on as she was coming to see The Stranglers! She didn't want to go but I said a taxi was waiting and eventually she agreed to come. It was a great concert, The Stranglers got a new fan and Pete lost his appendix.

Dave

Saw them on (probably) the next gig of the tour at Southampton Gaumont. Fine band :thumb2:. Tickets were 2.50 UKP I think.

[PaulinKendal]

Wow Pete, that must have been a real bummer...Glad you didn't get upset and clock him one....

I had a time that was quite the opposite happen back in the beginning of the 80's. I was the manager of an audio store where I lived and our company sponsored concerts in the Poughkeepsie area, in upstate New York. I loved Warren Zevon and he was doing a show in Poughkeepsie, so I called our GM's wife Donna, who worked in the main store office, and asked if she could hook me up with 4 tickets for it. She said she would see what she could do and let me know...

About 2 hours later, she called back and said it's a done deal and have a good time. My salesman Greg, myself, and our girlfriends drove up to the concert and went to the entrance of the hall. I told the guy at the door who I was and that we had tickets reserved for us. He said oh, please wait a minute and made a quick phone call. 2 minutes later, out came the manager, who shook my hand and addressed me by my first name. He said he was expecting us and to please follow him inside. He showed us to a table, while motioning a waitress, and said she would take care of us. HUH!!! Were we on Candid Camera??? Anyway, the hall was an old Burlesque type theater with a balcony around the stage on the 2nd floor. The hall was tiered almost down to the stage with tables, like a club out of the 30's or 40's. There was a dance floor in front of the stage too. The stage curtain was a huge curtain that went straight up in the air, instead of opening to the sides......The scene was set!!!...

The lights dimmed, the curtain went up, and Warren, with his band started to play. On his left, was Waddy Watchel playing Bass too. An hour into the show, Warren got crazy on his acoustic guitar and he busted his 2 high strings, but kept on playing till the end of the song, with them flapping around in the air. Then he got on his baby grand piano and played "Roland, the Headless Thompson Gunner" and while hammering on the keys, proceeded to bust up the pedals under it. A roadie came out and attempted to fix it, without success. At the end of the song, Warren leaned over to the mic and said "Sorry, we have to take a short break to fix the sh*t I broke" and the curtain came down and the lights back on...

After about 20 minutes, the lights dimmed and the curtain began to rise again. I heard one, two, three, foowr!!! He and Waddy broke into "Lawyers, Guns and Money" (my favorite song) and every hair on my body stood up, along with the biggest goosebumps I'd ever had!!!!! I jumped up, danced around and was singing the song louder than he was...The highlight of the night......His last song was Werewolves and then it was finally over (bummer). I went to pay the bill and it was around $10 bucks for some snacks...HUH!!! I paid it, and I threw a tenner for a tip to the waitress too. All of our drinks were on the house and there were quite a few, or even more!!! We thanked everyone and we left to go home. I called Donna the next day and asked her what was the whole story about the concert. She said, she had told the concert hall manager that I was the GM of the company and please show me and my guests, a great concert evening!!! For $20, it was the best evening, just about, in my life....The next time, I saw Donna in person, she got the biggest hug and kiss on this planet!!!!!!! We won't get into what she did for me with Molly Hatchet tickets, at the Civic Center. I think I'm still half deaf in my right ear, 40 years later, from that concert.........

Sorry it's a long post, but this concert that was the second best musical evening (that I can remember) I've had..........................

Prost
Allen

PS, It's such a shame Warren Zevon died so young. His dark lyrics and great music will live forever in my heart.........

Got to agree with you about Zevon's greatness - a truly unique songwriter and performer too (although I never saw him live).

As an aside, some performers have a gift for adding fabulous interjections - shouts, groans and suchlike - into their delivery. The obvious example is Michael Jackson, with his falsetto shrieks, but Warren Zevon did something similar (although not falsetto, of course) to great effect, giving his recorded music a wonderfully live feel.

[Nicko]

I should probably say it was the time I went to see Penetration at Essex University in April 1979 and first laid eyes on the 16 year old who has been my constant companion ever since. The following week it was Iggy Pop and I got her phone number.

We still get to a few gigs every year but a couple of memorable ones were seeing Siouxsie at the Festival Hall in 2004 and seeing Propaganda's 'A Secret Wish' performed at The Garage in Islington about five years ago. Waited over 30 years for that one....

Nick