discussion Your Finest Evening of Live Music...

[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.

 

[stillp]

Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent at the Odeon in Maidstone. 1963 I think. God I'm ancient!
Pete

 

[stona]

Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent at the Odeon in Maidstone. 1963 I think. God I'm ancient!
Pete

That was some line-up!

 

[Waspie]

Difficult one! Being a child of the 50's. There are so many, especially in the early days when seeing bands live was so cheap compared to todays concerts.
For me, the most influential band had to be 'The Nice', Keith Emerson and co. The one I regret missing was Led Zeppelin!! It was a, (to use todays jargon), 'a date' of see Zeppelin at Newcastle or some female who's name falls into obscurity!! Always regretted that one!! (Date wasn't worth it either just to rub salt in).
Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band are high up there too!!

 

[stillp]

That was some line-up!

I left out Sounds Incorporated as well as Jet Harris (ex-Shadows bassist) and the Jetblacks. Jerry Lee wasn't 'officially' on the tour - I think he couldn't get a work permit, so he was sitting in the front row surrounded by security. At one point during the show Richard walked to the front of the stage and said "Who's that sitting down there in the front row? My, it's my good friend Jerry Lee Lewis! Come up here and give us a song Jerry." They did "Great Balls of Fire" as a duet. NME reported that happening at another venue so it probably happened at every show.

When I worked at a Technical College, the Students' Union asked me if I'd help them out at another local college, where they had some bands booked but the college had decided that there must be an electrician present for safety reasons. I wasn't an electrician but apparently an electrical technician was acceptable, so i got paid to see a few gigs. Can't remember them all (this was late 70s) but they included Scorpions, Ray Davies (ex-Kinks), Racing Cars, Jasper Carrot, Andy Fraser (ex-Free), Alvin Lee with one of the later versions of Ten Years After, Max Boyce...
I'll edit this if my geriatric brain cell remembers any more.
Pete

 

[AlanG]

I have a couple that are my faves;

Megadeth - Seen them on their Youthanasia tour and got an after gig meet & greet pass. My mate and me spent about 20 mins talking to all the guys. Fantastic time.

Disturbed - Seen them at Barrowlands in Glasgow and my wife and I got to meet the band before the concert as well as being right at the front. Excellent time had

Rammstein - Saw them on their 'Pussy' tour. My wife and I were right at the front and they are a band that know exactly how to put on a superb live show. The pyrotechnics are amazing. My ears were ringing for hours afterwards

 

[CarolsHusband]

May '83, Hammersmith Odeon.

John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Buddy Guy & Junior wells.

I was 17 and had my mind well & truly blown.

Squeeze in Deptford were a close second.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent at the Odeon in Maidstone. 1963 I think. God I'm ancient!
Pete

Now that would be worth travelling back in time for….

 

[Tim Marlow]

May '83, Hammersmith Odeon.

John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Buddy Guy & Junior wells.

I was 17 and had my mind well & truly blown.

Squeeze in Deptford were a close second.

Sorry about the language, but, you lucky sod! Real blues royalty there :thumb2: Saw JLH at Cambridge folk festival around the same time, but not the others……he was fantastic, by the way…..also saw Alexis Corner’s last gig on the same weekend…..

 

[PaulinKendal]

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

So many great bands there. Dexys Midnight Runners, Projected Passion Revue Tour at the Old Vic, November 1981 - what an astonishing show!

I saw Tower of Power at Dingwall's Camden Lock, totally coked up to the eyeballs (them, not me) - best horn section EVER!

And I'd LOVE to see Richard Hawley live one day!

 

[Dave Ward]

Over the late 80's I saw Jake Thackray, Tony Capstick and Mike Harding at my parents' local pub in Sheffield - it was a folk venue, also with jazz nights. Well known to me - my father took me for my first ( official ) drink in 1974, and my brother had his wedding reception there ( first of 3 wives ). Still there. although the name has changed, still a live music venue!
Dave