Judas Priest Newcastle City Hall 1981
The Priest continued to spread metal mayhem across the globe, but also remained true to the home crowd, and returned for another full UK tour in 1981. The “World Wide Blitz” Tour, which was in support of their Point of Entry album, called at Newcastle City Hall on 18th November 1981, and I went along with a group of mates to marvel at our leather-clad heroes. By now tracks from British Steel were part of the set, so we were treated to classics such as Breaking the Law, and Living After Midnight, as well as old favourites Sinner, Beyond the Realms of Death and their excellent, and very dark, cover of Green Manalishi. This was classic Priest at their very best; they were now a massively successful heavy rock act, and were building up a big following in the USA and Japan.
From this tour on, Priest’s visits to the UK would become less frequent, as they started to concentrate on touring the US and other parts of the world. But for now, these guys were our metal heroes, and never failed to blow us away in concert. I can picture Rob now, commanding the stage, screaming out the vocals, flanked by KK Downing and Glen Tipton with their guitars flashing and swinging about. Great stuff! A typical setlist from the 1981 tour: Solar Angels; Heading out to the Highway; Diamonds & Rust; Hell Bent for Leather; Breaking the Law; Sinner; Beyond the Realms of Death; Grinder; Desert Plains; Hot Rockin’; You Don’t Have to Be Old to Be Wise; Victim of Changes; The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown). Encores: Living After Midnight; Tyrant. Support in 1981 came from Accept, a German heavy metal band who played an important role in the development of speed metal.
16 Jun
Judas Priest Newcastle City Hall 1981
Posted June 16, 2013 by vintagerock in Judas Priest. Tagged: concert, concerts, folk, gigs, heavy metal, metal, music, pop, punk, R&B, rock n roll. Leave a Comment
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