Santana Newcastle City Hall November 22nd 1972 early (6.30pm) show: Exclusive Northern appearance
John and I went to see Santana at Newcastle City Hall on November 22nd 1972. The band played two shows at the venue that evening, and we went to the early show which was at 6.30pm. John’s memories of the gig: “As I recall Santana were not frequent visitors to the UK and this was one of the earliest times they played in the North East in the post-Abraxas period. They played two shows, with no support and it was my birthday. At that time Carlos was heavily influenced by John Mahavishnu and was moving in a more jazz/fusion-influenced direction than the heavily percusive sounds of the first two albums. I believe at the beginning of the set he said “A moment of meditation for Devadip” which was the name given to him by his guru Shri Chimony. Apparently it means “The lamp, light and eye of God”. This change in musical direction caused considerable tension within the band and precipitated a number of line up changes. I remember really enjoying the gig and I think they played most of Side 1 from the Caravanserai album – “Waves Within”, “Look up (to see whats coming down)”, “Just in time to see the sun”, “Song of the wind” and “All the Love in Universe”. Funnily I don’t remember if they played “Black Magic Woman” or “Oye Como Va”. I never saw the band again but have great memories of this show.”
My memories of the gig are also of an enjoyable concert. I’m pretty sure that they also played “Samba Pa Ti”. Their visit covered only two UK cities, Newcastle and Manchester, as part of their 1972 European tour (not sure how it could be an “Exclusive Northern appearance” when they also played Manchester 🙂 ; but maybe it was at the time the tickets were printed). Santana had just released their fourth album Caravanserai, and as John says it was a sharp departure from his critically acclaimed first three albums. We were all familiar with Santana at the time because of their excellent storming performance of “Soul Sacrifice” in the “Woodstock” film. By the time John and I saw Santana and his band in Newcastle their musical style had changed considerably from the band we all saw and loved in “Woodstock”. I recall being quite surprised by the difference, which was moving the music closer to that which John McLaughlin was pursuing in his Mahavishnu Orchestra. Santana’s exquisite guitar playing shone out, as it always does, to this day. I also remember that Slade were performing at Sunderland Top Rank that evening, with Thin Lizzy and Suzi Quatro as support acts. As we returned home after the Santana gig, which will have bee finished by 8.30pm to allow for the late show, we could see people entering the Rink (aka Top Rank) for the Slade gig.
A setlist from three days later at a concert in Switzerland shows Santana as having played the following songs. I would suspect the Newcastle set is likely to have been similar to this one: Going Home; A-1 Funk; Every Step of the Way; Samba pa ti; Look Up (To See What’s Coming Down); Just in Time to See the Sun; Incident at Neshabur; Bambele; Stone Flower; Waiting; Castillos de arena; Free Angela; Earth; Se a Cabo; Savor; Toussaint L’Overture
6 May
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