A story of two kind gentleman: one a legend of rock and roll.
Now Forever Changes is an absolute classic, often rated as one of the best albums of all time. And I can’t disagree. Neither would the crowd in Gosforth Civic Theatre. The place was packed and almost everyone sang along to every song. To my shame I can’t claim to know every song by Love, but many sounded familiar. Original guitarist Johnny Echols looks so cool, quite the part for an original psychedelic electric guitar hero complete with woolly hat, straight out of the late 1960s. He co-founded the band with Arthur Lee back in 1965. Respect.
Jackie and I had already seen this incarnation of Love at The Cluny, Newcastle around one year ago. Many years ago, I was lucky enough to witness the late, great Arthur Lee, the leader of Love, at the Tyne Theatre with my late wife Marie. On each occasion, Baby Lemonade were the backing band for Arthur Lee/Johnny Echols. Baby Lemonade are a Love tribute band.
This was my first visit to the latest incarnation of Gosforth Civic Theatre. I have happy memories of going to see Adam and the Ants and, on another occasion, Buster Blood Vessel with his band Bad Manners at the original Civic Theatre, which is now a supermarket. The completely new venue is exactly that, spanking brand-new and a very pleasant setting for the concert.
The website for the Civic Theatre announced the concert thus: “LOVE with Johnny Echols sees Arthur Lee’s longest serving band return to the UK to perform classic songs from Love’s first three albums Love, Da Capo, Four Sail and of course Forever Changes as well as some special deep cuts.”
“Following their farewell tour in 2019 the band hadn’t anticipated a return, but in 2022 the band did just that, as founding member and guitarist Johnny Echols explained, “the unprecedented times in which we found ourselves made us realise more than ever that what the world needs now is LOVE. How could we turn down the opportunity to come back and do it again? We have missed playing for our fans in the UK whom we dearly love.”
Johnny continues: “I so look forward to our trips across the pond and performing LOVE’s extraordinary music for our friends in the UK. We will, of course, be performing much of Forever Changes, as well as favourites from our extensive catalogue… as well as a few surprises. Don’t miss the LOVE-Boat!”
Back to the concert. Burt Bacharach’s “Little Red Book” sounded as fresh as ever and “Alone Again or” is undoubtedly one of the best songs of all time. A great show by the latest version of a classic band. It doesn’t get much better. But there was more to come. We were seated down towards the front of the stage throughout the performance, facing the band. I was purposely trying to smile at Johnny Echols, and it seemed to me that he was smiling back at me. Sure enough, at the end of the concert he beckoned towards my carer Jackie and handed her his plectrum, saying “that’s for your friend” and signifying that the plectrum was intended for me. I smiled at him and mouthed the words “Thank You”.
And then another wonderful thing happened. Someone on the stage gave their printed set list to someone in the crowd. They handed it onward to me. “No, that’s yours” I said, but the guy insisted that he wanted me to have it. Many thanks to you, my friend. Two lovely presents in one evening!
Thanks to Jackie for the photos, to Johnny Echols for the plectrum (see image), to the guy down the front beside me for the set list (also see image) and to Chris for manipulating the site.
Vintagerock's Weblog. 
Posted by TerriersFan on September 3, 2024 at 2:39 pm
Sounds like a great night, and one to restore one’s faith in humanity (the gifts).
Rock on, Peter!
Roger 🤘👍
Posted by ciarant1step on September 3, 2024 at 3:14 pm
Hi Peter,
Thanks for the terrific post. It’s so good to be reminded that it’s not just about great music and events but the friends and really nice people you meet along the way.
Posted by vintagerock on September 3, 2024 at 5:04 pm
Yes Johnny Echols and the guy next to me were both really nice to me and made it a special evening Ciaran
Posted by TrevorSAnderson on September 5, 2024 at 11:01 pm
Like you I saw Arthur and his band run through FC around 20 years ago – dear lord – at the Tyne Theatre, and at Glastonbury around the same period as well, he was truly a one off. FC would be in my top ten fav albums of all time, and sadly as Johnny teed up in the publicity blurb, more timely than ever, particularly a House is not a Motel, the news today will be the movies of tomorrow, the never ending war machine, conflict as entertainment, it never ends. It was always a pleasure to hear the photo punk garage rock of 7 & 7 is as well, its a mistake to sleep on the rest of Arthur’s catalogue. At one Glastonbury he was mooching about previous to his set – I think he was doing an acoustic thing for the BBC – and he was signing stuff, I had nothing for him to sign so I just told him that You set the Scene is one of the greatest songs ever and always makes me cry, he pulled his gold rimmed tinted shades down slightly and said, ”only one of the greatest songs white boy”?, before chuckling and giving me a hug, he said ”its all God, its all love”, and then he was gone, what an absolute dude. I was really upset when he died, I had a tiny moment with him but it felt big, for me, I’m sure Arthur was used to people crying in his presence lol. Glad you enjoyed the show Peter and got your souvenirs!
Posted by vintagerock on September 6, 2024 at 9:34 am
Great story and great memories Trevor and thank you for sharing Peter