Whitesnake Newcastle City Hall Newcastle City Hall 18th June 1980
Support from Gary Moore’s G Force
The 1980 tour programme gave a great build-up for a great concert: “To categorise Whitesnake as a heavy metal band is something like passing off Bob Dylan as a folk singer. Certainly there are those root elements, but anyone with the ability to peer over the obvious can see that Whitesnake are far more than a headbanging storm machine. One of the strongest influences in creating the thunderous hard rock they belt out is the blues and not just a token wail and groan here and there, but a sincere realisation of what the blues is all about. Good times, no nonsense progressive rhythm and blues, that’s what Whitesnake is all about and they’re ready an’ willing to prove it.
With Whitesnake onstage we get David Coverdale throwing back his head in a halo of curling hair, exploding in vocal dynamic, teasing and pleading for us to join in singing and share the whole experience together as one….Two of the best blues-rock guitarists in the business: Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden firing on all six and generating truly awesome electric guitar virtuosity tempered with raunch and taste….Jon Lord, the Maestro, with his battery of keyboards providing a sweeping sound of colours, fusing rock and classical roots to paint the backdrop of Whitesnake….Neil Murray’s strong, me.odic bass-playing which rises above and expands on normal bass riffing to give a definite extra edge and subtlety to the rhythm lines created by…..Ian Paice, considered by many to be the Guv’nor drummer. As any of you who saw Ian’s welcome return to the rock and roll stage on Whitesnake’s ’79 UK tour can testify, he is the consummate drummer. 
This is what we get….from a whisper to a scream……Whitesnake!”
Bernie Marsden was recently given a video featuring unseen live footage of this gig. Taking about the video Bernie says: “This video is very special. A few months ago I was given a reel of film by a fan of a Whitesnake gig at Newcastle City Hall on the “Ready an’ Willing” tour in 1980. It is unique and unseen footage of the classic early Whitesnake line up…. It’s a little grainy, but it is the real deal, watch Jon Lord in classic style on the Hammond organ. Many thanks to the people of the North East in the film, and of course the whole of the Whitesnake army out there. Special thanks to Mark Smith for his camera work and great editing. Hope you enjoy it, those on-tour Snake memories flood back!” You can see the video here: http://classicrock.teamrock.com/news/2014-10-21/premiere-bernie-mardsen-s-trouble-feat-coverdale
Setlist: Come On; Sweet Talker; Walking in the Shadow of the Blues; Ain’t Gonna Cry No More; Lovehunter; Mistreated; Soldier of Fortune; Nighthawk; Belgian Tom’s Hat Trick; Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City; Fool for Your Loving; Take Me with You; Ready an’ Willing; Lie Down (A Modern Love Song)
Archive for the ‘Gary Moore’ Category
11 Feb
Whitesnake Newcastle City Hall Newcastle City Hall 18th June 1980
10 Dec
Gary Moore concerts 1971 to 2007
Gary Moore concerts 1971 to 2007
I first saw Gary Moore live when he was in the Irish rock band Skid Row, at a gig at Sunderland Locarno in early 1971. I remember standing on the dance floor, right in front of the stage, close up to Gary. He was a young man of 18 then, and his guitar work was simply astounding. His technique mixed the feel and tone of great blues guitarists like Peter Green and B B King, with the flash and speed of Alvin Lee. You could also hear the jazz influences in Moore’s playing and in the music of Skid Row. There was another reason why Skid Row stood out from the crowd, and deserved much more success than they ever got, and that was manic bass player Brush Shiels. Brush has a mop of afro hair (guess that’s where his name came from), played a see-through perspex bass, and ran around the stage like the proverbial whirling dervish.
I saw the band once more, after Gary had left to be replaced by Paul “Tonka” Chapman, when they supported Curved Air at a gig at Newcastle City Hall. I saw Gary many more times over the years: in his own Gary Moore Band as a support act at the City Hall (I think it could have been on a bill with Stone the Crows), with Jon Hiseman’s Colosseum II at Reading Festival in 1976 and at a gig at Newcastle Poly, and with Thin Lizzy once or twice. I also saw him supporting Whitesnake on tour (his band was called G Force at that point) in 1980, and solo at Donington Monsters of Rock 1984.
The last time I saw Gary Moore was at a concert at Newcastle City Hall in . I went with a group of mates and we had seats right down close to the front of the stage. As usual Gary was on great form, squeezing some exquisite blues from his trademark Gibson Les Paul. I even managed to catch his plectrum :). From the 2007 programme: “Gary Moore is ackowledged as one of the finest musicians that the British Isles has ever produced. In a career that dates back to the 60s, there are few musical genres that he has not turned his adroit musical hand to, and has graced the line-ups of several notable rock bands, Thin Lizzy, Colosseum II and Skid Row to name but three.”
Typical Gary Moore set list from 2007: Oh, Pretty Woman; Hard Times; Trouble at Home; Since I Met You Baby; Midnight Blues; Eyesight to the Blind; Thirty Days; All Your Love (I Miss Loving); I Had a Dream; Too Tired; So Far Away; Empty Rooms; Don’t Believe a Word; Still Got the Blues; Walking by Myself. Encore: The Blues Is Alright; Parisienne Walkways.
Gary sadly passed away as the result of a heart attack, during the early hours of February 6, 2011. At the time, he was on holiday in Spain. He was 58. Another great talent sadly gone. Bob Geldof commented, at the time of his passing, that Moore was “without question one of the great Irish bluesmen. His playing was exceptional and beautiful. We won’t see his like again.” Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham added that “playing with Gary during the Black Rose era was a great experience. He was a great player and a great guy.”
15 Sep
Greg Lake Newcastle Mayfair 1981
Greg Lake Newcastle Mayfair 1981
The Mayfair was packed for this concert, and quite right too, as Greg had assembled a band of rock heavyweights for his first solo tour. The Greg Lake Band line-up for this 1981 outing was Greg on bass and vocals, special guest guitar ace Gary Moore, Tristram Margetts (from the very under-rated and too often forgotten Spontaneous Combustion) on bass, Tommy Eyre (ex-Joe Cocker and the Grease Band, and Alex Harvey band) on keyboards, and Ted McKenna (ex-SAHB, and Rory Gallagher) on drums. The set consisted of a mix of new songs, drawn from Greg’s first solo album which had just been released, and older ELP and King Crimson classics. Gary Moore played the excellent Parisienne Walkways, with its tremendous soaring guitar, and almost blew his band leader off the stage. But Gregg has a set of classic rock songs to draw from. Lucky Man is one of my favourite ELP tracks, and I was pleased to hear Greg sing it that night. It was also great to see them play tracks from the first, excellent King Crimson album. Epitaph is a particular favourite of mine, and 21st Century Schizoid Man was dark and loud, vibrating through the ballroom. The two Hammersmith Odeon gigs were recorded for a live album. The setlist for the Mayfair gig will have been something like: Fanfare for the Common Man / Karn Evil 9; Nuclear Attack; The Lie; Retribution Drive; Lucky Man; Parisienne Walkways; You Really Got a Hold on Me (a cover of the Smokey Robinson song); Love You Too Much; 21st Century Schizoid Man; Epitaph; The Court of the Crimson King; C’est la vie. I would have sworn that they also played I Believe in Father Christmas, but I’ve searched the internet and everything I have found suggests that my memory is playing tricks again, and that it didn’t feature in the set during the tour. Support came from pop-rock band Voyager who had a minor hit with their debut single, “Halfway Hotel”, which reached No. 33 in the UK Singles Chart in 1979.
6 Jan
AC/DC: Monsters of Rock Donington Park 1984
AC/DC at Monsters of Rock Donington Park; 18 August 1984
Line up: AC/DC; Van Halen; Ozzy Osbourne; Gary Moore; Mötley Crüe; Y & T; Accept
This was probably the best Monsters of Rock festival that I attended. I’d won tickets in the local newspaper (note “complementary” stamp on ticket at left), which was a positive to start with, so my mate and I went along free of charge for once! The weather was great, hot and dry, and the line-up was as strong as you could get in terms of heavy rock in the mid 80s. The bottle fights really took off this year, as I recall, with bottles of piss being lobbed across the crowd throughout the day. I have never been one for trying to get to the front at such events, and staying near the back of the crowd was definitely wise on this particular day.
I don’t remember much about Accept or Y&T. Motley Crue were OK, but didn’t have the scale of theatre and excess that I would see on their Theatre of Pain tour the following year (review to follow at some point). Gary Moore played some great blues guitar, as always. Ozzy was at the top of his game during this period in my view. At this time he was playing Mr Crowley, Crazy Train, along with Sabbath classics Iron Man and Paranoid. Van Halen were OK but, for me, had already lost some of the power and hunger they had in the early days when they supported Sabbath on their 1978 tour and on their first UK headline tour shortly after that (review to follow). As I recall there was a lot of talk about Van Halen blowing AC/DC off the stage, which just didn’t happen at all in my view. AC/DC were, as always, excellent and brought a great day to a close. AC/DC setlist: Guns for Hire; Shoot to Thrill; Sin City; Back in Black; Bad Boy Boogie; Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution; Flick of the Switch; Hells Bells; The Jack; Have a Drink on Me; Highway to Hell; Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap; Whole Lotta Rosie; Let There Be Rock; Encore: T.N.T.; For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
Vintagerock's Weblog. 