Krokus Newcastle City Hall 1980 and 1981
I saw Krokus al least three times in the early 80s; twice at Newcastle City Hall, and at the Reading festival in 1980. There many be other times that I don’t recall. Krokus were a hard rock/heavy metal band who hailed from Switzerland, and got caught up in the excitement around the resurgence of heavy rock and metal known as the NWOBHM. Their line-up (from the 1981 programme) was Marc Storace on vocals, Fernando Von Arb on lead guitar, Mandy Meyer on second guitar, Chris Von Rohr on bass, and Freddy Steady (great name :)) on drums. Support for the 1981 tour was NWOBHM band More, who were at the time fronted by vocalist Paul Mario Day. Paul had sung in an early incarnation of Iron Maiden, although he was soon to leave More, who then went through several line-up changes.
The 1980 Krokus tour was in support of their Metal Rendez Vous album, while the 1981 tour came at the time of their Hardware album. Typical set list from the day: Come On; No Way; Burning Bones; Rock City; Winning Man; Bedside Radio; Easy Rocker; Heatstrokes; Bye Bye Baby; Mad Racket. Encore: Mr. 69.
The programme tells me:” Krokus – Harder than the Swiss Franc! More than 100,000 copies of Metal Rendezvous were sold as a result of the US tour- How many bands can say that on their first time out?” I recall that Krokus were a pretty loud and solid rock band, but I can’t say that I could hum any of their songs. I also remember that they wore lots of leather gear, but then which band didn’t at the time.
Well thats me finished with the letter K. Tomorrow I’ll make a start on covering bands and artists beginning with the letter L. I guess I’m around the half way mark of my task.
Archive for the ‘More’ Category
5 Jan
AC/DC: Monsters of Rock Donington Park 1981
Monsters of Rock festival August 22, 1981
I’m continuing my AC/DC memories with thoughts on the 1981 Monsters of Rock Festival. The line up for this, which was the second Monsters of Rock event was AC/DC; Whitesnake; Blue Öyster Cult; Slade; Blackfoot; More.
I went along to this gig with a group of mates in the back of a Transit van with one of my friends driving us. We went primarily to see AC/DC, who were a favourite band of all of us, although many of us were also fans of Blue Oyster Cult. This was our first visit to Donington, and for me is for the first of several visits to the Monsters of Rock festival over the next 10 years. My recollection of the day is a very cold and wet one, with, as often the case for festivals in the UK, quite a bit of rain. The first couple of bands: More and Blackfoot weren’t anything special as I recall, but Slade went down well as they always did at a festival.
I’d seen Slade tear the place apart at the Reading Festival the year before, in common with many others in the Donington crowd, and that Reading comeback meant that they were now well accepted by the heavy rock fraternity. I also remember lots of cans etc being thrown across the crowd that day. The sound mix for Blue Oyster Cult was awful and they were a big disappointment for all of us; it didn’t go well for them at all that day. Whitesnake were on top form around this time with Coverdale in great voice, delivering classics like Mistreated and Ain’t no love in the heart of the city. AC/DC closed the day and were great, their show translating well to a massive open air setting. The AC/DC setlist at Donington was: Hells Bells; Shot Down in Flames; Sin City; Back in Black; Bad Boy Boogie; The Jack; What Do You Do For Money Honey; Highway to Hell; High Voltage; Whole Lotta Rosie; Rocker; T.N.T.; Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution; You Shook Me All Night Long; Let There Be Rock. Over the next couple of days I’ll do a write up on the 1984 and 1991 Monsters of Rock festivals, which will bring my AC/DC memories up to date. I’ll then move on to another band. I haven’t been there since 1991, but am planning to go to Download at Donington in June this year to see the reformed original Black Sabbath, unless they add any indoor shows before then.
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