The Grangemouth Pop Festival
Line up: Beck Bogert Appice; Status Quo; Steeleye Span; Lindisfarne; The Everley Brothers; Beggars Opera; Average White Band; Sunshine; Billy Connolly; The Chris McClure Section; MC: John Peel. All for £1.50!
I’m going to see Billy Connolly at Newcastle City Hall on Thursday night. I’m looking forward to the gig, and it made me think about the couple of times I’ve seen Billy Connolly in the past. The first time I saw him was at The Grangemouth Pop Festival in Scotland in 1972 (see ticket right). At the time he was unknown outside Scotland and, as he delighted in telling us, he was scared shitless about this gig, as it was his biggest to date. The festival was organised by Great Western Festivals, who had also run the excellent Lincoln Festival which I attended earlier in 1972, and was billed as Scotland’s first pop festival. My friend Nicky and I went by train to the gig. 
Grangemouth is north west of Edinburgh. The festival took place on Saturday 23 September 1972 and was part of the Grangemouth centenary celebrations. It was held in a sports stadium, which was in an industrial area, next to a gasworks, which spewed smoke over us at various times during the day. It wasn’t that well attended as I recall, with quite a heavy atmosphere, drunkenness, and some fights as the day went on. The promised line up was good, however a few of the bands who were billed did not play; a not uncommon occurrence in those days. Billy Connolly (see left from the programme of the festival) delivered a set pretty early during the day which was a mix of comedy and folk songs, and was one of the hits of the day for me. He’d just had a success at the Edinburgh festival and was just starting to make a name for himself.
Other highlights of the day were Beggars Opera who were also local heroes with great swirling Hammond organ, The Everley Brothers who sang all those timeless hits, and Steeleye Span, who were still playing quite traditionally-based elecric folk at that time, before the days of All Around My Hat. Status Quo were at the top of their game in the early 70s, and were great favourites of Peel, who was DJ/MC for the day. Marsh Hunt was to seen wandering around the crowd. The extract to the right, which is taken from the newspaper programme (also see below) shows the line up and timings. Chris Mclure, who was another local hero, also played. Unfortunately, neither Uriah Heep or The Electric Light Orchestra played. 
Beck, Bogert and Appice were the main reason we went along, and Beck was a revelation. His guitar playing eclipses Clapton in my view, and I was in awe of him that night. I remember him playing Superstition and am pretty sure that he used a mouth-tube, which was the first time I’d seen suc a strange contraption, and was a few years before Peter Frampton used one on Show Me The Way. I can’t remember much of the set, but I’m pretty sure it contained Morning Dew, a new song called Black Cat Moan, Going Down, and an epic version of Keep Me Hanging On, which Bogert and Appice will have brought with them from Vanilla Fudge. After the gig we got the train back to Edinburgh, where we spent the night trying, and failing, to sleep on some pretty hard and uncomfortable benches, until it was time for the first train back to Newcastle on the Sunday morning.
Archive for the ‘Status Quo’ Category
18 Jan
Grangemouth Pop Festival Scotland 23 September 1972: Jeff Beck, Billy Connolly and others
17 Dec
Status Quo, Roy Wood and Kim Wilde Newcastle Arena Dec 16 2011
Status Quo, Roy Wood and Kim Wilde Newcastle Arena Dec 16 2011
Quo at Xmas has become an annual event for me. This year’s end of year tour is entitled QuoFestive and sees the guys heading a three band bill alongside Roy Wood and Kim Wilde. They have also reduced the number of gigs on the tour and moved from a mix of theatres and arenas to a smaller number of arena gigs. This is going to be the pattern for the future, so instead of visiting the City Hall, Quo are at Newcastle Metro Arena.
I arrived around 8pm, which meant I missed Kim Wilde and Roy Wood had just started. I am a big fan of Roy and the Move, and saw him support Quo in Sheffield a couple if years ago. His set was good, and he got the crowd going, finishing with that Xmas song.
Quo came on stage around 9pm and played their usual set, with a few small changes from last year. The sound was clear and loud, and Francis was on good form, with the usual cheeky comments to the crowd. The show was usual Quo; good solid rock played perfectly. I enjoyed it more than I expected, but much prefer the City Hall as a venue. The encore saw the guys joined by Roy Wood and Kim Wilde for Winter Wonderland and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Good stuff. I must have seen Quo around 30 times now, and to be honest it is getting a little samey, but hey ho they are what they are, and they do it well. So will I go again next year? Of course I will.
Setlist: Caroline; Something ‘Bout You Baby I Like; The Wanderer; Rock ‘n’ Roll ‘n’ You; Rain; Mean Girl; Beginning Of The End; Medley (What You’re Proposin’/Down The Dustpipe/Little Lady/Red Sky/Dear John); Big Fat Mama;
Two Way Traffic; The Oriental; Let’s Rock; Paper Plane; Living On An Island; In The Army Now; Drum Solo/The Killer; Roll Over Lay Down; Down Down; Whatever You Want; Rockin’ All Over The World
Encore: Burning Bridges; Walking In A Winter Wonderland; Santa Clause Is Coming To Town
I hate printed tickets
programme
21 Nov
Status Quo City Hall Newcastle 24 November 2010
Status Quo City Hall Newcastle 24 November 2010
I’d been looking forward to this, but when the night came I wasn’t that excited about going. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Status Quo, but the set lists don’t change much from year to year and it has all been getting a bit samey for me. Also it was pretty cold and I didn’t fancy going out.
Anyway along I went to the City Hall, and I arrived just as the support act was finishing. After a quick visit to the bar, I took my seat half way back in the stalls. It wasn’t long before the familiar Quo drone heralded the arrival of the boys, starting as always these days with Caroline. The set was pretty much the same with a few changes, but actually I did enjoy the show more than I had expected. Francis in particular was on top form in one of his great cheeky moods, with lots of banter with the crowd. And he played more and better guitar solos than he usually does. Rick on the other hand seemed quite reserved and his voice seemed to be suffering. All in all a pretty good show; perhaps not top form; but better that last year at Sheffield Arena.
Setlist: Caroline; Something ’bout You Baby I Like; Break The Rules; Mean Girl; Softer Ride; 4500 Times; Rain; Beginning Of The End; Medley: Mystery Song / Railroad / Spinning Wheel Blues / Wild Side Of Life / Rollin’ Home / Again And Again / Slow Train; The Oriental; Creepin’ Up On You; For You; In The Army Now; Drum Solo; Paper Plane; Roll Over Lay Down; Down Down; Whatever You Want; Rockin’ All Over The World
Encore: Don’t Waste My Time; Rock ‘n’ Roll Music / Bye Bye Johnny
ticket
programme
13 Dec
Status Quo & Roy Wood Sheffield Arena 6 Dec 2009
Status Quo & Roy Wood Sheffield Arena 6th December 2009
This promised to be a great double bill: the mighty Quo with special guests Roy Wood’s Rock n Roll Band. Quo were due to come to my local venue, Newcastle City Hall, but Roy Wood featured at the Arena gigs only. Hence I decided to pass on the City Hall show and make the journey to Sheffield to catch Roy with my heroes. I hadn’t seen Roy Wood since his Wizzard days, when he played Sunderland Locarno several times. I was looking forward to catching up with him again; his shows are few and far between these days and he hasn’t ventured to the North East for many years.
I’d just arrived back from seeing Shift-Static in Edinburgh on Sunday morning; had a little break and then set off to drive to Sheffield around 4.30pm. Got to Sheffield around 6.30pm with plenty of time before Roy took the stage. The Arena was set out at half-maximum size and was pretty full; I would guess that there were around 3,000-4,000 people there. Roy Wood took the stage at 7.30 sharp and played us all of his Move and Wizzard hits. His band consists of a girl singer, guitar, bass, drums, piano, and a brass section. We got Fire Brigade, Blackberry Way, See my Baby Jive and he finished with (as expected) I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. The crowd loved him and everyone was standing, clapping and singing along by the end. A great choice for support; they warmed up everyone for the main act.
There was then a very short change-over and soon we got the usual Quo Drone signalling that the guys were taking the stage. Caroline, as always, starts the proceedings; the set is very similar to last year’s Pictures tour. Francis has not been well with bronchitis and some gigs were cancelled last week. The rest has clearly done him good. He’s on top form tonight; he, Rick and Rhino own the stage and are Quo at their best: rocking, joking, cheeky with the crowd. For me you can’t fault them when they are on form like this. Theres been a lot of talk on the Quo message board about the need to change the set. I’m not so sure; I think if there is an issue it is that this band tours all the time (unlike many others of their era) so we are all spoilt in seeing them at least once or twice every year. So of course we get used to the set. For me they were great. I sneak out during Bye Bye Johnny to get out of the carpark early (around 10.30pm) and get home around 12.30am.
website Status Quo: http://www.statusquo.co.uk/
website Roy Wood: http://www.roywood.co.uk/
Set list Roy Wood: included (plus one or two I didn’t know) I Can Hear the Grass Grow; Flowers in the Rain; Blackberry Way; Fire Brigade; Angel Fingers; California Man; See my Baby Jive; and finished with : I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day.
Set list Status Quo: similar to last year; something like: Caroline; Something ’bout You Baby I Like; Rain; Don’t Drive My Car; Mean Girl; Beginning Of The End; Hold You Back; What You’re Proposing / Down The Dustpipe / Little Lady / Red Sky / Dear John; Big Fat Mama; Pictures Of Matchstick Men; Ice In The Sun; Creepin’ Up On You; Living On An Island; In The Army Now; Roll Over Lay Down; Down Down; Whatever You Want; Rockin’ All Over The World
Encore: Paper Plane; Junior’s Wailing; Rock n Roll Music / Bye Bye Johnny
ticket
programme
28 Sep
Status Quo Newcastle City Hall 27th Sept 2008
Status Quo Newcastle City Hall September 27 2008
Loud. Rocking. Great atmosphere. The Quo army. Lots of Quo t-shirts. Deafening. Old songs and new(ish) songs. Pretty awesome actually.
So the mighty Quo return to the City Hall, where they always get a great reception, to start their Pictures 40 Years of Hits tour. There has been lots of chat on the fanclub message board about what the promised (and long overdue) changes to the setlist might be. Lots of expectations for this one, and fans in the front rows have travelled from all over the UK to see the first night of the tour.
I’m sitting 7 rws from the front to the left of the stage right in front of the speakers (dangerous). Quo come on to the usual drone intro and are straight into Caroline (no change yet then). But we soon realise that this is going to be a new show, and pretty special too. Lots of old ones have been brought back : Mean Girl, In MY Chair, Softer Ride, Is There a Better Way. And yes they did play Pictures of Matchstick Men and Ice in the Sun (the only song from last night which I’ve never seen them do before ; they probably haven’t played this one since the late 60s). The stage show has 3 screens at the back which worked pretty well; they showed some great old pictures of the band.
The last few songs were as usual : Down Down, Whatever you Want, Rocking All Over the World, with Juniors Wailing, Rock n Roll Music and Bye Bye Johnny as encores.
A pretty great show actually. Must be the best I have seen them for a long time, and Quo and I go back a long way (have seen them 30+ times since 1971). If you were getting tired of the show, and were going to give them a miss this time please think again and go along and see them; you won’t regret it.
Francis was in great cheeky form, having jokes with the front few rows. Rick’s voice is sounding pretty good too, and he got to sing quite a few. The crowd were, as always, up for it (although the centre of the balcony stayed seated pretty much throughout). My ears are still ringing this morning. Now do I go and see them again at the Arena shows in December (Sheffield or Glasgow is pretty tempting….. Manfred Mann is support for those shows…)
Setlist:
Caroline
The Wanderer
Rain
Don´t Drive My Car
Mean Girl
Softer Ride
Beginning of the End
Is There a Better Way
Proposin´ Medley
Big Fat Mama
Pictures of Matchstick Men
Ice In the Sun
The Oriental
Creepin´ Up On You
In My Chair
Living On an Island
In the Army Now
Roll Over Lay Down
Down Down
Whatever You Want
Rockín´ All Over the World
–Encores—
Junior´s Wailing
Rock´n´Roll Music
Bye Bye Johnny
Website: http://www.statusquo.co.uk/
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