The Sooty Show Sunderland Empire sometime in the early ’60s
Ok Maybe the daily blogging is finally getting to me. You are going to think I am going completely mad, but here we go anyway. I just couldn’t finish this project without mentioning my earliest memory of going to the theatre. I was a big fan of Sooty (along with Torchy the Battery Boy, but that’s another story) and remember my dad taking me to see The Sooty Show, with Harry Corbett, and of course Sweep, when it came to the Empire. I can’t have been very old, which places it probably sometime in the early 60s. I can picture myself to this day, sitting half way back in the stalls, hardly believing that I was actually seeing Sooty and Sweep live on stage! The lights, the lovely plush surroundings of the theatre, the bright lively action on stage; it all fascinated me. I have early memories of going to the circus, but didn’t particularly like it (I was frightened of the clowns), but a theatre show was something special, something different. The strongest memory I have of the show is of Sooty sitting at his little drumkit playing in the “Sooty Band” with Sweep (and possibly Soo, although I think she may have joined later). I found a video of said band in an arcade machine playing “Polly Put the Kettle On” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm0-KChypko Wow! Soo on piano and Sweep on sax. 
This is exactly how I remember it onstage at the Empire.
Sooty of course hit Harry on the head a couple of times with a hammer (“Don’t do that for goodness sake!” said Harry), waved his magic wand and said “Izzy wizzy, let’s get busy!”, soaked Harry and Sweep with his water pistol, and played his xylophone. All good clean fun.
My fate was cast. I know its seem quite a long way from going to see Zeppelin, the Stones or T Rex, but it was early experiences like this that gave me my thirst for concerts. The pictures of Sooty’s card game and the Sooty annuals are mine, picked up for 50p or so each at a car boot sale. I still can’t resist the little bear. By the way, I’m not alone in liking rock and Sooty. Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain is a big Sooty fan; always has a Sooty puppet as a mascot on the front of his drumkit, and has occasionally worn a full size Sooty costume at shows as an entrance (now that is crazy 🙂 ).
Oh, and of course the show would always end “Bye bye everybody, bye bye”. Magic.
29 Mar
The Sooty Show Sunderland Empire sometime in the early ’60s
28 Mar
The Troggs Newcastle Polytechnic 1st October 1976
The Troggs Newcastle Polytechnic 1st October 1976
How could I have forgotten to write about The Troggs? I was a big fan of theirs; they had all those great hits in the ’60s. However, I didn’t get to see The Troggs live until 1976, one Friday night at Newcastle Poly. I found the date on the Steve Brown Band’s site, which contains a wealth on information about the band’s history and the gigs they played. The Steve Brown Band were supporting The Troggs that night; they noted about the gig: “Wild reaction from large audience. Encore after 3 minutes shouting from crowd”.
“Troglodyte may refer to:
A cave dweller, one who lives in a cave.
Troglodytae or Troglodyti, an ancient group of people from the African Red Sea coast
Troglodites, a fictional tribe described in Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, supposedly descending from the ancient Troglodytae
Caveman, a stock character based upon widespread concepts of the way in which early prehistoric humans may have looked and behaved
A British band who became known as The Troggs” (Wikipedia)
The Troggs were the forerunners of punk and garage. They lived up their caveman name with an image and sound which was basic and raw. Their records conisted of a few slabs of chords over a sold chugging rhythm, and lyrics that were just as basic. “Give it to Me”; “I Can’t Control Myself”. How did they get away with it. And of course “Wild Thing” was the big one. It sounded so different, quite shocking actually.
I have strong memories of this gig. I was excited about finally getting to see the Troggs. It was one of the first dances of a new academic year, and the Students Union ballroom was filled with students eager for a good night out, lots of drink, silly dancing and good fun to be had by all. And the Troggs were just the band to give them all of that. The student crowd joined in with all the songs, and went generally crazy. Reg Presley egged them on, and guitarist Chris Britton squeezed garage chord rhythms from his Les Paul. Classic.
Typical Troggs setlist of the period: Got Love If You Want It; Louie Louie; (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction; With a Girl Like You; Love Is All Around; Feels Like a Woman; Strange Movies; Gonna Make You; Walkin’ the Dog; No Particular Place to Go; Give it to Me; Wild Thing; I Can’t Control Myself
I’ve seen the Troggs a couple of times since on 60s package shows, which was fun, but Troggs music is best heard (and felt) in a packed ballroom surrounded by a few hundred drunken idiots showing themselves up to the strains of “Wild Thing” or “I Can’t Control Myself”.
Reg Presley passed away a few years ago. Chris Britton continues to lead the
Troggs, taking garage punk pop to a new generation of ravers, and to grey haired loons.
RIP Reg Presley.
27 Mar
Country Joe McDonald Sunderland Locarno 8th November 1974
Country Joe McDonald Sunderland Locarno 8th November 1974
We’d all seen him in the Woodstock film:
“Listen people, I don’t know how you expect to ever stop the war if you can’t sing any better than that. There’s about 300,000 of you f**kers out there. I want you to start singing. Come on.”
And then the sing-a-long style bouncing ball followed the lyrics which ran as subtitles along the bottom of the cinema screen.
Well for one night a few years later we had our own little piece of Woodstock in a ballroom in Sunderland.
“Give me an F
Give me a U
Give me a C
Give me a K
Whats that spell? Whats that spell? Whats that spell?
Whats that spell? Whats that spell?”
“And it’s 1, 2, 3, what’re we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
Next stop is Vietnam
And it’s 5, 6, 7, Open up the Pearly Gates
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! We’re all gonna die.”
(I Feel Like I’m Fixing to Die Rag, Country Joe and the Fish, 1967).
This tour was at the time of his self-titled solo lp (pictured here), so I guess we were treated to tracks from that album, along with old favourites like “Janis” and of course he just had to lead us all in the “Fish Cheer” and sing “I Feel Like I’m Fixing to Die Rag”. We all sang along.
Don’t think we stopped any war, but we sure had a good time 🙂
26 Mar
Durham Dome Festival 1973 – 1980
Durham Dome Festival 1973 – 1980
Durham Dome fest took place during the years 1973 to 1980. Several pleasant sunny afternoons and evenings were spent down on the Riverside Race Course in Durham.
From local alternative hippy North East zine Mother Grumble, which organised the Durham Dome fests:
“Durham Domefest 1st July 1973
So many people, magical music, listening in the sunshine, smiling, free.
And there was free music.
And there was lite and love.
Riding bureaucratic storms to do this together, so many people helped make this happen, and will again.
Policeman, friends, lovers, strangers all together down at the riverside.
Old folks, young folks, we’re going to grow and grow, help them who can’t come and do another show.
Contact Mother G to plan and build the next one, new faces, new bands
Loudest sound in Durham town, the people can never let the people down.
There are no words, we can all see there, we have all been there, see you next time.
Durham’s first free open air music for the people, by the people – it’s all too beautiful
Meet you at the next one.
And don’t be late.”
The festival would feature a host of local bands playing on a domed stage, with a few name bands joining in. I recall sing Chris Jagger, Jack the Lad, Isotope and Global Village Trucking Company play alongside Arbre, Hedgehog Pie, Steve Brown Band, Village (think they won the Melody Maker contest?) and Raw Spirit. Prefab Sprout played at one of the later festivals, and I read that Supertramp also played at one of the Dome fest, although I don’t recall seeing them. I went to several of the Dome fests, including the first, although I don’t recall which ones I actually attended.
I recall a real buzz about Chris Jagger who turned up unannounced and played on a sunny afternoon. It was at the time of his “You Know the Name but not the Face” lp, which places it around 1973. And pretty good he was too.
The Dome fests were happy friendly events; you would turn up, chat to friends and lie in the sun on the grass by the river, listening to some music. You never knew which bands would play, and that was part of the fun of it. Everything seemed so much simpler. Happy Days 🙂
25 Mar
Pan’s People Sunderland Locarno 1973?
Top of the Pops (TOTP) was a big deal when we were kids. We would gather around the television every Thursday night, waiting to see our favourites bands, the latest chart hits and the familiar faces of the DJs. And one very important part of Top of the Pops was Pan’s People. In a world with no MTV and no pop videos, Pan’s People danced to hits when the group or singer was not available to perform on the show. Pan’s People were every young boy’s dream dancing in skimpy outfits and hot pants to the latest chart sounds. Pan’s People joined TOTP in May 1968. By 1970 they became a weekly feature. The original Pan’s People line-up consisted of Louise Clark, Flick Colby, “Babs” Lord, Ruth Pearson, Andi Rutherford and Dee Dee Wilde. Flick Colby stood down from dancing in 1971 to concentrate on choreographing their routines. Andi was replaced by Cherry Gillespie in 1972.
One night, I think it was in 1973 or 1974, Pan’s People paid a visit to Sunderland. It was a midnight to 4am show, and the girls shared the bill with local chart heroes Geordie. I’d been out for a drink with friends and turned up at the Locarno after closing time, around 11pm. We joined a massive queue and waited for the venue to open. I think Geordie were on stage first, but can’t be sure. I also seem to recall that there was a guest Radio 1 DJ, but don’t remember who it was. Pan’s People performed in the early hours of the morning, doing a series of dance routines on the ballroom floor to chart hits of the time. The Mecca was crammed, full of drunken guys cheering at the girls. My memory of the evening is very faint, but I’m sure it wasn’t a dream and that I did really see Pan’s People.
Dee Dee Wilde, dancer: “We got our big break after a couple of us passed auditions for the Go-Jos – Top of the Pops’ original group of dancers. We couldn’t think of a name, but Flick said, “Well, Pan is the god of music and fertility and he has six handmaidens …” So at 4am and bleary-eyed after several bottles of wine we became Pan’s People…..In the glam-rock era, we wore every outfit from beautiful to dreadful….Our sexuality was very tongue-in-cheek – girls next door being a little bit sexy – and people loved that. At the time, we were the most famous group of girls in Britain, the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud rolled into one.”
Babs Powell: “If one or two of the routines were raunchy or teasing, it was because the music suggested it. Mary Whitehouse hated us and later on we had one or two women’s lib protests. We did loads of TV shows, from Frankie Howerd to Happening For Lulu, and gigs all over the country. We did one in Cheshire once on a Thursday night and someone said: “‘Ere! How can you be the real Pan’s People that we’ve just paid to see when you’re on Top of the Pops right now?” Then a big fight broke out at the back of the stage. They hadn’t realised that the programme was filmed on Wednesdays.”
(Pan’s People – Our Story, Signum Books, 2012).
24 Mar
Live 8 Hyde Park London 2nd July 2005
Live 8 Hyde Park London 2nd July 2005
I was so excited about this event for three reasons: firstly because I’d been in Wembley Stadium for Live Aid, secondly to see The Who, and thirdly and most of all to see Pink Floyd again. We (me, Marie, David and Laura) all went, staying the weekend in London. I’d managed to get tickets for the Gold Circle which took us right down the front, next to the stage, so we had an excellent view of the entire day’s proceedings.
Bob Geldof opened the proceedings, followed by Paul McCartney with U2 performing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (It was 20 years ago today! Wonderful). Then U2 performed “Beautiful Day” (with a verse of the Beatles’ “Blackbird”), “Vertigo”, “One” (including a segment from “Unchained Melody”). Coldplay were next up and played “In My Place” with a section from “Rockin’ All Over the World” (cheeky; Quo should have been on stage performing this, but weren’t invited although they of course opened Live Aid), “Bitter Sweet Symphony” (joined by Richard Ashcroft), and “Fix You”. David Walliams and Matt Lucas then came on stage in the role of their Little Britain characters Lou and Andy and introduced Elton John who played “The Bitch Is Back”, “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting”, and “Children of the Revolution” (with guest Pete Doherty). Bill Gates was then next up on stage to introduce Dido who sang “White Flag” and “Thank You” and “7 Seconds”with Youssou N’Dour.
Stereophonics were followed by REM who were introduced by Ricky Gervais. R.E.M. performed “Imitation of Life”, “Everybody Hurts”, and “Man on the Moon”. Then Kofi Annan introduced Ms. Dynamite who was followed by Keane and Travis. Bob Geldof joined Travis to sing “I Don’t Like Mondays”. Brad Pitt was next on stage to introduce Annie Lennox, then came UB40, Snoop Dogg and Razorlight.
Bob Geldof then introduced 24-year-old Birhan Woldu, the starving Ethiopian child whose image was so powerful in the video shown at Live Aid. Madonna took to the stage, embraced Birhan and held hands with her as she sang “Like a Prayer”.
Madonna was followed by Snow Patrol, The Killers, Joss Stone, Scissor Sisters, and Velvet Revolver (good but a bit out of place at this event). Then Lenny Henry presented Sting who sang the same songs as he performed at Live Aid: “Message in a Bottle”, “Driven To Tears”, and “Every Breath You Take”. Next Dawn French introduced Mariah Carey who was amazing, and David Beckham presented “his friend” Robbie Williams who got the crowd really going with “We Will Rock You”, “Let Me Entertain You”, “Feel”, and “Angels”. Peter Kay sauntered onto the stage and couldn’t resist singing “Is This the Way to Amarillo”.
Now we were moving to the legends; the bands that I had really come to see. The Who played “Who Are You”, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. They were followed by an event which I never thought I would see, the reunion of Pink Floyd and a breath-taking performance of “Speak to Me”/”Breathe”, “Money”, “Wish You Were Here” (real lump in the thrat moment and closed with “Comfortably Numb”. It was left to Paul McCartney to close the show with “Get Back”, “Drive My Car” (with George Michael), “Helter Skelter”, and “The Long and Winding Road”. He finished with “Hey Jude’ to which everyone sang along, and which seemed to go on for ever. We left Hyde Park as the crowd continued to sing “Na Na Na NaNa Na Na….”). The show was originally scheduled to close at 9.30pm, but seriously overran and went on until just after midnight.
The Floyd reunion was, of course, the real highlight for me. Gilmour announced the reunion less than a month before the gig, on 12 June 2005: “ Like most people I want to do everything I can to persuade the G8 leaders to make huge commitments to the relief of poverty and increased aid to the third world. It’s crazy that America gives such a paltry percentage of its GNP to the starving nations. Any squabbles Roger and the band have had in the past are so petty in this context, and if re-forming for this concert will help focus attention then it’s got to be worthwhile.” Waters said on stage: “It’s actually quite emotional standing up here with these three guys after all these years. Standing to be counted with the rest of you. Anyway, we’re doing this for everyone who’s not here, but particularly, of course, for Syd.” The screens showed video from their past shows, and a film of the pig from the Animals flying over Battersea Power Station. This was simply mind-blowing stuff; for me it was a very emotional experience. I found Wish You Were Here particularly powerful; you felt they were singing the song for Syd; which of course they were. Syd sadly passed away the following year. With Wright’s subsequent passing in 2008, this was to be the final concert to feature all four playing together.
A great, momentous day.
23 Mar
Frank Zappa Newcastle City Hall 13th February 1979
Frank Zappa Newcastle City Hall 13th February 1979
After many years of not visiting the UK, Frank Zappa made up for it by coming every year during the period 1977 to 1979. In 1979 I saw his concert at Newcastle City Hall. I went with a group of mates and we had seats quite close to the stage, and a great view of Frank and the band. This was an excellent performance, easily on par with the concert I had seen in Edinburgh a couple of years earlier. Zappa’s guitar playing was simply outstanding and I was delighted that they played the old Mothers’ favourite “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It” and “Peaches en Regalia” from “Hot Rats”.
I found this great discussion about the tour and the setlist: “The setlist for this tour was rather odd – you’d expect an artist who’d released 4 albums (including Sheik Yerbouti, which would come out in the middle of this tour) to be playing the songs from those albums. Frank, however, had been playing some of those songs since 1975-1976, and was ready to ditch them and work on the songs he’d introduced in the previous Fall 1978 tour. 
He also was doing more and more interviews and business stuff, and so Arthur Barrow, the bass player, was left in charge of most of the rehearsals. This meant that much of the setlist had a tendency to be Arthur’s favorites, as they’re the ones he wanted to spend time on. Hence the appearance of a lot of the One Size Fits All album. The band was the same as Fall 1978s, mostly.” (from Sean Gaffney’s Suitable Case for Treatment blog).
Setlist: Treacherous Cretins; Dead Girls of London; Ain’t Got No Heart; Brown Shoes Don’t Make It; Cosmik Debris; Tryin’ to Grow a Chin; City of Tiny Lites; Dancin’ Fool; Easy Meat; Jumbo Go Away; Andy; Inca Roads; Florentine Pogen; Honey, Don’t You Want a Man Like Me?; Keep It Greasey; The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing; For the Young Sophisticate; Wet T-Shirt Nite; Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?; Peaches en Regalia; Yellow Snow Suite (Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow / Nanook Rubs It / St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast / Father O’Blivion / Rollo); Dinah-Moe Humm; Camarillo Brillo / Muffin Man
Thanks to Mitch for the photo which he took at this concert.
Frank Zappa left us far too soon on December 4th 1993, and the music world would never be quite the same. Son Dweezil does an excellent job of playing his dad’s music to a whole new generation of fans.
I’m going to jump out of sequence again for the next week or so. I have a few events to cover that I promised myself I would write about before I completed my project. They are mostly rock related, but one or two aren’t quite. There are about 10 of them, and then I’ll return to Z with Z Z Top to finally close this daily project. Not far to go now.
22 Mar
Frank Zappa & the Tubes Knebworth 9th September 1978
“Oh God, Not Another Boring Old Knebworth” said the posters. Line-up: The Tubes, Frank Zappa, Peter Gabriel, Boomtown Rats, Rockpile, Wilko Johnson’s Solid Senders.
This was the second Knebworth festival to take place in 1978, following the Genesis / Jefferson Starship / Tom Petty gig earlier in the summer. I remember thinking it was a bit late in the year for an open air gig and feared the worst from the weather, but actually it was ok on the day; quite fine. I drove down with a group of mates. We argued all the way down about who was the “best” act of the day. Such things seemed to matter a lot in those days. In the car we had a big Zappa fan (me, and I was sure that Zappa was the biggest and best act and should be headlining), a newly converted Tubes fanatic, and a couple of Peter Gabriel / Genesis fans. Zappa and the Tubes were billed as joint headliners, however on the day the Tubes closed the show, which annoyed me a little. We camped and pitched our tents near a big generator (big mistake) which for some reason we didn’t really notice when we set up. However it was humming loudly all night and powering a massive floodlight which shone on our tents, so we didn’t get much sleep.
The show was opened by the Boomtown Rats, Wilko Johnson who had recently left Dr Feelgood and was fronting his new band Solid Senders, and Rockpile featuring Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. All class acts and a great start to the day. I’ve already written about Peter Gabriel and the Tubes in earlier posts. Both were great; the Tubes closed the festival with a massive crazy show. They were joined by Todd Rundgren for encores of Baba O’Reilly and
The Kids are alright, played in honour of Keith Moon who had died just two days before this concert.
Zappa was great, although I didn’t enjoy his performance as much as the concert I saw in Edinburgh the year before. His band had changed and they played very few songs that I knew. Still, it was a good day with a varied, and very strong line-up, although the lack of a major league headliner resulted in a far from capacity crowd.
We spent the night with a big light shining on us, a loud humming noise from the generator, and a few “Wally” shouts (although they were starting to fade away by this point in the ’70s). Very little sleep and a long drive home in the morning.
Zappa setlist: Rubber Slices (The Deathless Horsie); Introduction and Soundcheck; Dancin’ Fool; Easy Meat; Honey, Don’t You Want a Man Like Me?; Keep it Greasey; Village of the Sun; Poor Suckers (The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing); City of Tiny Lites; A Pound for a Brown on the Bus; Bobby Brown; Conehead; Flakes (part 1); Flakes (part 2); Magic Fingers; Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow; Nanook Rubs It; Saint Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast; Father O’Blivion / Rollo; Bamboozled by Love
Zappa band: Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals); Vinnie Colaiuta (drums); Arthur Barrow (bass); Ed Mann (percussion); Tommy Mars (keyboards); Denny Walley (guitar, vocals); Peter Wolf (keyboards); and Ike Willis (guitar, vocals).
21 Mar
Morrissey First Direct Arena Leeds 20th March 2015
Morrissey First Direct Arena Leeds 20th March 2015
Support: Buffy Sainte-Marie
Laura is a big Mozza fan so we couldn’t pass up on an opportunity to see him playing “up North”. No Manchester date on this tour; Leeds had the honour of hosting the only northern date. Tickets were a bit pricey with best seats £75 (whats that about Morrissey?) so we plumped for a couple of cheap seats at £45 each. Shortly after buying the tickets Laura realised that she was going away that weekend with a group of friends, but not to worry, after a bit of thought we arranged to meet Dale in Leeds; he bought a ticket outside and drove Laura down to Derbyshire after the show.
Buffy Sainte-Marie was onstage playing “Love takes us up where we belong” as we entered the Arena at 7.30. We saw her play “Universal Soldier” and a couple of more songs; she was finished by 8pm. Morrissey is a fan and had invited her to join him on tour. Good taste and a great choice. Sadly I suspect most of the crowd didn’t know who she was, and that they were witnessing a performance by a legend. There was the usual video sequence during the interval which started with The Ramones and included Jefferson Airplane performing White Rabbit and Penetration playing Don’t Dictate. More good taste and more great choices.
Morrissey took the stage at 8.30 in front of an image of his heroine (not) the Queen; and went straight into “The Queen is Dead”. For this tour he is playing quite a lot of new material with few Smiths tracks so there were a lot of songs that I didn’t know. Having said that I really enjoyed the concert. The sound was loud and crisp; much better than you would normally expect in an arena. And his band were excellent. Morrissey looked quite dapper in a dark shirt with a white V neck and new looking jeans; and he seemed to be a in a good mood. He told us that he had driven through Harrogate on the afternoon and commented on seeing lots of children all dressed the same with fur (from cats he told us, but I really doubt that Morrissey) around their hoods (it was quite an odd comment) and then into “Crashing Bores”; he also had some pretty caustic comments about the coming election and how we couldn’t possible get excited about it (“It’s just Impossible!”). The audience reaction was good, with swaying crushes on the floor, although a little subdued in the seats. There were quite a few empty seats in the upper tier, but the crowd was a respectable size (the arena holds I think 13,500 or so). He finished with Meat is Murder (“Lamb, Spam, Murder”) with the usual shocking video sequence of pigs and cows being slaughtered. “First in the Gang” was the encore. He finished around 10pm. I dashed during the encore to get to the carpark and get out before the queues started (when we drove into the carpark we were told that it can take up to 1.5 hours to get out at the end). Managed to achieve a quick getaway and was back home before midnight.
Setlist: The Queen Is Dead; Suedehead; Staircase At The University; World Peace Is None Of Your Business; Kiss Me A Lot; Istanbul; Neal Cassady Drops Dead; I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris; Irish Blood, English Heart; What She Said; Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before; Scandinavia; The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores; One Of Our Own; Trouble Loves Me; Everyday Is Like Sunday; Kick The Bride Down The Aisle; The Bullfighter Dies; Meat is Murder. Encore: First Of The Gang To Die
20 Mar
Frank Zappa Edinburgh Playhouse 14th February 1977
Frank Zappa Edinburgh Playhouse 14th February 1977
“Welcome to our first Edinburgh concert !” Frank Zappa coming on stage in Edinburgh to a massive roar from the Scottish crowd.
This was Zappa’s first visit to Scotland. He played Glasgow Apollo one night, and Edinburgh Playhouse the next. I attended the Edinburgh concert; I had actually bought a ticket for his concert at Hammersmith, but then when he added the Edinburgh date, I decided it would be easier to make the trip north of the border, rather than go to London. In those days there was a late night train from Edinburgh to Newcastle (it doesn’t run now), which meant you could go to a gig at the Playhouse, run round to Waverley station (you had to be quick to catch the train) and be back home in the early hours of the morning. I’d been a big fan of Zappa and the Mothers since I first heard “We’re Only in it for the Money” and “Lumpy Gravy” in the late ’60s. Now those were the coolest of cool lps to carry to school under your arm; I remember having to order my copies of “Lumpy Gravy” and “Uncle Meat” from a local record shop (Bergs) and waiting ages for them to arrive. I was also a big fan of the “Hot Rats” album (another iconic sleeve). I’d been wanting to see Frank Zappa live for ages, and was so excited that I was finally getting the chance to do so. The set was a mix of material from throughout Zappa’s career including the magnificent “Peaches en Regalia” which is my favourite track on “Hot Rats”, back to the start with the Mothers cooky “Big Leg Emma”, full on Wah Wah on “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama” and an amazing solo on “Black Napkins”. That night I realised that there was much more to Zappa than nutty songs, political statements, doowop, and childish toilet humour; that Frank Zappa was actually an excellent guitarist. Ran into my friend John who was studying in Edinburgh at the time. Had to run to catch the train home, totally knocked out that I had actually seen a genius and one of my all time heroes live in concert.
Setlist: The Purple Lagoon (intro.); Peaches en Regalia; The Torture Never Stops; Big Leg Emma; City of Tiny Lites; Pound for a Brown; Jones Crusher; My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama; Tryin’ to Grow a Chin; Broken Hearts Are for Assholes(with “Little Deuce Coupe” ); Dong Work for Yuda; Manx Needs Women; Titties ‘n Beer; Black Napkins; Dinah-Moe Humm; Camarillo Brillo / Muffin Man
The Zappa Band: Frank Zappa — guitar, vocals; Ray White – guitar, vocals; Eddie Jobson – keyboards, violin; Patrick O’Hearn – bass & Terry Bozzio – drums, vocals. It was great to see local hero Eddie Jobson playing violin with Zappa, it was only a few years earlier we were all dancing to him playing “Hava Nagila” with the excellent Fat Grapple in Sunderland Locarno.
A strange thing. My ticket shows that I had a seat in the front row of the stalls. Now in my memory I can picture myself sitting upstairs in the circle. I’m sure I would have remembered if I was in the front row. All I can think is that my seat was right at the side of the stage and a poor view and that I wandered upstairs and found an empty seat. But hey who knows.
John’s memory: “I can remember going to the show and had a ticket fairly near the front.I did not know much of his material except for the vintage Hot Rats which had been a popular “cool” album in the early 70’s.I went mainly based on his reputation and the fact that he did not play very often. I remember really enjoying the gig and thinking he was an exceptional player , despite not being familiar with a lot of the material. I think Eddie Jobson was in his band at the time. The set included Peaches en Regalia and the highlight of for me was City of Tiny Lites.”
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