Cream The Royal Albert Hall London 2005
This was a big gig for me. I’d watched the Cream farewell concert on TV in the late 60s and was just mesmerised by Clapton. His hair, the psychedelic painted SG, the “woman” tone he described in the film, it all seemed just sensational to me, as a kid at the time. I so wished that I’d had the chance to see Cream. I remember older boys at school talking about seeing them at a gig in Newcastle and saying how great they were. I was so jealous of them. I bought Goodbye Cream and played it again and again. I saw Clapton many times in the 70s and 80s, and Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker with their solo projects. But to see Cream was a great dream, an ambition.
So when the rumours of a reunion came to fruition and it was announced that the three legends would come together for a series of shows in London I was determined to go. I was nervous about getting tickets, and stressed about it for days before they went on sale. On the morning that they did go on sale I had two phones and a computer to hand, and got straight through to the Albert Hall box office on one of the phones, managing to my joy to buy tickets some ten rows from the stage. I then waited in anticipation for the gig. Would it be as good as I hoped? Marie came with me, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Judging by the American accents in evidence, the Albert Hall was full of fans who had travelled a long way for the honour of seeing this legendary band play for one more time. The atmosphere was strange, everyone was quiet in anticipation. It was as if the crowd couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Quiet, almost religious. The set covered everything I could have wished for with a selection from all of the albums. Clapton was god again, Jack sang beautifully and Ginger pounded away on his drums. 
The crowd stayed in their seats until almost the end. For Sunshine of Your Love, which was the encore, we were all up and we managed to get right to the front. Marie was leaning on the stage directly in front of Jack Bruce and I was just behind her. You can even see us on the DVD if you look closely. A night that I will remember for ever. Sometimes your dreams do come true, and sometimes they are as good as you dreamed they would be. Happy days. Setlist: I’m So Glad; Spoonful; Outside Woman Blues; Pressed Rat and Wart Hog; Sleepy Time Time; N.S.U.; Badge; Politician; Sweet Wine; Rollin’ And Tumblin’; Stormy Monday; Deserted Cities of the Heart; Born Under a Bad Sign; We’re Going Wrong; Crossroads; Sitting on Top of the World; White Room; Toad. Encore:Sunshine of Your Love.
Posts Tagged ‘blues’
29 Mar
Jon Anderson Newcastle City Hall 1980
Jon Anderson Newcastle City Hall 
Support from Clare Hamill (thanks Doug)
Jon had just left Yes for a solo career. He had been replaced in Yes by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of Buggles, which is a story for another day’s blog. I remember this show well. Marie came along with me and we had tickets near the front, sitting right in front of Jon. Jon’ s solo material was very impressive and his voice as strong and beautiful as ever. He focussed on material from his solo album which had just been released and also threw in a few Yes favourites. 
Jon Anderson has a unique voice which works best on the jazz tinged ballads that early Yes produced. He always seems very at ease on stage. I guess there were ego clashes between him and Chris Squire, who are both clearly very strong personalities, but this never showed on stage. Yes were one of the first bands that I ever saw, in the late 60s, and I’ve always had a soft spot for them. I do hope that Jon rejoins the rest of the Yes guys some day. Although Yes are still great, it will never be quite the same for me without Jon centre stage, preferably wearing a cheesecloth smock top and singing And You And I or Your Is No Disgrace.
28 Mar
Anti-Nowhere League Chron-Gen Chelsea Newcastle Mayfair 1982
Anti Nowhere League Newcastle Mayfair
Newcastle Mayfair was an important part of my youth. Along with Sunderland Locarno and Middlesbrough Rock garden, they were all great venues, and featured some classic bands throughout the 70s. Every time I pass The Gate in Newcastle, which now stands where the Mayfair once did, I think fondly of great Friday nights spent there. This ticket is for the Anti Nowhere League, but my memories are of Alex Harvey, The Groundhogs, Chicken Shack, Stray, Ian Hunter, Steppenwolf, The Clash, David Bowie, Family, Curved Air, UFO, Cockney Rebel, and many many more. And of stories of legendary gigs that I sadly didn’t attend there: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Eric Clapton. Time for my tardis again. I would love to go back in time and be standing on the balcony of the Mayfair, listening to Zeppelin’s Rock n Roll, waiting for the band to come on stage. Great memories, some of which are sadly fading as I get older. Turning to the band in question, the Anti-Nowhere League we (and still are) fronted by Animal and came along at the tail end of punk. They seemed quite outrageous in their day; their album at the time was We are the League if I remember correctly. Think I also saw them supporting the Damned. Support came from Chron-Gen and Gene October and Chelsea whose well know song was Right To Work, and always put on a good show. The Anti-Nowhere League still play to this day and were in the region recently playing at the Three Tuns in Gateshead.
27 Mar
West, Bruce and Laing Newcastle City Hall 1973
West, Bruce and Laing Newcastle City Hall 1973
Now that WAS a rock band. Take Mountain guitar genius Leslie West, Cream super bassist Jack Bruce and powerhouse (also from Mountain) drummer Corky Laing, and you were certain to produce a great band. I’d seen Mountain the year before and had been blown away by Leslie West’s unique guitar style which moved effortlessly from very very heavy to gentle and beautiful. Mountain were very obviously influenced by Cream who I had sadly never seen (this was to be remedied many years later at their Albert Hall reunion), so I along with many others looked forward to see this power trio. My mate John and I went along to the gig, which proved to be just as good as I imagined, the set drawn from the West, Bruce and Laing album, and the Cream and Mountain back catalogue. John was a major Mountain fan, was very excited about the show and remembers it as one of the many highlights from that period in that venue.I can still picture Leslie, a giant of a man, with a Les Paul Jnr. slung low around his knees, wringing out the riffs. Great days. I was ecstatic when they closed with Sunshine of Your Love. It will be great to see Jack Bruce on Saturday. Hope he plays Theme from an Imaginary Western which Mountain also used to play (note afterwrds; Yes he did play it). 
Makes me think about Leslie who hasn’t been so well lately. Hope you’re OK big man; you also gave us some great nights in the Tyne Theatre where Jack will be on Saturday. I also looked up support Jimmy Stevens. I can’t pretend to remember his set from that gig almost 40 years ago, but he is an interesting guy, who toured with the Bee Gees, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer and was managed by Robert Stigwood at the time. He still plays in his home town on Liverpool. John remembers West, Bruce and Laing playing Why Dontcha, Pleasure, Love is with the blues, Third Degree, The Doctor, the bass solo Powerhouse Sod, Sunshine of Your Love, Politician, and possibly Mississippi Queen and Theme form an Imaginary Western. He recalls somebody, Leslie or Jack, wearing Red Platform sole boots and going out to buy some the following week! Thanks to John for the poster scan.
26 Mar
The Au Pairs Newcastle University 1981
The Au Pairs were hot stuff, very hip and trendy, in 1981 at the time I saw them at Newcastle University. They had just released their highly acclaimed first album Playing with a Different Sex. In my mind I categorise them alongside The Mekons, The Slits, The Raincoats and Gang of Four, all of whom I saw around that time. The Au Pairs were quite political and their music pretty challenging, more of a thinking person’s night out than fun methinks. Must try and find a copy of their album and remind myself of them.
25 Mar
Jack Bruce Newcastle Tyne Theatre & Opera House 2001
Jack Bruce Newcastle Tyne Theatre 2001
Jack Bruce is touring at the moment and calls into Newcastle next Saturday. I’m looking forward to the gig, and will spend a few days this week reflecting on previous Jack Bruce concerts which I have attended. Jack was last in Newcastle over 10 years ago, in 2001, when he played at the same venue. I went along to that gig with my mate Will. Jack Bruce was touring with his band The Cuicoland Expresss to promote his new album Shadows in the Air. 
The set was a mix of songs from the new album, which were quite jazzy, with lots of latin rhythms. He played quite a few favourites from his back catalogue including Sunshine of your Love (which he rerecorded with Clapton for the album), Politician, White Roon, We’re Going Wrong, and Theme from an Imaginary Western. It was a great gig, and I expect new Saturday’s gig will be too. Jack is under-rated in my view. When people think of that great band Cream, they will think of Clapton first, but many of their best songs were written and sung by Jack. I’ve got a couple more Jack Bruce concerts to recall this week, including West, Bruce and Laing, his band with Mick Taylor and Carla Bley and the Cream reunion at the Albert Hall.
23 Mar
Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias
Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias were a comedy rock band who seemed to pop up all over the place in the 70s. The ticket stub here is from a gig at Middlesbrough Town Hall, probably in the Crypt, on a Friday. I have vague memories of seeing this band, sometimes as headline, and probably at a festival or two. With shades of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, they were a guaranteed fun night. Although their songs were largely parodies of other more famous rock bands, they were also pretty serious musicians. Support came from another comedy act of the day; John Dowie. A fun time was had by all.
22 Mar
Nazareth mid 70s to early 80s
Looking back through my ticket stubs, I realise how much I liked Nazareth in the 70s and into the 80s. They released a series of great records throughout that period; their albums from Razamanaz onward are all strong. I recall buying Razamanaz and then hunting out their earlier lps Nazareth and Exercises. 
Their hit singles: Broken Down Angel, Bad Bad Boy, and covers such as This Flight Tonight, My White Bicycle and Love Hurts are all classics of the time. And their live shows were always fun. Dan McCafferty growling his way through the set, Manny Charlton playing great guitar, 
particularly his slide guitar on Vigilante Man (much missed from the set today), Pete Agnew bouncing about smiling away on his bass, and Darrel Sweet thumping away at the back. By the late 70s Nazareth had been joined by Zal Cleminson on second guitar. 
Although it was great to see Zal as part of the line-up I could never quite figure why the added him. They were both excellent guitarists, but in my view the Nazareth set up never really exploited the twin guitars in the way Thin Lizzy or Wishbone Ash did. 
The alliance with Zal only lasted a couple of years, and by the time Nazareth came to Newcastle City Hall in 1981, Billy Rankin was filling the second guitar slot. 
I lost touch with Nazareth after the early 1980s, and didn’t return to them for some 20 years. In 2004 I saw a Nazareth gig advertised at Newcastle Arena. At the time the Arena ran a few smaller rock gigs in the foyer of the cavernous venue, and Nazareth was one of those gigs. Support came from the Swedish band Diamond Dogs who were very Faces like, and pretty damn good actually. 
That night my interest in Nazareth was renewed. I’ve seen them a couple of times since, and hope to continue doing so for some time. Its great that these guys are still rocking, and showing no signs of stopping. Dan McCafferty and Pete Agnew keep the Nazareth brand going, and must enjoy it; long may they do so. 
There are increasingly fewer and fewer of our classic rock bands from the 60s and 70s treading the boards, we need to appreciate those that are, while we can.
21 Mar
Nazareth Newcastle Academy March 20th 2012
Great gig by Nazareth at Newcastle Academy last night. Went along with my mate Norm to see our ageing rocker heroes. The gig was in the smaller Academy 2, and it was packed. Great to see the band in a small intimate venue. Dan McCafetty’s voice is amazing, as strong as ever. He growled his way through the gig, just as he did all those years ago. And Pete Agnew bounced around with a wry smile on his face. The set was a mix of favourites: This Flight Tonight, Bad Bad Bay, Love Hurts, Razamanaz, and newer songs including a few from their new album. They finished with (of course) Broken Down Angel. 
Setlist (something like): Silver Dollar Forger; Big Dogz Gonna Howl; This Month’s Messiah; Sunshine; Turn On Your Receiver; See Me; My White Bicycle; Radio; When Jesus Comes To Save The World Again; This Flight Tonight; Bad Bad Boy; Whisky Drinkin’ Woman; Changin’ Times; Hair Of The Dog. Encore: Enough Love (with guest rappers – SHY & DRS); Razamanaz; Love Hurts; Broken Down Angel. During the first encore the guys brought on a couple of young Scottish rappers (caleed SHY & DRS) to sing along. A bit incongruos, but fun and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. Support came from Bowden and Williamson who delivered a set of raw rythm and blues.
20 Mar
Nazareth 1973 Memories of great gigs
My first Nazareth encounter was at the Lincoln Great Western Festival in 1972. They came on early on the Saturday morning to a crowd just waking up. At that time they had just released their second album Exercises. I can’t remember a lot about their set that day, except that they seemed good and played a great version of Morning Dew. I must have seen them at least five times in 1973. They played Sunderland Locarno, when Broken Down Angel was in the charts. Razamanaz, an excellent lp, had just been released. Support came from Robin Trower, making it a pretty strong double bill. The programme to the right comes from that night; I think it was given away free at the gig. They were so good that night a few of us went to see them a couple of weeks later at Newcastle Mayfair on the same tour. I also saw them supporting Deep Purple at the City Hall around the same time. 
Later on in the year they were headlining their own tour of concert halls, with The Heavy Metal Kids support. I saw them at Newcastle City Hall on the tour. My ticket (6op!) and programme are here and below. By now Bad Bad Boy had also hit the charts, and the album Loud and Proud had been released. The band was really hot at the time. The set list featured Razamanaz, Alacatraz, Morning Dew, Vigilante Man (with great slide from Manny Charlton), Woke Up this Morning, This Flight Tonight, Bad Bad Boy and Broken Down Angel.
I also saw them at the notorious 1973 Buxton festival, where it rained all day and the Hells Angel took control of the festival. The Angels were driving through the crowd on their bikes, and took to the stage while the bands were on. Highlights of the day were Alex Harvey, who jumped into the crowd to stop the Angels fighting, and Nazareth, with Dan McCafferty facing up to the angels, who came on stage and sand along with him. Pretty scary stuff at the time. I was to see Nazareth many more times through the rest of the 70s. They were always great; I never once saw them put on a poor show. I am focussing on Nazareth memories this week, as I’m going to see them again tonight at Newcastle Academy with my mate Norm. Can’t wait. More on Naz later.
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