Neil Young Edinburgh Playhouse 3rd March 2008
Thirty five years after I first saw Neil Young in concert, David and I went to see him at Edinburgh Playhouse on a cold Winter evening. We drove up through Jedburgh, stopping for a coffee along the way. The Playhouse is a beautiful old theatre, and was completely sold out for this concert. Neil played two sets, and this time he played a lot of old favourites. There was no support act; rather he was accompanied by an artist who painted as Neil played. From the Guardian review of the London concert (2008): “For reasons known only to Young, an artist paints canvases at the rear of the stage and announces songs by placing interpretative pictures on a large easel stage right. The unexplained visual art theme extends to Young’s paint-spattered suit.” The first set was acoustic, during which Young performed old favourites including “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man” much to the delight of the crowd. 
After the interval, Neil became Mr rock’n’roll and grunge, and we were treated to an excellent and powerful electric set, with some amazing meandering guitar solos. The encore included “Cinammon Girl”. Classic.
The snow was falling as we drove home. This time we followed the A1 through Berwick, which is a slightly longer route, but a safer road, given the winter conditions. A great concert by a legendary artist.
Set 1: From Hank to Hendrix; Ambulance Blues; Sad Movies; A Man Needs a Maid; Try; Harvest; After the Gold Rush; Mellow My Mind; Love Art Blues; Don’t Let It Bring You Down; Heart of Gold; Old Man
Interval.
Set 2: Mr. Soul; Dirty Old Man; Spirit Road; Down by the River; Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black); Too Far Gone; Oh, Lonesome Me; The Believer; Powderfinger; No Hidden Path
Encore: Fuckin’ Up; Cinnamon Girl
Posts Tagged ‘classic rock’
25 Feb
Neil Young Edinburgh Playhouse 3rd March 2008
24 Feb
Neil Young & Eagles Newcastle City Hall 9th November 1973
Neil Young & Eagles Newcastle City Hall 9th November 1973
I went along to this concert on spec, hoping to score a ticket outside. The City Hall sometimes used to let fans pay to sit on the choir seats which surround the stage. These seats are on the stage itself, facing the back of the performers. On this occasion, there was quite a queue of ticketless people hoping to see Neil Young, so they decided to let us into the choir seats. Support came from the Eagles, who were simply on fire, and in many ways upstaged Neil Young. This was the original Eagles line-up of Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner, at the time of their second album “Desparado”, and their set featured songs from their first two lps. So that included classics like “Take it Easy”, “Tequila Sunrise”, “Witchy Woman” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling”. Stunning. I became an Eagles fan that night and remain one to this day.
Neil Young was touring with backing band the Santa Monica Flyers, who were Billy Talbot (bass), Ralph Molina (drums), Ben Keith (pedal steel) and Nils Lofgren (guitar, piano). Now Neil is a pretty uncompromising performer and for this tour he decided he would play his forthcoming album “Tonight’s the Night” in its entirety. A brave and crazy move, but then Neil Young plays what Neil wants to play; even today. 
The stage was set out as a beach, complete with sand and a palm tree, and Neil was drinking from a bottle of Tequila throughout the show. We were all expecting tracks from “After the Goldrush” and “Harvest” but instead we were treated to a set of unfamiliar tunes, much to the annoyance of most of the audience. After he had finished playing the new songs, Young did play “Cinnamon Girl” with a crazy, meandering guitar solo, which got a great reception from the crowd; who were pleased to hear something familiar. Published setlists suggest that he also may have played “Southern Man”, although I don’t remember him doing so, and I think I would have remembered if he did, as it was one of my favourite songs at the time. A great gig, with Neil Young on great form, even if the set wasn’t what we had expected or hoped for.
Setlist: Tonight’s the Night; Mellow My Mind; World on a String; Speakin’ Out; Albuquerque; New Mama; Roll Another Number (For the Road); Tired Eyes; Tonight’s the Night; Flying on the Ground Is Wrong; Human Highway; Helpless; Cinnamon Girl; Southern Man??; The Losing End; Don’t Be Denied
23 Feb
The Vibrators live 1976 – 1978
The Vibrators live 1977 – 1978
Well I’m getting within sight of the end of my project. I’ve covered the letters up to and including “X”, leaving only “Y” and “Z” to do. I’ve been working through my concert memories with the aid of my tickets and programmes, which means I’ve missed some bands for whom I don’t have anything in my collection. For instance, any gig where I paid on the door, and wasn’t given a ticket, may have been missed. So over the remaining period I will be jumping about a bit, trying to cover those bands, or at least the ones I can remember and who I feel should be mentioned. I also have some festival events to cover. Still I reckon another couple of months and I will probably be finished. Mitch reminded me that I hadn’t written about The Vibrators, so here goes.
Ian “Knox” Carnocan, bassist Pat Collier, guitarist John Ellis and drummer Eddie formed The Vibrators in early 1976, and they played their first gig supporting The Stranglers in London. The band’s debut single “We Vibrate” came out in November 1977 and was one of the first punk singles. Marie and I first saw the band at Middlesbrough Rock Garden in December 1976. The gig was close to Christmas, I think it may have been 23rd December, and if I remember correctly, the band played two nights at the venue. This was one of the first gigs at the Rock Garden and our first visit, of many, to the venue which was to become the home of punk rock in the North East. I remember them playing “We Vibrate” which was quite a catchy rock’n’roll single. The Rock Garden was quite empty, punk (and the venue) were just starting to take off. We saw the Vibrators again at a packed gig in Newcastle Poly bar a few months later. 
I remember we were standing right in front of Knox, and the music was deafening in the small venue.
Early in 1977 I saw The Vibrators again, this time at Newcastle City Hall supporting Iggy Pop (the “Idiot” tour with David Bowie on keyboards). Around this time they released their classic “Baby Baby” single, which was a big live favourite, followed by their debut lp “Pure Mania”, a punk rock classic, which spent five weeks in the UK album charts. A second, live, single from the album “London Girls” (another great song, which I remember seeing them play), came out in Summer 1977. We next saw The Vibrators supporting Ian Hunter at Newcastle Mayfair (Hunter’s “Overnight Angels” tour). Bassist Pat Collier left soon after the Ian Hunter tour, and was replaced by Gary Tibbs (who would go on to play with Roxy Music and Adam and the Ants). The last time I recall seeing The Vibrators was at a headline gig at Seaburn Hall, Sunderland (pictured). This was soon after they released the single “Automatic Lover”, which reached No. 35 in the UK singles chart and got the band a spot on Top of the Pops. They released their second lp “V2” in April 1977; another punk classic, and the line-up of the band started to change shortly afterwards. Drummer Eddie continues to lead The Vibrators today. The Vibrators were a great live act, full of energy and with some classic punk tunes, and a very important part of the early punk scene.
21 Feb
XTC Newcastle City Hall 19th May 1981
XTC Newcastle City Hall 19th May 1981
I saw XTC a few times at Newcastle University during 1978 and 1979. They played the University students union on 4th February 1978, 4th November 1978 and 27th April 1979. I think I was at least two of those gigs, but can’t recall exactly which ones. This was the early version of the band with a line-up of Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, Terry Chambers and Barry Andrews. Andrews left in early 1979 to be replaced by Dave Gregory. Early XTC were all jerky rhythms; much more experimental and punky than the later post-Andrews band, which became poppier. By the time I saw them at Newcastle Mayfair on 21st September 1979 XTC had entered the single charts with the excellent “Life Begins at the Hop” and had just released their new single, the classic “Making Plans for Nigel”. Support came from the Yachts. 
I saw XTC once more before they quit touring, at a concert at Newcastle City Hall on 19th May 1981. They had just been in the singles chart with “Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)”, another classic pop tune. Support at the City Hall came from Last Touch. “Senses Working Overtime” was XTC’s last Top 10 hit in 1982. After that they became a studio band of Andy Partridge and session musicians.
A great pop band who have been hugely influential. You can hear XTC in Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and many other guitar-oriented jerky pop bands.
Setlist (something like): Real by Reel; Life Begins at the Hop; When You’re Near Me I Have Difficulty; Respectable Street; Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me); Snowman; Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins); Ball and Chain; Love at First Sight; No Language in Our Lungs; Scissor Man; Towers of London; Burning With Optimism’s Flames; Making Plans for Nigel; Living Through Another Cuba; Generals and Majors; Helicopter; Are You Receiving Me?.
20 Feb
X Ray Spex Redcar Coatham Bowl 23rd April 1978
X Ray Spex Redcar Coatham Bowl 23rd April 1978
The night the Coatham Bowl turned Dayglo.
Poly Styrene exploded onto the stage; a bundle of crazy youthful energy. Art-I-Ficial !! Off we went, the crowd jumping and pogoing along to the loud raucous noise. A manic hippy looking guy with long hair ran to the front of the stage, squeezing discordant noises from his sax. Poly screamed into the mike, shook her head, swung her dreads around and around, and lost herself in a childish whirling dance. The pace, the noise and the music were relentless. Identity !! ……Warrior in Woolworths (my favourite)….They played many of the tracks which would make their classic debut Germ Free Adolescents so great. X Ray Spex were joyous, hectic, amateur, funny, bright and loud. They were also amazing and one of the most fun acts to emerge from punk. Their songs each had a message, but not in the serious gloomy way of many of the bands of the time. Poly was a one-off and the songs all had catchy hooks and were 100% pure pop. They crashed through Oh Bondage! Up Yours! And then they were gone, back to the planet Plastic, from whence they came. Wonderful.
Support came from local Teesside punk rockers Britzkrieg Bop.
Setlist (something like): Art-I-Ficial; Obsessed With You; Identity; Let’s Submerge; Plastic Bag; I Live Off You; I Am a Poseur; Genetic Engineering; I Am a Cliche; The Day the World Turned Dayglo; Warrior in Woolworths; Oh Bondage! Up Yours!
RIP Poly Styrene
19 Feb
Roger Waters plays Dark Side of the Moon Hyde Park 1st July 2006
Roger Waters plays Dark Side of the Moon Hyde Park 1st July 2006
Hype Park Calling Festival 2006
Main Stage: Roger Waters (featuring special guest Nick Mason); Texas; Starsailor; Breaks Co-op; Chris Difford
Stage 2: The Lightning Seeds; Robert Cray; Suzanne Vega; Blackbud; Rocco DeLuca and the Burden
I booked a cheap hotel room online for David and I to stay in for this event. The room was not far from Marble Arch. We arrived at Kings Cross and tool the tube over to the hotel. When we arrived the guy on reception apologised and explained that there had been some mix-ups with bookings and that he was going to have to move us to another hotel nearby. He offered to drive us there, and took us through a maze of streets, where we arrived at a run-down seedy looking hotel. He took us to our room which was upstairs and left. As we looked around the room we realised how we had got the booking so cheap….the bathroom had no door and the beds were worn and scruffy. Still, we decided it was only going to be for one night, so we shrugged our shoulders and walked over to Hyde Park; we still weren’t far from the Marble Arch entrance to the event.
Hyde Park Calling was a new festival. Roger Waters headlined the Saturday night and the Who were doing the honours on the Sunday night. The supporting line-up was strong. I remember we watched and enjoyed Texas, and some of the Lightning Seeds.
The main event was Roger Waters who was playing Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety, along with Floyd buddy Nick Mason on drums. The show featured an elaborate stage design by Mark Fisher (who was behind the design of Pink Floyd’s The Wall shows), and included giant puppets, large video screen displays and a 360° quadraphonic sound system. Roger’s performance was divided into two sets: the first featured Pink Floyd material and songs from Roger’s solo career, and the second The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety, plus encores. The songs were performed true to the recording, and the sound was crisp and clear from where we stood about half way back in the park. What better way to spend a summer evening than listening to the Floyd’s classic album. A guy in front of us was incredibly drunk, and insisted on singing all of the words to the songs right into our faces. Sometimes he would stop singing, hug us and tell us how great Pink Floyd were.
After the show we meandered back through the streets to our seedy hotel room. We were up early next morning and back on the train home.
Setlist. Set 1: In the Flesh; Mother; Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V); Have a Cigar; Wish You Were Here; Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun; Southampton Dock; The Fletcher Memorial Home; Perfect Sense (Parts 1 and 2); Leaving Beirut; Sheep
Set 2 The Dark Side of the Moon, with Nick Mason: Speak to Me; Breathe; On the Run; Time; Breathe (Reprise); The Great Gig in the Sky; Money; Us and Them; Any Colour You Like; Brain Damage; Eclipse
Encore: The Happiest Days of Our Lives; Another Brick in the Wall Part 2; Vera; Bring the Boys Back Home; Comfortably Numb
Roger Waters band: Roger Waters (vocals, bass guitar and acoustic guitar), P.P. Arnold (backing vocals), Graham Broad (drums and percussion), Jon Carin (keyboards), Andy Fairweather-Low (guitar), Carol Kenyon (backing vocals and lead vocals on “The Great Gig in the Sky”), Dave Kilminster (guitar), Katie Kissoon (backing vocals), Ian Ritchie (saxophone), Harry Waters (Hammond organ, synthesiser, and Roger Waters’ son), and Snowy White (guitar).
18 Feb
War of the Worlds Newcastle Arena 27th April 2006
War of the Worlds Newcastle Arena 27th April 2006
I have the War of the Worlds album, so couldn’t resist going to see the concert. The pre-show publicity says it all: “For the first time ever, this highly anticipated classic album will now be staged as a full live production, featuring Jeff Wayne conducting The Black Smoke Band and the 48-piece ULLAdubULLA Strings. Moody Blues frontman Justin Hayward will feature in the show and, through the magic of modern technology, Richard Burton will be SEEN and heard in his role as ‘The Journalist’ in the musical spectacular of the year. To set the scene, Pink Floyd’s legendary set designer, Jonathan Parke, will be bringing the Martian invasion to life. Since it’s original release in June of 1978, ‘Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds’ has grown into a true classic; garnering a new generation of devoted followers whilst still inspiring the faithful listeners from the past decades. Inspired by the HG Wells novel, the album features a compelling blend of prog rock and classical and literary influences….the album has enjoyed huge success and critical acclaim across the globe with around 13 million records sold and numerous accolades acquired. The War Of The Worlds initially spent over 260 consecutive weeks in the UK albums charts (now approaching 300)…”
Jeff Wayne: “I have waited for almost 28 years to present The War of The Worlds – combining the excitement of live performance complemented by various technological ingredients that will hopefully give our audiences, a night to remember.”
The show featured an all-star cast: A “virtual” Richard Burton: a large bust of the Journalist with a projected image; Justin Hayward; Alexis James; Chris Thompson; Russell Watson; Tara Blaise and Rachael Beck (all on spoken words and vocals)
The Black Smoke Band: Jeff Wayne (conductor), Chris Spedding (guitar), Herbie Flowers (bass), Tom Woodstock (guitars, keyboards), Laurie Wisefield (guitars, mandolin), Accy Yeats (drums), Julia Thornton (percussion, harp, keyboards), Steve Turner, Neil Angilley & Kennedy Aitchison (keyboards).
The Performance:
The Coming of the Martians: The Eve of the War, Horsell Common and The Heat Ray, The Artilleryman and The Fighting Machine, Forever Autumn, Thunder Child
The Earth Under the Martians: The Red Weed (Part 1), The Spirit of Man, The Red Weed (Part 2), Brave New World, Dead London, Epilogue.
The concert was very much a musical as much as it was a rock performance. It was a hugely enjoyable experience; very spectacular, although a little “lost” in the vastness of an arena setting. And “Forever Autumn” as sung by Justin Hayward is a beautiful song.
17 Feb
Whitesnake Newcastle City Hall 27th June 2006
Whitesnake Newcastle City Hall 27th June 2006
Support from The Answer
A lot of water had passed under the Whitesnake bridge (22 years to be exact) since I last had the pleasure of seeing David Coverdale. The line-up of the band was completely different (other than, of course, Coverdale) to all the previous line-ups I had witnessed and was David Coverdale (vocals), Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach (guitars), Uriah Duffy (bass), Timothy Drury (keyboards) and Tommy Aldridge (drums). Whitesnake 2006 was a honed heavy metal machine, a million riffs away from the soulful bluesy unit of the early ’80s. And they were LOUD.
Whitesnake exploded onto the stage with an amazing version of the Deep Purple classic “Burn”, which then went straight into another Purple classic “Stormbringer”. The crowd were up on their feet from the word ‘go” and Coverdale looked and sounded great. There were, however, times when you could see he was having a little difficulty with his voice (some of the earlier shows on the tour had been cancelled because he had been unwell) but overall this was a great performance. Highlights for me were ‘Walkin’ in Shadow Of The Blues’ and ‘Soldier of Fortune’ as a final encore.
Setlist: Burn / Stormbringer; Slide It In; Love Ain’t No Stranger; Walking in the Shadow of the Blues; Lovehunter; Slow an’ Easy; Is This Love; Ready an’ Willing; Blues for Mylene; Snake Dance; Crying in the Rain; Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City; Give Me All Your Love; Here I Go Again
Encore: Take Me with You; Still of the Night
Encore 2: Soldier of Fortune
That concludes my Whitesnake ramblings. I’ve spent the last week or so listening to, and watching, Whitesnake, and it has reminded me just how great this band were, and what an amazing rock vocalist and performer David Coverdale is. Next time he tours, I’ll make sure I’m there.
16 Feb
Whitesnake Newcastle City Hall 10th March 1984
Whitesnake Newcastle City Hall 10th March 1984
Support came from LA hard rock band Great White
Things were about to change again in the Whitesnake camp. In late 1983, they recorded the “Slide It In” album. Shortly after completing the album Mick Moody left the band: “Me and David weren’t friends and co-writers anymore. David never said anything to me. He just didn’t socialise with me anymore. David was a guy who five, six years earlier was my best friend…..Then one night we were in Germany and we did kind of a mini festival with Thin Lizzy and John Sykes was on guitar. Back at the hotel we were all sitting around and David was really talking a lot to John Sykes. I was sitting there quietly and David just turned around to me, pointing his fingers and said, ‘Don’t you ever turn your back on the audience again’. I went, ‘Pardon?’ He said, ‘That’s really unprofessional’, in front of John Sykes to make me look small and I thought to myself, ‘That’s it’….I decided to leave after finishing the end of the tour. The last gig was in Brussels in Belgium in October 83.” This led to John Sykes joining the band. At the same time Colin Hodgkinson left and Neil Murray rejoined. The vibe of the band and their music was changing from the bluesy rock of the early band to a heavier and more adult-oriented rock, which helped the band to break in the US. 
The new line-up of Coverdale, John Sykes, Mel Galley, Neil Murray, Jon Lord, and Cozy Powell toured the UK in March 1984, calling at the City Hall for two nights. It was a good concert, but Whitesnake were becoming a very different animal.
Setlist: Gambler; Guilty of Love; Ready an’ Willing; Love Ain’t No Stranger; Here I Go Again; Slow an’ Easy; Crying in the Rain/Soldier of Fortune; Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City; Fool for Your Loving; Thank You Blues; Slide It In; Don’t Break My Heart Again.
Mel Galley suffered a broken arm in an accident during the tour. He never recovered full use of his arm, and fitted having “the Claw” to his hand in order to to play the guitar.”It was the most devastating thing that could happen to a guitarist. One minute I was playing with one of the biggest bands in the world, next minute finding it very hard to even scratch my own arse. Thankfully, with the aid of the Claw, even though told by doctors I would never play again, determination made me prove them wrong.” A few weeks later, Jon Lord left to reform Deep Purple.
It was 22 years until I saw Whitesnake again. I’ll write about that tomorrow, to conclude my series of Whitesnake memories.
15 Feb
Whitesnake Monsters of Rock festival Donington 20th August 1983
Whitesnake Monsters of Rock festival Donington 20th August 1983
Line-up: Whitesnake, Meat Loaf, Z Z Top, Twisted Sister, Dio, Diamond Head. DJ: Tommy Vance.
Aah! The Monsters of Rock festivals. Up early, on with the denim jacket, into the car, pick up my mates, and down the A1 and M1 we went. Three hours or so, and 165 miles (according to AA route planner), later and we joined the metal hordes in the Donington Park Race Circuit. We knew we were there when we saw the Dunlop tyre bridge.
Its funny what I find when I’m constructing these posts. “Chris Evans has bought Donington Park race track’s famous Dunlop bridge. The 30-year-old structure was sold during a racing memorabilia auction, for about £300, in aid of a Leicestershire charity. On his show, Evans said the bridge was a national landmark and appealed for help getting it from the track. Evans joked he was going to put up the bridge, which is over 70 metres (230 ft) in length, in his garden over the top of his neighbour’s house.” [Wonder if he did that 🙂 ] (from BBC News site).
Back to rock. First up in 1983 were Diamond Head. We listened to them while we had a little wander around the site. I will have bought my programme, we’ll have consumed our first burger of the day, and made our first visit to the beer tent [as designated driver, I would be limited to one pint early on in the day 😦 ]. Next was Dio, his operatic vocals drifting over the crowd, and the smell of burgers and beer, and lifting the mood on classics such as “Holy Diver”, “Stargazer”, “Heaven And Hell” and “Man On The Silver Mountain”. Classic.
It was probably about this time that the can fights would start. You had to watch out for them; a can on the back of your head could do some serious damage. Twisted Sister were next. Dee Snider and Co captured the crazy metal mood of the event perfectly and went down well. Dee understood metal and its antics and lapped up crowd reaction, both positive and negative; a few cans or bottles thrown on stage didn’t bother him. After all “You Can’t Stop Rock N’ Roll”. Next up was Meat Loaf, who didn’t take kindly to the sea of bottles and cans which were thrown at him throughout his set. Nonetheless he played on and treated us to “Bat Out Of Hell”, “I’m Gonna Love Her For Both Of Us”, “All Revved Up With No Place To Go”, “Midnight At The Lost and Found” and “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad”. Great stuff. Back to the beer tent, another burger, and a walk around the tyre to stretch our legs, and then meander and squeeze our way as close to the stage as we could safely get. Things were about to get even better.
This was our first exposure to Z Z Top, their beards, and that relentless, often tongue in cheek, Texan rock’n’roll boogie: “Gimme All Your Lovin'”, “Sharp Dressed Man”, “Pearl Necklace”, “Arrested For Driving While Blind”, and set closer “Tush”. Amazing. Two years later they were back as headliners; and rightly so. Another burger, avoid a few more cans and bottles, final visit to the beer tent, and back down front.
The day belonged to Whitesnake. The deserved it, and didn’t let us down one little bit. Whitesnake’s set was recorded; you can find it on YouTube. Mistreated is here (and is a simply awesome performance by Coverdale): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BZprpxhyMk
Coverdale opens the song thus: “We’ve got an old song for you. I think this may be the last time we’ll ever play it [it wasn’t]. Please enjoy it. It features my good friend Mel Galley on guitar”.
Whitesnake setlist: Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues; Rough An’ Ready; Ready An’ Willing; Guilty Of Love; Here I Go Again; Lovehunter; Mistreated; Soldier Of Fortune; Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City; Fool For Your Loving; Thank You Blues; Don’t Break My Heart Again; Wine, Women An’ Song.
In 1983 the ‘Snake were: David Coverdale (lead vocals and 110% rock godliness); Micky Moody (blues guitar); Jon Lord (swirling Hammond); Mel Galley (rock guitar); Colin Hodgkinson (thumping bass); and Cozy Powell (powerhouse drums).
Back in the car. An hour or two to get out of the car park. My mates would fall asleep and snore. I would drive back up a lonely and empty M1 and then the A1. Back home in the early hours. Denim jacket hung up again. Happy happy days 🙂
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