Gallagher & Lyle Newcastle City Hall 1979
Support from Judie Tzuke
The last time I saw Gallagher in Lyle in concert was in 1979 at Newcastle City Hall. This was the “Lonesome No More” tour, and the band were supported by Judie Tzuke. Lonesome No More was Gallagher and Lyle’s eight studio album, and was to be their last. Certainly for me there was much more of a buzz around the up and coming special guest star in the making Judie Tzuke than the headlining duo. In fact Gallagher and Lyle split shortly after this tour. Interestingly Judie’s band of the time consisted of Mike Paxman (now Status Quo producer), John (Rhino) Edward (current Status Quo bass player) and Jeff Rich (former Quo drummer). Some pretty heavy Quo connections there! 
This was at the time of her debut album Welcome to the Cruise, which contained the hit single, Stay with me to Dawn. The hall was packed for her performance, which wasn’t often seen for a support act, as punters (including me) would usually frequent the bar until the main act took to the stage. Judie was just exquisite; Welcome to the Cruise contains some beautiful songs, and she was soon back at the City Hall as a headliner in her own right. Gallagher and Lyle went their own ways after this album and tour. They reformed last year for a few gigs in Scotland; if they play again this year I should try and get along to see them, particularly if they venture south of the border.
Posts Tagged ‘concerts’
16 Jan
Gallagher & Lyle Newcastle City Hall 1979
15 Jan
Gallagher & Lyle Newcastle City Hall 1976 and 1977
Gallagher & Lyle Newcastle City Hall 1976 and 1977
Does this one rate as a guilty pleasure? It certainly is closer to easy listening than heavy or classic rock. Gallagher & Lyle came out of the Scottish music scene with connections to Marmalade, and were members of McGuinness Flint, before going solo and having their own hits in the early 1970s. They also spent a short period as members of Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance. They recorded a series of hits including I Wanna Stay With You, Heart On My Sleeve and Breakaway, and had some great songs, all of which featured in their concerts. I also recall them playing When I’m Dead and Gone. Gallagher and Lyle in concert guaranteed a night of good music. 
The tickets here are from gigs in 1976 and 1977 at Newcastle City Hall, and the programme is from the 1977 concert. The support act for the 1976 concert was Chris De Burgh. The programme tells me that the 1977 tour was in support of the Love on the Airwaves album, which was their sixth lp, and followed the massive success of the Breakaway album which stayed in the album chart for 35 weeks, and spawned three hit singles. Support for the 1977 gig was a band called Cado Bell, who hailed from Glasgow. 
Looking at the programme, I see that the lead singer was Maggie Reilly, who went on to sing Moonlight Shadow with Mike Oldfield. I often learn something each time I reflect on one of these gigs from the past; I wasn’t aware that I had seen Maggie Reilly, although having said that I may have seen her with Mike Oldfield. As well as these gigs I saw Ronnie Lane’s Passing Show tour, and Gallagher and Lyle were members of the band at that time. I also saw them as support acts for other artists. I saw Gallagher and Lyle once more in concert in 1979, again at Newcastle City Hall. I’ll reflect on that gig tomorrow.
14 Jan
Greenslade Newcastle City Hall 1974
Greenslade Newcastle City Hall 1974
Greenslade were formed by Dave Greenslade left Jon Hiseman’s Colosseum. The members of Greenslade were: Dave Greenslade – keyboards; Tony Reeves – bass guitar and double bass; Dave Lawson – keyboards and vocals; and Andrew McCulloch – drums and percussion. By the time of this gig in 1974 they had released three albums: Greenslade (1972); Bedside Manners Are Extra (1973); and Spyglass Guest which reached 34 in the UK charts in 1974. Greenslade were a keyboard and synth-led proggy rock band, with heavy use of melletron. A group of us went to this concert. I remember the set as being largely instrumental, and quite heavy prog stuff. Their lp covers were pretty neat with cool Roger Dean illustrations. I also saw Greenslade play at the Reading Festival in 1973.
13 Jan
Caravan Sage Gateshead Jan 12th 2013
Caravan Sage Gateshead Jan 12th 2013
For Girls Who Grow Plump 40th Anniversary UK Tour
Went to see Caravan at the Sage Gateshead last night. I can’t pretend to be a big fan, or to know much of their material but I enjoyed the gig much more than I expected. The set was drawn from “For Girls Who Grow Plump In the Night” and “Land of Grey and Pink” albums. The gig was in Hall 2, which is the smaller hall, and was packed with a very appreciative crowd of fans. I didn’t recognise any of the material; the only Caravan tracks I remember are “If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You” and “For Richard” Not being familair with a band’s material usually makes a gig boring for me, but I found last night pretty enjoyable. Caravan’s music has always been difficult to categorise, blending rock, prog, jazz, and folk. The latest line-up is original member Pye Hastings – guitar, vocals; Jim Leverton – bass; Geoffrey Richardson (who has been with the band since 1972) – guitar, viola, violin; Jan Schelhaas – keyboards and Mark Walker – drums, percussion. 
Some beautiful violin playing, and some nifty spoon antics, from Geoff, and Pye’s vocals held up well considering that he was suffering from the “lurgy”. The last track was the very long “Nine Feet Underground” which went down well with the crowd. A nice concert by a legendary band. list: Memory Lain, Hugh / Headloss; In the Land of Grey and Pink; Smoking Gun (Right for Me); The Unauthorized Breakfast Item; L’ Auberge du Sanglier / A Hunting We Shall Go / Backwards; The Dog The Dog, He’s At It Again; Golf Girl; Nightmare; Fingers in the Till; Chance of a Lifetime; Nine Feet Underground.
12 Jan
Gamma (featuring Ronnie Montrose) Newcastle City Hall 1981
Gamma (featuring Ronnie Montrose) Newcastle City Hall 1981
Support from Praying Mantis
Ronnie Montrose came with a strong rock pedigree, having started off as a session musician for top artists such as Van Morrison, then becoming a member of the Edgar Winter Group, and by 1974 he was fronting the great Montrose along with Sammy Hagar. I saw Montrose twice; once as support for Status Quo, and around the same time as the opening act at the Who’s 1974 Charlton gig. They were amazing; full-on rock with two classic tracks: Bad Motor Scooter, and Space Station No 5. By 1981 Sammy Hagar was fronting his own band, and Ronnie Montrose was leading Gamma alongside Glasgow-born singer Davey Pattison. Gamma arrived to tour the UK at the time of the emergence of the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal), and support act for the concerts was NWOBHM band Praying Mantis.
In the tour programme Ronnie Montrose describes Gamma as a “full-blown, high energy rock ‘n’ roll band” and that is exactly my memory of this gig at Newcastle City Hall. Some classic, loud, heavy rock and the bonus of Montrose classics Bad Motor Scooter, and Space Station No 5. I was sitting close to the front, and they were LOUD. The gig was not that well attended, as I recall, which was a shame, as they were a pretty hot rock act. Ronnie Montrose sadly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2012; he had been battling prostate cancer. I didn’t realise it until I checked things out for this blog, but I saw singer Davey Pattison a few years ago as the singer in Robin Trower’s band. My searching for Gamma facts also unearthed a setlist for the Birmingham gig of the tour: Ready for Action; Thunder and Lightning; Dirty City; Razor King; Space Station No 5; Skin and Bone; Rock The Nation; I Got The Fire; Voyager; Four Horseman; Mayday; Mean Streak; Something in the Air. Encore: No Tears; Bad Motor Scooter.
11 Jan
Georgia Satellites Newcastle Mayfair 1990
Georgia Satellites Newcastle Mayfair 1990
ROCK N ROLL!!!! The Georgia Satellites came as a breath of fresh air at the end of the 80s. They blended southern rock with old fashioned good-time rock n roll, and did it loud and fast with style. Their set was a mix of their own tunes, classic rock songs and some rock n roll standards. I remember this gig as loud, fast, and lots of fun. Their “hit” song was “Keep your hands to yourself” and they did a great version of “Hippy Hippy Shake”. I found a published setlist from 1989, which I would think gives an indication of what the band will have played at the Mayfair: I Dunno; Battleship Chains; Highway 61; Shake That Thing; Crazy; Don’t Pass Me By; The Myth Of Love; All Over But The Cryin’; Dan Takes Five; Another Chance; Bring Down The Hammer; Games People Play; Can’t Stand The Pain; Keep Your Hands To Yourself; Hippy Hippy Shake; Railroad Steel.
10 Jan
Generation X Redcar Coatham Bowl 1978
Generation X Redcar Coatham Bowl
Generation X were a breath of fresh air as a live band, fusing punk attitude with power pop tunes, and fronted by two powerful characters in Billy Idol and Tony James. Billy Idol was dynamite on stage; all peroxide hair, ego, curled lip and attitude. And Tony James understood that a good rock band had to build on our rock n roll heritage and not cast it all aside, as many his punk contemporaries tried. Generation X took the best of punk, T Rex, and Mott, blended in some pop hooks, and a little Elvis, and produced a band that was great fun. I saw them twice around 1978 and 1979, the line-up being Idol (vocals), Tony (bass), Derwood (guitar) and Mark Laff (drums). They weren’t the best band musically, and both of the performances I saw were pretty rough and raw, but there was an energy, image, and swagger about them that made their gigs enjoyable and memorable. The first time I saw them was at Newcastle University students union. At the time the local punk contingent held a lot of resentment and outright hostility towards students, partly because the punks saw the new bands as being “theirs”, and yet the gigs at the Students Union were “student only”. This led to confrontation at a number of gigs, in particular at the Clash White Riot tour gig in Newcastle, where punks were battling with students at the door in an attempt to gain entry. Quite a few punks from the town managed to get into the Generation X gig somehow, and there were some scuffles, and lots of beer being thrown about. The band played a short set, probably less than an hour, and finished with their then-current single “Ready Steady Go”. There was no encore, which incensed the punks. A chant of “Ready Steady F*** Off” started and the punks clambered onto the stage and started to wreck Generation X’s gear. The gig was good but the end was nasty, which soured the evening. The next time I saw them was much more fun. By this time they had released “King Rocker” and were living the part of being rock stars. Billy Idol was awesome and clearly thought he was Elvis, Tony James had his bass hanging down at his knees and was throwing rock star poses, and Derwood was wearing a Charge of the Light Brigade jacket and looking the biz. Mark Laff was at the back banging away and being Keith Moon. Great stuff. Bring back Sunday nights at Redcar Bowl and / or put me in a time machine and take me back to 1978.
Update 27 December 2021. Many thanks to Jimmy Burns (a.k.a. Punk Hoarder) who kindly provided me with an image of the poster for the Newcastle University concert. It brings back so many happy memories of a great, crazy night with my late wife Marie. We enjoyed so many early punk concerts together and many of them were crazy, manic and even dangerous. This was one of them and it brings back so many memories of people dancing on stage with the band (I think, although this could be my memory playing tricks!) And the nasty end when people started to try and smash up the bands gear because they didn’t return for an encore.
9 Jan
Goldie at Southwick Social Club in 1978 (or was it 1979?)
Goldie at Southwick Social Club in 1978 (or was it 1979?)
You may not remember, or have heard of Goldie, but this gig was a pretty impressive homecoming at the time. Goldie hailed from the North East of England, and were fronted by top local vocalist Pete MacDonald, and excellent guitarist Dave Black. I’d seen both of those guys several times in local bands, as they played often at Sunderland Mecca, Newcastle Mayfair, and local Polytechnic and University gigs. Pete MacDonald had fronted the excellent local band Bullfrog, who gigged consistently across the region, and further afield in the early 70s. The great site thebullfrogstory gives the full story of the band. I also saw Pete in an earlier band called, I think, Kip. Dave Black had been in local band Kestrel; again an excellent act of the time. Pete and Dave had also both been in a post-Bowie incarnation of the Spiders From Mars, which I have a vague memory of seeing at Middlesborough Town Hall. Goldie played the workingmens’ clubs, and existed from 1976 to 1980. Along the way they had a hit single with “Making Up Again” which reached number 7 in the UK charts. Goldie appeared on Top of the Pops to promote the single, and were quite the local heroes at the time. This gig at Southwick Working Mens Club in Sunderland was booked before the band hit the big time. To their credit they honoured their bookings, and thus must have found themselves in the strange situation of being on TV one night and playing in the concert room of a local club the next night. Southwick Club is one of the largest clubs in Sunderland, with a big upstairs concert room. I’d bought advance tickets, and was able to do so as I was a member of my local Buffs club, which made me a proud holder of a CIU (Club and Institute Union) card. A CIU card was a pretty essential item to have at the time as it gained the holder entry to all the local clubs, without having to be signed in by a member. The place was packed for the Goldie gig, and pretty good they were too. “Making Up Again” was to be their only hit, and the band split a couple of years later. One note of puzzlement. Everything I can find on the internet tells me that “Making Up Again” hit the charts in July 1978. However, my ticket stub clearly says the concert was in July 1979. All I can think is that there is a misprint on the ticket, as I am pretty sure that I saw them in the same month that they were on Top of the Pops. Or maybe my memory is playing tricks again! I also note that there was a raffle, and almost certainly bingo in the interval, and all for £1 🙂 ! Happy Days! I think Pete MacDonald and Dave Black play the clubs to this day. Pete also released an album, which I have a copy of, and is great stuff. And “Making Up Again” is still a guilty pleasure for me; and a pretty damn good song.
7 Jan
The Angelic Upstarts Bolingbroke Hall South Shields and The Old 29 Sunderland late 70s gigs
The Angelic Upstarts Bolingbroke Hall South Shields and The Old 29 Sunderland
Writing about the Old 29 the other day made me think about that great punk band the Angelica Upstarts, who I was lucky enough to see quite a few times in the late 70s and early 80s. The Upstarts grew out of the punk movement and hailed from South Shields, a town very much in the heart of the North East of England. The original line-up of the band was Mensi (vocals),Mond (guitar), Steve Forsten (bass) and Decca Wade (drums). Mensi worked as a miner and this was his escape route from the pits. Mond worked in the shipyard as an electrician. They were very much of a working class background, and started to appear at local punk gigs, accompanied by a group of punks and skinheads. They had been influenced by seeing The Clash on the White Riot tour at Newcastle University (a gig which I also attended) and their first gigs were in local venues in South Shields, including Bolingbroke Hall, which if my memory serves me right is a sports and recreation hall a couple of streets behind South Shields town hall. I saw the Upstarts in concert quite a few times in those early days, including gigs at the aforementioned South Shields Bolingbroke Hall and Sunderland Old 29, a gig at Newcastle Guildhall where they supported Stiff Little Fingers on their first visit to the North East, and a gig at Newcastle City Hall where the upstarts were the support act, possibly for Penetration. Their gigs were legendary and they found themselves banned from many venues, including the City Hall, because of the hardcore troublemakers who came along, and their controversial stage act. An Upstarts gig had an atmosphere of its own. The audience would be strongly committed fans, mostly skinheads and punks (more skinheads as time went on) who bought 100% into the Upstarts socialist and anti-establishment philosophy. Their manager, cum bouncer and minder at the time was local hardman and ex-boxing champ Keith Bell, better known as The Sherrif, who could be found at the front or on the side of the stage at their gigs, always ready to jump into the crowd and sort out any fights. Bell went to prison in 1980 for arson, and was sentenced to a further 18 months for threatening to kill Upstarts drummer Decca. And there often were skirmishes and fights at Upstarts gigs; I always lurked around the back; I felt pretty exposed as one of the only people in the hall with long hair :). The Upstarts made it into the charts with a few of their singles,including “I’m an Upstart” and even played “Teenage Warning” on Top of the Pops, which was their highest chart entry at No 29. Their set at the time consisted of those two songs along with “Student Power” (“F***ing Shower” according to the lyrics; I was also a student at the time; another reason to lurk quietly at the back at gigs), “Small Town Small Mind”, “Police Oppression” and the song that was always a highlight, and became their anthem “The Murder of Liddle Towers”. Liddle Towers was a local amateur boxer who died at the hands of police. In his own words: ‘They gave us a bloody good kicking outside the Key Club, but that was naught to what I got when I got inside’. Towers died in hospital in 1976 from injuries received at the hands of the police during the night of January. The inquest decided that it was “justifiable homicide”, a verdict which was widely criticised at the time. The Upstarts song told the story with lyrics “Who killed Liddle? The police killed Liddle”. The track is a great slab of raw punk, and it was amazingly powerful live. At the early gigs Mensi would introduce the song by brining on stage a whole pigs head which he had purchased at the butchers that day. The pigs head would have a policeman’s helmet perched on top of it, and Mensi would hold it above his head at the start of the song before throwing the head into the moshpit of the crowd. The audience would then throw the head about the place, kick it around the floor, and generally go crazy. I have an enduring memory of a skinhead at Bolingbroke Hall biting the ears of the pigs head. Mensi would be screaming and growling the lyrics of the song, wearing the policeman’s hat. Great memories, of a very under-rated and in terms of the North East punk movement, a very influential band. The Upstarts have reformed over the years with various line-ups, with Mensi the one original member (although at one point the band did continue without him). They are currently on a hiatus as their official website explains: “Unfortunately the Angelic Upstarts had to cancel all scheduled gigs for 2012. Since Mensi is single parent again he currently can’t combine parenthood with the band. Expect new live dates in 2013.” I’ve never seen them live since the early 80s, and haven;t felt the need to do so, but writing this makes me linger for one more Upstarts experience. I must remember to keep my eye on their website for any future gigs.
6 Jan
The Groundhogs Darlington Arts Centre 2007
This is the last of my Groundhogs postings, and concludes my coverage of the 40 something times I have seen the band. I’ve seen the Hogs a few times since this 2007 gig, but I’ve already blogged on those gigs, as and when I attended them. In 2007 Tony McPhee reformed the Groundhogs again, with Dave Anderson on bass and Marco Anderson on drums. The first chance I got to see the reformed band was at a concert in Darlington Arts Centre in 2007. I went along with my mate Will. This was the last time we visited the Arts Centre. The lovely venue has sadly now closed, as a result of funding cuts. The Hogs played in the intimate Green bar venue and gave us a set of classic tunes. I recall Tony inviting a young lad up onstage with him. The young lad was celebrating his birthday that day, and will certainly have had a day to remember. Some footage from this gig is on Youtube. I’ve enjoyed blogging about The Groundhogs, and look forward to seeing them in 2013, which is their 50th year.
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