The Damned 70s gigs
The Damned, like much of punk rock, were a breath of fresh air when they exploded on to the late 70s music scene. Unlike the Pistols, and to some extent The Clash, The Damned were played up and down the country all of the time. I saw them lots and lots of times in the late 70s at Redcar, Middlesbrough Rock Garden, Newcastle Poly and later at gigs at Newcastle City Hall and Mayfair. I first saw The Damned supporting The Flaming Groovies at Redcar Coatham Bowl in 1976. This was at the time of New Rose, and I remember we went into the gig early especially to see The Damned. I recall that, for some reason, Dave Vanium wasn’t wearing his usual gothic styled make up and clothing and appeared wearing a leather jacket and no make up. The Captain was just mad, Brain James was the guitar hero, and Rat was going crazy on the drums. Their set included New Rose, their manic version of the Beatles’ Help and some embryonic versions of songs which would feature on their first album, which came out the following year. 
I then saw them at a shambolic gig at Newcastle Poly; there was lots of glasses flying, much edginess, fights and the set was cut short as a result. Marie and I talked to The Captain in the bar; he held court to a few of us, telling us how he was an Abba fan, and devouring a packet of crisps, including the packet itself all in one go. I also remember a gig at the Rock Garden. I was one of the few people at the gig with long hair, and Rat came up to me at the bar and said he thought I was Lemmy (! not sure if that was good or bad, but it seemed a fun complement at the time). That particular gig finished with an encore and The Captain coming back on stage stark naked and peeing on the crowd (who very quickly moved back and out of the way; luckily we were standing at the back). The City Hall ticket above was for a 1977 gig, at which they were supported by The Dead Boys, featuring the late great Stiv Bators. The Mayfair ticket is for a later gig (may actually be from the 80s). I also saw them at The City Hall supporting T Rex, which was a strange, but for me successful, pairing. I think I saw them once or twice at Durham University Dunelm Ballroom as well. What I remember of these guys was chaos, madness, great fun, some loud, fast punk rock. Great nights. Can I be young again?
Update 22 December 2021
Many thanks indeed to Jimmy Burns (a.k.a. Punk Hoarder) for sending me this lovely image of the flyer for the concert. It brings back great memories. I’m looking forward to seeing the reunited original line-up of the Damned at Manchester Apollo next year. The concert has just been postponed from February 2022 to November 2022. Something to look forward to. Expecting some mad Damned mayhem! Happy days can be here again. And yes I can be young again (at least in my mind and heart). Roll on 2022 and more concerts.
If you’d asked me in 1975 if I would go and see Neil Diamond, I would have said that I would pass. Its strange how my taste has changed over the years. Sure I always liked Sweet Caroline and Crackin’ Rosie, but I had Neil Diamond parked in a box marked “uncool”. Yet over time, I have come to realise just how “cool” and legendary this guy is. The guy has written so many classic songs; songs which I grew up. When I was a kid my parents bought me a guitar music book with all the Monkees’ hits in it. I spent ages learning the chords to I’m a Believer, and A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You on my cheap acoustic guitar. I didn’t know at the time that Neil Diamond had written those songs. I picked up on Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon late on, probably through its inclusion in Pulp Fiction. It took me some time to realise that Neil Diamond had also written that song. So by 2005, I had put all prejudices aside, and felt it was time I experienced a Neil Diamond concert. I originally bought tickets to see him at a massive open air concert in Hull football ground, but when he announced a show in Newcastle, I sold the tickets for Hull, and bought tickets for this, much more local, show. Marie was originally going to come along with me, but cried off, and my mate Will kindly agreed to come along and join me in this Diamond experience. 
As expected Neil Diamond in concert was just great. The total professional, the guy commanded the massive sold-out arena crowd from the word go. The set was long, but never flagged, and hit the right balance between rock and middle of the road. I challenge anyone to go along to a Neil Diamond concert and not enjoy it. The guy has so many hits. We had great seats in the front row of a front side block, and a top view of Neil. I was a little disappointed that he didn’t sing Girl You’ll be a Woman Soon, but heyho, you can’t have everything. A good night was had by all. Setlist: Crunchy Granola Suite; Desiree; Remember Me; Beautiful Noise; Cherry, Cherry; You Got To Me; Play Me; Love on the Rocks; America; Forever in Blue Jeans; You Don’t Bring Me Flowers; September Morn; Signs; Be; Lonely Looking Sky; Skybird; Holly Holy; Sweet Caroline; I’m a Believer; Glory Road; And the Grass Won’t Pay No Mind; Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow; Shilo; Red Red Wine; Soolaimon; I Am … I Said. Encore: Cracklin’ Rosie; Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show; I’ve Been This Way Before. 
By the time of the Rio album and tour Duran Duran were massive and at the top of their game. They sold out two nights at the City Hall, and I attended the second night. The set included all the hits; their first two albums contain a load of great songs: Rio, Hungry Like the Wolf, Save A Prayer: all good. I was pretty near the front and the crowd was going crazy around me: great stuff! This was the last time I was to see Duran Duran in concert, other than their appearance at Live Aid in 1985, which signalled the end of the band for some 20 years until the recent reunion.
Setlist: Rio; Hungry Like the Wolf; Last Chance on the Stairway; Lonely In Your Nightmare; Sound of Thunder; Night Boat; New Religion; Friends of Mine; Save a Prayer; Planet Earth; Hold Back the Rain; Careless Memories. Encore: Come Up And See Me (Make Me Smile); My Own Way; Girls on Film. Interesting to see that they covered Cockney Rebel’s Make Me Smile as the first encore on this tour. Support came from Bloomsbury Set (thanks Greg!).
I first came across Duran Duran when they supported Hazel O’Connor on her Breaking Glass tour at Newcastle City Hall. It was clear then that this was a band with a strong image and some great pop songs with catchy hooks, which transcended the New Romantic tag which they had. A year later they were back with their own headlining tour. I remember being surprised at the time at how quickly this new band had risen to headline status. They had released three singles in quick succession: Planet Earth, Careless Memories and Girls of Film, but I still doubted that they could fill the City Hall. But the gig was full; Duran Duran had already started to build their own strong following. 
Dr Ross was THE MAN. This gig was at the Black Cat Club, which sat in the grounds of Roker Park, the old Sunderland football ground. The Doctor had played previously in Sunderland at the Glebe Folk and Blues Club, and had built up quite a following on local blues aficionados. Doctor Ross was a black blues singer in the traditional style of John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson. He was a true one-man band, and played harmonica, acoustic guitar, bass drum, and hi-hat simultaneously.
Went along to Beamish Hall last night, where they have started a new music club, Shaftos. The club is holding music nights once a month, the venue being Shafto’s Hall. The place was pretty full; quite an impressive turn out for the first night of a new venture. Support came from local singer Steve Daggett, who warmed the crowd up with a set featuring Lindisfarne, Bob Dylan and Alan Hull classics. After a short break Steve Gibbons and his band took to the stage. It was good to see Steve again, it must be close to 30 years since I’ve seen him in concert. 
His set was very blues and R&B based, with a Dylan song or two thrown in. Steve has a vast catalogue of albums to draw from, and delved back through these, playing tracks from across his career. He is quite difficult to catagorise; his songs mix blues, rock n roll, R&B, country and shuffle. The confidence and stage craft developed over a 50 year career shines through, and he is backed by a band of first cass musicians. This gig brought back old memories; I saw Steve Gibbons a number of times during the 70s and early 80s. The ticket scanned here is from a gig at Sunderland Kasbah (a short lived venue) in the early 80s. The Steve Gibbons Band supported a number of bands during the 70s, including The Who. The current line up of the Steve Gibbons band is: Steve on vocals, guitar and mouth harp; Phil Bond on piano, and accordion; Brendan Day on drums; John Caswell on bass; and Howard Gregory on guitar, and violin.
Deaf School were a very influential band, although they are seldom mentioned these days. Holly Johnson said: “They revived Liverpool music for a generation.”, and Paul Du Noyer (founder of Mojo magazine) claimed:: “In the whole history of Liverpool music two bands matter most, one is The Beatles and the other is Deaf School.” Strong praise indeed, and not bad for a band who never had a hit single and existed for only a few years in the late 70s.
I saw them several times, at Redcar Coatham Bowl, Middlesbrough Town Hall, Newcastle University and Newcastle Poly. I note from the ticket for the Redcar gig, that the support was Ray Phillip’s (ex Budgie) band Woman, who I saw a few times in the 70s. Deaf School always delivered a great show, and it was exactly that, a show. They should have achieved much greater success than they did. I suspect one reason why this never happened was because they couldn’t capture the fun, theatricality and atmosphere of their live show on record. They were essentially a great live band. Every time I saw them the crowd was totally blown away. Deaf School have reformed recently, and have played a few gigs in home town Liverpool, London and further afield. Another one for my list of people to see again.
The Dickies were at their height in the UK in the late 1970s. They are a crazy, fun punk band who played superfast versions of well known songs. They were like the Ramones, but even more tongue in cheek and took and very funny. Their album “The Incredible Shrinking Dickies” was quite a hit in the UK, as were versions of “Paranoid”, “Eve of Destruction” and “Nights in White Satin”. They had their biggest success with “Banana Splits (Tra La La Song)”, the theme tune from the TV show, which got into the UK top 10 in 1979, and was released in dayglo yellow vinyl. 
I saw The Dickies a few times, including gigs at the City Hall (first supporting the Jam, and then their own headline show at which they were supported by Chelsea) and The Mayfair. The Mayfair gig took place while Banana Splits was in the charts. Played live, the song featured loads of bananas being thrown into the audience. They were a great fun night out, a cartoon-like crazy punk band, every song played super fast, with the crowd pogoing for their lives. They had a pretty strong following in the North East with young punks. I found this report from the time: “A riot breaks out in Newcastle when the band appears at a record signing. 2500 kids skip school to meet them but end up breaking the store’s front window. The police are called.” I seem to recall for the Newcastle Mayfair gig they played two shows, an early show for under 16s and a later show for older fans. My memory tells me that I went to the early kids show, so that I could then go along to the City Hall and see Judas Priest, but my ticket shows the time of the show as 7pm start, so maybe I went to see Priest first and then went to The Mayfair. The Dickies remain popular with punks in the UK, and continue to play to this day.
I realised that working alphabetically through my ticket and programme collection won’t cover the festivals that I’ve been to over the years, so I have decided to skip out of the alphabet now and then to cover a festival or two. Hence I’m having a rest from covering artists starting with the letter D and will write something today on the Cambridge Folk Festival.
More than 30 years after I saw The Doors at Newcastle City Hall, David and I went to see them at Manchester Arena. This version of the band featured original members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger, with new singer Ian Astbury of The Cult fame. Drummer John Densmore declined to take part in the project and sued the other band members over their use of the name. I had mixed views about going to the gig. The last time I saw the band Ray and Robby took vocal duties and the set was largely new material. This time it was clear that the set would be classic Doors and Ian was almost mimicking Jim Morrison. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about that, and how appropriate it was. However we did attend, out of interest as much as anything. The 20,000 capacity venue was nowhere near full, I would say it was a quarter full, if that. We had great seats a few rows from the front. There was no support act and the band were onstage for a couple of hours, the set consisting of a selection of Doors classics. Looking at setlists from the time it is clear that the band changed their set significantly from night to night. One disappointment for me was that they didn’t play Riders on the the Storm. But putting that aside, this was a great gig, which Ian carried off well. He looked like Jim, was dressed like him, and must have studied videos of his movements. But it worked well. We have the old songs, a psychedelic light show, and a band with two original members. It was just great and made me realise how amazing The Doors must have been in the day. David and I both enjoyed it. Setlist: Break On Through (to the Other Side); Not to Touch the Earth; Love Me Two Times; Alabama Song (Whisky Bar); Back Door Man; Love Her Madly; The Changeling; Hyacinth House; Spanish Caravan; Five to One; The Unknown Soldier; Peace Frog; Roadhouse Blues; L.A. Woman. Encore: Touch Me; Light My Fire
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