Steve Winwood York Barbican Centre 3rd March 2004
The next time I saw Steve Winwood was more than 20 years later at a concert at York Barbican Centre. David was a student at Leeds at the time, and I drove down to York and met him at York station. This was my second visit to the Barbican, having been there once before to see Jethro Tull. The concert was all standing with a modest crowd gathered to see Winwood. Although the ticket lists “Special Guests”, I am pretty sure that this wasn’t the case and that there was no support act, with Steve playing two sets. The concert was very much a run through his career from the ’60s onward, with selections from his time in The Spencer Davis Group, Blind Faith, Traffic and his solo work. The concert came at the time of his eight solo album “About Time” and he was accompanied by an excellent band with heavy use of percussion, which reminded me of the Rebop era Traffic. A great show and a chance to get very close to a legend.
Based on a setlist from the London show on the same tour it is likely that the set was something like this:
Set 1. Pearly Queen (Traffic); Different Light; Cigano (for the Gypsies); Empty Pages (Traffic); Can’t Find My Way Home (Blind Faith); Crossroads; I’m a Man (Spencer Davis); Glad (Traffic); Freedom Rider (Traffic).
Set 2: Talking Back to the Night; Bully; Higher Love; Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring (Traffic); Keep On Running (Spencer Davis Group); Back in the High Life Again; Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic); Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (Traffic).
Encore: Why Can’t We Live Together?; Gimme Some Lovin’ (Spencer Davis Group)
Band: Steve Winwood (vocals, Hammond), José Piresde de Almeida Neto (guitar), Walfredo Reyes, Jr. (drums, percussion), Karl Vanden Bossche (congas), Richard Bailey (timbales), Karl Denson (sax, flute).
I’ve seen Steve Winwood a couple of times since then, once at the Sage and once at Wembley Arena when he toured with Eric Clapton, and I’ve already blogged about those concerts.
Posts Tagged ‘gigs’
13 Jan
Steve Winwood York Barbican Centre 3rd March 2004
12 Jan
Steve Winwood Newcastle City Hall 6th July 1983
Steve Winwood Newcastle City Hall 6th July 1983
This was Steve Winwood’s first full solo tour, and was in support of his third solo album “Talking Back to the Night”. Winwood was on a high at the time; having had considerable success with his first two albums “Winwood” and “Arc of a Diver’ and chart hits with “While You See a Chance” and “Valerie”. He had recorded the albums at his home in Gloucestershire playing all instruments himself, and this was the first time that he had gone out and played the songs live in concert with a band. I went along with my mate Ian and we were secretly hoping that he might play a clutch of Traffic and Spencer Davis Group songs. We had seats close to the stage and a great view of Winwood, and his excellent band and he did indeed play some of those songs we were hoping for later in the concert. I wasn’t familiar with a lot of Steve’s solo material apart from the singles, but was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I got into the new songs. Winwood is one of our top artists from the 60s, with an incredibly soulful voice, a very under-rated guitar and Hammond organ player and he always looks incredibly fit and so young, to this day. 
My favourite has always been “No Face, No Name, No Number” but I don’t think he played that particular song at this concert. However we were treated to a clutch of classics from the ’60s which included “Somebody Help Me”, “I’m a Man”, “Keep On Running” and “Gimme Some Lovin'”, along with Traffic’s “Dear Mr Fantasy”. Great stuff.
Setlist will probably have been something like this: Roadrunner; Help Me Angel; Arc of a Diver; Valerie; It Was Happiness; Second-Hand Woman; Vacant Chair; Talking Back to the Night; Slowdown Sundown; Dust; Night Train; Somebody Help Me (Spencer Davis Group); Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (Traffic); Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic); I’m a Man (Spencer Davis Group); Big Girls Walk Away; And I Go; Your Silence Is Your Song; While You See a Chance.
Encore: Keep On Running (Spencer Davis Group); Still in the Game; Gimme Some Lovin’ (Spencer Davis Group).
Steve Winwood band: James Hooker (piano), Bobby Messano (guitar), Eric Parker (drums), Carole Steele (percussion), Fernando Sanders (bass/vocals), Godfrey Wang (keyboards).
11 Jan
W.A.S.P. Newcastle Mayfair Rock Night 21st Sep 1984
W.A.S.P. Newcastle Mayfair Rock Night 21st Sep 1984
It was Friday Rock night at Newcastle Mayfair and the headline band was a new act, called W.A.S.P. Now W.A.S.P. are an American heavy metal band, whi formed in 1982, and emerged from the same L.A. scene as Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, and Ratt (and later Guns N’ Roses). There has been a lot of speculation about what the band’s name means, and whether it actually stands for anything. One interpretation is “White Anglo-Saxon Protestants”, particularly as the early W.A.S.P. song “Show No Mercy” contains the repeated line “White Anglo-Saxon / A violent reaction”. However, the original U.S. release of their debut album had the words “We Are Sexual Perverts” inscribed on both sides around the label in the center. When asked about the band’s name leader Blackie Lawless avoided giving a straight answer: “We Ain’t Sure, Pal.” In a later interview, Lawless stated the main reason for the name was the full stops (periods), and that they created a “question mark of uncertainty” to make W.A.S.P. stand out more.
These guys were crazy, wild heavy rock theatre. From the fold-out poster programme that I bought at the gig”: “W.A.S.P. is extreme heavy metal. They don’t stop with leather and studs, chains and spikes – they wield circular sawblades onto metal codpieces and armbands. Bare-assed on stage, they throw raw meat at the audience and drink blood from a skull – and this is only the beginning. Blackie Lawless (leader, lead singer, bass, songwriter) hung out with Ace Frehley (Kiss) in a tough street gang until being seriously stabbed at the age of 13. He went on to a two-year sentence at a military school in Florida. After 18 months Blackie was expelled for beating up a sergeant major, but he broke his knuckles in the process….Blackie took up guitar and did a stretch with the notorious New York Dolls. Randy Piper (guitar) quit school at 15 and slowly worked his way to L.A. He worked 10 days in Disneyland sweeping up, before getting fired for drunkenness. Tony Richards (drums) got himself thrown out of a dozen different schools for various kinds of anti-social behavior by the time he was 15. Included with the more common fighting, drinking and drug charges were getting caught in the closet with a young female teacher and burning the school’s football team’s equipment. Chris Holmes (guitar), the madman whose mother was a Hells Angel (and still beats the shit out of people who argue too much). Chris was kicked out of school at the tender age of 7 – for savagery. These four guys were obviously meant for each other.”
Is this for real ? 🙂
The programme went on: “By May of 1983, W.A.S.P. could sell out the 3000 seat Santa Monica Civic and put on a show that was truly over the top and very controversial. Blackie arranged for a Red Cross Blood Drive during a three-day sod-out run at the Troubadour: fans who gave blood would get in free. But when the Red Cross found out that Blackie drinks animal blood on stage, they didn’t want the band’s blood, or most of the fan’s blood, either. A greater controversy exists over the ‘rack’ [W.A.S.P. would torture a girl on a rack on stage] and feminist groups condemn the onstage treatment of women by W.A.S.P. …YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.”
W.A.S.P. had just released their latest single “Animal (**** Like a Beast)” and their eponymous debut album, and delighted the Geordie rock crowd with a typically OTT performance of slabs of heavy metal, and very un-PC rock theatre. Good unclean fun. Support came from UK NWOBHM glamsters Wrathchild. I saw W.A.S.P. again at Donington a few years later, and they were equally crazy. Now a Born Again Christian, Blackie Lawless continues to lead W.A.S.P to this day.
Setlist: On Your Knees; The Flame; Hellion; L.O.V.E. Machine; Sleeping (in the Fire); Tormentor; School Daze; The Torture Never Stops; I Wanna Be Somebody; Animal (*** Like a Beast)
10 Jan
Mari Wilson & The Wilsations! live 1982 and 1983
Mari Wilson & The Wilsations! live 1982 and 1983
13th May 1982 and my mate Dave and I are a student dance at New College Durham, in the old buildings up at Nevilles Cross. The headliner was none other than Mari Wilson (aka The Neasden Queen of Soul) and her group the sensational Wilsations!. We’d read a little about this lady and her band in the music press, but didn’t really know what to expect. There was a fun-packed programme for the evening which started with a screening of the movie “Animal House”, followed by a disco (of course) and support band the Sinatras. So by the time Mari took to the stage it was late and the young student crowd had partaken in more than a few drinks and were ready to dance, generally go crazy and be entertained. Nothing could have prepared us for the spectacular that we were about to witness. This was one of those gigs that I try to relive in my mind; to say Mari and the Wilsations! were sensational is an understatement. This was a totally full-on, expertly choreographed and colour co-ordinated rock’n’roll cum doo-wop 1950s review.
Imagine seeing a combination of Darts, The Ronettes, and ShaNaNa, fronted by Julie London. And imagine you are at the local hop in an episode of “Happy Days”, or you are a cast member of “Dreamboats and Petticoats”. Got it? Now make it even more colourful, funny, fast, and crazy than you imagined.
From the moment she stepped out on that school-hall style stage (it even “felt” like we were at the hop) we all knew that we were in the presence of a true “star”; 110%. Yes; Mari was centre-stage, wearing a Taffeta dress, and sporting her famous skyscraper beehive hairdo, but the show wasn’t just about her. The fully choreographed 12 piece band (or it may have been 18 piece, there were certainly lots and lots of them) The Wilsations! were a crucial part of the experience. 
This was an event – pure entertainment. Our compere for the evening was none other than Hank, a larger than life character straight from the high school hop: “Hi I’m Hank and this is the Hank Beehive show. Say “Hi Hank” [we all said “Hi Hank”] and say “Hi” to the band. Tonight we have the two Marines on backing vocals: Kurt L’Amour and Wilbur G Force [Kurt has a penchant for choc dips; throw those dips girls; if you want to win his heart, and Wilbur is a jujitsu expert of some renown and has just completed a karate ballet, drives a Marina and has mated his dogs with the Queen’s corgis]. And providing tonight’s musical accompaniment we have the Wilsations!; all handpicked because their names rhymed with Mari: Harry and Barry (sax and trumpet) [known as the brass monkeys; Harry drives a bottle-green Morris van and Barry has a reputation for anti-rust work on it, and on his trumpet], Larry (pianoforte) [Larry has a tough greaser look], Gary (big drums) [“I got where I am today because my name’s Gary and I know it”], Cary (guitar) [Cary is the resident health freak and has escorted a former Miss World], and Jim (big bass) [Jim always wanted to be in a band but nearly didn’t make it as his name didn’t rhyme with Mari]. And on backing vocals we have the two beautiful Marionettes: Barbarella and Candide [Barbie describes herself as a “professional debutante” and Candide was actually aka Michelle Collins aka Cindy Beale].” [Note: most of the elements in square brackets come from a later programme, by which the names of some of band members may have changed].
The interplay between Hank, the rest of the band, and Mari was hilarious, the dancing was sensational and the costumes perfectly co-ordinated. Mari was simple perfection. The set was a mix of 50s classics, and songs which would soon feature on Mari’s debut album “Showpeople”. This was before she hit the charts with ‘Just What I’ve Always Wanted’. I remember being totally captivated by her performance of ‘Cry Me A River’, the Julie London song which has been a big favourite of mine since I first saw Julie perform it in the film “The Girl Can’t Help It”. A crazy night, where it really felt like we were back in the 50s at the high school hop. I expected to turn around and see the Fonz and Potsie Weber standing next to me 🙂
A few months later and our hero appeared in our own front room, on TV, singing “Just What I’ve Always Wanted” on Top of the Pops. The girl with the big hairdo had done good and had “made it”, just like she always wanted, just like Hank told us she would, and just like we knew show would.
We saw Mari and her Wilsations! a couple of more times, once at Redcar Coatham Bowl on 10th October 1982, and then at Newcastle City Hall on 18th March 1983. The Redcar gig was an equally crazy, fun night. But things changed, somewhere along the way our hero Hank left the band and the membership of the Wilsations! changed (although some of the band members had the same names as their predecessors; isn’t that strange and rather convenient ? 🙂 ). Local north east guitarist, and old mate, Keith Airey joined as guitarist and Julia Fordham joined as one of the two girl vocalists. The City Hall show was good, but the authenticity of “the high school hop” was lost in a larger hall, and things were never the same without Hank. And soon it came to an end and Mari returned to Neasden to knit cardigans or raise a family (actually that’s not true, she continued to sing and does so to this day, moving towards a soul and jazz direction).
For me Mari Wilson and the Wilsations! were at their best that night in 1982 when, at a dance in the old New College hall, we were transported back to the 50s high school hop and Mari simply sang her heart out for us.
9 Jan
The Waterboys Newcastle Tiffany’s 30th April 1986
The Waterboys Newcastle Tiffany’s 30th April 1986
Mike Scott and his Waterboys were on a rock’n’roll journey from “The Big Music” to the raggle taggle gypsy Celtic folk band that they became in the late 80s. This was Mike and the band at the top of their game, not long after the success of “Whole of the Moon”, yet choosing not to play that song and instead sweeping a ram-packed Tiffany’s along with joyous big swirling sounds, and a few carefully chosen covers. “The Big Music” filled the ballroom; I was standing on the balcony looking down onto the stage and the packed sweaty dance floor below, and it felt like any minute the roof would come off. Mike was one minute the rock star, the next a folk troubadour, and then he became a seer taking us all on a spiritual journey through the kaleidoscope of his music. He was Dylan when he sang “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” for us, and then Tex Ritter leading a country band into “The Wayward Wind”. And then we were transported to the Streets of Dublin, dancing to a Celtic fiddle band. This was one of those gigs where we all walked out into the cold night knowing we had experienced something pretty special.
Setlist: Medicine Bow; Be My Enemy; Medicine Jack; Fisherman’s Blues; The Thrill Is Gone / And The Healing Has Begun; Meet Me At The Station; A Girl Called Johnny; The Pan Within; I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight; We Will Not Be Lovers; Spirit / The 4 Ages Of Man; Savage Earth Heart; This Is The Sea
Encore: The Wayward Wind; A Pagan Place; Can’t Help Falling In Love; Red Army Blues
Encore 2: Death Is Not the End
7 Jan
Rick Wakeman Newcastle City Hall 18th Sep 1980
Rick Wakeman Newcastle City Hall 18th Sep 1980
Rick Wakeman rejoined Yes in 1977, but left a few years later and in 1980 he was again on tour as a solo act, accompanied by his band.
I recall going to see the film “White Rock” in 1977. It was a documentary film about the 1976 Winter Olympics held in Innsbruck, Austria, and the soundtrack was by Rick Wakeman. It wasn’t the most enjoyable film…all I can remember is lots of footage of bobsleds speeding through ice and snow…..
Rick was back at the City Hall again in 1980. This time the tour programme featured a spoof newspaper which proclaims: “Yes The Rick Wakeman Show is on the road. Months of government pressure both in England and abroad, high level summit meetings with the President in the White House and even a telephone call from Her Majesty the Queen, failed to stop Rick Wakeman taking his bunch of suicidal perverts around the world to seriously upset music lovers”. 🙂
Headlines in the programme included “Police Called to riot in Rick Wakeman show” and “Road Manager in Sex Scandal”. The band was Tony Fernanez (previous job ice cream salesman, drums), Ashley Holt (nickname Fatty, vocals), Tim Stone (previous job tester in a nose stretching factory, guitar) and Steve Barnacle (nickname Bog head, bass). As you might have gathered, as well as being a progrock giant, Rick also had a sense of humour and his concerts reflected this being celebrations of prog pomposity alongside some very silly stories and jokes from the band leader himself. A Rick Wakeman concert was thus a mix of fun and great music, which was also sometimes just a little too long and thus often frustrating.
Setlist (something like): Arthur; Katherine Howard; No Earthly Connection; Anne Boleyn; Sea Horses; Geraldine O’Brien; Catherine Parr; The Spider; Merlin the Magician; Journey to the Centre of the Earth; Swan Lager
Encore: White Rock
6 Jan
Rick Wakeman Newcastle City Hall 4th May 1976
Rick Wakeman Newcastle City Hall 4th May 1976
Rick Wakeman left Yes in 1974 to follow a solo career. He had already produced his first three solo albums “Piano Vibrations” (1971), “The Six Wives of Henry VIII” (1973) and “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” (1974) while he was still a member of Yes. On leaving Yes he continued to record epic prog / orchestral pieces, releasing “The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” in 1975. Rick was also building a reputation for spectacular concerts. In fact “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” was recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London with full orchestra and choir and topped the UK album charts, becoming a multi-million dollar seller within weeks. In 1975 Wakeman then went on to perform “The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” on ice at Wembley Empire Pool. He the recorded the soundtrack for the Ken Russell film “Lisztomania” which starred Roger Daltrey as Franz Liszt, and also featured Paul Nicholas, Ringo Starr and, briefly, Wakeman himself as the god Thor. 
I remember going to see the movie at my local cinema at the time. It was crazy, mad piece telling the story of Liszt as the first, flamboyant, pop star, and was very much of its time.
In 1976 Rick Wakeman released the album “No Earthly Connection” and went out of a full UK tour to promote it. The album and the tour featured “Rick Wakeman and the English Rock Ensemble”. The album packaging included “a piece of silver foil which you were supposed to roll up and stand over the centre of the front or back cover. If you then looked into it you would see the distorted pictures of Rick brought back into proportion. I think there might have been a tiny graphic indicating this on the corner of the inner sleeve.” (from Recollection site). According to my programme from the concert the English Rock ensemble were vocalist Ashley Holt (aka Poldo), Roger Newell (bass and vocals; aka Budgie), John Dunsterville (guitars and vocals; aka Dusty), Tony Fernandez (drums and percussion; aka Woppo), Martin Shields (brass and vocals; aka Fartin’ Martin 🙂 ….typical Rick Wakeman humour ), and Reg Brooks (brass and vocals; aka Steptoe).
Thanks to Mitch for the photo which he took at this concert, and which shows Rick Wakeman resplendent in his cape (this was the ’70s). The tour programme was a spoof football programme, with a tankard on the cover, illustrating Wakeman’s extra-mural interests of the time. It tells me that “tonight’s programme will be taken form some of the following pieces: Catherine Parr, The Spaceman, The Battle, Lancelot & The Black Night, The Journey, The Recollection, Catherine Howard, Arthur, Listz’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13, The Forest, Merlin the Magician, Anne Boleyn, The Warning, The Prisoner, The Realisation. Aaah, the joys of the ’70s, and progrock excess 🙂
5 Jan
Loudon Wainwright III Newcastle City Hall 16th Sep 1979
Loudon Wainwright III Newcastle City Hall 16th Sep 1979
Loudon Wainwright is a funny guy.
“Loudon Wainwright III is a direct descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, renowned one-legged Dutch Governer of New York. Loudon I was an insurance salesman, Loudon II is a mild mannered reporter for a former great metropolitan magazine. And Loudon III is a “post-psychedelic beatnik” who has been lauded far and wide as a writer-performer of uncommon wit, intelligence and insight, and with a unique capacity for capturing irony and absurdity in his work, that sets him apart from the great majority of similar entertainers” (from Loudon 1979 programme).
I went along to this gig with a group of friends from college. One of the guys, Vaughan, had recently become a big fan of Loudon Wainwright and sand many of his crazy songs to us. He persuaded us all to go along with him to see Loudon when he came to the City Hall (not that I needed much persuading to go along to a concert in those days). The concert wasn’t well attended, but those of there spent an enjoyable evening listening to Loudon’s crazy, funny songs and stories. Loudon was promoting his 8th album “A Live One”, which had been recorded during his 1976 UK tour.
Personal Note (from Loudon 1979 programme): “Loudon Wainwright III is now living in California. He is the father of two children, Rufus and Martha. He has written songs for both of them – “Rufus is a Tit Man” and “Pretty Little Martha”. Loudon is a sports fanatic, and drives a 15 year old blue Checker.”
“Crossin’ the highway late last night, He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right,
He didn’t see the Station Wagon car, The skunk got squashed and there you are,
You got yer, Dead skunk in the middle of the road,
Dead skunk in the middle of the road, Dead skunk in the middle of the road,
Stinkin’ to high heaven, Take a whiff on me that ain’t no rose,
Roll up yer window and hold yer nose, You don’t have to look and you don’t have to see,
‘Cause you can feel it in your olfactory.”
(Loudon Wainwright III, Dead Skunk, 1972).
Note 1. “Dead Skunk” was a hit in the US singles chart reaching No 12.
Note 2. The “olfactory” system is the sensory system used for the sense of smell.
4 Jan
The Who Newcastle Metro Radio Arena 25th May 2007
The Who Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena, 25th May 2007
Support: Shack
The Who were on a roll and continued to tour throughout 2007, playing across Europe, the USA and headlining Glastonbury. Their set was similar to that which they had played during 2006, containing classic tracks and much of their, then current, “Endless Wire” album.
Setlist: I Can’t Explain; The Seeker; Relay; Who Are You; Behind Blue Eyes; Fragments; Real Good Looking Boy; Sound Round; Pick Up The Peace; Endless Wire; We Got A Hit; They Made My Dream Come True; Mirror Door; Baba O’Riley; Eminence Front; A Man In A Purple Dress; The Real Me; You Better You Bet; My Generation; Cry If You Want; Won’t Get Fooled Again.
Encore: Pinball Wizard; Amazing Journey; Sparks; See Me Feel Me; Tea And Theatre
That concludes my reminiscences of seeing The Who in concert. I have been to a few more Who gigs since 2007, but I have already blogged about those.
The Who are, without question, one of my favourite bands; alongside the Stones and the Groundhogs. There are few rock bands who can match their breadth and range of classic material, going from the great pop and mod singles of the mid 1960s, through the epic “Tommy” rock opera, the anthemic “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and to “Quadrophenia” (“A Way of Life” 🙂 ). My own particular favourites are “I Can See For Miles”, “The Seeker” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. I am also a big fan of “Tommy” and have grown to love “Quadrophenia” over the years, having now seen The Who perform it on four occasions. On a good night The Who are simply the best rock band in the world, and they have given me some of my best (and loudest 🙂 ) concert memories; including amazing gigs at Newcastle Odeon (1971 & 1973), Charlton (1974 & 1976) and Edinburgh Odeon (1979). And they still continue to deliver; the recent gig I saw at Newcastle Arena, which was part of their 50th anniversary tour, was excellent. I reckon I’ve seen The Who play 19 times to date; hope I get to see them at least once more.
3 Jan
The Who Wireless Festival Harewood House Leeds 25th June 2006
The Who Wireless Festival Harewood House Leeds 25th June 2006
Support from The Flaming Lips; The Zutons; Eels; Super Furry Animals; Robyn Hitchcock; The Answer; Casbah Club
Went with David to see The Who at the O2 Wireless festival at Harewood House, just outside Leeds. The ticket was a barcode on my phone, so no stub to post here 😦 The supporting line-up was strong with great performances from The Answer (an Irish rock’n’blues band in the mould of Free and ’70s rock), Eels, Robyn Hitchcock (retro psych genius) and Casbah Club (super modster band featuring Simon Townshend) performing on the main stage and in a marquee. The best performance, other than the Who, came from The Flaming Lips, with a spectacular theatrical show which featured front man Wayne surfing across the crowd in a giant hamster ball 🙂
The Who’s performance featured several new songs which would appear on their 11th album “Endless Wire”, the usual Tommy segment, old faves and some unexpected classics including “The Seeker” and “Relay”. Great stuff.
Setlist: Who Are You; I Can’t Explain; The Seeker; Anyway Anyhow Anywhere; Sound Round; Pick Up The Peace; Endless Wire; We Got A Hit; They Made My Dream Come True; Mirror Door; Baba O’Riley; Drowned; Relay; The Kids Are Alright; Behind Blue Eyes; Mike Post Theme; Cry If You Want; Pinball Wizard; Amazing Journey; See Me Feel Me
Encore: Substitute; Won’t Get Fooled Again
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