Leo Sayer Newcastle City Hall 23rd April 1976 and 5th October 1977
I saw Leo Sayer on two further occasions before I started to loose faith. The first was on 23rd April 1976 at Newcastle City Hall. Support came from Glyder, a band that featured Dave Bronze on bass, who would go on to play with Eric Clapton and many others. Sayer was becoming more and more popular, both in the UK and the USA, and was starting to transform into a middle of the road family entertainer. He was soon to have a massive No 1 hit which would take his career in a new direction and would enable Leo to front his own TV show on BBC every Friday night, guest on The Muppet Show, sing a duet with Miss Piggy, and appear with his idol, Fred Astaire on TV in Hollywood. There was no new album or single to promote for Leo’s Spring 1976 tour; he released his fourth album “Endless Flight” later in 1976. “Endless Flight” featured two US No. 1 hit singles, “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” and “When I Need You”. 
The setlist for the 1976 was something like this: Giving It All Away; I Hear the Laughter; Hold on to My Love; One Man Band; Train; How Much Love; Endless Flight; No Business Like Love Business; You Make Me Feel Like Dancing; When I Need You; Reflections; Long Tall Glasses; The Show Must Go On. No performance of “The Dancer” which will have disappointed me 😦 
My final Leo Sayer experience took place at Newcastle City Hall on 5th October 1977. Leo’s 1977 UK tour came after massive No 1 success with the single “When I Need You”. “When I Need You” was written by Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer Sager, and first appeared as the title track of Hammond’s 1976 album. Leo Sayer’s version was a big hit worldwide, reaching No 1 on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in February 1977. Leo Sayer performed it on the second show of the third season of The Muppet Show, and his transformation to a successful middle of the road artist was complete. Leo’s 1977 tour was hugely popular, and sold out very quickly. A whole new audience were clammering to see Leo perform “When I Need You”. I went along to the concert with a mate, and we both knew that we had lost the singer-songwriter who created the wonderful “Silverbird” album. 
The tour was to promote Leo’s fifth album “Thunder in My Heart”, which featured the hit single of the same name. Support came from singer-songwriter Aj Webber, who popped up supporting several acts during the ’70s, played the Reading festival and had a great song “Magnus the lonely gnome”, and Blue, who were a soft-rock band fronted by ex-Marmalade Hugh Nicholson, had a great catchy single “Little Jody” and should have had more success. We saw a different, new Leo Sayer at the City Hall that night in 1977. The transformation had been coming about for some time, but it became very apparent at that concert. Gone were the serious, dark, moody early songs, replaced by singalong hits. Leo had become a song and dance man. Just look at the covers of his albums and you can see how his persona has changed. The sold out audience was also different. Gone were the rock fans who had followed him in the early days, replaced by a crowd who came to sing along to “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” and “When I Need You”.
Thinking back about Leo Sayer, his first album, those early hit singles, and his early tours, I remember how much I enjoyed the guy’s music, and how he was respected as a serious singer-songwriter. I think I’ll dig out my vinyl copy of “Silverbird” and play it one more time. I’ll play “The Dancer” first.
Posts Tagged ‘gigs’
20 Jul
Leo Sayer Newcastle City Hall 23rd April 1976 and 5th October 1977
19 Jul
Leo Sayer Newcastle Odeon 16th October 1975
Leo Sayer Newcastle Odeon 16th October 1975
It’s funny how certain songs stick in your mind. I loved “Moonlighting” when it was released in 1975. The catchy tune, the story of star crossed lovers. OK cool it certainly wasn’t but there was just something about the song that hooked me and still does. I just couldn’t get it out of my head. We would call it an “ear worm” today.
“He sees her at the same time every night, at the Mexican discotheque. She gives him French kisses, he gives her French cigarettes. They sit at the same table every time, the lights are low, but their eyes shine, just digging the music from those sweet soul bands. She keeps him outta fights, holds on to his hand. He whispers slowly “Tonight’s the night”. Months of planning so it’s gotta be right. Under the table her bag is bursting at the seams. She made sure to bring everything.
Moonlighting, they’re leaving everything. Moonlighting, they’re losing all their friends.
Moonlighting, it’s the only way. It’s frightening, but it means they’ll stay, together. They’re gonna make it together……….
We’re only ten miles to Gretna, they’re three hundred behind….Moonlighting..” (Leo Sayer, 1975)
Looking at the lyrics it really isn’t cool. No excuses, and I have no way of explaining my taste at the time….
“Moonlighting” was Leo Sayer’s fourth UK top ten single, reaching No 2 in the charts in September 1975. He went out on tour to promote his third album “Another Year”, calling at Newcastle Odeon this time. Support came from Max Merritt and the Meteors who were making a name for themselves on the pub-rock circuit at the time. Max Merritt hailed from New Zealand and record “Slippin’ Away” which reached No. 2 on the Australian singles charts in 1976. During the early to mid 1970s he was based in London playing the pubs of the capital.
Leo still played “The Dancer”, which remained by favourite Leo Sayer song and made the concert worthwhile for me, even if I couldn’t get “Moonlighting” out of my head 🙂
Maybe I shouldn’t feel too guilty in admitting my penchant for the early music of Leo Sayer. Actually thinking about, it was all pretty good, and he was really quite a serious musical artist at the time. His singles and albums were all big successes and reviews of his concerts were positive, and why shouldn’t they have been? After all, the guy put on a great show. Here are some snippets from a review of Leo Sayer’s October 1975 concert at Bournemouth Winter Gardens, written by Harry Doherty for Melody Maker: “musically, Sayer was excellent…..he left nothing to chance and gave a rousing performance of songs from his three albums…..he has a great voice, gutsy one minute, melancholic the next…..he was backed by a very tight four-piece and played a set of his best songs.”
The setlist will have been something like: Giving it all away; Train; In my life; One man band; The kid’s grown up; Only dreaming; Telepath; The last gig of Johnny B Goode; Moonlighting; I will not stop fighting; The Dancer; Long tall glasses; The show must go on.
18 Jul
Johnny Winter New Victoria Theatre London 26th October 1974
Johnny Winter New Victoria Theatre London 26th October 1974
I was very sad to hear of the passing yesterday of the great Johnny Winter.
Johnny Winter was an incredible blues guitarist, an amazing performer, and a spectacular rock’n’roll star. He looked great, played and sang impeccable electric blues, and his performance was like being caught in a whirlwind.
The first time I saw Johnny Winter live was at a concert at the New Victoria Theatre, London in 1974. I went with my friend John, and it seemed quite an adventure travelling all the way to London for a concert. I’d been to a few festivals and one day events, but I think this was the first time I had travelled to the capital for a single artist concert in a theatre. Support came from Elf, who were fronted by Ronnie James Dio, but it was Winter we had gone to see. The concert was sold out and we had seats up in the circle, looking down on the stage. I recall that Johnny Winter was late coming on stage, but boy was he worth waiting for. This was Johnny the young rock’n’roll bundle of energy and fire (he will have been 30 at the time, but he still looked young and sharp to us). He wore a flash cowboy shirt shirt with long tassels flowing from the arms, and he twisted, twirled and ran around the stage, his incredibly long white hair swirling around him under his cowboy hat, while he shot fire-fast riffs from his trademark Gibson Firebird. 
Winter was every inch pure rock’n’roll energy; the renegade electric cowboy, playing dark and fast music from the delta. Flanked by fellow ace guitarist Floyd Radford, Johnny Winter and his band rocked through a set of blues, his own tracks including the ace “Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo” (written by Derringer), great covers of the Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Honky Tonk Women”, Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” and “Roll Over Beethoven, and Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally”. He was simply stunning and we were blown away.
Philip Norman wrote in The Times of the concert at the time: “Johnny Winter has long white hair and sleeves with red streamers like abandoned conjuring-tricks; his legs are as slim as the caddis-fly’s and, like that nervous insect, he lives in electric storms…effect is not calculated by mere voltage; there was something breathtaking …in this unrepentant chaos”
John’s memories of the concert: “I first got into Johnny Winter after listening to one of the many great lives albums from the early 70’s Johnny Winter and Live. As I recall he did not tour the UK much and certainly not out in the provinces, so when we saw the date in London, we decided to go. The tour was to promote the recently released Still Alive and Well which was recorded after one of his many periods of ill health. The setlist included the title track and I think “Silver Train” (the B side from “Angie”? by the Stones). He did a lot of covers and seemed to especially like the Stones. But the stand out track was his own blues tour de force “Mean Town Blues”, which remains one of my favorite live cuts from that period to this day.”
Thanks to John for his image of the album of the time and for the photo of his poster which he bought at the concert that night in 1974.
RIP Johnny Winter.
17 Jul
Monty Python Live (mostly) O2 Arena London 16th July 2014
Monty Python Live (mostly) O2 Arena London 16th July 2014
“Knotted hankies at the ready: it’s Monty Python’s historic last stand live at London’s O2 Arena. It’s been more than three decades since they last appeared on stage together for a Hollywood Bowl show. But now surviving Pythons John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin – combined age: 357! – are dusting down those classic comedy routines for their final farewell.” John Cleese said: “The response to our planned reunion has been very, very silly. But, we’re all touched that so many fans still want to see such old people perform.”
Monty Python was part of my growing up. For me it means the early sketches like The Lumberjack song, the albatross, dead parrot, silly walks, nudge nudge, and the argument. The later series are less familiar. So David and I were two of the 200,000 people who made the trip to the 02 arena to see the guys perform for one last time. This was the 7th night of a massively successful 10 night run. The show works well, incorporating all of the old routines, as you would expect, and with the “female Python” Carol Cleveland joining in the fun with her old workmates. John Cleese forgetting his lines, and not being able to stop himself laughing only added to our fun. Of course the remaining Pythons look, and are, a lot older than when I last saw them perform at the Lincoln festival 42 years ago, and some of the routines seem quite dated, but seeing it all together presented in one show, reminded me of just how ground-breaking it was at the time. 
Yes there are parts that don’t quite work today, and I wasn’t too keen on some of the more theatrical Spamalot type dance routines, but the use of the original video, the recreation of the famous sketches, and the tributes to Graham Chapman all work, and overall this is a great show.
Set 1: Llamas; Liberty Bell March; Four Yorkshiremen; Penis Song (Not the Noel Coward Song); Naval Medley; Batley Townswomens’ Guild presents the Battle of Pearl Harbor; The Last Supper; Every Sperm Is Sacred; Mr. and Mrs. Blackitt; Silly Olympics (Video); Vocational Guidance Counseller; Lumberjack Song; International Philosophy (Video); Bruces’ Philosophers Song; Crunchy Frog; The Man Who Speaks in Anagrams; I Like Chinese.
Set 2: Spam Lake; Sit on My Face; Death of Mary Queen of Scots; Penguin on the TV; Gumby Flower Arranging; Camp Judges; Albatross; Nudge Nudge; Blackmail; Anne Elk; Spanish Inquisition; The Galaxy Song; Silly Walk Song; The Argument Sketch; I’ve Got Two Legs; Spam; Dead Parrot; Cheese Shop; Christmas in Heaven.
Encore: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
16 Jul
Leo Sayer Newcastle City Hall 11th September 1974
Leo Sayer Newcastle City Hall 11th September 1974
This might seem a guilty pleasure today, but trust me, it seemed far from it “back in the day”. Leo Sayer was a pretty cool guy, with a hot debut album “Silverbird”. He first came into the public eye as the guy who appeared on the Old Grey Whistle Test dressed as a clown (or in a pierrot style costume, to be precise), co-wrote songs (with David Courtney) for Roger Daltrey’s solo lp including the hit single “Giving it All Away”, and was managed by Adam Faith (another cool guy). Leo’s second single “The Show Must Go On” was of course, a massive hit. He also appeared as support act on tours by Roxy Music and Elton John, which I foolishly missed.
From Leo Sayer’s bio on his website: “the B.B.C. offered Leo a slot on their T.V. rock show, “The Old Grey Whistle Test”.Leo came on the show dressed as the Pierrot and such was the reaction to his performance, the entire business noted that a new star was born.”
I had the “Silverbird” album and played in endlessly, my favourite tracks being the rocky “Drop Back”, “Slow Motion” and the very dark, moody, almost scary “Dancer”. Listen to the album, and don’t be put off by Sayer’s later poppier and disco material, it’s classic stuff, he was a great singer-songwriter when he emerged.
I first got to see Leo Sayer when he toured in September 1974, calling at Newcastle City Hall. By then the clown outfit had gone; Leo, his songs and his excellent band were strong enough to stand in their own right. The tour came just before the release of his second album “Just a Boy”. I was hooked, particularly on seeing him perform “Dancer”. Support for the UK tour came from Wally, a progressive rock band from Harrogate, who were presumably named after the festival chant.
Sputnik music says of the “Silverbird” album: “The first – and, in this reviewer’s opinion, only worthwhile – album from British artist Leo Sayer. Few people know that before Leo Sayer became the white-fro sporting King of Disco, he was an artist……”Silverbird” is very dark and depressing at its heart. It’s a concept album, in that the themes of isolation and sadness weave each of the songs together. I would give this album a 4 out of 5. This is a side of Sayer we only see briefly in his follow up album “Just A Boy,” and then it dies, replaced by a bad disco singer who sold out.”
15 Jul
Barbra Streisand O2 Arena London 18th July 2007
Barbra Streisand O2 Arena London 18th July 2007
Another guilty pleasure?
This was my first visit to the O2 Arena London, and one of the first concerts to be held in the new arena. The O2 is a massive indoor arena located in the centre of an entertainment complex situated on the Greenwich Peninsula in London. It is, of course, named after its main sponsor, the telecommunications company O2 and has a capacity of 20. It is the first American-style, multi-purpose arena in London, the second largest arena in Europe (after the Manchester Arena), and the busiest concert arena in the world. From the venue website: “with the completion of The O2, AEG has given London what it has always needed: a world class entertainment destination. Under our already iconic roof in Greenwich lies a state of the art live music club, 11 screen multiplex cinema, exhibition centre, an entire street of bars, restaurants and leisure attractions, and most breathtaking of all – the O2 arena……The O2 is the first purpose built music venue since the Royal Albert Hall in 1871. The wait has definitely been worth it.”
The O2 was ideal and obvious venue to host a concert by Barbra Streisand. I’d fancied seeing Barbra in concert for some time, and regretted missing her previous visit to the UK. I’d read of her reputation as being the consummate lve performer, and the greatest and biggest star in the world. The biography on her website lists the following incredible achievements: “Barbra Streisand is the only artist ever to receive Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards and France’s Légion d’honneur as well as the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award…..she is the only performer to have number one albums in five consecutive decades…..her 51 gold albums, 30 platinum and 18 multi-platinum exceed all other female singers.” Impressive or what?!
The publicity around this series of 4 UK dates (3 in London, with a date subsequently added in Manchester Arena) was as much about the price of tickets as Streisand, her music and her performance. Prices ranged from £100 to £650 a seat, with the whole of the floor area of the O2 being priced at £550 and upwards. I stumped up £100 for a ticket for the first night, right up on the upper level. 
I arrived early at the O2 to allow time for a good look around the venue and it surrounding complex, and must say I was impressed. The arena is a plush venue, sited with a larger complex,with bars and restaurants on every level. I took my seat, right up “in the gods” for the first half of the show, which started with the crowd giving Streisand a standing ovation before she even sang a singe note. Soon that powerful, emotion-full voice rang through the arena and we were treated to classic Streisand: “The Way We Were” and “Evergreen”; those familiar tones bringing tears to the eyes. I much prefer hearing the ballads to the stage hits, and wasn’t disappointed. I could spot some empty seats downstairs, some of the expensive seats remained unsold, so during the interval I made my way down to the floor level and sat in an empty £500 (ouch!) seat. No one challenged me so I enjoyed the second part of the concert with an excellent view. The latter half featured more classics: “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” and “(Have I Stayed) Too Long at the Fair?”, along with a question and answer session, which got a little lost in the vast arena. For the encores I became a little more daring and moved right down front, I was now sitting about 5 rows from the front in a seat that will have been priced at £650, with a great view of Barbra as she stormed through “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and touched us all with a moving version of Chaplin’s “Smile”. Amazing.
Going to see Streisand was something I’d promised myself I would do for a long time, and I’m so glad I did. It was some experience.
Act I: Funny Girl Overture; Starting Here, Starting Now; Down with Love; The Way We Were; Ma Première Chanson; Evergreen. Broadway Singers set: Something’s Coming; You’ll Never Walk Alone; I Finally Found Someone (Streisand joins Broadway Singers). Funny Girl Suite: Funny Girl; The Music That Makes Me Dance; My Man; People.
Act II: Entr’acte; The Music of the Night; Jason’s Theme (instrumental); You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught; Children Will Listen; Unusual Way; What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?; Q&A with Barbra; You Don’t Bring Me Flowers; (Have I Stayed) Too Long at the Fair?; William Saroyan: The Time Of Your Life; A Cockeyed Optimist; Somewhere; My Shining Hour.
Encores: Don’t Rain on My Parade; Smile; I’ve Dreamed of You
14 Jul
Rod Stewart St James Park Newcastle 25th June 2007
Rod Stewart St James Park Newcastle 25th June 2007
Rod was back in Newcastle in 2007 to play a massive open air show at St James Park in June 2007. I turned up on the night and bought a ticket for half price outside the stadium (result, as tickets for Rod Stewart concerts were getting more and more expensive 🙂 ), the show was far from sold out. It was a dreary, cold night with spells of rain, which didn’t help the atmosphere inside the stadium. The stage was placed in the middle of the stadium, which created quite strangely angled views, from whichever position you took in the vast area. Support came from the excellent Pretenders, with Chrissie Hynde chatting with the crowd and playing their hits from the late 1970s and early 1980s, including Brass In Pocket and Talk Of The Town. 
Rod’s performance included an acoustic set in the middle of the show. Not the best time I’ve seen Rod, but still an enjoyable evening, with the highlight for me being the chance to see the Pretenders again.
The setlist was something like: You Wear It Well; Some Guys Have All the Luck; Sweet Little Rock & Roller; It’s a Heartache; Rhythm of My Heart; Reason to Believe; Missing You; Father and Son; Every Beat of My Heart; Having a Party; Stay With Me; The Tracks of My Tears; Hot Legs; I Don’t Want to Talk About It; Dirty Old Town; Every Picture Tells a Story; The First Cut Is the Deepest; Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright); This Old Heart of Mine; Young Turks; Sailing; Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?; You’re in My Heart; Baby Jane; Maggie May. Encore: Twistin’ the Night Away; I Was Only Joking
13 Jul
Charity evening at Wolsingham Constitutional Club 12th July 2014
We spent last night supporting Laura and her friends who were playing at Wolsingham Constitutional Club. The event was a charity night benefit for The Brain Tumour Charity, organised by Carl’s Crusaders https://www.justgiving.com/teams/carlscrusaders
There was a raffle, a charity auction, and we all got to play “Irish Bingo”. The band played a selection of pop and soul classics which went down well with the audience. A good time was had by everyone, and over £5,000 was raised for an excellent cause.
12 Jul
Ben Folds with Royal Northern Sinfonia The Sage Gateshead 11th July 2014
Ben Folds with Royal Northern Sinfonia The Sage Gateshead 11 July 2014
This concert was part of Ben Folds’ 2014 global orchestral tour. Billed as “The Ben Folds Orchestral Experience,” it features his new classical piano concerto as well as a selection of his pop hits arranged for orchestral performances. Folds was the front man of Ben Folds Five before going on to have a successful solo career. Laura is a big fan, and Ben was on her list of people she has never seen, so off we went to his concert at the Sage last night. Fold’s music has somehow passed me by, so I went along with out of curiosity and looked forward to experiencing his songs for the first time. He was accompanied by the Royal Northern Sinfonia for the Sage concert; it seems he picks up “local” orchestras for each segment of the tour. The Royal Northern Sinfonia played with Ben for three nights, at Bristol Colston Hall, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, and at last night’s concert at the Sage.
I always seem to want to compare acts with those I am more familiar with, and I found this quite tricky to do in the case of Ben Folds. He has his own style, although I could sometimes hear influences from perhaps early Elton John, Billy Joel, Jimmy Webb, and American pop: The Monkees, The Lovin’ Spoonful. He is certainly a very talented and accomplished singer-songwriter. Ben was seated centre-stage at his grand piano, surrounded by the orchestra. He started with a few of his songs, which had been reworked for the orchestral accompaniment. He then played his new Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, which, he explained, he had recently been commissioned to write for a ballet. Now I’m not that used to attending classical concerts, but I really enjoyed this piece, which ran at around 25 minutes. One more song and there was a short interval.
Laura and I are were sitting in the upper level, looking down on the right of the stage, and the sound wasn’t too good there, so we moved to some empty seats up the back of the hall for the second part of the concert, and the sound quality was much better. The highlight of the second part of the evening was a completely new, improvised on the spot, piece. It was fascinating to watch the music develop in front of us, in real-time, Ben playing each part of the orchestra their parts on the piano, before they all played together. The piece featured Ben singing the lyrics (but not the tune) of the Kinks’ Sunny Afternoon, a copy of which a member of the troupe had apparently found in the restaurant. He explained that this follows similar, but also unique, improvisations in Bristol (a song about the Colston toilets) and Manchester (where the lyrics where the fire drill instructions). Pretty neat or what?! 🙂 
In another touching moment Folds led us phone to the mike so that he could play us his 14 year old daughter’s new song, which was really good (we all promised not to tell her).
Ben Folds is a big supporter of orchestras, and encouraged us all to support our local musicians. As we left the hall, we were handed a flyer promoting upcoming concerts by the Royal Northern Sinfonia playing Beethoven’s Six “Pastoral”, which included a message from Folds: “It’s long as shit, so if you haven’t heard classical music before you need to have patience you’re going to hear something that was probably as revolutionary as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. It was written in 1825 and by that point a lot of Beethoven’s peers just viewed him as, well, some deaf gut who’s kind of losing his shit, you know, he’s meandering. he’s rambling. But he was like Lil’ Wayne here, he was building the beat. If you lie with your head between the speakers, if you have the patience, make yourself into a trapped audience, you will realise that this guy was sick, you know. He must have torn his hair out to get here. Its insane”. Indeed.
An interesting artist, and an excellent concert.
Setlist was something like this: Effington; Smoke; Jesusland; Picture Window; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Steven’s Last Night in Town. Interval. Zak and Sara; Landed; Fred Jones, Parts 1 & 2; Gracie; Not the Same; Sunny Afternoon (Orchestra Improvisation using the Kinks’ lyrics); Brick; One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces. Encore: The Luckiest. Encore 2: Kate; Rockin’ the Suburbs
11 Jul
The Olympic Torch Concert: Rod Stewart with Ronnie Wood in The Mall London 26th June 2004
The Olympic Torch Concert The Mall London 26th June 2004
Tickets were given away free, through a ballot, for this concert to mark the arrival of the Olympic Torch in London in 2004. The publicity at the time announced: “As the Olympics draw closer, London will host the Olympic Torch Relay and we have tickets to give away for the Olympic Torch Concert. It will be a landmark event for London and the UK as the torch is carried though 11 London boroughs on Saturday, 26 June. The Mall, for the first time, will become a gigantic open-air venue for 70,000 people, linking sport and music. Rock legend Rod Stewart will headline with James Brown and many other music stars such as Jamelia and Emma Bunton will also be performing in celebration of the Olympic flame coming to London” (BBC, 2004). David Campbell, chief executive of Visit London, said: “We are enormously proud to be associated with the Olympic flame’s visit to London, and are delighted at the support we have been given by all the artists for what will be a spectacular concert and day of entertainment. Visit London wanted to stage an event that encompassed the ethos of the Olympic ideal, bringing it to the people in one of the world’s most famous capital cities. We are confident that the Olympic Torch Concert and all the events on 26 June will do just that.” This was the first time the Olympic torch had come to Britain since 1948.
The full line-up of the concert was: Rod Stewart, Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne, James Brown, Will Young, Emma Bunton, Beverley Knight, Jamelia, McFly, Rachel Stevens, Razorlight. 
Marie and I were lucky enough to score a couple of tickets in the ballot so we went to London for the weekend for this special event. We arrived early, but the place was completely packed, with the stage right down the bottom of The Mall. It was impossible to get anywhere near the stage, but video screens had bee erected along the length of The Mall to show the concert and the progress of the Olympic torch as it was carried through London boroughs by 140 torchbearers. Sir Roger Bannister, 75 at the time, and the first man to break the four-minute mile in 1954, started the relay and brought it to a close by running up the centre of The Mall onto the stage. Highlights of the concert were Ozzy and Kelly singing “Changes”, James Brown and Will Young dueting on “Papa’s got a brand new bag” and Rod Stewart’s short three song set, which featured the cast from “Tonight’s The Night” (a big West End success at the time) on “Sailing” and “Rhythm of my heart”. But more importantly the concert also featured Rod with his old Faces mate Ronnie Wood on guitar for “Stay With Me”. You can see it below on YouTube. We are right at the back of the crowd watching a screen 😦 We probably would have had a better view watching it on TV, but the atmosphere in London was great 🙂 .
Rod’s performance with Ronnie Wood made the day, and the trip to London, worthwhile for me. It was great to see the two of them performing together again, even it was only for a few moments, and it brought back many happy memories.
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