Linda Lewis Sunderland Empire 1975
Support from Labi Siffre
Linda Lewis worked incredibly hard in the first half of the 70s. It seemed that everywhere I went, I would saw her perform. One of the first occasions I became aware of her was when this chirpy, cheeky but obviously nervous young lady took to the stage to sing and strum her songs early one day at the 1972 Reading Festival. She then popped up as the opening act on a number of concert tours of major artists of the time. I recall seeing her open for Cat Stevens, and Elton John, and there were certainly others. And she also took to the stage of the 1975 Knebworth Festival, sharing the bill with Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart, Roy Harper and Steve Miller (and of course DJ John Peel).
Linda always came over as a genuine person. She would chat with the audience, and had an engaging, chirpy and bubbly personality. Her songs were a mix of folk, pop and R&B; as a result she was quite difficult to categorise. As the 1975 tour programme explains: “Tonight, ladies and gentlemen you have the pleasure of viewing one of the great contradictions of our time; Linda Lewis. Sounds like a bit of a cheek? When Linda greets you on stage or in person there is an immediate air of warmth, good will and earthy sensitivity. Between those occaional high pitched giggles, there is an outspoken artist who is very much her own woman.The contradiction lies with us her audience. Look around you tonight and you’ll see the kind of melting pot that Linda attracts as her fans. 
There are those who welcome sweet singing Linda, wrapped in delicate shawls, long skins and singing the misty lyrics of her early days. To the younger ones, Linda is the chirpy voice on the Spangles ad and the crooner of ‘Rock A Doodle Doo’. Late nighters have been swayed by her sensuous jazz influenced sets down at Ronnie Scott’s Club twice this year. And across the ocean, her old tim€e soul singing on ‘It’s In His Kiss’ probably has them envisioning her as the British Gloria Gaynor. Giving credit where it is due for diversity, it’s not everyone who has shared the stage with Elton John and The Staple Singers, Ritchie Havens, Jim Webb, Family plus tackled the Knebworth festival.”
By 1975, Linda was out on her own headline tour. My friends and I caught the tour when it called at Sunderland Empire in October 1975. She was promoting her fourth album “Not a Little Girl Anymore” which featured quite a racy photo of Linda on the cover. She had already hit the UK singles chart in 1973 with “Rock-a-Doodle-Doo” which reached No 15; produced by her husband Jim Cregan, of Family and Cockney Rebel. Linda hit the chart again in 1975 with her cover of “It’s in His Kiss”, which reached No 6 and was later covered by Cher. Her set consisted of some of her own songs, and a few covers, including a great version of John Martyn’s “May You Never”. Support act Labi Siffre had seen chart success himself with “It Must Be Love” (No. 14, 1971, and later covered by Madness) and “Crying Laughing Loving Lying” (No. 11, 1972). This was a pleasant evening with two great, and often under-rated, British singer-songwriters.
I lost touch with Linda Lewis as the 70s came to close. I remember seeing Labi one more time, at a Friday night gig at Newcastle Poly Students Union. Its time for me to look for copies of Linda Lewis’ early lps and catch up with her work again.
Posts Tagged ‘gigs’
1 Sep
Linda Lewis Sunderland Empire 1975
30 Aug
Kiss Newcastle City Hall 1983 and 1984
Kiss Newcastle City Hall 1983 and 1984
The next time I saw Kiss they had abandoned their trademark make-up and had plucked up the courage to appear before us all unmasked! (shock horror). What would these guys look like without the scary face paint? Well actually, they looked ok, and in some ways not too different from their onstage personas. Their new look was displayed to the world on the cover of the Lick It Up album, which was released in 1983. Their 1983 UK tour brought them to Newcastle City Hall and I went along with my mate Dave. Although the guys had gone (semi) straight in terms of their facial appearance, the show was almost as outrageous as ever. See the tank that appears on the front cover of the programme? 
Well that tank appeared on stage with KISS on the tour. From the KissFans site: “The stage was still a tank, and the “turret” moved… but there were hardly any pyrotechnics at all! KISS played in some very small venues and the gun had to be shortened for some shows… otherwise it would cut the stage in two!! Not every effect had been kicked out of the show however! The band would still end up on the “gun turret” and the turret would still turn from side to side, puffing smoke. Support for the 1983 concert were Heavy Pettin’, a metal band from Glasgow. KISS were soon back at the City Hall, playing two nights at the venue in 1984. This time the support was exciting in that it was Bon Jovi, who were up and coming and were touring in support of their debut album. 
This time we had seats right down the front, and came away almost deaf! 🙂 KISS were a shit hot rock band in the early 80s, with or without the make-up and the pyrotechnics. For this show, the UK dates had a scaled down version of the US stage show. Two ramps, allowed the band to walk from the top of the amplifiers to the stage. The drum riser was covered with black “fur”, while the ramps were painted like zebra fur. 
I remember feeling the poor cousins because we never seemed to get the full US KISS experience, I guess because of the logistics of taking their massive show around the world, and also because of the relatively small size of the venues which KISS were playing in this country, and in the rest of Europe. But, hey, it was still a great show and lots of fun. Setlist 1984: Creatures of the Night; Detroit Rock City; Cold Gin; Fits Like a Glove; Firehouse; Exciter; Gimme More; War Machine; I Love It Loud; I Still Love You; Young and Wasted; Love Gun; Black Diamond; Lick It Up; Rock and Roll All Nite
29 Aug
Kiss Alive! Birmingham Odeon May 1976
Kiss Alive! Birmingham Odeon May 1976
We’d read all about the weird world of KISS and their outrageous US stage show in the music papers, so when we saw that they were touring the UK we just had to go along. This was their first UK visit and it was a pretty short one too, consisting of four shows in three theatre venues (one night at Manchester Free Trade Hall, one at Birmingham Odeon and two at Hammersmith Odeon). I drove down with a group of mates to the Birmingham Odeon show. Support came from my old favourites Stray, with Del Bromham wearing his silver mirror suit. Stray were touring to promote the Houdini album. I remember not recognising many of the songs, as most were from their new album, although I think they finished with the old stage favourite All In Your Mind. 
Kiss were touring off the back of their Alive! double album and their set was built around that. They came over as a hot rock n roll band, complete with the crazy over the top make-up. I remember us staring in awe of their massive stacks, although I suspect the show we saw wasn’t anywhere near the scale of their massive US stage show, because of the limitations of the venue. And they had rocket firing guitars, Gene Simmons spitting blood and breathing fire; Ace Frehley’s guitar bursting into flames; Peter Criss’ elevating drum riser; Paul Stanley’s heavy posing, and various other pyrotechnics throughout the show. We were all very impressed, although we also thought that they didn’t quite live up to the hype we had read. The programme declares: “The KISS experience. KISS is total sensuality. Thundering rock, intense vibration, and soaring freedom. Penetrating energy and exploding emotion stimulate every nerve to unequalled heights”. Pretty impressive stuff, eh? The volume wasn’t LOUD enough and the sound mix wasn’t perfect, but it was great to see this seminal live act at such an important point in their career. 
We ran into an old friend who was studying at Nottingham at the time, and gave him a lift home on our way back, which meant that we final got home in the early hours of the morning, as dawn was breaking. The things you do for rock n roll. Setlist: Deuce; Strutter; Flaming Youth; Hotter Than Hell; Firehouse (Gene spitting fire); She(Ace guitar solo); Nothin’ to Lose; Shout It Out Loud; 100,000 Years (Peter Criss drum solo); Black Diamond. Encore: Detroit Rock City; Rock and Roll All Nite; Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll. Wish I’d joined the KISS army! 🙂 (see page from programme to right)
28 Aug
King Newcastle City Hall 1985
King Newcastle City Hall 1985
The Steps in Time tour
Big hair, Big colourful boots (and clothes) and a catchy hit song Love and Pride. That about sums up my memories of the band King. This was a band that quickly appeared from nowhere (it seemed), hit major success, and then they seemed to disappear just as quickly. Singer and front man Paul King developed a look which was described by his local newspaper the Coventry Telegraph as “like the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. But, hell, the girls loved him”. Paul King reappeared as a VJ on MTV and was on the TV quite a bit at the time. I recall the gig being good fun, although I also recall feeling a little out of place among loads of teenage girls screaming at Paul. And I was right down the front in the thick of it. The music was a mix of pop, dance and new wave. The ticket says the show also featured Special Guests, but I don’t recall who they were. 
From promo material of the time: “KING’s music makes use of many diverse and disparate influences – and they’re brought together with a heady power that puts “Love & Pride” right up there among the contenders. It’s not easy to describe their music – except to say that it’s a great danceable track that should work well with practically everybody. It’s got a really good and original feel and some excellent hooks that take no time at all in imprinting themselves on the brain – so provided you give it the plays it deserves – and it deserves a lot – KING could well have a massive debut hit. It’s been a long time since there was a band as original as KING with a song as good as “Love & Pride” – well now they’ve arrived and it could well signal the start of something big (and booted).”
27 Aug
Great British R&B Festival Colne August 26th 2013. Chris Farlowe, Climax Blues Band, The Pretty Things, and Wilko Johnson
Great British R&B Festival Colne August 26th 2013. Chris Farlowe, Climax Blues Band, The Pretty Things, and Wilko Johnson
Marie and I spent the bank holiday Monday afternoon at the Great British R&B Festival, which is held each year in Colne, Lancashire. Yesterday afternoon’s line-up was particularly strong, featuring Chris Farlowe, Climax Blues Band, The Pretty Things, and Wilko Johnson on the International Stage which is in the Municipal Hall on the main street.
The Norman Beaker Band opened the proceedings at 2pm. Or rather the proceedings were actually opened by the crazy compare, wearing a fluorescent suit and hat. The guy did a great job on introducing the bands, changing his suit and hat throughout the day, getting more and emore outrageous as the day went on. Norman and the guys played a couple of songs before they were joined by Chris Farlowe. It’s a few years since I saw Chris. His voice was as soulful as ever, and the years haven’t diminished his energy or style. They played a set of favourites including Stormy Monday Blues; Tough on you, Tough on me; The Small Faces’ hit All or Nothing, and Handbags and Gladrags. They closed with (of course) his big hit Out of Time. The guy remains a master of R&B. Pure class and a great way to start the day.
Next up was The Climax Blues Band. Now if its a few years since I saw Chris, it’s even longer since I saw these guys in concert. In fact I think the last time I saw them was probably I the mid 70s. The line-up has changed many times over the years, with no-one remaining from the early days of the band. The current band continues the Climax traditional of recreating an authentic Chicago blues sound. We slipped out for something to eat,but got back in time to catch the end of their set, including their hit single Couldn’t Get It Right. 
The Pretty Things are a big favourite of mine, and they never let me down. The current line-up of the band features originals Phil May on vocals, tambourine and maracas, and Dick Taylor on guitar, along with long standing Pretty Frank Holland on guitar and mouth organ. They started the set with a couple of old R&B tunes, and the classic Cries From the Midnight Circus. Phil then explained that, although it was a blues festival, they had to play something from their classic album S F Sorrow. So next up was S F Sorrow is Born and She Says Good Morning. The three front men then switched to acoustic mode to sing a couple of old blues: Come on in my Kitchen, and Little Red Rooster, featuring some excellent slide guitar from Dick, growling vocals from Phil and great blues harp courtesy of Frank. These guy know how to sing the blues, and they just held the place spellbound. Then it was back to their old rock roots for Mona, and Midnight to Six Man. Great stuff. The Pretty Things were swiftly followed by the great Wilko Johnson. Wilko’s situation has been well documented, and his recent appearances have apparently all been joyous celebrations of his music and legend. Thankfully Wilko is still able to play and, in his own words: ‘It seems that I am still being spared the final onslaught of my terminal cancer. As the memory of the Farewell Tour recedes I am feeling again the desire to get up on stage and do my thing while health allows – so it is that I have decided to make some festival appearances during during the summer’. 
He had asked specially to play at the festival, having done so several times in the past, and everyone present yesterday was delighted to see him. First Wilko was presented with an award for British Blues legend, he then started his set with the Feelgood’s song All Through the City, and also included the Feelgood classics Going Back Home, Roxette, Back in the Night and She Does It Right. The crowd clearly love the guy, and it was a very emotional show, with Wilko strutting his stuff back and forth across the stage, chopping away at his telecaster with those familiar riffs. Its many years since I’ve seen Wilko in concert and I felt privileged to have the opportunity to do so once more. I must also mention Norman Watt-Roy whose bass playing was simply stunning. Again, its many years since I’ve seen Norman perform, probably since I he was with Ian Drury and the Blockheads. The encore was a very emotional Bye Bye Johnny, with everyone waving Bye Bye to Wilko. The crowd were on their feet for a full 5 or 10 minutes after he finished, giving him a real standing ovation. Strong stuff.
We left after Wilko’s set, and drove back up north to pick Laura up and then return home.
26 Aug
Nik Kershaw Newcastle City Hall 1984
Nik Kershaw Newcastle City Hall 1984
Nik Kershaw was very busy in 1984. He released two albums, Human Racing and The Riddle and had five hit singles: I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Human Racing, Wouldn’t It Be Good, Dancing Girls, and The Riddle. I saw him at the massive Elton John show at Wembley stadium that summer, and on his winter tour, when he called at Newcastle City Hall. His backing band (who even had their own billing on the ticket!) were known as The Krew, and consisted of local lad, and old friend, Keith Airey on guitar, along with Tim Moore, Mark Price, and Dennis Smith. The tour was to promote The Riddle which is quite a strangely structured, but also very catchy song, which was a great favourite of mine at the time, and remains so to this day. 
I remember the place being packed and big singalongs for Wouldn’t it be Good and The Riddle :). Support act for the tour was Scary Thieves. I’m afraid I have no recollection at all of them! Wiki reports: Scary Thieves were a short-lived English 1980s New Wave band, best known for their 1984 hit “Tell Me Girl” and their 1985 hit “The Waiting Game”.
“Near a tree by a river, There’s a hole in the ground, Where an old man of Aran, Goes around and around, And his mind is a beacon, In the veil of the night, For a strange kind of fashion, There’s a wrong and a right, But he’ll never, never fight over you” (The Riddle, Nik Kershaw, 1984).
25 Aug
Kylie The Fever tour Newcastle Arena 2002
Kylie The Fever tour Newcastle Arena 2002
Laura quite fancied seeing Kylie Minogue in concert, and I had “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” running around and around in my head. So off we went to Newcastle Arena for the first of two nights that the Fever tour played there. The Fever tour was Kylie’s biggest production to date, using multiple stage sets and costume changes. The tour programme was a rather plush affair with a glossy cover and it came in its own silver bag (see below), quite similar to the Madonna programme from a year or two earlier. The show was very disco and dance oriented, and was split into seven acts: ‘Silvanemesis’, ‘Droogie Nights’, ‘The Crying Game’, ‘Streetstyle’, ‘Sex In Venice’, ‘Cybertronica’ and ‘Voodoo Inferno’, and an encore, and is recorded for posterity on a DVD, which was filmed at Manchester Arena.
Act 1: Silvanemsis started the show with an excerpt of The Sound of Music. Kyle appeared out of the floor wearing a metallic suit. She then sang Come Into My World, with dancers coming down from the ceiling. Surrounded by the dancers, she sand Shocked, and then Love At First Sight, with the title track Fever ending the first act. Act 2: Droogie Nights was clearly influenced by A Clockwork Orange, starting with Ode to Joy from the film, and Kylie dressed in an outfit clearly inspired by the 1971 film A Clockwork Orange, singing Spinning Around. 
Act 3: The Crying Game used the great Dave Berry hit The Crying Game to sandwich a number of Kylie songs: Where Is The Feeling?, Put Yourself in My Place, Finer Feelings, Dangerous Game and back to The Crying Game. Kylie was wearing a black gown with a long trail. Act 4: Streetstyle started with a dance interlude. Kylie then appeared as a police women to sing Confide In Me, Cowboy Style (including excerpts from The Real Slim Shady, Double Dutch, Double Dutch Bus and Buffalo Gals), and Kids. Act 5: Sex in Venice saw Kylie wearing a frilly mini-skirt to sing On A Night Like This, a swing version of Locomotion, with male dancers in fish-nets and stilettos. The act ended with a medley of In Your Eyes, Please Stay, Rhythm Of The Night in Latin style. Act 6: Cybertronica started with dancers performing a tap dance and batting with light sabres. Kylie then appeared dressed in a tank top and white shorts, and sang Limbo, Light Years, and I Should Be So Lucky. The final act, Act 7: Voodoo Inferno featured lots of fire, dancers with red mohican haircuts and Kylie singing Burning Up, and Better the Devil You Know. The encore was (of course) Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.
A very spectacular show, which Laura and I both enjoyed.
24 Aug
Kris Kristofferson Edinburgh Playhouse 2007
Kris Kristofferson Edinburgh Playhouse 2007
Kris Kristofferson is a truly great singer songwriter. Marie and I went to see him in solo acoustic concert at Edinburgh Playhouse around 6 years ago. The guy just stood, a solitary figure, alone on the stage with his acostic guitar and sang those great, simply, country songs. You forget how many classics he has written, and I was surprised how many I recognised. Me and Bobby McGee is of course my favourite. I could listen to him sing it all night. But then there was Help Me Make It Through the Night, and For the Good Times. And you know when he sings Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, he is singing of his own hard times and his experiences with the demon alcohol. The guy is a legend and sings straight to you, straight from the heart. I can’t help compare him with his contemporaries Dylan and Willie Nelson. Those guys have bands and a big show. Kris is at the other end of the spectrum. Stripped down, just an old guy with his guitar, singing his songs with a level of authenticity and honesty which can captivate an entire concert hall. I once saw Pete Seeger do a similar thing in front of 2000 people with just his songs and a banjo. A different context I know, but there’s something about a man with a bunch of good songs. Untouchable.
Typical setlist: Shipwrecked in the Eighties; Darby’s Castle; Me and Bobby McGee; Here Comes That Rainbow Again; The Best of All Possible Worlds; Help Me Make It Through the Night; Casey’s Last Ride; Nobody Wins;Stranger; Enough for You; Billy Dee; From Here to Forever; Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again); Jesus Was a Capricorn; Come Sundown; The Heart; Just the Other Side of Nowhere; Jody and the Kid;The Pilgrim, Chapter 33; To Beat the Devil; The Promise; Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down; The Silver Tongued Devil and I; For the Good Times. Encore: Thank You for a Life; Moment of Forever; Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends; Why Me
23 Aug
Brian Eno Movements Edinburgh International Festival 23 Aug 2013
Brian Eno Movements Edinburgh International Festival 23 Aug
National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Friday, 2.30pm
As part of the Edinburgh International Festival Movements is a series of talks and events, presented in association with National Museums Scotland, exploring how artists have kept pace with technology over the centuries and how technology in turn influences artists. “An afternoon in conversation with influential, ex-Roxy Music synth player Brian Eno, as he shares his thoughts on the future of music and music production.Music since recording is a new art form, which bears only as much resemblance to traditional, performed music as cinema does to theatre. What are the special characteristics of this new art? How did it evolve? Where might it be going? Brian Eno shares his thoughts.”
Laura and I had a pleasant train journey up to Edinburgh, arriving at Waverley station shortly after noon. The weather was fine for this, our third visit to Scotland in last couple of weeks, and our second to the Edinburgh festival. We were both looking forward to hearing Brian Eno speak. He is a hugely influential figure in popular music, and we figured that it would be interesting to hear his views. I haven’t seen him in any live context since the 70s and his days with Roxy Music, and a performance with Phil Manzanera and the 801 band at the Reading festival.
The venue for Eno’s lecture was the National Museum of Scotland, which is a grand building just off the Royal Mile and a short walk from the station. We had a sandwich lunch at a cafe on Bristol Square before taking our seats in the lecture theatre. The chance of hearing Brian Eno speak does not come vey often, and the event had been sold out or some weeks. At 2.30pm prompt Eno entered the hall to a round of applause. He stood at a desk strewn with visuals, which he displayed on an overhead projector.
He explained that his talk was to centre around the two concepts of “the composer” and “the audience”, how these have developed over time and continue to develop, and how music sits between the two and “sometimes brings them together”. 
He then took us the through the history of the composer, starting back when music was there simply to enable dance, or as a way of creating noise which would frighten away big cats who had come to prey on ancient man. This progressed to a discussion of early recording media, and how the advent of multitrack enabled music to become an entity in its own right, a piece of aural painting or sculpture, separate from the performance, and existing not in a score, but in the record itself. He used the recording techniques of Les Paul and Mary Ford, Phil Sector and George Martin as illustrations of this, showing visuals to support his point.
Eno then turned to the subject of the audience, making a distinction between the formal, regimented, and structured way in which an audience of a classical recital behaves, and that of a rock concert, where the audience and the performer come together, sometimes literally, showing a picture of Iggy Pop standing on top of his crowd. He explained how he wanted to use technology to create aural soundscapes, as he has done in his pioneering work on ambient music.
The lecture finished with a short discussion of where music lies now, being created and layered from the recordings of our past, drawing an analogy with the techniques of the animator in film. Time was short, and the lecture was strictly constrained to one hour, which soon passed, with our speaker finishing with a couple of questions from the audience, and a few visuals left unused. One guy asked “what do you think of jazz?” and Brian answered that Frank Zappa said that “jazz was the definition of how to be unemployed”.
It was a very interesting and engaging lecture, which passed all too quickly. it was fascinating to hear Eno’s thoughts on music. Well done to the Edinburgh International Festival for including this in their programme.
Laura and I caught the 4.30pm train back to Newcastle; we were home around 7pm.
22 Aug
Kid Creole and the Coconuts Newcastle City Hall 1983 and 1985
Kid Creole and the Coconuts Newcastle City Hall 1983 and 1985
I saw Kid Creole and the Coconuts twice more, on their 1983 and 1985 UK tours. Looking back on this guy and his crazy band, makes me wonder why they weren’t a bigger success. You can see lots of influences in Kid Creole’s show, and it turn, he must have influenced lots of people. There are shades of James Brown, Sly Stone, Prince, and crooners like Frank Sinatra.
From the Kid’s official site: “Kid Creole and the Coconuts were born out of the burning embers of the brilliant and legendary Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band. August Darnell (Kid Creole) claims to have had a vision of the band in a nightmare while walking down Fifth Avenue in New York City. Born in the Bronx, Darnell is a man of multiple cultures, legends and personalities.” 
“For over 27 years Kid Creole and the Coconuts have been entertaining sellout crowds around the world. Inspired by Cab Calloway and the Hollywood films of the 30’s and 40’s, the Kid fills out his colorful zoot suits with style and grace, dancing onstage with his inimitable, relentless and self-proclaimed cool. The Kid is suave, smooth, self-centered and secure. A legend in his own mind. His talent for self-adoration, though, is equally matched by his brilliance as a songwriter, social commentator, and lyricist.” And the guy was an early example of world music, with a multi-racial band, and a fusion of jazz, big band, and south american rhythms. 
Setlist from a show of the period (probably from 1983): Turkey Trot; Going Places; I’m A Wonderful Thing, Baby; Mr. Softee; Loving You Made A Fool Out Of Me; Say Hey! Ain’t You Heard The News; Don’t Take My Coconuts; Annie I’m Not Your Daddy; No Fish Today; Que Pasa; Table Manners; Dear Addy; Stool Pigeon; Gina Gina; Imitation; Maladie D’amour. 
The song I remember most from the 1985 show is Endicott, which was a minor hit in the UK. Like most of the Kid’s songs, this told a story. Endicott was the perfect husband: “Endicott’s up by 5 o’clock, Endicott’s givin’ it all he got, Endicott’s job is six to nine but, Endicott’s home by nine o five, Endicott helps to cook the steak, Endicott helps to wash the plates, Endicott puts the kids to bed, Endicott reads a book to them. And the Kid’s girl would ask “Why cant you be like Endicott?” The Kid’s answer was: “Cause I’m free, Free of any made-to-order liabilities, Thank God I’m free, Cos it’s hard enough for me, to take care of me, oh-oh”. All of this would be played out as part of the show, with one of the Coconuts taking the part of the Kid’s girl. Great, fun stuff.
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