Motorhead 1981 & 1982 Newcastle City Hall and 1984 Newcastle Mayfair
Motorhead continued to be massively popular with rock fans throughout the early 80s, selling out multiple nights at concert halls up and down the country. I saw them live a couple of more times at the City Hall, in 1981 and 1982. Their next album “Iron Fist” was released in 1982 and they toured again to promote it. 
Their shows continued to be a feast of heavy, loud, fast, high energy rock’n’roll, with front man Lemmy always on good form. But things were soon to fall apart. Fast Eddie left the band in 1983, followed shortly by Phil Taylor. 
By the time I saw Motorhead again at Newcastle Mayfair in 1984, the line-up featured Lemmy, Phil “Wizzö” Campbell and Würzel on guitars, and Pete Gill on drums. Campbell remains with the band to this day. 
The new line-up put on a good performance at the Mayfair and I enjoyed the gig. But things were not quite the same. It was 26 years until I saw Motorhead again, at the City Hall in 2010. I blogged about that gig at the time. t was great to see them again, and in many ways nothing had changed. Lemmy came on stage and told us: “We are Motorhead and we play Rock and Roll”. Lemmy: “Is it loud enough?” Crowd: “No!!!”. Lemmy: “Then we’ll turn it up. I don’t f***ing care if you go deaf. I’m f***ing deaf already”. Lemmy hasn’t been too well of late, and their 2013 tour has been postponed until 2014. Hope he’s soon better. It’s characters like him that brighten up rock’n’roll. That concludes my memories of Motorhead; tomorrow I’ll move on to other concert memories.
Posts Tagged ‘heavy metal’
21 Nov
Motorhead Live Newcastle Mayfair October 30th 1980 The Ace of Spades !
Motorhead Live Newcastle Mayfair The Ace of Spades !
By 1980 Motorhead had become a massive live attraction, selling out everywhere they played. During the Summer the band headlined “The Over The Top Heavy Metal Brain Damage Party” (great title for a rock concert) at Bingley Hall, Staffordshire. A comic programme, which featured “The Overwhelming Motorhead” in “Rock Commando” was produced especially for (reportedly exclusive) distribution at their Bingley Hall concert. I didn’t attend the gig (at least I don’t think I did, unless perhaps the Heavy Metal Brain Damage really has got to me 🙂 ) but I have a copy of the comic which I must have brought at a later gig, probably at the Mayfair later that year. The comic was written by Klaus Blum with a section from Alan Burridge of Motorheadbangers, and features a great comic strip adventure with our heroes in a futuristic England and France. 
During the Summer of 1980, Motorhead went into the studio again to record the ‘Ace Of Spades’ album, and took it out on tour throughout the UK in the Autumn. This time they called at Newcastle Mayfair, rather than the City Hall. The Mayfair was in fact a much more natural choice of venue for Motorhead. It was a home for heavy rock in the 70s and 80s and their music was much better suited to a packed ballroom. Motorhead filled the Mayfair for two nights that year; 
I attended the gig on Thursday 30th October, which was the second of the two nights. Support came from NWOBHM band Weapon. I remember being right down the front for this gig. It was absolutely deafening and my ears were ringing for days, which seemed to me to be a badge of honour at the time. The tour was entitled “Ace Up Your Sleeve”. The front cover of the tour programme features a similar image of the band to the “Ace of Spades” lp cover, with Lemmy and the gang looking very sharp and cool, dressed as cowboys. The ‘Arizona desert-style’ pictures were apparently actually taken during a photo session at a sandpit in Barnet! “Ace of Spades” is seen as the definitive Motorhead album, and was their biggest album chart success. These guys were at the height of their powers in the late 70s and early 80s, and were an excellent live act who bridged classic heavy rock, punk and the NWOBHM.
20 Nov
Motorhead Newcastle City Hall and Reading 1979
Motorhead Newcastle City Hall 1979
1979 was a busy year for Motorhead. Lemmy and crew released two albums, headlined two UK tours, appeared on Top of the Pops, and played at the Reading Festival. The year started with the release of the “Overkill” album, and a March tour of the UK, with support from Girlschool. I saw the Newcastle City Hall gig, which was a great double bill and both bands put in a rocking performance. Come August, and Motorhead were third on the Friday night bill at Reading, sandwiched between performances by Wilko Johnson and The Tourists. The Friday night was headlined by The Police. Motorhead played well and got a great reception from the crowd. Reading that year had a strange line-up, which tried to mix up-and-coming new wave acts with more established rock bands. This caused a split crowd, and lots of can fights. Motorhead were one of the few bands who both camps were “allowed” to like, and this resulted in their performance being one of the successes of the weekend.
Motorhead released the “Bomber” album later in the year, and toured again to promote it. This time they had another great rock band of the day, Saxon, as support, and they called at Newcastle City Hall in November. The Bomber tour featured a massive “Bomber” plane lighting rig hanging over the band and going through its manoeuvres while they played. Great stuff. Motorhead were really at the top of their game during this period, and just couldn’t be beaten for a loud, fun night out.
A typical setlist from a late 1979 Motorhead gig: Overkill; Stay Clean; No Class; All the Aces; Metropolis; I’ll Be Your Sister; Dead Men Tell No Tales; Keep Us on the Road; Iron Horse/Born to Lose; Stone Dead Forever; Lawman; (I Won’t) Pay Your Price; Poison; Leaving Here; Capricorn; Train Kept A-Rollin’; Bomber. Encore: Limb from Limb; White Line Fever; Motörhead
“Only way to feel the noise is when it’s good and loud, So good I can’t believe it screaming with the crowd, Don’t sweat it, get it back to you, Overkill, Overkill, Overkill…On your feet you feel the beat, it goes straight to your spine, Shake your head you must be dead if it don’t make you fly, Don’t sweat it, get it back to you, Overkill, Overkill, Overkill.” (Overkill, Motorhead, 1979)
19 Nov
Motorhead Live The Marquee London 1975 and Newcastle City Hall 1978
Motorhead Live The Marquee London 1975 and Newcastle City Hall 1978
From day one I was really into the image of Lemmy and Motorhead. The idea of the gun-slinging outsider “louder than anyone else” rock’n’roller appealed to me. I was lucky enough to see the band at one of their first ever gigs, when they played the Marquee Club in London in August 1975. My mate and I were on our way to the Reading Festival, and stopped off in London en route. By chance, Motorhead were playing at the Marquee that night so we went along to see them. Support came from a London band called National Flag, who were quite popular at the time, and were resident band at the Marquee. This was the first Motorhead line-up of Lemmy, ex-Pink Fairies Larry Wallis, and Lucas Fox on drums. Imagine our surprise when we walked into the Marquee club, only to see Lemmy himself playing on the one armed bandit. We had a chat with him, and he advised us on how best to play the bandits. A few years later, I saw Lemmy again in similar circumstances; this time playing a bandit in the bar at Newcastle City Hall. Motorhead were a bit rough that night at the Marquee, but you could see the track that they would be treading. The set consisted of a few new songs, some Pink Fairies (“City Kids” I think), the song “Motorhead” itself, and a couple of classics (“Johnny B Goode”). This initial Motorhead Line-up was short-lived and was soon replaced by the classic grouping of Lemmy on bass and vocals, “Fast Eddie” Clarke on guitar, and drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor. The next time I saw Motorhead it was the classic line-up and they were on their first major headline tour, which called at Newcastle City Hall. 
That was in 1978, and by then the band had released their first eponymous album. Support came from ex-Pink Fairies Duncan Sanderson’s Lightning Raiders (although I am sure that they were announced as “The Deviants” but I don’t think the late great Mick Farren was there?). The programme from that gig tells me that it’s “All About Being Loud” and “Loud Enough? Christ! It’s like being wired to some gigantic vibrator – not a sound – more of a sensation. Pete Sutton, NME.” “Noise is a big part of Motorhead mania, some fans actually stick their heads in the P.A. bins.” I didn’t quite do the latter, but I did stand right next to the P.A. at a gig at the Mayfair (probably the Bomber tour), which might explain something about the current state of my hearing. Motorhead were a breath of fresh air at the time, accepted by the NWOBHM fraternity and by the punks. I found a setlist from Hammersmith 1978 on the internet. I suspect the City Hall concert featured a similar set: Motörhead; Vibrator; Tear Ya Down; Keep Us on the Road; Leaving Here; I’ll Be Your Sister; Lost Johnny; The Watcher; Damage Case; Iron Horse/Born to Lose; No Class; Louie Louie; Limb from Limb; (I Won’t) Pay Your Price; I’m Your Witch Doctor; Train Kept A-Rollin’; City Kids; White Line Fever. I always liked the raw energy and pure rock’n’roll noise produced by this band, and went on to see them several more times over the next few years. I’ll write a little more about them over the next few days.
1 Nov
Mötley Crüe Theatre of Pain tour Newcastle City Hall 1986
Mötley Crüe Theatre of Pain tour Newcastle City Hall 1986
Think big, loud, outrageous, OTT, heavy rock. Think glam, pyrotechnics, Kiss meets The Stooges and you are starting to get it. Mötley Crüe brought the “Theatre of Pain” to Newcastle and just blew us all away 🙂 .
Mötley Crüe are an American heavy metal band who formed in California in 1980. The group was founded by bass guitarist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, who were soon joined by fellow mad compatriots lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil. Mötley Crüe have been described as “the world’s most notorious rock band” (Wikipedia). They are also one of the best-selling groups of all time, having sold 80 million albums (Wow!). I first came across Mötley Crüe when I saw them playing way down the bill at Donington Monsters of Rock in 1984. By 1986 they were touring to support their third album “Theatre of Pain”, and these guys were massive. I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to enjoy their outrageous stage show, but I knew that I just had to go along and see if they were as loud and crazy as I had read. The show was actually great fun, if a little tongue in cheek, and the music wasn’t too bad either.
The stage set was magnificent. Drummer Tommy Lee towered above us all on a drum riser which revolved through 360 degrees (don’t ask me how that worked 🙂 ?!). Guitarist Mick Mars and bassist Nikki Sixx prowled around the stage, both every bit heavy metal rock gods. And singer and total madman Vince Neil sang his heart out. The audience, well Vince told us many times that we were all “MotherF***ers”, and the Newcastle metal crowd didn’t argue with that; they just lapped it up. A night of total over the top madness! Plus these guys did a great version of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter”; check it out on YouTube. I’ve been trying to work out who the support act was that night, and based on what I can find out there, it seems that the great Cheap Trick played on the UK dates. My memory lets me down again, as I have no recollection at all of seeing Cheap Trick that night. I am sure if they had been support I would have gone along early to see them; maybe I did and have forgotten all about it, which is increasingly likely….
Setlist: Looks That Kill; Use It or Lose It; Shout at the Devil; Fight for Your Rights; Home Sweet Home; Red Hot; Keep Your Eye on the Money; Louder Than Hell; Too Young to Fall in Love; Knock ’em Dead, Kid; Live Wire; Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room (Brownsville Station. Great choice for a cover!); Helter Skelter (The Beatles! Another great choice); Jailhouse Rock (Elvis!)
13 Oct
Deep Purple Manchester Apollo Oct 12th 2013
Deep Purple Manchester Apollo Oct 12th 2013
I decided at the last minute to go and see Deep Purple at Manchester Apollo last night. Its a couple of years since I’ve seen them and the nearest calling point of this year’s tour was Manchester. The concert wasn’t sold out, so I bought myself a standing ticket, printed it off on my computer. I was soon on my way down the A1 and across the M62 to Manchester, listening to “In Rock” as I drove down. I arrived just as support band Rockbox took to the stage. The Apollo seemed pretty full, with the stalls packed, and looking upstairs I could see very few empty seats. Rockbox were quite bizarre. They are a five piece; the singer used a loud hailer rather than a mike, and the four other guys were wearing red velvet school uniforms ala Angus Young, complete with devil horns and short trousers. The guitarist wore his amp in a satchel and had a speaker strapped to his belt. Two guys had drums hanging around their necks; one with a bass drum and the other with a snare and a couple of cymbals. And oh, there was also a guy with a huge horn, draped around him; I think it was a sousaphone. A pretty strange line-up and very different from the norm. Their set was all covers including Won’t get fooled again, Sgt Peppers, and Don’t stop me now. They went down well with the crowd, who found it good fun, and knew all the songs. 
I found a spot quite close to the stage, and Deep Purple came on bang at 9pm. They have just released a new CD “Now What?!” which is their 19th album, and their first for 8 years, and the set featured a few tracks from it. In fact, they started with a new song, which surprised me (and disappointed me a little as I was expecting usual opener Highway Star). Not to worry, however, as there were plenty of old classics for me. Each member took a solo during the set, which I usually find tiring, but last night the balance was OK, with each members instrumental piece working well, and not being over long. Favourites for me were (of course) all of the old ones: Strange Kind of Woman, Lazy, Into the Fire, Space Trucking, Smoke on the Water, and the encores Hush and Black Night. Ian Gillan’s voice was quite strong, with the usual screams intact. He is now in the habit of disappearing off stage between verses, presumably to take a rest, and a drink for his throat. They dedicated one of the new songs, Above and Beyond, to Jon Lord. Black Night closed the show at 10.45pm, and was just great. It took me a good 30 mins to get out of the car park; they pack the cars in nose to tail, so you are blocked in and can’t get out until everyone around you arrives at their car. I then got stuck in traffic driving through the city centre. I was home around 1.45am. It was good to see Deep Purple again, particularly in a relatively intimate venue. Just classic. The old ones are still the best. Setlist: Après vous; Into the Fire; Hard Lovin’ Man; Vincent Price; Strange Kind of Woman; Contact Lost (guitar Solo by Steve Morse); Uncommon Man; The Well-Dressed Guitar; The Mule (drum Solo by Ian Paice); Above and Beyond; Lazy; Hell to Pay (keyboard Solo Don Airey); Perfect Strangers; Space Truckin’; Smoke on the Water. Encore: Green Onions (Booker T. & The MG’s); Hush; (bass Solo by Roger Glover); Black Night
31 Aug
Krokus Newcastle City Hall 1980 and 1981
Krokus Newcastle City Hall 1980 and 1981
I saw Krokus al least three times in the early 80s; twice at Newcastle City Hall, and at the Reading festival in 1980. There many be other times that I don’t recall. Krokus were a hard rock/heavy metal band who hailed from Switzerland, and got caught up in the excitement around the resurgence of heavy rock and metal known as the NWOBHM. Their line-up (from the 1981 programme) was Marc Storace on vocals, Fernando Von Arb on lead guitar, Mandy Meyer on second guitar, Chris Von Rohr on bass, and Freddy Steady (great name :)) on drums. Support for the 1981 tour was NWOBHM band More, who were at the time fronted by vocalist Paul Mario Day. Paul had sung in an early incarnation of Iron Maiden, although he was soon to leave More, who then went through several line-up changes.
The 1980 Krokus tour was in support of their Metal Rendez Vous album, while the 1981 tour came at the time of their Hardware album. Typical set list from the day: Come On; No Way; Burning Bones; Rock City; Winning Man; Bedside Radio; Easy Rocker; Heatstrokes; Bye Bye Baby; Mad Racket. Encore: Mr. 69.
The programme tells me:” Krokus – Harder than the Swiss Franc! More than 100,000 copies of Metal Rendezvous were sold as a result of the US tour- How many bands can say that on their first time out?” I recall that Krokus were a pretty loud and solid rock band, but I can’t say that I could hum any of their songs. I also remember that they wore lots of leather gear, but then which band didn’t at the time.
Well thats me finished with the letter K. Tomorrow I’ll make a start on covering bands and artists beginning with the letter L. I guess I’m around the half way mark of my task.
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)
18 Jun
Judas Priest Newcastle Arena 2005
Judas Priest Newcastle Arena 2005
The Angel Of Retribution tour
After a (too long) gap of over 20 years since I last saw Judas Priest in concert, I decided it was about time to see them again. In between that time Rob Halford has left and rejoined the band, so this 2005 outing was a sort of reunion tour. I went along with a group of mates, all of whom were seriously into Priest, and David came along for the ride. The Arena was by no means full, but the crowd size was respectable; Newcastle was always a metal stronghold and many people still had a soft spot for this band. The stage set was quite spectacular, and the show started with Rob Halford being hoisted down onto the stage to join the rest of the band. The show featured lots of Halford costume changes, and (of course) towards the end of the set Rob rode on stage wearing a huge leather coat, riding his Harley Davidson. This was pure heavy metal (and very tongue in cheek) theatre, and although the sound and atmosphere at the arena can never touch that of the City Hall, the spectacle and scale of the show certainly made up for it. 
Special guest for the tour were The Scorpions, another band who I hadn’t seen for a long time. My favourite Scorpions song has always been Loving You Sunday Morning, which they played that night. Judas Priest setlist: Electric Eye; Metal Gods; Riding on the Wind; The Ripper; A Touch of Evil; Judas Rising; Revolution; Hot Rockin’; Breaking the Law; I’m a Rocker; Diamonds & Rust; Deal With the Devil; Beyond the Realms of Death; Turbo Lover; Hellrider; Victim of Changes; The Green Manalishi; Painkiller; Hell Bent for Leather; Living After Midnight; You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’. It was great to hear old favourites like The Ripper and Victim of Changes again, and the Priest remained as impressive as ever live. David isn’t into heavy metal at all, and found it all a little too over the top.
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