Humble Pie July 6th 1974 Buxton Festival
I’ve already blogged about this festival in a separate post some time ago. The Buxton festival came only a couple of months after Humble Pie’s appearance at Charlton, and they were one of the main reasons that both John and I went to this festival. The festival itself was in an awful location, and it was cold and wet, but Humble Pie played a great set and livened up the proceedings as much as it was possible to do, given the grim environment. The setlist is likely to have been similar to Charlton. A DVD, taken from 8mm film, is available on Amazon and includes footage of Charlton and Buxton; now that might be worth getting, although I suspect it does not feature any sound. I said yesterday that I would write a little abut the Blackberries, who were Carlena Williams, Venetta Fields, and Billie Barnum. The Blackberries were top notch session soul/gospel singers and it was Steve Marriott’s idea to get them into the band for recording and live concerts. In Steve’s own words: “Working with the Blackberries was great. I thought it was the best period of the band. I was almost a bit overwhelmed by them at times, because they were so good. I really dug it, because I was always into black music”. Although today it may seem a relatively obvious move for a band whose roots lay in blues and soul, it was actually pretty groundbreaking for the time, and not something that management and the rest of the band necessarily fully agreed with, at least at first. Jerry Shirley said “A&M and the Management Company thought it was the wrong thing to do, from the beginning” and in the words of Greg Ridley “I was a bit dubious at the time. I liked the music with a hard edge to it, and I was thinking ‘what are the girls gonna do. Are they gonna add or subtract from the band?’ But when they came in they were great. Great singers and a great laugh”. Steve had in his mind moving from a more traditional rock format to something resembling a soul revue, and you could see that in those great Humble Pie shows on 1974. I recall their Buxton set as being strong, and for some reason I seem to recall the Blackberries coming even more to the fore than they did at Charlton a couple of months earlier. It certainly changed the format of the show, and succeeded in blending rock with soul to a much great degree. I saw the Johnny Otis show, which featured Shuggie Otis, and a massive band and singers at Reading in 1972, and I guess this was something like the kind of show that Steve was aiming to create, although much closer to the sort of soul revue that Otis Redding or Ike and Tina Turner will have fronted in the 60s. As I said above, it was very different and refreshing for its time, and didn’t go down well with everyone, some people preferring a much more standard rock format. I found the following setlist for Buxton 74, which seems a little short, but could be correct as the songs were often quite long, including significant jamming: Watcha Gonna Do About It, 30 Days in the Hole; C’Mon Everybody; Thunderbox; Let Me Be Your Lovemaker; I Don’t Need No Doctor
Posts Tagged ‘heavy rock’
4 Mar
Humble Pie mid 1974 Buxton Festival
3 Mar
Humble Pie 1973 and early 1974
Hardrock and Charlton 
My next Humble Pie experience was at the Who’s Charlton concert in 1974. John saw them in October 1973 at Hardrock Manchester, as part of a short UK tour which didn’t call in at the North East. Support for the tour was Heavy Metal Kids. John’s uncle lived in Stretford, and he went by train to Manchester for this show and stayed with my uncle. In John’s own words: “My ticket was row AA so I assumed it would be about 27 rows back but it was actually the second row – very exciting. I think I had seen the Heavy Metal Kids a couple of times as they supported a lot of bands at that time. This was of course one of the names proposed by Island Records for Free, which thankfully they rejected.The band featured Gary Holton on vocals who was a loud, brash cockney kid who went on to a successful acting career in Auf Weidersehen Pet.They were a decent band band and got the crowd warmed up. Humble Pie had released the Eat It album and were touring with the Blackberries. The setlist was heavily drawn from that album and the earlier Smokin and featured Up Our Sleeve, Honkey Tonk Women, C’mon Everybody, Road Runner, Hot n Nasty, 30 Days in the Hole, Hallelujah (I love her so), I Don’t Need No Doctor and a couple of slower ones Blues I Believe to my Soul and Black Coffee which heavily featured the Blackberries.”
Moving forward to May 18th 1974 and John, myself, and another friend Pete went to Charlton Valley football ground for a stellar one day festival line-up which featured The Who, Bad Company, Lou Reed, Maggie Bell, Lindisfarne and Montrose. I’ll blog separately on the whole day and the Who’s set on another occasion, as it was a great and memorable day for a number of reasons and warrants full treatment on its own. Suffice to say it was a legendary concert, and a great set by the Who, and Humble Pie were a very important part of the day. John rates it thus: “For me the greatest outdoor show I have seen in my life with a stellar line up of bands. Humble Pie came on after Lou Reed with Maggie Bell following them before the Who. Pundits saw that it was a close call between Humble Pie and the Who but, despite my bias, I think the Who won it with a great set and their spectacular green laser light show.” Humble Pie opened with a “Ere, get a load of this” from Steve and launched into the Small Faces classic Whatcha Gonna Do About It. The crowd went wild and Pie kept the energy level up for their entire set. Steve had his hair cut short for the show and was wearing a nifty set of denim dungarees. He really wasn’t the archetypal rock and roll guy and retained his pop/soul sensibilities, almost to a fault, and was constantly driving the band heavily in this direction, thus the inclusion of soul singers the Blackberries. I’ll blog more about the Blackberries role in the band tomorrow. The setlist is likely to have included some of the following: Whatcha Gonna Do About It; Thunderbox; Sweet Peace and Time; Let Me Be Your Lovemaker; C’Mon Everybody; 30 Days in the Hole; Road Runner, Hot N Nasty, 30 Days in the Hole, Black Coffee, and I Don’t Need No Doctor; and possibly I Cant Stand the Rain and Ninety Nine Pounds. I’ve searched the internet and can’t find any record of a setlist anywhere, and it seems that no live recordings of the Pie’s set exist from that great day, which is a shame.
On the Eat It album there is a live side which begins with Up Our Sleeve, recorded in Glasgow and the band are introduced as “Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome the finest rock and roll band in the land”. Perhaps slightly over the top and clearly a swipe at the Rolling Stones, with the word “greatest” replaced by “finest” but for a brief period they were right up there. Just a fantastic live band. Thanks again to John for the scan of his signed album, and for helping me write these blog posts on Humble Pie.
2 Mar
Humble Pie early years and live 1972
Humble Pie early years and live at the Lincoln Festival and Newcastle Odeon 1972 
Humble Pie are one of my friend John’s favourite bands. He has helped me a lot with my memories of that band in concert, and with writing the blogs on the Pie over the next few days. We both remember just how great a front man Steve Marriott was, and how powerful a force Humble Pie live were in the early to mid 70s.
Formed in 1969 with Marriott, Frampton and Ridley having significant pedigrees (Jerry Shirley being a kid who got the gig after befriending Steve Marriott when they supported the Small Faces), the name, coined by Steve Marriot ,was a push back of the “Supergroup” moniker which was common at the time and had been applied to them. Their first two albums were almost soft-rock, and quite different to the soulful raucous rock band that they would develop into a few years later. The single Natural Born Bugie (why did they spell it that way?) was a major chart success reaching number 4 in July 1969.The single highlights the vocal ability of the band with Ridley, Frampton and Marriott each taking a verse in turn. A follow up single Big Black Dog did not chart, but was played often at the Sunderland Mecca that John and I both frequented, and the overall “sound” was to be indicative of what was to come.Their next album was the eponymous Humble Pie, with a great cover featured on Shirley’s drum kit, followed by their first “real album” Rock On which contains Shine On, a song which still features in Peter Frampton shows, Stone Cold Fever and Rollin Stone. After poor album sales, but a good live response, Dee Anthony came up with the idea of capturing them on a double live album – sold at a discount – an idea he was to repeat to great effect with Peter Frampton in subsequent years. Performance – 
Rockin the Fillmore, to give it its full name, was recorded at the Fillmore East (not West) over four shows on May 28/29th.They were to play that venue more than 20 times. The album contains only two self penned songs Stone Cold Fever and Four Day Creep plus the standards Rollin Stone and I’m Ready and three covers I Walk on Guilded Splinters, Hallelujah (I love her so) and I Dont Need No Doctor.The latter song would feature in every gig the Pie played. Guilded Splinters is John’s favourite piece of recorded music. He feels that it “captures everything that was great about the band: a long slow jam building to a crescendo with no flash or glitz just a great band keeping solid time and improvising over a solid base.” Splinter is 24 minutes and 30 seconds but in Jerry Shirley’s book he says it was edited down from 33 minutes. They never played this song after Frampton left and it highlights his ability and the chemistry which existed between him and Marriott during that brief but fantastic period from late 69 to mid 71.
The next album Smokin was their best selling, hitting No 6 in the USA driven by their aggressive touring, but only No 28 in the UK. Over their entire history Humble Pie never had an album in the top 10 in the UK. John feels: “While it is their biggest commercial success, for me the chemistry was gone when Clem Clempson replaced Frampton and Marriott took control. Many bands are better when the creative tension between two contributors is held in check – Waters/Gilmore, Page/Plant, Blackmore/Gillan among others – and for me, despite their next great effort, Eat It , the band were never the same. Thunderbox was decent but the next and final album Street Rats less than spectacular.”
John first got into Humble Pie when a friend at School loaned him his Rockin the Fillmore. I’m less clear how I first got into them, but first got to see them at the Lincoln Festival in May 1972, where they pulled off a tremendous performance and got a great reaction from the crowd. We both wanted to go and see them at Durham University in early 72 but it was the Rag Ball, students only, expensive (dinner included) and formal dress (which seems unbelievable for the time, but I’m pretty sure that its true). We both then saw them at Newcastle Odeon in late 1972 with Frampton’s Camel as support. My ticket shows the time as 6pm, so I can only assume that there were two shows that evening, and I must have attended the early show. I remember thinking it strange that Frampton would be supporting his ex-band, but recall very little about his set. I do remember him playing Plain Shame, which remains one of my favourite Frampton songs to this day.
My memories of Humble Pie in concert from those days are primarily of Steve Marriott. He was just such an amazing front man. All cockney swagger, the guy had absolutely no fear, and he took total control of the crowd throughout every performance. His voice, range and power were just amazing, and you got the feeling that he was believed and felt every single word. If you don’t know what I mean go to youtube and look out a live version of I Don’t Need No Doctor or Rollin’ Stone. Do I really remember him shouting “My skin is white, but my soul is black” or is that my memory playing tricks? I don’t think I’ve seen a performer since that even comes close. Or maybe, and I guess its a crazy comparison, I see something of the Marriott attitude in Robbie Williams; the total ego, the power of the performance, the ability to hold a massive crowd in his hand. And I see some of the Marriott mannerisms in Paul Weller, but then he is a big Marriott fan. A typical Humble Pie set list from 1972 was something like: Up Our Sleeve; C’Mon Everybody; Honky Tonk Woman; I Wonder; Hallelujah I Love Her So; I Don’t Need No Doctor; Hot n Nasty; Four Day Creep; Rolling Stone. Humble Pie sets tended to include a small number of songs as each one ended up as quite a marathon with lots of jamming. Thanks to John for his excellent contributions to the above. More tomorrow.
1 Mar
Uriah Heep Stockton Arc 28 Feb 2013
Uriah Heep Stockton Arc 28 Feb 2013
Support: Virgil and the Accelerators
Went along to Stockton Arc with my mate Norm to see the mighty Uriah Heep last night. Support came from new up and coming blues rock power trio Virgil and the Accelerators who are fronted by a young ace guitarist. We only managed to catch the last couple of numbers of their set as a result of a detour to the Stag Inn, but were very impressed by what we saw. Virgil and Co are very much from the Cream/Taste/Hendrix mould and have been getting rave reviews, going down a storm everywhere they play. After a short wait Uriah Heep came on stage to a great reception from the packed house. The current Heep line-up has been stable for some time with front man, Heep main man and orginal guitarist Mick Box, longtime and great frontman singer Bernie Shaw, Phil Lanzon on keyboards and Russell Gilbrook on drums. Sadly Trevor Bolder is not able to join the band for this tour, as he has recently being undergoing treatment for cancer. The good news is that his treatment has gone well, and he is expected back in the band later this year. Bass duties are currently being handled very ably by JJ Jowitt. The set was a mix of new and old, with the usual favourites. I’ve seen Uriah Heep several times over the past 10 years or so, and they remain an amazing live act. All of the ingredients that brought them to the notice of rock fans in the 70s are still there; screaming harmonies, swirling organ, great powerful vocals, and very LOUD volume. For the encore some ladies from the audience were brought up on stage to dance to Free n Easy; which seems to be a regular feature of the set now. Stand-out tracks for me were Sunrise, Gypsy, July Morning, Lady in Black and Easy Livin’. 
Its strange to think that over 40 years have past since I first saw this band at Newcastle City Hall; I remember them announcing Easy Livin’ as their new single. As Mick Box said last night as he introduced Gypsy “where did all those years go?”. Mick was on fine form; his showmanship still continues to develop, as he waves his hand around and above the neck of his guitar, casting spells that cause the instrument to play itself (that probably doesn’t make sense, but if you see him play you’ll know what I mean). Great rock, great nostalgia, and still very powerful. Long may they continue to rock. Norm and I both enjoyed the concert. Uriah Heep left the stage around 11pm and we were back around 11.45pm. Setlist: Against The Odds, Overload, Traveller in Time, Sunrise, All My Life, I’m Ready, Between Two Worlds, Stealin’, Nail On The Head, Into The Wild, Gypsy, Look At Yourself, July Morning, Lady In Black. Encore: Free n Easy, Easy Livin’
28 Feb
Hawkwind Magna Centre Rotherham December 2006
Hawkwind Magna Centre Rotherham December 200
This was a private fanclub session for recording of a DVD. I had Hawkwind passport and this enabled me to gain entry. along with my mate Norm. We were told that we had to dress as aliens, but we bottled it, and turned up in our normal gear. Most of the audience were, however, decked out as instructed, which made it an interesting evening. The place was absolutely freezing; you could see your breath in the air! It was a good event, and Hawkwind played well, although I was disappointed that they didn’t play Master of the Universe or Silver Machine. For me, a Hawkwind gig should always feature at least one of those classic songs. We’ll be back at Magna again to see Hawkwind at the Prog festival in April; hope its warmer! I’ve seen Hawkwind a couple of times since then, once at Newcastle Academy and once at their 40th anniversary show in London, but I have already blogged about those gigs, so this is the last of my Hawkwind postings for now. I’ve enjoyed reflecting on Hawkwind, and it has made me realise how important they are as a band. Setlist: Right Stuff; Psychedelic Warlords; Dogstar; Orgone Accumulator; You Know You’re Only Dreaming; Orgone Accumulator; Paradox; Robot; Out Here We Are; Greenback Massacre; Marine Snow; Lord Of Light; Images; Infinity; Hassan-i-Sahba; Space Is Their; Hassan-i-Sahba; Spirit Of The Age; Motorhead
27 Feb
Hawkwind Newcastle Tyne Theatre 2004
Hawkwind Newcastle Tyne Theatre 2004
It was 2004 before I saw Hawkwind again. I realised that it had been remiss of me to go so long without going to see the band, and decided I needed to put that right. So when they came to the Newcastle Tyne Theatre I persuaded David to come along with me to the gig. By now the line-up was a core three-piece of the captain of the spaceship and old-timer Dave Brock, with newer (but by this point in fact not so new) members Alan Davey on bass, and Richard Chadwick on drums. The band were augmented by various guests on record and at some gigs, including Arthur Brown, Simon House, Lene Lovich and Lemmy, all of whom featured on the album of the time Take Me To Your Leader. Incredibly Take Me To Your Leader was Hawkwind’s 23rd studio album. It featured a re-recording of classic track Spirit of the Age, and some new tracks around the traditional space age theme. The live show was pretty impressive with android dancers, the band in white coats, and the stage set a cross between an operating theatre and a space craft. David enjoyed the show, even though he was not at all familiar with any of Hawkwind’s material. 
Interestingly David saw lots of links to modern dance music in Hawkwind. They started with the new version of Spirit of the Age, which was a great opener, and the set also included a few old favourites such as Psychedelic Warlords, Angels of Death, Brainstorm, and for the encore Master of the Universe.And a new favourite in Angela Android. Great stuff. It was just like old times, and it brought home to me all of the reasons why Hawkwind were so important to me at one time. Why did I ever stop going to see them?! I guess I grew a little tired and life, work and other things got in the way and were more important at the time. Anyway, it was like being home again in many respects, and I have tried to see Hawkwind regularly since then (although I have missed once or twice ). Setlist: Spirit of the Age; Sword of the East; Greenback Massacre; Psychedelic Warlords; Uncle Sam’s On Mars; The Iron Dream; Out Here We Are; Digital Nation; Assassins of Allah; Angels of Death; Ode To a Time Flower; To Love A Machine; Angela Android; Brainstorm. Encore: Brainbox Pollution; Master of the Universe; Welcome
26 Feb
Hawkwind Newcastle City Hall 1981
Hawkwind Newcastle City Hall 1981
Support from Mama’s Boys 
1981; another year and another line-up for Hawkwind. Ginger Baker left the band after his short spell in the drum stool, to be replaced by Martin Griffin who joined Dave Brock, Huw Lloyd-Langton and Harvey Bainbridge. The band released a new album Sonic Attack and embarked upon their traditional end of year tour of the UK, calling at Newcastle City Hall in October. The title track, was a re-recording of the Space Ritual spoken piece with a new electronic backing. The album also included Angels of Death, which is one of my all-time favourite Hawkwind tracks. 
I was to see Hawkwind the following year when they appeared halfway up the bill at the Donington Monsters of Rock extravaganza. I lost faith in the band around this time. I remember going to see Hawkwind at Newcastle Mayfair in the late 80s or early 90s, and the line-up was I think a three-piece with Dave Brock taking on most of the lead vocals. It wasn’t one of the best times I have seen the band, and I didn’t go to see them again until 2004. I’ll blog on that gig tomorrow. Setlist for the 1981 tour (something like): Angel Voice; Motorway City; Angels Of Death; Psi Power; Coded Languages; Golden Void; Magnu; Dust Of Time; Virgin Of The World; Psychedelic Warlords; Shot Down In The Night; Sonic Attack; Brainstorm; Silver Machine; Master Of The Universe.
25 Feb
Hawkwind Newcastle City Hall 1980
Hawkwind Newcastle City Hall 1980
Enter Ginger Baker
I remember being quite excited when I heard that Ginger Baker was joining Hawkwind, replacing long-time drummer Simon King. The line-up for the 1980 Levitation tour was Dave Brock, Huw Lloyd-Langton, Harvey Bainbridge, Tim Blake and Ginger Baker. Support came from Vardis, who were a high-energy NWOBHM rock band from Yorkshire, fronted by Steve Zodiac (his name taken from the lead character in Fireball XL5) who sported very long blonde hair, and played bare chested and with bare feet. Vardis had the bottle to play a version of Silver Machine as part of their set, and were apparently booed for doing so at some of the concerts on the tour. I remember Ginger Baker having a massive drum kit, sitting towards the front of the stage and belting away at his drums. 
Ginger fitted into Hawkwind well, and all credit to him for taking the job on. This was a great show as usual, and a very successful tour, so much so that dates were added to take the tour well into December. However Ginger’s stay with the band was to be short-lived, as he left after the 1980 tour. Tim Blake also left the band during the tour after a fall-out with Dave Brock. So by the start of 1981, Hawkwind were down to three members: Brock, Lloyd-Langton and Bainbridge. Typical setlist from the tour: Levitation; Motorway City; Death Trap; Shot Down In The Night; Spirit Of The Age; Psychosis; World Of Tiers; 5th Second Of Forever; Dust Of Time; Space Chase; Prelude; Who’s Gonna Win The War; Psi Power; Brainstorm; Silver Machine; Master Of The Universe
24 Feb
Hawkwind Newcastle City Hall 1979
Hawkwind Newcastle City Hall 1979
Support came from Doll by Doll
In late 1979, Hawkwind regrouped with a line-up of Dave Brock on guitar, Harvey Bainbridge on bass and Simon King on drums. The three core members were joined by Huw Lloyd-Langton (who had played on Hawkwind’s debut album) and Tim Blake (formerly of Gong). At this point in time the band had no record deal and no new album to promote. However, they went out on their normal Autumn/Winter tour around the UK, delivering a set of Hawkwind classics, and tracks from the Levitation album, which was to be released in the following year. The programme bears the title: Masters of the Universe. 
Support came from Doll by Doll, led by the late and sadly missed Jackie Leven. Doll by Doll surfaced around the time of punk, but their music was much deeper than the punk moniker suggests. I have blogged on Doll by Doll previously. A live album, recorded at the Oxford gig of the tour, was released the following year. Further line-up changes were to take place after the tour, with the departure of long-time drummer Simon King, to be replaced by legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker. I’ll report on that line-up tomorrow. Setlist from the Newcastle gig: Shot Down In The Night; Motorway City; Spirit Of The Age; Urban Guerilla; Prelude; Who’s Gonna Win The War; World Of Tiers; New Jerusalem; Lighthouse; Brainstorm; Phenomenon Of Luminosity; PXR5; Master Of The Universe; Silver Machine; Levitation.
23 Feb
Hawklords Newcastle City Hall 1978
Hawklords Newcastle City Hall 1978 
Come 1978 the mighty Hawkwind disbanded, but rapidly reappeared, having morphed into the Hawklords. The Hawklords featured Hawkwind members Robert Calvert on vocals, Dave Brock on guitar and Simon King on drums, with Harvey Bainbridge on bass and Martin Griffin on drums (from Ark) and Steve Swindells on keyboards (from Pilot). The tour was billed as Hawklords, although the message clearly hadn’t reached Newcastle as the ticket reads Hawkwind. Support came from The Softies and punk poet Patrik Fitzgerald, a strange choice, who didn’t go down too well with the Hawkwind crowd. There was a programme for the tour, but for some reason I don’t seem to have a copy, which is unusual, as I always bought one. I can only assume that for some reason the programme was not available at the Newcastle gig. Something else for me to watch for on ebay! The band released a Hawklords album: 25 Years O, and the tour featured tracks from the new release, alongside old Hawkwind favourites. 
Calvert was his usual manic showman self, and the stage set was as impressive as ever. From Wiki: “The stage show was designed by Barney Bubbles and was based on a Metropolis/Mao Tse-tung dystopia theme, featuring a projected film based light show, dancers in drab clothing performing mundane tasks, and spotlight towers creating an oppressive internment camp atmosphere.” At the end of the tour Bob Calvert fired Griffin and then resigned himself, thus closing another chapter in the complex history of the band. Hawkwind was, however, soon to re-emerge with another line-up; more tomorrow. Setlist: Automation; 25 Years; High Rise; Death Trap; Micro Man; Spirit Of The Age; Urban Guerilla; Sonic Attack; Flying Doctor; Steppenwolf; Psi Power; Brainstorm; Free Fall; Uncle Sam’s On Mars; Iron Dream; Silver Machine; Master Of The Universe
Update on 8th August 2014. I managed to buy a copy of the programme for this tour on ebay (see above). Cost me less than a fiver. Bargain! 🙂
Vintagerock's Weblog. 