Free spin-offs gigs: Back Street Crawler, Andy Fraser band, Paul Rodgers; Bad Company
Having written about my Free concert experiences over the past few days, I thought it would be fitting to blog today about the Free spin-off bands that came about in the early to mid-70s, and the (relatively few) gig memories I have of those bands. 
I’ll start, for no particular reason with Free guitar legend Paul Kossoff. After Free split, I saw Paul Kossoff play at Sunderland Locarno a couple times. I think (but my memory could be playing tricks again) that one of these gigs was billed as The Paul Kossoff band, and the other as (the more familiar name of) Back Street Crawler. These gigs were, I would guess, in 1974 and 1975. Back Street Crawler featured excellent soulful local singer Terry Wilson-Slesser from Beckett. Although it was great to see Kossoff in action again, and some of the old guitar magic was still there, it was also clear that his health was not good. Sadly Paul Kossoff was to die on on an overnight flight from Los Angeles to New York in 1976. 
After leaving Free Andy Fraser formed Sharks along with vocalist Ships and guitarist Chris Spedding. He wasn’t with Sharks long; I saw Sharks in concert when they played Sunderland Locarno, but it was after Fraser had left the band. Sharks were a great live band, and Snips is a very under-rated singer. Snips and Chris have recently re-emerged as King Mob, who looked great, but were short-lived and have already split. Anyway, back to Andy Fraser. He next formed the Andy Fraser Band, a trio with Kim Turner on drums and Nick Judd on keyboards. I saw the band once at a gig in Sunderland Locarno in 1973; Andy took the front man role, but the lack of a guitarist seemed strange and didn’t work for me. The gig was poorly attended and I never saw the band again, although I do recall them playing Newcastle City Hall around the same time. 
Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke formed Bad Company. I have blogged separately about Bad Co in concert, who were just great, and carried the Free flag forward to some extent. However, they became a bit too much standard rock for me, and didn’t have the same emotional feel that Free had; they also moved to a more AOR style in their later days. Thats not to say that I didn’t enjoy Bad Company in concert; I did. But it was a very different band to Free, and although some things were gained and were better, some things were also lost in the transition. 
As usual, I did some searching to check my facts before blogging. I often discover something new, or I am reminded of something that I have forgetten. Today I discovered that after leaving Bad Con in 1982, Simon Kirke was briefly involved with a band called Wildlife who toured in support of the Michael Schenker Band. Now I saw Michael Schenker on most of his UK tours in the 80s, so will probably have seen Wildlife (although I have no recollection of doing so). 
I’ll finish today’s bog activity with a Postcript from my friend John who was lucky enough to see Paul Rodgers fronting his band, Peace, who were formed when Free split in 1971. This was at a gig at Newcastle City Hall (see programme right) which I sadly missed out on. Over to John: “I saw Peace play their only ever tour, supporting Mott the Hoople, November 5th 71 at the City Hall. They were a three piece, I liked them but remember think they sounded a lot like Free and so couldn’t understand why they had split up. This tour with Mott was to lay the foundations for Bad Company but that, of course, is a different story.”. I’ll complete my blogging on Free related bands tomorrow, by writing about The Firm, who I saw in Middlesbrough in 1984, and featured Paul Rodgers and Jimmy Page.
Posts Tagged ‘music’
22 Nov
Free spin-offs gigs: Back Street Crawler, Andy Fraser band, Paul Rodgers; Bad Company
21 Nov
Free Sunderland Locarno October 1972
By late 1972 Free were falling apart. Andy Fraser had left to be replaced by Tetsu and Rabbit, and in a few short months the band would be no more. This was a result of internal friction particularly between Andy Fraser and Paul Rodgers, and because of Paul Kossoff’s health problems. Kossoff was replaced by a session musician on some of the tracks of their final album, Heartbreaker and on a tour of the USA his place was taken by the guitarist from Osibisa, which marked the end for the band. Free returned to play in Sunderland only a few months since their last gig in the town. I have a programme from that time which doesn’t actually list the Sunderland gig, but it does mention local gigs at Newcastle Mayfair, Durham University and Redcar Jazz Club. However, I’m certain that I bought it at a gig in Sunderland Locarno, which was presumably added as an extra date after the programme was printed. By this time Wishing Well had been released as a single and some of the new tracks from Heartbreaker will have featured in the set. My memories of this Free gig are much hazier than those of the gigs I saw earlier that year, which suggests to me that it didn’t reach the same heights, both in terms of performance and audience reaction. I don’t remember the place being packed. The programme lists support as caming from Smith Perkins and Smith, who were an American soft rock / country band. The next time I was to see Paul Kossoff and Andy Fraser it was as part of their own individual bands, and in the case of Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke as members of Bad Company.
19 Nov
Free Newcastle City Hall 1st February 1972 and early 70s gigs
Free Newcastle City Hall and early 70s gigs
If you asked a teenage gig-goer from the North East of England in the early 70s to name their favourite live bands, they would probably have said Free, Family, and possibly Stray. All three of those bands played in the region a lot at the time, and were great live, as a result building a strong following. In Sunderland Free in particular had a strong cult following, and played lots of gigs at the Bay Hotel, and Sunderland Locarno. I was just that little bit too young to catch some of those early gigs, and was very jealous at the time of some of my slightly older mates who told me how great Free were live. Indeed some of the tracks on the album Free Live was recorded at a gig at Sunderland Locarno (or Fillmore North) in 1970. Free existed only for a brief few years at the end of the 60s and beginning of the 70s, and yet their shows and records are still spoken of today. There was a unique emotional groove to their music that set them above others, and gave them a different feel to the heavier bands of the time like Purple, Sabbath and even Zeppelin. This came from the combination of Paul Rodger’s soulful vocals and Paul Kossoff’s bluesy guitar. The first time I got to see Free was at a gig at Newcastle City Hall in early 1972. This was something of a comeback gig, as the band had broken up briefly in 1971, due at least in part, to Koss’ drug problems. The City Hall was packed but the gig was abandoned due to a power failure. Support came from Bronco featuring Jess Roden, who managed to complete their set by performing acoustic versions of some of the songs. Free took to the stage, but again there were problems with the power, and they had to cut their set short, promising to return later in the month. Free did return for two nights on the 21st and 22nd of February, with one of the nights being a free concert for ticket holders from the original gig. I went along to the new gig and saw Free play a full set, and they were amazing; every bit as good as my mates had told me. By then I had also seen them play at Sunderland Top Rank (I will blog about that gig tomorrow), so I saw them three times in the same month. Live favourites for me were The Stealer, My Big, Alright Now and, of course, The Hunter, which was always the encore. 
My friend John was one of the friends who did get to see Free at some of those earlier gigs that I mentioned earlier. He remains a strong Free fan and has sent me some of his memories: “I have to say that my three favourite bands of all time are Free, Zeppelin and the Black Crowes followed by Humble Pie and Mountain. There are three things I man does not forget: his first beer, his first real girlfriend and in my case my first rock and roll show. I was very fortunate that it was the Indoor Festival of Music at the Top Rank Suite in Sunderland promoted by Geoff Docherty which featured Free as the headliner with Deep Purple, Principal Edwards Magic Theatre, Cochise and Yellow. All for the princely sum of a Pound! I was not quite 15 and can still remember how excited I was to going to the show which was billed as starting at 7.30pm and finishing at 2am – wow how cool was that. Purple had some transportation problems and so Free went on first. Fire and Water was released in June of that year, they had played the Isle of Wight and All Right Now had reached number 2 in the charts, they had appeared on Top of the Pops, very heady times for a band still barely in their 20’s. We bought tickets from Bergs Records (and Bicycle) shop which were very cool looking; we sat on the floor and had a fantastic time. The setlist was heavily drawn from Fire and Water and Highway which was released in December of that year: Ride on Pony, the Stealer, Be My Friend, Mr Big, All Right Now, Don’t say You Love me, Fire and Water, I’m a Mover, Walk in my Shadow, Songs Of Yesterday, closing, of course, with The Hunter. If you ask any Free fan from the time I am pretty sure they say that Mr Big and The Hunter were their favourite songs and to this day I still get goose pimples when I hear the opening chords of the live version of The Hunter. Fast forward to the Sunderland Empire in 1971 and Free appeared supported by Amazing Blondel. I think I can remember local famed promoter Geoff Docherty introducing Free. I have in my head Geoff coming out and saying “he couldn’t ask them to play anymore as they were knackered”.”
17 Nov
Buxton Festival 1974
The Buxton Festival 1974
Line-up: The Faces, Humble Pie, Mott The Hoople, Horslips , Chapman/Whitney StreetWalkers, Trapeze , Chopper, Badger, Strider, Lindisfarne, Man. 
My friend John and I have spent the week swapping memories of The Faces to help me write my blog. One memory that we share is of the 1974 Buxton Festival which we both attended. I’m not sure if it is a pleasant memory or not; and those of you who attended any of the outdoor Buxton events will know why I say that. Terry Battersby puts in well on the UK Festivals site: “I managed Buxton in 72/73/74.They should have been campaign medals issued”. I managed 73 and 74 and know what he means; I hold my medal with pride; the Buxton festivals were a real endurance test. Buxton is a town high up in the peak district and the festival was sited up on a moor. You couldn’t imagine a worse place to hold a pop festival. All of the three outdoor festivals (there were some indoor events which preceded them) suffered from poor weather, lots of wind and rain, and after 1974 the organisers abandoned the idea of holding any further festivals. I’ll write separately about the 1973 festival in a day or so, it was a strange event at which the Hells Angels took over and ran the event (which was pretty scary). Anyway, back to 1974. I drove down to Buxton with my friend Gilly, who also came to the 1973 event with me. We arrived on Friday afternoon, finding the place cold and windswept. Not being the most prepared festival-goers at the time, we didn’t have a tent and planned on sleeping in the car (not easy in an MG Midget), or in sleeping bags on the ground. When we arrived on the moor we saw lots of people building makeshift huts from planks of wood. I asked them where they found the wood, and they pointed me to a storehouse in the next field. 
So off I went to retrieve some wood for us to build our own shelter. I was leaving the store with some planks under my arm with a few other guys, when we were stopped by a policeman, who asked us where we were taking the wood. He quickly bundled us all into the back of a police jeep and took us off to a temporary police cabin which they had set up for the weekend. Once in their they searched us, took statements, and made us wait a few hours, telling us that we would probably be charged with theft for taking the wood. When they eventually did let us go we had to walk back to the site, where I found my mate Gilly lying asleep by the car. The bands had started by that point, and we went into the arena and caught as much of the show as we could. I remember seeing Man and Mott the Hoople that night. Mott started with Golden Age of Rock n Roll and were just great. I slept in the car and Gilly slept in a sleeping bag underneath the car. We were both frozen; it was truly awful. Highlights of the next day were Humble Pie (Stevie Marriott was awesome in those days and a big festival favourite), and Roger Chapman and the Streetwalkers. Anyone who was there will remember the magic moment in that dull rainy day when the sun came out during My Friend the Sun, as Roger sang “He’s there in the distance” to a great cheer from the crowd. The Faces were OK, but it wasn’t the best time I saw them; by this point they had added a horn section to the band. I remember keeping warm in the Release tent and chatting to Caroline Coon. My friend John was also there with a group of mates, although I don’t recall us running into each other. His memories: “My own recollections were that the weather was terrible,wet and cold,the facilities non existent and I slept in my dad’s car with three other mates. The Friday bands were good Mott , Man and Lindisarne. On Saturday there was the famous “My Friend the Sun moment” which I do recall and Humble pie were great.The Faces came on late and I remember the stage being pelted with bottles – reports on the Web said this is because they refused to play an encore…..those were the days!!!” Postcript: several weeks after the festival I received a letter summoning me to attend my local police station where I was issued with a formal caution for “stealing” the wood; and that was the last I heard of it. I did run into a couple of the lads who were in the jeep with me at Reading and Knebworth over the years and we always said hello. I wonder where they are now. Thanks to John for the ad showing the line-up for the festival. Note The New York Dolls were listed to play at one point (although they don’t appear in the listing above), but didn’t make it for some reason.
16 Nov
The Faces Newcastle Odeon November 26th 1974
The Faces Newcastle Odeon November 26th 1974
Support from Strider and Bill Barclay 
Yesterday I blogged about two amazing Faces gig at Sunderland Top Rank and Sunderland Locarno. I saw the band quite a few other times in 1972 and 1973; twice at the Reading Festival in 72 and 73, at the Lincoln Festival in 72, and in 1974 at the Buxton festival. All of the gigs were great fun; the band were at the top of their game at the time. By 1974, however, cracks were starting to show. Ronnie Lane had left the band to be replaced by Tetsu Yamauchi, and it would only be a couple of years before the band disintegrated, Ronnie Wood joined the Stones and Rod went solo. The last time I saw the Faces was at a gig at Newcastle Odeon in late 1974. By this point the band were massive and they managed to sell out two nights. My mate Will and I bought tickets late for this gig and ended up with seats right up at the back of the rear circle, looking down on the stage. Not a great view, but we could look down and watch the place going crazy along with band. 
Support that night came from folkie comedian Bill Barclay and rockers Strider. The Faces were as fun as ever; lots of craziness and much singing along. They always finished with Twisting the Night Away at that time, and I can picture everyone walking down the stairs of the Odeon still singing along. A sadly missed band. I haven’t managed to get along to any of the Faces reunion shows so far, and Ronnie is busy with the Stones at the moment, which has delayed any plans for further gigs. I heard an interview with Rod on the radio the other day, and he said that he will join up with the Faces for a reunion after Ronnie is clear from Stones work. Hope that happens, and will do my best to attend if it does. The set that night in 1974 will probably have included: It’s All Over Now; Take A Look At The Guy; (I Know) I’m Losing You; Sweet Little Rock’n Roller; Bring It On Home To Me/You Send Me; I’d Rather Go Blind; Stay With Me; Angel; Too Bad/Every Picture Tells A Story; Maggie May; Gasoline Alley; You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything; You Wear It Well; Mine For Me; I Can Feel The Fire; Twistin’ The Night Away.
15 Nov
The Faces Sunderland Top Rank and Sunderland Locarno 1972 and 1973
The Faces Sunderland Top Rank and Sunderland Locarno 1972 and 1973
The Faces were great fun and seemed to be playing all over the place, all of the time, in the early 1970s. Two memorable gigs took place at Sunderland Top Rank on March 5th 1972 and at Sunderland Locarno on April 13 1973.I remember the Top Rank (or Rink to us) gig very well. This was a big gig for everyone at my school. I took time off school to go and queue for tickets; demand was huge as Rod Stewart and The Faces had had some massive hits with Maggie May, Stay With Me and other great singles. This was one gig that I queued up early for on the night, going straight from school. I was one of the first in the queue with some of my mates and we ended up right at the front, crushed against the stage, where we stayed all night. I can think of nothing worse now; being crushed and unable to move all night, but at the time it was great! Support came from Byzantium who I saw a few times in the early 70s and were always good. The gig itself was great; Rod and the guys were just amazing. There were lots of my friends from school there and we spent days talking about how great it was. My friend John recalls the gig: “I remember the Faces as a good time band, musically rather sloppy and overall a bit ragged. I recall it was the night before one on my mock O levels, one of he easier ones I presume , maybe English. My recollections on the setlist are very weak, Internet search suggests Stay with Me and Losing You which I think I can recall as I always liked those two.The balance of the set was all Faces standard stuff Three Button Hand me Down, Maybe I’ m Amazed, Street Fighting Man, Miss Judy’s Farm, Love in Vain, Stay with Me and I’m Losing You. I think I can remember Maggie May and Every Picture but I certainly could be wrong.” I’m pretty sure they did play Maggie May. After the show some of us stood in a big queue to go back stage and meet the band. We waited for a long time but only the first few people in the queue were let in, including some mates from school who reported back that they partied with the band into the next morning. I remember the Locarno gig less, probably because I didn’t queue up and was at the back of the hall, and the place was packed to the walls. I think the support was a local act, perhaps Beckett, and John Peel was certainly DJ for the night. Peel joined the Faces on stage and is on record as stating several times that this was the best gig he had ever been to, which means it must have been pretty good! Postscript: My mate Norm reminded me that most of the Sunderland football team were at the Locarno gig and ended up on stage with the band. This was the team that went on to win the FA cup a few weeks later. Norm also thinks that the same gig was first cancelled, and them rescheduled a week or so later. That sort of rings true with me, now that he has reminded me.
14 Nov
Fleetwood Mac Manchester Arena 3 Dec 2003
Fleetwood Mac Manchester Arena 3 Dec 2003
Say You Will Tour
By 2003 it had been a long time since I had last seen Fleetwood Mac, and I was keen to do so again. I was a little frustrated when they announced a UK tour and I saw that they were playing Newcastle, which was a local gig for me, on the same night as I had tickets to see David Bowie at The Point in Dublin. Not to be put off, I quickly decided to buy tickets for David and I to go and see the Mac at the MEN Arena in Manchester. David was studying in Leeds at the time, so I arranged to meet up with him and we went off to Manchester together.
I remember the tickets for this gig were pretty expensive, and we decided to buy cheaper seats, which meant we were at the back of the arena and our view wasn’t great. Nevertheless we both enjoyed the gig which was a true greatest hits set. By this point Christine McVie had retired, which meant that some of the songs which she sang were dropped from the set, but the Mac train rolls on. Sadly for me this time round there were no songs from the early Mac days. The thing that we both remember most from that gig was the drum solo that Mick Fleetwood did, part of which involved him playing his waistcoat which had electronic drum pads built in; I kid you not! Its funny what sticks in your mind. 
I was to see Fleetwood Mac again 6 years later at Sheffield Arena, which I have already blogged on. There are rumours (no pun intended) of a Mac tour next year. Hope it happens. Setlist: The Chain; Dreams; Eyes of the World; Peacekeeper; Second Hand News; Say You Will; Never Going Back Again; Rhiannon; Come; Gypsy; Big Love; Landslide; Say Goodbye; What’s the World Coming To; Beautiful Child; Gold Dust Woman; I’m So Afraid; Silver Springs; Stand Back; Tusk; Go Your Own Way. Encore: World Turning; Don’t Stop. Encore 2: Goodbye Baby
13 Nov
Gong, Hatfield and the North & Tubular Bells film Newcastle City Hall 1974
Gong, Hatfield and the North, Tubular Bells Newcastle City Hall 25th April 1974
Virgin Records Crisis Concert
Ticket price 44p
As I’ve just seen Gong, and blogged about them yesterday, I thought I would have have a little break from covering bands beginning with the letter F and cover the only other time I saw the crazy Gong guys in concert. It was in 1974 as part of the Virgin Records Crisis (can’t remember what the crisis was at the time!) tour, which featured Gong, Hatfield and the North, and a film of Mike Oldfield performing Tubular Bells. To be honest, my friends and I went along largely to see the Tubular Bells film, as it was the only chance at the time to see a performance of this great album. We were also attracted by the very reasonable 44p ticket price! Although Mike Olfield did tour a few years later, at that time he was resisting offers to take his masterpiece on the road. The film was very good, and featured footage of Mike performing the entire album as I recall, in the studio I think. I also recall Viv Stanshall being part of it. The sound wasn’t great and the film was projected onto a small screen, which wasn’t too woderful, but I still recall enjoying it. I wonder if you can get a DVD of this? Gong and Hatfield and the North rotated headlining status on the tour; I don’t remember who closed the gig at Newcastle. I do remember finding both bands quite hard going, but that we enjoyed Gong’s silliness, and loved Squeezing Sponges Over Policemen’s Heads, from Camembert Electrique, which I am pretty sure they played. There were lots of wooly tea cosey hats and flying teapots in evidence.
12 Nov
Gong Alston Town Hall 11th November 2012
Gong Alston Town Hall 11th November 2012
Laura and I went to see Gong at Alston Town Hall last night. This was the first time I have seen Gong for almost 40 years, the last time being at Newcastle City Hall in 1974. This gig was originally scheduled to take place at Newcastle Academy, but low advance ticket sakes caused the promoter to cancel the gig. Not wanting to miss out on the chance to see Gong play in the North, a group of people from Alston decided to promote the gig themselves at Alston Town Hall. 
Alston is a small town in Cumbria and it is one of the highest towns in the country, at about 1,000 feet above sea level. So this meant a drive past Hexham and up a very windy road across the moors for Laura and I. The venue was, as we expected in the centre of the town, and was small, holding 200 people. This must be one of the smallest crowds that Gong have played to in some time. The gig had been sold out for some time, everyone tickets through a facebook page, and people had come from far and wide for this special Gong show. I’d spent some time on Sunday reading through the Gong mythology with Laura, so we knew a little of the story of Planet Gong, Radio Gnome and the PotHead Pixies. The band is fronted by founder Daevid Allen who looks great, and is as crazy as ever. Sadly the other founding member Gilli Smyth is not so well at the moment so couldn’t be with the band. Daevid encouraged us to all cry Miaow for Gilli, which he assured us would make her feel much better. Gong music still sounds very weird to me, and I can’t pretend to know the songs, although I do possess a copy of Camembert Electrique. The light show was fantastic, with various characters from the Gong story flying around the backdrop. The crowd loved it; lots of dancing and crowd reaction. Many congratulations to Janet and the rest of the crowd from Alston for putting this on. I wonder what their next project is?
11 Nov
Fleetwood Mac Glasgow Apollo Mon 4th April 1977 Rumours tour
Fleetwood Mac Glasgow Apollo 1977 Rumours tour
Support from Charlie
Fleetwood Mac returned to the UK triumphant, once again a major force in rock music following major success with the 1975 Fleetwood Mac album and 1977’s Rumours lp. This was the first time they had played the UK since Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had joined the line up, and demand for tickets was huge. Fans were eager to see this new lineup; so far all we had seen was a clip or two on the Old Grey Whistle Test. I recall that a video of the Mac playing Rhiannon was played on TV a few times. As was often the case at the time, the tour missed out the North East of England completely. However, determined to see the new rejuvenated Fleetwood Mac, my friend Ian and I bought tickets for the Glasgow gig, which was to be held at the great Apollo theatre. By this time I had been to the Apollo a few times and was used to making the drive there and back in an evening. We arrived in time for a drink before the gig, and popped into the pub across the road from the Apollo, where we ran into John and Susan; John was studying in Edinburgh at the time. Support came from UK band Charlie, who toured a lot in the mid to late 70s and had some success in the USA. From the Charlie website: “1977: Charlie support a squabbling, stoned, but nonetheless spectacular Fleetwood Mac on their Rumours tour but the album meets with mediocre response in the UK now in the grip of punk. The band consider calling it a day.” I couldn’t have put it better, Charlie. Fleetwood Mac were truly spectacular that night. 
Rhiannon was my favourite at the time, and Steve Nicks was mesmerisingly beautiful in voice and looks; wearing her top hat and telling us of the mysterious lady in the song. Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar playing was also ace; songs like The Chain, and Go Your Own Way were just great, as was their treatment of the only “old” Fleetwood Mac song that they played that evening: Oh Well. I recall for an encore they played a song which was very different, strange, and laden with drum beats. I am sure that they introduced it as a new song which was going to feature on their new album, and think it must have been Tusk, but this doesn’t show on any published setlists from the day. A great night that I still look back on even today as one of the best gigs I have seen. Although all may not have been well within the band, they still delivered at their best; they were riding on the crest of a wave, and John and Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood were no doubt pleased to come back to the UK and get such a great reaction from the crowds. Setlist: Say You Love Me; Station Man; The Chain; Dreams; Rhiannon; Oh Daddy; Never Going Back Again; Landslide; Over My Head; Gold Dust Woman; You Make Loving Fun; I’m So Afraid; Go Your Own Way; Oh Well; World Turning; Blue Letter; Second Hand News. Encore: Tusk
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