Duran Duran Newcastle City Hall 1981
I first came across Duran Duran when they supported Hazel O’Connor on her Breaking Glass tour at Newcastle City Hall. It was clear then that this was a band with a strong image and some great pop songs with catchy hooks, which transcended the New Romantic tag which they had. A year later they were back with their own headlining tour. I remember being surprised at the time at how quickly this new band had risen to headline status. They had released three singles in quick succession: Planet Earth, Careless Memories and Girls of Film, but I still doubted that they could fill the City Hall. But the gig was full; Duran Duran had already started to build their own strong following. 
Their short set on this, their first UK tour, featured the new album and a cover or two. I remember being very impressed by them, and by Simon Le Bon in particular. They were much more than a group of pretty boys, they were a great live band, on their first major tour, and clearly enjoying their new success. It was obvious that they were going to be very big.
Posts Tagged ‘music’
25 Sep
Duran Duran Newcastle City Hall 1981
24 Sep
Doctor Ross Sunderland Black Cat Club 1975
Doctor Ross Sunderland Black Cat Club 1975
Dr Ross was THE MAN. This gig was at the Black Cat Club, which sat in the grounds of Roker Park, the old Sunderland football ground. The Doctor had played previously in Sunderland at the Glebe Folk and Blues Club, and had built up quite a following on local blues aficionados. Doctor Ross was a black blues singer in the traditional style of John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson. He was a true one-man band, and played harmonica, acoustic guitar, bass drum, and hi-hat simultaneously.
Ross was born in Mississippi in 1925. He was apparently nicknamed Doctor because he carried his harmonicas in a black doctor’s bag. Doctor Ross achieved greater success in the UK and Europe than in his home country and spent quite a bite of time touring here during the 70s. His shows were impressive, great traditional blues with this one guy playing all the instruments as well as singing. He seemed an old guy at the time, but actually he was 50 years old (which seems very young now…).
A 1973 album: “Live an Montreux” contains the tracks: Doctor Ross Rockin’; Freight Train; Mama Blues; Good Morning Little Schoolgirl; General Motors Blues; Got Something to Tell You; Hobo Blues; Let’s Boogie All Night Long; Honey Bee Blues; My Airplane Chick, giving an indication of the set he was playing in the 70s. Dr Ross passed away in 1993, at the age of 67.
23 Sep
Steve Gibbons Band Beamish Hall Durham 23rd Sep 2012
Went along to Beamish Hall last night, where they have started a new music club, Shaftos. The club is holding music nights once a month, the venue being Shafto’s Hall. The place was pretty full; quite an impressive turn out for the first night of a new venture. Support came from local singer Steve Daggett, who warmed the crowd up with a set featuring Lindisfarne, Bob Dylan and Alan Hull classics. After a short break Steve Gibbons and his band took to the stage. It was good to see Steve again, it must be close to 30 years since I’ve seen him in concert. 
His set was very blues and R&B based, with a Dylan song or two thrown in. Steve has a vast catalogue of albums to draw from, and delved back through these, playing tracks from across his career. He is quite difficult to catagorise; his songs mix blues, rock n roll, R&B, country and shuffle. The confidence and stage craft developed over a 50 year career shines through, and he is backed by a band of first cass musicians. This gig brought back old memories; I saw Steve Gibbons a number of times during the 70s and early 80s. The ticket scanned here is from a gig at Sunderland Kasbah (a short lived venue) in the early 80s. The Steve Gibbons Band supported a number of bands during the 70s, including The Who. The current line up of the Steve Gibbons band is: Steve on vocals, guitar and mouth harp; Phil Bond on piano, and accordion; Brendan Day on drums; John Caswell on bass; and Howard Gregory on guitar, and violin.
22 Sep
Deaf School in concert 1976 – 1978
Deaf School in concert 1976 – 1978
Deaf School were a very influential band, although they are seldom mentioned these days. Holly Johnson said: “They revived Liverpool music for a generation.”, and Paul Du Noyer (founder of Mojo magazine) claimed:: “In the whole history of Liverpool music two bands matter most, one is The Beatles and the other is Deaf School.” Strong praise indeed, and not bad for a band who never had a hit single and existed for only a few years in the late 70s.
Deaf School were quite a large troupe of members with Bette Bright, Enrico Cadillac, and Eric Shark on vocals, Ian Ritchie on woodwind instruments, Max Ripple on keyboards, Clive Langer on guitar, Steve “Average” Lindsey on bass guitar and Tim Whittaker on drums.
Deaf School live were like nothing else at the time. Part art school review, part vaudeville, part rock n roll and doowop, very theatrical, with catchy songs and great musicianship. And remember this was at a time when punk was sweeping through the country. 
I saw them several times, at Redcar Coatham Bowl, Middlesbrough Town Hall, Newcastle University and Newcastle Poly. I note from the ticket for the Redcar gig, that the support was Ray Phillip’s (ex Budgie) band Woman, who I saw a few times in the 70s. Deaf School always delivered a great show, and it was exactly that, a show. They should have achieved much greater success than they did. I suspect one reason why this never happened was because they couldn’t capture the fun, theatricality and atmosphere of their live show on record. They were essentially a great live band. Every time I saw them the crowd was totally blown away. Deaf School have reformed recently, and have played a few gigs in home town Liverpool, London and further afield. Another one for my list of people to see again.
21 Sep
The Dickies in concert
The Dickies in concert
The Dickies were at their height in the UK in the late 1970s. They are a crazy, fun punk band who played superfast versions of well known songs. They were like the Ramones, but even more tongue in cheek and took and very funny. Their album “The Incredible Shrinking Dickies” was quite a hit in the UK, as were versions of “Paranoid”, “Eve of Destruction” and “Nights in White Satin”. They had their biggest success with “Banana Splits (Tra La La Song)”, the theme tune from the TV show, which got into the UK top 10 in 1979, and was released in dayglo yellow vinyl. 
I saw The Dickies a few times, including gigs at the City Hall (first supporting the Jam, and then their own headline show at which they were supported by Chelsea) and The Mayfair. The Mayfair gig took place while Banana Splits was in the charts. Played live, the song featured loads of bananas being thrown into the audience. They were a great fun night out, a cartoon-like crazy punk band, every song played super fast, with the crowd pogoing for their lives. They had a pretty strong following in the North East with young punks. I found this report from the time: “A riot breaks out in Newcastle when the band appears at a record signing. 2500 kids skip school to meet them but end up breaking the store’s front window. The police are called.” I seem to recall for the Newcastle Mayfair gig they played two shows, an early show for under 16s and a later show for older fans. My memory tells me that I went to the early kids show, so that I could then go along to the City Hall and see Judas Priest, but my ticket shows the time of the show as 7pm start, so maybe I went to see Priest first and then went to The Mayfair. The Dickies remain popular with punks in the UK, and continue to play to this day.
19 Sep
The Doors (of the 21st Century) Manchester Arena 2004
The Doors (of the 21st Century) Manchester Arena 2004
Line-up Ray Manzarek – keyboards, vocals; Robby Krieger – guitar, vocals; Ian Astbury – lead vocals; Ty Dennis – drums, percussion; Angelo Barbera – bass guitar.
More than 30 years after I saw The Doors at Newcastle City Hall, David and I went to see them at Manchester Arena. This version of the band featured original members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger, with new singer Ian Astbury of The Cult fame. Drummer John Densmore declined to take part in the project and sued the other band members over their use of the name. I had mixed views about going to the gig. The last time I saw the band Ray and Robby took vocal duties and the set was largely new material. This time it was clear that the set would be classic Doors and Ian was almost mimicking Jim Morrison. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about that, and how appropriate it was. However we did attend, out of interest as much as anything. The 20,000 capacity venue was nowhere near full, I would say it was a quarter full, if that. We had great seats a few rows from the front. There was no support act and the band were onstage for a couple of hours, the set consisting of a selection of Doors classics. Looking at setlists from the time it is clear that the band changed their set significantly from night to night. One disappointment for me was that they didn’t play Riders on the the Storm. But putting that aside, this was a great gig, which Ian carried off well. He looked like Jim, was dressed like him, and must have studied videos of his movements. But it worked well. We have the old songs, a psychedelic light show, and a band with two original members. It was just great and made me realise how amazing The Doors must have been in the day. David and I both enjoyed it. Setlist: Break On Through (to the Other Side); Not to Touch the Earth; Love Me Two Times; Alabama Song (Whisky Bar); Back Door Man; Love Her Madly; The Changeling; Hyacinth House; Spanish Caravan; Five to One; The Unknown Soldier; Peace Frog; Roadhouse Blues; L.A. Woman. Encore: Touch Me; Light My Fire
18 Sep
Glencoe: an under-rated early 70s band
Glencoe: an under-rated early 70s band
Blogging on the Deep Purple gigs that I attended in the early 70s, has made me think a little about Glencoe, who supported Deep Purple on their 1972 UK tour. I remember Glencoe well and saw them a few times. They featured Norman Watt Roy on bass and John Turnbull ( from Newcastle ) on guitar, who had been in Bell and Arc. Both of them went on to be part of Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Norman is now bass player for Wilko Johnson. One particular gig comes to mind. I went along to see Stray and Glencoe at the Mayfair, with a friend who was heavily into Stray. It was a midnight to 4am gig; it may have been Easter Sunday or something like that. We got the last train through to Newcastle and arrived at the Mayfair. The queue was massive, and I remember being worried that we might not get in, and would be left stranded in Newcastle all night. We did get in and the place was packed to the walls. Glencoe played, and then they announced over the PA that Stray weren’t coming and would be replaced by a local band. My memory is hazy here. I have vague memories of both Lucas Tyson and Brass Alley playing. I think Lucas Tyson may have been on first, before Glencoe, and then Brass Alley replaced Stray (or was it the John Miles Set? Who nows….). We were also told over the PA that in compensation we could come along and see Edgar Broughton free of charge the following Friday. We didn’t think that was very fair, as we had come especially to see Stray, so we went along and spoke to a bouncer. I said I wanted to see the manager to ask for our money back. The bouncers weren’t the most understanding of guys in those days. He slapped me across the face, and told me to b***** off or he would throw us out. We decided it would be wiser to accept his advice. We stayed in the Mayfair until the gig finished at 4am. We then went to Bowers all night cafe which was opposite the station, had a cup of coffee and stayed there until the first train back to Sunderland, which was around 6am. Happy Days….Glencoe were a good band, who were a mix of funk and rock. Norman Watt Roy was the stand out as bass player, and John Turnbull was also great on guitar. I had their album at one point, and still have a single of theirs, called Friends of Mine. I also remember a song called Airport, which was a highlight of their live set at the time.
17 Sep
The Doors Sandy Denny & Hawkwind Newcastle City Hall 1972
The Doors Newcastle City Hall 1972
Support from Sandy Denny and Hawkwind
This was a pretty impressive line-up when I look back on it. I went along with my friend John, largely to see The Doors. This was post-Jim Morrison, at a point where the three remaining members were touring without any replacement singer. The line-up was Ray Manzarek – keyboards, vocals; John Densmore – drums, percussion; Robby Krieger – guitar, vocals; plus touring musicians Jack Conrad – bass guitar, and Bobby Ray Henson – rhythm guitar, back vocals, percussion. Ray and Robby took vocal duties, and they were promoting their recent album Other Voices. The advertised support act was Sandy Denny, who was touring as a solo artist, having left Fairport Convention a few years earlier. Hawkwind weren’t advertised at all, and were a nice surprise on the night. We arrived at the show not late but were suprised to find a band on stage that was obviously not Sandy Denny. At first we had no idea who they were, but were impressed by them and realised we were watching something which was quite weird and pretty special. Then they played Master of the Universe, which was in heavy rotataion at the local Mecca at the time, and we realised who we were watching. This was the classic Hawkwind, with naked dancer Stacia, Lemmy, Dik Mik, Dave Brock, Nik Turner, Del Dettmar, Simon King, and possibly Robert Calvert. There were certainly lots of them on stage. I recall great lights, a strong smell of joss sticks in the hall (the band were giving them out to the audience) and a set of great songs, which blended from one into the next. This was pre the release of Silver Machine, but I suspect the song will have featured in the set at that time. We were both blown away by Hawkwind and remain life long fans of the band to this day. Sandy Denny sat at a grand piano centre stage; I can’t remember what she played, but I suspect it was taken from her solo album Sandy which was released in 1972. The Doors were OK, but many of the songs were new and unfamiliar to us. The only old songs they played were Light My Fire and Love Me Two Times. We were both disappointed that they didn’t play Riders on the Storm. A great gig, and a great introduction to Hawkwind, who were at their height at that time. And all for 75p!
16 Sep
Deep Purple Newcastle Arena 2007
Deep Purple Newcastle Arena 2007
Support from Styx and Thin Lizzy
A group of us went to this gig, attracted as much by the strong support acts on offer, as by the prospect of seeing Deep Purple. My friends are all big Styx fans, and couldn’t miss the opportunity of seeing them. The gig started early at around 7pm, to allow each vabd to perform a reasonable length set. First up was Thin Lizzy, this line-up fronted by John Sykes and Scott Gorham. 
They delivered a set of Lizzy classics, proving that there is life for the band without front man Phil Lynott. In fact, I was surprised just how good they were, and it was great to hear classics such as The Boys Are Back In Town, and Jailbreak again. Styx were next up, also missing front man Dennis DeYoung. Styx gave headliners Purple a run for their money, and delivered a set of classics which went down well with the assembled crowd. Although Purple’s latest album was Rapture of the Deep, this show also featured the band playing their classic album Machine Head in full. A good evening in the company of friends, and three classic rock bands. Setlist: Fireball; Things I Never Said; Into the Fire; Strange Kind of Woman; Rapture of the Deep; The Well-Dressed Guitar; Highway Star; Maybe I’m a Leo; Pictures of Home; Never Before; When a Blind Man Cries; Smoke on the Water; Lazy; Space Truckin’. Encore: Hush; Black Night.
15 Sep
Sham 69 Brudenell Social Club Leeds 14 September 2012
Sham 69 Brudenell Social Club Leeds 14 September 2012
Support: Chelsea and Acid Drop
Great to see the original line up of Sham 69 again in the Brudenell Social Club with David last night. Jimmy was on top form. Its must be more than 30 years since I last saw this band, back in the day. Sham always stuck out to me as one of the best punk bands. There was an edge about them, their songs were both punky and catchy, and Jimmy Pursey was so charismatic and passionate on stage. I saw them in Sunderland Polytechnic Wearmouth Hall and at Reading Festival in the late 70s. Both gigs were marred by skinheads and violence. In those days I couldn’t resist going to see Sham, but went in fear of my life, being the only guy in the audience with long hair. When I saw they had reformed the original line-up I just had to go and see them. The gig was sold out, and had been for some time. 
The Brudenell Social Club is a great little venue, and this was the second time that I’d been. First up were local band Acid Drop, who were good, and played a mix of punk, thrash and ska. Then after a short break Chelsea took to the stage. This is also a band that a saw a few times in the late 70s. I recall a gig at Newcastle City Hall where Gene October told the crowd to ignore the bouncers and come down to the front. 
I think they were banned from the City Hall after that gig. The band features original members Gene on vocals and James Stevenson on guitar. I recognised a couple of the songs; in particular Right To Work, which was the last song. It was good to see them again. Sham 69 took to the stage around 10.20pm. The place was completely packed, the crowd consisting of a mix of old punks, skinheads, and some younger fans, with a smattering of old timer long hairs like me. David and I managed to get a spot right down at the front, towards the side of the stage, and a safe distance from the mosh pit. Sham exploded onto the stage with What Have I Got, the crowd responding with a loud F*** All!. This set the mood for the rest of the evening, the crowd knew every word of every song, and went crazy at the front. Jimmy looks great, trim and fit, and was in great form. Lots of opening up his arms to the crowd and getting them to sing the lines. Lots of water being thrown about; by the end of the evening Jimmy was soaked. 
Favourites for me were always going to be Bortal Breakout, If the Kids are United and Angels with Dirty Faces. Other highlights were a great version of The Clash’s White Riot and a new song Stockwell, which was slow, dark and sombre. The set was short and the songs fast, and they were on stage around one hour, or slightly less. And they were just great, just as powerful, angry and relevant as they ever were. It was great to attend a Sham gig again, to have fun and not to be frightened. And the glasses that get thrown now are plastic! A great fun night. David is not a big fan of punk rock, but even he enjoyed them. We got home around 1am. The set consisted of (can’t remember the order, and may have missed some): What Have We Got; Hey Little Rich Boy; Tell Us the Truth; I Don’t Wanna; Ulster; Angels With Dirty Faces; George Davis; That’s Life; Money; Hersham Boys; Asbo Sports Day; Stockwell; Borstal Breakout; White Riot; If the Kids Are United; Rip Off; Hurry Up Harry. I could see the setlist on the stage and Questions and Answers was on the list, but not played. Photos are by David.
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