I last saw Billy Connolly in 1975 at Newcastle City Hall. Tonight I’m going along with David to see him again at the same venue, a gig that I’ve been really looking forward to since I bought the tickets. 1975 was a breakthrough year for Billy Connolly. He made an appearance on Parkinson which catapulted him to fame in the UK, and his single DIVORCE was a hit later that year. When I saw him at the City Hall, he was on great form, a wonderful storyteller, lots of bad language, and wearing his famous banana boots. I remember being disappointed when I went to buy my customary programme. I was told programmes had sold out earlier in the tour and there were, therefore, none on sale at the City Hall gig. I consoled myself by buying a small bottle of Billy Connolly whisky (!) which was drunk a long time ago. Unfortunately I can’t find the bottle. Think it was called “nip o sweety”?!
I’ll report back after the gig on how Billy shapes up these days. More later.
Posts Tagged ‘music’
19 Jan
Billy Connolly Newcastle City Hall 1975
18 Jan
Grangemouth Pop Festival Scotland 23 September 1972: Jeff Beck, Billy Connolly and others
The Grangemouth Pop Festival
Line up: Beck Bogert Appice; Status Quo; Steeleye Span; Lindisfarne; The Everley Brothers; Beggars Opera; Average White Band; Sunshine; Billy Connolly; The Chris McClure Section; MC: John Peel. All for £1.50!
I’m going to see Billy Connolly at Newcastle City Hall on Thursday night. I’m looking forward to the gig, and it made me think about the couple of times I’ve seen Billy Connolly in the past. The first time I saw him was at The Grangemouth Pop Festival in Scotland in 1972 (see ticket right). At the time he was unknown outside Scotland and, as he delighted in telling us, he was scared shitless about this gig, as it was his biggest to date. The festival was organised by Great Western Festivals, who had also run the excellent Lincoln Festival which I attended earlier in 1972, and was billed as Scotland’s first pop festival. My friend Nicky and I went by train to the gig. 
Grangemouth is north west of Edinburgh. The festival took place on Saturday 23 September 1972 and was part of the Grangemouth centenary celebrations. It was held in a sports stadium, which was in an industrial area, next to a gasworks, which spewed smoke over us at various times during the day. It wasn’t that well attended as I recall, with quite a heavy atmosphere, drunkenness, and some fights as the day went on. The promised line up was good, however a few of the bands who were billed did not play; a not uncommon occurrence in those days. Billy Connolly (see left from the programme of the festival) delivered a set pretty early during the day which was a mix of comedy and folk songs, and was one of the hits of the day for me. He’d just had a success at the Edinburgh festival and was just starting to make a name for himself.
Other highlights of the day were Beggars Opera who were also local heroes with great swirling Hammond organ, The Everley Brothers who sang all those timeless hits, and Steeleye Span, who were still playing quite traditionally-based elecric folk at that time, before the days of All Around My Hat. Status Quo were at the top of their game in the early 70s, and were great favourites of Peel, who was DJ/MC for the day. Marsh Hunt was to seen wandering around the crowd. The extract to the right, which is taken from the newspaper programme (also see below) shows the line up and timings. Chris Mclure, who was another local hero, also played. Unfortunately, neither Uriah Heep or The Electric Light Orchestra played. 
Beck, Bogert and Appice were the main reason we went along, and Beck was a revelation. His guitar playing eclipses Clapton in my view, and I was in awe of him that night. I remember him playing Superstition and am pretty sure that he used a mouth-tube, which was the first time I’d seen suc a strange contraption, and was a few years before Peter Frampton used one on Show Me The Way. I can’t remember much of the set, but I’m pretty sure it contained Morning Dew, a new song called Black Cat Moan, Going Down, and an epic version of Keep Me Hanging On, which Bogert and Appice will have brought with them from Vanilla Fudge. After the gig we got the train back to Edinburgh, where we spent the night trying, and failing, to sleep on some pretty hard and uncomfortable benches, until it was time for the first train back to Newcastle on the Sunday morning.
15 Jan
David Bowie Roker Park Glass Spider Tour 23 June 1987
David Bowie Roker Park Glass Spider Tour 23 June 1987
Support Acts: Big Country
“Good evening Newcastle”, said David Bowie as he took the stage at this gig. Big mistake for a gig in Sunderland; rivalry between the two towns run deep, particularly in the context of football, and saying this in Roker Park, the home of Sunderland football, was not a good idea. It was to be an omen for the rest of the gig, which wasn’t one of Bowie’s best. In theory, this should have been a great gig. Bowie has a great band, with Peter Frampton coming in on guitar. He had promised that this tour would see a return to theatricals of the scale of the US Diamond Dogs tour. There was great anticipation for the gigs, which ultimately played to 3m people, exceeding the Serious Moonlight tour.
The day was wet, as I recall, and Big Country went down a storm, perhaps better than Bowie. Bowie’s setlist focussed on his more recent catalogue, and particularly his latest lp Never Let Me Down, ignoring the Ziggy era. The stage set was Ok, but somewhat silly, and personally I didn’t think it was as impressive as promised. At one point Bowie came down from the stage on a swing, and the spider just looked strange (but was it a forerunner of the recent U2 stage set up?). The programme for the gig (shown left) was obviously produced for the word tour, with lots of glossy photos of David, and nothing about the support acts; there was also an edition of the Sunderland Echo produced specially for the event (see below).
Setlist: Up the Hill Backwards; Glass Spider; Day-In Day-Out; Bang Bang; Absolute Beginners; Loving the Alien; China Girl; Fashion; Scary Monsters; All the Madmen; Never Let Me Down; Big Brother; ’87 and Cry; Heroes; Time Will Crawl; Beat Of Your Drum; Sons of the Silent Age; Dancing With the Big Boys; Zeroes; Let’s Dance; Fame; Encore: Blue Jean; Modern Love. Towards the end of the gig Bowie said: “I’m glad the rain has kept off”. It then poured down during the encore. Not a good day; I was slowly losing faith in Bowie, and I was to suffer further disappointment at a Tin Machine gig a few years later (see my blog of a few days ago). Tomorrow I’ll report on The Reality tour which I caught in Dublin in 2003, and which restored my faith in Bowie.
14 Jan
David Bowie 2nd July 1983 Milton Keynes Bowl Serious Moonlight: Lets Dance!
David Bowie 2nd July 1983 Milton Keynes Bowl Serious Moonlight
Support Acts: The Beat, Icehouse
By 1983 David Bowie was of sufficient stature to play three nights at the Milton Keynes Bowl, which holds 65,000 people. The (quite colourful) ticket (see right) doesn’t tell me which day I attended, but I am pretty certain it was the Saturday, which was the second of the three gigs. My mate and I drove to Milton Keynes, which is around a 450 mile round trip. I’d been having problems with one of the brakes on my car, and unfortunately it just about locked after after around 100 miles, to the extent that I could only drive very slowly, leaving us stranded near the Wetherby roundabout. I phoned the AA who came out but could fix the car at the road side, so they told me to leave the car in a local car park, hide the keys in an agreed spot (!) and that they would come and pick it up and take it home for me. We were determined to get to the gig, so I phoned my dad, who drove down, picked us up an hour or so later and drove us to the Bowl.
I remember the day as being red hot; I recall little about the support acts, other than they were not that impressive. This was, in my view, not one of Bowie’s best performances. Bowie’s approach to the songs, and the band set up, was moving him away from being a rock star to becoming an all round singer/entertainer and broaden his audience. This worked in terms of making his music more accessible to a general audience, but lost something else along the way.
Although I enjoyed the show, I felt I’d lost the David Bowie I’d grown to love over the past 10 years. Don’t get me wrong; you couldn’t fault anything: the stage set, the performance, the band were all great. But it was David Bowie becoming an entertainer, a professional, (re)becoming Anthony Newley in terms of aiming for broad appeal; and Ziggy had become a memory. Although general consensus is that this was a great gig, I left somewhat disappointed, feeling let down. Two years later I saw Bowie in Wembley Stadium at Live Aid, and he was great again. However, there were further disappointments to come in the form of the 1987 Glass Spider tour (which I will comment on tomorrow) and Tin Machine (see my blog the other day).
After the gig we managed to find my dad who had been waiting in a local pub, having a pie and a coffee, and he drove us home. We must have got back around 4am, I would guess. The next morning my car was delivered to our house (thank you AA); I took it to the garage the next day to be repaired.
Setlist: Star; Heroes; What in the World; Golden Years; Fashion; Let’s Dance; Breaking Glass; Life on Mars?; Sorrow; Cat People; China Girl; Scary Monsters; Rebel Rebel; White Light/White Heat; Station to Station; Cracked Actor; Ashes to Ashes; Space Oddity; Young Americans; TVC15; Fame; Stay; The Jean Genie; Modern Love
13 Jan
David Bowie Friday Newcastle City Hall 16th June 1978
David Bowie Friday Newcastle City Hall 16th June 1978
There was great anticipation for the 1978 David Bowie tour. By 1978 he was a massive star across the world, and this time he played three nights at the City Hall, which was almost unheard of; I can’t remember anyone else playing three nights in the 70s. Tickets were available by post, so several of us applied for more than one night, as I recall. I managed to get tickets for a couple of nights. I passed one pair of tickets on to some friends and kept the tickets for the Friday, which was the last of the three nights. In hindsight I wish I’d gone for more than one night. Tickets were getting expensive by now, with best seats costing £6 which was quite a bit more than the 40p I have paid to see Bowie at the City Hall 6 years earlier.
This was one of the best Bowie gigs that I have attended. The set covered much of his by now classic back catalogue, the band was tight, and Bowie’s performance was superb. The show was in two sets, with no support act, as far as I recall. The first set consisted of songs from Low and Heroes which were Bowie’s most recent albums. I had the Low lp and had played and played it, so I was well versed in the tracks from that album. The second set consisted largely of songs from Ziggy and Station to Station. The programme (left and below) continued to follow the ISOLAR theme.
Setlist: Warszawa; “Heroes”; What in the World; Be My Wife; The Jean Genie; Blackout; Sense of Doubt; Speed of Life; Breaking Glass; Fame; Beauty and the Beast; Five Years; Soul Love; Star; Hang On to Yourself; Ziggy Stardust; Suffragette City; Art Decade; Alabama Song; Station to Station; Stay; Rebel Rebel. What I would give to relive a gig such as this, or to see Bowie on stage again, singing Five Years. Great days. Tomorrow I’ll try to remember Bowie’s Milton Keynes show, as part of the Serious Moonlight tour.
12 Jan
David Bowie Tin Machine Newcastle Mayfair Tuesday 5 November 1991
David Bowie Tin Machine Newcastle Mayfair Tuesday 5 November 1991
For my concert memory today I’m jumping ahead a few Bowie concerts to the Tin Machine era.
When I heard that David Bowie was coming to Newcastle Mayfair with his new band Tin Machine, I couldn’t believe it. Yes Bowie was stressing that “Tin Machine are a band” and that this was a new project, but hey come on, this was David Bowie coming to the Mayfair Ballroon, which he hadn’t played since the early 70s and pre-Hunky Dory days. The tickets went on sale on a Saturday morning, so I went through early to queue. I got there an hour or so before the box office opened and to my surprise there was hardly anyone there. So I joined the small queue and got my tickets without any problems at all. My daughter Ashleigh came along to the show with me. I hadn’t had the chance to hear the Tin Machine album, so didn’t know any of the songs (which was a mistake). I was hoping that Bowie would through in some classics, but suspected that he might not, and indeed it wasn’t to be. The place was full, and the set was all new Tin Machine stuff, and was thus totally unfamiliar to me. It was great to see David Bowie close up again in a small venue, but to be honest I found the songs weak, wasn’t impressed and we left before the end of the gig. This experience put me off seeing Bowie again for some time, and I missed the next couple of tours out (big mistake). On reflection, like many others I didn’t give Tin Machine a real chance. I had a fixed model in my mind of what David Bowie should be, and Tin Machine was just too much of a departure from his past. I should have gone to that gig with a more opne mind. Setlist was something like: I’ve Been Waiting For You; Goodbye Mr. Ed; Bus Stop; Under The God; A Big Hurt; Shopping for Girls; Stateside; I Can’t Read; Baby Universal; Sacrifice Yourself; Betty Wrong; You Can’t Talk; Go Now; Debaser; If There Is Something; Heaven’s In Here; You Belong in Rock & Roll; Crack City. Tomorrow I’ll go back again to the late 70s and the Low tour which came to Newcastle City Hall in 1978.
11 Jan
Iggy Pop and David Bowie The Idiot Newcastle City Hall 2 March Tour 1977
This was a strange one this. Looking back this gig was pretty important historically, and yet at the time (as is often the case) it didn’t seem so. Iggy wasn’t that well known in the UK at the time. I’d seen him on the TV (was it on the Whistle Test?) throwing himself into the crowd and spreading peanut butter all over his torso at a late 60s gig in the USA. I’d also read the reviews of his seminal, wild gig at the Kings Cross cinema (and regretted not going). I’d seen the Sex Pistols play the Stooges’ No Fun the year before, so knew a little about the Iggy legend and his impact on punk. Generally however little was known about Iggy, and ticket sales for this gig were apparently not going well. A few days before the gig the local paper, the Evening Chronicle, ran an article hinting that David Bowie might be guesting at the gig, presumably to try and boost ticket sales. So a few of us went along to the gig, partly out of curiosity to see if Iggy was as crazy as we’d heard, and partly to see if Bowie really did appear. Still, on the night the City Hall was barely half full. Support came from The Vibrators who were, as I recall, pretty hot at the time, and will have played tracks like We Vibrate and London Girls. Iggy took to the stage and was followed by his band, that included David Bowie, who walked up to a keyboard at the right of the stage without any acknowledgement to the crowd at all. It was very clear that this was Iggy’s show and Bowie was a sideman. The set was a mix of old Stooges classics and tracks from the Idiot lp, and was something like: Raw power; Tv eye; Dirt; 1969; Turn blue; Funtime; Gimme danger; No fun; Sister midnight; I need somebody; search & destroy; I wanna be your dog; Tonight; Some weird sin; China girl. As I recall Iggy was good, but not as wild as usual. He was back to play to a packed City Hall later in the year and went totally crazy, climbing all over the amps, rolling around the stage, with his trousers coming open. A few years later I caught him at Redcar Coatham Bowl (Glen Matlcock on bass, I think), he was smoking on stage and flicking lit cigarettes into the crowd (how times change…). Bowie stayed in the background all night and didn’t speak to the crowd. It was good to see him back on the City Hall stage, but I was hoping that they would perform some Bowie classics. I remember shouting for Moonage Daydream…..Anyway he came back to the City Hall as part of the Low tour the following year. Will report on that tomorrow.
10 Jan
David Bowie Empire Pool Wembley London 8th May 1976
David Bowie Empire Pool Wembley London 8th May 1976
A car load of us went to this gig, which was the last of a series of 6 shows at Wembley Empire Pool in 1976. These were Bowie’s only UK gigs and were his first in the country since 1973. We’d sent our postal orders off through the mail and had been allocated our seats; mine was Entrance 55 Row K seat 45. We were all very excited about seeing Bowie again, not quite knowing what to expect. There had been a lot written about these gigs in the music press and anticipation was high. I drove us down to London, and we stayed at my mate’s aunt’s house in Walthamstow after the gig, driving back the next morning. The drive down wasn’t without incident in that we broke down just past Wetherby, and waited for a friendly AA man who got us going again and on our way.
My memories of the gig are quite strong. The Empire Pool (now Wembley Arena; having been rebuilt) was a cold, cavernous shed. Arena gigs were still by no means the norm in those days and places like the Empire Pool hadn’t been designed with concerts in mind at all.
There was no support act, instead the avant garde black and white film Un Chien Andalo was shown before Bowie took to the stage. I still recall one segment, showing a razor blade cutting into an eyeball. The whole set up and lighting were built around a black and white concept. The stage was bathed in white light, and Bowie and the band wore black trousers, white shirts. The programme (left) entitled ISOLAR (I still don’t know what that means?…) was a newspaper with pictures and no text, very arty. This was a gig which, at the time, I didn’t quite get. It was just too different to the rock n roll splendour and sass of Ziggy for me. However, I would love to go back again now and revisit it. The set was a mixture of Bowie classics and tracks from the recent (then) Station to Station lp. These were performed in the white soulboy manner that Bowie was getting into at that stage. On the day I remember feeling some disappointment at what we experienced at that gig. Looking back it was pretty clever, great theatre, and a massive development from Ziggy. Wish I could go back and see it again (has anybody got a time machine?). Setlist: Station to Station; Suffragette City; Fame; Word On A Wing; Stay; Waiting For The Man; Queen Bitch; Life on Mars?; Five Years; Panic in Detroit; Changes; TVC15; Diamond Dogs; Rebel Rebel; The Jean Genie
9 Jan
David Bowie Ziggy Stardust Tour 1972 and 1973
David Bowie Newcastle City Hall 2 June 1972
Sunderland Top Rank Suite 5 September 1972
Newcastle City Hall 8 June 1973
In celebration of David Bowie’s 65th birthday, I’ve decided to spend the rest of the week recalling my concert experiences of him, which started in 1972 in the Ziggy Starduct era, and will take me to this last Reality tour which I caught in Dublin 2004.
My first experience of David Bowie in concert was at Newcastle City Hall on 2nd June 1972. 
I’d heard the new single Starman on the radio, and decided to go along and see what all the fuss was about. There was a lot of chat in the music press at the time about Bowie knocking T Rex and Marc Bolan off the top. So I wandered along to the City Hall and paid the princely sum of 40p entrance at the door for a seat toward the back of the stalls. The hall was by no means full, as I recall; the support act was a folk band called The JSD Band. I’d heard the Hunky Dory lp, and of course knew the Space Oddity single, but a lot of Bowie’s material was still unfamiliar to me. Although this tour is often refereed to as the Ziggy Stardust tour, the Ziggy lp was not yet released. In fact it came out a few days after the Newcastle gig on 6 June 1972. Bowie was great, wearing the full make up and Ziggy gear, as on Top of the Pops a month later when Starman hit the charts.
See attached the lovely flyer which my friend Jon recently purchased for me from eBay. The rear of the flyer is hand signed by David Bowie himself (who knows if this signature is genuine 🙂 but it is great anyway)
During early 1972 the setlist was something like: Hang On to Yourself; Ziggy Stardust; The Supermen; Queen Bitch; Song for Bob Dylan; Changes; Starman; Five Years; Amsterdam; Andy Warhol; Moonage Daydream; White Light/White Heat; Suffragette City; Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide
Bowie was back in the north east a few months later, at Sunderland Top Rank on 5 September 1972. Although Starman had been a hit, he was still by no means a massive star, to the extent that the gig was, as I remember, pretty poorly attended. The thing I remember about this gig was that, surprisingly at the time, David performed the show without any make up or costume at all. I am pretty sure that he wore a leather jacket and a pair of jeans. I can also vividly recall a few encores including definitely White Light White Heat and (I think) Waiting for the Man.
Pretty sure my mate Gilly and I missed the last bus and walked home after the gig, getting back very early in the morning, which wasn’t good as we we at school the next day.
Aladdin Sane was released on 13 April 1973, and by this time the demand for tickets was huge, to the extent that Bowie played a couple of shows on the same night at Newcastle City Hall. The setlist had developed to include songs from Aladdin Sane and was something like: Hang On to Yourself; Ziggy Stardust; Watch That Man; Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud; All the Young Dudes; Oh! You Pretty Things; Moonage Daydream; Changes; Space Oddity; The Jean Genie; Time; The Width of a Circle; Let’s Spend the Night Together; Suffragette City; White Light/White Heat; Round and Round. The production had also developed since he previous year. Bowie was wearing dresses and having several costume changes, and was accompanied by a mime artist. This tour culminated in a show at Hammersmith at which Ziggy announced his retirement. At the time I thought I’d seen David Bowie for the last time.
I never did get a programme for any of these concerts on the Ziggy tour. I just assumed (apparently wrongly) that there was no programme for these dates. However my friend John who now lives in the USA found one on eBay which he kindly purchased for me (see image). Now back in those days tour merchandise was pretty rare. Most concert tours did not have any programmes, posters or T-shirts. And often I would go to the merchandise stall, or see the staff (who I knew well) who sold the programmes as well as selling ice creams and ask if they had any programmes for sale. They would often reply “yes apparently there were programmes but they sold out of them after the London concerts” or something like that. It seems that programmes were often printed in a short run and soon sold out, often after only a few concerts. And by the time the Newcastle concert came there would be none left. I guess that is what must have happened in this case. Anyway thank you so much John for getting me this collector’s item. It is great to possess the real item and to be able to add it to my blog now!
8 Jan
The Rolling Stones Newcastle City Hall 4th March 1971
The Rolling Stones Newcastle City Hall 4th March 1971
Memories from a long long time ago
I was 14 years old when the Rolling Stones 1971 UK tour took place. I’d read about the tour in the music press and SO wanted to see them. Incredible as it seems now, this was billed as the “Farewell to England” tour, and anticipation was high for these shows, all of which had sold out immediately. I was determined that somehow I would get to see them when the tour opened on March 4th at Newcastle City Hall. There were two shows at the City Hall, an early evening show at 6.30pm and a later show at 9pm. I persuaded my parents that I would go along on the night to the early show, and see if I could pick up a ticket outside.
So the day of the show arrived. I rushed home after school, quickly had something to eat, and set off on the bus to Sunderland, and then on the train to Newcastle. I arrived at the City Hall with a little time to spare, and approached a few shady looking guys who were loitering around outside the venue. Some of them did have tickets to sell, but they wanted way above face value, which was between 75p (or 15 shillings) to £1. I only had a couple of pounds, which I had managed to scrape together from my pocket money, and their prices were way above what I could afford.
Time was moving close to 6.30pm and I was beginning to lose all hope of seeing my heroes. I then heard a couple of guys talking as they crosssed the road to the venue, and one of them said to the other that he had a spare ticket. I went straight up to them and asked them if I could buy it, and offered him £1 for the 75p ticket. To my joy he agreed to sell it to me, the deal was done, and I headed straight into the City Hall. My seat in Row AA was towards the back downstairs, but was still a pretty good view. A few moments later, the support band took to the stage, which to my surprise and delight, was The Groundhogs, who had just released the Split album. The Groundhogs set was short, probably around 30 minutes, and consisted of tracks from Split, including Cherry Red, Groundhog and Split Part 2, as well as earlier songs Garden and Eccentric Man. This show started a lifelong obsession with The Groundhogs, as well as the Stones, for me.
After a short interval, a guy took to the stage and introduced “The greatest rock n roll band in the world: The Rolling Stones” and we were off and into Jumping Jack Flash! I’m not exaggerating to say in that moment my life changed for ever. This was the concert that finally and totally hooked me on rock music and rock concerts; and there was no going back for me from that point on. Mick Jagger was wearing the same pink satin suit and cap that he wore onstage for a recent Top of the Pops performance of Brown Sugar. Keith looked great, as cool as ever, playing a perspex see through Zemaitas guitar. New guy Mick Taylor looked too young and pretty to be a Stone. Bill and Charlie looked like a rhythm section should. The band were accompanied by Bobby Keys on saxophone, Jim Price on trumpet and Nicky Hopkins on piano. The crowd seemed surprisingly reserved to me, with everyone remaining in their seats throughout the show. The Stones were great, and it was a dream come true for me to actually see them. Jagger was amazing. I can still remember the menace of Midnight Rambler as he whipped the stage with this belt. I travelled home on the train still buzzing about the concert, part of me not quite believing that it had actually happened, that I had really seen the Rolling Stones. I couldn’t wait to get home and tell my parents , who had doubted that I would mange to get into the concert. And I also couldn’t wait to get to school the next morning so that I could tell all my friends, and brag about the whole thing! Setlist (something like): Jumping Jack Flash; Live With Me; Dead Flowers; Stray Cat Blues; Love In Vain; Midnight Rambler; Bitch; Honky Tonk Women; Satisfaction; Little Queenie; Brown Sugar Encore: Street Fighting Man. I’ll continue to reflect upon my Stones concert experiences over the coming weeks. I really do hope that they do tour, as rumoured in this their 50th year.
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