Tear for Fears Newcastle City Hall 6th April 1985 (and Knebworth 1990)
In 1985 Tears for Fears released “Songs from the Big Chair”, their second album. It was a massive worldwide success, reaching No. 2 in the UK, and staying in the Top 40 album chart for over a year. It also reached No. 1 in the US, and gave them a string of international hit singles: “Mothers Talk”, “Shout”, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and “Head over Heels”. The album was well received by the music press and fans alike, and saw them move from their previous dark pop synth style to more poppy upbeat music. They toured extensively to promote the album, and called at the City Hall in April 1985 for a concert which sold out well in advance. Support came from Vitamin Z who had a hit with the single “Burning Flame”. My memory of the concert is of a joyous fun night with some serious audience singalongs during “Shout” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”. This was definitely the best time I saw Tears for Fears.
1985 Setlist: Mothers Talk; Broken / Head Over Heels / Broken; Start of the Breakdown; The Prisoner; The Working Hour; Pale Shelter; Suffer the Children; Memories Fade; I Believe; Mad World; Shout; Everybody Wants to Rule the World; The Hurting; Change.
The next and final time I saw Tears for Fears was when they appeared low down on a multi-band bill at Knebworth in 1990. The day was headlined by Pink Floyd and Paul McCartney. Tears for Fears opened the day around noon, and we were listening to them as we drove in (it was broadcast live on the radio) and then caught the end of their set as we entered the park. They were having a big success at the time with “Sowing the Seeds of Love”.
Setlist at Knebworth 1990: Women of Ireland;Head Over Heels / Broken Change; Pale Shelter; Sowing the Seeds of Love; All You Need Is Love (The Beatles); Advice for the Young at Heart; I’ve Got To Sing My Song; Badman’s Song; Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Posts Tagged ‘music’
15 Nov
Tear for Fears Newcastle City Hall 6th April 1985 (and Knebworth 1990)
14 Nov
Tear for Fears Newcastle City Hall 5th December 1983
Tear for Fears Newcastle City Hall 5th December 1983
Tears for Fears were inescapable during the mid 1980s. Their music was played absolutely everywhere. The band spent most of 1983 out on tour around the world, promoting their debut album “The Hurting”. In November 1983, they released a new single, “The Way You Are”, and finished a successful year with another UK tour to promote it. This was their second UK tour of the year, and they returned to Newcastle City Hall to play another sold out concert. Support came from Bristol band The Escape. This was another great concert. Tears for Fears performed most of the tracks from The Hurting as well as the new single and a few new songs which would eventually end up on their second album, “Songs from the Big Chair”, in 1985.
Setlist (something like): Start of the Breakdown; Mothers Talk; Pale Shelter; The Working Hour; The Prisoner; Ideas as Opiates; Mad World; We Are Broken; Head over Heels; Suffer the Children; The Hurting; Memories Fade; Change; The Way You Are; The Marauders
The single “The Way You Are” was written while on tour, as a sort of stop gap to keep the band in the public eye while they recorded their second album. It wasn’t a massive hit compared to their previous releases, reaching No. 24 in the UK singles chart. Both Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith later admitted that they didn’t rate the song, Roland stating it was “the point we realized we had to change direction”, while Curt said it was “the worst thing we’ve done”. And change direction they did indeed. The 1983 Tears for Fears sang very dark, depressive songs. A year or so later a new Tears for Fears would emerge with a clutch of joyous pop songs which would take them to massive international success. I saw them perform back at the City Hall in 1985, but that’s a story for tomorrow.
13 Nov
Tear for Fears Newcastle City Hall 22nd March 1983
Tear for Fears Newcastle City Hall 22nd March 1983
Tears for Fears seemed to appear from nowhere and were suddenly massively popular. This concert at the City Hall was completely sold out, and came a couple of weeks after the release of Tears for Fears first album “The Hurting”. The Hurting reached No. 1 on the UK Album Chart, was certified Gold within three weeks of release, and contains Tears for Fears first three hit singles: “Mad World”, “Change”, and “Pale Shelter”, all of which reached the Top 5 in the UK. I remember thinking how young Roland and Curt looked. I only knew the singles, but enjoyed the gig. “Mad World” and “Pale Shelter” are great pop.
From the tour programme: “Mad World was released in September 1982 and while Curt and Roland expected moderate sales, they were staggered when it smashed into the UK charts reaching No. 3 just before Christmas and staying there for three weeks.” Support came from North East band Verba Verba.
Curt Smith said of “Mad World”: “We were sitting in his [Roland’s] flat….and we were looking out of the window at people going to work, and existences we thought were pointless….we thought it was a really great, original track but we also thought there were songs on the album that were far more commercial. So we thought we’d release it first and that it would garner us some critical acclaim because it was interesting and different. None of us – including the record company – thought it would be a hit”.
“All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere”
(Mad World, Tears for Fears, 1982)
12 Nov
John Mayall 80th Anniversary Tour Sage Gateshead 11th November 2014
John Mayall 80th Anniversary Tour Sage Gateshead 11th November 2014
John Mayall at 80! Wow.
Blues legend John Mayall is out on the road again for his 80th, yes you read it right, 80th anniversary tour.The ‘Godfather of British Blues’, founder of the Bluesbreakers, who launched the careers of Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Peter Green and Mick Taylor, was back in the north east last night to play a concert at the Sage Gateshead. Support came from top blues band King King.
Mayall has dropped the Bluesbreakers name for his current band to signal a slimmed down new line-up which features Rocky Athas on guitar, Greg Rzab on bass and Jay Davenport on drums.
The set went something like this: “You’re Too Lazy” (great start with white haired pony-tailed Mayall up front playing mouth harp from the word go), “Where Did You Go Last Night?” (Mayall on rolling piano and great guitar solo by Rocky), the lights dim and John picks up guitar for “Early In The Morning” which is a slow moody blues song “early in the morning and we ain’t got nothing but the blues” and which sees John and Rocky trading riffs, “The Sum of Something” (Mayall back to piano and powerful mouth harp solo ), 
“A Special Life” (the title track of Mayall’s latest, and 45th!, album), Mayall explains that the band are playing a different set each night on this tour to “keep things alive and keep us on our toes”, “Moving Out and Moving On” (Mayall back on guitar for some great guitar work and a stomping blues), then an old familiar tune: “Parchman Farm” (great chugging mouth harp and bass and drum duel/solo from Greg and Jay), “Speak of the Devil” (here he comes after you 🙂 – amazing mouth harp solo which receives a loud and well deserved round of applause), Otis Rush’s “I Can’t Quit You Baby” (“we are going to do a blues” with an amazing guitar solo from Rocky to loud applause), and then a very welcome surprise – my favourite (and which I don’t believe he plays that often now) “Room To Move”, and a 100% amazing mouth harp solo from the master Mayall, drum solo from Jay and a tremendous bass solo from Greg. Then it’s back to Mayall’s harp and the familiar “Room to Move” riff. Took me right back. It really don’t come much better than this. The concert was pure class. Top blues played by the master. But you wouldn’t expect anything less. Long may he continue.
11 Nov
Talk Talk Redcar Coatham Bowl 22 April 1984 & Newcastle City Hall 3 May 1986
Talk Talk Redcar Coatham Bowl 22 April 1984 & Newcastle City Hall 3 May 1986
Talk Talk are a massively under-rated, and sadly largely forgotten, band. I saw these guys twice; once at a gig at Redcar Coatham Bowl in 1984 and them again a couple of years later at Newcastle City Hall. Both gigs were excellent, but the Redcar gig particularly sticks in my mind. By the time I went to see them in 1984 with my mate Dave, Talk Talk had been in the lower regions of the charts a few times with some great singles: “Talk Talk”, “It’s My Life”, and the excellent “Dum Dum Girl”. Coming out of the new wave movement, at first they seemed a straight synth pop band. But there was much more to Talk Talk than pop music. They soon moved into more experimental areas. The gig at Redcar was very unlike what I expected. I thought I was going to see a regular new wave / pop act. What we actually witnessed was a much darker, moodier performance by a band pushing at the boundaries. There was something quite strange and almost unnerving about their performance. The singer Mark Hollis stood, hair covering his face, (Dave said he reminded him of Curly Watts from Corrie 🙂 ) hunched over the mike, almost ignoring the audience and sang moody songs, as dark textured synth sounds crept around the venue. Powerful stuff.
I saw Talk Talk once more in 1986. This was in a (sadly) half full City Hall, and at the time of their classic “Life’s What You Make It” which is another great track. The importance of Talk Talk is beginning to be recognised with bands including Radiohead and Portishead declaring them an influence on their music. Talk Talk split in 1992 and Mark Hollis retired from the music business.
Setlist 1986: Talk Talk; Dum Dum Girl; Call in the Night Boy; Tomorrow Started; Life’s What You Make It; Mirror Man; Does Caroline Know?; Chameleon Day; Living in Another World; It’s You; Give It Up; It’s My Life; I Don’t Believe in You; Such A Shame.
Encore: Renée
10 Nov
The Toy Dolls 1981
The Toy Dolls 1981
Now and then I come across a ticket in my collection, and I can’t remember the gig at all. This is one such ticket. Now I think I might have read somewhere that this gig didn’t take place, which might explain why I don’t remember it 🙂
The Toy Dolls, of course, emerged from the Sunderland punk and pub/club rock scene in 1979, and quickly built up a reputation as one of the best live bands around. The Toy Dolls were, and are, led by crazy lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter Olga and produced great tongue in cheek ditties which told stories of local people, clubs and events like “Tommy Kowey’s Car”, “She Goes To Finos”, “James Bond Lives Down Our Street”, “Fisticuffs in Frederick Street” and “Geordie’s Gone to Jail”. They hit the charts in 1984 with a zany cover version of “Nellie the Elephant”. Toy Dolls’ music is fast; part punk, part new wave, part Oi with catchy melodies, humour, and lots of energy. Gary Bushell termed it “punk pathetique”; a subgenre of British punk rock which involved humour and working class cultural themes. This ticket shows the support acts for this “festival” as being local bands Dance Class, who released a great album in the early 80s, and New Studeau. Although I don’t recall this gig, I do remember seeing The Toy Dolls play in local pubs and clubs including the sadly missed Old 29 and West Cornforth (Doggy) club.
A quote from Olga: “I became involved in music as soon as I saw a picture of Suzi Quatro in a magazine when I was delivering newspapers in Sunderland, about 12 or 13-years-old. Punk came to me about four years later, changed my life and suddenly all the barriers were broken down and it was possible for me to become a singer too, or at least pretend I was. Getting bullied at school was a big factor, wanting to prove I could do something, and then hearing Sweet, Slade, Suzi Quatro etc, I knew exactly what I would do with my life at that point.”
The Toy Dolls continue to play and remain successful in Japan, and Europe.
9 Nov
Judie Tzuke Newcastle City Hall 25th April 1980
Judie Tzuke’s emerged in 1977, when she signed to Elton John’s Rocket Record label, and had her first major single success “Stay with Me till Dawn” in 1979. “Stay with Me till Dawn” was co-written with Mike Paxman (more of him later) and featured on Judie Tzuke’s debut album “Welcome to the Cruise”. It was a massive success and stayed in the UK charts for 16 weeks.In 2002, BBC Radio Two conducted a poll to determine the top fifty British songs of the past fifty years, and “Stay With Me Till Dawn” was at No. 39. In 1980 Judie Tzuke released her second album “Sportscar” which was a bigger success than her debut album. I saw Judie Tzuke at this time, when she toured the UK playing at Newcastle City Hall on 25th April 1980. It was great concert, by a superb artist.
But there are a few facts relating to this concert that I have to mention. The first is the Status Quo connection. The aforementioned Mike Paxman, who was Judie Tzuke’s co-writer for “Stay with Me till Dawn” and many other songs, as well as her guitarist, has more recently been a producer for Uriah Heep and Status Quo. Paxman had produced several Quo albums including Heavy Traffic (2002), The Party Ain’t Over Yet (2005), Quid Pro Quo (2011) and the recent Aquostic unplugged album. But that’s not the only Quo connection here. Judie Tzuke’s band also included John “Rhino” Edwards on bass, and Jeff Rich on drums. Rhino is of course Quo’s current bass player and Jeff Rich was drummer for the Quo from 1985 to 2000. If you look closely at the centrefold picture from the Judie Tzuke programme pictured here, you can see a young Rhino. He is the tall blonde guy in the leather jacket. Jeff Rich is the guy with the red curly hair, also wearing a leather jacket. 
But there is yet another interesting connection relating to this gig. The support act was an unknown new wave mod band called Graduate (see the flyer which I found in my programme). Graduate had just released their debut album “Acting My Age”, and a single “Elvis Should Play Ska” (which refers to Elvis Costello, rather than Presley). The single wasn’t a big success and Graduate soon split, but two of their members Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith went on to form Tears for Fears. If you strain your eyes you may be able to recognise Curt and Roland.
Judie Tzuke’s music is classic adult rock with great melody and romantic lyrics. David Sinclair reviewed a London gig in the Times: “the central image throughout was of the disarmingly beautiful Miss Tzuke, face framed by a tangle of teeming blond hair, singing with a fragile passion in the voice of a convent schoolgirl turned waif. Combining a glacial poise with her innate sensuality, she projected with controlled emotion through the preponderance of haunting slow songs… dignified and compelling performance.”
Judie Tzuke continues to record and perform today.
Judie Tzuke setlist: Chinatown; Sukarita; Welcome to the Cruise; Stay With Me Till Dawn; Living on the Coast; The Rise of Heart; Nightline; Rain on the Hills; Southern Smiles; Katiera Island; The Choices You’ve Made; Sports Car
Encore: For You; Ladies Night; New Friends Again; These Are the Laws
7 Nov
The Tubes Newcastle City Hall 13th May 1979
The Tubes Newcastle City Hall 13th May 1979
Two years on since The Tube blew us all away with a crazy visual onslaught, they were back on tour in the UK again. This time they had a concept album to play and show to us all. “Remote Control” was based around the concept that “TV is King” and was produced by Todd Rundgren. The show featured the new album and old favourites with all the crazy stage antics that we had come to expect from these guys. This time The Tubes played two shows in one night, I went to the late show with a bunch of mates. A fun show, but for me it was beginning to feel more like a musical theatre show than a rock show. Still, it was all worth while just to get the chance to see along with Fee on “White Punks on Dope”.
Support came from the excellent Squeeze.
Setlist (something like): Getoverture; Turn Me On; TV Is King; Be Mine Tonight; Don’t Touch Me There; No Mercy; Only the Strong Survive; I Want It All Now; What Do You Want From Life; No Way Out; Telecide; Love’s a Mystery (I Don’t Understand); Tubes World Tour; Stand Up and Shout; White Punks on Dope (The Who’s Baba O’Riley and The Kids are Alright featured as encores at some shows)
“We’re white punks on dope
Mom & Dad moved to Hollywood
Hang myself when I get enough rope
Can’t clean up, though I know I should
White punks on dope
White punks on dope”
(White Punks on Dope, The Tubes, 1975)
6 Nov
The Tubes Newcastle City Hall 6th November 1977
The Tubes Newcastle City Hall 6th November 1977
This was a gig like no other. The Tubes were virtually unknown in the UK, but stories of their crazy OTT stage show were gradually creeping over from the USA. This was the band to out-shock, out-punk, and out-do everyone else, and outrage the general population at the same time. So when “The Toobs” came over for a tour of UK theatres and concert halls we just had to see them. We had tickets for Yes, with Donovan support, at Glasgow Apollo on the same night, but we sold them to friends, as we couldn’t pass on the chance to see this.
Video screens all over the place, dancers, 50ft stacks, lots of props and each song a new concept and the chance for the band to play new roles. So many highlights. You couldn’t take it all in. And just when you thought the Tubes had been as outrageous as they could possibly be, the next song is even crazier, wilder, and more obnoxious.
Alpha male Fee Waybill and the gorgeous Re Styles dueted on’Don’t Touch Me There’ from a motorbike. Fee Way strapped Styles between two video monitors to perform some ‘MondoBondage’. The band become the punk parody “Johnny Bugger and the Dirtboxes”. Waybill threatens us all with a chain saw while singing “I Saw Her Standing There”. For the end of the show Waybill became Quay Lewd, the ultimate glam rock star complete with three feet high platform shoes, and led us all through a crazy rendition of “White Punks on Dope”.
Totally amazing. We were all blown away. 🙂 🙂
Support came from Wire (Dot Dash 🙂 )
Reviews of the time were ecstatic. “The Tubes are a spectacle unlike any other. They present a relentless onslaught of humour, outrage, parody, idiocy, music and costume – a feast for the senses.” (Paul Rambali, NME)
“It’s nothing short of magnificent. The only words you can use are ones like sensory overkill. The act doesn’t leave you alone. One moment it’s the band in white intern coats playing straight techno-rock. Then it’s a dance troupe on the lam from Star Wars, and then there’s the punk pastiche. Except, pastiche or not, The Tubes can cut harder and deeper than 90%s of the new wave.” (Mick Farren, NME).
Set list (based on the live lp recorded during the 1977 London concert run at Hammersmith): Overture; Got Yourself a Deal; Show Me a Reason; What Do You Want from Life; God-Bird-Change; Special Ballet; Don’t Touch Me There; Mondo Bondage; Smoke (La vie en Fumér); Crime Medley (starting with a siren and including themes from Dragnet, Peter Gunn, Perry Mason & Untouchables); I Was a Punk Before You Were a Punk; I Saw Her Standing There; Boy Crazy; You’re No Fun; Stand Up and Shout; White Punks on Dope.
The Tubes were Fee Waybill (front man extraordinaire, crazy guy & vocals), Bill Spooner (guitar), Michael Cotten (synth), Mingo Lewis (percussion), Prairie Prince (massive drum riser and kit), Roger Steen (guitar), Vince Welnick (keyboards), Rick Anderson (bass) and Re Styles (vocals, dance and many unspeakable things with Fee).
I saw the Tubes again in 1978, at the Knebworth Festival sharing a bill with Frank Zappa and Peter Gabriel. I’ll save that one for when I come to write about Zappa. The Tubes were back at the City Hall again in 1979 for the ‘Remote Control’ tour, with support from Squeeze. I’ll write about that gig tomorrow.
5 Nov
10cc Newcastle City Hall 1978 & 1980
10cc Newcastle City Hall 1978 & 1980
I saw 10cc on two further occasions. The first was at Newcastle City Hall on their 1978 tour. This was at the time of the “Bloody Tourists” album and the massive No. 1 single, the reggae-tinged “Dreadlock Holiday”. There was one change to the line-up with Duncan McKay (ex Cockney Rebel) replacing Tony O’Malley on keyboards. “Dreadlock Holiday” was 10cc’s last hit. In 1979 Eric Stewart was seriously injured in a car crash, which set the band back.
Stewart: “It flattened me completely. I damaged my left ear, I damaged my eye very badly. I couldn’t go near music. I couldn’t go near anything loud and I love music and motor-racing. I had to stay away from both things for a long time, for about six months. 
And the momentum of this big machine that we’d had rolling slowed and slowed and slowed. And on the music scene, the punk thing had come in a big way. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, lots of things like that. So by the time I was fit again to play, I think we’d just missed the bus. It’d gone. And whatever we did after that, we got a few tickles here and there and we could continue touring forever on the strength of the past hits, but it didn’t feel right again, we just didn’t have that public with us.”
In 1980 10cc released their seventh studio album “Look Hear?, which reached No.35 in the UK album charts. Two singles were taken from the album: “One Two Five” and “It Doesn’t Matter at All”, but both failed to chart. I saw the band for the last time at Newcastle City Hall on their 1980 tour.
10cc continued to deliver the goods live, and I enjoyed the 1978 and 1980 concerts. But the band’s popularity was declining and they split in 1983. Gouldman puts it thus: “Really, after ’78 things went downhill for us. I don’t know what it was.”
Typical 10cc setlist from 1980: L.A. Inflatable, The Wall Street Shuffle, One Two Five, I’m Mandy Fly Me, Lovers Anonymous, How’m I Ever Gonna Say Goodbye, Good Morning Judge, From Rochdale to Ocho Rios, Art for Art’s Sake, It Doesn’t Matter at All, The Things We Do for Love, Don’t Send We Back, Dreadlock Holiday, Feel The Benefit (Pt.1-3), I’m Not in Love, Rubber Bullets, Life Is a Minestrone, Roll Over Beethoven
Graham Gouldman currently fronts a new line-up of 10cc which also features former members Rick Fenn and Paul Burgess.
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