Barbra Streisand O2 Arena London 18th July 2007
Another guilty pleasure?
This was my first visit to the O2 Arena London, and one of the first concerts to be held in the new arena. The O2 is a massive indoor arena located in the centre of an entertainment complex situated on the Greenwich Peninsula in London. It is, of course, named after its main sponsor, the telecommunications company O2 and has a capacity of 20. It is the first American-style, multi-purpose arena in London, the second largest arena in Europe (after the Manchester Arena), and the busiest concert arena in the world. From the venue website: “with the completion of The O2, AEG has given London what it has always needed: a world class entertainment destination. Under our already iconic roof in Greenwich lies a state of the art live music club, 11 screen multiplex cinema, exhibition centre, an entire street of bars, restaurants and leisure attractions, and most breathtaking of all – the O2 arena……The O2 is the first purpose built music venue since the Royal Albert Hall in 1871. The wait has definitely been worth it.”
The O2 was ideal and obvious venue to host a concert by Barbra Streisand. I’d fancied seeing Barbra in concert for some time, and regretted missing her previous visit to the UK. I’d read of her reputation as being the consummate lve performer, and the greatest and biggest star in the world. The biography on her website lists the following incredible achievements: “Barbra Streisand is the only artist ever to receive Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards and France’s Légion d’honneur as well as the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award…..she is the only performer to have number one albums in five consecutive decades…..her 51 gold albums, 30 platinum and 18 multi-platinum exceed all other female singers.” Impressive or what?!
The publicity around this series of 4 UK dates (3 in London, with a date subsequently added in Manchester Arena) was as much about the price of tickets as Streisand, her music and her performance. Prices ranged from £100 to £650 a seat, with the whole of the floor area of the O2 being priced at £550 and upwards. I stumped up £100 for a ticket for the first night, right up on the upper level. 
I arrived early at the O2 to allow time for a good look around the venue and it surrounding complex, and must say I was impressed. The arena is a plush venue, sited with a larger complex,with bars and restaurants on every level. I took my seat, right up “in the gods” for the first half of the show, which started with the crowd giving Streisand a standing ovation before she even sang a singe note. Soon that powerful, emotion-full voice rang through the arena and we were treated to classic Streisand: “The Way We Were” and “Evergreen”; those familiar tones bringing tears to the eyes. I much prefer hearing the ballads to the stage hits, and wasn’t disappointed. I could spot some empty seats downstairs, some of the expensive seats remained unsold, so during the interval I made my way down to the floor level and sat in an empty £500 (ouch!) seat. No one challenged me so I enjoyed the second part of the concert with an excellent view. The latter half featured more classics: “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” and “(Have I Stayed) Too Long at the Fair?”, along with a question and answer session, which got a little lost in the vast arena. For the encores I became a little more daring and moved right down front, I was now sitting about 5 rows from the front in a seat that will have been priced at £650, with a great view of Barbra as she stormed through “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and touched us all with a moving version of Chaplin’s “Smile”. Amazing.
Going to see Streisand was something I’d promised myself I would do for a long time, and I’m so glad I did. It was some experience.
Act I: Funny Girl Overture; Starting Here, Starting Now; Down with Love; The Way We Were; Ma Première Chanson; Evergreen. Broadway Singers set: Something’s Coming; You’ll Never Walk Alone; I Finally Found Someone (Streisand joins Broadway Singers). Funny Girl Suite: Funny Girl; The Music That Makes Me Dance; My Man; People.
Act II: Entr’acte; The Music of the Night; Jason’s Theme (instrumental); You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught; Children Will Listen; Unusual Way; What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?; Q&A with Barbra; You Don’t Bring Me Flowers; (Have I Stayed) Too Long at the Fair?; William Saroyan: The Time Of Your Life; A Cockeyed Optimist; Somewhere; My Shining Hour.
Encores: Don’t Rain on My Parade; Smile; I’ve Dreamed of You
Posts Tagged ‘music’
14 Jul
Rod Stewart St James Park Newcastle 25th June 2007
Rod Stewart St James Park Newcastle 25th June 2007
Rod was back in Newcastle in 2007 to play a massive open air show at St James Park in June 2007. I turned up on the night and bought a ticket for half price outside the stadium (result, as tickets for Rod Stewart concerts were getting more and more expensive 🙂 ), the show was far from sold out. It was a dreary, cold night with spells of rain, which didn’t help the atmosphere inside the stadium. The stage was placed in the middle of the stadium, which created quite strangely angled views, from whichever position you took in the vast area. Support came from the excellent Pretenders, with Chrissie Hynde chatting with the crowd and playing their hits from the late 1970s and early 1980s, including Brass In Pocket and Talk Of The Town. 
Rod’s performance included an acoustic set in the middle of the show. Not the best time I’ve seen Rod, but still an enjoyable evening, with the highlight for me being the chance to see the Pretenders again.
The setlist was something like: You Wear It Well; Some Guys Have All the Luck; Sweet Little Rock & Roller; It’s a Heartache; Rhythm of My Heart; Reason to Believe; Missing You; Father and Son; Every Beat of My Heart; Having a Party; Stay With Me; The Tracks of My Tears; Hot Legs; I Don’t Want to Talk About It; Dirty Old Town; Every Picture Tells a Story; The First Cut Is the Deepest; Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright); This Old Heart of Mine; Young Turks; Sailing; Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?; You’re in My Heart; Baby Jane; Maggie May. Encore: Twistin’ the Night Away; I Was Only Joking
13 Jul
Charity evening at Wolsingham Constitutional Club 12th July 2014
We spent last night supporting Laura and her friends who were playing at Wolsingham Constitutional Club. The event was a charity night benefit for The Brain Tumour Charity, organised by Carl’s Crusaders https://www.justgiving.com/teams/carlscrusaders
There was a raffle, a charity auction, and we all got to play “Irish Bingo”. The band played a selection of pop and soul classics which went down well with the audience. A good time was had by everyone, and over £5,000 was raised for an excellent cause.
12 Jul
Ben Folds with Royal Northern Sinfonia The Sage Gateshead 11th July 2014
Ben Folds with Royal Northern Sinfonia The Sage Gateshead 11 July 2014
This concert was part of Ben Folds’ 2014 global orchestral tour. Billed as “The Ben Folds Orchestral Experience,” it features his new classical piano concerto as well as a selection of his pop hits arranged for orchestral performances. Folds was the front man of Ben Folds Five before going on to have a successful solo career. Laura is a big fan, and Ben was on her list of people she has never seen, so off we went to his concert at the Sage last night. Fold’s music has somehow passed me by, so I went along with out of curiosity and looked forward to experiencing his songs for the first time. He was accompanied by the Royal Northern Sinfonia for the Sage concert; it seems he picks up “local” orchestras for each segment of the tour. The Royal Northern Sinfonia played with Ben for three nights, at Bristol Colston Hall, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, and at last night’s concert at the Sage.
I always seem to want to compare acts with those I am more familiar with, and I found this quite tricky to do in the case of Ben Folds. He has his own style, although I could sometimes hear influences from perhaps early Elton John, Billy Joel, Jimmy Webb, and American pop: The Monkees, The Lovin’ Spoonful. He is certainly a very talented and accomplished singer-songwriter. Ben was seated centre-stage at his grand piano, surrounded by the orchestra. He started with a few of his songs, which had been reworked for the orchestral accompaniment. He then played his new Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, which, he explained, he had recently been commissioned to write for a ballet. Now I’m not that used to attending classical concerts, but I really enjoyed this piece, which ran at around 25 minutes. One more song and there was a short interval.
Laura and I are were sitting in the upper level, looking down on the right of the stage, and the sound wasn’t too good there, so we moved to some empty seats up the back of the hall for the second part of the concert, and the sound quality was much better. The highlight of the second part of the evening was a completely new, improvised on the spot, piece. It was fascinating to watch the music develop in front of us, in real-time, Ben playing each part of the orchestra their parts on the piano, before they all played together. The piece featured Ben singing the lyrics (but not the tune) of the Kinks’ Sunny Afternoon, a copy of which a member of the troupe had apparently found in the restaurant. He explained that this follows similar, but also unique, improvisations in Bristol (a song about the Colston toilets) and Manchester (where the lyrics where the fire drill instructions). Pretty neat or what?! 🙂 
In another touching moment Folds led us phone to the mike so that he could play us his 14 year old daughter’s new song, which was really good (we all promised not to tell her).
Ben Folds is a big supporter of orchestras, and encouraged us all to support our local musicians. As we left the hall, we were handed a flyer promoting upcoming concerts by the Royal Northern Sinfonia playing Beethoven’s Six “Pastoral”, which included a message from Folds: “It’s long as shit, so if you haven’t heard classical music before you need to have patience you’re going to hear something that was probably as revolutionary as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. It was written in 1825 and by that point a lot of Beethoven’s peers just viewed him as, well, some deaf gut who’s kind of losing his shit, you know, he’s meandering. he’s rambling. But he was like Lil’ Wayne here, he was building the beat. If you lie with your head between the speakers, if you have the patience, make yourself into a trapped audience, you will realise that this guy was sick, you know. He must have torn his hair out to get here. Its insane”. Indeed.
An interesting artist, and an excellent concert.
Setlist was something like this: Effington; Smoke; Jesusland; Picture Window; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Steven’s Last Night in Town. Interval. Zak and Sara; Landed; Fred Jones, Parts 1 & 2; Gracie; Not the Same; Sunny Afternoon (Orchestra Improvisation using the Kinks’ lyrics); Brick; One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces. Encore: The Luckiest. Encore 2: Kate; Rockin’ the Suburbs
11 Jul
The Olympic Torch Concert: Rod Stewart with Ronnie Wood in The Mall London 26th June 2004
The Olympic Torch Concert The Mall London 26th June 2004
Tickets were given away free, through a ballot, for this concert to mark the arrival of the Olympic Torch in London in 2004. The publicity at the time announced: “As the Olympics draw closer, London will host the Olympic Torch Relay and we have tickets to give away for the Olympic Torch Concert. It will be a landmark event for London and the UK as the torch is carried though 11 London boroughs on Saturday, 26 June. The Mall, for the first time, will become a gigantic open-air venue for 70,000 people, linking sport and music. Rock legend Rod Stewart will headline with James Brown and many other music stars such as Jamelia and Emma Bunton will also be performing in celebration of the Olympic flame coming to London” (BBC, 2004). David Campbell, chief executive of Visit London, said: “We are enormously proud to be associated with the Olympic flame’s visit to London, and are delighted at the support we have been given by all the artists for what will be a spectacular concert and day of entertainment. Visit London wanted to stage an event that encompassed the ethos of the Olympic ideal, bringing it to the people in one of the world’s most famous capital cities. We are confident that the Olympic Torch Concert and all the events on 26 June will do just that.” This was the first time the Olympic torch had come to Britain since 1948.
The full line-up of the concert was: Rod Stewart, Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne, James Brown, Will Young, Emma Bunton, Beverley Knight, Jamelia, McFly, Rachel Stevens, Razorlight. 
Marie and I were lucky enough to score a couple of tickets in the ballot so we went to London for the weekend for this special event. We arrived early, but the place was completely packed, with the stage right down the bottom of The Mall. It was impossible to get anywhere near the stage, but video screens had bee erected along the length of The Mall to show the concert and the progress of the Olympic torch as it was carried through London boroughs by 140 torchbearers. Sir Roger Bannister, 75 at the time, and the first man to break the four-minute mile in 1954, started the relay and brought it to a close by running up the centre of The Mall onto the stage. Highlights of the concert were Ozzy and Kelly singing “Changes”, James Brown and Will Young dueting on “Papa’s got a brand new bag” and Rod Stewart’s short three song set, which featured the cast from “Tonight’s The Night” (a big West End success at the time) on “Sailing” and “Rhythm of my heart”. But more importantly the concert also featured Rod with his old Faces mate Ronnie Wood on guitar for “Stay With Me”. You can see it below on YouTube. We are right at the back of the crowd watching a screen 😦 We probably would have had a better view watching it on TV, but the atmosphere in London was great 🙂 .
Rod’s performance with Ronnie Wood made the day, and the trip to London, worthwhile for me. It was great to see the two of them performing together again, even it was only for a few moments, and it brought back many happy memories.
9 Jul
Pearl Jam Leeds Arena 8th July 2014
Pearl Jam Leeds Arena 8th July 2014
This was my initiation to Pearl Jam. I’ve been meaning to go and see them for some time and finally did so last night in Leeds. The closest I got until now was seeing singer Eddie Vedder guest with The Who at the Albert Hall a couple of years ago.
My evening started shortly after 5pm, as I set off down the A1. I had am uneventful journey south into Yorkshire and was parked up in a multi- storey car park in Leeds by 7pm. It was then a short walk to the First Direct Arena, before I took my seat in the first tier, just to the left of the stage. Pearl Jam came on just before 8.30pm; there was no support act. This was one of only two UK dates which they are playing this time around, the other being a massive open air show at Milton Keynes bowl.
Leeds First Direct Arena is a fine venue, which holds around 10,000 people, but somehow has the feel of a much smaller hall. This is my second visit, having seen Springsteen there last year.
I’m familiar with very little of Pearl Jam’s material, but I’ve read a lot about them, and was really looking forward to this gig.
Got home late last night. This was an epic 3+ hours, 30+ songs, set from the band, and they exceeded all my expectations. Few bands connect with the audience in the way Pearl Jam did last night. At times I felt like I was the only one in the entire arena who didn’t know all the words to every song as the whole crowd sang along, arms waving. It was like being an observer at someone else’s massive party. The band were very clearly having a great time, and made several references to being pleased to be playing in Leeds, where The Who recorded their famous live album. The encores included covers of two Who classics: The Real Me and Baba O’Reilly. I find Pearl Jam’s music difficult to categorise; although they grew out of the grunge movement, their songs reflect their classic 70s rock roots. You can hear The Who, punk, The Ramones all mashed in there somewhere. In some ways the epic, lengthy nature of the set, and the loyalty of the fans reminded me of seeing the Grateful Dead back in the day. Perhaps that’s a strange comparison, as the music of the two bands is so different. However, I am not alone in making it: “Is Pearl Jam a Modern Grateful Dead? Pearl Jam has long been linked to flannel, but what about tie-dye? As the band closes in on its second decade making music, Pearl Jam and its follow-them-anywhere fans have slowly become one of the tightest communities in rock ’n’ roll, complete with a vibrant bootleg trade centered around the band’s ever-changing, much-lauded live show that many claim transcends the pomp and circumstance of normal rock shows for something more human. Sound like a mouthful? Sure. Sound like the Grateful Dead? Absolutely.” (You can read the full article by Justin Jacobs at http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/09/pearl-jamband-are-pearl-jam-a-modern-grateful-dead.html )
Last night what I witnessed was a classic rock act who transcend genres, were obviously enjoying themselves and unquestionably playing on top form. Many fans are already proclaiming it the best Pearl Jam gig they have attended.
Setlist: Pendulum; Of The Girl; Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town; Breakerfall; Hail Hail; Once; Mind Your Manners; Lightning Bolt; Tremor Christ; Wishlist; Who You Are; Ghost; Even Flow; Sirens; Push Me, Pull Me; Do The Evolution; Don’t Gimme No Lip; Army Reserve; Present Tense; Given To Fly; Setting Forth; Rearviewmirror.
Encore 1: Man Of The Hour; All Or None; Fatal; The Real Me (The Who cover); Porch.
Encore 2: Smile; Leaving Here; Black; Jeremy; State Of Love And Trust; Alive; Baba O’Riley (The Who cover); All Along The Watchtower (Dylan cover); Indifference
8 Jul
Joy Division Newcastle City Hall 4th October 1979 (supporting The Buzzcocks)
Joy Division Newcastle City Hall 4th October 1979 (supporting The Buzzcocks)
I am going to jump out of sequence a little here, as I have just realised that I haven’t written a piece on Joy Division, and in particular of seeing them in concert supporting the Buzzcocks at Newcastle City Hall on 4th October 1979. At the moment I am working on a chapter which discusses the roots of trance music, and I wanted to link that to Joy Division’s music, so writing about them here will help me do so. Anyway here goes.
My recollections of this 1979 concert are, in fact, more of support act Joy Division and of Ian Curtis’ unique, bizarre and compelling performance than of The Buzzcocks. It was generally accepted at the time, that “although Joy Division were the support act on the Buzzcocks tour of Britain, on several nights they completely out-performed the Buzzcocks” ( http://www.joydivisiondata.co.uk/joyd_concerts2.html ). I had seen Joy Division once before at an early gig in Newcastle Guildhall in 1997, when they were known as Warsaw, and I’d heard some of their album played at Middlesbrough Rock Garden. I’d also read reviews of the lp in the music papers which I bought each week; NME proclaiming that “Unknown Pleasures is an English rock masterwork” (Bell, 1979). So I was looking forward to seeing them again, and to experience the intensity of their performance.
Joy Division had just released their debut album “Unknown Pleasures” at the time of this concert, which was part of a nation wide tour as support for The Buzzcocks. The single “Transmission” was played quite a lot at the Rock Garden. This was before “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and the original line-up was, of course, Ian Curtis (lead vocals), Bernard Sumner (guitar, keyboards), Peter Hook (bass) and Stephen Morris (drums). Jon Savage described the music on “Unknown Pleasures” as “a definitive Northern Gothic statement: guilt-ridden, romantic, claustrophobic” (1994). Oksanen (2007) writes of “The revival of the Gothic in late modern culture” and how “the subject feels isolated and alienated and is left with a trance-like dream reality” and that “the works of Joy Division and Diary of Dreams underline personal emptiness, ambivalence and dream states.”
I made a point of arriving at the City Hall early to see the support act, passing on a visit to the City Tavern or the downstairs bar. We had seats right down the front, and watched all of Joy Division’s set. Their music had developed a lot from the basic punk thrash that I saw at the Guildhall a couple of years earlier, and had become a dark, gothic, rhythmic, noise. The musicality of the songs impressed me and set them apart from their punk and new wave contemporaries. But most of all, I was transfixed by Ian Curtis, his blank expression, glaring eyes and crazy, manic epileptic dancing. It was clear that there was something awkward, different yet brilliant about the guy, which came through in his dark lyrics which painted dark images of alienation, his monotonic, snarling vocals and his manic, crazed dancing. The performance was intense, scary, compelling, and unnerving.
I found this great review by Adrian on http://joydivision-neworder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/joy-division-newcastle-4-oct-1979-flac.html which describes the concert much better than I can, so I have reproduced it here:
“Joy Division in concert were simply astonishing. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I was 15 years old and into the post punk type of thing. I’d known for a while that Joy Division were coming to Newcastle and wanted to see them – I’d heard a few things on John Peel and caught the end of a TV appearance on Something Else some time earlier. The Buzzcocks were generally viewed as a pop band by this point, who often had good support bands.
My friends and I got to the City Hall late, and had just got to our seats as the hall lights went down. The stage was very dark I recall, and as they began to play, I wondered when the lights were going to come on properly (they never did!). The first thing that struck me was the power of the drums – I’d never felt such deep bassy drums at a concert, one’s whole body felt the beat. Ian Curtis was at the front of the stage, what seemed like the very edge – he appeared to be on a brink of a cliff. He couldn’t have been more than 25 feet from where I was sitting. The others were just figures in subdued light – maybe it was blue, I cannot recall.
When Ian Curtis started singing, it was loud and even deeper than the drums, and it caught you in the diaphragm – incredible feeling. I don’t think he did “the dance” until a few tracks into the short set, but when he did, staring into the audience, it sent shivers down my spine, and I realised that I was witnessing something extraordinary.
A few of us stood up out of our seats at that point (we had been told to remain seated), and bouncers attacked many of us, including my friend about three rows in front of us – the memory of a bouncer leaping over rows of seated people to attack my friend, while Ian Curtis did his dance above on the stage during “She’s Lost Control”, is something that will stay fixed in my visual memory forever.
Hooky was pretty animated on a few tracks, and I recall a broken bass string hanging down from his guitar – not something you usually saw at concerts. “Colony” also stood out as fantastic and alien-sounding. The set seemed to be over very quickly, and there was a feeling of…well, I suppose it was “shock” more than anything at watching Joy Division perform.
The Buzzcocks seemed to come on almost immediately to play their pop songs. When audience members stood up, unchallenged by the bouncers this time, I just walked out of the hall into the rain – it was October and sleety – down to the bus station. It didn’t seem right watching any other band, especially the poppy Buzzcocks, after what I had just seen.”
A recording of the concert exists; Joy Division performed the following songs: Disorder; Shadowplay; Colony; Day Of The Lords; Glass; Transmission; She’s Lost Control; Atrocity Exhibition.
Bell, M. (1979). Review of Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (Factory). New Musical Express (NME), 14 July 1979
Oksanen, A. (2007). Hollow Spaces of Psyche: Gothic Trance-Formation from Joy Division to Diary of Dreams. In Nostalgia or Perversion? Gothic Rewriting from the Eighteenth Century until the Present Day, van Elferen, I (ed.). Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Savage, J. (1994). Joy Division: Someone Take These Dreams Away. Mojo. July 1994.
6 Jul
Rod Stewart, Status Quo & Joe Cocker Gateshead Stadium 2nd June 1991
Rod Stewart, Status Quo & Joe Cocker Gateshead Stadium 2nd June 1991
This was an excellent line-up with three class acts, and played for two nights at Gateshead Stadium in 1991. How could I not go to this one, Rod, The Quo and Joe Cocker. I have always been a big fan of Joe Cocker, and was very much looking forward to the opportunity of seeing him in concert again. It had been almost 20 years since I had last seen him perform, on a cold windy night in a field somewhere near Lincoln. 
If my memory is correct this was also a wet day, but all three acts played great sets to a packed crowd. I took Ashleigh along to this concert, and although she wasn’t a fan of any of the acts and a teenager at the time and into punk and heavy metal, she also enjoyed it. Rod Stewart setlist: Tonight I’m Yours; Sweet Little Rock’n’Roller; This Old Heart Of Mine; The First Cut Is The Deepest; Downtown Train; Hot Legs; Tonight’s The Night; Passion; Go Out Dancing; Every Beat Of My Heart; Sweet Soul Music; Rhythm Of My Heart; Da’Ya’ Think I’m Sexy?; Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay; Time Is Tight (band only);Every Picture Tells A Story; Mandolin Wind; You’re In My Heart; Muddy Waters Blues; Baby Jane; Some Guys Have All The Luck; Reason To Believe; Maggie May; You Wear It Well; I Don’t Want To Talk About It; Sailing; Twistin’ The Night Away; It Takes Two; Stay With Me
5 Jul
Rod Stewart Ibrox Stadium Glasgow 18th June 1983
It had been 7 years since I last saw Rod; far too long. I drove up to Glasgow with a group of mates for this concert. Baby Jane had been a big hit, and I saw it as a return to rock’n’roll for Rod. We had a drink in a proper spit and sawdust pub (I think it actually did have spittoons on a concrete floor covered in sawdust). Think it was called The Ibrox? I remember I asked for a half of lager (I was driving and that was all I was going to have to drink) and the barman told me in his strong Glaswegian accent “We dinna sell halves of lager in here”. Support came from disgraced rocker Gary Glitter who was having a little bit of a comeback at the time. From Everything2: “1982 and 1983 were spent by Glitter touring universities with his show. This appealed to Glitter as the people at university at this time were the teenagers who bought his records at the peak of his success. This success was followed by Glitter being asked to appear as a guest by his friend Rod Stewart in 1983 at his concert at Ibrox Park in Glasgow. Glitter jumped at this and appeared in front of an audience of 20,000 people [note. I am sure there were more than 20,000 people there, I would have said more like 50,000?] which was many more than he was used to at this time. At the beginning of his set, Glitter had a mixed reaction from the audience, but his unique style of working the crowd had them crying out for more by the time he had finished, so much that Stewart had to put in a very good performance to compete.”
The rest of the bill consisted of JoBoxers, who grew out of Subway Sect and had a hit with Boxer Beat and Scottish band Passionate Friends: “in the summer of 1983, following a series of gigs around the country, the band were brought to the attention of Harvey Goldsmith. Harvey was promoting the Rod Stewart gig at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, and invited the boys to play support to Rod, Gary Glitter, and Jo Boxers.” (Wikipedia) 
There was a great atmosphere at the gig, lots of Scottish flags, and a very warm welcome for Rod from his adopted home crowd. Rod had by now moved fully into rock/pop hero mode, and the set reflected his late 70s and early 80s solo work, with very little from the Faces days or his early solo outings. Favourites of mine were always “I’m Losing You”, “Mandolin Wind” and “Reason to Believe”, none of which featured in Rod’s seat at the time, although he did sing the excellent “Gasoline Alley” and finish with a rocking version of “Stay With Me”. An excellent concert, with the now traditional footballs being booted out into the stadium and onto the Ibrox turf.
Setlist: Tonight I’m Yours (Don’t Hurt Me); Sweet Little Rock & Roller; Dancin’ Alone; Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright); Passion; She Won’t Dance With Me; Little Queenie; Jimmy Z Blues; Sweet Surrender; I Don’t Want to Talk About It; You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim); Baby Jane; Young Turks; What Am I Gonna Do (I’m So in Love With You); Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?; Gasoline Alley; Maggie May; Sailing; Hot Legs; Baby Jane (Reprise); Stay With Me
4 Jul
Rod Stewart Newcastle City Hall 14th December 1976
Rod Stewart Newcastle City Hall 14th December 1976
This was Rod’s first major solo outing, and it was billed as “The Concert” (I remember thinking that this was quite pretentious at the time, and to add to the pretentiousness; the tickets were printed gold!). I went with Marie to queue for tickets on the day they went on sale. Rod was playing four nights at the City Hall, and I figured that it wouldn’t be too difficult to get tickets with so many concerts. How wrong I was! When we arrived at the City Hall the queue was already right down the road. We joined the queue and stood for a few hours, only to be told that all the tickets had been sold. Gutted! However all was not lost. By chance I was going to the City Hall that night with a mate, to see David Essex, as I recall, and we asked at the box office if they had any tickets left for Rod. “You are in luck” said the lady. “We found two tickets after we closed up. They are single seats for different nights. Do you want them?” We snapped them up, I took one for the first night, and my mate took the other. I had to explain to Marie how I was now going to see Rod on my own….but she was ok with that.
The show was great. This was Rod at his best, and the crowd was massively up for it. His band was tight and hot, and he was Rod the Mod, great rasping vocals, massive ego and stage presence, lots of singalong, and loads of footballs kicked into the crowd at the end. I have never been a fan of “Sailing” but the rest of the set made up for it, in spades.
Support came from Liverpool Express.
Rod’s Band: Carmine Appice (drums), Phil Chen (bass), Jim Cregan (guitar), Billy Peek (guitar), Gary Grainger (guitar), John Jarvis (keyboards).
“The tour got off to a terrible start. The band and I were only just getting to know each other and I thought, ‘I’ll show you who can drink’. For about three weeks I was staying out all night and I wasn’t eating. It didn’t help. Then I got sick. Well, I was existing on port and brandy afternoon tea and toast. When we opened at Olympia I felt so bad it was almost like somebody telling me I shouldn’t be there.” (Rod to the Daily Mirror at the time)
Setlist: Three Time Loser; You Wear It Well; Big Bayou, Tonight’s The Night; Wild Side Of Life; This Old Heart Of Mine; Sweet Little Rock’n Roller; The Killing Of Georgie; I Don’t Want To Talk About It; Maggie May; Angel; True Blue; You Keep Me Hangin’ On; Get Back; (I Know) I’m Losing You; Sailing; Stay With Me; Twistin’ The Night Away
Vintagerock's Weblog. 