Posts Tagged ‘new wave’
30
Oct
Posted by vintagerock in Toyah. Tagged: concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, new wave, pop, punk, rock, rock n roll. Leave a comment
Toyah Newcastle City Hall 1981 & 1982
So Toyah became a pop star. She had major chart success with a run of hit singles. First “It’s a Mystery” which was the stand out song on a hit EP. Toyah: “When I first heard ‘It’s a Mystery’ I thought it wasn’t for me….the end of…four brilliant years’ work as a credible rock artist… Because I’d worked from 1977 right up to 1980 and I had an army of followers and I just knew this song wasn’t for them”. This was followed by “I Want to Be Free”. Toyah again: “It resonated with how I felt about my school years.” “Thunder in the Mountains” followed: “I wanted to be Bodicea, set in the future, a woman breaking free… everything I did that year was on the concept of breaking free”.
I saw Toyah on the next couple of tours both of which called at Newcastle City Hall; the Anthem tour on 1st June 1981 and the Changeling tour on 12th July 1982. These were big shows with intricate stage sets, which gave Toyah a platform to run around, playing out her Bodicea fantasy, while she squealed, squawked and screamed her way through the set. Great fun.
The concerts on 17 July and 18 July 1982 at London’s Hammersmith Odeon were recorded for the live double album Warrior Rock: Toyah On Tour.
Setlist from 1982 tour: Good Morning Universe, Warrior Rock, Danced, Jungles Of Jupiter, It’s A Mystery, Castaways, Angel & Me, Brave New World, The Packt, Thunder In The Mountains, We Are, I Want To Be Free, Dawn Chorus, War Boys, Ieya.
29
Oct
Posted by vintagerock in Toyah. Tagged: concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, new wave, pop, punk, rock, rock n roll. Leave a comment
Toyah Newcastle Mayfair 1980 & Durham University 1981
My first recollections of Toyah Willcox are of seeing her performances in the seminal punk film “Jubilee” and the film of the Who’s “Quadrophenia”. That started my interest in her and I went to see her live on four occasions I the years between 1980 and 1982. It may not be cool to admit it now, but I was a bit of a fan at the time, and enjoyed her life performances. You have to admit that this lady has achieved a lot including 8 Top 40 singles, over 20 albums, two books, over 40 stage plays and 10 films, and many TV shows. She is also, of course, married to enigmatic prog king Robert Fripp.
I first saw Toyah live on the 1980 IEYA tour, when she called at Newcastle Mayfair on 5th June 1980. This was her first visit to the north east, and I had been waiting for some time for a chance to see her. At the time Toyah was seen as being part of the punk scene, although she said “I don’t use punk whatsoever because my philosophies are so different, my morals are so straight. I’m not a punk, I’m a modern woman.” 
I recall the gig as a joyous, crazy affair. Toyah live was a manic bundle of energy, charging around the stage, screaming, rolling around, totally into the performance. The band weren’t far behind her, either. The music used dynamics, soaring choruses and thumping beats to drive the gig along. Great fun, and very impressive. Toyah was a serious artist and a real contender at the time.
This was before she yielded to the charts and the hit making machinery. “At some of our gigs the kids go bananas! But this one time it was particularly bad. A riot started before we’d even leapt on stage. 
I was furious, ‘cos a lot of kids wanted to hear us! I didn’t know what to do, so I stomped off till everyone calmed down!” (Record Mirror, 1980). A live album was recorded during the tour, at Wolverhampton Lafayette a couple of weeks after the Mayfair gig. The track listing is: Victims of the Riddle, Indecision, Love Me, Visions, Tribal Look, Bird in Flight, Danced, Insects, Race Through Space, Ieya. I guess the set at the Mayfair will have been similar.
In early 1981 Toyah toured university student unions; I attended a wild packed gig at Dunelm Ballroom Durham University on 26th January. Toyah was on the verge of massive chart success. The EP “Four by Toyah” would soon be released, which featured the hit “Its a Mystery”.
28
Oct
Posted by vintagerock in Blondie, Only Ones, Television. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, new wave, pop, punk, rock, rock n roll. 2 comments
Television Newcastle City Hall 23rd May 1977 and 10th April 1978
Marquee Moon was one of those songs which seemed to follow me everywhere in 1977. The title track of Television’s highly acclaimed (and rightly so) debut album was on everyone’s playlist. If was so…. different from anything else at the time, and came from a different dimension to any of the more familiar variants of punk or new wave. No thrash, no poppy tune. Instead Marquee Moon had all the ingredients of great new music: Tom Verlaine’s extraordinary razor sharp edgy riffs, cutting in and out of the off-beat, and some seriously weird lyrics which were difficult to understand but seemed to tell some strange dark story. The rest of the album was equally as good, with great twin guitar work, an arty, precise, almost clinical feel and elements of classic rock. The critics loved it. Television’s line-up at the time was Tom Verlaine (guitar, vocals), Richard Lloyd (guitar), Fred Smith (bass) and Billy Ficca (drums). Television toured the UK with support from Blondie, playing at Newcastle City Hall on 23rd May 1977. There was a good turn out for the concert which drew punk, rock and pop fans.
Although both bands hailed from the same New York new wave scene, they were musically and artistically very different and those differences came through in their performances that night. Blondie were on the cusp of massive success, and were bright, poppy, fast and lots of fun. Debbie Harry was amazing. In contrast Television were serious, distant, and simply played their (excellent) music with no particular light show and very little interaction with the audience. A great concert, with two contrasting bands both performing well.
Relations weren’t great between Television and Blondie on the tour. Blondie’s Chris Stein said that Television were “competitive” and recalled the Glasgow show where “all our equipment was shoved up at the Apollo and we had like three feet of room so that [Tom Verlaine] could stand still in this vast space.”
A 1977 Television setlist would be something like this: See No Evil, Friction, Venus, Prove It, Elevation, Marquee Moon, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
(Bob Dylan cover), Satisfaction (Rolling Stones cover).
The Damned has a similar experience to Blondie when they played with Television. Brian James: “When we did that first American tour, we had a gig on the West Coast supporting Television. We got there and they said ‘We’re not letting this bunch support us’. We were stuck on a limb. We went down to see them and play and we had tee-shirts saying ‘Television are c**ts’. It really intimidated them. Captain wrote a song called ‘Idiot Box’ — like TV — about them.” “I can turn you off, Well I just tried & left you off
Tumbling you may be art, But you sure ain’t rock’n’roll
People standing in the rain, Just to see that screen Verlaine
Supersonic I’ll come back soon, ‘Cause all we got is a Marquee moon” (Idiot Box, The Damned)
Television returned to Newcastle City Hall on 10th April 1978. The hall was far from full, and much emptier than the previous year. Support this time was The Only Ones, Peter Perret’s great band. This was at their time of their excellent single Another Girl, Another Planet. Another big contrast between support and headliner. This was a lack lustre performance by Television. They spent some considerable time tuning up, ignoring the audience, to the extent that several people walked out. The feeling that came over was one of coldness and distance.
Sorry to leave my memories on a less than positive note. Television were an exceptional band, a breath of fresh air and the sound of Verlaine’s guitar on Marquee Moon cut through everything else around at the time.
Many thanks to Mitch for the photos which he took at the 1977 concert.
14
Oct
Posted by vintagerock in Barracudas, Tourists. Tagged: concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, new wave, pop, rock, rock n roll. Leave a comment
The Tourists Newcastle City Hall 19th September 1980
The Tourists Luminous tour of Great Britain called at Newcastle City Hall on 19th September 1980. The tour was to promote their third and final album “Luminous Basement”, which wasn’t as successful as the previous two releases, making No. 75 in the chart. The single from the album “Don’t Say I Told You So” made No. 40 in the singles chart. Support came from the Barracudas a surf/garage/psych/pop band who had a summer 1980 hit single “Summer Fun” and were great fun. The Tourists star was starting to wane, and although this was a fun show, the City Hall was far from full, and things weren’t going so well in the Tourists camp. The band split later in 1980, with Anne Lenox and Dave Stewart forming a liaison which would soon yield much greater success as the duo Eurythmics. The end of the Tourists came in Bangkok, when an airline strike stranded the band. The rift came with Stewart and Lennox disagreeing with the band’s main singer-songwriter Peet Coombes. 
Annie said in NME at the time: “Now Peet can be his own spokesperson…It was always part of Dave’s and my dilemma that we were acting as spokespersons for someone else’s work within a pop context, yet we weren’t able to put across how removed he was from that whole scene….We were on a funny boat, The Tourists….A strange craft… When we did that song [I Only Want to be With You] it was purely for fun. But after that it became bizarre. The things that happened to us were so wild, yet everyone got the impression of nice, clean poppy people. Dave Stewart: “The publicity thing just became like a bigger and bigger black cloud, until the only way we probably could have continued to exist with any dignity as people was to step aside and say, ‘Look this just doesn’t exist anymore. Let’s do something else’.” And that’s exactly what they did.
13
Oct
Posted by vintagerock in Solos, Tourists. Tagged: concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, new wave, pop, rock, rock n roll. 2 comments
The Tourists Newcastle City Hall 23rd February 1980 
The Tourists were, of course, the pre-Eurythmics band of Annie Lenox and Dave Stewart. I’d seen Stewart perform with local Sunderland folk-rock band Longdancer a number of times, and was a little surprised to see him pop up in a post-punk pop band. However this particular post-punk band had its roots in folk and 60s pop. Harry Doherty, writing in Melody Maker, drew comparisons with Fairport Convention (not sure that I quite see that) and the Mamas and the Papas (I don’t quite see Annie or Dave as Mama Cass either 🙂 ). The first time I saw the Tourists live was on 10th May 1979 when they supported Roxy Music at Newcastle City Hall. They put in a good performance, warmed the crowd up well, and won a few friends that night. I saw them again a few months later on 24th August 1979 at the Reading Festival, sandwiched between performances by Motorhead and Friday night headliners the Police. I remember the Reading performance well; the Tourists had some great songs, particularly the Peet Combes compositions “Blind Among The Flowers” and “The Loneliest Man In The World”, which both featured in their performance that night and came over well on a cool summer evening. Both songs were released as singles. The Tourists went down quite well with the Reading crowd, particularly considering that most people who were there had come to see Motorhead; hardly the sort of crowd to appreciate a new punky pop band. They had some problems with the sound that night: “The only thing that freaks me about touring, is the equipment…It’s right out of your hands if it goes wrong. That’s what happened when we did the Reading Festival. It was mayhem onstage, really frightening.” (Annie Lenox, Record Mirror, 1980). Peet was the main songwriter in the band at the time, and wrote all of the songs on their first album. I saw them again on 19th October 1979 at Newcastle Polytechnic, by which time they had made No. 4 in the UK singles chart with their cover of Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want to Be with You”. A drunken Friday night student crowd danced and sang along with Annie. I thought at the time that “I Only Want to Be with You” was a strange, and for me somewhat disappointing, choice for a single; given the strength of their original material. However, it worked for them, and gave them their first big chart success, helped by Annie’s great performance on Top of the Pops. 
By the time the Tourists went out on their first headline “Last Laugh” tour they had released a new single “So Good to Be Back Home Again”. I saw them at Newcastle City Hall on 23rd February 1980. A great performance; good fun straight-on pop. Support came form Edinburgh band the Solos. From the programme: “A short story from a short person. I can’t understand what I’m doing in this group when I’m such a brilliant footballer, but life takes strange twists and I twisted my knee, which ruined my chances of captaining England back in ’69” (Dave Stewart); “Pigtailed and precocious, the envy of all the potential Shirley Temples of Abderdeen, I started to learn the flute and went to play in military bands, symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, etc….” (Annie Lennnox); “I was setting up my kit at 10 in the morning in a studio in London when in walked in Dave Stewart. Now, Dave and I had met in a hotel in Amsterdam when he was playing in Longdancer and I was with Colin Blunstone. We had hit it off really well together and as I remember I got very drunk.” (drummer Jim Toomey); “No great history – the only bands I ever played in were Peculiar Star (in Sunderland an experimental toy instrument idea…) and the Tourists.” (Peet Combes); “Q. Edward, do you really come from outer space? A. YES! I’m from the Orion!” (bassist Eddie Chin).
12
Oct
Posted by vintagerock in Teardrop Explodes. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, new wave, pop, psych, rock, rock n roll. Leave a comment
The Teardrop Explodes Newcastle Mayfair 25th June 1981 & Newcastle City Hall 2nd February 1982
The Teardrop Explodes were a great pop group. Although they emerged as part of the post-punk / new wave scene of the late 1970s, their music was very clearly influenced by ’60s psychedelia, and was labelled “bubblegum psych” or “bubblegum trance” by the music press. Led by charismatic, and fascinating, front man Julian Cope they exploded out of the Liverpool scene; friends of Wah! and the Bunnymen. I loved the singles “Treason” and “Reward” which remain classics of the genre and continue to influence bands today. I saw The Teardrop Explodes on three occasions, at Newcastle Mayfair on 25th June 1981, at Newcastle City Hall on 2nd February 1982, and supporting Queen at Elland Road on 29th May 1982. I have strongest memories of the Mayfair gig. The Teardrop Explodes had been high in the charts with “Reward” and the band, and Julian Cope in particular, were on top form. Julian was on the brink of becoming a major pop star. He was his usual exuberant, fearless, unashamed, “little boy lost” blonde bob self. And why wouldn’t he be; after all he was on the verge of becoming his hero Scott Walker. “The whole idea of the Teardrops to me is nice, nice melodies and lyrics that, while they’re always sung hopefully, have dark secrets in them when you start listening to them.” (Julian in Record Mirror, 1981). 
A packed Mayfair crowd gave the band a crazy reception; it was a great night; swirling, whirling waves of sound and colour lifted us all and taking us along for the ride. The 1981 programme proclaims the tour “Out of the Culture Bunker”. Julian explained what this was about in Record Mirror (1981): “I have a new song called ‘Culture Bunker’ that’s about the way we all reacted to other people trying to make it in Liverpool. We’d say we really want you to make it but we don’t, the whole thing is so smiley, smiley, stab you in the back. David Balfe is always slagging me off for smiling at people, and saying hello when I’m not interested in them but it’s just the way I’ve been brought up. I’m not one of, those people who declare ‘I’m honest, I’m frank, I tell people that they’re shits’.”
By the time I saw the band again at the City Hall things didn’t seem quite the same. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a great, enjoyable gig, but it lacked the edge and power, and joy, of the Mayfair concert the previous year. This was due, in part, to the lack of craziness which results when moving from a ballroom to a concert hall, but also I suspect because things weren’t too good in the band; there had been several line-up changes, and there was ill-feeling between Julian and some of the other members. The music was changing as well, and according to reports Julian was experimenting heavily with LSD. Julian’s mood felt darker; he was no longer Scott Walker, and was becoming a moody Jim Morrison. The evening before in Edinburgh the gig had ended on a dark note: “What I do recall very clearly is the interminable nonsense of the final encore: Sleeping Gas. Never a tune I have ever had much time for, the piece degenerated into an embarrassing ten minute Cope rant. The singer ended up on the floor towards the end burbling on about savaging the audience, and I am sure I was not the only one in the place thinking “Julian! For F**’s Sake. Behave yourself” (from http://therockandrollknife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/teardrop-explodes-edinburgh-1982.html ). Such was Julian Cope at the time. 
The last time I saw The Teardrop Explodes they supported Queen at Elland Road. It wasn’t a great day for them. The crowd started hurling bottles and cans at Julian and he spent a lot of time arguing with everyone. “Not sure who was first on, probably Teardrop Explodes, Julian Cope, I remember while they were throwing bottles at him, picked one up and started hitting himself with it and stretching his arms out saying he was an Argentinian bomber or something. It was during the Falklands war, remember.” (from a Queen fan forum). It was like watching a band self destruct in front of your eyes.
I like to remember The Teardrop Explodes as they were that night at the Mayfair; joyous, uplifting; a celebration of a young guy from Liverpool who was living out his dreams, and let us come along for the ride.
Julian Cope continues to perform and remains a unique, highly creative, individual.
3
Oct
Posted by vintagerock in A Certain Ratio, Dire Straits, Talking Heads. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, Dire Straits, gig, gigs, music, new wave, pop, rock, rock n roll. 13 comments
Talking Heads Newcastle Poly 27th Jan 1978 and Newcastle City Hall 27th Nov 1979
I first saw Talking Heads at a concert at Newcastle Poly in January 1978. They were touring with Dire Straits as support at the time. Dire Straits were starting to become known as a result of their single “Sultans of Swing” and Talking Heads were the darlings of the US new wave, with rave reports of their concerts in the States coming through the UK music press. I watched Taking Heads on TV performing “Psycho Killer” on the Old Grey Whistle Test and was hooked. The quirky jabbing rhythms and the strange lyrics (who would write a song about a psycho killer?) intrigued me. By the time they came to play at Newcastle Poly they were performing songs from their first album and the yet-to-be-released “More Songs About Buildings and Food”. Live Talking Heads were excellent. There was a feel of an art school band about them; very different to the punk of the Ramones or to any of the UK new wave. David Byrne was the eccentric school teacher, whose manic stage manner held us all transfixed, and Tina Weymouth bobbed away playing a bass that looked bigger than she did. I remember there being mutters that Dire Straits would outshine them; not so, Talking Heads were great and the crowd loved them.
Roll on a year or so and Talking Heads were back in Newcastle playing to a packed City Hall. By now they had released their third album “Fear of Music” and were massively successful, their popularity transcending the new wave tag. Human League were billed as support but I think they were pulled from the tour because they wanted to play a recorded set? I think A Certain Ratio were support in the end. It was another great performance by Talking Heads, with the packed hall giving the band a great reception.
Talking Heads Newcastle City Hall 27th Nov 1979
Setlist for the Newcastle Poly show: Love-> Building on Fire; Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town; Don’t Worry About the Government; Take Me to the River; The Book I Read; New Feeling; The Big Country; Artists Only; Tentative Decisions; Stay Hungry; Thank You for Sending Me an Angel; Who Is It?; Psycho Killer
Encore: No Compassion; Pulled Up; I’m Not in Love; 1, 2, 3 Red Light
Setlist for the City Hall show: Artists Only; Stay Hungry; Cities; Paper; Mind; Heaven; Electric Guitar; Air; Animals; Love-> Building on Fire; Found a Job; Memories Can’t Wait; Psycho Killer
Encore: Life During Wartime; Take Me to the River
23
Sep
Posted by vintagerock in Spandau Ballet. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, new romantic, new wave, pop, rock, rock n roll. 4 comments
Spandau Ballet Whitley Bay Ice Rink 19th December 1984
The next time Spandau Ballet returned to play in the North East, they sold out two nights at the cold and cavernous Whitley Bay Ice Rink. Now very much pop stars, Spandau Ballet released their fourth album, Parade, in June 1984, which featured the hit single “Only When You Leave”. At the end of 1984, they performed on the Band Aid charity single. In a few short years this band had moved from being the darlings of the new romantic scene, playing small, intimate and exclusive events in trend-setting London clubs, to the pop star darling of thousands of screaming fans, headlining massive arenas up and down the UK.
In the tour programme, all of the band wax lyrically about the live experience. 
Tony Hadley describes it through a poem: “The dream was so real. The colours so clean. The atmosphere a richness that touched all the human senses. An expectation so overpowering that you no longer felt completely in control. A force greater than anything experienced before was urging you forward eager to tease and be teased. The curtain will rise and at once the party begins….Without any doubt at all, playing live is one of the greatest moments of my life.” Gary Kemp: “This is where ‘Parade’ really exists, in the event that we’ll both create tonight!” Martin Kemp: “…our stomachs ache with anticipation and our hands are clammy, this is by far the best time of any year…Welcome to the Parade.” Steve Norman: “Playing live is what we do best and it’s most certainly what we enjoy doing most.” John Keeble: “At Last! Spandau are back on stage and n-one is more pleased than me. I saw Spandau Ballet once more, in 1985, when they performed at Wembley Stadium as part of Live Aid.
I think that covers my ramblings on the letter “S”. It turned out to be a bit of a marathon. I need to double-check, but tomorrow I should be able to start the letter “T”! The end of my project is getting closer….
22
Sep
Posted by vintagerock in Spandau Ballet. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, new romantic, new wave, pop, rock, rock n roll. 2 comments
Spandau Ballet Newcastle City Hall 19th April 1983
“Initially ‘mod’ meant a very small group of young working class boys who, at the height of the trad boom formed a small, totally committed little mutual admiration society totally devoted to clothes…” (George Melly, from his book Revolt Into Style.)
“…although they’ve played only a handful of gigs to invited audiences, every record company in London has been chasing their signatures, some without hearing a note of their music. Already they’ve been the subject of an entire television documentary owing to their large London cult following.” (Betty Page, Sounds, 1980)
Spandau Ballet was as sharp as a dagger, and cool as you could get when they emerged from the new romantic scene of the early 1980s. Their gigs were special, important, exclusive events held at small London club venues like Blitz and Heaven. And their first single “To Cut a Long Story Short” was pretty good. And the clothes were so outrageous, courageous and splendid.
By the time Spandau Ballet appeared at Newcastle City Hall in 1983 they were morphing into a more mainstream pop and blue-eyed soul band. They had just released their third album “True” which features the song of the same name and their other massive hit of 1983, “Gold”. The “True” album topped the charts all around the world, and the band were poised for further success.
Setlist: Foundation; Communication; Pleasure; Code Of Love; Gold; The Freeze; Glow; Lifeline; Heaven Is A Secret; True; Paint Me Down; Instinction; Chant No1; Cut a Long Story Short
Line-up: Tony Hadley (lead vocals), Gary Kemp (guitar), Martin Kemp (bass), Steve Norman (sax), John Keeble (drums)
18
Sep
Posted by vintagerock in Nick Cave. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, film, gig, gigs, link up, movie, music, new wave, punk, rock, rock n roll. Leave a comment
Nick Cave 20,000 Days On Earth Live Link Up Tyneside Cinema 17th Sep 2014
Last night Laura and I went to the Tyneside Cinema to take part in a live link up to London’s Barbican for “20,000 Days On Earth”. Artists Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard have created this film which follows 24 hours of the (approx) 20,000th day of Nick Cave’s life. The film takes an imaginative and in-depth look at the mysterious and charismatic figure of Cave, exploring his life, his art and his creative process. This authentic and compelling movie gives us a glimpse of how Nick Cave approaches writing, work, and music. What you begin to understand is that there is no real distinction between Cave and his art. During the movie, he talks quite a bit about transforming himself by creating his own mythology and narrative, based on characters, thoughts and memories from his life. His life has become a project, which he lives 24/7, and the film gave us a glimpse of a single day in that life. It is set partly in his adopted home town of Brighton, and includes clips of rehearsals with the Bad Seeds in France, Cave’s manic live performance, and visiting his personal archive. Guests including Kylie and Ray Winston pop up briefly to give their own perspectives of Nick. Cave talks about how he lives for the performance and how he believes that, when it works, a live concert can become a truly transformative experience for him, the band and the audience. 
The screening of the film was followed by a live performance by Nick Cave, Warren Ellis and Barry Adamson, plus a Q&A with with those three and directors Forsyth & Pollard, all broadcast live from London’s Barbican centre, and linked to 150 cinemas across the UK. The Tyneside was sold out for this special event, and rightly so. We all left understanding a little more about the enigma that is Nick Cave; you couldn’t fail to be impressed by the passion, intensity and belief with which he approaches his art, and the uncompromising and relentless work ethic of the man.
So Toyah became a pop star. She had major chart success with a run of hit singles. First “It’s a Mystery” which was the stand out song on a hit EP. Toyah: “When I first heard ‘It’s a Mystery’ I thought it wasn’t for me….the end of…four brilliant years’ work as a credible rock artist… Because I’d worked from 1977 right up to 1980 and I had an army of followers and I just knew this song wasn’t for them”. This was followed by “I Want to Be Free”. Toyah again: “It resonated with how I felt about my school years.” “Thunder in the Mountains” followed: “I wanted to be Bodicea, set in the future, a woman breaking free… everything I did that year was on the concept of breaking free”.
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