The Spice Girls Christmas In Spiceworld Manchester Arena 4th December 1999
This is very definitely in the “guilty pleasure” category.
Laura was a big Spice Girls fan, and a member of their fan club, so when the “Christmas In Spiceworld Tour” was announced we decided to go to see them in Manchester so that her Christmas would come early that year. The tour was a complete sell out, those Spice Girls were pretty popular at the time; and it included eight massive arena shows in Manchester and London in the run up to Christmas 1999. The tour occurred between the albums Spiceworld and Forever. It was their first tour as a four piece girl group as Geri Halliwell (aka “Ginger Spice”) had left the band the year before to pursue a solo career. The line-up was thus Mel B (Melanie Brown aka “Scary Spice”), Mel C (Melanie Chisholm aka “Sporty Spice”), Emma Bunton (“Baby Spice”) and Victoria Beckham (“Posh Spice”).
We managed to get great seats through the fan club sale, right down front. It was I our first visit to the massive Manchester arena. The stage set was complex and extremely impressive. It consisted of a small platform surrounded by Christmas trees from which ran a very long runway leading to the main stage in the middle of the arena. The band (guitar, drums, bass, brass, and a small string section, I think) were in a pit in the middle of the main stage. The centre of the main stage raised up and rotated and above there were the usual stage lights and a massive Christmassy ice pillar. The girls entered the arena on the small stage and then made their way over to the main stage. During the concert they moved from the main stage to the circular one in its centre, and moved up and down and round and round, all to the delight of the crowd and all very impressive. 
The show was in four Acts.
Act 1: “Forever Spice”. They started with “Spice Up Your Life” and the place went crazy. I could hardly hear them for the screaming. Laura loved it, she had taken two of her Spice Girl dolls and was waving them at the girls. The rest of the first act featured the songs “Something Kinda Funny”; “Say You’ll Be There”; “Right Back at Ya”; “Step to Me”; “Mama” (where they were joined by a choir); “Too Much” and “W.O.M.A.N”. The last song of the first Act was “2 Become 1”. Mel B and Emma Bunton came down into the audience and picked two members of the audience (a man and a woman) to join them up on stage.
Act 2: Supergirls. The girls played the parts of superheroes on the revolving stage. The songs in this Act were: “Stop”; “Holler”; “Who Do You Think You Are”; “Never Give Up on the Good Times”; “Wannabe” and “Goodbye” (with the choir returning).
Act 3: It’s Christmas! (The Encore). The girls returned to the peal of church bells and performed “Viva Forever” and a Christmas Medley comprising “Merry Xmas Everybody”; “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” and a reprise of “Wannabe”.
The crowd, of course, gave them a standing ovation. All great fun and a spectacular show. Quite different from seeing Motorhead. Christmas gigs just don’t come any better 🙂
Spice Up Your Life.
Thanks to Wikipedia for reminding me of the detail of the production.
Fraid, to my shame, I am going to recount yet another guilty pleasure tomorrow. Not content with spending Christmas 1999 with those Spice Girlies, Laura and I just had to go to their reunion show eight years later….
Posts Tagged ‘pop’
8 May
The Spice Girls Christmas In Spiceworld Manchester Arena 4th December 1999
2 May
Damon Albarn The Great Hall Queen Mary University of London 1st May 2014
Damon Albarn The Great Hall Queen Mary University of London 1st May 2014 
Laura, David and Shauna and I went to see Damon Albarn play a special intimate show at The Great Hall Queen Mary University of London last night. David and Shauna are students there, so when this gig was announced Laura and I decided we would go down and join them for it. Demand for tickets was huge, with tickets limited to two per person and special arrangements to prevent touts from selling them on. We managed to get two seats, a single seat and a standing ticket, so we were spread out around the hall.
Albarn has just released his new studio album, Everyday Robots, which features cameo appearances by Brian Eno and Natasha Khan (Bat For Lashes). The album has been quite well received: “an intimate, introspective album that takes tentative steps to reveal the soul behind the star” (The Independent), “He’s arguably the foremost creative innovator of our times” (NME), “Beautiful, but subtle, cloudy and elusive” (The Guardian).
The Great Hall, part of Queen Mary’s historic People’s Palace, was re-launched in February 2013 following a £6m refurbishment project to restore the building to its former glory and install new technology.
Its a pretty amazing venue, and has a history of hosting gigs in the past; a poster on the wall shows that Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Genesis, Curved Air, Edgar Broughton and others played there in the late 60s and early 70s. George Foden, Corporate Events Manager of the University said: “We’re really excited to be involved. The promoter was considering several venues around London, so we’re delighted they chose the Great Hall for this high-profile show. When the venue was refurbished we ensured that the technical equipment installed was of a high-specification in order to attract artists of this calibre. We hope this will be the first of many live concerts in the Great Hall for staff and students and the local community to enjoy, as the venue has a long history of hosting live music events.”
The set was a mix of tracks from the new album, and lesser known (by me anyway, but judging by crowd reaction the audience knew them) songs from Blur, Gorillaz, The Good, the Bad & the Queen, and Rocket Juice & the Moon (Albarn’s collaboration with Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers). Biggest crape reaction was for the Gorillaz hit “Clint Eastwood” which featured guest rapper Kano. Albarn moved from singing centre stage, to sitting at a piano, to rocking with a Graham Cxon signature Fender Telecaster. The pace and mood of the songs change similarly, with some intense rockers balanced by moody, delicate piano-based treatments of Blur songs, such as closer “This Is a Low”. Damon is accompanied by his excellent new band Heavy Seas and a small string section.
A great show 🙂 which demonstrated the breadth and richness of Albarn’s catalogue. Laura and I were up early to get the first Grand Central train home (07.52 😦 )
Setlist: Lonely Press Play; Everyday Robots; Tomorrow Comes Today (Gorillaz); History Song (The Good, the Bad & the Queen); Hollow Ponds; Slow Country (Gorillaz); Kids With Guns (Gorillaz); Three Changes (The Good, the Bad & the Queen); You and Me; Photographs (You Are Taking Now); Kingdom of Doom (The Good, the Bad & the Queen song); Poison (Rocket Juice & the Moon); Hostiles; El Mañana (Gorillaz); The History of a Cheating Heart; Out of Time (Blur); All Your Life (Blur). Encore: Clint Eastwood (Gorillaz; with guest Kano); Mr. Tembo (with choir); Heavy Seas of Love (with choir); This Is a Low (Blur)
1 May
Stiff Little Fingers Newcastle City Hall 23rd January 1982 (and/or October 1982?) and farewell on 5th February 1983
Stiff Little Fingers 23rd January 1982 (and/or October 1982?) and farewell on 5th February 1983
The fourth (also to be the final) album of Stiff Little Fingers’ first incarnation, Now Then… was not as successful as their earlier albums. The album took the band towards a more pop/new wave-oriented sound than their previous releases and wasn’t received that well by fans and critics. Having sad that, it did reach No 24 in the UK album charts. In 1981, drummer Jim Reilly left, and was replaced by Dolphin Taylor (from the Tom Robinson band).
“Looking back, for me, that was the end of the REAL SLF. After touring and recording for four years, Jake decided that 1982 would see the end of SLF. He wanted to pursue a solo career and walked away. I went back to a life in Belfast.” (Henry Cluney, from his website).
Live, however, they continued to be a major attraction and toured again in 1982, in support of Now Then…
Frustratingly, my tickets and programmes for SLF in 1982 leave me confused once again. I have a ticket stub from a concert at the City Hall on 23rd January 1982, yet the programme from the same year shows that they played twice at Newcastle City Hall on 11th and 12th October 1982. So….was the January gig postponed until October? Or did I see them in January and October? And if I did, where is my ticket stub from the October gig? Who knows….I’ve giving up beating myself up about such things, and just accepted that my memory is not good these days. Perhaps if you read this you can help solve my dilemma. Support for some of the dates on the October tour came from Midnight Oil, an Australian rock band who hit the UK charts “Beds Are Burning” later in the ’80s.
By 1983 it was all over. Stiff Little Fingers announced that they were to split, and played a few farewell gigs, one of which was at Newcastle City Hall. Support came from the mighty Alarm (68 Guns). 
Now I do remember this gig well. It was a storming concert, much better than their concert at the same venue previous year, and a fitting send off for a great band. There was a sense that this was the last time we were going to be seeing them, and we wanted to make sure that we made the most of it, and we also wanted to let the band know how much they meant to us.
But of course it wasn’t the end after all. Five years later Jake Burns reformed SLF and they continue to tour to this day. I’ve never seen the band live since those early days, which is something I should really put right. I’ve just read a couple of reviews of recent SLF gigs, and it seems that they are just as high energy and passionate as ever. I must try and get to see them again one day. Until then, I’ll remember that young, raw band I saw at that crazy gig at Newcastle Guildhall 35 years ago…
30 Apr
Stiff Little Fingers Newcastle City Hall 18th May 1981
Stiff Little Fingers Newcastle City Hall 18th May 1981
It was almost two years between Stiff Little Fingers gig at Newcastle Mayfair on 9th June 1979 during their Gotta Getaway Tour and their next appearance in the city which saw them playing Newcastle City Hall on 18th May 1981. There was a reason for this.
SLF front man Jake Burns explained (Record Mirror, 1981): “We tried on ‘Go For It’ to be as straightforward as possible while remaining as clear about the world as we could. We ran into problems before for being too subtle because people don’t always see the humour in our songs. ‘White Noise’ on Inflammable Material got us banned from Newcastle for two years or so. A councillor read the lyrics and ordered that they couldn’t have bands spreading such racist ideas in Newcastle. There was a headline, ‘PUNK ALBUM COULD START NORTH EAST RACE RIOT.'” This misunderstanding stopped SLF from coming to Newcastle during 1980.
However by the time they came to tour with “Go For It” things had relaxed and the band were able to book a concert at the City Hall, which quickly sold out. “Go For It” was SLF’s third album and saw the band’s style change a little, covering new subjects such as domestic abuse in the song “Hits and Misses” but also still retaining their stories of being a teenager growing up, with the song “Kicking Up a Racket”.
Live, however, little had changed. Stiff Little Fingers remained a hot, passionate live act who really meant it, and had a massively loyal following in the north east. Support act for the tour was punk band The Wall, who originated from Sunderland.
Another great gig by a great live act.
29 Apr
Stiff Little Fingers and The Angelic Upstarts Newcastle Guildhall 28th February 1979
Stiff Little Fingers and The Angelic Upstarts Newcastle Guildhall 1979
My memories of this gig are sketchy, but what I do remember is that it was one of the wildest, craziest and most amazing concerts I have been to. It was around the time that Stiff Little Fingers were just starting to break through and make a name for themselves. They’d had some success with the singles “Suspect Device” and “Alternative Ulster”, and had just released their first album “Inflammable Material”. I’d already seen them play as support for Tom Robinson at the City Hall in late 1978. What I do remember well was that the place was jam packed; dangerously so. They had somehow crammed so many people in there that you couldn’t move at all. And there were lots of fights. The Upstarts manager, Keith Bell, aka The Sheriff, kept jumping into the crowd and sorting out the trouble. Both bands put in awesome, high energy performances; Stiff Little Fingers were unbelievably good: raw, full of energy and passion. The place went completely crazy when they played those classic songs: “Suspect Device”, “Wasted Life”, “Barbed Wire Love” their great version of Bob Marley’s “Johnny Was”; and when they played “Alternative Ulster” the crowd was going entirely nuts. I didn’t think I was going to get out of the place alive. That night SLF were, without question, simply the best new rock’n’roll band on the planet. The atmosphere was a mix of danger and pure rock energy. My mate and I lurked near the back of the crowd, being two of the few people in the hall with long hair. Where did those days go? Was it really more than 35 years ago? I saw Stiff Little Fingers again at Newcastle Mayfair in June 1979 (with support from the Starjets) and then at the City Hall a few times in the early 80s. They were always great but none of those gigs were as raw, energetic or exciting as that night at the Guildhall.
I’ve just watched SLF playing Suspect Device live in 1978 on YouTube and it brings it all back:
I’ll write more about SLF tomorrow.
SLF were (in those days):
Jake Burns – Vocals, guitar
Henry Cluney – guitar, Vocals
Ali McMordie – bass guitar, Vocals
Brian Faloon – drums.
“What we need is
An Alternative Ulster
Grab it change it’s yours
Get an Alternative Ulster
Ignore the bores, their laws
Get an Alternative Ulster
Be an anti-security force
Alter your native Ulster
Alter your native land” (Jake Burns and Gordon Ogilvie, 1978)
27 Apr
The Shadows 20 Golden Dates tour Newcastle City Hall 10th May 1977
The Shadows 20 Golden Dates tour Newcastle City Hall 10th May 1977
The Shadows reformed in 1977 and went out on the road to promote their 20 Golden Great album. The album was a massive success, staying in the UK charts for 43 weeks, and holding the number 1 position for 6 weeks. The tour fared similarly, with all date sold-out. The Shadows line-up for the tour was originals Hank Marvin (lead guitar), Bruce Welch (rhythm guitar), Brian Bennett (drums), accompanied by Alan Jones (bass), and Francis Monkman (of Curved Ait, and later of Kay, keyboards). Hank Marvin was one of my guitar heroes when I was a kid. I spent hours trying to learn to play “Apache”, “Dance On” and “Foot Tapper”. There really isn’t another player like him. The concert was a celebration of an amazing body of music, and stuck pretty faithfully to the tracks on the 20 Golden Greats album. The Shadows were just as you would expect, clean-cut and 100% professional with the same choreographed moves and guitar swings that we all saw and loved on TV in the ’60s. 
Hank’s playing was excellent, note perfect, with every twang and vibrato of the tremelo arm of his Strat exactly as it was on those old singles. Simple perfection, amazing to see and just great fun. Happy days.
Setlist: Shazam, Kon-Tiki, Marmaduke, Atlantis, Don’t Throw It All Away, Please Don’t Tease, Summer Holiday, The Day I Met Marie, Bachelor Boy, I Could Easily Fall In Love With You, In The Country, Apache, Foot Tapper.
INTERVAL
The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt, Dance On, Nivram, Walk Don’t Run, Don’t Make My Baby Blue, Theme For Young Lovers, The Frightened City, Peace Pipe, The Savage, Little B, Sleepwalk, Let Me Be The One, Wonderful Land.
Encore: FBI.
24 Apr
Screaming Lord Sutch Sunderland Polytechnic Wearmouth Hall sometime in the early ’70s (probably 1973) and at the Barbary Coast Sunderland 9th February 1984
Picture the scene. It was sometime in the early ’70s, probably 1973. I was in my mid-teens and had started to take concert-going pretty seriously. It was a Saturday night student dance in Wearmouth Hall, which was the student union building of Sunderland Polytechnic. The great thing about those dances at that time, was you never knew who you were going to see. There was no internet to check gig listings in those days. I would turn up on a Saturday night with a couple of mates, and the name of the act for the night would be written in chalk on a blackboard at the door. So you could go along and it would say “Arthur Brown” or “Home” or some other act who was touring at the time. One night we turned up and the board displayed the name “Screaming Lord Sutch”. We weren’t sure what to expect, and in fact nothing could have prepared us for what we were about to experience. So we paid our entrance fee, which was probably 30p or so, and got ourselves a spot at the front of the stage. After some tight a band came of stage playing some basic rock’n’roll. Soon a few guys carried a coffin on stage and set it down right in front of us. We could hear a voice singing, and soon realised that it was coming from the coffin. The lid suddenly flung open revealing a crazy guy, face covered in make-up, wearing a cape and a top hat. This was my introduction to the mad Sreaming Lord Sutch. Sutch started to prowl the front of the stage. He picked up a large axe, and pretended to try and chop our heads off. Girls down the front were screaming. The music was pretty basic rock’n’roll, but the stage show was awesome. The highlight was a song called “Jack the Ripper” during which Sutch paced around the stage threatening to kill any female students that were close by. He was looking for “Mary”….At one point he pulled Mary’s bloodied head out of his doctor’s bag…to much screaming from the crowd. It was pure music hall, tacky, yet powerful and great fun. One of the best shows I had ever seen at the time.
I saw Screaming Lord Sutch once more, in 1984. This time the gig was billed as a Wild Rock & Roll Night, and was held at the Barbary Coast Club, Sunderland. The Barbary Coast used to be the Boilermakers Club, which played host to local bands in the ’70s; Son of a Bitch (who became Saxon) played there a lot, along with strippers before the match on a Saturday. by 1984 it had become a nightclub, and had a reputation for fights, and earned the nickname “The Barbaric”. There was no trouble that night; the place was full of teds, and we had a long wait before our hero Sutch came on stage. The show was very similar to the gig I had attended 10 years earlier. Good fun, perhaps not as powerful the second time.
From Wikipedia: “David Edward Sutch (10 November 1940 – 16 June 1999) also known as 3rd Earl of Harrow, or simply Screaming Lord Sutch, was an English musician. He was the founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party and served as its leader from 1983 to 1999, during which time he stood in numerous parliamentary elections. He holds the record for losing all 40 elections in which he stood. As a singer he variously worked with Keith Moon, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, Charlie Watts and Nicky Hopkins.
RIP the original monster raving loony Screaming Lord Sutch. We will never see his like again.
The Ripper, Jack The Ripper
There’s a man who walks the streets of London late at night
The Ripper, Jack The Ripper
With a little black bag that’s oh-so tight
The Ripper, Jack The Ripper
He’s got a big black cloak hangin’ down his back
The Ripper, Jack The Ripper
Well, that’s a one big cat I just a hate to fight
The Ripper, Jack The Ripper
When he walks down the streets
To every girl he meets, he says, is your name Mary Blood?
The Ripper, Jack The Ripper
The Ripper, Jack The Ripper
(Jack the Ripper, Screaming Lord Sutch)
PS I looked up Black Cat who are mentioned on the ticket for the 1984 gig. There were a rockabilly band, and often backed Sutch at the time.
22 Apr
Ramones Newcastle City Hall 28th September 1978 and 29th January 1980
Ramones Newcastle City Hall 28th September 1978 and 29th January 1980
I have already written about the first time I saw the Ramones, which was at Newcastle City Hall in 1977. For completeness, and as I come towards the end of acts whose names begin with the letter “R”, I am including an entry on a couple of other times that I saw the band. The Ramones returned to the City Hall in 1978 and 1980. By 1978 Tommy Ramone had left the band, his drum stool being filled by Marky Ramone. Their music had also developed a little further. Although most of their songs remained the very fast short crash bam bop slabs of pure rock ‘n’ roll, they were starting to venture further into pure pop, and their albums also includes, shock horror, some slower songs and even some, dare I say it?, ballads. However, their live shows remained largely unchanged. A night with the Ramones was guaranteed to be a night of fun with Da Brudders playing a set of lots of short hectic songs all in quick succession, and Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee up front singing and playing like there was no tomorrow. 
Both of these concerts were great fun. Support for the 1978 tour was the excellent vocalist Snips, who had previously fronted Sharks with Andy Fraser. The 1980 show was opened by The Boys, who were one of the first and legendary punk bands; a three piece featuring Casino Steel, Matt Dangerfield and Honest John Plain.
Setlist from the 1980 show: Blitzkrieg Bop; Teenage Lobotomy; Rockaway Beach; I Don’t Want You; Go Mental; Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment; Rock ‘N’ Roll High School; I Wanna Be Sedated; Do You Remember Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio?; She’s the One; I’m Against It; Sheena Is a Punk Rocker; This Ain’t Havana; Commando Baby, I Love You; I’m Affected; Surfin’ Bird; Cretin Hop; All the Way; Judy Is a Punk; California Sun; I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You; Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World; Pinhead; Do You Wanna Dance?; Suzy Is a Headbanger; Let’s Dance; Chinese Rock; Beat on the Brat
21 Apr
Tom Robinson Band Newcastle City Hall 27th September 1978
Tom Robinson Band Newcastle City Hall 27th September 1978
The Tom Robinson Band are often overlooked when the history of punk and new wave is written. That’s a shame, because they were one of the best live acts of the period, and their songs contained all of the necessary political messages of the time. I first saw them live in the early days, probably 1977, at Middlesbrough Rock Garden. It was probably only about half full, and the punks were very unsure as to how to take an openly gay singer, but managed some quite nervous singing along to “Glad to be Gay”. Tom Robinson must have had some nerve, it was quite a brave thing to do, to go out and sing that anthem in clubs packed with punk and skins, many of whom had strong right wing views. I was impressed by TRB that night, although it was the first time that I was seeing the band, and I hadn’t heard any of the songs before, it was obvious that they were strong pop songs, with political messages and great hooks. The first, and classic, Line-up of the band was Tom Robinson (vocals, bass), Danny Kustow (guitar), Mark Ambler (keyboards) and Dolphin Taylor (drums). 
The other band members were all an important part of the mix, particularly Danny Kustow; his guitar playing was excellent and his passion, energy and presence matched Tom’s. And they had a clutch of great tunes, many of which ended up on the first Tom Robinson album, which is one of the strongest debuts of the time. Most people remember the big hit single “2-4-6-8 Motorway”, but there were better tracks on the album including the call to arms: “Up Against the Wall” and “The Winter of ’79”, the simply excellent catchy “Long Hot Summer” and title track “Power in the Darkness”. The big live favourites were the sing-along chirpy ode to a big brother “Martin” (just listened to it on YouTube and it sounds as good as it ever did) and “Glad to be Gay” which seemed to be playing everywhere I went in 1977 and 1978. I saw the Tom Robinson band at a triumphant concert at Newcastle City Hall on 27th September 1978 and also at Reading festival 1978 and at Sunderland Mayfair on 28th March 1979. By the time of the Sunderland gig both Ambler and Dolphin had left the band, and things were never going to be the same. The Tom Robinson band split in 1979, shortly after the 1979 tour and the release of their second, and much less successful, album.
Support at the City Hall gig was the excellent Stiff Little Fingers, not as the the ticket says reggae band Third World, and at Sunderland it was The Straits, an all-girl new wave band from Leeds.
“The British Police are the best in the world
I don’t believe one of these stories I’ve heard
‘Bout them raiding our pubs for no reason at all
Lining the customers up by the wall
Picking out people and knocking them down
Resisting arrest as they’re kicked on the ground
Searching their houses and calling them queer
I don’t believe that sort of thing happens here
Sing if you’re glad to be gay
Sing if you’re happy that way”
(Tom Robinson, 1976)
19 Apr
Roxy Music Newcastle Arena 12th June 2001
Roxy Music Newcastle Arena 12th June 2001
Roxy Music reformed after a lengthy absence and in 2001 they were touring across the UK again, calling at Newcastle Arena on 12th June. Marie and I went along to see them again; it was 22 years since we last saw the band perform. The tour reunited four original members Bryan Ferry, Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson. The core members were augmented by Colin Good (piano and musical director), Zev Katz (bass), Julia Thornton (percussion and keyboards), Lucy Wilkins (violin), Sarah Brown (backing vocals) and Chris Spedding (second guitar; remember seeing Chris play Newcastle Mayfair around the time of his hit “Motorbikin'”). Support was singer Rosalie Deighton. We were a bit unsure how the old songs would sound and whether they could withstand the test of time (and the acoustics of a cavernous arena) but we needn’t have worried. They were just great. 
It was good to see Roxy Music live again, and the concert (and indeed the tour) was a massive success with critics and fans. The set included many of the old favorites, along with some new tracks. Setlist: Re-make/Re-model, Street Life, Ladytron, While My Heart Is Still Beating, Out Of The Blue, A Song For Europe, My Only Love, Oh Yeah, Both Ends Burning, Tara, Avalon, If There Is Something, More Than This, Mother Of Pearl, Jealous Guy, Editions Of You, Virginia Plain. Encores: Love Is The Drug, Do The Strand, For Your Pleasure.
That brings we to the end of my reflections on Roxy Music in concert. I saw Roxy Music once more, in 2011, and blogged about that concert at the time.
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