Imagination Newcastle City Hall
In the Heat of the Night Tour
Today I’m reporting on a pretty guilty pleasure, Imagination. I’d seen these guys on Top of the Pops and was, at the time, pretty impressed by them. I have to admit I quite liked the single Just an Illusion. So when Imagination came to Newcastle City Hall, I went along to see them. The show was quite over the top, and featured tracks from their first two albums. Looking at the programme today reminds of just how over the top these guys were. 
The cover of the programme shows them sporting the most outrageous togas, and inside there are pictures of the band wearing some very glam gear, including one of singer Leee in what looks like a glittery nappy. Imagination were actually pretty big for a short period. From Wiki: “Imagination were a three piece British soul and funk band, who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They had chart hits in 28 countries, earning four platinum discs, nine gold discs and more than a dozen silver discs around the world between 1981 and 1983.” The members were Leee John, Ashley Ingram and Errol Kennedy. Support for this gig came from the Techno Twins, who were a dance and techno act and were an influence on many bands who followed. Like many bands Imagination, and this gig, were very much of their time.
Posts Tagged ‘pop’
13 May
Imagination Newcastle City Hall 1982
12 May
Iggy Pop Leeds Harewood House Rock the House Aug 31st 2007
Iggy Pop Leeds Harewood House Rock the House Aug 31st 2007
This charity open-air gig saw Iggy appearing with the reformed Stooges in the form of the Asheton brothers, Scott on drums and Ron on lead guitar, with Mike Watt on bass. Support came from Idlewild, The SUnshine Underground, Sons & Daughters, The Horrors, The Young Knives and the Dirty. It was 20 years since I had last seen Iggy in concert, and the added attraction of the reformed Stooges convinced me to go along to the gig. David and Laura also fancied it so came along with me. We arrived quite early for once and saw most of the bands. I remember being quite impressed by The Horrors, who played some pretty good rock n roll, quite punky with big hair. The event was not well attended, there can’t have been more than a few thousand there, in a venue that probably holds 20,000 or so.
Iggy was on usual manic form and it was great to hear the old Stooges songs again. The set was all Stooges material, no Iggy solo, including I Wanna Be Your Dog, TV Eye, 1969 and Real Cool Time. The show also included some songs from the new Stooges album The Weirdness. During No Fun Iggy invited the crowd to join him up on stage. Fans started climbing over the barriers and the stage was soon completely rammed with everyone jumping around and going crazy. The artist and the audience becoming one and the same. Good fun; a great gig.
Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: Live on the 15th of August, 2006. Budapest, Sziget Festival. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Derzsi_Elekes_Andor
Setlist (something like): Loose; I Wanna Be Your Dog; T.V. Eye; 1969; Real Cool Time; Fun House; Skull Ring; Trollin’; My Idea of Fun; She Took My Money; I’m Fried; No Fun.
11 May
Iggy Pop Newcastle City Hall 1980 and 1987
Iggy Pop Newcastle City Hall 1980 and 1987
Iggy continued to have success in the 80s; everywhere I went I would hear “Lust for Life” being played. He also visited the UK a few times; I saw him twice at the City Hall during this period, in 1980 and 1987. The 1987 gig was around the time Iggy hit the charts with “Real Wild Child”, his cover of the old Johnny O’Keefe song. I remember these gigs as crazy nights with Iggy taking his stage performance to the limit, as he usually did. Support at the 1980 gig was the Psychedelic Furs, who had just released their first album. 
Iggy’s set contributed to draw from Stooges’ days and his solo releases. Although the ticket from the 1980 gig refers to Iggy as “Iggy Pop and the Stooges” his band didn’t contain member of the original Stooges. The next time I saw Iggy was around 20 years later, by which time he had reunited with the Stooges. I’ll write on that gig tomorrow. Setlist from 1987: I Got a Right; Real Cool Time; 1970; Gimme Danger; Some Weird Sin; Winners & Losers; Shades; Five Foot One; Real Wild Child (Wild One); Dirt; Down on the Street; The Passenger; Blah-Blah-Blah; Search and Destroy; Sister Midnight; Raw Power; Sixteen; I Wanna Be Your Dog; No Fun; I’m Sick of You; T.V. Eye;
10 May
The Fall York Fibbers May 9th 2013
The Fall York Fibbers May 9th 2013
Laura and I went to see The Fall last night at Fibbers in York. We had promised each other that we would attend a Fall gig as soon as the opportunity came, having missed the last couple of times they came to the north east. Laura was intrigued to see them because of their legendary status and because many of her friends are big fans, and for me it was a chance to catch up on a band that I hadn’t seen for 33 (!) years. I have to admit never quite getting The Fall. The only other time I saw them was at a gig at the Newcastle Tyne Theatre in 1980. So I felt it was definitely time to put that right. We arrived at Fibbers around 8pm as people were just starting to wander in. The support band …And The Hangnails are a local Yorkshire punk/blues outfit and warmed up the crowd well. They played a short set, starting at around 9pm. The Fall took to the stage around 10pm. I’d read some stories of Mark E Smith leaving the stage and singing some of the set from the dressing room, and mixed reports of recent performances. Last night Mark seemed to me to be on pretty good form. He snarled the vocals, and they were pretty incomprehensible at times, which I guess is par for the course. He seemed in quite a good mood, although he did leave the stage several times, returning pretty quickly on each occasion. The band all left after 7 or 8 songs, and we thought that they were not going to return, but they were soon back to play several encores. I can’t pretend to know their material but did recognise White Lightning, which the crowd all sang along to, and for which Mark was accompanied by another singer. Recent single Bury also went down well with Mark snarling and spitting out the words. Its always difficult to fully enjoy a gig when you aren’t familiar with the material, but I reckon that last night was a pretty good showing by The Fall. The crowd certainly seemed to enjoy it, and gave the band a good reception. I know that The Fall have some of the most committed fans of any band, and many will have travelled from far afield for last night’s gig. They won’t have been disappointed. I hope that the guy I chatted to earlier in the evening enjoyed it. He’d come quite far and had been a bit disappointed by a recent Fall performance at Clitheroe. Laura and I left during the encores just before 11pm and suspect we may have missed a song or two (now there’s a reason for going to see The Fall again 🙂 ). Got home around 12.30am. I think I’m starting to get them, and thinking about it, would like to see them again next time they play close by, but I really must listen to their material (which may be difficult as I see that they have released around 30 albums!). Setlist (from the Fall fansite): Victrola; Strychnine; Hot Cake; Chino; Sir William Wray; Hittite Man; Bury; Duped; Loadstones; Sparta; Kinder of Spines; Jetplane; Blindness. Not sure this is actually what was played. They certainly also played White Lightning and there may be a couple on that list that weren’t played.
8 May
The (Hammersmith) Gorillas Middlesbrough Rock Garden 1977
The (Hammersmith) Gorillas Middlesbrough Rock Garden 1977
The Gorillas made a name for themselves on the London pub rock circuit in the mid 70s, fronted by the manic Jesse Hector who had the most amazing sideburns, was totally crazy on stage and was, by all accounts, a larger than life personality. Jesse Hector formed the Hammersmith Gorillas in 1971 and their debut release was a cover version of The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”. In 1976, they played at the infamous Mont-de-Marsan Punk Festival in the south of France along with The Damned and Eddie and the Hot Rods. They were also getting rave reviews for their gigs in London. I’d read some of the reviews in Sounds and NME, so when we saw that they were playing at the Middlesbrough Rock Garden Marie and I went along. Roger Armstrong recalled their unforgettable live act in the press at the time: “This was rock and roll as she is spoken, yelled, ranted, torn apart and not quite put back together again.” At the time of this gig the Gorillas had released a single “Gatecrasher” and their album “Message To The World”. This was at the time of punk, and the band’s energy had many similarities with other bands of the time. The gig was poorly attended, but that didn’t stop Jesse and co from putting everything into the performance which was as crazy and energetic as I had expected. I always thought that the Gorillas deserved more success and Jesse certainly agreed, declaring The Gorillas to be “the future of rock music”. However, for whatever reason it wasn’t to be, and time passed them by. I’m pleased I got to see them this once, as they rarely played outside London. Hector now works as a cleaner at The Royal Geographical Society, and was the subject of a documentary film in 2008, A Message To The World (Wiki).
6 May
The Hollies Sunderland Empire 2003
The Hollies Sunderland Empire 2003
The Hollies returned to Sunderland Empire in 2003. By now I was getting used to seeing Carl Wayne in the lead vocal spot. I went with David and we both enjoyed the gig. Drummer Bobby Elliott described Carl as “a fearless performer and powerhouse singer”. Sadly Carl played his last concert with the Hollies on 10 July 2004 in Norway. Shortly afterwards he was admitted to hospital for tests, where he was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and he passed away a few weeks later, aged 61. The Hollies were once again left without a singer, and an uncertain future, but the band again decided to continue, this time with the introduction of a less known vocalist Peter Howarth. I’ll write tomorrow of my first concert experiences with that particular line-up of the Hollies. 
Setlist: Long Cool Woman; Here I Go Again; Jennifer Eccles; Yes I Will; Look Through Any Window; Sandy; Listen to Me; Butterfly; I’m Alive; I Can’t Let Go; Fire Brigade; We’re Through; On a Carousel; Blowin’ In the Wind. Interval. How Will I Survive; Sorry Suzanne; Just One Look; The Baby; Soldiers Song; Gasoline Alley Bred; Too Young to be Married; Bus Stop; Blackberry Way; Carrie Ann; The Air That I Breathe; I Can Hear The Grass Grow; Stop! Stop! Stop!; Tiger Feet; He Ain’t Heavy; It’s In Every One of Us.
25 Apr
The Hull Story Newcastle City Hall 2005
Ten years after the sad passing of Alan Hull, this gig was held at Newcastle City Hall to celebrate Alan’s life. Several special guests took part in the gig and played many of Alan’s songs to capacity crowd. Ray Jackson came out of retirement specially for the show. The concert also featured members of Lindisfarne; Prelude; The Motorettes; Kathryn Tickell and Jimmy Nail. A monologue was provided by Terry Morgan, whilst playwright Tom Pickard gave a reading of a piece of Alan’s poetry. This was a great celebration of the great man’s music and quite an emotional gig. A DVD of the concert was made and is pretty fine too. 
Full cast list: Featuring Phil Armstrong, Michael Bailey, Alan Clark, Simon Cowe, Andrew Craggs, Marty Craggs, Steve Cunninghan, Steve Daggett, Brian Duffy, Tommy Duffy, Mike Elliott, Frankie Gibbon, Charlie Harcourt, Graham Hardy, Brendan Healy, Tim Healy, John Hedley, Robin Howe, Brian Hume, Irene Hume, Ray Jackson, Jack Laidlaw, Jed Laidlaw, Ray Laidlaw, Ian McCallum, Finn McCardle, John Miles Jnr, Billy Mitchell, Scott Mitchell, Terry Morgan, Jimmy Nail, Paul Nichols, Tom Pickard, Greg Pullen, Rachael Rhodes, Chris Ringer, Stephen Robson, Bob Smeaton, Paul Smith, Julian Sutton, Kathryn Tickell and Peter Tickell. Setlist: Track Listing: Do What I Want; The Hully Variations; United States Of Mind; Dingly Dell; You’re The One; Malvinas Melody; All Fall Down; Court In The Act; Scarecrow Song; The Morgan Monologue; Peter Brophy Don’t Care; Make Me Want To Stay; Evergreen; A Reading From The Mocking Horse; Mystery Play; I Hate To See You Cry; Long Way From Home; 100 Miles To Liverpool; Money; This Heart Of Mine; Winter Song; River; Taking Care of Business; Numbers (Travelling Band); Walk In The Sea; Lady Eleanor; January Song; Fog On The Tyne; Clear White Light; Run For Home
24 Apr
Alan Hull Newcastle City Hall 1977: “Jimmy Carter for the Whitehouse; Alan Hull for the City Hall”
Alan Hull Newcastle City Hall 1977
This gig took place while Lindisfarne were taking a break as a band, and had officially split, although a reunion Christmas concert took place in 1976. The gig was promoted by Lindisfarne promoter Barry McKay and was heavily promoted around the town with a set of posters proclaiming: “Jimmy Carter for the Whitehouse; Alan Hull for the City Hall”. The bill comprised Alan with his new band the Radiators, Harcourt’s Heroes featuring Ray Jackson and Charlie Harcourt, and Hutch who worked with David Bowie in the 60s as one of his closest sidemen, and part of his early bands the Buzz, and the Hype. He was also a member of the Spiders from Mars at one point. 
The City Hall was packed and there was a great buzz about this concert. Alan had released two solo albums: Pipe Dream and Squire, and the set was drawn largely from them. Hutch was first up, performing solo with an acoustic guitar playing a mix of folk and country tinged songs. Then Harcourt’s Heroes with Jacka took to the stage. I don’t recall much about their set to be honest. Alan was great. The first half of the set was acoustic before he introduced the band which featured Kenny Craddock-Keyboards; Peter Kirtley-Guitars; John Ashcroft-Keyboards; Colin Gibson-Bass; Ray Laidlaw-Drums; and Terry Popple-Drums. The setlist was: Breakfast; United States Of Mind; Money Game; January Song; Lady Eleanor; One More Bottle Of Wine; A Walk In The Sea; Winter Song; Corporation Rock; Madmen And Loonies; Love Is The Alibi; Love Is The Answer; Band Introduction; I Wish You Well; Make Me Want To Stay; Somewhere Out There; Dancing On The Judgement Day; Anywhere Is Everywhere; Fog On The Tyne. Winter Song is one of my favourite songs of all time; just beautiful. A great gig.
23 Apr
Richie Havens RIP and memories of Newcastle City Hall 1972
Richie Havens Newcastle City Hall 1972
From the programme: “Richie Havens has a way of singing songs that makes people listen to them as if they’ve never heard them before. Taking as his material his own songs and the compositions of today’s greatest popular songwriters: Lennon and McCartney, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot…. – Richie gets right inside the meanings of them in a way that corresponds exactly to the way he and his audiences feel about the songs, the stories in them and the world around them. Whereas many musicians re-interpret songs by surrounding them with symphony orchestras, swamping them with the thousand strong choirs, Richie’s method is exactly the opposite. 
Using a minimum of sideman, accompanying himself with his rhythmic and forceful guitar technique (for which he uses an unorthodox open E-tuning). Richie relies above all on the strength of his own personality to get the music across. And it works.” The Woodstock film brought world wide fame for a number of artists such as Richie Havens. His passionate performance in that film introduced me to his music, and drew me to see him in concert at the City Hall in 1972. I remember this gig well for his deep and personal treatment of some of his own songs and a selection of classics. The set included versions of Maggie’s Farm; Fire and Rain; War; Here Comes the Sun; Eleanor Rigby and Freedom. Richie was trashing away at his guitar, using his thumb across the frets. He would wander around the stage, and was dripping with sweat by the end of the show. Support came from the excellent Linda Lewis. I have just read that the great man passed away yesterday, aged 72. He will be greatly missed.
22 Apr
Patti Smith Scarborough Spa 21st April 2013
Patti Smith Scarborough Spa 21st April 2013
Laura and I went to sunny (although cold) Scarborough last night to spend an evening in the company of Patti Smith, accompanied by Tony Shanahan. This was an intimate concert in the Spa Theatre; one of three dates that have come about as part of a visit to Yorkshire and the Bronte country, that Patti has been making with her sister (it was her sister’s 65th birthday treat). So there was lots of talk of the Bronte sisters, and some music, poetry and chat. Patti was in good spirits and on great form. This was the first time that Laura has seen her in concert, and she was very impressed. 
Patti Smith seems so natural in concert these days; going to see her is like going to see an old friend who chats to you about what has been going on in her life. So last night she told how she had been to visit Ann Bronte’s grave in Scarborough, how she loves watching UK TV detective shows (Frost, Lewis, Morse, Cracker are all favourites), and how she enjoyed great kippers for breakfast for the first time (in her Scarborough hotel). Many of the songs were dedicated to the Bronte sisters and their brother, and Banga was even dedicated to their dog Keeper (with much barking from Patti and the audience: you had to be their 🙂 ). She also read a poem by Ann Bronte (A Reminiscence), and introduced Because the Night by reading an extract from her recent book “Kids”. All pretty powerful stuff, and an awesome and capitaviting performance by a true artist who is as relevant today as she ever was (and her voice is just as strong. Awesome. Setlist: Dancing Barefoot; April Fool; It’s a Dream; Beneath the Southern Cross; Ghost Dance; Peaceable Kingdom; My Blakean Year; This Is the Girl; Pissing in a River; Because the Night. Encore: Banga; People Have the Power.
A Reminiscence by: Anne Bronte (1820-1849)
ES, thou art gone! and never more
Thy sunny smile shall gladden me;
But I may pass the old church door,
And pace the floor that covers thee,
May stand upon the cold, damp stone,
And think that, frozen, lies below
The lightest heart that I have known,
The kindest I shall ever know.
Yet, though I cannot see thee more,
‘Tis still a comfort to have seen;
And though thy transient life is o’er,
‘Tis sweet to think that thou hast been;
To think a soul so near divine,
Within a form so angel fair,
United to a heart like thine,
Has gladdened once our humble sphere.
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