Dio Newcastle City Hall 1983
Support from Waysted
I first saw the late Ronnie James Dio when he fronted the band Elf. Elf were support act on the Deep Purple Burn tour of 1974, which I caught at Newcastle Odeon. My mate John also reminded me that we saw Elf as support for Johnny Winter at the New Victoria Theatre, London, also in 1974. I them saw him several times in Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, and also in Black Sabbath. Ronnie was a great rock singer, with a tremendous range, his style mixing heavy metal with an almost operatic approach. Ronnie was also tremendously charismatic and powerful on stage, with a great stage presence which transcended his diminutive stature. I can picture him now leading the crowd on, his hands making the devil’s horn salute. A great talent, who is much missed. 
By 1984 Ronnie was of sufficient stature to be able to front his own band Dio. Playing alongside him were the three other great rock talents of Vinny Appice on drums; Jimmy Bain on bass and Vivian Campbell on guitar. Dio’s music drew heavily from his previous bands, retaining Ronnie’s distinctive style, and some of the dark satanic imagery of Sabbath. The set was a mix of track from the the new Dio lp, Holy Diver, and rainbow and Sabbath songs: Stand Up and Shout; Straight Through the Heart; Shame on the Night; Children of the Sea (Black Sabbath); Holy Diver; Stargazer (Rainbow: a great favourite of mine at the time; I’d forgotten this one!); Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath); Rainbow in the Dark; Man on the Silver Mountain (Rainbow: another great song); Starstruck (Rainbow). Encore: Evil Eyes; Don’t Talk to Strangers. Support came from Waysted, Pete Way of UFO’s side project, which also featured fellow UFO member Paul Raymond.
Posts Tagged ‘prog rock’
28 Aug
Donovan in concert Manchester Bridgewater Hall 2004
Donovan in concert Manchester Bridgewater Hall 2004
In 2004, UK concerts by Donovan were few and far between. It had been 14 years since I’d last seen him in concert, so when he announced a couple of shows, one in Manchester and one in London, I decided it was time to see the troubadour child of the 60s again. Marie and I decide to make a weekend of it, and booked a room in a hotel opposite to the venue. We arrived early, and from our hotel room window a could see a small crowd waiting outside the stage door of the Bridgewater Hall. I guessed they were waiting for Donovan’s arrival, and went down and joined them. I waited around 30 minutes or so, and sure enough a black people carrier arrived and Donovan stepped out of the back of it. He took the time to talk to everyone and sign piece of memorabilia. Donovan seemed to know some of them; the guy beside was carrying a book which was signed by him on several pages. Donovan signed my flyer, and shook my hand. He looked well, and seemed genuinely pleased to meet everyone. 
The Bridgewater Hall is a lovely, purpose-built concert venue in the centre of Manchester. The gig was almost sold out, and we were treated to a set which drew from all periods of Donovan’s career, and especially from the 60s. Donovan clearly still believes in the ideals of those magic days, and reminisced about encounters with the Beatles and the Maharishi in India, and Buffy Sainte-Marie, as an introduction to her song “Universal Soldier”. He was promoting his latest album: Beat Club. He also sang Colours, Mellow Yellow, Catch The Wind and Hurdy Gurdy Man sitting, for part of the concert, cross-legged on an eastern rug. I bought a book of Donovan’s poetry, “She”. A wonderful evening in the company of a child of the 60s, whose songs have the power to take us all back there. The set included the following, although not in this order (and I have missed some I am sure): Sunshine Superman; GooGooBarabajagal; Season of the Witch; Lalena; Josie; Universal Soldier; Catch the Wind; Colours; Happiness Runs; Jennifer Juniper; There Is a Mountain; Hurdy Gurdy Man; Mellow Yellow; Atlantis
27 Aug
Stanley Music Festival Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash
Stanley Music Festival Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash
Up until a few years ago, Stanley hosted a very successful annual blues festival, that hosted acts such as Chicken Shack. Funding issues have meant that the festival has not run for a few years. However, this year local organisers have put together a music festival which ran today, on bank holiday Sunday. The headliners were Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash, with support from several local acts. And all for £3! I arrived late in the afternoon and caught the majority of DeeExpus’ set. DeeExpus are a North East prog rock band, and are pretty good too. Their music is classic 70s prog, with flashes of Yes and Wishbone Ash. A local busker took to the stage during the changeover, and sang a few blues songs. However, he left in the huff, as his guitar mike wasn’t working, and he told us that he “had been sabotaged”. There was a little wait before Martin Turner took to the stage, and it started to rain quite heavily. The event was also running late, and quite a number of the crowd left before the headliner started. The rain had stopped by the time Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash opened with “The King will come”. 
There has been quite a lot of discussion on their respective message boards as to the merits of the two versions of Wishbone Ash. Having seen both acts several times over the past few years, I would say that both bands always deliver and are good value for money. Martin’s band quite clearly set out to deliver versions of the old songs which are as true as possible to the originals, and they do a pretty good job of it. Fraid I was getting cold and wet (and didn’t have my coat on) so I didn’t stay for the whole set, but what I did see was a good mix of old classics, and some lesser known songs, all played well with Martin on good form. Songs I saw were: “Warrior”, followed by “Throw Down the Sword”, “Lady Jay” which I can’t claim to know well and sounded great, “Rock n’ Roll Widow”: a favourite that I haven’t heard for a long time, and “Ballad of the Beacon” which I can’t remember at all. To my shame I left during “Phoenix” (sorry Martin). It’s good that Stanley has a festival again; hope it returns next year.
26 Aug
Donovan in concert Newcastle 1983 and 1990
Donovan in concert 1983 and 1990
I have been a big fan of Donovan since the 60s. I loved all of those hits, particularly the late 60s tracks: Hurdy Gurdy Man, Googoobarabajagal, Atlantis, Mellow Yellow and There is a Mountain were all favourites. But I didn’t get to see him until 1983, when he played at the City Hall. As far as I recall, he didn’t play the North East at all during the 70s. I did have a ticket to see him as support for Yes at Glasgow Apollo in 1977, but passed the gig up to see The Tubes who played Newcastle that night as part of their first UK tour. The 1983 gig was reasonably well attended, and Donovan was backed by a band for the show. The set was a mixture of old tracks and tracks from his recent albums, and there were quite a few songs that I didn’t recognise. Donovan was back in Newcastle 7 years later, when he played a concert at the Playhouse Theatre, which is a small venue up by the University. This concert was not very well attended; Donovan was almost forgotten by many people at this point. He had been passed by in the aftermath of punk and new wave, but his time was to come again. 
This gig was much more a greatest hits set than the 1983 concert. Donovan appeared alone, with acoustic guitar, sitting on a stool, delivering all of those great songs, and telling us stories of his life in the 60s. Just wonderful. Donovan released a live in concert album in 1990, and the track listing gives an idea of the likely setlist from the 1990 concert at the Playhouse Theatre. The tracklist is: Jennifer Juniper; Catch the Wind; Hurdy Gurdy Man; Sunshine Superman; Sadness; Universal Soldier; Cosmic Wheels; Atlantis; Wear Your Love Like Heaven; To Susan On the West Coast Waiting; Colours; Young Girl Blues; Young But Growing; Stealing; Sailing Homeward; Love Will Find a Way; Laléna. It was another 14 years until I saw Donovan again, at Manchester Bridgewater Hall. That gig was sold out; by that time Donovan had (re)gained the respect he deserves. I’ll blog about the Manchester gig in more detail in a day or so.
20 Aug
Joe Cocker and many others Great Western Festival Lincoln 1972
Joe Cocker and many others Great Western Express Festival Lincoln May Bank holiday weekend 1972
I was 15 at the time and so excited about going to a real pop festival. My dad drove me and a couple of mates down on the Friday night, after we’d been to the local Mecca ballroom. We arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning, having missed the Friday night bands, and slept in a big crash tent for a few hours. We soon ran into a group of other lads who had also come down from Sunderland, and between us we built a cabin out of bails of hay and planks of wood which were lying around in the fields. I swear there were around 20 of us sleeping in there. We were quite close to the stage, and I pretty much stayed in that cabin all weekend. We could also stand on the roof and watch the bands. There was a massive (and very empty) press enclosure which divided the crowd from the stage, so no-one could get that close, which was bad planning. The weather was wet, with rain for most of the weekend. But I didn’t care; this was a real pop festival, and I was determined to enjoy every minute. The line-up for the remaining three days of the event was really strong. I’ll try and recall as much as I can.
Saturday. Nazareth opened the day around noon. I remember them playing Morning Dew, and thinking that they were ok. They were followed by Locomotive GT, Roxy Music who were playing their first major gig and Heads, Hands and Feet, featuring the great Albert Lee, who I remember playing “Warming up the band”. The first band I have strong memories of was Wishbone Ash. They hd just released “Argus” and their set consisted of all the classic Ash songs: Time Was, Blowin’ Free, Jailbait, The King Will Come, Phoenix etc. They were just wonderful at that time. Helen Reddy did not perform, and was replaced by Rory Gallagher, who had stayed on from the Friday to play again, as I understand his Friday set was cut short because of the weather. The Strawbs featured the classic Cousins/Hudson/Ford line-up at the time. This was before any of the hits. Pretty sure they played “The Hangman and the Papist” and “The Man who called himself Jesus”. Stone The Crows were next up. This was their first performance after Les Harvey’s death, and Steve Howe from Yes stood in on guitar. Maggie Bell’s performance was highly emotional and the crowd gave her the strongest reception of the day, sensing how real the blues was to her that night, coming only a few weeks after she had lost her boyfriend. Rod Stewart and The Faces closed Saturday night. I remember Rod wearing a silver lame jacket and that they were pretty ramshackle, but good.
Sunday. The Natural Acoustic Band started the day, followed by Focus who warmed the crowd up with Sylvia, and Brewers Droop who were a raunchy boogie band who popped up at a few festivals in those days. Spencer Davis played with his new band, which was heavy on steel guitar and country oriented, followed by The Incredible String Band. Lindisfarne were the first band to get the crowd going and were a big hit of the weekend. We were all on the roof of our cabin, singing along to Fog on the Tyne. Average White Band were followed by The Persuasions who were an a cappella soul band, and were impressive. The next big hit of the day were Slade, who just tore the place apart. They started this performance with a lot to prove to a “Hippy” crowd, who viewed slade as a pop act. By the end of the performance everyone was singing along and converted. They were just great. Monty Python’s Flying Circus, with the entire cast, did all their great sketches: Dead Parrot, Lumberjack Song, Argument; great fun. The Beach Boys closed the evening and were wonderful singing all the hits. Great end to a great day.
Monday. The morning featured some folk acts, who had been moved to the main stage because the folk tent had been damaged by the weather. I remember Jonathan Kelly performing and singing “Ballad of Cursed Anna” which is a favourite of mine to this day. Jackson Heights, featuring Lee Jackson from the Nice started the main part of the day off, followed by Atomic Rooster, Vincent Crane collapsing (as he normally did) during Gershatzer. Vinegar Joe with Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer were next up, followed by the Sutherland Brothers. The next two bands were both up and coming at the time: Genesis and Status Quo. They were both festival favourites, Peter Gabriel with his shaved forehead, telling those great stories to introduce beautiful songs such as Musical Box, and Quo were still trying to establish themselves as a proper rock band and shake off the pop image, which they were doing very well with tracks such as Someones Learning and Is It Really Me? Don McLean sang American Pie and the rain stopped for him. Humble Pie were something else. Steve Marriott was at the top of his game and was fully into his “My skin is white but my soul is black” routine. I Don’t Need No Doctor!! Just great. Sha Na Na, still featuring in all our minds from the Woodstock movie, had us all singing along. Joe Cocker closed the festival. He came on very late as I recall. There was a long wait and he took to the stage in the early hours of the morning. I remember him singing The Letter and Cry Me a River. He was good, but I was tired and cold by that time. All my mates had gone to sleep.
Other memories of the weekend. A large black and white screen above the stage, which worked some of the time. They showed movies on it throughout the night. I watched Marlon Brando in The Wild One, which was banned in the UK (!) at the time. Lots of chants of Wally. People openly selling dope with price lists on their tents. Hari Krishna’s giving out free food. A straw fight during (I think) Lindisfarne’s set. Everyone around me had also been to the Bickershaw festival a couple of weeks before, and were taking about how great The Grateful Dead and Captain Beefheart were. I was dead jealous.
I caught the train back on Tuesday. My mates variously hitched and scored lifts. I arrived home tired, unwashed, and determined to go to as many festivals as I could in the future, which I sort of stuck to for the remainder of the 70s.
19 Aug
Death Cult Redcar 1983 and The Cult Newcastle 1985
Death Cult Redcar 1983 and The Cult Newcastle 1985
Ian Astbury is an interesting and impressive guy. He was born in Liverpool, lived for some time in Canada, and discovered music through The Doors, punk and Crass. I first became aware of him in Southern Death Cult, first saw him live in Death Cult, and then in the later incarnation of the band, The Cult. The last time I saw Ian was fronting The 21st Century Doors in the vast Manchester Arena, featuring original Doors members Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek. He is now back fronting The Cult. This is a guy who is clearly living his dream. My first encounter with Ian Astbuty was in the Death Cult, at Redcar Coatham Bowl in 1983. Ian was sporting a painted face and bandanna, strutting his stuff to the goth / new wave music of this post-punk supergroup, which he had formed with Billy Duffy from Theatre of Hate. Pretty impressive stuff, but just a taste of the rock splendour that was to follow a couple of years later. Support for the Redcar gig came from Goth band Look Back in Anger. 
The next time I saw The Cult in concert, they had transformed into a fully fledged rock band, and were touring to support the “Love” album. “She sells Sanctuary” had been high in the charts for a number of weeks, and their new single “Rain” had just been released. Ian was now very much the heavy rock god. I remember being particularly impressed by Ian’s performance and by Billy Duffy’s guitar playing that night. I had a seat pretty close to the front and recall that the gig was very LOUD; my ears were ringing for some time after. 
“Love” and the follow-up “Electric” are both great albums, the former more psychedelic rock, and the latter much more hard-rock oriented. The City Hall concert was pretty electric, and the band went on to tour the USA to phenomenal success. Not certain who the support act was for the City Hall show; it may have been Balaam and the Angel. Setlist: Love; Nirvana; Big Neon Glitter; Revolution; Brother Wolf, Sister Moon; Rain; Resurrection Joe; Dreamtime; She Sells Sanctuary; Go West; Spiritwalker; Horse Nation; The Phoenix; Hollow Man; Wild Thing / Louie Louie
16 Aug
Alice Cooper Newcastle Arena 2005
Alice Cooper Newcastle Arena 2005
Dirty Diamonds tour
Support from Twisted Sister
It was 17 years until I saw Alice Cooper again, some 7 years ago at Newcastle Arena. Support came from mad glam rockers Twisted Sister, led by crazy maniac Dee Snider. I’d seen Twisted Sister in the early 80s at Newcastle Mayfair; they are always good for a laugh, and play some nifty metal. This gig used around a third of the arena, which allows for a (slightly) larger crowd than the City Hall, but also guarantees a much more stale and cold atmosphere. Alice’s set included all the favourites and a few tracks from his new album ‘Dirty Diamonds’. The usual stage theatrics featured large, with our hero pulling the usual tricks out of the bag, wriggling his way out of a straitjacket, losing his head at the guillotine and then emerging alive again from a coffin. The show now features his beautiful daughter Cailco Cooper, who kills her dad as part of the fun. Setlist: Department of Youth; No More Mr. Nice Guy; Dirty Diamonds; Billion Dollar Babies; Be My Lover; Lost in America; I Never Cry; Woman of Mass Distraction; I’m Eighteen; Between High School & Old School; Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies); Is It My Body; Go to Hell; Black Widow; Gimme; Feed My Frankenstein; Welcome to My Nightmare; The Awakening; Steven; Only Women Bleed; Ballad of Dwight Fry; Killer; I Love the Dead; School’s Out. Encore: Poison; Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills; Under My Wheels
15 Aug
Alice Cooper Newcastle 1986 and 1988
Alice Cooper Newcastle 1986 and 1988
It was around ten years till I saw Alice Cooper again. He visited the UK in 1982, but for some reason I didn’t make a show on that tour. However he was back again in 1986, and paid his fist visit to Newcastle. After experiencing the splendour of the “Welcome to my Nightmare” tour, I was looking forward to this gig. Support came from Alien Sex Fiend, a deathrock band formed at the Batcave club in London. Alice was promoting the Constrictor lp, which was his 16th(!) album, and the tour was named “The Nightmare Returns”. 
It was seen as a return to form, if perhaps a little more heavy metal than previous outings. The show was as theatrical as ever, with Frankenstein making an appearance for the song “Teenage Frankenstein”. The set contained a selection of all the classic Alice tracks. Setlist: Welcome to My Nightmare; Billion Dollar Babies; No More Mr. Nice Guy; Be My Lover; I’m Eighteen; The World Needs Guts; Give It Up; Cold Ethyl; Only Women Bleed; Go to Hell; Ballad of Dwight Fry; Teenage Frankenstein; Sick Things; I Love the Dead; School’s Out. Encore: Elected; Under My Wheels. Seem to recall that I went to the gig with my mate Norm and that we went down to Tiffanies (it may have been another club) afterwards and saw We’ve Got A Fuzzbox and We’re Gonna Use It!! 
Alice was back in Newcastle two years later; this time for a two night stay at the City Hall. Support this time came from heavy metal act Chrome Molly, and Alice’s new album was Raise Your Fist and Yell. I found the following interesting snippet on the sickthingsuk site: “During the first night at Newcastle City Hall 8th April, 1988, Alice accidentally threw one of the dancers whips [during Go To Hell] up into the balcony and was caught, much to the delight of a female member of the audience (Steve Olley, January 2009).” The set was quite similar to Alice’s previous visit, and this time the show featured Freddie Kreuger appeared in the show!
14 Aug
Alice Cooper Liverpool Empire 1975
Alice Cooper Liverpool Empire 1975
Welcome to my Nightmare tour
Support Heavy Metal Kids
This was the first time that I saw Alice Cooper. A group of us went to the gig in a couple of cars, all of us exciting at the prospect of seeing the king of shock rock. We’ll heard the singles, seen him perform “School’s Out” on Top of the Pops and read about the outlandish stage shows in the NME and Sounds. This was our chance to see Alice in the flesh in his ghoulish horror show which featured snakes, an execution and babies being sliced up. It was Alice’s first concert in the north of England; he had previously only played in London and Glasgow. Support came from Heavy Metal Kids, with Gary Holton on top form, giving his usual super cocky cockney act. We had seats right down at the front and all thought the gig was tremendous. There had been some luke warm reviews of the “Welcome to my Nightmare” album, largely because Alice had lost all of the original band members, and was now, in effect, a solo artist, rather than Alice Cooper the band. However, we needn’t have worried, as this was Alice Cooper at his theatrical best, fronting a stage show that was at times just astounding, and, for its time, unbelievable in places. The show started with the taped voice of Vincent Price booming over the PA system, followed by wonderfully choreographed dancers, who seemed to appear out of nowhere from a giant projection screen, which was the size of the stage. Next Alice suddenly appeared singing the opening lines of the title track. 
Alice had a giant toy box, and from that jumped devils, bats, and a bunch of skeletons who delivered a nifty dance routine complete with top hats and canes. There was a massive graveyard scene with Alice creeping through the gravestones, dancing demons, giant spiders for “Black Widow” and a cyclops during “Department Of Youth”. And he played School’s Out! Just Wonderful! Setlist: Welcome To My Nightmare, Years Ago, No More Mr Nice Guy, Years Ago, Billion Dollar Babies, Years Ago, I’m Eighteen, Some Folks, Cold Ethyl, Only Women Bleed, Devil’s Food, The Black Widow, Steven, Welcome To My Nightmare (reprise), The Awakening, Escape, School’s Out, Department of Youth
10 Aug
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band Newcastle City Hall 1974
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
Newcastle City Hall 4th June 1974
Support from Henry Cow
The Captain completed a hat trick of visits to Newcastle City Hall with this 1974 concert. The line-up for The Magic Band had changed completely since their last UK visit; it seems there had been a fall out between the band and their captain. Beefheart quickly put together a new band to honour existing tour dates.The new Magic Band comprised Fuzzy Fuscaldo on guitar; Ty Grimes on drums; Del Simmons on saxophone; Dean Smith on guitar; Michael Smotherman on keyboards and Paul Uhrig on bass. Unfortunately they weren’t at all familiar with the intricacies and complexity of their predecessors’ material, and it showed. They were described by reviewers of the day as a “bar band”, or “The Tragic Band”, a moniker which stuck and is often used to describe Beefheart’s band of that period. The show consisted of a selection of Beefheart classics delivered more as twelve bar blues, than in their original format. Imagine Beefheart growling over the same soft rock boogie shuffle backing for each song, and you’ve just about got it. It was still an enjoyable show, but far removed from the magnificence of the 1972 tour. Support came from Henry Cow, who were very experimental and avant garde, as I recall. Unlike previous Beefheart gigs at the City Hall, I don’t think this show was very well attended. I saw Beefheart once more, at the 1975 Knebworth festival, on a bill headlined by Pink Floyd. The 1973 Magic Band regrouped as Mallard along with a new singer and toured the UK; I caught their show at Newcastle Mayfair in 1976. Beefheart was a truly unique artist, who is much missed, and I’m please I was lucky enough to see him a few times. A typical set list from the 1974 UK tour was: Mirror Man; Upon the My-Oh-My (which he performed on The Old Great Whistle Test during this visit); Full Moon Hot Sun; Sugar Bowl; Crazy Little Thing; Mighty Crazy; Sweet Georgia Brown; This is the Day; New Electric Ride; Abba Zaba; Peaches.
Vintagerock's Weblog. 