The Stiff Tour 1977 Middlesbrough Town Hall and Newcastle Poly
The Stiff tours were a highlight of the late 70s rock calendar. These amazing events featured a selection of artists from Stiff records, travelling up and down the UK dropping into concert halls, university student unions and your local theatre. The first tour was known as the Live Stiffs Tour or 5 Live Stiffs, and took place in late 1977. My ticket stub from the gig at Middlesbrough Town Hall is here on the right, I’ve been trying to work out what the title for that concert was! Perhaps it was “The First Stiffs’ Tour” ?? Who knows 🙂 This first extravaganza boasted a stellar line-up of the new wave aristocracy with a young Elvis Costello with his fine Attractions, Ian Dury and the magnificent Blockheads, the crazy, wild and 100% authentic Wreckless Eric, The Jesus of Cool Nick Lowe (featuring rocker supremo Dave Edmunds) and ex Pink Fairies, Motorhead (and great Lewis leather jacket) Larry Wallis. A bunch of mates and I caught the tour at this Middlesbrough Town Hall gig. At the time punk was really taking off around the UK, and the old town hall was packed. I remember seeing Elvis Costello outside talking to a group of kids; my mate Norm recalls him giving them a penny for the guy. We witnessed some great music with wonderful performances from Elvis and Ian Dury that night. Ian stole the show; he was at his height at the time, performing material from New Boots and Panties!!: “Sweet Gene Vincent”, “Billericay Dickie”, and “Clever Trevor”. The gig ended with everyone on stage performing Dury’s “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”. Amazing!!
The tour called at Newcastle Polytechnic a couple of weeks later. I enjoyed the show so much, I went along again, this time with Marie. Marie has a better memory than me on this gig, and can recall us chatting to Elvis Costello in the union bar. She swears that Captain Sensible was with him, holding court to a few of us, in a typical mad mood, and show off that he is, he ate an entire packet of crisps, including the bag, all in one go in front of us. I do have a vague memory of meeting the Captain, but couldn’t be certain that it was the same night as the Stiffs tour. I wish I had kept a diary…
A bargain at £1.50
Posts Tagged ‘prog rock’
17 Jun
The Stiff Tour 1977 Middlesbrough Town Hall
7 May
Santana and Earth, Wind & Fire Newcastle City Hall 15th September 1975
Santana and Earth, Wind & Fire Newcastle City Hall 15th September 1975
This was a strong double bill of two quite different bands. Disco funk legends Earth, Wind and Fire opened the show. They had just released the album “That’s the Way of the World” and were massively successful in the USA, if less well known in the UK. I remember them having a big show, with lots of people on stage, and the highlight was a revolving drum kit (you had to see it to believe it 🙂 ). Santana had a lot to follow with such a strong opening act, but Carlos and the band rose to the occasion playing a set that included favourites like Black Magic Woman, Samba pa ti and Soul Sacrifice. The tour came between Santana’s sixth album “Borboletta” and their seventh “Amigos”. I recall that the concert was sold out and Marie and I went along without tickets. We managed to get two single seats, and spent the evening watching the concert standing at the back of the hall. 
The next time I saw Santana they were special guests for Bob Dylan at St James Park Newcastle, on 5th July 1984. Santana’s set at this massive open-air gig was Touchdown Raiders; Spirit; By the Pool; Samba pa ti; Breaking Out; Gypsy Queen; Incident at Neshabur; Waited All My Life; Two Points of View; Brotherhood; Savor; Who Loves You; Open Invitation; She’s Not There; Europa (Earth’s Cry, Heaven’s Smile); Right Now.
6 May
Santana Newcastle City Hall November 22nd 1972 early (6.30pm) show: Exclusive Northern appearance
Santana Newcastle City Hall November 22nd 1972 early (6.30pm) show: Exclusive Northern appearance
John and I went to see Santana at Newcastle City Hall on November 22nd 1972. The band played two shows at the venue that evening, and we went to the early show which was at 6.30pm. John’s memories of the gig: “As I recall Santana were not frequent visitors to the UK and this was one of the earliest times they played in the North East in the post-Abraxas period. They played two shows, with no support and it was my birthday. At that time Carlos was heavily influenced by John Mahavishnu and was moving in a more jazz/fusion-influenced direction than the heavily percusive sounds of the first two albums. I believe at the beginning of the set he said “A moment of meditation for Devadip” which was the name given to him by his guru Shri Chimony. Apparently it means “The lamp, light and eye of God”. This change in musical direction caused considerable tension within the band and precipitated a number of line up changes. I remember really enjoying the gig and I think they played most of Side 1 from the Caravanserai album – “Waves Within”, “Look up (to see whats coming down)”, “Just in time to see the sun”, “Song of the wind” and “All the Love in Universe”. Funnily I don’t remember if they played “Black Magic Woman” or “Oye Como Va”. I never saw the band again but have great memories of this show.”
My memories of the gig are also of an enjoyable concert. I’m pretty sure that they also played “Samba Pa Ti”. Their visit covered only two UK cities, Newcastle and Manchester, as part of their 1972 European tour (not sure how it could be an “Exclusive Northern appearance” when they also played Manchester 🙂 ; but maybe it was at the time the tickets were printed). Santana had just released their fourth album Caravanserai, and as John says it was a sharp departure from his critically acclaimed first three albums. We were all familiar with Santana at the time because of their excellent storming performance of “Soul Sacrifice” in the “Woodstock” film. By the time John and I saw Santana and his band in Newcastle their musical style had changed considerably from the band we all saw and loved in “Woodstock”. I recall being quite surprised by the difference, which was moving the music closer to that which John McLaughlin was pursuing in his Mahavishnu Orchestra. Santana’s exquisite guitar playing shone out, as it always does, to this day. I also remember that Slade were performing at Sunderland Top Rank that evening, with Thin Lizzy and Suzi Quatro as support acts. As we returned home after the Santana gig, which will have bee finished by 8.30pm to allow for the late show, we could see people entering the Rink (aka Top Rank) for the Slade gig.
A setlist from three days later at a concert in Switzerland shows Santana as having played the following songs. I would suspect the Newcastle set is likely to have been similar to this one: Going Home; A-1 Funk; Every Step of the Way; Samba pa ti; Look Up (To See What’s Coming Down); Just in Time to See the Sun; Incident at Neshabur; Bambele; Stone Flower; Waiting; Castillos de arena; Free Angela; Earth; Se a Cabo; Savor; Toussaint L’Overture
4 May
Yes Newcastle City Hall 3rd May 2014
Yes Newcastle City Hall 3rd May 2014
Yes are back touring the UK again, performing three of their most popular albums in their entirety: The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, and Going for the One. The current Yes line-up consists of founder, and only surviving original member, Chris Squire on bass; guitarist Steve Howe from the classic Yes line-up; long-time drummer and local lad Alan White drums, more recent returnee Geoff Downes from the 80s line-up keyboards, and new singer Jon Davison. It was good to go along knowing that I would be hearing classic songs such as “Yours is No Disgrace,” “I’ve Seen All Good People,” “Starship Trooper,” “Close to the Edge,” “And You And I,” “Going for the One,” and “Wonderous Stories.
“We performed these three albums in their entirety on our North and South American tours, and the fans absolutely loved it,” says Yes guitarist, Steve Howe. “Fans did indeed love it,” states Yes co-founder and bassist, Chris Squire, “and so did we. Plus, we’ll be performing pieces we’ve rarely played live. In fact, I believe the one song we never performed in concert before our three-album tours is ‘A Venture’ from The Yes Album.” Alan White goes on to say, “As with our three-album North and South American tours, this is a great opportunity to share with our European fans the growth of Yes throughout different eras, and to revisit the great memories of those times, as well as create brand new ones. We’re looking forward to touring Europe, performing these albums, and most of all, meeting our wonderful fans. It’s great fun for us, and we think our fans throughout Europe will love the performance as well.”
It’s 45 years since I first saw Yes, and 43 years since I first saw them perform The Yes Album, which was also at a concert in the City Hall, when they supported Iron Butterfly. I wasn’t sure what to expect last night, particularly with another new singer in the band. What we got were excellent versions of all the songs. The new singer fits into the band perfectly. His vocals are spot-on and very close to Jon Anderson’s original recordings, and his performance, vibe and stage presence just seemed to fit with the feel of the band. It took me some time to get used to seeing the last guy they had singing, but this vocalist just seemed “right” from the first few bars of “Close to the Edge”. Of course, I will still prefer to see the return of Jon Anderson, but if that isn’t going to happen, you couldn’t get any better than this Jon as a replacement. But the star of the show last night was, without question Steve Howe, who played as well as I have ever seen him do, and was more animated than I have seen him for many years. The rest of the band all played faultlessly, and Chris Squire plays the role of senior member to precision, making most of the announcements and prowling around the right hand side of the stage. Each album and each song was announced on the screen at the rear of the stage, and the performance was augmented by a neat of set of visuals which included pictures, posters and tickets from “back in the day”. Similarly the tour programme is littered with images of memorabilia from early 70s tours, many of which I recognise. The programme also include the “Fragile” album, which must have featured in some of the US shows. The City Hall was pretty full last night, I would estimate that it would at about 90% capacity, and the crowd clearly enjoyed the show, giving Yes one of the best receptions they have had in Newcastle for many years.
An excellent concert from a band that just keeps on going, and who are as excellent musically today as they ever were.
Set 1. Close to the Edge: Close to the Edge; And You and I; Siberian Khatru. Going For The One: Going for the One; Turn of the Century; Parallels; Wonderous Stories; Awaken.
Interval.
Set 2. The Yes Album: Yours Is No Disgrace; Clap; Starship Trooper; I’ve Seen All Good People; A Venture; Perpetual Change.
Encore: Roundabout.
25 Apr
Rick Wakeman ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ Newcastle City Hall 24th April 2014
Rick Wakeman ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ Newcastle City Hall 24th April 2014
This was the 40th Anniversary Tour for Rick Wakeman’s ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’. Rick is taking his famous story telling piece on the road again. A very brave move, as it involves putting together, and touring with a band, full orchestra and choir. The show featured the Irion Symphony Orchestra accompanied by The English Chamber Choir and a rock band giving a live presentation of this classical-rock work. Last night at Newcastle City Hall was the first night of the UK tour, and Laura and I went along. The concert was in two parts, the first with Rick alone on stage telling some stories about his career; and the people who influenced him. He talked about Cat Stevens, and played a piano instrumental of “Morning Has Broken”, which he played on a session musician. He then treated us to a rendition of “Life on Mars” with Hayley Sanderson on vocals (Hayley was one of the two vocalists in the second half of the show), and talked about the time he spent with David Bowie working on “Hunky Dory”, and how David’s advice of being true to yourself has stuck with him throughout his career, and was one of the reasons he persisted with the “Journey” concept when many were against it. 
He then introduced his old friend Ashley Holt, the second vocalist in the concert. Rick explained that he played with Ashley in the ’60s at Watford Top Rank and they performed one of the songs that they used to sing “Summertime”. Rick closed the first half paying tribute to his father, who took him to see “Peter and the Wolf” when he was 8 years old. It was that performance, and seeing a story in music, which planted the seed of the idea of doing a musical version of Rick’s childhood favourite book “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”. He finished by playing “Eleanor Rigby” in the style of Prokofiev, explaining that the composer was a big influence on his music, coming from his classical training at the Royal College of Music. There was then a short interval.
The second half of the concert relived the original album and tour, with the Orion orchestra (who I saw three weeks ago at the Albert Hall performing in the Jon Lord memorial concert), the English Chamber Choir and a rock band featuring Dave Colquhoun on guitar, Matt Pegg (Dave’s son) on bass, and Tony Ferdandez on drums. Philip Franks narrated the performance from the back of the stage, and Guy Protheroe conducted. Guy has been instrumental in putting together the show, helping recreate the score from an old and damaged copy of the original that was found some time ago. Vocal duties were shared between Hayley Sanderson and Ashley Holt, who were both excellent. I must admit that I am not familiar with the album, and didn’t realise how powerful a piece it is. Both Laura and I really enjoyed the concert, and came away both converts to Rick and his music. The audience loved it and gave the performers several standing ovations. An encore of a small piece from the album’s 1999 follow-up “Return to the Centre of the Earth” closed the evening; the audience were on their feet again, and Rick seemed genuinely moved by the reception that his work received.
‘This is the start of a new journey’, says Rick Wakeman about the show, ‘the original score for the album had been lost for so many years, making any new performances impossible. But after it turned up without warning, we managed to restore it and add previously missing music that was not included in the original performances. It has taken another half decade to develop, but I can’t wait to take Jules Verne’s magnificent story on tour again’.
A great concert and much better than I had anticipated.
20 Apr
Refugee Newcastle City Hall 10th December 1973 and 16th June 1974
Refugee Newcastle City Hall 10th December 1973 and 16th June 1974
Refugee played epic classically-based rock music, which was soon to be know as prog rock. They were formed by former The Nice members bassist Lee Jackson and drummer Brian Davison, with the addition of ace virtuoso keyboardist Patrick Moraz, who very ably filled the place held by Keith Emerson in The Nice. Refugee’s music was a natural progression from that of The Nice featuring lengthy organ solos by Moraz, Jackson’s husky rasping vocals and Davison keeping the band on track rhythmically, from behind a massive drum kit.
After The Nice folded, Jackson had formed his own band Jackson Heights, which featured Davison in its latter days. I saw Jackson Heights at least a couple of times at the Lincoln and Reading festivals in 1972. Refugee released one album on Charisma Records, but the band was short-lived as Moraz accepted an offer to join Yes in 1974. 
I saw Refugee twice with my friend John; once in late 1973 which must have been one of their first gigs and then again in Summer 1974. They were both excellent concerts, with the set consisting of tracks from their debut and only album and one or two Nice tracks, notably “The Diamond Hard Blues Apples Of The Moon” and their interpretation of Dylan’s “She Belongs To Me”.
The 1974 Newcastle show was recorded and has since been released on CD. It shows the setlist as being: Ritt Mickley, One Left Handed Peter Pan, The Diamond Hard Blues Apples Of The Moon, Someday, Papillon, She Belongs To Me, Grand Canyon Suite, Refugee Jam. Support for the 1974 concert was Darien Spirit.
Note the spelling errors on both tickets: “Refugee” spelt “Refuge” on the 1973 stub, and “Patrick Moraz” becomes “Patrick Moral” 🙂 on the 1973 stub.
5 Apr
Celebrating Jon Lord The Royal Albert Hall 4th April 2014
Celebrating Jon Lord The Royal Albert Hall 4th April 2014
I am sitting on the 07.00 train from Kings Cross to Newcastle as I write this. Last night I spent the evening with a group of musicians, from the worlds of both classical and rock, and fans who had travelled from around the globe to celebrate the music of Jon Lord. The event was held in the majestic Royal Albert Hall, a venue in which Lord performed many times, and where he premiered his concerto for group and orchestra with Deep Purple some 45 years ago.
As we arrived in the hall, we were greeted by two large video screens on either side of the stage, showing images of Jon. I had a seat on the arena floor, a few rows from the front, to the left of stage centre. A great view.
The evening had been organised by The Sunflower Jam on behalf of the Jon Lord Fellowship for cancer research. The Sunflower Jam is a charity led by Jacky Paice (wife of Ian Paice and twin sister of Jon Lord’s wife Vicky Lord), which organises annual events at the Albert Hall.
The event started promptly at the advertised time of 19.30 with our host Bob Harris welcoming us and introducing the concert. This was an evening of music, celebration and emotion, which started with Ian Paice accompanying his sister-in-law Vicky Lord on stage, for Vicky to say a few words about Jon. The first half of the concert was devoted to Lord’s solo and orchestral compositions and featured the Orion Orchestra conducted by Paul Mann, and our house band of the evening of Murray Gould, Neil Murray, Jerry Brown, Paul Wichens and Nigel Hopkins. The first piece was “Durham Awakes” from the “Durham Concerto” featuring Kathryn Tickell on Northumbrian pipes. This was followed by Steve Balsamo on vocals and Anna Phoebe on violin accompanied by Mickey Moody on guitar, performing “All Those Years”. 
Then Miller Anderson gave a moving reading of “Pictured Within”. This was followed by Rick Wakeman leading the band in music from “Sarabande” and Margo Buchanan singing “One From The Meadow”. Finally, the first half of the concert closed with Jeremy Irons elegant reading of Thomas Hardy’s “Afterwards”, accompanied by Paul Mann on piano. There was a lot of material that I wasn’t familiar with in the first half of the show; it was good to experience something new and different, performed perfectly and beautifully by a group of musicians who were all there to celebrate the diversity of Jon Lord’s compositions. Bob Harris returned and told us that after the interval “we are going to rock” 🙂 It was 20.45.
The second part of the evening started at 21.10 with Joe Brown, ever the cheeky cockney, who entertained us with a few quips and then introduced Paul Weller. Mod Weller took us back to the ’60s performing two tracks from Jon’s first band The Artwoods. These were fine slabs of Motownish white soul R’n’B: “Things Get Better” and “I Take What I Want”. Great stuff.
Next we were treated to a couple of Paice, Ashton and Lord songs “Silas & Jerome” and “I’m Gonna Stop Drinking” led by the amazing vocalist Phil Campbell, and great blues guitar of Bernie Marsden. Phil is a relatively new vocalist from Scotland and is straight out of the mould of Rod Stewart/Joe Cocker/Chris Robinson. Just perfect wild raucous singing and the right amount of rock’n’roll swagger. Check him out. The high point of the evening (so far). Steve Balsamo and Sandi Thom then performed a beautiful version of the haunting classic “Soldier of Fortune”.
Nothing could have prepared any of us for what came next, which was an amazing performance by Bruce Dickinson and particularly Glen Hughes. They started with “You Keep On Moving”, which was great enough, but then they took the roof of the place with an incendiary version of “Burn”. Everyone on their feet, the two of them sparring vocally, both out-singing each other with their tremendous outstanding vocal ranges. Sorry for all the superlatives, but it was that good. A hall full of old guys punching the air and rocking. 
Hughes was incredible. It took me back to the time I saw Purple Mk III on the Burn tour. I was struck that night (can it really be 40 years ago?) by Hughes’ over the top performance and his soulful soaring vocals. Last night he was strutting and stalking around the stage, bass aloft, wrestling ever ounce of soul and emotion out of his voice. I have never seen a performance like it; at times he was on his knees, tears running down his cheeks. Yes it was over the top, but you just knew that the guy went out last night determined to deliver the performance of his life, and that he felt and meant every word of it. Electric, and a privilege to experience. Glen Hughes closed this segment of the show with “This Time Around”, which he explained was the only song he wrote with Jon Lord.
Finally it was left to Deep Purple to close the evening, which they did with great style performing a short set of “Uncommon Man”, “Above And Beyond”, “Lazy” (with Bentley Kline on violin sparring with Don Airey on keyboards), the beautiful blues of “When A Blind Man Cries”, the cooking rhythms of “Perfect Strangers” and closing with (what else) a rocking “Black Night” with all of us singing along. Then everyone joined Purple on stage for an encore of “Hush”. Lots of “Nah Nah Nah Nah”s from the stage and the floor. It just doesn’t get much better. For over three and a half hours we were well reminded just how great a musician, composer and man Lord was. RIP Jon Lord.
The Performers
Host: Bob Harris
Deep Purple: Ian Gillan (vocals), Steve Morse (guitar), Ian Paice (drums), Roger Glover (bass), Don Airey (keyboards).
The Orion Orchestra conducted by Paul Mann.
House band: Murray Gould – guitar, Jerry Brown – drums, Neil Murray – bass, Paul Wichens – keyboards, Nigel Hopkins – piano.
Guests: Miller Anderson – vocals, Steve Balsamo – vocals, Joe Brown – jokes and cockney twang, Margo Buchanan – vocals, Phil Campbell – vocals, Bruce Dickinson – vocals, Nick Fyffe – bass, Glenn Hughes – vocals/bass, Bentley Kline – violin, Paul Mann – piano, Bernie Marsden – guitar, tMickey Moody – guitar, Anna Phoebe – violin, Sandi Thom – vocals, Kathryn Tickell – Northumbrian pipes, Rick Wakeman – keyboards, Paul Weller – vocals/guitar
Postscript
It was truly an amazing night. However, I have to say that I came away feeling a few things were missing. First, Blackmore and Coverdale. Now we all knew Blackmore was never going to attend, but some of us lived in a vain hope that past issues might have been forgotten, and that he may have made an appearance. On the other hand, it is of course up to him how he wishes to remember Lord, and his new song in Jon’s memory sees a return to his old style. I understand Coverdale couldn’t make it; again a big miss. I also expected to hear some of the “Concerto”, particularly given the occasion and the venue. A strange omission. And finally I had hoped for “Child in Time”. I know Purple don’t play it any more, but a version by the house band with a guest vocalist might have been possible. Sorry to niggle about what was an incredible event.
The images are all photographed from the concert programme.
3 Apr
Renaissance Newcastle City Hall 20th September 1978
Renaissance Newcastle City Hall 20th September 1978
Renaissance originally rose from the ashes of the Yardbirds, formed by Keith Relf and Jim McCarty with Keith’s sister Jane Relf on vocals. The idea was to form a progressive rock band drawing heavily from classical influences. The line-up soon changed completely with Annie Haslam and Michael Dunford joining in the early 1970s; this heralded the most successful period of their career with music which fused folk rock with classical. By the time of this concert at Newcastle City Hall in 1978 the line-up of Renaissance was Annie Haslam – lead vocals, Jon Camp – bass, John Tout – piano, Michael Dunford – guitar, and Terrance Sullivan – drums. 
It was at this time that Renaissance scored a hit single in Britain with “Northern Lights”, which reached No. 10 during the summer of 1978. The single was taken from the album “A Song for All Seasons”. Renaissance are a vastly under-rated and largely forgotten band. Annie Haslam has an excellent voice with a tremendous range, and their albums contain some epic prog rock classics. I found a setlist from 1978 (although not from this gig): Can you hear me?; Carpet of the sun; Things I don’t understand; Northern lights; Mother Russia; Day of the dreamer; Midas man; The vultures fly high; Running hard; Song for all seasons; Prologue; Ashes are burning. Renaissance have reformed on a couple of occasions, based around the core of Annie Haslam and Michael Dunford, who sadly passed a couple of years ago. Annie Haslam continues to lead the band.
27 Mar
Rush Newcastle Arena 5th October 2007
Rush Newcastle Arena 5th October 2007
27 years since they last graced a Newcastle stage, Rush were back and playing at Newcastle Arena. I went along with Laura and a group of mates. Saw a lot of old familiar faces; everyone had turned out to see this band again. This was a very slick and professional show, as befits a band with such a long and strong pedigree. One thing that I hadn’t bargained for was just how many albums had been released since I last saw Rush in concert. My memories were of those late 70s gigs, and I knew all of the songs from those days, but had heard very little by Rush since then. Hence almost all of their set was completely new to me. I only recognised “Spirit of the Radio” and “Tom Sawyer”. This was a long show, featuring two sets and drew from across their back catalogue (but not enough early songs from me. I didn’t think I’d ever see Rush, and that they wouldn’t play Xanadu; but there you go 🙂 ). A lesson learned. It is worth investing the time to get to know a band’s material before going to see them in concert. None the less I enjoyed the concert. 
This was the last time that I saw Rush. They have been back to Newcastle since this gig, but it clashed with another concert for me (I think I was in Manchester seeing Rogers Waters perform The Wall). Rush are hinting at a world tour next year. It’s about time I saw them again. And if I do, this time I will listen to their material before I go to the gig.
Setlist: First Set. Limelight; Digital Man; Entre Nous; Mission; Freewill; The Main Monkey Business; The Larger Bowl; Secret Touch; Circumstances; Between the Wheels; Dreamline. Interval. Second Set. Far Cry; Workin’ Them Angels; Armor and Sword; Spindrift; The Way the Wind Blows; Subdivisions; Natural Science; Witch Hunt; Malignant Narcissism; Drum Solo; Hope; Distant Early Warning; The Spirit of Radio; Tom Sawyer. Encore: One Little Victory; A Passage to Bangkok; YYZ
24 Mar
Rush Newcastle City Hall 24th April 1979
Rush Newcastle City Hall 24th April 1979
Newcastle City Hall. 24th April 1979. Mystical rock gods Rush come down from the skies once again to sing and play songs of gods, mythology and joy to the northern rock fans. We were hungry for music of the highest order, and that hunger could only be satisfied by our three superheroes. For nights the City Hall once again became a magical temple for the music of Rush. The god that is Geddy Lee amazed us with his soaring voice and his sweet bass rhythms. Twin guitar axe hero Alex Lifeson left us speechless, stunned by his virtuosity. And drum master Neil Peart, perched behind the biggest kit ever to grace Olympus drove the band and the rock textures forward. We cheered, we shouted, we sat in awe. We listened, we imagined, we dreamed. We talked about the magic of the event for weeks before, and months after. Support came from Max Webster.
Setlist: Anthem; A Passage to Bangkok; By-Tor & The Snow Dog; Xanadu; Something for Nothing; The Trees; Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Parts I to VI; Closer to the Heart; A Farewell to Kings; La Villa Strangiato; 2112 Parts I to VII; Working Man; Bastille Day; In the Mood.
‘To seek the sacred river Alph
To walk the caves of ice
To break my fast on honeydew
And drink the milk of Paradise…’
I had heard the whispered tales of immortality
The deepest mystery
From an ancient book I took a clue
I scaled the frozen mountain tops of eastern lands unknown
Time and Man alone
Searching for the lost Xanadu
Xanadu…..’
(Xanadu, Rush).
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