Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young Wembley Stadium 1974
Special guests: Joni Mitchell, The Band, Jesse Colin Young
Looking back this was a very strong line-up and a truly historic gig, although I’m not sure I realised it at the time. A group of us went down to London by train, primarily to see CSN&Y. To be honest ( and to my shame) I had little interest in seeing the other acts on the bill. This gig was very much a coming together of the long hairs; everyone there to see a cluster of west coast superstars who rarely appeared in the UK. The weather was good, a hot late summer day, and the vibe friendly and laid back. I remember running into loads of people from the North East. We had tickets for the stands, and couldn’t get down on the pitch which was frustrating. My mates and I spent some time next to the back stage area, star spotting. We saw (I think; from a bad….memory) members of the Moody Blues, The Faces, Led Zeppelin and Marc Bolan. My mate Don and I ran into Robert Plant in the gents, and we chatted to him; Don offered Plant a drink from his bottle of beer, Plant took a swig to Don’s delight (he swore he would keep the bottle for ever!). We arrived early and saw all the bands; I wish I’d taken more notice of their sets than I did. Jesse Colin Young’s “Darkness, Darkness” is now one of my favourite songs, but I remember nothing of what he played that day. I remember that the Band played a solid set including “The Weight”, “Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and “Cripple Creek”. Joni Mitchell’s set was part solo on acoustic guitar or piano, and part accompanied by Tom Scott’s L.A. Express. Her album at the time was Court and Spark, and she played tracks from that lp plus favourites such as “Woodstock”, “Big Yellow Taxi” and “This Flight Tonight”. She is another artist who I really appreciate now; much more so than I did back then in the day. 
CSN&Y played a long set of around four (!) hours. They were just amazing; incredible harmonies, great musicianship. There were times when it dragged a little for me, as the set included a lot of songs which were unfamiliar to me. However, before too long another classic would come along, the harmonies would be spot on, and the guitar duels would spark off again. My enduring memories are of the start and end of their set. They started with an extended version of “Love the one you’re with” and the place went crazy. My last memory is of standing on a wooden bench, such as the seats were in the Wembley stands in those days, singing the chorus of “Ohio”, with 72,000 other people. Days don’t come any better. Where did the years go?
CSNY setlist: Love the One You’re With; Wooden Ships; Immigration Man; Helpless; Military Madness; Johnny’s Garden; Traces; Almost Cut My Hair; Teach Your Children; Only Love Can Break Your Heart; The Lee Shore; Time After Time; It’s All Right; Another Sleep Song; Our House; Hawaiian Sunrise; Star of Bethlehem; Love Art Blues; Old Man; Change Partners; Blackbird; Myth of Sisyphus; Word Game; Suite: Judy Blue Eyes; Déjà Vu; First Things First; Don’t Be Denied; Black Queen; Pushed It Over the End; Pre-Road Downs; Carry On; Ohio
Posts Tagged ‘R&B’
13 Aug
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young Wembley Stadium 1974
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.
9 Aug
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band Newcastle City Hall 1973
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
Newcastle City Hall 28th April 1973
I couldn’t wait to see Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band again after witnessing their magnificent 1972 performance at Newcastle City Hall. And it wasn’t long until they were back in the UK for another tour. The Magic Band line-up had changed slightly since their last visit in that Alex (pyjama) St Claire had replaced (the wonderfully named) Winged Eel Fingerling on slide guitar. This time the show was not as theatrical as the previous year, however the music was as mesmerising as ever, the setlist expanded slightly to include a good selection of tracks from throughout the Captain’s career including one of my favourites, “Electricity”, alongside tracks from the current album “Clear Spot”. 
The set was also considerably much more delta / werewolf growl blues than last time. However, this gig doesn’t stick in my mind as much as the 1972 concert. Fraid I can’t recall at all who the support act was (or if there was a support), and I don’t have a programme to help me. The setlist for the Nottingham show from the 19873 tour is listed as follows, I would assume that the Newcastle show was a similar set: Hair Pie Bake III; Suction Prints; Sue Egypt; Mirror Man; Low Yo Yo Stuff; Crazy Little Thing; Sifter Solo; Sugar ‘n’ Spikes; I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby; Electricity; Peon; I’m a King Bee; Click Clack; Alice in Blunderland; Nowadays a Womans Gotta Hit a Man. Encore: Big Eyed Beans From Venus; Golden Birdies
8 Aug
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band Newcastle City Hall 5th April 1972
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band 5th April 1972 Newcastle City Hall
Support from Foghat
The Magic Band: Rockette Morton; Winged Eel Fingerling; Ed Marimba; Zoot Horn Rollo; Orejon
It was very cool to be into Captain Beefheart in the early 70s. Me, I got into him through Frank Zappa, and his vocals on “Willie the Pimip”, on the “Hot Rats” album. I then heard “Safe as Milk” and “Trout Mask Replica”. I was fascinated by the very strange sounds they made, so when he came to play at Newcastle City Hall, I bought a ticket straight away. It was one of the oddest, and best gigs, I have attended. I was sitting pretty close to the front, and I was surrounded by some of the wierdest looking hippy types that I’d seen at any gig. A guy sitting a few seats away from me had white hair down to his waste and spent the entire set rocking back and forth in his seat, swinging his long hair about. There was a strong smell of dope in the air. 
Beefheart’s show started with a performance from a ballerina and then a belly dancer. Rockette Morton took to the stage and played a manic extended bass solo. Soon he was joined by the rest of the Magic Band, and the Captain wearing a massive cloak, and singing in the deepest voice I had ever heard. The whole show was one of the most amazing things I have seen to this day. The band were all dressed outrageously, the music was amazing, and it was totally unlike anything I had heard before. And the Captain was just unbelievable. The set was pretty unfamiliar to me; it was by no means a greatest hits set. However, that didn’t matter. The whole show was just incredible: I was blown away by it all, and became a committed Beefheart fan that night. I was to see Beefheart on three further occasions, and he was great each time, but none of those gigs matched this first encounter with the Captain. Setlist: Bass Solo; When It Blows Its Stacks; Grow Fins; Click Clack; Hobo Chang Ba; I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby; Black Snake; Peon; Abba Zaba; Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop; Alice in Blunderland; Spitball Scalped a Baby. Encore: More. Support came from Foghat, who grew out of Savoy Brown and played some nice blues/rock/boogie. Although they were a UK band, they found success in the USA, and toured extensively in the States throughout the 70s, coming home only occasionally.
6 Aug
Caravan Newcastle City Hall 1977
Caravan Newcastle City Hall 23rd Sept 1977
I first saw Caravan in the early 70’s at Sunderland Locarno. I’d seen them on Top of the Pops performing “If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You” and remember them playing that song, which probably places the gig around 1971. This would have been the classic Caravan line up of David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings and Richard Coughlan. The ticket and programme pictured here are from a later gig, which I attended at Newcastle City Hall in 1977. 
Caravan were promoting their latest album “Better by Far” at the time. Support came from Nova, who were an Italian progressive rock/jazz fusion band. I recall there being quite a bit of publicity around Caravan at the time. They had moved to a new record label, the new album was produced by Tony Visconti, and they embarked upon a tour of concert halls which took them around the UK. The line-up had changed considerably from the early days, with only Pye Hastings and Richard Coughlan remaining from the original band. I recall the gig as a night of pleasant melodic rock, with tracks from the new album which were much more poppy than their earlier material. Caravan have reformed recently and are playing The Sage Gateshead in January. Time to revisit them, I think.
5 Aug
Stan Webb and Chicken Shack
Stan Webb and Chicken Shack
Stan Webb is massively under-rated as a guitarist. In my view, he stands up there with Clapton and Peter Green as one the great British blues guitarists. He’s also a great showman, and a great character on stage. I’ve spent many happy nights in the company of Stan and various line-ups of Chicken Shack over the years. My first encounters were a couple of spots as support act for The Groundhogs, probably in 1971 or 1972. One gig was at the City Hall, and the Groundhogs didn’t appear for some reason, so Chicken Shack took on the headline spot. This was no mean feat, as the City Hall was sold out, and we were all waiting to see Tony McPhee and the guys, who were in the charts with Split at the time. However, we were assured that The Groundhogs would play in a couple of weeks, and that if we all held on to our tickets we would see the return gig for free (which we did!). 
Stan and the guys truly rose to the occasion that night and delivered a great set. This was around the time of the Imagination lady album, and Chicken Shack were a three piece at the time, featuring Stan on lead and vocals, John Glascock (soon to leave to join Jethro Tull) on bass guitar, and Paul Hancox on drums. I remember them playing “Crying Won’t Help You” and great versions of B B King’s “The Thrill is Gone” and Tim Hardin’s “If I were a Carpenter”, all of which sometimes feature in the set to this day. 
The other vivid memory I have is of Stan walking to the back of the City Hall through a crowd of people filling the aisles, still playing his guitar all the time. This was well before the days of radio connections, and it was all done with a massively long guitar lead. I saw Stan do the same thing many times over the years, including one night in a ram packed Newcastle Mayfair, where he had to work his way across a packed dancefloor (he was always accompanied by a roadie) and then stood in front of the bar playing a solo to the delight of all of us around him. I recall a couple of gigs in the Mayfair, one with The Groundhogs at the time of the “Who Will Save the World” album, and another supporting Vinegar Joe. 
I’ve always tried to catch Stan and Chicken Shack when they come to the North East, and have seen him in Whitley Bay Dome, Middlesbrough Ladle, Sunderland Kazbah, Newcastle Dingwalls, Newcastle Jewish Mother restaurant (over a pizza meal), Newcastle Tyne Theatre, Hexham Royal Hotel (Stan was very chatty on stage that night, and had probably had a few drinks), The Sage Gateshead with John Mayall, Newcastle City Hall (again with Mayall), Sunderland Ropery, and probably several other gigs that I’ve forgotten over the years. My mate Will has been with me at several of these gigs, and also agrees that Stan is a great guitar player. 
Every time Stan’s guitar playing has been superb; he never lets you down. If you want to check him out, go to Youtube and look for “Poor Boy” and “Daughter of the Hillside” and you’ll soon see what I mean. 
Chicken Shack are, of course, best remembered by many for their hit Single “I’d Rather Go Blind”, which they recored when Christine Perfect was in the band. Christine went on to mega-stardom with Fleetwood Mac, and is now retired. By the time I picked up on Chicken Shack in the early 70s, Christine had long left the band. Its been a few years since I last saw Chicken Shack, as Stan doesn’t seem to tour quite as extensively as he once did. However, I see that he is headlining a blues festival in York in September, which I may go along to if I can make it. Stan’s current line-up features Gary Davis on second guitar, Jim Rudge on bass and Chris Williams on drums (according to Wiki).
2 Aug
Crawler, Boxer & Moon Newcastle 1977
Crawler, Boxer & Moon Newcastle 1977
At first glance this may not seem a particularly strong line-up. However, if you dig a little deeper it was actually a pretty interesting collection of bands. Crawler had morphed out of Back Street Crawler, who were Paul Kossoff’s post-Free band. After Kossoff’s sad passing, the remainder of the band continued as Crawler, recruiting Geoff Whitehorn (who had just left jazz-rock band If, and is now in Procol Harum) on guitar. The rest of the line-up was Terry Wilson-Slesser (local Newcastle hero and ex-Beckett) on vocals, Terry Wilson on bass, Tony Braunagel on drums, and John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick (ex-Free, and, until recently, of The Who) on keyboards. Boxer were a later version of Patto, fronted by Mike Patto, and originally had the late great Ollie Halsall on guitar. However, by the time of this package tour the Ollie had left and the line-up was Mike Patto vocals, Eddie Tuduri drums, Chris Stainton (Joe Cocker’s band) on keyboards, Tim Bogert (Vanilla Fudge and Beck, Bogert and Appice) on bass, and the late Adrian Fisher (ex Andy Fraser’s Toby and Sparks) on lead guitar. So between these two bands there were some very respectable musicians. Moon were a seven piece funk-rock band who opened the show. I remember going to the gig with Marie, and that the City Hall was about half full. I don’t recall anything about Moon, but do remember watching Boxer (I thought Mike Patto was a great singer) and Crawler. Crawler delivered a solid blues-rock set, with Slesser doing the business vocally and as a front man. Good values for £1! Actually looking back at this lineup in retrospect some 40+ years later, there were some amazing musicians on stage together that night: the excellent local singer Terry Slesser, Rabbit, the wonderful and very underrated Mike Patto (ex Time Box and Patto), Chris Stainton and Tim Bogert! Boxer were on paper sensational! I wish I could go back and relive this one!
1 Aug
The Crusaders Newcastle City Hall 1980
The Crusaders Newcastle City Hall
Support Randy Crawford (didn’t appear)
I went along with my mate Ian largely to see special guest Randy Crawford, who had just hit the singles chart with “One Day I’ll Fly Away”. She had also previously hit the charts with “Streetlife”, on which she was backed by The Crusaders. However, we were to be disappointed, as Randy was unwell, and did not perform that evening. Interestingly, The Crusaders asked in anyone in the audience was a singer, and a girl got up on stage, and delivered a pretty good version of “One Day I’ll Fly Away”. 
The girl’s name was Debbie, and the Sunday Sun website quoted her recently: “When I was a teenager I used to sing in a band and we all went off one night to the City Hall in Newcastle to see Randy Crawford and the Crusaders. They made an announcement that Randy was ill and asked if there was a singer in the house, and everyone pushed me on stage! I was only 18 but I got to sing with the Crusaders, which was an amazing experience.”
The rest of the show was instrumental, and very jazz-based. Great musician, but we both felt let down by Randy’s non-appearance. “The Crusaders are the epitome of musical excellence- acclaimed the world over by fans and critics alike. Their peers in the music industry refer to the members of The Crusaders as “musician’s musicians”” (from wiki). The Crusaders are: Stix Hooper on drums; Wilton Felder on sax; Joe Sample on piano, and still play to this day. I never did get to see Randy Crawford.
31 Jul
Classix Nouveaux, Theatre of Hate Newcastle Mayfair 1981
Classix Nouveaux, Theatre of Hate, Fad Gadget & Shock
Newcastle Mayfair 26th March
This tour was billed as The 2002 Review, and was a package tour of bands under the “new romantic” banner. I guess 2002 was chosen as a “futuristic’ date. It certainly seemed a long way in the future at the time! “During the early part of 1981 the band (Classix Nouveaux) established their following with two major UK tours. The first was the much publicised 2002 Review which sprang from Sal Solo’s idea of combining a number of promising new bands in one package. This gave national exposure to Kirk Brandon’s Theatre of Hate and Shock” (from ChemistryDaily.com). Classix Nouveaux were formed from the ashes of X-Ray Spex plus shaven headed singer Sal Solo (great name). Theatre of Hate were fronted by Kirk Brandon, later of Spear of Destiny, and were much punkier that the headliner. Fad Gadget (Francis John (Frank) Tovey) was a synth-based musician and early proponent of industrial music. I don’t recall anything about the band Shock. I remember enjoying Theatre of Hate who delivered a very powerful set with great passion from Kirk Brandon. I was also impressed by Classix Nouveaux, whose set was quite dramatic, and Sal Solo a great, charismatic frontman. Great value; all for £3!
30 Jul
Cocteau Twins Newcastle Tiffanys 1984
Cocteau Twins Newcastle Tiffanys 1984
Support Felt
I went along to this gig with my mate Dave. We weren’t that familiar with the band’s music other than the exquisite “Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops” single. I recall that the place was absolutely packed to the rafters, to the extent that you could hardly move at all. We were surprised just how popular the band were. I’m afraid I don’t recall whether or not we saw support act Felt. I remember being impressed by vocalist Elizabeth Fraser, whose “distinctive singing earned much critical praise. She was once described as “the voice of God.” (from Wiki). This band has somewhat legendary status these days, so I’m pleased I got to see them. I had a t-shirt from the gig, which was worn out and thrown away some years ago. I’ve just checked their gigography and now realise that I also saw The Cocteau Twins a year earlier in 1983, supporting Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. A recording exists of the Tiffanys gig, featuring the tracks: “Hitherto”, “Kookaburra”, “Sugar Hiccup”, and “Pearly Dewdrops Drops”. A review of the recording says: “the gig itself is a bit of an oddity. It might be due to the sound quality but Liz Fraser’s voice sounds much more upfront in the front, and she’s throwing out strange vocal inflections into nearly every line, oversinging almost everything to the point of almost showing off.”
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