The Who Charlton Athletic Football Club 18th May 1974
Support Acts, in order of appearance: Montrose, Lindisfarne, Bad Company, Lou Reed, Humble Pie, Maggie Bell. The support acts were chosen by The Who.
The Who spent some time considering venues for a big outdoor London concert, and selected Charlton ground because, accordingly to Townshend, it had “particular acoustic qualities” and offered “excellent views of the stage from the terraces.” I went to the gig with two mates, travelling down to London by coach, leaving the north east at midnight on Friday night and arriving early on Saturday morning. We then caught the local train across to Charlton. By the time we arrived the ground was pretty full, and fans continued to flood in throughout the morning. By the time Montrose exploded onto the stage at 12 noon, the place was ram packed. The concert was intended to have an attendance limit of 50,000 fans, but breakdowns in security resulted in many additional people getting in, and an estimated crowd of 80,000 (The Complete Chronicle of the Who 1958-1978, Neill & Kent, 2007). I ran into quite a few mates from home on the terraces, several of whom had managed to push or blag their way in without paying. The supporting bill was very strong, with Montrose and Bad Company both going down well. This was one of the first appearances of the new Lindisfarne Mk II line-up. Lou Reed and Maggie Bell both played ok, but didn’t go down as well with the crowd as the others. Humble Pie were pure class, with Marriott on his top OTT “my skin is white, but my soul is black” form. They almost upstaged the main act. There was a long wait before The Who took to the stage, and several reports recall an atmosphere of violence, which I must say I don’t remember. I do remember that it was a very hot day and that there were some fights, a heavy smell of dope with many people openly smoking joints, and lots of cans thrown around throughout the day. Brian Farnon writes of a “lunatic…wandering around with a foot-long spike….sticking it in peoples necks” on the excellent ukrockfestivals.com site.
The Who started at 8:45 and played an hour and 45 minute set, starting with “Can’t Explain” and working their way through old classics and some more recent material, including a few from their most recent album “Quadrophenia”. The sound wasn’t that great, even though we had been promised quadrophonic sound, and there were large PA speakers sited around the ground. The Who were excellent, although Pete later admitted that he was drunk and felt that the show wasn’t actually one of their best. To all of us in the crowd it was a great day, and an opportunity to see the best rock band in the world during their prime period. The set included a lot of 60s material, and several songs that I hadn’t seen them play before such as “I’m a Boy” and “Tattoo”. Entwistle performed “Boris the Spider” in his deep bass voice. A lengthy encore included “5:15”, an extended “Magic Bus”, “My Generation”, “Naked Eye”, “Let’s See Action” and the first ever performance of their slow 12-bar blues arrangement of “My Generation”, which is now known as “My Generation Blues”. Pete didn’t smash his guitar.
Charles Shaar Murray reviewed The Who’s performance in NME: “They performed with a freshness and enthusiasm that they haven’t had for quite some time, and generally acted like the epitome of what a rock and roll band should be…The Who are it; as good as it ever gets, and good as we can expect from anybody.”
Pete Townshend admitted (also in the NME): “At Charlton I got completely pissed… I was so happy to get out of it…. I felt really guilty I couldn’t explode into the exuberant and happy energy our fans did….”
When the concert finished it was absolute pandemonium trying to get out through the crowd, and a number of us decided to try and climb over one of the fences. We managed to get over, but one of my mates cut his hand quite badly on the sharp metal top of the fence. It looked quite nasty, and was bleeding a lot, so we decided that we needed to get to a hospital. We pushed our way back into the ground, which wasn’t easy as we were walking against all the people leaving, and made our way to the St Johns Ambulance post, where we all bundled into an ambulance. A poor guy with a pretty cut up face, who had fallen onto a broken bottle, was lying next to us in the ambulance. The ambulance sped through the crowds and 5 minutes or so later we were in the hospital, where we spent most of the night, while my mate had his hand stitched. The hospital was full of fans suffering from injuries, and worse for wear from alcohol and drugs. It was daylight by the time we got out of the hospital, and we walked back into central London and made our way to Victoria where we caught our bus home. The things you do for rock’n’roll 🙂
The Who setlist: I Can’t Explain; Summertime Blues; Young Man Blues; Baba O’Riley; Behind Blue Eyes; Substitute; I’m a Boy; Tattoo; Boris the Spider; Drowned; Bell Boy; Doctor Jimmy; Won’t Get Fooled Again; Pinball Wizard; See Me, Feel Me
Encore: 5:15; Magic Bus; My Generation; Naked Eye; Let’s See Action; My Generation Blues
Posts Tagged ‘rock n roll’
25 Dec
The Who Charlton Athletic Football Club 18th May 1974
24 Dec
The Who Newcastle Odeon 5th Nov 1973
The Who Newcastle Odeon 5th Nov 1973
This is a very famous and historic Who gig. The Who released the classic “Quadrophenia” double album in 1973, and went out on tour to promote it, calling at Newcastle Odeon for three nights. Demand for tickets was high with people queuing overnight outside The Queens for tickets. I remember queuing in a long line for several hours, and getting quite poor seats upstairs for myself and a group of mates. Simon Malia, recalls on Quadrophenia.com: “I was 16 when “Quad” came out, and I queued up overnight in snow, ice, sleet, driving rain and more snow to get tickets for the shows at Newcastle Odeon.”
We knew from reports in the press that The Who were planning to play the entire “Quadrophenia” album. This wasn’t uncommon at the time, with Pink Floyd and Yes, for example, doing similarly. We weren’t familiar with the album, so although we were looking forward to seeing the Who, we were a little unsure how much we would enjoy material totally new to us. Support came from Kilburn and the High Roads, featuring Ian Dury. I remember Ian was wearing a teddy bob drape jacket, and their music was pub rock cum rock’n’roll and they went down quite well, particularly considering that the crowd was waiting to see The Who.
The Who came on stage and started with “I Can’t Explain”, “Summertime Blues”, and then “My Generation”. Excellent, and a great Who gig thus far. They then proceeded to play Quadrophenia. They got as far as “5.15” when things went wrong. The backing tapes weren’t working correctly (apparently they didn’t work at all during 5.15) and Pete went crazy at this point, totally losing it. From upstairs we could see him shouting at someone to the side of the stage; he then started punching the guy and smashed his guitar to the floor of the stage. He then started ripping wires out of their equipment. Roger, Keith and John were just staring at him, wondering what on earth he was doing. The theatre obviously realised that something was going seriously wrong and they dropped the big white fire curtain. We sat in darkness for 15 or 20 minutes until the band reappeared. The Who launched into “Magic Bus” (I think) followed by a lengthy jam (possibly including “Spoonful”) and finished with by playing “My Generation” for a second time. Pete was in a crazy mood swearing at us all, calling us “f**ing bastards”. I recall being very upset with him and shouted back at him, as did many others. He then smashed his Gibson guitar, threw one of his amps to the ground, and Keith crashed through his drums, knocking them all over the stage. They received “thunderous applause” as they left the stage.
We went home on the train, everyone talking about what we had just witnessed. I remember planning to go along to the next night’s gig and try to buy a ticket outside, but I didn’t do so (wish I had done). It seems that no audience recording exists of the show, and there is some disagreement as to which songs The Who actually played when they returned to the stage. Several reports suggest that they played a set of “oldies” probably including “Magic Bus” and a reprise of “My Generation”. My recollection is of a quite lengthy jam, with several songs running into each other, and no breaks, other than a few short instances where Pete took a breath and swore at the audience. I think they may have played “Spoonful” which they sometimes included as part of the encore at the time. I read another report that suggests that they simply returned to play “Sea and Sand” from “Quadrophenia” and then left the stage.
The picture in this ad was reported to have been taken at this concert
My friend John remembers the gig thus: “We were sitting downstairs to the right of the stage and I can remember seeing Townsend going off to the side of the stage a couple of times and that something was up. Listening in the audience I could not hear anything amiss. Then after about half a dozen songs he went off stage and I think hit the guy on the soundboard, I swear I saw sparks and he stormed off. The rest of the band were stunned and for a few moments did nothing and then went off stage. Similarly the crowd did not understand what was happening and for a while was silent. Then I recall the safety curtain (it was white) came down and the crowd began to boo. Not sure if things were thrown at the curtain. After what seemed like a long time, perhaps it was only five minutes or so, with the crowd getting very restless, the band began to play Magic Bus with the safety curtain still down. Once the crowd began to cheer the curtain was raised and they continued with Magic Bus and then My Generation and I think that as the end of the show. I have seen reports which said they did Young Man and Summertime Blues but not to my recollection.”
Steve Hughes writing in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle the following day called it a “Ridiculous Display Of Unwarranted Violence” and went on to write: “The Who rock band lived up to its reputation for violence on stage with an expensive display of guitar and amplifier-smashing at the Odeon Cinema last night. The concert was stopped in chaos when guitarist Pete Townshend bawled out sound engineers, destroyed pre-recorded backing tapes and smashed up £100 worth of equipment [bet it was more than £100 🙂 ] during the group’s presentation of its latest rock opera. It was a ridiculous display of unwarranted violence witnessed by thousands of easily-influenced teenage pop fans. Townshend, a temperamental but brilliant guitarist, is quite notorious for sudden fits of violence on stage which have almost become accepted as part of the act by his many followers. But this time stage hands rushed to disconnect electric amplifiers and Townshend’s electric guitar after he swiped it into the stage floor. Tempers flared after drummer Keith Moon had trouble with headphones. He let the drumsticks fly as the sound engineers battled to fix them. Then Townshend intervened, yelling at the engineers behind control panels on the side of the stage. He ripped out backing tapes and heaved over equipment into the side curtains. The three other members of the band – lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon – just stared.
The Odeon as it was at the time
The safety net was lowered to the stage but the lights stayed out. Fans sat, quietly at first in total darkness and usherettes – obviously quite frightened – frantically flashed torch lights across the audience. After 10 minutes, with absolutely no trouble from the audience, the curtain was raised and Daltrey launched the band into a medley of ‘oldies’. Then he yelled four-letter words at the audience, calling them – among many other derogatory terms – bastards and tried to explain everything by singing ‘My Generation’, a song about the generation gap and how no one understands the younger generation. Then Townshend hurled his guitar against the upstanding microphone and smashed it into a score of pieces by banging it against the stage floor. He then turned on a row of piled amplifiers at the back of the stage and hurled a top one to the floor. Moon waded through his range of drums, spilling them across the stage and Daltrey took a last kick at his microphone. They all left to thunderous applause. It was, in my opinion, an extremely childish publicity stunt with potentially damaging effect on the thousands of youngsters who invariably follow their idols in all they do. Otherwise, they were musically immaculate, as always. Concerts tonight and tomorrow will go ahead as planned.”
Setlist: I Can’t Explain, Summertime Blues, My Generation, I Am The Sea, The Real Me, The Punk And The Godfather, I’m One, Helpless Dancer, 5:15.
Return to the stage: Magic Bus, jam, Spoonful?, My Generation.
23 Dec
The Who Newcastle Odeon 30th October 1971
The Who Newcastle Odeon 30th October 1971
Support from Quiver.
I was so excited about seeing the Who. They were at the height of their powers in the early ’70s and, along with the Stones and Zeppelin, were easily one of the greatest rock bands in the world, and they knew it. In fact, in many ways they were the best band in the world. Their performances, or at least the ones I witnessed, were consistently solid, and they had great pop tunes, and class rock tracks to draw from. As showmen and musicians they were all individually excellent. Pete Townshend was the angry young man, stomping around the stage, swinging his arm like a windwill, and I was always hoping to see him smash his guitar, as we had witnessed in the “Woodstock” and “Monterey Pop” films. Roger Daltrey was the ultimate front man; his mod style had developed into a full-on rockstar, with his suede fringed suit, throwing the mike out to the audience and immediately pulling it back to twirl around his head. John Entwistle was the solid, silent, excellent bassist with the deep voice that would emerge in “Boris The Spider” or “My Wife”. And Keith Moon, was the mad, hyper active kid, who would bash away at the drums, grin at the audience, and every now and then interject a few random jokes.
Tickets for concerts at Newcastle Odeon were sold at The Queens Theatre. I went through to buy tickets on the morning that they went on sale, only to find that the queue was absolutely massive, stretching around from the Queens, across the square where the city library now stands and right down the next street. I joined the queue but realised that I had little chance of scoring a ticket. The box office opened and people starting emerging with their tickets. One guy came down the queue with a few spare, offering to sell 50p tickets for £1. I bought one. It was a rear stall ticket, not a particularly good seat, but I was in 🙂 ! I was delighted and counted the days to the gig.
The Who began their short Autumn 1971 UK tour at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, and concluded it at Greens Playhouse (The Apollo) in Glasgow, Scotland. They also played three nights at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, North London, the first events taking place at the theatre under its new name (it was previously the Finsbury Park Astoria). The tour featured the first live performances of “Baba O’Riley” (played with a synthesizer backing tape as was “Won’t Get Fooled Again”) and the return of a “Tommy” section featuring “Overture”, “Amazing Journey”, “Sparks”, “Pinball Wizard” and “See Me, Feel Me”. “I Can’t Explain” and “Substitute” began regularly serving as the opening songs, where they remained for many tours after this one. Demand for tickets was incredible with extra nights being added at Glasgow where 6,000 people queued for 3,000 tickets.
The Who had just released the classic “Who’s Next”. “Who’s Next” had started out as a follow up to Tommy: “Lifehouse”, which was to be a multi-media project symbolising the relationship between an artist and his audience. Townshend developed his new ideas for the concept in his home studio, using lots of synthesizer and a series of experimental concerts were booked for the Young Vic in London. These concerts were originally imagined as a grand concept where the audience themselves would somehow contribute to the music and the performance. However, the concept proved too complex to implement and it eventually became a much more straightforward rock album, drawing from the “Lifehouse” music, and was released as “Who’s Next” in August 1971, reaching No. 1 in the UK and the US. “Baba O’ Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” were soon to become great live favourites.
I arrived at the Odeon in time to catch support band Quiver, who you could rely on to warm up the audience. The Who exploded on stage to a massive roar from the audience, and for 90 minutes or so, played a loud, incredible high energy performance. Those opening songs of “Can’t Explain” followed immediately with no time for breath with “Substitute” just can’t be bettered. Townshend commented on the “Baba O’Riley” backing tape, saying “We’ve been waiting for the day that we’d stop playing before the tape finished, and this was it!” “Magic Bus” included a lengthy jam, with mouth harp from Daltrey and much arm swirling by Townshend. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” had recently been in the charts and was a crowd favourite, and a personal highlight of the concert for me. Townshend closed by throwing his guitar in the air, letting it crash to the stage, but didn’t smash it, even though the audience, including me, were willing him to do so, and shouting “smash it, Pete!”.
An absolutely amazing gig, and for me the start of a journey with The Who which continues to this day.
Setlist: I Can’t Explain; Substitute; Summertime Blues; My Wife; Baba O’Riley; Bargain; Behind Blue Eyes; Won’t Get Fooled Again; Baby Don’t You Do It; Magic Bus; Overture; Amazing Journey; Sparks; Pinball Wizard; See Me, Feel Me.
Encore: This was normally My Generation; Naked Eye on this tour. However, published setlists suggest that these were not played at the Newcastle gig. My memory is patchy and I really can’t remember whether or not these two songs were played. I suspect they may have been, and that the setlist orginates from an audience recording which exists (you can find it YouTube) and which does not include the full set.
I reckon I’ve seen the Who 19 times, so this is going to take a couple of weeks. I have already blogged about some of those occasions, but there are lots still to cover. Tomorrow I’ll write about when the Who returned to the Newcastle Odeon two years later during the “Quadrophenia” tour.
22 Dec
Van Halen Newcastle City Hall 17th June 1980
Van Halen Newcastle City Hall 17th June 1980
Van Halen in 1980 was all about crazy, OTT, wild rock excess, and the classiest, loudest rock’n’roll on the planet. We just knew when we arrived at the City Hall and saw loads of mega size trucks parked in a line outside, that this was gonna be some show. That feeling continued when we entered the venue and saw that the stage had been built outward so that it covered the first few rows of the stalls.
Van Halen’s 1980 contract rider says it all. The venue was required to provide: potato chips with assorted dips; nuts; pretzels; M & M’s (WARNING: ABSOLUTELY NO BROWN ONES 🙂 ); 12 peanut butter cups; 12 assorted yogurt (on ice); 48 large, bath-size cloth towels; 100 cups for cold drinks (16 oz., waxed paper); 50 styrofoam cups (minimum 10 oz.) for hot drinks; forks, knives and spoons (metal, not plastic); serving utensils, corkscrew, bottle and can openers; salt and pepper (in shakers); tablecloths; napkins (paper); 2 large bars Ivory soap; large tube KY Jelly! Wow!
Van Halen arrived on stage a little the worse for wear; there had obviously been some back stage drinking activities. Although there performance may not have been as tight as in previous visits to the City Hall, what they lacked in slickness they certainly made up for in craziness.
Setlist: Romeo Delight; Bottoms Up!; Runnin’ With the Devil; Tora! Tora!; Loss of Control; Take Your Whiskey Home; Dance the Night Away; Women In Love; Jamie’s Cryin’; Bright Lights, Big City; Everybody Wants Some!!; And the Cradle Will Rock…; Light Up the Sky; Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love. Encore: Ice Cream Man; You Really Got Me
I saw Van Halen on one further occasion, when they appeared second on the bill to AC/DC at the 1984 Monsters of Rock festival at Donington. The word on street (or, rather, in the field) was that Halen would blow AC/DC off the stage, and although, that didn’t quite happen as AC/DC delivered a stella performance (how could they not, as headline act, with a big show, and the darkness of night on their side?) Van Halen were undoubtedly great that day. “Jump” and the album “1984” had just been released and they were on a roll. Dave Lee Roth had some great rap with the crowd, famously saying in reaction at some cans being thrown about: “Don’t be throwing no shit up on stage, but that’s alright I know who threw that bottle and after the show pal I’m gonna f**k your girl friend man”. They played tracks from their new “1984” album, did a great cover of Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” and closed, as usual, with their cover of the Kinks “You Really Got Me”. And then a big bell came down from the roof of the stage, signally the arrival of AC/DC (but that’s another story).
Donington Setlist 1984: Unchained; Hot for Teacher; On Fire; Runnin’ With the Devil; Little Guitars; House of Pain; I’ll Wait; Everybody Wants Some!!; Oh, Pretty Woman; 1984; Jump; Panama; You Really Got Me
There really was no-one else like Van Halen in the late 70s and early 80s. Pure rock’n’roll class.
21 Dec
Van Halen Newcastle City Hall 26th June 1979
Van Halen Newcastle City Hall 26th June 1979
Van Halen were just about the hottest new rock’n’roll act on the planet. I’d seen them once before when they supported Sabbath on their 1978 UK tour and they blew Sabbath off the stage. This time they were back to play two nights at the City Hall. I went along on the first night (note the typo in their name on the ticket 🙂 ). Van Halen had the perfect recipe for hard rock. In David Lee Roth they had the ultimate flamboyant rock god singer, mane of blonde hair, shirt open to his waist, tight skinny jeans and energy, craziness, and jumping around like you have never seen. Oh and the guy could sing too. Eddie Van Halen was the slickest cool showman guitar player, with a the fastest finger tapping technique you’d ever seen. These two guys were 110% showmen with massive egos, both sparring for the audience’s attention; you could just see why conflict between them would surface in later years. Eddie’s brother Alex Van Halen was hidden behind a massive drum kit pounding away, and bass player Michael Anthony was far from the silent type, providing back vocals and dancing while keeping solid rhythm. 
This tour was around the time of the release of their second album and their set contained classic Halen tracks: “Runnin’ with the Devil”, Eddie’s guitar solo “Eruption” and the band’s first US hit single, “Dance the Night Away.” They also did great covers of the Kink’s “You Really Got Me” and “You’re No Good”. These guys were LOUD, fast, crazy, straight in your face, triumphant and a whole lot of fun. We came out of the City Hall with our ears ringing and smiles right across our faces.
Setlist: Light Up the Sky; Somebody Get Me a Doctor; Runnin’ With the Devil; Dance the Night Away; Beautiful Girls; On Fire; You’re No Good; Jamie’s Cryin’; Feel Your Love Tonight; Outta Love Again; Ice Cream Man; Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love; Eddie Guitar Solo (Eruption and Spanish Fly); You Really Got Me; Bottoms Up!; Atomic Punk
20 Dec
Velvet Revolver Newcastle Arena 15th January 2005
Velvet Revolver Newcastle Arena 15th January 2005
Support from The Datsuns
Velvet Revolver were formed in 2002 by ex Guns N’ Roses bandmates Slash (guitar), Duff McKagan (bass), and Matt Sorum (drums), Dave Kushner (from Wasted Youth on second guitar) and ex Stone Temple Pilot Scott Weiland (vocals).
They recorded a soundtrack single for the Hulk called “Set Me Free” in 2003 and released their second single “Slither” in 2004, along with their debut album “Contraband”. They toured the UK for the first time in 2005, calling at Newcastle Arena with support from the Datsuns. Their music was a mix of STP and G N’ R which brought a “sense of danger and beauty to modern rock.” A respectable sized rock crowd gathered in the Arena for the gig, which was an enjoyable experience and a chance to see Slash up relatively close.
Setlist: Sucker Train Blues; Do It for the Kids; Headspace; Superhuman; Illegal I Song; Crackerman (Stone Temple Pilots); Dirty Little Thing; Fall to Pieces; Big Machine; It’s So Easy (Guns N’ Roses); Sex Type Thing (Stone Temple Pilots); Set Me Free; Used to Love Her (Guns N’ Roses); You Got No Right; Mr. Brownstone (Guns N’ Roses); Slither
19 Dec
Van Der Graaf Generator live 1971 to 1977
Van Der Graaf Generator live 1971 to 1977
I always found Van Der Graaf Generator to be a tricky and complex band. They come from the dark and deep side of prog which they inhabit with King Crimson. I totally loved some of their songs, but found others too dark, strange, jerky and lengthy for my liking. My favourites were, and remain, “Killer”, “Refugees” and “Darkness”. “Killer” is an epic prog classic, which was played again and again at my local Locarno ballroom in the early ’70s. Its narrative tells the story of a lonely killer whale: “So you live in the bottom of the sea, and you kill all that come near you ….but you are very lonely, because all the other fish, fear you …..”. I would group “Refugees” and “Darkness”‘ together; both are beautiful, slow ballads. “Refugees” tells a poignant story of hope, and of Mike and Susie who are “refugees, walking away from the life that we’ve known and loved”; they “walked alone, sometimes hand in hand……smiling very peacefully” and ends “Now we are alone….” “Darkness”, as its title suggests is a moody, fascinating piece: “Day dawns dark, it now numbers infinity. Life crawls from the past, watching in wonder. I trace its patterns in me. Tomorrow’s tomorrow is birth again.” Deep, heavy stuff. VDGG live were equally dark, complex and intense. I found their performances fascinating, uplifting, yet also frustrating and troubling; sometimes even slightly scary. The focus was always the intense and passionate performance of Peter Hammill, swirling organ, and lengthy (sometimes too lengthy in my view) sax solos. The classic line-up, which I saw twice in the period between 1971 and 1972 was Peter Hammill (vocals, piano), Hugh Banton (organ), Guy Evans (drums) and David Jackson (sax, flute). The first time I saw VDGG was at a concert at Newcastle City Hall, where they were supported by Lindisfarne and Genesis (a great triple bill 🙂 ). It was a Charisma package tour, and the tickets were all of 30p, but we had vouchers from Northern Arts which entitled us to half price entry. That was a great evening, and a bargain at 15p! I blogged of that concert some time ago. I next saw them at Sunderland Locarno on 3rd March 1972. Another great gig. The band then split for a period, reforming a couple of years later. I remember going to one of the shows on their “comeback” tour at Newcastle Polytechnic on 24th October 1975. I saw them again the following year at the Reading Festival on 28th August 1976, where they played a short festival set of Masks, Childlike Faith in Childhood’s End, Still Life, The Sleepwalkers and closed with Killer. By 1977 the line-up had changed. David Jackson and Hugh Banton had left and Nic Potter had joined on bass, along with Graham Smith, formerly of the excellent String Driven Thing on violin (check out String Driven Thing’s great song “Its a Game” which was covered by none other than the Bay City Rollers). I saw that line-up at a gig at Redcar Coatham Bowl on 30th October 1977. VDGG reformed a few years ago, and I have blogged on a performance I attended in Manchester a couple of years ago.
Van Der Graaf Generator are, without question, one of the most important and influential bands to come out of the prog rock genre.
18 Dec
Venom Newcastle City Hall 3rd October 1985
Venom Newcastle City Hall 3rd October 1985
Venom are, according to their official site: “the original inventers and founders of Black Metal, the creators of Thrash, Speed, Death and Power Metal, the deadliest force ever to hit the music scene, the original sinners playing the Devil’s music at its highest intensity, the ultimate Rock n’ Roll band in the universe, Venom, hell f**ing yeah!!!!!!!.” Venom, as you might have gathered play LOUD, fast, evil, rock. They have songs called “Die Hard”, “The Seven Gates of Hell”, “Don’t Burn the Witch”, “Welcome to Hell” and “Bloodlust”. Wow! I think you may get the idea.
Venom hail from the 70’s and the North East of England, namely Newcastle, and were formed by Conrad Lant (aka: Cronos). Cronos wanted to create the ultimate metal band that was “heavier and more over the top than anything anyone had ever seen or heard before, more Satanic than Black Sabbath, louder than Motörhead, with a pyrotechnic show to rival Kiss, and with even more leather and studs than Judas Priest”. Great concept. Cronos completed his line-up and his plans for metal world domination with Jeffrey “Mantas” Dunn on guitar, and Tony “Abaddon” Bray on drums, and Venom released their debut album in 1982. Venom made their debut at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in 1984. They always said that their stage show was so massive and that they’d never play a UK date until they could headline at a venue that could house “every last pyro and effect”. “We did it to shove two fingers up at the music industry” recalls Cronos. “we were told… there was a certain way of doing things in this industry. You had to get in a van and do all the s**t hole clubs… I said ‘Bollocks!!!, then booked the Hammersmith Odeon in London and sold it out.”
I saw them with my mate Dave at the City Hall in 1985. According to the ticket support came from Exodus and Chariot, who I have no recollection of. The gig was not that well attended, with an estimated 400 people in the 2,400 capacity hall. From the programme: “Good evening hellspawn, to the most unholy unacceptable and unspeakable blitz of metal you will ever see in your comparatively paltry lives. You are about to experience the grossest amount of sonic assault, volatile visuals and plain power Uber….you are about to experience Venom, the most magnificently powerful metal monster in the world….Ladies and Gentlemen, from the depths of Hell — Venom.”
Venom live were LOUD with scary screaming vocals over a fast thrash metal noise, and flames, explosions and other crazy pyrotechnics. Think a twisted version of Motorhead + Kiss + Sabbath + Slipknot.
An experience like no other. Truly epic.
Setlist: Too Loud (For the Crowd); Black Metal; Die Hard; Nightmare; Countess Bathory; The Seven Gates of Hell; Teacher’s Pet / Poison / Teacher’s Pet; Buried Alive; Don’t Burn the Witch; In Nomine Satanas; Welcome to Hell; Warhead; Schizo; Satanachist.
Encore: Leave Me in Hell; Bloodlust; Witching Hour
17 Dec
The Vapors Newcastle University 14th June 1980
The Vapors Newcastle University 14th June 1980
The Vapors were a one hit wonder band best remembered for their single “Turning Japanese”, which mixed pop hooks, with oriental riffs, and silly lyrics. The band were managed by Paul Weller’s dad, who also managed the Jam. I saw them twice, once at this headlining gig at Newcastle University Students Union, and on one other occasion when they supported the Jam at Newcastle City Hall as part of one of the Jam’s national tours. I remember the Vapors as a fun pop / new wave act, but can’t pretend to remember anything other than “Turning Japanese”. There was a lot of talk at the time about the meaning of the song. The band explained it thus; songwriter and front man David Fenton: “Turning Japanese is all the clichés about angst and youth and turning into something you didn’t expect to”; and guitarist Rob Kemp: “It’s a love song about somebody who had lost their girlfriend and was going slowly crazy, turning Japanese is just all the cliches of our angst… turning into something you never expected to.” The Vapors existed between 1979 and 1982 and released two albums, and eight singles. “Turning Japanese” reached No 3 in the UK singles charts.
16 Dec
The Undertones live in 1979 & 1980
The Undertones live in 1979 & 1980
I first saw the Undertones at a gig in Middlesbrough Rock Garden on 4th March 1979. The place was completely jam packed and the band were simply incredible. There was a garage pop sensibility about this band, with Feargal’s wonderful warbling vocals, great tunes with instantly catchy hooks, cutting buzz guitar, and honest quirky songs about teenage angst and day to day life. The Undertones were a flash of welcome relief from the heavier political sentiments of many of the punk acts of the time. Their performances were pure raw energy, and they looked like (and were) young guys who had just stepped out of their front room rehearsals. The Rock Garden gig came soon after the release of the momentous “Teenage Kicks” single and before the release of their equally important first album. The original line-up of the band was Feargal Sharkey (vocals), John O’Neill (rhythm guitar), Damian O’Neill (lead guitar), Michael Bradley (bass) and Billy Doherty (drums).
A few months later and the Undertones had been in the UK Top 20 with “Jimmy Jimmy” and were headlining theatres and civic halls up and down the country. I saw them at Newcastle City Hall on 8th October with support from Tenpole Tudor (“Swords of 1,000 Men”).
They were back in the charts in 1980 with “My Perfect Cousin” and the wonderful “Wednesday Week” which was my favourite song of theirs. The Undertones returned to Newcastle City Hall on 8th June 1980 for another glorious performance. Support this time came from the Moondogs, who were a fellow Northern Irish band.
Vintagerock's Weblog. 