Posts Tagged ‘rock n roll’
23
Mar
Posted by vintagerock in Frank Zappa. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, psych, rock, rock n roll. 7 comments
Frank Zappa Newcastle City Hall 13th February 1979
After many years of not visiting the UK, Frank Zappa made up for it by coming every year during the period 1977 to 1979. In 1979 I saw his concert at Newcastle City Hall. I went with a group of mates and we had seats quite close to the stage, and a great view of Frank and the band. This was an excellent performance, easily on par with the concert I had seen in Edinburgh a couple of years earlier. Zappa’s guitar playing was simply outstanding and I was delighted that they played the old Mothers’ favourite “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It” and “Peaches en Regalia” from “Hot Rats”.
I found this great discussion about the tour and the setlist: “The setlist for this tour was rather odd – you’d expect an artist who’d released 4 albums (including Sheik Yerbouti, which would come out in the middle of this tour) to be playing the songs from those albums. Frank, however, had been playing some of those songs since 1975-1976, and was ready to ditch them and work on the songs he’d introduced in the previous Fall 1978 tour. 
He also was doing more and more interviews and business stuff, and so Arthur Barrow, the bass player, was left in charge of most of the rehearsals. This meant that much of the setlist had a tendency to be Arthur’s favorites, as they’re the ones he wanted to spend time on. Hence the appearance of a lot of the One Size Fits All album. The band was the same as Fall 1978s, mostly.” (from Sean Gaffney’s Suitable Case for Treatment blog).
Setlist: Treacherous Cretins; Dead Girls of London; Ain’t Got No Heart; Brown Shoes Don’t Make It; Cosmik Debris; Tryin’ to Grow a Chin; City of Tiny Lites; Dancin’ Fool; Easy Meat; Jumbo Go Away; Andy; Inca Roads; Florentine Pogen; Honey, Don’t You Want a Man Like Me?; Keep It Greasey; The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing; For the Young Sophisticate; Wet T-Shirt Nite; Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?; Peaches en Regalia; Yellow Snow Suite (Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow / Nanook Rubs It / St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast / Father O’Blivion / Rollo); Dinah-Moe Humm; Camarillo Brillo / Muffin Man
Thanks to Mitch for the photo which he took at this concert.
Frank Zappa left us far too soon on December 4th 1993, and the music world would never be quite the same. Son Dweezil does an excellent job of playing his dad’s music to a whole new generation of fans.
I’m going to jump out of sequence again for the next week or so. I have a few events to cover that I promised myself I would write about before I completed my project. They are mostly rock related, but one or two aren’t quite. There are about 10 of them, and then I’ll return to Z with Z Z Top to finally close this daily project. Not far to go now.
22
Mar
Posted by vintagerock in Boomtown Rats, Dave Edmunds, Frank Zappa, Nick Lowe, Peter Gabriel, Rockpile, Todd Rundgren, Tubes, Wilko Johnson. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, rock, rock n roll. 15 comments
“Oh God, Not Another Boring Old Knebworth” said the posters. Line-up: The Tubes, Frank Zappa, Peter Gabriel, Boomtown Rats, Rockpile, Wilko Johnson’s Solid Senders.
This was the second Knebworth festival to take place in 1978, following the Genesis / Jefferson Starship / Tom Petty gig earlier in the summer. I remember thinking it was a bit late in the year for an open air gig and feared the worst from the weather, but actually it was ok on the day; quite fine. I drove down with a group of mates. We argued all the way down about who was the “best” act of the day. Such things seemed to matter a lot in those days. In the car we had a big Zappa fan (me, and I was sure that Zappa was the biggest and best act and should be headlining), a newly converted Tubes fanatic, and a couple of Peter Gabriel / Genesis fans. Zappa and the Tubes were billed as joint headliners, however on the day the Tubes closed the show, which annoyed me a little. We camped and pitched our tents near a big generator (big mistake) which for some reason we didn’t really notice when we set up. However it was humming loudly all night and powering a massive floodlight which shone on our tents, so we didn’t get much sleep.
The show was opened by the Boomtown Rats, Wilko Johnson who had recently left Dr Feelgood and was fronting his new band Solid Senders, and Rockpile featuring Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. All class acts and a great start to the day. I’ve already written about Peter Gabriel and the Tubes in earlier posts. Both were great; the Tubes closed the festival with a massive crazy show. They were joined by Todd Rundgren for encores of Baba O’Reilly and
The Kids are alright, played in honour of Keith Moon who had died just two days before this concert.
Zappa was great, although I didn’t enjoy his performance as much as the concert I saw in Edinburgh the year before. His band had changed and they played very few songs that I knew. Still, it was a good day with a varied, and very strong line-up, although the lack of a major league headliner resulted in a far from capacity crowd.
We spent the night with a big light shining on us, a loud humming noise from the generator, and a few “Wally” shouts (although they were starting to fade away by this point in the ’70s). Very little sleep and a long drive home in the morning.
Zappa setlist: Rubber Slices (The Deathless Horsie); Introduction and Soundcheck; Dancin’ Fool; Easy Meat; Honey, Don’t You Want a Man Like Me?; Keep it Greasey; Village of the Sun; Poor Suckers (The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing); City of Tiny Lites; A Pound for a Brown on the Bus; Bobby Brown; Conehead; Flakes (part 1); Flakes (part 2); Magic Fingers; Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow; Nanook Rubs It; Saint Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast; Father O’Blivion / Rollo; Bamboozled by Love
Zappa band: Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals); Vinnie Colaiuta (drums); Arthur Barrow (bass); Ed Mann (percussion); Tommy Mars (keyboards); Denny Walley (guitar, vocals); Peter Wolf (keyboards); and Ike Willis (guitar, vocals).
21
Mar
Posted by vintagerock in Buffy Sainte-Marie, Morrissey. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, new wave, pop, rock, rock n roll. Leave a comment
Morrissey First Direct Arena Leeds 20th March 2015
Support: Buffy Sainte-Marie
Laura is a big Mozza fan so we couldn’t pass up on an opportunity to see him playing “up North”. No Manchester date on this tour; Leeds had the honour of hosting the only northern date. Tickets were a bit pricey with best seats £75 (whats that about Morrissey?) so we plumped for a couple of cheap seats at £45 each. Shortly after buying the tickets Laura realised that she was going away that weekend with a group of friends, but not to worry, after a bit of thought we arranged to meet Dale in Leeds; he bought a ticket outside and drove Laura down to Derbyshire after the show.
Buffy Sainte-Marie was onstage playing “Love takes us up where we belong” as we entered the Arena at 7.30. We saw her play “Universal Soldier” and a couple of more songs; she was finished by 8pm. Morrissey is a fan and had invited her to join him on tour. Good taste and a great choice. Sadly I suspect most of the crowd didn’t know who she was, and that they were witnessing a performance by a legend. There was the usual video sequence during the interval which started with The Ramones and included Jefferson Airplane performing White Rabbit and Penetration playing Don’t Dictate. More good taste and more great choices.
Morrissey took the stage at 8.30 in front of an image of his heroine (not) the Queen; and went straight into “The Queen is Dead”. For this tour he is playing quite a lot of new material with few Smiths tracks so there were a lot of songs that I didn’t know. Having said that I really enjoyed the concert. The sound was loud and crisp; much better than you would normally expect in an arena. And his band were excellent. Morrissey looked quite dapper in a dark shirt with a white V neck and new looking jeans; and he seemed to be a in a good mood. He told us that he had driven through Harrogate on the afternoon and commented on seeing lots of children all dressed the same with fur (from cats he told us, but I really doubt that Morrissey) around their hoods (it was quite an odd comment) and then into “Crashing Bores”; he also had some pretty caustic comments about the coming election and how we couldn’t possible get excited about it (“It’s just Impossible!”). The audience reaction was good, with swaying crushes on the floor, although a little subdued in the seats. There were quite a few empty seats in the upper tier, but the crowd was a respectable size (the arena holds I think 13,500 or so). He finished with Meat is Murder (“Lamb, Spam, Murder”) with the usual shocking video sequence of pigs and cows being slaughtered. “First in the Gang” was the encore. He finished around 10pm. I dashed during the encore to get to the carpark and get out before the queues started (when we drove into the carpark we were told that it can take up to 1.5 hours to get out at the end). Managed to achieve a quick getaway and was back home before midnight.
Setlist: The Queen Is Dead; Suedehead; Staircase At The University; World Peace Is None Of Your Business; Kiss Me A Lot; Istanbul; Neal Cassady Drops Dead; I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris; Irish Blood, English Heart; What She Said; Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before; Scandinavia; The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores; One Of Our Own; Trouble Loves Me; Everyday Is Like Sunday; Kick The Bride Down The Aisle; The Bullfighter Dies; Meat is Murder. Encore: First Of The Gang To Die
20
Mar
Posted by vintagerock in Frank Zappa. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, psych, rock, rock n roll. 19 comments
Frank Zappa Edinburgh Playhouse 14th February 1977
“Welcome to our first Edinburgh concert !” Frank Zappa coming on stage in Edinburgh to a massive roar from the Scottish crowd.
This was Zappa’s first visit to Scotland. He played Glasgow Apollo one night, and Edinburgh Playhouse the next. I attended the Edinburgh concert; I had actually bought a ticket for his concert at Hammersmith, but then when he added the Edinburgh date, I decided it would be easier to make the trip north of the border, rather than go to London. In those days there was a late night train from Edinburgh to Newcastle (it doesn’t run now), which meant you could go to a gig at the Playhouse, run round to Waverley station (you had to be quick to catch the train) and be back home in the early hours of the morning. I’d been a big fan of Zappa and the Mothers since I first heard “We’re Only in it for the Money” and “Lumpy Gravy” in the late ’60s. Now those were the coolest of cool lps to carry to school under your arm; I remember having to order my copies of “Lumpy Gravy” and “Uncle Meat” from a local record shop (Bergs) and waiting ages for them to arrive. I was also a big fan of the “Hot Rats” album (another iconic sleeve). I’d been wanting to see Frank Zappa live for ages, and was so excited that I was finally getting the chance to do so. The set was a mix of material from throughout Zappa’s career including the magnificent “Peaches en Regalia” which is my favourite track on “Hot Rats”, back to the start with the Mothers cooky “Big Leg Emma”, full on Wah Wah on “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama” and an amazing solo on “Black Napkins”. That night I realised that there was much more to Zappa than nutty songs, political statements, doowop, and childish toilet humour; that Frank Zappa was actually an excellent guitarist. Ran into my friend John who was studying in Edinburgh at the time. Had to run to catch the train home, totally knocked out that I had actually seen a genius and one of my all time heroes live in concert.
Setlist: The Purple Lagoon (intro.); Peaches en Regalia; The Torture Never Stops; Big Leg Emma; City of Tiny Lites; Pound for a Brown; Jones Crusher; My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama; Tryin’ to Grow a Chin; Broken Hearts Are for Assholes(with “Little Deuce Coupe” ); Dong Work for Yuda; Manx Needs Women; Titties ‘n Beer; Black Napkins; Dinah-Moe Humm; Camarillo Brillo / Muffin Man
The Zappa Band: Frank Zappa — guitar, vocals; Ray White – guitar, vocals; Eddie Jobson – keyboards, violin; Patrick O’Hearn – bass & Terry Bozzio – drums, vocals. It was great to see local hero Eddie Jobson playing violin with Zappa, it was only a few years earlier we were all dancing to him playing “Hava Nagila” with the excellent Fat Grapple in Sunderland Locarno.
A strange thing. My ticket shows that I had a seat in the front row of the stalls. Now in my memory I can picture myself sitting upstairs in the circle. I’m sure I would have remembered if I was in the front row. All I can think is that my seat was right at the side of the stage and a poor view and that I wandered upstairs and found an empty seat. But hey who knows.
John’s memory: “I can remember going to the show and had a ticket fairly near the front.I did not know much of his material except for the vintage Hot Rats which had been a popular “cool” album in the early 70’s.I went mainly based on his reputation and the fact that he did not play very often. I remember really enjoying the gig and thinking he was an exceptional player , despite not being familiar with a lot of the material. I think Eddie Jobson was in his band at the time. The set included Peaches en Regalia and the highlight of for me was City of Tiny Lites.”
17
Mar
Posted by vintagerock in Paul Young. Tagged: concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, pop, R&B, rock, rock n roll, soul. Leave a comment
Paul Young Newcastle City Hal 1983 & 1984
I’d seen Paul Young in Q Tips a few times, and was pretty impressed by his 1983 singles “Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home)” which reached No 1, “Come Back And Stay” (No 4), and “Love Of The Common People” which made No 2 on re-release. He had put a great band together around him and that, coupled with great song choices and his sweet white soul voice, finally fulfilled the promise of his former group, and gave him the massive success he deserved. Young’s debut solo album “No Parlez” produced five singles, and stayed in the UK charts for 119 weeks, selling close to a million copies. Young’s backing band was ‘The Royal Family’ and included keyboardist Kewley, fretless bass player wizard Pino Palladino (now of the Who), guitarist Steve Bolton, drummer Mark Pinder, and backing singers Maz Roberts and Kim Leslie (AKA ‘The Fabulous Wealthy Tarts’). 
I saw them at Newcastle City Hall in 1983 when Paul was at the height of his new success. Paul Young had further success in 1984 with three more Top 10 singles: “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down”, “Everything Must Change” and “Everytime You Go Away”.
He was back at the City Hall later in the year for another concert.
Both shows were excellent events with a great selection of songs performed by a guy at the top of his game.
16
Mar
Posted by vintagerock in Blackfoot Sue. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, glam, music, pop, rock, rock n roll. Leave a comment
Blackfoot Sue live 1973
“Standing in the Road” was a great single. It had a solid repetitive riff to and strong rhythms. I remember seeing Blackfoot Sue perform the song on Top of the Pops and I was totally knocked out. It reached No 4 in the UK singles chart at the same time as Slade and glamrock, and Blackfoot Sue were naturally compared to the bands of the time. This was a little unfair as the band had a much broader musical repertoire.
Blackfoot Sue was formed in 1970 by identical twin Brummie brothers Tom and David Farmer and Eddie Golga. They toured relentlessly between 1972 and 1974, playing ballrooms and clubs up and down the country. Tom and David Farmer both had really long hair and looked great; Tom played a Rickenbacker bass and David pounded away on drums. “Standing in the Road” had a rhythm section in the middle of the song where they all picked up drumsticks and hit everything in sight including their guitars, coke bottles, beer crates, and whatever was around them.
I saw Blackfoot Sue play at Sunderland Mecca sometime in 1973. I’ve checked their official gig list, and although it lists gigs at Newcastle Mayfair and Sunderland Poly, there is no mention of a Mecca gig. However I’m sure I saw them there. Live they were quite a heavy band, and had great rock tracks like “Messiah” which opened their debut album, and was also the song that opened their live show, and of course “Standing in the Road”. They would close their set with their version of the 1812 Overture which featured guitar feedback, churchbells and all of the guys hammering on David Farmer’s drum kit. My friend John recalls them “smashing up beer crates – or milk crates ? – they were made of wood- at the end of the set to bemusement of the crowd”. “1812” features on their second album, takes up almost a whole side of the lp record, and “ventures into the free-flowing world of progressive rock and gives some idea of the energy of the band on stage – the song was a highlight of their live show” (from the official Blackfoot Sue website). David Farmer: “It was all done with violin bows on the guitars… we had huge great artificial stone letters spelling out “1812”… We used to smash it up with axes and strobe lights flashed while the cannons exploded.” (That must be the smashing up that John recalls).
Blackfoot Sue folded in 1977 and re-emerged as Liner. Tom and Dave Farmer continue to play as Cry Wolf along with their younger brother Gary, and are sometimes joined by Eddie Golga.
15
Mar
Posted by vintagerock in 4" by 2", ABC, Blurt, Brian Brain, Classix Nouveaux, Durutti Column, Frantic Elevators, Gary Glitter, Hazel O'Connor, Naked Lunch, Not Sensibles, Psychedelic Furs, Simply Red, Soft Boys, Spizz, Vice Versa, Young Marble Giants. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, festival, gig, gigs, music, new wave, pop, punk, rock, rock n roll. 15 comments
Futurama 2 Festival Queens Hall Leeds 14th September 1980
This was the second Futurama festival and it took place at Queens Hall, which was in the centre of Leeds. The Saturday line-up featured U2 (low down on the bill), Echo & The Bunnymen, Soft Cell and Siouxsie & The Banshees (who headlined). I attended the Sunday with my mate Dave and it featured The Psychedelic Furs, Gary Glitter, The Durutti Colum, Classix Nouveaux, Young Marble Giants, Hazel O’Connor, The Soft Boys, Flowers, Naked Lunch, Blurt, Artery, Notsensibles, Vice Versa, Desperate Bicycles, Frantic Elevators, Athletico Spizz 80, Brian Brain, Tribesmen, Boots for Dancing and Household Name. We arrived during the afternoon and missed some of the bands. Queens Hall was a cavernous building, which was originally a tram and bus depot. It was used as a concert venue during the 1980s. It has since been demolished and is now a car park.
When we arrived it looked like a war zone. Punk fans from all over the north, and further afield, had decamped there for the weekend, and had been in the venue all night, sleeping on the floors; there was trash everywhere. We saw faces that we recognised from Middlesbrough Rock Garden, which had closed for the weekend as everyone was going to the festival. We chatted to a few people; everyone was talking about how great Siouxsie (who had headlined the Saturday night) had been. There were stalls around the place and pop-up art performances in dark corners of the hall. I recall one performance which involved a guy having a crap in a bucket; we moved on. The bands were playing on a stage at the end of the massive hall. 
This was an opportunity to see bands who went on to stardom: The Frantic Elevators became Simply Red, and Vice Versa became ABC. There was a great mix of bands at the event and the atmosphere was wonderful, really friendly. Although on the surface this festival appeared messy and shambolic, it is actually one of the best I have every attended for the musical range and the feeling in the crowd. Highlights of the day were Hazel O-Connor, who was in the charts with “Eighth Day” and became the robot from “Breaking Glass”, Durutti Column featuring Vini Reilly’s meadering guitar, and the 4″ by 2″s who were a proto-Oi! band featuring Jimmy Lydon (John Lydon’s brother) and also at one point featured Youth of Killing Joke. But the highlight was an incredible performance by Notsensibles, a punk band from Burnley who had some success with their single “I’m in Love with Margaret Thatcher”. Their set included a lot of tongue-in-cheek songs, all performed in their strong Northern accent. They’d brought a large contingent of fans, who all sang along with every daft song. Notsensibles motto was “all we want to do is make silly records and play silly gigs”. There is a video on YouTube of them performing “Death To Disco” at the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIGrhea75qU
The festival ran very late into the night (inevitable given the incredible number of bands who were performing) and we left around midnight during Psychedelic Furs set to drive back up North and home, thus missing the headliner who was (also incredibly) the now shamed star Gary Glitter. The Futurama festival had a history of choosing off-the-wall headliners; on another occasion the closing acts was a reformed Bay City Rollers (now that must have been something to experience). A crazy, mad, fun event with some great bands. Happy happy days 🙂
14
Mar
Posted by vintagerock in Baker Gurvitz Army, Ginger Baker, Sharks. Tagged: blues, classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, heavy rock, music, rock, rock n roll. Leave a comment
Baker Gurvitz Army Newcastle Mayfair 24th November 1975
Ginger Baker formed the powerhouse rock band Baker Gurvitz Army with brothers Paul and Adrian Gurvitz (formerly of The Gun and “Race with the Devil” fame), former Shark’s singer ‘Mr Snips’ (I recall seeing Sharks at Sunderland Mecca and they were excellent) and keyboard player Peter Lemer. They recorded their first album ‘Baker Gurvitz Army’ in 1974. The album was very much in the mould of Cream; “This album’s a strong, decisive statement, and if hard rock’s what you crave, you won’t be disappointed.” (Ralph Heibutzki, All Music Guide). In 1975 the band went out on tour. I saw their show at Newcastle Mayfair on 24th November. I’d always regretted missing out of seeing Cream first time round, and had made every effort to see their three members in concert. I’d seen Clapton and Bruce, and this was my first chance to see Ginger Baker. I remember enjoying the concert and that they played “White Room” and “Sunshine of Your Love”; and being delighted that they did so. Ginger had a massive drum kit which took up much of the stage; Adrian Gurvitz was an excellent guitarist and Snips, who I had seen before in Sharks, was a cocky punky character with a bluesy soulful voice.
A 1975 concert at Derby was recorded and released as a live album many years later. The tracklisting is: The Hustler; Space Machine; Remember; White Room; Neon Lights; Inside Of Me; Memory Lane; Sunshine Of Your Love; The Artist; Freedom; Time; Going To Heaven. I would imagine that the set at the Mayfair will have been similar to this. Baker Gurvitz Army were a great and now largely forgotten part of heavy blues rock history.
Chris Salewicz reviewed a gig in Watford on the same tour: “Okay, so there’s no phasing on the drums and he must be one of the only drummers currently working the rock and roll circuit who doesn’t take his shirt off on stage, and occasionally his style may still smack of ’67 And All That, but nevertheless Ginger Baker’s drumming is a positive joy to listen to. Baker’s playing oozes power. As such it blends in with and propels along the sheer energy which the Baker-Gurvitz Army seem to have cornered for themselves. Snips’ singing … is a direct utilisation of the lead singer’s voice as sensual instrument. Adrian Gurvitz, though not perhaps the most athletic lead guitarist around, certainly ain’t no slouch when it comes to the old brain power necessary for searching out those squealing, fleshy guitar notes or those near-psychedelic indented blues runs.”
Baker Gurvitz Army split in 1976 in part because “Adrian’s guitar playing was just too loud” and he was “getting off with every chick that I fancied!” (Ginger)
13
Mar
Posted by vintagerock in Gentle Giant. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, film, gig, gigs, music, prog rock, rock, rock n roll. Leave a comment
Gentle Giant Sunderland Locarno 21st April 1972
This was a strange tour. Prog rock band Gentle Giant toured the UK as support for “Jimi plays Berkeley”, which was a film of a Jimi Hendrix concert. “Jimi Plays Berkeley” was never intended for official release but was hurriedly put together as a film shortly after Hendrix’s untimely death, and was put out on an European tour complete with support acts, which was Gentle Giant in the UK. Because everyone was so hungry for anything to do with Hendrix, it became one of the most popular music films of its era. The film features excerpts of performances by Jimi, bassist Billy Cox, and drummer Mitch Mitchell from two concerts. They perform “Purple Haze”, “Machine Gun”, “Voodoo Child” “Star Spangled Banner” and “Johnny B. Goode.”
I found this fascinating write-up of the tour on the excellent Gentle Giant tour history site: “…the tour may have been a somewhat humiliating experience for the group, as they actually had to serve as the opening act for a movie, the Jimi Hendrix live concert film, Jimi Plays Berkeley. Certain ads for the tour had the band’s name in large, bold print, as if they were headlining, but they did, in fact, take the stage first each night, before the movie. This tour also had its share of problems, supposedly. At one gig, the film never arrived. At another unknown date on the tour, Giant’s equipment didn’t arrive, due to a van breakdown, so they were unable to perform. This also caused a further problem for the film, as the band’s PA system was supposed to be used for the soundtrack. Roadie Phil Freeman recalls that the angry crowd actually beat up the projectionist on this occasion, out of frustration…..” I recall very little about Gentle Giant’s set but I do remember a long wait before the film was shown. I think the film was travelling separately to the band. When it finally arrived it was a bit of a let down as the makeshift projection and screen facilities weren’t great in the ballroom and the picture and sound were poor.
Gentle Giant’s line-up at the time was Gary Green (guitar), Kerry Minnear (keyboards), Derek Shulman (lead vocals, saxophone), Phil Shulman (lead vocals, saxophone, trumpet), Ray Shulman (bass, trumpet, violin) and John “Pugwash” Weathers (drums, percussion). They were formed by the Shulman brothers from the remnants of Simon Dupree and the Big Sounds of “Kites” fame. The band’s aim was to “expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of becoming very unpopular”. Gentle Giant were much more experimental than other bands of the prog genre, making their music much less accessible and more difficult to get into than say Genesis, Yes or King Crimson. This concert was at the time of their third lp, “Three Friends”.
Gentle Giant’s setlist is likely to have consisted of the following songs: Prologues, Alucard, Funny ways, Nothing at all, Schooldays, Plain Truth, the Queen.
I saw Gentle Giant once more around the same time, supporting the Groundhogs at Newcastle City Hall.
12
Mar
Posted by vintagerock in Department S, Spizz. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, music, new wave, pop, rock, rock n roll. Leave a comment
Department S & Spizzles Sunderland Mayfair 9th April 1981
I was driving yesterday, when the great Department S single “Is Vic There?” came on the car radio, reminding me that I saw the band at a gig at Sunderland Mayfair. It was around the time that the record was in the charts and they shared the bill with Spizzles, who were the 1981 incarnation of Spizz aka Spizz Energi (Where’s Captain Kirk). Spizz was always good for a crazy sci-fi laugh, but I went to the gig to see Department S and to hear them play “Is Vic There?”, which had such a catchy hook; it was one of those songs that once you heard you could never get out of your head.
Department S were formed in 1980, and took their stage name from the 1960s cult TV series of the same name which featured the great Jason King. They hit the UK charts with their debut single, “Is Vic There?”, which was originally released in December 1980 and reached No. 22 in 1981. Although Department S are usually characterised as a new wave band, “Is Vic There?” is quite a rocky guitar oriented song, with shades of darkness; the opening sequence of the song reminds me of the music of the Groundhogs. I remember that Department S were pretty entertaining live, although the only song that I, and the rest of the audience, recognised was the hit single; and I think, they also did a cover version of T.Rex’s “Solid Gold Easy Action” which was the single’s B side. For “Is Vic There?” singer and front man Vaughn Toulouse held his mike like a telephone, to fit with the recurring ring tone from the record.
Vaughn Toulouse was born Vaughn Cotillard on Jersey in 1959. He followed the Clash on tour in 1978 and wrote about the tour in “The Face” magazine. He then went on to form the bands Guns For Hire and Department S. Toulouse became a regular “face” of the ’80s London club scene, writing for the music press, performing as a DJ, appearing on the cover of the Jam’s final record, and playing with the Style Council. Vaughn Toulouse died in 1991 of AIDS-related illness.
“The night is young, the mood is mellow
And there’s music in my ears
Say, is Vic there?
I hear ringing in the air
So I answer the phone
A voice comes over clear
Say, is Vic there?”
(Is Vic There? , 1981)
After many years of not visiting the UK, Frank Zappa made up for it by coming every year during the period 1977 to 1979. In 1979 I saw his concert at Newcastle City Hall. I went with a group of mates and we had seats quite close to the stage, and a great view of Frank and the band. This was an excellent performance, easily on par with the concert I had seen in Edinburgh a couple of years earlier. Zappa’s guitar playing was simply outstanding and I was delighted that they played the old Mothers’ favourite “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It” and “Peaches en Regalia” from “Hot Rats”.
He also was doing more and more interviews and business stuff, and so Arthur Barrow, the bass player, was left in charge of most of the rehearsals. This meant that much of the setlist had a tendency to be Arthur’s favorites, as they’re the ones he wanted to spend time on. Hence the appearance of a lot of the One Size Fits All album. The band was the same as Fall 1978s, mostly.” (from Sean Gaffney’s Suitable Case for Treatment blog).
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