The Bay City Rollers Sunderland Locarno 1974
Another guilty pleasure today. In fact, this is perhaps THE most sad admission I could make in terms of my gig going. OK I’ll admit it, I did go and see the Bay City Rollers….. and I survived to tell the tale, although only just. Actually, I think the Rollers deserve more respect than they ever get. I once read an article which described them as part of the true origins of punk rock, a bunch of Scottish street kids who played music for kids like themselves, and I sort of agree with that. In the history of pop The Rollers are often seen as a joke, which I think is sad. The Bay City Rollers played in Sunderland at the Locarno, just as they were taking off. It was probably in early 1974; when Shang-a-Lang was hitting the charts. They played on a Friday, which was a normal rock night, and a strange choice of billing. The normal faithful rock/hippy crowd, who went every Friday come what may, stayed away in droves, but I decided to go along with a couple of mates just to see what it was like. The ballroom was full of young girls and a smattering of skinheads. On any other Friday, I would have known almost everyone in there; that night I saw almost no-one I recognised, other than a handful of regulars who, like us, had come out of habit and curiosity. I couldn’t actually hear much of the Rollers set over the screaming, and the sound wasn’t wonderful. I do remember them singing hits such as Shang-a-Lang; Remember; Saturday Night and Summerlove Sensation (all from their first lp Rollin’) alongside a number of covers such as Be My Baby. Musically they weren’t great, but the way they worked the crowd was very impressive, Les on his kness at the front singing to the girls and all of the guys hamming it up. That was night was eventful for me for another reason. I was walking around the balcony when a skinhead came up to me and punched me hard in the face for no reason at all. I was dazed, and walked away; not very hurt, but pretty shocked. He was with a group, so it wouldn’t have been sensible to retaliate. However one of them came up to me, asked if I was OK, and explained that his mate was just edgy, and didn’t like guys with long hair. Just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess, but it did spoil the rest of the evening for me. I never did go and see The Rollers again, which is something I regret. From then on they played theatres and concert halls. I guess my experience that night put me off going along.
Posts Tagged ‘rock’
28 Jan
The Bay City Rollers Sunderland Locarno 1974
27 Jan
John Lees Barclay James Harvest Newcastle Tyne Theatre 2006
John Lees Barclay James Harvest Newcastle Tyne Theatre 2006
It had been more than 20 years since I had last seen Barclay James Harvest. I’d grown disillusioned with the band in the early 1980s; however when I saw that John Lees’ version of the band was coming to the Tyne Theatre, I decided to go along. The Tyne Theatre is a nice little venue, and for this gig a respectable crowd turned out to see the band. The line up for this gig was :John Lees, Woolly Wolstenholme, Craig Fletcher (b), Kevin Whitehead (dr), Mike Bramwell (kb), and the setlist was: For No One; Child Of The Universe; Harbour; If Love Is King; The Iron Maiden; The Great 1974 Mining Disaster; She Said; Cheap The Bullet; Poor Man’s Moody Blues; Galadriel; Suicide?; Medicine Man; In Search Of England; Poor Wages; Mocking Bird; The Poet/After The Day; Hymn. I was surprised how many songs I recognised: For No One; Child Of The Universe; The Great 1974 Mining Disaster; She Said; Poor Man’s Moody Blues; Galadriel; Suicide?; The Poet/After The Day; and Hymn brought back memories of those City Hall concerts all those years ago. Mocking Bird was as beautiful as ever; I went home and dug out my (very scratched) copy of the Harvest single and played it again and again as I had in the 70s. I was hooked again.
26 Jan
Barclay James Harvest gigs 1980 – 1981 Newcastle City Hall
The 1980 Barclay James Harvest tour (ticket left and programme below) was the first chance for UK fans to see the band after the departure of Wooly. We all wondered how the band would shape up with the new line-up which was built around the three remaining members, but actually it was OK. For the tour the set included: Love On The Line; Capricorn; Rock ‘N’ Roll Lady; Nova Lepidoptera; Play To The World; Alright Down Get Boogie; The Song (They Love To Sing); Sperratus; Jonathan; Sip Of Wine; Loving Is Easy; Hymn.
During the 70s many bands would play their “new album” on tour, and this was the norm for Barclay James in this period. A new lp; a new set; and a new tour. That was OK, but it was disappointing to see old favourites like Mockingbird being dropped from the set. One good thing about seeing classic bands now is that they play all of the old favourites, and are happy to return to their heritage. Looking at the setlist for the 1980 tour, the only song I recognise is Hymn.
Later in 1980 the band played a massive free concert at the Reichstag in West Berlin, in front of an audience of 250,000 people. In many ways Barclay James were at the peak of their success in the early 80s, however, their golden creative period had passed, and their material was not as strong as it had been in the 70s, and to be honest I was becoming tired of seeing them.
The set for the 1981 tour (ticket above, programme right) consisted of: Rock ‘N’ Roll Lady; Capricorn; The Song (They Love To Sing); Death Of A City; Berlin; How Do You Feel Now; Back To The Wall; Nova Lepidoptera; Crazy City; Suicide?; Echoes And Shadows; Sperratus; Love On The Line; In Memory Of The Martyrs; Life Is For Living; Poor Man’s Moody Blues; Highway For Fools; Play To The World; Hymn. Again, this was mostly new stuff to me, although it was good to see them play Poor Man’s Moody Blues and Hymn again. But for me, a Barclay James Harvest concert without Mockingbird will always disappoint a little. I missed the next few tours, and didn’t go to see them again until over twenty years later. I’ll write something on that experience tomorrow.
25 Jan
Barclay James Harvest gigs 1972 – 1977
I guess, although I might not have fully realised it at the time, I was pretty into Barclay James Harvest in the 70s. They were one of the bands who I would go along and see with my mates, and we always enjoyed the show. We sort of took them for granted; they toured a lot, you could always go along and see them; you could rely on them to play well (and they would always play Mockingbird).
I first saw them at gigs in Sunderland Top Rank and The Locarno. The first time was around 1972, at the Top Rank with the great Del Bromham and Stray support. Stray used to have dustbins on stage with explosives in. These were ignited during All In Your Mind, and nearly blew the roof off; I’m sure Health and Safety rules would outlaw such things these days. Barclay James set around this time consisted of early songs such as She Said; Mocking Bird; Medicine Man; Moonwater; Summer Soldier; The Poet; After The Day; Galadriel; Dark Now My Sky. I also saw them when they appeared at the Reading festival in 1974. By the mid to late 70s they were headlining, and selling out concert halls across the UK. I went to see them at Newcastle City Hall in 1977 (ticket above).
That was the Gone To Earth tour (programme to left) and the setlist at the time was: Child Of the Universe; Rock ‘N’ Roll Star; Poor Man’s Moody Blues; Mockingbird; Hard Hearted Woman; Medicine Man; Taking Me Higher; Suicide?; Crazy City; Jonathan; Polk Street Rag; Hymn. There show were always 100% professional, if smewhat predictable. At the time I saw them as an alternative to The Moody Blues, who were on a sabbatical throughout the mid 70s. Mockingbird was (and still is) a favourite song of mine and I would look forward to seeing them play it. 
Barclay James were back at the City Hall in 1978 (ticket right and programme below). This was the XII tour and the setlist was something like: Nova Lepidoptera; Hard Hearted Woman; Poor Man’s Moody Blues; Berlin; Medicine Man; Sip Of Wine; Suicide?; Rock ‘N’ Roll Star; In Search Of England; Jonathan; Child Of The Universe; Mockingbird; Loving Is Easy; Hymn 
Throughout this period the classic line up was: John Lees – vocals and guitar; Les Holroyd – bass and vocals; Mel Pritchard – drums, percussion; the late Stuart “Woolly” Wolstenholme – vocals, mellotron, keyboards. After this tour Wooly left the band, which was a big shock. I remember a lot if talk at the time as to whether the band should, or could, continue without him, which they did. They were back at the City Hall a couple of years later. I’ll write about that gig tomorrow.
24 Jan
Kevin Ayers Newcastle 1974 and 2003
Kevin Ayers and Long John Baldry Newcastle City Hall November 1974
Kevin Ayers Newcastle Tyne Theatre 2003
Kevin Ayers’ legend looms large in English rock history. In 1974 he’d released The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories album on the Island record label, and headlined the now legendary 1 June 1974 concert at the Rainbow Theatre, London, where his band consisted of John Cale, Nico, Brian Eno and Mike Oldfield. For this Autumn 1974 concert tour (see ticket, and programme below), his band consisted of the late great Ollie Halsall, who I’d seen at the City Hall a few years earlier in Patto. Support came from Long John Baldry who by the early 70s had grown his hair, and was looking seriously hippieish. Long gone were the suited blues man days of the 60s and Let the Heartaches Begin (which he didn’t, of course, sing). But the set was still blues-based and Long John’s voice was as deep and impressive as he was tall.
The set consisted of songs from Bananamour, Joy of a Toy and The Confessions of Dr Dream, and was a somewhat shambolic, but enjoyable mixture of English whimsy, reggae and jazz-rock. Ayers did a version Falling in Love Again in the style of Noel Coward and Halsall performed Elvis’ Don’t be Cruel. There were problems with the electricity in the hall, with the power going over several times, and Ayers and Long John Baldry singing to us without any amplication at all at one point. If I remember right, the power failed completely in the end and the show was abandoned. I next saw Kevin Ayers almost 30 years later in the bar of the Tyne Theatre. The approach was similarly eccentric and enigmatic, but just as enjoyable.
22 Jan
ABBA Stafford Bingley Hall 11 November 1979
I’m starting this weeks posts with a guilty pleasure. I’ve always had a broad taste in music, and over the years, I’ve been to see quite a lot of straight pop acts, and artists from other genres. One concert that I am particularly proud of attending, and feel no quilt at all about, is Abba. My mate Davy and I went to see Abba at Stafford Bingley Hall at the height of their fame in 1979. Abba toured the UK twice, once in 1977 and again in 1979, and played around a dozen shows in the UK in total. Their first tour was at smaller venues such as Glasgow Apollo, and I remember regretting missing them on that tour. So when they announced some dates at larger venues in 1979, I bought a couple of tickets to see them in Stafford Bingley Hall. The concert was on a Sunday, and we drove down to the concert on the afternoon, and as I recall, went to a chinese restaurant for a meal before the gig.
Stafford Bingley Hall was used for gigs throughout the 70s, Davy and I also went there to see The Who in the mid 70s. It was a big old cattle market, and smelt like one! For the ABBA concert they laid plastic seats in rows, we were in Row 18, which wasn’t too far away from the front. I don’t recall there being any support act for this gig. One thing I do remember is we were both were quite tickled that the actor, John Forgeham, who played Jim Baines in Crossroads at the time was sitting in the next row. 
The setlist will have been something like: Gammal Fabodpsalm; Voulez-Vous; If It Wasn’t for the Nights; As Good as New; Knowing Me Knowing You; Rock Me; Not Bad At All; Chiquitita; Money Money Money; I Have a Dream; Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight); S.O.S.; Fernando; The Name of the Game; Eagle; Thank You For The Music; Why Did It Have to Be Me; Intermezzo No. 1; I’m Still Alive; Take a Chance on Me; Summer Night City; Does Your Mother Know; Hole in Your Soul; The Way Old Friends Do; Dancing Queen; Waterloo. The four members of Abba were accompanied by a band, and by a large choir of local children for I Have a Dream. They played all the hits and a selection of album tracks. The sound at big gigs wasn’t great in those days, and I seem to remember that being the case at this gig; it was quite quiet in comparison to a more traditional rock concert. Davy and I really enjoyed it, and I still look back on this gig with fond memories and feel quite lucky that I got to see Abba. My programme is above. After the gig we then drove straight back up to Newcastle, which is around 200 miles. It started snowing as we got further north, and I dropped Davy off at Newcastle City Hall, where he joined the queue for tickets for Paul McCartney and Wings which went on sale the next morning. I went home for a few hours sleep, got up went to work for a short time, then went through to Newcastle and met (a very cold and tired) Davy who had managed to get the Wings tickets, but thats a story for another day.
21 Jan
Jeff Beck Newcastle City Hall 1974, 1981 and 2004
Jeff Beck in Newcastle 1974, 1981 and 2004
Writing my post about the Grangemouth Festival, where Jeff Beck headlined, made me think about the other times that I’ve seen Beck. The most recent was at the O2 a couple of years ago, when he co-headlined and dueted with Clapton. It was a great gig, with an astounding performance from Beck. I’ve seen him three other times, making five in total.
After Grangemouth I was keen to see Beck again, so when Beck, Bogert and Appice came to Newcastle City Hall in January 1974 I made sure that I was there. The set was similar to that he played at Grangemouth the year before. This was classic rock, but there were hints of the more experimental guitar technique that Beck was to move into in the future. The setlist for their Live in Japan 1973 DVD is: Superstition; Lose Myself With You; Jeff’s Boogie; Going Down; Boogie; Morning Dew; Sweet Sweet Surrender; Livin’ Alone; I’m So Proud; Lady; Black Cat Moan; Why Should I Care; Plynth/Shotgun. I would guess that the set that night will have been similar. 
By 1981 Beck was more into jazz-rock, and his 1981 show at the City Hall reflected this. As I recall, Ian and I went to this gig, and the set was all instrumental. Beck no doubt gave us some great guitar playing, but I found it a bit too much, and I was bored by the end. He’d released the Wired and There and Back albums in 1975 and 1980, and the set mainly comprised tracks from those lps, with no old songs, and definitely no Hi Ho Silver Lining. Looking at published setlists, around that time the set was something like: Star Cycle; El Becko; Too Much to Lose; The Pump; Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers; Space Boogie; Led Boots; Freeway Jam; Diamond Dust; Scatterbrain/Drum Solo; Blue Wind; Goodbye Pork Pie Hat/You Never Know; Going Down. 
It was over 20 years until I saw Jeff Beck again. By 2004, when Will and I last saw him in Newcastle, he was still playing mostly instrumental, with a singer for a few of the songs. By now he’d moved into a more experimental mode, using techniques which blend rock, jazz and sounds from the 50s and 60s; shades
of The Shadows, surf guitar, Duane Eddy, Dick Dale and Santo and Johnny. He was awesome that night, and I realised again just what a craftsman he is. My programme for the 2004 gig is to the left. His instrumental version of The Beatles Day In The Life is a revelation. His set from The Albert Hall concert a few days later was: Resolution; Star Cycle; Freeway Jam; Roy’s Toy; Big Block; Cry Me a River; Stratus; Goodbye Pork Pie Hat; Angel; Even Odds; Brush with the Blues; Nadia; Nothing but Love; Loose Cannon; Blancet; Rollin’ and Tumblin’; Blue Wind; Voyage Home; Rice Pudding; Cissy Strut; Led Boots; A Day in the Life; Where Were You; You Never Know; Encore: People Get Ready. Still no Hi Ho Silver Lining. I’d resigned myself to never seeing him play the 60s classic. However, that was to come as a surprise at the gig with Clapton (see my earlier blog).
18 Jan
Grangemouth Pop Festival Scotland 23 September 1972: Jeff Beck, Billy Connolly and others
The Grangemouth Pop Festival
Line up: Beck Bogert Appice; Status Quo; Steeleye Span; Lindisfarne; The Everley Brothers; Beggars Opera; Average White Band; Sunshine; Billy Connolly; The Chris McClure Section; MC: John Peel. All for £1.50!
I’m going to see Billy Connolly at Newcastle City Hall on Thursday night. I’m looking forward to the gig, and it made me think about the couple of times I’ve seen Billy Connolly in the past. The first time I saw him was at The Grangemouth Pop Festival in Scotland in 1972 (see ticket right). At the time he was unknown outside Scotland and, as he delighted in telling us, he was scared shitless about this gig, as it was his biggest to date. The festival was organised by Great Western Festivals, who had also run the excellent Lincoln Festival which I attended earlier in 1972, and was billed as Scotland’s first pop festival. My friend Nicky and I went by train to the gig. 
Grangemouth is north west of Edinburgh. The festival took place on Saturday 23 September 1972 and was part of the Grangemouth centenary celebrations. It was held in a sports stadium, which was in an industrial area, next to a gasworks, which spewed smoke over us at various times during the day. It wasn’t that well attended as I recall, with quite a heavy atmosphere, drunkenness, and some fights as the day went on. The promised line up was good, however a few of the bands who were billed did not play; a not uncommon occurrence in those days. Billy Connolly (see left from the programme of the festival) delivered a set pretty early during the day which was a mix of comedy and folk songs, and was one of the hits of the day for me. He’d just had a success at the Edinburgh festival and was just starting to make a name for himself.
Other highlights of the day were Beggars Opera who were also local heroes with great swirling Hammond organ, The Everley Brothers who sang all those timeless hits, and Steeleye Span, who were still playing quite traditionally-based elecric folk at that time, before the days of All Around My Hat. Status Quo were at the top of their game in the early 70s, and were great favourites of Peel, who was DJ/MC for the day. Marsh Hunt was to seen wandering around the crowd. The extract to the right, which is taken from the newspaper programme (also see below) shows the line up and timings. Chris Mclure, who was another local hero, also played. Unfortunately, neither Uriah Heep or The Electric Light Orchestra played. 
Beck, Bogert and Appice were the main reason we went along, and Beck was a revelation. His guitar playing eclipses Clapton in my view, and I was in awe of him that night. I remember him playing Superstition and am pretty sure that he used a mouth-tube, which was the first time I’d seen suc a strange contraption, and was a few years before Peter Frampton used one on Show Me The Way. I can’t remember much of the set, but I’m pretty sure it contained Morning Dew, a new song called Black Cat Moan, Going Down, and an epic version of Keep Me Hanging On, which Bogert and Appice will have brought with them from Vanilla Fudge. After the gig we got the train back to Edinburgh, where we spent the night trying, and failing, to sleep on some pretty hard and uncomfortable benches, until it was time for the first train back to Newcastle on the Sunday morning.
15 Jan
David Bowie Roker Park Glass Spider Tour 23 June 1987
David Bowie Roker Park Glass Spider Tour 23 June 1987
Support Acts: Big Country
“Good evening Newcastle”, said David Bowie as he took the stage at this gig. Big mistake for a gig in Sunderland; rivalry between the two towns run deep, particularly in the context of football, and saying this in Roker Park, the home of Sunderland football, was not a good idea. It was to be an omen for the rest of the gig, which wasn’t one of Bowie’s best. In theory, this should have been a great gig. Bowie has a great band, with Peter Frampton coming in on guitar. He had promised that this tour would see a return to theatricals of the scale of the US Diamond Dogs tour. There was great anticipation for the gigs, which ultimately played to 3m people, exceeding the Serious Moonlight tour.
The day was wet, as I recall, and Big Country went down a storm, perhaps better than Bowie. Bowie’s setlist focussed on his more recent catalogue, and particularly his latest lp Never Let Me Down, ignoring the Ziggy era. The stage set was Ok, but somewhat silly, and personally I didn’t think it was as impressive as promised. At one point Bowie came down from the stage on a swing, and the spider just looked strange (but was it a forerunner of the recent U2 stage set up?). The programme for the gig (shown left) was obviously produced for the word tour, with lots of glossy photos of David, and nothing about the support acts; there was also an edition of the Sunderland Echo produced specially for the event (see below).
Setlist: Up the Hill Backwards; Glass Spider; Day-In Day-Out; Bang Bang; Absolute Beginners; Loving the Alien; China Girl; Fashion; Scary Monsters; All the Madmen; Never Let Me Down; Big Brother; ’87 and Cry; Heroes; Time Will Crawl; Beat Of Your Drum; Sons of the Silent Age; Dancing With the Big Boys; Zeroes; Let’s Dance; Fame; Encore: Blue Jean; Modern Love. Towards the end of the gig Bowie said: “I’m glad the rain has kept off”. It then poured down during the encore. Not a good day; I was slowly losing faith in Bowie, and I was to suffer further disappointment at a Tin Machine gig a few years later (see my blog of a few days ago). Tomorrow I’ll report on The Reality tour which I caught in Dublin in 2003, and which restored my faith in Bowie.
14 Jan
David Bowie 2nd July 1983 Milton Keynes Bowl Serious Moonlight: Lets Dance!
David Bowie 2nd July 1983 Milton Keynes Bowl Serious Moonlight
Support Acts: The Beat, Icehouse
By 1983 David Bowie was of sufficient stature to play three nights at the Milton Keynes Bowl, which holds 65,000 people. The (quite colourful) ticket (see right) doesn’t tell me which day I attended, but I am pretty certain it was the Saturday, which was the second of the three gigs. My mate and I drove to Milton Keynes, which is around a 450 mile round trip. I’d been having problems with one of the brakes on my car, and unfortunately it just about locked after after around 100 miles, to the extent that I could only drive very slowly, leaving us stranded near the Wetherby roundabout. I phoned the AA who came out but could fix the car at the road side, so they told me to leave the car in a local car park, hide the keys in an agreed spot (!) and that they would come and pick it up and take it home for me. We were determined to get to the gig, so I phoned my dad, who drove down, picked us up an hour or so later and drove us to the Bowl.
I remember the day as being red hot; I recall little about the support acts, other than they were not that impressive. This was, in my view, not one of Bowie’s best performances. Bowie’s approach to the songs, and the band set up, was moving him away from being a rock star to becoming an all round singer/entertainer and broaden his audience. This worked in terms of making his music more accessible to a general audience, but lost something else along the way.
Although I enjoyed the show, I felt I’d lost the David Bowie I’d grown to love over the past 10 years. Don’t get me wrong; you couldn’t fault anything: the stage set, the performance, the band were all great. But it was David Bowie becoming an entertainer, a professional, (re)becoming Anthony Newley in terms of aiming for broad appeal; and Ziggy had become a memory. Although general consensus is that this was a great gig, I left somewhat disappointed, feeling let down. Two years later I saw Bowie in Wembley Stadium at Live Aid, and he was great again. However, there were further disappointments to come in the form of the 1987 Glass Spider tour (which I will comment on tomorrow) and Tin Machine (see my blog the other day).
After the gig we managed to find my dad who had been waiting in a local pub, having a pie and a coffee, and he drove us home. We must have got back around 4am, I would guess. The next morning my car was delivered to our house (thank you AA); I took it to the garage the next day to be repaired.
Setlist: Star; Heroes; What in the World; Golden Years; Fashion; Let’s Dance; Breaking Glass; Life on Mars?; Sorrow; Cat People; China Girl; Scary Monsters; Rebel Rebel; White Light/White Heat; Station to Station; Cracked Actor; Ashes to Ashes; Space Oddity; Young Americans; TVC15; Fame; Stay; The Jean Genie; Modern Love
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