Text Of Festival (4)

Last week there was a cock-up in the list reading department. That teaser about Gig no. 121 - sorry folks, I meant Gig no.180 - same band same venue, but 6 years later! Do we get to it this time??

Gig no.131 - 24/04/88 - Thomas Dolby - Roadmender, Northampton
Left field synth pop from the oddly coiffured Mr Dolby, slightly Germanic in places, strangely strange but oddly normal. Mr Dolby's support act was the R&B (old and proper meaning of the term) wailing of Sam Browne. An odd combination of acts that worked surprisingly well.
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Gig no.136 - 11/05/88 - The Sugarcubes - Leicester University
The band that gave the world Bjork. As I remember it the band had two main vocalists, Ms Godmundsdottir (hope that's right) and a shouty bloke who didn't so much sing as give Icelandic Tourettes stylee exclamations aided by amplification. They were very entertaining.
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Apparently on 19/06/87 we went to Milton Keynes Bowl for The Amnesty International Festival Of Youth. Headlined by The Damned, with support from Big Audio Dynamite, Bhundu Boys, Joe Strummer, and others. It sounds like a great bill, but unfortunately it's one of those 80s moments I have no memory of whatsoever! It probably rained. Or not.
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Gig no.141 - 1/08/88 - 10000 Maniacs - Town & Country Club
Natalie Merchant et al perform her nu-country balladry at the famous London venue before it became a national franchise. A great gig. The thing I recall most vividly was on leaving the North Circular to enter the metropolis we drove straight over a roundabout. No, we had not been drinking or anything else, we just didn't slow down enough and had no option but to go "off road"! The driver wasn't "Simon" from earlier stories, it was "No.2" (heheh).
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Gig no.145 - 28/10/88 - The House Of Love - The Guildhall, Northampton
Back in the Gothic splendour of Shoesville's central control room we saw an amazing performance by Guy Chadwick, Sir Terrence of Bickers, and, err, the other two, at their psych-pop peak. Love In A Car indeedy. I got very drunk but the fact I can actually still remember it means it must have been bonza! "Simon" fell over and I lost a shoe down the front and woke up next morning with a rather sore left foot, and I've no doubt a stonking hangover.
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Gig no.154 - 6/06/89 - Lou Reed - London Palladium
The venue most famous for hosting the never ending Saturday Night At..., where Bruce Forsyth forged his early TV career in the 60s played host this night to rock'n'roll's curmudgeon-in-chief Lou Reed, here showcasing his recently released magnificent New York album, played in it's entirety followed by a greatest hits set. A consummate entertainer at the top of his game. He even said "thank you" at the end.
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Gig no.164 - 16/04/90 - Nelson Mandela: An International Tribute For A Free South Africa - Wembley Stadium

Say Cheeeeeeese!



The view from Row Z

 Held two months after Mandela's release, this concert was given as a sort of international reception and featured nearly an hour of the great man himself, the first ten minutes or so of his appearance taken up by a standing ovation. Boy I'm getting a lump in the throat just writing this. Probably the most emotional concert I've been to or will ever be at for that matter. The bill seems kind of irrelevant, but amonst others, there were appearances by Neil Young,  Denzel Washington, Lou Reed, Jerry Dammers (Free Nelson Mandela - it made the hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention), Lenny Henry, Peter Gabriel, Youssou N'Dour, etc. My listing includes markings out of 10 for each gig I've been to (an accountant, moi?), but against this one I've put "Beyond marking". Too right.
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Gig no.179 - 20/11/92 - The House Of Love/Mercury Rev/The Cranberries - Royal Albert Hall, London
Mentioned very briefly in the first part of my gig history. A marvellous bill, topped by the mighty HoL. This would be the last of four times I saw HoL in their prime. A sorely missed band that reformed briefly but disappointingly in 2005.
What also sticks in the mind about this one is the main support act Mercury Rev, at the time an unknown quantity who were promoting their second album Boces. This was some 5 years before their breakthrough album, the stunning Deserter's Songs, and when they still had amongst their ranks the oddball lead singer David Baker. When they arrived on stage minus the singer, the song they launched into had his guttural vocals in it but where was he? Behind us there was a commotion in the crowd, and at first we thought a scrap had broken out - but no, it was Baker shoving his way through the packed standing audience in the aisles while singing at the same time. In hindsight a piece of pure showmanship, but at the time it seemed a bit unsettling, as you could tell this guy was clearly a tangerine short of a fruit salad. The volatile Baker left the band shortly after this tour and Mercury Rev pursued a slightly less avant garde direction culminating in the psych pop masterpiece that is Deserter's Songs.
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Gig no.180 - 21/01/93 - Julian Cope - Cambridge Corn Exchange
Aha! Here we are then. A great gig by the psychedelic warlord Mr Julian H Cope at the height of his then burgeoning solo career. What makes this different is that most of our party were under the influence of "disco biscuits", the recreational substance de jour. It was my round, and I'm stood at the crowded bar when suddenly WOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSHHHH..."Please stand clear of platform Roger as the approaching train will not stop and it will be travelling at 307 mph".........
I could see the barman had probably asked me what I wanted. All I could do was grin, a lot. The barman then probably told me to do one, and served someone else. I did eventually buy the round, but how long after I've no idea, as one's temporal abilities were utterly skewed out of kilter!
I do recall dancing a lot back in the gig. Those who know would count this as strange behaviour for yours truly.
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Final part (thank your deity of choice) next week!

Porcupine Tree at The Royal Albert Hall, London, 14th October 2010

So, did I want to see my current favourite band at possibly the best venue in the country - a no-brainer. The tickets were acquired months ago by Phil W, and he, Phill H and moi trained it down to London full of anticipation. Phill H made it through the chronic back pain barrier to go, and he was rather glad he did. Coming at the end of a 13 month trek around the world, in promotion of their second breakthrough album The Incident, this gig came about in part I'm sure, because Steven Wilson's big buddy Mikael Akerfeldt with his band, Swedish prog metallers Opeth, had played at the same venue earlier in the year.

A rather convoluted trip from Tottenham Court Road tube station to the venue, due to signal failure problems on two different tube lines meant we took our seats in the circle just as the band were taking the stage. The Royal Albert Hall (about a mile west from Harrods, or at the southern end of Hyde Park from a tourist perspective) was built 130 years ago with a design based on Roman ampitheatres. Wherever you are sat the view is perfect, and it remains the best venue both acoustically and aesthetically in the country in my humble opinion. My only slight grouch is the usual lack of legroom, but I am 6' 2", so I'm used to it.

Postings on the band's own Facebook page had indicated that the first set would be a final complete run through of The Incident followed by a greatest hits set. That turned out to be just a teaser, as what actually transpired far exceeded our expectations. Having already seen The Incident played in its entirety last year, and still being nostalgic for their earlier more space-rock inclined sound, the way the gig turned out couldn't have been better.

So it was quite a surprise that the first set of the evening was a low key semi-acoustic affair with the four band members plus long time additional live guitarist John Wesley stage front. Steven Wilson was playing an acoustic guitar, John Wesley a semi acoustic, Richard Barbieri on electric piano, Gavin Harrison on a "Ringo" style stripped down drum kit, and the small but perfectly formed bass player Colin Edwin was dwarfed by his double bass.



The acoustic set

SW's deadpan sense of humour was aired when he introduced the final song in this set as "the closest to heavy metal we've ever got" and the band launched into a sort of street jazz version of Futile. I thought Stranger By The Minute and Pure Narcotic worked particularly well in this setting. A surprising but satisfying beginning to a three hour marathon.

After a very short break while the front of stage equipment was removed the band returned and launched straight into the rarely performed full length version of Even Less, minus John Wesley. As SW explained later they wanted to play all the older material as a four piece as it had originally been written. A stunning start! So much for The Incident being played in full. In fact we had to wait until six songs in before the first song from that album was aired, and it was the last track I Drive The Hearse, in typical perverse fashion. Immediately prior to that was a simply stunning version of my all time favourite Porcupine Tree track The Sky Moves Sideways, which I hadn't heard them play since 1995. At the end of that song the crowd gave the band a standing ovation, even the younger more metal oriented fans. SW said he felt a bit weird as when that track was new he was playing it to crowds of "a hundred" (I was one) and here they were playing it to nigh on four thousand people. After Bonnie The Cat from the bonus tracks cd of The Incident the band took another short break. We remarked on how the whole band were on top form, and clearly enjoying the experience of having "made it" and rightly so. Porcupine Tree are probably the only band I've followed live from the humblest of beginnings to the top division of the rock elite, and it's just so good to see a band you've always believed in getting their just desserts.




The Sky Moves Sideways




The Interval (not The Incident!)

We predicted that at some point the crushing riff of Occam's Razor would grace our ears, and sure enough the third set started with this followed by Blind House - two of my three favourite moments from The Incident. They then played the following tracks on The Incident up to Drawing The Line. Me and Phill H regard The Incident as a part return to form after the awfully disjointed Fear Of A Blank Planet. Strange that FOABP was the album that broke them worldwide, but maybe telling that only two of its tracks were played tonight. After Drawing The Line the band surprised everybody by taking a left turn with a sublime version of Tinto Brass, then SW retrieves his acoustic for the wonderful Time Flies, the stadium anthem in the band's canon that has replaced Even Less as the high point of their gigs. Next up are the two songs from FAOBP separated by Up The Downstair, the oldest track (along with Small Fish in the acoustic set from the same album) they would play tonight. Then, standing ovations all round as the band take their bows. The encore ended with Trains; a song that has become the end of gig crowd singalong.

A truly fabulous gig from a brilliant band!

"Always the summers are slipping away
Find me a way for making it stay"

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Pictures used with permission

Text Of Festival (3)

More from planet noise....

Gig no.51 - 4/08/79 - Led Zeppelin at Knebworth
The first of two shows by the biggest band in the world throughout most of the 70s found us hightailing it once more to deepest Hertfordshire. We were about 50 yards from the front and part of a massive crowd of over 200000 according to Zep's behemoth of a manager, or just over 100000 according to the promoter - the resulting dispute over ticket sales eventually bankrupted the promoter. Peter Grant was not to be messed with! Whatever the actual crowd numbers it was HUGE, as was the stage. I cannot remember anything about the support bands, but according to my list I gave Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes (a poor man's Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band) 8 out of 10. However I can recall Zep belting out a storming version of Kashmir immediately followed by the proto metal-funk of Trampled Underfoot, and they played my fave song Ten Years Gone too. I also remember having to brave the "washroom facilities" during Stairway To Heaven, and not being able to relocate my mates until the end of the concert when I found the car (the pre-arranged meet point in the event of getting split up) half an hour before they did. Just proves that life was indeed possible before mobile phones. "Where are you? I'm lost"...."See you at the car then"....and we worked that out just by using common sense!
The band played another show at the same venue a week later, which turned out to be their last in the UK before the untimely but not entirely unexpected death of mad, bad and dangerous to know John Bonham, which spelled the end of the band, and indeed the end of an era.
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Gig no.71 - 2/05/80 - Magazine & Bauhaus - Guildhall, Northampton
The Northampton Guildhall, then and now home of the always underwhelming Northampton Borough Council is a magnificent example of Victorian Gothic architecture, and you could not have asked for a better setting for these two bands than the its banqueting hall. High painted ceiling, vaulted stained glass windows, Bela Lugosi would have felt right at home, as did Northampton's very own goth pioneers Bauhaus. Singer Pete Murphy camped it up for all he was worth. Anywhere else and it might have been cringeworthy but here it was perfect.
Even better that they were followed by Magazine, my favourite band of that time. Having left Buzzcocks in order to follow his more art school inclined leanings Howard Devoto formed this wonderful band who were a cross between punk and, dare I say it prog rock, and Mr Devoto perfected a sort of Brian Eno with menace and more eyeliner. That's a whole load of the right boxes ticked. They were of course, awesome. Songs such as Shot By Both Sides, I Love You You Big Dummy, Permafrost, were all belted out with aplomb. Their guitarist John McGeoch left shortly after to join Siouxsie & The Banshees and Magazine were never quite the same. Sigh....
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Gig no.83 - 22/06/81 - Kraftwerk - De Montfort Hall, Leicester
At the height of their fame on the Computer World tour, Kraftwerk were the torch bearers of futuristic stage sets and pioneers of the use of computers in music making. This tour had the lot, the most memorable being the song The Robots where computerised mannequins of the band actually "performed" the song, and it took a while before we knew that what we were looking at was not the actual band. Utterly mesmerising and way ahead of their time.
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Gig no.90 - 25/06/82 - The Rolling Stones - Wembley Stadium
The one and only time I've seen The Strolling Bones on stage. Even back then they seemed ancient, and logically Keef should have been dead, but my initial scepticism was soon crushed by the sheer ease with which they rock'n'rolled all night long, gawd bless 'em.
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There now follows a brief detour into the world of pop when I was quite easily persuaded by feminine wiles to see Dexy's Midnight Runners, Yazoo, Gary Glitter(!), and Fun Boy Three in quick succession. Can't say I remember much about any of those as my attention was elsewhere! However, I do remember getting incredibly drunk at the Gary Glitter gig and can still recall the BIGGEST HANGOVER OF ALL TIME the day after. It still hurts.
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Gig no.101 - 17/10/84 - Elvis Costello & The Attractions and The Pogues - De Montfort Hall, Leicester
Here we are back in my home from home to witness a raucous set by the Irish rabble rousers originally known as Pogue Mahone, which translates as Kiss My Arse. I could not understand a word being "sung" by young Shane McGowan, but if it made me dance, it must have been good. Declan and his lads were on fine form propelled into furious angsty renditions of their hits by the singer's genuinely angry delivery. A great beery sweat drenched night.
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Gig no.103 - 15/03/85 - Frankie Goes To Hollywood - De Montfort Hall, Leicester
I quite liked the Trevor Horn produced Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (hmm, must dig it out) as his prog credentials added a layer of mystique to what essentially would otherwise have been gay rock/disco crossover music! The serious music press at the time was awash with "they can't play their instruments" stories, so I was curious as to what the live experience was like. From memory I think they had a second guitarist and a second keyboard player in the wings, so maybe the critics were right. Whatever the band lacked in musicianship was made up for by Holly Johnson's innate showbiz personality - he was hilarious. I reckon he'd have made a good comedian.
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Gig no.104 - 22/03/85 - The Smiths - Derngate Theatre, Northampton
A band that still manages to polarise opinion some 20 plus years after they split up, but I loved them. Ok, Morrissey even back then showed signs of being the full blown dickhead he's since become, but he definitely had something back in the day. The Derngate is a rather staid modern provincial theatre with a "no standing" policy, but as soon as the band came on everybody stood up and remained so all night. There was dancing, shouting, flowers being tossed on stage by the girls (and some boys) at the front. We were in a box above stage right and had a perfect viewpoint. Moz's intelligent but NOT depressing lyrics, married with Marr's Byrdsian guitar were a perfect combination. Thoroughly enjoyable.
And we could walk home for once!
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Between gig 105 and 120 two years pass and there were none that were particularly memorable either in a good or bad way musically, but the period was noted for my companion's annoying habit of almost running out of petrol on the way home from the venues. In fact coming back from Billy Bragg at Norwich University in November 1986 he did exactly that. Leaving another mate of mine and his girlfriend with the car and after walking for miles through an industrial estate in Thetford we eventually found a garage that was open, filled up a jerrycan and traipsed back to the car. During our little ramble I took the opportunity to call Simon (probably not his real name) all the c*nts under the sun, and almost came to the point of punching the dozy f*ck! The mate and his girlfriend I referred to had never been with us to a gig and had heard my stories of his lackadaisical approach to fuel maintenance (not to mention his dangerously crap driving, but that's another story) so were not too thrilled to have their doubts confirmed, and I was mightily embarrassed. Those of you who know me will know that I am not in the least bit aggressive so you can imagine how angry I must have been to nearly deck the sod. Ah, I feel better now I've got that off my chest...

Gig no121 was probably the most bizarre experience at a concert I've had, but you'll have to wait until next week for that.....see you then!
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Text Of Festival (2)

More memories from years of sonic attack.....

Gig no.2 - 22/01/76 - Genesis - De Montfort Hall, Leicester
The second gig I went to was to see Genesis at Leicester De Montfort Hall on the Trick Of The Tail tour, just before the album came out if memory serves. I can remember being gutted when Peter Gabriel left the band the previous year partly because I loved his wacky lyrics and the much needed showmanship he brought to the scholarly bunch that were most of the rest of the band. Steve Hackett used to SIT DOWN to play his guitar, the nerd! I missed Gabriel mostly because it meant I never got to see the "classic" line up of what was at the time probably my second fave band, after Led Zeppelin.

I need not have worried as Phil Collins although finding his feet as a frontman gave a great performance and the band played a lot from the Gabriel era including the magnificent but barking Supper's Ready, which worked even without PG's famous costume changes.

Trick Of The Tail soon became played to death in the sixth form common room, and I quickly grew tired of it, and never bought another Genesis record (new anyway) as they descended into pop mediocrity. Such a shame.
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Gig no.6 - 12/11/76 - Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers - County Ground, Northampton
The guitarist from the permanently druggy New York Dolls formed an equally shambolic outfit of his own at the beginning of the UK punk explosion, and to that point they were the loudest band I had ever heard. Can't remember that much about it apart from the sheer volume, used to drown out their severe musical limitations I've no doubt.

The County Ground venue was a barn of a building that was normally used by Northants Cricket Club for indoor net practice, said nets were strung across the ceiling when not in use. The stage was at one end of the rectangular space, and 30 yards opposite was the bar. The sparse crowd to see Mr Thunders' combo were all pinned to said bar by the unrelenting racket coming form the other end of the hall. I think I vaguely recognised Chinese Rocks at some point, the rest was completely indecipherable!

I mention the nets being strung across the ceiling, because another memorable night at the venue was the visit of Generation X in 1978. Not for the music, but because Billy Idol climbed up the lighting rigging at the side of the stage and up into the netting during a song, and promptly got stuck. It took him about 10 minutes to extricate himself, while his band played gamely on.
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Gig no.14 - 24/06/78 - Genesis at Knebworth
By now I had gone off Genesis, but hey - it was a day out and there were gurls involved, and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were on the bill, and a weird band from Akron Ohio called Devo, whose Stiff singles were fascinating listening. Not for the vast majority of prog fans though unfortunately, who almost as soon as the band appeared started throwing anything they could lay their hands on at the mischievous Yanks. Attired in boiler suits with what from a distance looked like flowerpots on their heads, they all stopped playing mid-song, lined up on the stage, all bent over and as one, pointed to their heads. The fusillade of missiles was inevitable. Gig goers back then, particularly at festivals, were an intolerant bunch of narrow minded poltroons!
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Gig no.26 - 18/10/78 - Tom Robinson Band - Warwick University
Then at the height of his popularity, Tom could somehow get packed audiences of callow youth shouting along the words "Sing If You're Glad To Be Gay" to the song of the same name, me included. Odd. Odder still is that the outer-than-out Tom Robinson later got married - to a woman I hasten to add!
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Gig no. 35 - 9/12/78 - Ultravox! - County Ground, Northampton
This was the real John Foxx led band, not the tiresome Midge Ure pop version. Not that I knew it at the time, this lot were heavily influenced by Krautrock, Can & Neu! (the ! was their homage) in particular, and to my naive ears made a rather special noise. RockWrok! Mr Foxx autographed my ticket, which I promptly lost.
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Gig no.49 - 8/04/79 - Motorhead - De Montfort Hall, Leicester
Ahh, Motorhead - the main reason I'm as deaf as post. Loud as f**k, we saw them more than 10 times in the space of two years. "What? Eh? Half-past three."
An irresistible combination of biker metal & punk, featuring "Fast" Eddie Clark on howling geetar and biker threads, and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor on drums, so named because of his similarity in style to Animal from The Muppets, and of course ex-Hawkwind bass grinder and proto metal grunter Lemmy, this band made a holy racket that appealed to greasers and punks and everyone in between in equal measure. This gig was on the Bomber tour of 1979 and was a stone dead classic, including the steel framed bomber being hoisted aloft lights ablaze during the song of the same name. A Spinal Tap moment.
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Part 3 to follow............................

Text Of Festival

Gigs. I've been to over 250 in my 50 years on this planet, and it was my main leisure activity for a long period of my life. I say "was" because this year so far I've been to but one gig (reviewed here  http://toysoutofthepram.blogspot.com/2010/04/gigtastic-3-jerry-dammers-spatial-aka.html ), although there is a long anticipated concert by Porcupine Tree at The Royal Albert Hall coming up next month. In 1979 I went to 28, and that's just the ones I could recall or had ticket stubs from when I first started keeping a list in about 1985. The actual total to date is probably at least 20 more than the 261 recorded.

The title of this ramble is taken from a 1983 Hawkwind live album. Hawkwind are the makers of what in my opinion is the best live album of all time, 1973's Space Ritual, now available in expanded form on remastered CD. A must have for any collection. Despite this I never saw the 'Wind in their prime, although I did catch the punked up version Hawklords in 1979. In fact one of the worst gigs I have ever witnessed was the modern day Hawkwind in 2004. Then reduced to a three piece of guitar, bass & drums, 90% of the music was on a backing tape (showing my age there - it was probably on a laptop!), and it all sounded dull and uninspiring.

The first gig I went to was Wizzard at Kettering Granada cinema on the 22nd March 1974. Can't remember much about it other than that we had arranged to be picked up by my mate's mum at a prearranged time, and so had to leave before the end, and judging by the number of early teens like us getting up and leaving at various stages throughout the show, we weren't the only ones! There must have been only ten people in the audience by the end! Wizzard Brew is actually a rather good album and shows the direction ELO might have taken had Roy Wood not left and Jeff Lynne's Beatle fixation become the dominant influence.

Highlights of my gig going? well, this could not be topped by following The Clash around the country for a few weeks in the summer of '78 between finishing work experience and starting my first proper job. They were a band that were completely relevant to the times they lived in and hit the zeitgeist like no other band in my lifetime. And they knew how to party! I learned more about life in those few short weeks than in all my previous 18 years - say no more!

The House Of Love at The Royal Albert Hall, 1992 - simply stunning sound in a great setting. Hope it's repeated for Porcupine Tree next month. HoL also handed fans a free gig only 10 inch single on entry by way of apology as the gig had been postponed from an earlier date. The single has a long giutar wig out version of Into The Tunnel which as far as I know was never released anywhere else, and a demo version of Crush Me. I must get round to transferring it to mp3.

King Crimson at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire in 2000 was a very loud 2 hour aural assault of top notch musicianship. The audience were mostly all over 50!

The Stone Roses at The Roadmender, Northampton, 1989, about a week after the first album came out. The place was packed like a sardine can, condensation was dripping off the ceiling and down the walls, and the band were amazing. Ian Brown actually sang in tune too!

There are actually too many highlights to mention, and I have seen some proper shite in my time as well. My early years of gig going were largely dictated by the musical taste of the only one of us who could drive. Steve was a longhair hard rock and metal fan from Rushden. I can still remember the aroma of rock/metal gigs in the late 70s. A mixture of worn leather, unwashed denim and patchouli oil, with the the odd waft of jazz cigarette. The audience was 90% spotty male grebo-lite as I recall. Some of the bands I witnessed were Rainbow (who actually were not that bad), Kiss (hilarious - you'll see why), Budgie (4 times goddamit!), Angelwitch, Saxon, Samson, Girlschool (4 times again. A luverly all girl hard rock band - I once thought I'd gotten off with the bass player, Enid (!) I think her name was, because she let me buy her a drink, only to be knocked off my pedestal when her huge roadie boyfriend appeared and stuck his tongue down her throat) and a host of other forgettable NWOBHM bands.

I mentioned Kiss. This was in 1980 at Wembley Arena. By then I was well into anything new wave and hated all the old metal and hard rock stuff, and it was only because my neighbour Ian couldn't persuade anyone else to go see his favourite band with him, and the promise of free beer, that I went. Part of the act of this largely talent free bunch of Yanks in clown make up was to have the guitarist hoisted aloft while he played an endless two note "solo". Said musical excursion ends, and the Godzilla attired plank spanker is lowered to the ground while the song ends. Only the winch got stuck. The show must go on, so one and a half songs later, the guy is still up there manfully carrying on with his guitar parts and occasionally gesticulating wildly at his roadies to get him down. In an attempt to spare his blushes, the lighting crew deliberately left him in near total darkness, but the audience, most of whom were wetting themselves by now, were only looking at one thing, and it wasn't the rest of the band! Being in near total darkness and still being suspended also had a detrimental effect on plank spanker's contribution to the point where he was mixed out of the sound completely. I nearly brought on a hernia I laughed so much. Spinal Tap couldn't have done better.

A gig I remember for the wrong reasons was The Stranglers in Peterborough in 1978. Jean Jacques Burnel the so-called pin up of the band, and let's face it being a pin up in the Stranglers was not difficult, imprinted himself on my memory and more disgustingly on the face of a girl fan, by kicking her in the head from his position on the stage, presumably because she was screaming at him. What a cunt. Incidentally the support band at this gig was Riff Raff. That name probably does not mean much to you, but this was Billy Bragg's punk outfit before he went solo.

Another support act that I recall at the time thinking that they were rather good was one U2 supporting Slade at The Lyceum, London, in 1980 just before Boy came out.

Festivals, I've had a few, but too few to mention. Well about 10 actually. Back in my hard rockin' days, Reading was the festival of choice. This was an era when if the assembled greasers didn't like a band or were just bored, an empty plastic 1 litre cider bottle would be filled with piss and lobbed either at the stage or the mosh pit. Charming I can tell you. The view from further back was broken by the occasional spiralling bottle flying overhead and landing on the moshers were a big gap would instantly form around the poor sod who'd just been drenched. By 1978 the Reading Festival was slowly accommodating the rise of punk and new wave. On the Friday afternoon we were entertained by Sham 69, fronted by faux cockernee loudmouth Jimmy Pursey, who was keen to impart to us masses that "If you fuckin' ippees don't fuckin' like it, you can all fuck off". This seemed to be a cue for his crowd of 14 year old skinhead fans to go on a rampage through the audience, running into people and shouting. It was quite comical. Pursey's mob launched into their set of two chord shout alongs, and who should we see lurking stage left almost out of sight playing the 10 second lead breaks because 69's geetar player was incapable? None other than Steve Hillage, probably the epitome of "a fuckin' 'ippee"! Oh, the irony.

As far as festival vibes go, you can't beat Glastonbury in the early to mid 80s before it became too big and an excuse for Tarquin and Vanessa to forget their day jobs in The City where they make big bucks exploiting the less fortunate, and pretend to be at one with nature and their fellow humans for 3 days.
I can remember one Glasto' - '84 it was - when we turned up in style on motorbikes early on the Friday evening, sat in a cafe tent all night listening to loud dub reggae, drinking rum punch, eating all kinds of wonderful creole grub and imbibing the odd herbal ciggy or ten with the other waifs and strays. We didn't put the tents up until about 11 the following morning. It took a long time. Who was playing down the hill on the stages was largely irrelevant, although I do recall a rather fine set by Elvis Costello and his Attractions.

Wettest festival ever? No, not Glasto as you might expect but 2000 Trees in deepest Gloucestershire in July 2009. It belted down for the entire day, apart from about 1 hour during a fine set by the underrated modern hard rockers Amplifier, who were the band we had gone to see, so it was all ok in the end.

2000 Trees - a man in a dress for no apparent reason...

2000 Trees - the predominant view from under Phill's purloined umbrella. There were people there, honest! Most of the crowd were sensibly under cover.

Here's some pics of ticket stubs from my gig going past....

The Copemeister - one of many times

Tom Verlaine - Guitar hero

Keep on rockin'....

I was young once you know...

I could be happy...Claire Grogan...mmmm...

A great live band - one of many times seen

Progtastic!

JJ Burnel - Get back in the sewer...............

Hahahahahahaha!

Gong - Acid Motherhood

Gong have been going in one form or another for over 40 years now, some giving them the epithet "The European Grateful Dead" for the legion of loyal fans, community even, that surrounds them, and also for their similar acid drenched beginnings. Like The 'Dead, I have always struggled to get into Gong, and their innate silliness prevents me from listening to the few albums I have by them on anything more than a very occasional basis.

The 2004 version of the band, still fronted by Daevid Allen, and featuring co-founder Gilli Smith on one track are here teamed up with Kawabata Makoto (guitars & bazouki) & Cotton Casino (synths & voices) from the equally bizarre Acid Mothers Temple, a band whose promise more often than not far exceeds their delivery. Prince is or was famous for his lack of quality control, releasing lots of below par stuff, but he's got nothing on these guys who seem to release absolutely everything they put on tape, and at an alarming rate. But that's another story.

The pairing of Gong's daftness with AMT's noiseniks actually works, and what could have been entirely unlistenable is actually not bad at all. The album maybe lacks the thematic quality of Gong's best work (the Hillage/Allen era imo) and veers from gentle space balladry to noise freakouts, to a weird noise-funk hybrid on the marvellous Supercotton where the "space whisper" synth of Ms Smith & Cotton Casino's synth drones are backed by a belting off-kilter funk beat. Brainwash Me has a sub Talking Heads funk groove put through a blender - splendid!
On the slower tracks Makoto actually plays some fluent lead in places, but it's sometimes difficult to tell whether or not it's him or Daevid Allen doing the widdly bits. As Makoto wrote Bazuki Logix I can only assume it's him on uncharacteristic whimsical lead guitar.

All in all a rather unexpectedly good album. A friend of a friend who is a big Gong fan described this as "unlistenable", but in my opinion it's anything but.

3 out of 5 - A truly hideous cover though!







You can get this on mp3 on Amazon at a much more reasonable £6.99 by the way.
#19

Scott Walker - 5 Easy Pieces

If like me you tend to get periods when you're obsessed with a particular group or artist, you could do a lot worse than put Scott Walker on heavy rotate. This highly ironically titled 5 cd themed career retrospective released in 2003 is now hard to get hold of, and is anything but "Easy". It remains a consummate overview of the many splendoured thing that is the journey of Noel Scott Engel. The man has covered everything from crooning ballads to love songs to Northern European minimalism to film music to out and out strangeness, and having the weird distinction of featuring a side of pork as a rhythm instrument on the extremely dense and almost impenetrable 2005 cd The Drift, this man is a minefield of musical complexity unlike any other.

Starting off in the mid sixties as a teenybop pin up with the Walker Brothers, by 1967 he had had enough and went solo. In under two and a half years he had released the now legendary four numbered albums (Peter Gabriel was obviously a fan) which by the final LP of the quartet saw him writing his own strangely oblique strategies still backed by lush string arrangements.
Attempts at reforming the Walker Brothers came and went in the 70s, stranger and oddly normal solo albums appeared up to 1995's dark and uncompromising Tilt, the last album before this compilation.

This winding journey through his output covers all bases from The Walker Brothers up to Tilt and is a compelling beast of a thing. Be prepared to be wooed, and then intellectually challenged, sometimes within the space of the same song!

Each cd follows a theme -
CD1 "In My Room - The complete bedsit dramas including the kitchen sink"
In which Scott ruminates on the nature of life, love, and the universe "from a fire escape in the sky". There are some wonderful songs on this including the marvellous Montague Terrace (In Blue), surely the template for Marc Almond's career. It's hard to pick out the best ones here, as they are all great songs, but a standout is the idiosyncratic vocal in the form of smokily cracked tones which croak all over Time Operator, a blues to the woman intoning the Speaking Clock. Odd but it works.

CD2 "Where's The Girl? - Songs of a Lady, Love & Loss"
If you're not a fan of his early schmaltzy love songs, skip tracks 2 to 7 after the first listen, otherwise by track 8 , the swoonsome "Joanna" (written by UK pair Trent & Hatch, whom most folks in the UK remember solely for writing the theme tune to the unmissed 60s/70s soap Crossroads) you'll be thinking for gawd's sake get over it man! On his early albums the schmaltzy tunes work well, as they don't follow one another. This is perhaps the only cd of the 5 where the mostly chronological ordering does not work so well.
As we go past the early years the songs become less obvious and more complete. The cd ends with two songs written for German cabaret songstress Ute Lemper, a sort of modern day Marlene Dietrich. These songs are very odd but strangely compelling pieces of work.

CD3 "An American In Europe - Home and away: songs from Europe & America"
Although born in America, SW found success in Europe initially and because of his German-Jewish parentage was always Eurocentric in outlook. In the early part of his solo career he indulged in a passion for the songs of French composer Jacques Brel, and indeed on his first solo album he must have delighted his record company with his cover of Amsterdam with its references to prostitutes and the darker side of night life in the Dutch capital. Remember, at the time of his first solo LP in 1967 he was still seen as a teen idol!
The first 9 of 21 songs on this cd are SW's suitably dramatic interpretations Brel's work. My favourite is If You Go Away, with its numerous false endings - or could they be beginnings? Following these we have his mainly self-penned canon taking him across Europe and back to the land of his birth, all the while growing more intense.

CD4 "This Is how You Disappear - The darkest hour is just before dawn: 15 big hits"
Another ironic non-sequitur from the compiler - 15 Big Hits indeedy!
Right - now it gets weird. imagine the works of Jean Paul Satre set to music and you've some idea of how this comes across. The cd starts with a single b-side "The Plague" which is possibly what Tom Jones might have sounded like if he had been an angst ridden intellectual. As the cd progresses through the years the existentialist jungle gets thicker, until by the time we arrive at the final two tracks from 1995's Tilt we have hacked our way through the undergrowth and arrived at a kind of Mordor of the soul. I kid you not! The best part of this cd are the 4 SW penned tracks from The Walker Brothers reunion LP of 1978, Nite Flites, in particular The Electrician, which defies description - just go listen to it.

CD5 "Scott On Screen - Music from and for films"
Mostly culled from the soundtrack to an obscure French art house movie Pola X, but with added extras such as The Walker Brothers recorded Deadlier Than The Male, SW's version of Dylan's I Threw It All Away from Bond movie The World Is Not Enough, and others. Scott's cinematic scope is a natural tie in with movies, and as a themed cd this works very well.


This box set is all you need to know about the thinking man's crooner, but for the more faint of heart, try the single cd "Boy Child - The Best Of 1967-1970" which does exactly what it says on the tin.