Led Zeppelin – Knebworth - 4th August 1979

Led Zeppelin – Knebworth - 4th August 1979

Led Zeppelin has always been my band since my brother took me to see them when I was 14 at Earls Court in 1975 where they blew me away with a three hour set. I had to wait 4 years before they returned to the UK to perform at Knebworth demand was so high they ended up doing two shows on consecutive weeks in front of over 200,000 people. Tickets were £7.50.

Back in the pre internet days of the 1970’s buying tickets was as much as part of the process as attending as it was a social event and with only one date announced initially demand to see the biggest band in the world was high, with a number of Record Shops listed as official ticket outlets listed we travelled to London in the early hours by train and queued for hours to get our tickets.

The New Barbarians featuring Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood were announced to perform on the second date and for those if us who attended the first date were treated to Fairport Convention who I really enjoyed and was billed at the time as their farewell concert and over 40 years later they are still going.

American Country rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airman were followed by Chas and Dave who were a strange choice to perform at a Led Zeppelin show but I remember they were good fun. This was the second time I had seen Southside Johnny and the Asbury Dukes having seen them a couple of years earlier supporting Santana at the Crystal Palace Garden Party.

It was wonderful to see Utopia live with their album Ra being one of my favourite albums of the time and to me Todd Rundgren is one of the most underrated musicians and producers of his generation and I spent many hours trapsing around record shops looking for albums he has been involved with.

I was so excited to see Led Zeppelin perform again and the build up to this show was so big that was difficult to see how they could b match the expectation as it turned out the wait before they went onstage was so long that it diffused ant excitement and just wanted them to start. Everything this band was sone on a large scale with aircraft runway lights fronting the stage, complaints about the noise from miles away and twenty one songs going on well past midnight starting with Song Remains the Same and ending with Stairway to Heaven before being called back for two encores, they were just amazing and privilege to gave seen them live not once but twice.

If you were there tell us about your experience?

Buy us a coffee if you are enjoying this series and would like to see more https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

Genesis – Knebworth - 24th June 1978

Genesis – Knebworth - 24th June 1978

I arrived at Knebworth for a Midsummer Nights Dream with Genesis four days before hand, having met some French Canadians in Cornwall a couple of weeks earlier, we arranged to arrive early. There were about 100 people who had the same idea and as the site wasn’t ready so we were directed to a nearby Army assault course and we were woken in the early hours by soldiers traipsing over the course. The next day we moved to the main site and as more people arrived there was a real sense of community.

Over 80,000 people attended this one day event on the beautiful grounds of Knebworth House, tickets were £5.50. Roy Harper kicked off the day with an impressive set, this is the first time I got to see him and many years later I got to book him to perform at Windsor Arts Centre after Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin tipped me off that they were releasing an album together, when I bumped into him in my local pub.

Other artists on the bill included jazz fusion Brand X which had featured Phil Collins but not on the day, Southern rock band the Atlanta Rhythm Section from America and new wave band Devo who had just released their debut album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! And had a very mixed response from the audience.

Next up Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers who blew me away, this was the first time I had seen them live and became an instant fan they were followed by Jefferson Starship who were without legendary singer who fell out with band on the lead up to the show. This was the second time I had seen Genesis live having seen them at Hammersmith Odeon in 1976 and I remember them being impressive with a great light show.

All in all it was a great day I met up with various friends which I have no idea how this happened with so many people and no mobile phones. The next day as we were packing up our tents I had a real sense of sadness which was a regular feeling for me after a festival,

If you were there tell us about your experience?

Buy us a coffee if you are enjoying this series and would like to see more https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

Reading Festival - 25th – 27th August 1978 - The Jam – Status Quo – Patti Smith

50 Years of Music

Reading Festival - 25th – 27th  August 1978

The Jam – Status Quo – Patti Smith

If you are attending one of the many festivals this year it will be difficult to remember that it wasn’t so long ago that music fans were tribal. Thanks to festivals like Glastonbury music fans will enjoy a wide range of music but back in the 60’s and 70’s there was real rivalry starting with Mods and Rockers fighting on Brighton Beach.

So it was either a brave or reckless move when Reading Festival announced that they would bring the Punks and Rock fans together starting on the Friday when Steve Hillage would appear with Sham 69. We arrived on site just as they were going on stage to be greeted by what can only be described as carnage with festival goers being chased by Punks, the atmosphere was tense to say the least although as more people arrived it did settle down and we were able to enjoy sets from 60’s band The Pirates followed by Ultravox who were returning after being much lower down the bill a year earlier. The Friday night headliners were The Jam who I remember being excellent and managed to get the whole crowd on their side.

The rest of the weekend consisted of a mixture of Punk and Rock bands as well as one or two odd choices. Highlights for me on the Saturday were Jenny Darren, Dutch Pop Punk band Gruppo Sportivo, one of my favourite bands at the time were Nutz who I had seen a couple of times previously, Folk Rock band Lindisfarne who were enjoying chart success with Run from Home,  American Rock band Randy California & Spirit and The Motors who had a hit with Airport. Headliners were at the time the much ridiculed Status Quo who proved why they are the best live bands around at the time.

The festival concluded on the Sunday and featured some incredible performances with the wonderful John Otway who I not only saw as a fan but booked many times in years to come. Folk Rock band The Albion Band were a revelation with their Rise Up Like the Sun album being amongst the top 10 of all time. Lemmy’s son Paul Inder was followed by the Ian Gillan Band who I saw on countless occasions after that, The Tom Robinson were at the peak of their powers at the time and American rockers Foreigner were very impressive so was headliner Patti Smith who performed the classic’s "Gloria" and "Because the Night” before ending with The Who’s  “My Generation” before smashing up all their equipment, although that didn’t stop people shouting for more.

All in all a strange mixture of bands, mud and a tense Friday but amongst it all we witnessed some exceptional performances.

If you were there tell us about your experience?

Buy us a coffee if you are enjoying this series and would like to see more https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/50yearsofmusic

Bob Dylan – Blackbushe Aerodrome - 15th July1978

Bob Dylan – Blackbushe Aerodrome - 15th July1978

I will start this review of Bob Dylan’s performance at Blackbushe Airport on 15th July 1978 with a question which is “what band went on after Bob Dylan” ? The attendance was over two hundred thousand people and I went along with my brother Ken and his friends and we travelled the 20 miles from Windsor by car, tickets were £6.00.

We arrived un time to catch Graham Parker & the Rumour who came out of the pub rock scene in the 70’s and were firm festival favourites who are saw many times without intentionally going to see them. The Eric Clapton Band were next and I along with the majority of the crowd were looking forward to hearing Layla which was a classic even then. Joan Armatrading followed with a sublime set including songs from her acclaimed album Show Some Emotion. Bob Dylan and band performed a 30 song set and was promoting his latest album Street Legal and finished his set with Forever Young with guest Eric Clapton.

Whilst the event was a huge success artistically a big barometer on how successful a festival is did it happen again, which like Woodstock it didn’t due to the large number of people who attended and the infrastructure just couldn’t cope, it took us 6 hours to get out of the car park and we didn’t arrive home until the early hours if the morning and left many people stranded.

Which leads us to the answer of the question ‘which band performed after Bob Dylan which was Sphynx featuring Nik Turner from Hawkwind who entertained people in the car park afterwards as they waited to leave, which after all these years is still rated as one the biggest events on the history of music in the UK.

Glastonbury Festival 1st – 4th July1978

Glastonbury Festival 1st – 4th July1978

My first time at Glastonbury Festival was in the Summer of 1978 when it was a Free Festival there had been a Festival there in the early 70’s but it wasn’t know like it is today. I was 17 years old and me and my friends were fans of Sphynx featuring Nik Turner from Hawkwind who released an album that year with parts of it recorded in the Giza Pyramid in Egypt. We saw them a few weeks beforehand at a Love In at the Roundhouse, Camden  where we were handed a flyer for the Glastonbury Free Festival, so we decided to go.

We didn’t have a car and the only info we had was that it was at Worthy Farn so we headed for Glastonbury only to find that it was in Pilton which was 7 miles away, so we decided to walk and got a lift on the trailer of a blue tractor which pulled over and the driver asked if we were going to the Festival. Many years later I discovered on the Glastonbury Festival website that there was a picture of the Festival for that year which included the blue tractor which was driven by Michael Eaves who it turns out drove me to my first Glastonbury!

The Festival went on for a week and we were there for 4 days there were about 500 people in attendance, the weather was pretty awful. We did hear beforehand that the stage would be in the shape of a Pyramid based on the same dimensions as the Giza Pyramid, as it turned it was no bigger than a large marquee and very ramshackle, but was the foundation for the legendary stage to come.

According to my Gig Diary from that time as well as Sphynx other bands included Just a Band, Motivation and White Light as well as clowns and circus performers and was very chaotic. One band who came from Leicester broke down on the way and during their set there was a thunderstorm which blew out the generator losing all power to the stage.

Little did we know then that this small free festival with just a few hundred people would grow into the one of the biggest and most legendary Festivals in the World.

Gig Diary – This Week 1978

Gig Diary – This Week 1978

On the 13th January 1978 I saw Motorhead for the fourth time at Brunel University, Uxbridge. It was the height of Punk Rock in the UK at the time so with our long hair, leather jackets and torn jeans me and my small group of friends were musical outcasts at the time, so going to see Motorhead was a chance to meet up with like minded people.

We were real fans and would spend weekends trawling through Antique Shops and making our own bullet belts and hanging around Portobello market as we knew this was where the band hung out and we got to meet them several times. Support band on the night were Winder and tickets were £1.20.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203/

50 Years of Music (Part 25)

Hammersmith Odeon, London – 1977

Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush  

I have mentioned before that I felt threatened by the Punk movement of 1977/78 as I was 17/18 years old and just old enough to start going to gigs and live music events on my own, and having grown up listening to my brother Ken’s record collection of classic Rock bands I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to see some of these great bands.

The reality was different as although there was a lot of hype most Punk gigs took place in small venues and Colleges/ Universities and in fact some of the biggest selling Rock albums of all time and some of the biggest Festivals took place at this time. For me Hammersmith Odeon as it was known then was an oasis of great live music at the time and relatively easy to get to from my hometown of Windsor by Train, Bus or Car and I was lucky enough to experience some great live music.

Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush  – 3rd December 1977

Other than listening to my brothers record collection, recommendations from friends and listening to the Radio one of the main ways to discover new music was reading Music Magazines which were really quite big at the time with the main ones for me being Melody Maker, New Music Express and later on Sounds. These magazines were so influential that some of the journalists had celebrity status in their own right.

One of the stories we read was concerning Canadian guitarist Frank Marino from the Band Mahogany Rush, which told the story of how Frank took some bad Acid which put him in a coma, whilst he was in the coma he was visited by Jimi Hendrix who taught him how to play guitar just like him. When me and my mates read this we instantly brought tickets to see them perform at Hammersmith Odeon. Of course the story was rubbish but he did sound just like Hendrix and we weren’t the only one fooled as the venue was full on the night. Support band for this show was Welsh Heavy Metal Band Lone Star.

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Blogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 24)

Brunel University, Uxbridge – 1977- 1979

Eddie & the Hot Rods. Stray, Strife, Motorhead, Hawklords, Bram Tchaikovsky

When I started going to Gigs with friends in the 70’s it was often tricky to work out how to get there and back, in 1977 I was 16 years old so had to rely on public transport or friends who had cars, often there was a group of us and I remember one of got in the boot of the car as we couldn’t all fit in. As I grew up in Windsor it was Slough College that was a regular haunt as even if we missed the last Train or Bus it was just a two mile walk home. However we did venture to other venues with Brunel University, Uxbridge being one of the hardest to get back from at the time.

Eddie & the Hot Rods  – 19th October 1977

Eddie & the Hot Rods were a great live band that came out of the Pub Rock circuit of the 70’s and came to prominence at the time of Punk and had a top 10 single ‘Do Anything You Wanna Do’. They famously performed at the Marquee in London with the Sex Pistols supporting them who proceeded to smash up their equipment. Support band for the Uxbridge gig was No Dice and admission was £1.50.

Stray & Strife – 9th December 1977

This gig was advertised as a Heavy Metal Double Bill featuring two bands that were a feature of the UK Rock scene at the time although neither had a large amount of commercial success. Admission was £1.00

Motorhead – 13th  January 1978

This would have been the fourth time I had seen Motorhead and there was areal danger at that time that might not continue although me and my mates were huge fans. Support on the night was Winder and admission was £1.20.

Hawklords – 24th November 1978

In 1978 Hawkwind morphed into the Hawlords for a brief period with more of a commercial sound which fitted in with the Punk scene at the time. Whilst writing this blog I discovered that the Brunel University concert was released as a live album in 2009 and sounds fresh today. Support on the night was the Softies who had various line up’s which included Rat Scabies and Ray Burns (Captain Sensible).

Admission was £1.70

Bram Tchaikovsky – 21st March 1979

Bram Tchaikovsky was previously in the Motors and support for this gig was Sledgehammer who I was roadie for, so I worked on this show. Sledgehammmer were a big part of musical life and I will write much more about them in future blogs.

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Blogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 23)

Langley College – 1977- 1979

Motorhead – The Enid – Spud – The Zal Band – No Dice -The Cure – John Otway

It was a confusing time for me when I left school, I started an apprenticeship and was working in a factory, I was too young to get in to Pubs that put on live music, but I looked old enough to be served and there was one Pub in Eton that turned a blind eye and was owned by an ex policeman and on certain nights it looked like a Youth Club rather a than Pub. There was Skindles nightclub in Maidenhead and a group of us went over to see Thin Lizzy and although most of us looked old enough to get in one of us didn’t they got flustered when they asked him watch his age was and he gave the wrong date, it says a lot about our small group of friends that we elected not to go in but stay with him.

So for an under 18 year old it was Colleges, Universities, Sports Centres and Festivals for me and my friends when it came to live music. Although Slough College was the nearest to us we did go to Langley College several times to see bands, it was the next station stop by train and therefore relatively easy to get to.

Motorhead – 17th October 1977

The first gig we went to there on 7th October 1977 was Motorhead it was at that point the second time I had seen them live but the first as a headliner, admission was £1.00 and support on the night was Speedometers who were a punk band from west London, during that gig I met a lady called Sue and we got on really well, the following week she turned up at the Pub I went to, we exchanged telephone numbers and went on a date, which was when I was surprised to learn she was single parent and 24 years old and she was even more surprised to learn I was sixteen, we mutually agreed not to see each other after that. As I said it was a confusing time.

The Enid – 19th November 1977 & 11th November 1978

The next gig I went to at Langley College was to see The Enid on 19th November 1977, admission was £1.50 and support band was Spud. This was the second time I saw The Enid perform live and I saw them several times after that. The album they released that year was Aerie Faerie Nonsense and they also released the single Golden Earrings which although unlike anything else they recorded with Robert John Godfrey’s eccentric vocals I did love it. They performed again at Langley College on 11th November 1978 support on the night came from Slough based Prog Band Atlantis, admission was £1.50.

Spud – 11th March 1978

Having seen them perform supporting the Enid a few months earlier I had to go and see them again in their own right. This was my first experience of Folk Rock live and I was hooked, hailing from Dublin this band rocked live and in my opinion very much underrated, the album they were promoting was Smoking on the Bog and worth check out.

The Zal Band – 17th March 1978

One of the bands I wished I had seen was the Sensational Alex Harvy Band who split up in 1977 so the closest I could get was The Zal Band featuring guitarist Zal Cleminson and featured The Tubes' vocalist Leroi Jones and 19 year old Billy Rankin on guitar, who later played with Nazareth. They didn’t record any albums and were short lived. Zal Cleminson went on to play guitar for Nazerath, Elkie Brooks, Midge Ure and Bonnie Tylar. Support on the night was Business.

No Dice – 16th December 1978

This was the third time I saw No Dice according to my Gig diary so I must have been a fan, in the vein of the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and the Faces and Free, they recorded two albums but never amounted to much which was probably more to do with Punk being at it’s height at the time, Support on the night was The Screens. Admission £1.50

The Cure – 24th March 1979

Going to see The Cure at Langley College on the 24th March was very special, it was 6 weeks before the release of their debut album Three Imaginary Boys, my memory was that there wasn’t many people there and they performed behind a white sheet which was illuminated from the back, although I may have had that wrong. I was very impressed and went to see them several times after that.

John Otway – 4th May -1979

John Otway has played a big part of my musical journey and seeing him and his band at Langley College was the third time I had seen him up to this point, although I got to see him many times after this as well as work with him several times when I was booking music at Windsor Arts Centre, Jagz Ascot and the Acoustic Couch both solo and with Wild Willy Barrett. I will talk much more about John Otway in future blogs. Support on the night was Scottish band the Headboys who had a minor hit with “The Shape of Things to Come”

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Blogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 22)

Crystal Palace Garden Party – 10th September 1977. Admission £4.80

Santana – Elvis Costello & the Attractions – Southside Johnny & the Ashbury Dukes – Crawler

I was sixteen years old and watching Santana on their prime as the sun was setting at the Crystal Palace Bowl and a lady near us took her top off and started dancing, at that moment I thought live can’t better than this. The music of Sanatana had a big influence on my musical journey with their Latin Rock vibe eith lots of percussion was my first experience of what is called World Music these days although still within the boundaries of Rock to make it palatable at that time.

There was a small group of us who attended and what got their in time to catch Crawler who formed from the ashes of Back Street Crawler aster Paul Kossoff sadly passed away. I was a big fan of Free but never got to see them live and was really sad to see Paul Kossoff interviewed of the Old Grey Whistle Test when he was high on drugs before he died. I brought the first two Crawler albums and was obviously one of the few people there to see them perform live.

I got to Southside Johnny and the Ashbury Dukes a few times at Festivals of that time, closely linked to Bruce Springsteen who was emerging at that time they represented a sound that was coming out of America at that time when Punk was taking over in the UK.

This was the first big gig for Elvis Costello and the Attractions but sadly the sound wasn’t great and it was really difficult for the band to connect with the audience. The album they were promoting was My Aim Is True on Stiff Records and the band went on to huge success.

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Blogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 21)

Motorhead 1977 – 1980 (My obsession !!)

The first time I saw Motorhead perform live was supporting Hawkwind at the Fulcrum, Slough on 15th June 1977. It was the height of Punk Rock in the UK and me and my mates were very much the uncool ones, whilst everyone else was getting Mohican haircuts wearing safety pins and spitting on each other, we had long hair, leather jackets and bullet belts.

We quickly became super fans going to see them several times, buying all their vinyl & merchandise and even spending Saturday afternoons hanging around Portobello Market which is where we knew they would be drinking in local pubs when not on tour. Although nearly 50 years on Motorhead T Shirts are still fashionable so maybe we weren’t that uncool after all.

The first album Motorhead had a profound effect on me with the energy of Punk but much more controlled and was constantly on the turn table when it cam out in August of that year, although I did have their earlier singles with Larry Wallis from the Pink Fairies on guitar. The song Motorhead was originally recorded by Hawkwind and was the B Side of their Kings of Speed single.

I then went to see them at Langley College where they headlined on 7th October 1977 with support from The Speedometers, admission was £1.00 and on 13th January 1978 at Brunel University, Uxbridge with Winder as support, tickets were £1.20 as well as on 10th November 1979 at Bracknell Sports Centre with support from Saxon and Hammersmith Odeon on 28th November 1980 with support from Weapon tickets were £1.50.

On 1st December 1977 I travelled up to the Music Machine in Camden to see them with my mate Mike, it was a weekday and I was working as an apprentice sheet metal worker at the time in factory stating at 8.00am in the mornings, when we got to the venue we discovered that Motorhead weren’t going onstage until 10.00pm which meant we would miss the last train back. We decided to stay and walked the majority of the way home, hitch hiking we managed to get a couple of lifts that took us a few miles, we ended up getting back to Mike’s place in Slough at 6.30am!! Support band on that night was Warsaw Pakt and admission was £1.80.

It was 1978 that I started being a roadie for heavy metal band Sledgehammer (who I will discuss in further detail in a future blog) and we supported Motorhead alongside the Lightning Raiders at Slough College on 21st October 1978. I do remember the Students Entertainment officer telling Lemmy that they had to keep the volume down as they had a noise detector in the building, after a heated to discussion he went away and came back to say he had turned it off.

On the Friday of Reading Festival 1979 Motorhead performed before The Tourists (featuring Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart) and after Wilko Johnson’s Solid Senders with the Police head lining , which was a fantastic night.

On the 30th September 1979 Sledgehammer supported Motorhead at the Music Machine in Camden, this was a secret fundraising gig where they went under the name of Iron Fist and the Hoards from Hell, we were told that there were two support acts and we heard a rumour that EMI were interested in signing one of them, it turned out the other support band was Iron Maiden !!

By the time we got the early 80’s I found that Motorhead were getting a lot more commercial with appearances on Top of the Pops etc and with all the gigs I was doing with Sledgehammer I started to lose interest, although I still remain a fan to this day especially with their early albums.

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar
https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151
50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203
Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Blogs here!
https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 20)

Ian Gillan Band – Fulcrum, Slough – 14th May 1977, admission £1.00

I didn’t know I was such a fan!!

I remember being very excited about going to see the Ian Gillan band at the Fulcrum in Slough in 1977. I was a big fan of Deep Purple and saw them the year before when David Coverdale was the singer but was too young to see the line featuring Ian Gillan although loved the Machine Head and In Rock albums and would spend a lot of time singing along to Child in Time in my bedroom.

What I wasn’t expecting was the change in musical direction from the Heavy Rock sound of Deep Purple to a Jazz Rock almost Prog sound and featured the impressive Colin Towns on keyboards, Ray Fenwick guitar and Mark Nauseef on drums as well as Ian Gillan on vocals . The album they were promoting at the time was Clear Air Turbulence which on a recent listen really stands the test of time and is really underrated, although the follow up Scarabus comes across as a bit messy for me with a loss of direction.

Live the Ian Gillan Band still rocked and included a great version of Smoke on the Water at the Fulcrum show my friend Mike was handed Ian Gillans tambourine which made me jealous. The support for that show was Strapps who I saw the year before supporting Deep Purple. The Ian Gillan Band folded later that year, to be replaced by Gillan the following year which had much more of a Hard Rock sound which tapped in to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal craze which was just starting at that time,

I did see their debut live performance at Reading Festival in 1978 followed by Slough College on 17th February with support from Marseilles (who featured Neil Buchanan who was best name for his work on Children’s Television), at Reading Festival in 1979 and 1980 where they were much higher up on the bill. I also saw them at Bracknell Sports Centre on 18th October 1980 with support from Quartz  and White Spirit (who featured Janick Gers who went to perform with Gillan and iron Maiden), again at Reading Festival in 1981 when they headlined the Saturday night, again at  the Top Rank Reading on 16th December & at Hammersmith Odeon on 21st December 1981 with support from Budgie.

The reason why I know I saw Ian Gillan as much as I did, nine times in four years, is because I kept a gig diary. If you asked me wrote this blog if I was a fan I would have I liked them, but there are not many bands I have seen twice in a week on the same tour !!

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Bogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 19)

Slough College (1977)

Growing up in Windsor during the mid to late 70’s and being too young to go into Pubs initially the two venues for music events that were most local to me were Bracknell Sports Centre, which relied in getting a list as it was outside the town centre and Slough College which was much easier to attend as it was close to the train and bus stations and even if we missed the last one it was just a couple of miles to walk which we ended up doing a few times.

I have already mentioned in previous blogs some of the gigs that I attended their including Nutz, Judas Priest, Liverpool Express and National Health. Looking through my Gig Diary a number of the bands I saw at Slough College are fairly obscure and didn’t amount to much, so I thought I would cover the bands I saw there in 1977.

Charlie plus support NW10 & A1 - 5th March 1977, admission £1.00

Charlie were a rock band with an AOR feel who released nine albums and supported bands like  The Who, Doobie Brothers and The Kinks and had some minor hits in the States, and appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test. I brought their Fantasy Girls album which In played to death and still sounds fresh today. Support was NW10 who released one EP and A1 who were a local band I saw a couple of times.

Cado Belle plus support A1- 13th May 1977, admission £1.00 & 13th May 1978, £1.50 plus support Scratch

Cado Bell were a Funky Soul band from Scotland and although definitely not the type of music I listened to at the time I must of really enjoyed them as I went back to see them the following year. They featured singer Maggie Reilly who co wrote and sang of various hits with Mike Oldfield including Moon Shadow and keyboardist Colin Tully who wrote the soundtrack to the Film Gregory’s Girl. Support band fwas Scratch who went on to be John Otway’s backing band.

The Rage plus support Open Sore – 5th November 1977, admission 70p

This was the first Punk gig I went to and was suppose to be The Adverts who cancelled instead we saw The Rage. They only lasted a few months, with members going on to join The Adverts, Killing Joke, The White Cats and many more. Support was Open Sore from Slough who performed a number of times on the London Punk circuit. I remember somebody crowd surfed whilst the audience spat on them and they seemed to love it.

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Bogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 18)

National Health – 27th February 1977 – Slough College, Tickets  £1.00

I went along to Slough College in February 1977 to see Prog/Jazz band National Health as they featured drummer Bill Bruford who I saw in Genesis the year before only to find out that he left the band the month before to replaced Pip Pyle. The stand out memory of this gig was that it was the first one I went to where the entire audience sat on the floor and also they were very good. Support on the night was Flash Gordon and the Flashettes.

Years later when I was working at Jagz we did put on An Evening with Bill Bruford which was a fascinating insight to one of the most prolific drummers of the time having performed with Yes, Genesis and King Crimson as well as many others. He is also a great storyteller, as he was one the of the first to use a electronic drum kit he told us of the time he was about to do a drum solo when Yes were performing at Madison Square Gardens and the power went on the kit which left him having to do a solo with a Hi Hat and a Cowbell !!

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Bogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 17)

Be-Bop Deluxe – 29th January 1977 – Bracknell Sports Centre. Tickets  £1.60

Going into 1977 I was feeling optimistic as I was about to finish school and due to start an apprenticeship as a Sheet Metal Worker, I looked old enough to go into Pubs and I was looking forward to seeing all the bands I discovered through my brothers record collection. Little did I know in just a few months my musical world was about to be threatened with the Punk revolution of the Summer 1977 which promised to literally replace the Status Quo (pun) and other bands I wanted to see.

History tells us that this didn’t quiet happen and in fact some of the biggest rock albums of all time were released between 76 and 78 including Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf and Hotel California by the Eagles as well as some of the biggest Festivals with 200,00 people attending Bob Dylan at Blackbushe Airport and 80,000 to see Genesis at Knebworth Park. The biggest effect that Punk Music had on the live music scene in the UK was the Pub Rock scene with many of those venues promoting Punk instead.

Be-Bop Deluxe who I saw at Bracknell Sports Centre on 29th January that year are a perfect example of how music was changing, I went along after seeing their Rock based performances on the Old Grey Whistle test with Bill Nelson’s rip roaring guitar solo’s and their hit single Ships in the Night from the classic album Sunburst Finish but by the time they released their final album Drastic Plastic they which was recorded in the Summer of 77 they had redefined their genre as Art Rock/ New Wave.

Support on the night came from the Steve Gibbons Band who had a hit that year with Tulane a cover of a Chuck Berry song and I remember really enjoying their set and rather than thinking I was witnessing the end of Classic Rock seeing these two bands perform on the same bill, it all felt fresh and exciting to me.

Many years later I had the honour of booking Bill Nelson for a solo performance at Windsor Arts Centre, it was a great night but also has the dubious honour out of all the thousands of music events I have organised to be the only one, although sold out had a 100% male attendance.

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Bogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 16)

Man– 16th December 1976 – Fulcrum, Slough. Tickets  £2.00

Advertised as the final ever performance by Welsh rock band Man little did we know at the time that they would reform seven years later and still performing now although with only one original member. Man's style combined elements of psychedelia, space rock and progressive music and they were part of a number of bands that emerged from Wales at that time including Budgie, Badfinger, Sassafras, Racing Cars and support on the night was Welsh funk rock band Alkatraz.

As well as being great musicians Man had a great sense of humour with album titles such as ‘2 Ozs of Plastic with a Hole in the Middle’ ‘Rhinos, Winos and Lunatics’ and lyrics such as “I like to eat bananas, 'Cos they got no bones, I like marijuana, 'Cos it gets me stoned. After the band initially split up it was drummer Terry Williams who had the most success joining Rockpile with Dave Edmonds and Nick Lowe before joining Dire Straits.

This was the first time we attended the Fulcrum as a venue and returned many times to see some great bands, situated in the town centre and just a few minutes walk to the train and bus stations it was easy to get to.

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Bogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 15)

Liverpool Express– 13th October 1976 – Slough College. Tickets  £1.20

Liverpool Express were a 1970’s Pop band who had several hits and although this wasn’t the type of music I was into at that time I must have enjoyed them as went to see them again the following year. To be fair there were a number of Pop bands at that time who had commercial hits and live were a lot heavier and decent Rock bands, Sweet and Smokie were two and I am sure there were many more and my memory was this was the case with Liverpool Express.

Around that time I would listen to the radio a lot including Radio Luxembourg. John Peel, BBC Radio 1 and Radio Caroline which was a Pirate Radio Station. It is difficult to comprehend how much of a threat Pirate Stations were perceived at the time, especially when you see the number of online and independent Radio shows you see today. In all the time I listen to Pirate Radio I wasn’t aware of anything outrageous and controversial being said, the reason I listened was because of the music which was much more Rock orientated.

On one occasion I entered a postal competition which I heard on Radio Caroline to win tickets to see Liverpool Express, I was just a teenager at the time and never really been in any trouble to speak off, a few week’s later I had the letter I sent returned to me which had been opened and covered in official Government stamps stamp’s and I was terrified I was going to get in lots of trouble, looking back it seems ridiculous that I could have thought I would get in trouble for trying to win tickets to see Liverpool Express.

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Bogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 14)

Genesis– 10th June1976 – Hammersmith Odeon, London – Admission £2.50

Going to see Genesis at Hammersmith Odeon which was the second of five shows they performed at the venue, was the first time I attended a London show without a older brother or sister. I was 15 years old at the time and I went with a school friend on the Bus from Windsor and I remember it was a beautiful Summers evening when we left.

They were the first shows that Genesis performed without Peter Gabriel with drummer Phil Collins taking the lead singer role and Bill Bruford coming to assist on drums alongside Collins when he wasn’t singing. The album they were promoting was A Trick of the Tail, which is my favourite Genesis album with ripples being in my top 10 songs of all time.

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Bogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

50 Years of Music (Part 13)

Judas Priest– 14th May 1976 – Slough College

How did you discover new music growing up? For me in the mid 1970’s long before the internet and streaming sites it started by me going through my brother Ken’s record collection and then going to my friends house and listening to their albums. At school my Chemistry Teacher was a music fan and a small group of us used  to go to his Class Room at lunch break every Thursday and read through his latest music magazines and I went on to get Melody Maker every week followed by New Music Express and Sounds . At night when I was supposed to be asleep I had a transistor radio and earphones and listened to Radio Luxembourg, Radio Caroline and the John Peel Show.

On television I wasn’t really a fan of Top of the Pops although occasionally there would be a band I liked but it was The Old Grey Whistle Test with Bob Harris which was a must watch for me. I came from a large family, there were nine of us altogether and we had one television which meant if you wanted to watch a programme like TOGWT you had to do it when other people were in the room. I remember squirming in my seat  when Meatloaf performed a very raunchy Paradise by the Dashboard Light whilst my Mum was in the living room, I laughed out loud when John Otway fell off his amplifier,  cried when Paul Kossoff who was off his head on drugs whilst being interviewed by Bob Harris and I was blown away watching Lynard Skynyrd perform Freebird for the first time.

One of the many bands I discovered through TOGWT was Judas Priest who me and my mate Phil went to see at Slough College, tickets were £1.00 and the support band were Spitfire. This was the first of many gig’s we went to in the new Students Union Hall at Slough College and before judas Priest hit the stage the room was filled with dry ice, so much so that you could not see your own hand if you put it front of your face and the volume for the intro was deafening  it was such an assault on the senses I did have a mild panic. As the smoke dissipated the band entered the stage in Monk’s Habits to bells tolling and then rocked the night away. The album the band were promoting was Sad Wings of Destiny which was the album that started to break the band as a force on the UK Heavy Metal scene. I did go and see Judas Priest again two years later when they were in their prime on 10th February 1978 at Hammersmith Odeon with support from English Assassin, tickets were £2.50  

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Bogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog

 

50 Years of Music (Part 12)

Deep Purple– 13th March 1976 – Empire Pool, Wembley, London

A few years ago I was talking with a group of hard core Deep Purple fans and they were discussing what their favourite line up was, for some it was Deep Purple Mark 2 which featured Ian Gillan for others it was Mark 3 with David Coverdale, when they asked me and I said Mark 4 you could see that they looked at me suspiciously and very quickly the conversation finished.

Deep Purple Mark 4 featured David Coverdale, Ian Paice, Jon Lord, Glen Hughes and Tommy Bolin who replaced Ritchie Blackmore on guitar and I went to see them with my sister at the Empire Pool, Wembley on 13th March 1976, tickets were £2.00, support band on the tour was Strapps who were a British hard rock band who made four albums but didn’t gain much success.

One of things I have noticed whilst writing these blogs is that it is the first album I brought by an artist that becomes my favourite and not necessary the classics, with David Bowie it was Diamond Dogs as that was my very first album , with Thin Lizzy it was Johnny the Fox (which hardly anyone ever mentions now) and for Deep Purple it is Come and Taste the Band although I loved their earlier albums. I think I wore out my copy of Deep Purple in Rock and would spend hours in my bedroom screaming along to Child in Time, God knows what my parents were thinking!! I also wore out my version of Burn which featured David Coverdale although I had that on cassette tape so it was not hard to do. There was a different energy to Come and Taste the Band to previous Deep Purple albums as well as some serious funky moments as featured in Getting Tighter and throughout the album there is Tommy Bolin’s distinctive guitar style which I loved.

I was as much a fan on Tommy Bolin as I was Deep Purple possibly even a bit more and had all the albums he featured on. I first came across him when a friend played me Billy Cobham’s Spectrum album which Tommy plays guitar on and blew me away with the speed of his guitar solos, he was in a band called Zephyr which had a Big Brother and the Holding company feel to them although the singer wasn’t a patch on Janis Joplin, but then again who is. Tommy then went on to replace Joe Walsh in the James Gang before replacing Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple. He also made two excellent solo albums the first one features Phil Collins on drums.

My biggest memory from seeing Deep Purple perform live at the Empire Pool, Wembley was a section of the audience who were staunch Ritchie Blackmore fans who booed every time Tommy Bolin played a guitar solo in the same way a football supporter would boo a player who used to play for Manchester united and went on to play for Manchester City, it felt very strange to me at the time and I was unaware what was going on behind the scenes in the band, two days after this performance David Coverdale announced to some band members that he was leaving the band.

Tommy Bolin passed away in December that year with a drugs overdose and for me he is one the most under rated guitar players of all time and died far too young.

If you are enjoying this series and would like them to continue there is a tip jar

https://ko-fi.com/gsmc351151

50 Years of Music Chat Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/852110783534203

Catch up with all our 50 Years of music Bogs here!

https://www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/new-blog