50 Years of Music
Welcome to my new blog, where I look into the world of arts and entertainment
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.
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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.
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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 !!
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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.
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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 !!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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50 Years of Music (Part 11)
The Trammps– 5th February 1976 – Hammersmith Odeon, London – Disco Inferno
If you have been with us from the start, then you will know that this Blog is based on my Gig Diary that I started in 1975 and each post looks at the next gig I went to, you will also have learnt by now that the music I was into was very much Rock based, so you may be surprised to see that I was attending a performance by Dico Kings The Trammps, but you won’t be more surprised than I was when we turned up at Hammersmith Odeon on 5th February 1976.
It was my brother Ken who first got me into music and when he moved out my sister would accompany me to concerts as I was in my mid-teens at the time. Pauline was into the Pop music of the time and really didn’t know the bands I was into but did know I was into Supertramp and in pre Google/ internet times that is who she thought she had brought tickets for. I am ashamed to say that when we arrived I was a grumpy sixteen year old not appreciative of the kindness she was showing.
These days people are much more open to listening to different musical styles and a number of artists mix genres including Folktronica and Country Rap, back in the 60’s and 70’s there was a lot more tribalism when it came to listening to music , starting with Mods and Rockers fighting on Brighton Beach and armed Hells Angels taking over Rock Festivals, being into a type of music was almost like supporting a Football team with the same amount of loyalty.
So for a sixteen year old to be attending a disco band was not only against the grain but also slightly embarrassing but I have to say that I enjoyed the performance. The support band was the Diversions which featured Lene Lovich who had a hit a few years later with Lucky Number. The Trammps were promoting their new single Disco Inferno at the time which went on to be a Dance Floor classic and was featured in the film Saturday Night Fever, my strongest memory of the night was the dancing which I thought was incredible and I first time I witnessed someone dance the Robot.
Nearly Fifty years later and a lot more open to different styles of music I am proud and thankful to my sister that I experienced one of the top bands at the height of the Disco explosion when they were in their prime although I didn’t feel it at the time, although my sister was about to make it up to me big time…
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50 Years of Music (Part 10)
Ace & Graham Parker and the Rumour – 25th January 1976 – Victoria Palace Theatre, London + Pub Rock Circuit of the 1970’s
In the mid 70’s if you wanted to catch some live music there was the University and College circuit which catered for Rock and Prog Bands or the Pub Rock scene as I was in my teens at the time I was too young to go legally go in Pubs at the time. Some of the bands that came out of the Pub Rock circuit included Dr Feelgood, Ducks Delux, Rockpile and Any Trouble.
One of the bands that broke out of the Pub Rock scene were Ace who had a hit single with ‘How Long’ the band released three albums before they disbanded. The band featured Paul Carrick who later went on to join Mike and the Mechanics as well as performing with many others as well as having a successful solo career and a Top 40 entry with his own version of ‘How Long’.
I went to see them at Victoria Palace Theatre, London on 25th January 1976 tickets were £1.80, up until this point I regularly went to see bands with my older brother Ken, when he moved out of our family home it was my sister Pauline who is sadly no longer with us who accompanied me to concerts. Her taste in music was completely opposite to mine at the time as she was a fan of the Osmonds, Bay city Rollers and David Cassidy and so it was really lovely that she made the time to go along to Rock concerts with her younger brother.
The support band on the night was Graham Parker and the Rumour and I remember some of Grahm Parker’s family were sat behind us on the night and were shouting and screaming throughout his set and DJ Alan Freeman was sat in front of us. Graham Parker and the Rumour were prevalent on the live music and festival scene and I did see them again at Reading Festival and supporting Bob Dylan at Blackbushe Airport in 1978.
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50 Years of Music (Part 9)
Thin Lizzy – 20th December 1975 – Sports Centre, Bracknell
I first saw Thin Lizzy perform at Bracknell Sports Centre with my brother Ken on 20th December 1975 with support from Hit’n’Run, tickets were £1.00. For me this was the classic Thin Lizzy line up with Scott Gorham, Brian Robertson, Brian Downey, and Phil Lynott and the album they released that year which was Fighting, although I did enjoy their albums it when they performed live that they were at their best. There was something about Thin Lizzy that was different to other bands I had seen up to that point as they didn’t come across as Rock Stars but more like some mates which was reflected in not only the way they dressed, which was exactly the same as the audience but also the way communicated, I remember Phil Lynott being very happy as he told the audience that Manchester United won that day.
A year later we went back to the same venue to see them again on 23rd October 1976 with support from Country Rock Band Clover featuring Huey Louis who later went on to form his own band Huey Lewis and the News, tickets for this were £1.60. This Lizzy released their breakthrough album Jailbreak earlier that year and this Tour was in support of the follow up Johnny the Fox, although not as successful it is still one of my favourites as it was the first album of theirs that I brought. I do remember me and some friends did go to see them at Skindles in Maidenhead, but we weren’t allowed in as we were underage.
The following year me and a mate went to see them when they were headlining Reading Festival, this was my first Festival experience and we went just for the one day, tickets were £4.00. Other bands on the line up were Aerosmith, Graham Parker & the Rumour, John Miles who had a hit at the time with Music, Little River Band, Ultravox who were quiet low on the bill, No Dice, Krazy Kats and George Hatcher Band. I remember we had a 7 pint can of Watneys Party Seven between us we travelled there and back on the train and arrived home very wet and muddy, which was not unusual for Reading Festival.
I saw them again at Reading Festival om 28th August 1983, tickets were £8.00 for the day and the line up included Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, Ten Years After, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, Climax Blues Band, The Enid, Sad Café, On the Juggler and Twelfth Night who were a Reading based Prog band.
I am sure I saw Thin Lizzy again at Hammersmith Odeon but can’t see any record of this in my gig diary although I do have a programme for their tour in 1979.
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