Tuesday, April 02, 2013

5 gigs that changed my life


1964
Listening to the radio today I heard an item on the 5 best gigs you'd ever missed. That got me thinking about the 5 most important gigs I'd not missed!


They were :

1962

ATV Studios Birmingham / Live Recording of 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' Liverpool Night

The Beatles / Gerry and The Pacemakers / Cilla / The Searchers / Billy J Kramer and The Dakotas / The Big Three / The Fourmost are the ones I remember.

My friend Chris Plant's dad worked on the Birmingham Post and he got us tickets as he was covering the show. Beatlemania was peaking and it was very big news. I was already then, at 12 a huge Beatles fan.

We had great seats but you couldn't hear a thing over the screams apart from Cilla. I was kind of scared and thrilled by it all at the same time.

After the show we were smuggled into the press conference and we ended up sitting With The Beatles and getting them orange juice while they spoke to the press, they all signed my autograph book(which I am still trying to locate) except that is for John who was already getting a bit cruel I guess.

We followed them out to two black limos, the first I'd ever seen, and as the rear roll up doors of the studios opened, a thousand young girls flooded in and over the cars as they glided slowly out and away leaving only broken hearts and unfulfilled dreams. I knew at that moment what I wanted to do with my life.

Or at least I thought I did!!

I was to bump into the Fab Four frequently later when EBB started recording at Abbey Road in 1969.

1964 or 1965

Blues Festival /Leicester De Montford Hall

Sonny Terry and Brownie McHee / Son House and a load of proper Chicago blues guys whose names I can’t remember except for one. Five Fingers Lee I think.

He had been born with an extra digit on his left hand and he used that to keep his bottleneck on, thereby enabling him to switch between the two styles seamlessly!

Got some autographs that night too! Godammit, where’s that autograph book?



(Hang on a minute.

Just remembered The Temperance Seven at Jeffson Pavilion Leamington Spa when I was about 3!!! ‘You, you’re driving me crazy’ anyone remember that?

On the bus later and yes, got autographs. Drove my brother mad!)



1965

Chesford Grange Ballroom / Kenilworth / Warwickshire

Buddy Rich Big Band.



This was a show organised by the local Musician’s Union of which we were all members. All you had to do in those days to join up was to pay your subs and tell them which instrument you played!



We arrived after the band had started and not being aware of the required protocol we shuffled into our seats whilst the great man was leading his band through the first number.

After the applause had died down Buddy came to the mike and addressed us! ‘What happened to you guys, did you miss your bus?’

I wanted to disappear behind my seat. But he was fantastic. I’d discovered him years before listening to Humphrey Lyttleton’s Jazz Night on my crystal set! Yeah really!!! But what a drummer!

Definitely no autographs that night!



1966



Midnight City / Birmingham / All niter(60’s spelling)

John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers / Wynder.K.Frogg

This was the natural progression from the Blues Festival show at Leicester. It was tougher, with Pete Green, John McVie and Aynsley Dunbar. They were shit hot. These guys were my heroes but I soon found out they were all broke and that Mayall was already by then a tyrant. I’ve since encountered him quite recently on a festival we were doing in Germany and I am now convinced he’s not a nice man.



After their show we went backstage to meet them and they asked us if there was anywhere locally they could sleep for the night as they were continuing up North the next day. They all ended up at our council house in Warwick sleeping on the floors except for their leader who had a bunk in their (his) Bedford Dormobile where he was comfortably shacked up with his girlfriend. The next day when they drove off I was surprised to see them all stooping under the bed!!!

Not the greatest way to do the M1 end to end.

Pete Green had slept on the floor in my room and signed my pelmet!

No, pelmet !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Mum shared her fags with them all and they went on their way.



1967



Coventry Theatre

Jimi Hendix Experience / Pink Floyd / The Nice / Eire Apparent / The Move ? / and someone else who I can’t remember!



This was a groundmoving show. Certainly Hendrix would always have been that but the rest of the bill was also astonishing. Found out later that the tour also contained Lemmy roadying for Hendrix, Pete Jenner managing the Floyd, and Pete Drummond ,compere, all of whom would become friends later.



But Jimi, live, then?????

What can you say that hasn’t already been said.



Have to also include the Who at Coventry Locarno 1967. This was bizarre, as we were turned away for not wearing ties. Mum came to the rescue with ties and we got in just in time to see the Who smash up the whole stage, instruments and PA, and finally fused all the electrics to a huge roar of appreciation whilst we stood there in our ties. Real My Generation.