Scattered recollections of early days
As the header to this blog explains, the primary aim is to document the gigs, concerts & festivals that I attend going forward from the day after the one on which I ended full-time employment - 5 April 2018.
I've been going to gigs since I was a teenager, during which time I must have seen hundreds of bands and solo artists, many who I have long since forgotten. Some however, for a variety of reasons have lived long in the memory. These gigs have been as diverse as quiet unaccompanied folk through to ear-splitting hard rock and everything in between.
At 16 or 17 it would never have occurred to me or any of my mates that some of us would still be attending live music events 50 years later and certainly not to be down at the foot of the stage where the real buzz is, where you "feel" the pounding of the bass guitar in your chest.. Pop(ular) music as it was then defined was thought of by many as a transitory thing that wouldn't stand the test of time - here today, gone tomorrow. Oh, how wrong they were and how I wish I had kept a record of those early shows.
Vague scattered recollections, bolstered by the odd ticket stub, signed album or grainy photograph are often the only tangible clues I now have, but just occasionally, a search on-line of the history of a particular band or venue will reveal enough glimpses into the past to bring memories flooding back. At some point in the future, I'll begin to compile a list, with the hope that others who accompanied me along the years will be able to fill in some extra details.
For now I'll just start that list with the first band that I ever saw. It was during the height of Beatlemania, I'm guessing around 1964, or maybe 65. I'd have been 12 or 13 if that was the case. The venue was the Palace Theatre, Watford. My mum had a job in the box-office selling tickets for the weekly plays which were the main bread and butter of the Theatre. Someone had the bright idea to cash in on this pop phenomenon thing that was drawing in all the youngsters, so they booked what was basically a cabaret comedy group, Freddie and the Dreamers, cashing in themselves on the back of the Beatles success. It must have been a Sunday night as that was the only day when there wasn't a play on. Jimmy Perry of Dads Army fame was the manager of the Theatre back then and as a personal friend of my Mum she wangled it with him for me to slip in at the back to watch the show.
Click to see a Freddie & the Dreamers album cover
Presumably their "hits" I'm Telling You Now and You Were Made For Me were in the set, but what they actually played that night will forever remain a mystery as the screaming from several hundred swooning teenage girls between me and the stage made it impossible to hear a thing out of what by today's standards was a minuscule sound system. No matter - the excitement of that night clearly had a profound effect and sowed in me a love of live music which has carried on to this day. Thankfully some things have changed over the intervening years - most for the better, but some for worse. On the plus side the screaming had stopped by around 67 and fortunately amplification quality has improved dramatically too. On the down side however these days is the tendency for continuous chatter from audiences while a band is playing, frequently drowning out quieter sections of sets - grrrr.
So that has kicked off this hopefully regular blog and next up I'll be posting a review of the first gigs of my non-working years which took place over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun 6/7/8 April 2018. Get your wristband on or your hand stamped and join me down the front.
I've been going to gigs since I was a teenager, during which time I must have seen hundreds of bands and solo artists, many who I have long since forgotten. Some however, for a variety of reasons have lived long in the memory. These gigs have been as diverse as quiet unaccompanied folk through to ear-splitting hard rock and everything in between.
At 16 or 17 it would never have occurred to me or any of my mates that some of us would still be attending live music events 50 years later and certainly not to be down at the foot of the stage where the real buzz is, where you "feel" the pounding of the bass guitar in your chest.. Pop(ular) music as it was then defined was thought of by many as a transitory thing that wouldn't stand the test of time - here today, gone tomorrow. Oh, how wrong they were and how I wish I had kept a record of those early shows.
Vague scattered recollections, bolstered by the odd ticket stub, signed album or grainy photograph are often the only tangible clues I now have, but just occasionally, a search on-line of the history of a particular band or venue will reveal enough glimpses into the past to bring memories flooding back. At some point in the future, I'll begin to compile a list, with the hope that others who accompanied me along the years will be able to fill in some extra details.
For now I'll just start that list with the first band that I ever saw. It was during the height of Beatlemania, I'm guessing around 1964, or maybe 65. I'd have been 12 or 13 if that was the case. The venue was the Palace Theatre, Watford. My mum had a job in the box-office selling tickets for the weekly plays which were the main bread and butter of the Theatre. Someone had the bright idea to cash in on this pop phenomenon thing that was drawing in all the youngsters, so they booked what was basically a cabaret comedy group, Freddie and the Dreamers, cashing in themselves on the back of the Beatles success. It must have been a Sunday night as that was the only day when there wasn't a play on. Jimmy Perry of Dads Army fame was the manager of the Theatre back then and as a personal friend of my Mum she wangled it with him for me to slip in at the back to watch the show.
Click to see a Freddie & the Dreamers album cover
Presumably their "hits" I'm Telling You Now and You Were Made For Me were in the set, but what they actually played that night will forever remain a mystery as the screaming from several hundred swooning teenage girls between me and the stage made it impossible to hear a thing out of what by today's standards was a minuscule sound system. No matter - the excitement of that night clearly had a profound effect and sowed in me a love of live music which has carried on to this day. Thankfully some things have changed over the intervening years - most for the better, but some for worse. On the plus side the screaming had stopped by around 67 and fortunately amplification quality has improved dramatically too. On the down side however these days is the tendency for continuous chatter from audiences while a band is playing, frequently drowning out quieter sections of sets - grrrr.
So that has kicked off this hopefully regular blog and next up I'll be posting a review of the first gigs of my non-working years which took place over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun 6/7/8 April 2018. Get your wristband on or your hand stamped and join me down the front.
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