George's Gig Diary - 1970's

Yes, folks, I used to love the pub rock scene of the seventies. Always free to get in, and the east end seemed to be the best place, as it virtually ignored the violent punk scene of the west end. And here was Blitz, not the punk band of the same name, but a blues hendrix type outfit with a pub residency. The guitarist 'didnt use nuffin' to get his sound, which in cockney meant that he didnt use any effects pedals. Blitz became the Foster Brothers, got a deal, supported Elton John at Wembley, and disappeared. Where are they now. Great foot-stomping nights out though. Must have seen 'em a dozen times.

It was a boiling hot night, and I drove around Trafalgar Square, only to get stopped by police for travelling down the western straight, which he told me had just been converted to "buses only", which was a good start. Anyway, for only 50p, thanks to Sounds Magazine, one could see AC/DC on one of their earliest tours, compared by John Peel. And my word, was it loud. Angus in his school uniform, spending most the gig rolling around the floor whilst playing solos. Later spent most of the time in front of me down in the orchestra pit, same agonising face and solos, on the floor of course. The singer, poor old Bon, got fed up with this, and joined him in the pit, from where they perfomed for some time. My hearing suffered after this, one of the rare gigs of my life where I didnt wear earplugs... I saw them every year in the seventies until the singer died.

Rainbow Rising tour. The much vaunted computerised rainbow light show arched over the stage, and slowly came to life over the gig. At the end it was well dancing to the music in sequence. What with Blackmore's guitar smashing, Cozy's drum riser, and colourful Dio, this stage act had everything, and I loved the album, so the resulting gig was superb. Top show.

In the great days before they closed the RoundHouse and tried to turn it into an ethnic cultural centre, it really was the best of gig venues, holding concerts by Hendrix, The Doors, and many more, througout the punk and new wave eras too. And here was this band Man, welsh festival band, west coast music. I had heard their live LP, Maximum Darkness, which was recorded here a year ago, same venue. Now I fell in love with that album, and here was me expecting a similar or better show. Big mistake to have too many expectations. I was devastated. It was terrible. I will always love that album, but for some reason, I have never liked anything else they have done, on record or on stage. Why? Saw the band a few times in this very hot summer, before they broke up for 7 years, and never regained their success.

I think this was Motorhead's third gig, supporting the Fairies, who were a sixties type rock band of the era. Anyway, Lemmy was still only known to everyone the bloke who got kicked out of Hawkwind, and I'm sure they did their Motorhead theme tune. What I'll never forget, is his connection with the crowd, as he just stood there and chatted and raved with the audience as if he were addressing a group of friends down the pub. Really really confident, although he might have been on something, admittedly. But this connection absolutely made the gig. Funnily enough, I have never seen the band again! I've always meant to, but it's never happened! Anyway, this gig was another glorious concert in the 'Heavy Night On The Town' season, many sunday nights at the Roundhouse, where you could see 3 bands for £1.50. I'll never forget the queue up the stairs to get in, past the hippie's teepee. The hippies would walk up to the queue and offer everyone hot food of curious design, but I would never dare indulge. Once at the top of the stairs, the door would open, and you were hit my the thick sweet cannabis smoke, the nearest I've ever got to drug taking. Walking past the stalls of badges, and into the gig. The Roundhouse was a great venue, and these sunday specials were so happy. Shame the stupid council closed it in the eighties, and have now gutted it and ruined it. Great days...

Free concert, details of which are on my Queen page, which is here

The BridgeHouse, Canning Town, was one of my fave gigs of the time. Free to get in, and always rock. Far from the evil rock-hating punk scene of uptown. Anyway, the gig calendar was always chalked up behind the band on stage, and this 'Maiden' sounded like a good name, maybe better than some of the denimed blues bands that made up most of the listings. Anyway, you could tell something wonderful was up before you even went in, as unusually you could see there was a light show flashing with the music. And then, on opening the door, we saw the singer, Den, running a sword thru his mouth, blood capsule dripping over the audience. Blimey. For an Alice fan this was just heaven. The band had a residency there, and suddenly, so did I, going every week here, and another gig they did every week in Barking, Essex. Saw them maybe 30 times in 1977 until they 'broke up' (!) that summer. Brilliant songs and show, the only band that I've seen come up from nothing.

Another fantastic night at the Roundhouse. What a shame they later turned it into some daft ethnic centre, and now have gutted it of all original fittings. Anyway, this was a happy night. Lights Out tour. Schenker was already a rock god guitarist, and he looked to weird, albino bloke with long straight hair, before he adopted that pathetic german mullet. This was the classic line up in full swing, with Way and Mogg doing such a job. I will never forget the reaction of the crowd to a number called 'Let It Roll', where the dance floor suddenly became a sort of mosh pit, the first I'd ever seen. It was like getting beaten up whilst dancing, and Let It Roll was the ideal song. That was some night. Everyone was dancing so much that night, I've never seen so much happiness in one place. During the interlude, the DJ played the latest Pistols single 'God Save The Queen' to much applause and laughter, and even more dancing!

Glorious gig for the Then There Were Three tour, and the boys wore shiny white costumes for the night. Saw my first laser beam during 'One for the Vine' which came out from the stage and over the audience and into the distance. Everyone gasped at it and looked back. When I looked towards the stage again, every face in the crowd was looking away from the stage and at this laser beam disappearing over the hills. It was too good an effect ! Freezing June day and frozen night. The worst thing was the bogs: No portaloos, just a pit with a few planks thrown across it. Unbearable, and not fit for animals! I think Devo got bottled off...

Tormato tour. First concert I saw In The Round, taking the centre of Wembley instead of the stage end. Arriving during the first song (thanks to British Rail) I was not in such a concert mood and took ages to settle. The band was fantastic. Classic line up, of course, and a perfect gig. During individual solos, the other members would disappear down through holes in the stage. During one such solo, a Sooty glove puppet appeared from one hole, and entertained the crowd, thus destroying the solo. The culprit? Wakeman. Anyway, this remains one of my favourite ever gigs.

Level Headed tour. The last with the original four members. What a shame it didnt last. Great gig, with variety. That is, the chart material, the album material, and the great Heavy metal material, something that Sweet were masters of.

Farewell To Kings tour. Wasnt gonna go to this gig, as the live album was so cold, but a night before the show, the Old Grey showed a video of 'Xanadu' from the latest LP, and I sat there, open jawed. Damn! Next day I ran to the Hammy Odeon for my ticket. It was a jolly good show. Saw them on the next few tours, until they became a Police tribute band, and a laughing stock.

One of those points in time where a spotty journalist will write and rewrite history and his point of view is the only one that will be remembered. And it came to pass that he thought VH blew Sabs off stage that night, and everyone there I could hear screaming 'Ozzy' through the VH set would have a different take on this. Certainly one could hear shock and surprise in the pubs and clubs about this review for many weeks after, and this is still the historic reference that is quoted even now 30 years later. Amazing. Ok, VH were alright, and couldnt reproduce the sound of their LP, but at least they were fun to watch, with good guitar solos, but they wernt that good. Van Halen died that night before a partisan crowd... except one spotty journalist didnt think so. Was he in the bar?? Sabs were excellent. Never Say Die tour, the one were Ozzy got sacked soon after. More fool them. It was Sabs in their prime, and although it wasnt as good as the year before, it was still magnificent, and the crowd mirrored Ozzy's every move.

Touring band of old boys Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, and Man drummmer Terry Williams, they hit the big stage at festival time. Twas a nice day, and picnic time, in the days you could take anything into festivals, without getting strip searched and branded. The party next to us had a mannequin head for their hat, which spoilt our view. So we kicked this head, which got kicked by the crowd towards the stage. Soon, in the distance, you could see this head being thrown in the air in front of the stage, to the amusement of the band on at the time, which was Boomtown Rats. Sorry, i'm not usually that abusive of people's property, but couldnt see anything thanks to this stupid head. So it had to go. The owners were zonked on spliffs anyway. As for the gig, I enjoyed most of it. Frank Zappa and Peter Gabriel were great, as were Rockpile. Top of the bill were some yanks called The Tubes, who were crap, and had bought their slot with no hits or talent.

I honestly thought they were gone forever, having not heard of them for a whole year, and then I was handed this cutting, 'Prodigal Sons Return'. I was absolutely flabbergasted!! The Ruskins had never really done anything but covers bands, but it had a good stage. I walked in, and there was the regular singer, Dennis, all fired up. The band went on stage, a few different members, but... wait? Dennis headed for the mixing desk to join old boy Vic on mixing duties. Cue the whippersnapper Dianno from the wings to do the vocals. Who the hell was this? Young short haired punk grinning inanely. Quite a surprise, but he was good. The band were splendid, speeding up the songs they had always done at blues pace, which was a bit strange. Most of Dianno's screams, however, were a direct copy of Den's, I suppose, until Dianno developed his own style later. Blimey. And so Maiden would be back in my life, forever. Saw maybe 20 Ruskins gigs, and a few others around London, still never thinking they would get anywhere, and always surprised when they did... get everywhere.

Maiden were certainly up and coming by this time, but no-one, especially me, believed that they would get any bigger. Maybe it was because we had seen them come up from just being a pub band. I saw them do the Marquee, the BandWagon, and a couple of Music Machines. This gig - they were second on the bill, between the great AngelWitch and Saxon. On the photo, you can see the Saxon backdrop that remained onstage for the whole night, which was quite annoying, as Maiden wernt allowed to put their own one up. I loved Maiden, but Saxon, whom I found boring, seemed to be more commercial, and have more potential. Thankfully, I was completely wrong on this one! AngelWitch were as fun as ever, another band that never made it to the top.

Evolution tour. Still with shared vocals between band leader organist Gregg and new boy Steve Perry, this was an excellent line up. I absolutely adored the previous album, 'Infinity', which was a Roy Thomas Baker spectacular, and I was shocked when the boys came over to do a few quick shows. It was a truly amazing gig, just before the boys got collosal.

Last Zep tour before Bonham died. Utter utter pandemonium, mob trying in vain to get over the perimeter fence. But at least in those days the security wasnt as mob handed themselves. Nice day, Chas & Dave were amongst the support acts! Zep themselves didnt seem as fluent as the over produced live album, and the choice of keyboards seemed to suffer too. Plants voice not as strong? Otherwise a good gig, considering its historical value. Saw my first ever video screen, which was behind the band, which really made a difference. Until that point, you could never see a thing at festivals unless you rushed towards the stage. But now you could watch everything in close up, and enjoy it! On the way out, we found the great perimeter fence flattened! So everybody had gotten in for nothing after all. Took hours to get out of the car park.