When I go to gigs these days, it’s totally different to how it was in the 70s and 80s. In some ways I appreciate it because I’m disabled and am usually accommodated but of course, in the 70s I had no such concerns. But that aside, I miss the hot, sweaty, febrile atmosphere that so often was part of the experience.
Things seem tame now by comparison. The first gig I ever went to at Newcastle City Hall was SAHB when I was 15. I hadn’t started routinely drinking until a few months later but thought I’d give it a try at the City Hall. Well, I was amazed at what a crush it was there. With the bar about 6 deep. I couldn’t get near it and gave up. It was my first exposure to the pre-main act rush for drink. There was none of the ‘pre-loading’ of today, it was a case of get as much booze down you during the support act, so you were half cut by the time the band came on.
But that first gig taught me a lesson; don’t ignore the support band by going to the bar because on this occasion it was Pat Travers who I didn’t know at the time but was superb.
That was a wild gig but nothing compared to some at the Mayfair, including people dry hum[ing in dark corners on the balcony and one hairy man who was dangled by his feet off the balcony during Gary Moore's sustained note during Pariseanne Walkways. His long hair dangling down the 15 ft drop he looked like a curtain of hair as he writhed around. I can’t imagine how many by-laws that would've contravened today but no one thought anything of it at the time. It was a heavy rock gig, these things happened.
I think the most frenzied gig I ever saw was Rusk in 1981. It was when they were at their Moving Pictures height. They didn’t have a support act. I was on my own, for a reason I don’t recall why and I was amazed at how frenzied the crowd were before, during and after the gig. The whole place was on its feet from the start and a huge amount was bouncing up and down at the front. The very opposite of the eat-a-pizza-during-a-show-and-film-it that is typical now
In fact I was watching a video of UFO playing Lights Out at the Roundhouse in 1977 the other day and it really reminded me of how gigs were https://youtu.be/hRChTEsDZYc?list=RDhRChTEsDZYc
I can smell it. It’s so evocative.
And then by contrast, right after that I watched a 2015 performance by Tedeschi Trucks Band who are playing The Letter with Leon Russell and the band are smokin’ but the crowd are passive and the atmosphere zero. https://youtu.be/0BFISKz-jaw?list=RD0BFISKz-jaw
That’s the difference between then and now.
photo;
CLender
