When I saw Barclay James Harvest in 1977 a girl I’d asked out had said yes that day. It always stands out in my memory because because I was so excited, wrongly as it turned out as it quickly fell apart, but I didn’t know that then. So I got to wondering which are your stand-out shows and why? It’s not always to do with the music, is it?
We saw Joe Satriani at the Wiltern in Los Angeles on The Extremist tour. That stands out because, well, we were seeing Joe Satriani in Los Angeles, which seemed barely credible. And that it was just like being in an old theatre in England was surprising.
Johnny Winter and Eric Sardinas in Chicago House Of Blues stands out in my memory because I got so drunk I couldn’t stand up and we left midway through Johnny Winter because his playing was so poor. He was obviously not well and was sitting down. As a fan for many years, I was so disappointed…very drunk and I crawled back to the hotel..
Then there was CSN at Edinburgh Castle in July which, as everyone from Edinburgh can attest, can be rather chilly. A bit like whoever said ‘the coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco’, you could say that about Edinburgh.
We’d naturally taken wine in a flask to keep it cold but it was so damp and freezing that it was the last thing we needed. Edinburgh castle sits atop an ancient extinct volcano in the heart of town and so you’re exposed to the wind. Memorable but not for a good reason.
That Wishbone Ash gig on the New England tour stands out for the fact I was blind drunk after sharing a bottle of Southern Comfort. I still regret that, I wanted to see that tour and love the album.
Neil Young at Wembley Arena was memorable because we got thrown out of the flat we were staying in for arguing that Bob Seger was not only musically superior to Depeche Mode but also morally and slept at Kings Cross station
Yet there are hundreds of gigs that came and went and I have almost no recollection of them. I bet you think you’ve seen bands but aren’t really sure. I suspect I saw The Pretenders, Judy Tzuke, Rough Diamond, Al Stewart, Ace, Bill Nelson’s Red Noise but I remember nothing except recalling that I’d seen them. I did see Wild Horses who were joined by Phil Lynott (who had earlier told me, an autograph hunter, to f*ck off!) but I have no memory of it. I don’t know if I was even there by then. I know I was at the gig because it’s where I met Dawn but beyond that I remember nothing.
It’s amazing how much I don’t remember. Apparently I saw Bethnal supporting Hawkwind but you could have fooled me and I like them. Virtually all support acts have gone from the memory banks.
Unless there’s a reason for a gig to stand out, they get forgotten. I wish it wasn’t the case. I guess there’s only so much room.
