I Was There

Were you there too? Memorable little musical events I attended - more or less in alphabetical order - if not, there's a reason why. There may be more- these are the ones I can remember

ALEX HARVEY Shoulder of Mutton, Hardstoft 1982	His 40th Birthday Party. Up until this, I liked Alex Harvey
ALBERTOS Y LOS TRIOS PARANOIAS Sutton Golden Diamond 1975 Nottingham University 1976	Higgy laughed so loud at these, the audience stopped laughing at them to laugh at him! He'd been really depressed earlier in the evening - talk about personality transplant!
AVERAGE WHITE BAND Sheffield City Hall 1974 Birmingham Odeon 1981 Birmingham Ronnie Scott's 1999 Bilston, Robin 2 2001	Sheffield = supporting Wishbone Ash
BABE RUTH Nottingham Boat Club 1976 Nottingham Boat Club 1977 (Jenny Haan's Lion)	We were 'double booked' at the Boat Club with these
BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST Liverpool Stadium 1973
JEFF BECK (BBA) Liverpool University 1973 Birmingham Symphony Hall 2009	BBA=Jeff Beck with Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice, At Birmingham with Tal Wilkenfeld on bass guitar
ERIC BELL Grey Topper, Jacksdale 1980 Shoulder of Mutton, Hardstoft 1982	Thin Lizzy's original guitar player
JOE BONAMASSA Nottingham Rock City 2008 Sheffield City Hall 2009	Only absolutely brilliant!
BOSTON Stafford Bingley Hall 1980	Took a bus load of folks to see these. Never had to stop for toilets so many times before or since!
DAVID BOWIE Stafford Bingley Hall 1980	Part of the 'Thin White Duke' tour
BIG COUNTRY Mansfield Leisure Centre 1981
ELKIE BROOKS Nottingham Theatre Royal 1980	Geoff Whitehorn, Poli Palmer and Tim Hinkley were in this band
JACK BRUCE Nottingham Royal Centre 2002
BUDGIE Nottingham Albert Hall, 1975 Nottingham Boat Club 1976 Golden Diamond Sutton 1976 West Runton Pavilion 1979
ERIC CLAPTON Hyde Park, London 1996	Only £8 - see the ticket! Hard to believe you got all that - PLUS Jools Holland who isn't mentioned!
CLIMAX BLUES BAND Leicester Polytechnic, 1978	DIRE STRAITS were playing SUPPORT to these this night!
COLLOSSEUM Trent Polytechnic 1970	The Dick Heckstall-Smith/Jon Hiseman/Clem Clempson version
COLLOSSEUM II Nottingham Boat Club 1777	Still Jon Hiseman - but with Gary Moore this time
CRAWLER Birmingham Town Hall 1977	Terry Wilson-Slesser, Geoff Whitehorn and suchlike in this band - the remnants of Back Street Crawler, Paul Kossoff's little project
CURVED AIR Derby Kings Hall, 1976	Stuart Copeland on drums, Mick Jaques and Tony Reeves on matching Firebird/Thunderbird guitars
SONJA KRISTINA Beetroots, Radstock, 1991	Totally acoustic - no PA even
BILLY RAY CYRUS Nottingham Ice Stadium 1997	Free ticket/Country Music phase
FOO FIGHTERS London Wembley Stadium 2008	Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant - and I had my binoculars so I saw Jimmy Page ages before the place erupted when they announced he was on!. This was the show that "we would be talking about for the next 20 years" - well, I will be anyway! (Little Jonno's first outing to a concert at 9 years old = Wembley, Foo Fighters with Jimmy Page, and we didn't tell him until we were half way there - who needs Santa when you've got parents like he's got?)
FREE Sheffield City Hall 1972 Leicester De Montfort Hall 1972	First outing to a 'big band' - so impressed, we bought tickets for 2 weeks later (75p - wow!). Sat Next to Higgy. Paul Kossoff's playing was extremely emotional
BAD COMPANY Birmingham Odeon 1979 Sheffield City Hall 2002 Nottingham Royal Centre 2002	Sheffield - Corinne's first big 'rock' band outing. Same front man singing some of the same songs at the same place as me. She went with the rest of us pensioners! A week later we went again - re-run of 1972 but 30 years later!
PAUL RODGERS Nottingham Royal Centre 1997 Sheffield City Hall 2006	25 years on at Nottingham - sat next to Higgy again - 34 years on at Sheffield (since 1972)! He's lasting well. Still singing All Right Now!
PAUL RODGERS + QUEEN Sheffield Hallam Arena 2005	One Third of a century on - STOOD next to Higgy. Same town, same front man, same songs sometimes, NO seat and £55 to get in....Hmmmm? Too much Queen and not enough Paul Rodgers I thought. If you look hard, you can see me in the audience on the DVD that was recorded that night (involves several hours of freeze-frame!)
DIRE STRAITS Leicester Polytechnic 1978 Sheffield Arena 1993	Leicester - support to Climax Blues Band, Sheffield = one of their last outings
DOOBIE BROTHERS Sheffield Arena 1995	Unfortunately WITHOUT Michael McDonald- but still good
FOREIGNER Sheffield Arena 1995	On the same bill as The Doobie Brothers
FRANZ FERDINAND De Montfort Hall, Leicester 2004	Corinne talked me in to this one. I won't mention the support bands - oops! I just did!
GINGER BAKER'S AIR FORCE Nottingham Trent Polytechnic 1970
PETER GREEN SPLINTER GROUP Nottingham Royal Centre, 2000
HAMSTERS Nottingham, Running Horse 1998 Matlock, Fishpond 1998 Derby, Flowerpot 1999 Nottingham, Running Horse 1999 Kirkby in Ashfield, Millers 1999 Matlock, Fishpond, 1999 Kirkby Blues Festival, 1999 Derby, Flowerpot 1999 Matlock, Fishpond 1999 Derby, Flowerpot 1999 Nottingham, Running Horse 2000 Derby, Flowerpot 2000 Derby, Flowerpot 2001 Nottingham, Running Horse 2001 Matlock, Fishpond 2001 Derby Flowerpot 2002 Nottingham, Running Horse 2002 Derby Flowerpot 2002 Nottingham, Running Horse 2002 Golden Diamond Sutton in Ashfield 2003 Nottingham, Running Horse 2003 Derby Flowerpot 2003 Nottingham, Running Horse 2003 Golden Diamond Sutton in Ashfield 2003 Nottingham, Running Horse 2003 Nottingham, Running Horse 2004 Derby Flowerpot 2004 Nottingham, Running Horse 2008 = after a long break!	Bit of a favourite here!
MARSHA HUNT Liverpool University 1973
HUSTLER Mansfield Swan Hotel 1974 Sutton Golden Diamond 1975
WILKO JOHNSON Derby Flowerpot 2003 Nottingham Running Horse 2005	Norman Watt-Roy playing bass - remember the bass part in "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" by Ian Dury? - well this guy did it then, and is still the only beggar who can play it!
CHAKA KAHN Nottingham Royal Centre 1985	Snuffy Waldron on guitar
KING CRIMSON Liverpool Empire 1973	Bill Bruford and John Wetton were in this line up
KINKS Liverpool Stadium 1973
LITTLE ACRE Mansfield Civic Theatre 1975 Burton on Trent 76 Club 1977 Nottingham Sandpiper1977 Jacksdale Grey Topper 1977
STEVE MARRIOTT Derby Eagle Tavern 1992	Little guy, little venue, big sound!
MAN Liverpool University 1973 Loughborough University 1975 Derby Kings Hall 1976 Harrogate 1976
FRANK MARINO Nottingham Royal Centre 2002	Why play one note when you can play 40?
JOHN MAYALL'S BLUESBREAKERS Nottingham Royal Centre, 2000 Nottingham Royal Centre, 2004	Big daddy of them all
BUDDY WHITTINGTON BAND Derby Flower Pot, 2008 Derby Flower Pot, 2008 - again, twice in one year!	John Mayall Band's brilliant guitar player - out on his own for a change
TONY McPHEE Nottingham Royal Centre 2004
GARY MOORE Skid Row- Nottingham Boat 1970 Himself- Nottingham Boat 1972 (x2) Colosseum- Nottingham Boat 1977
NAZARETH Sheffield City Hall 1979	Zal Cleminson played guitar on this one
NUTZ Nottingham Boat Club 1976 Leicester Granby Halls 1977	Supporting Status Quo at Leicester
PATTO Liverpool University 1973 Birmingham Town Hall (Boxer) 1977
PEARL JAM Nottingham Rock City 1992	First UK tour - "I'm Alive" sort of period
PINK FLOYD Nottingham Trent Polytechnic 1971 London Earls Court 1981	'Meddle' days through to one of the last performances of 'The Wall'
THE POLICE Stafford Bingley Hall 1980 Birmingham NEC 1981	At Birmingham, Sting's roadie played bass because Sting had cut his hand earlier. They had to 'try' rather than 'just do it' - it made them brilliant!
THE PRETENDERS Sheffield City Hall 1980	The ORIGINAL band
BONNIE RAITT Nottingham Royal Centre, 2003
SHERMAN ROBERTSON Nottingham Running Horse 2006
SASSAFRASS A School, Arnold 1975 Sutton Golden Diamond 1975 Grey Topper Jacksdale 1979
MICHAEL SCHENKER Sheffield City Hall 1982	Cozy Powell on drums, Chris Glen on bass, Hugh McKenna on keyboards. Cozy did a drum solo to the '633 Squadron' theme - amazing!
SAXON Grey Topper, Jacksdale 1978 Sheffield City Hall 1979 Central TV Studios 1990	The guys who started on the same circuit as me - and actually made it- saw these more times as SOB or Son Of A Bitch - whatever they called themselves before SAXON. Central TV session was recorded.
SCORPIONS Nottingham Boat Club 1976 Sutton Golden Diamond 1976 Sheffield City Hall 1979	1976 venues might have been the first time they came here?
ULI JON ROTH Nottingham Royal Centre 2002
VONDA SHEPARD Nottingham Royal Centre 1999 Nottingham Royal Centre 2001	OK, so I used to watch Ally McBeal on the TV - but only for Vonda and her band
SLADE Mansfield Leisure Centre 1995	No Noddy - but contained an acceptable Noddy lookalike and soundalike!
SQUEEZE Royal Centre Nottingham 1983
STATUS QUO Leicester Granby Halls 1977	2 hours worth of epileptically knitted guitar leads
STEELY DAN Birmingham NEC 1996	Stood next to Roy Wood in the gents!
STRIFE Nottingham Albert Hall 1975 Nottingham Boat Club 1975 Sutton Golden Diamond 1976	Albert Hall = scene of Bram's famous "Indian Dream" war dance - before the stewards got him! The Boat Club gig was recorded and became a CD in 2006!
TEN YEARS AFTER Central TV Studios 1990	Recorded for a late night series called BedRock - this was the original band
ALVIN LEE Nottingham Royal Centre 2004	Alvin comes home!
THIN LIZZY Stafford Bingley Hall 1980 Leicester De Montfort Hall 2007	Took TWO busloads of folks to see these at Stafford! Nearly left a guy on crutches at the venue because he couldn't get back to the bus as quick as the rest of us. Felt so guilty that I gave him a lift home when we got back!
TRAPEZE Mansfield Civic Theatre 1974 Nottingham Boat Club 1976 Hucknall M.W. 1977	These were all 'post Glen Hughes' period
GLENN HUGHES Nottingham Royal Centre 2002	... so I finally got to see him here!
WALTER TROUT Nottingham Rock City 1994 Nottingham Rock City 1995 Sheffield Leadmill 1996 Sheffield Leadmill 1997 Wheatsheaf, Stoke 1998 Sheffield Leadmill 1998 Wolverhampton Robin RnB 2 1999 Derby Flower Pot 2000 Dudley Robin RnB 1 2001 Wilbarston Village Hall 2001 Sheffield Boardwalk 2002 Nottingham Rescue Rooms 2003 Nottingham Rescue Rooms 2005 Derby Flower Pot 2007 (3 Piece band!)	Why play 1 note when you can play 50? Originally you could just walk in to see this guy - now you have to book well in advance - so much so that I couldn't get in for his 2004 tour! Had to miss a year! I helped make him famous? Probably not - sneaked in to the second Rock City gig with buddy Chris by pretending to be electricians testing the mains while it was under load - it certainly WAS under load- but it probably didn't need 2 blokes to test it! I took some photos - Check out Walter playing at the Boardwalk in 2002 and buddy Chris and Walter at the Rescue Rooms in 2003. He'd had a hard day, and Walter looks a bit worn out too! This is Chris receiving his signed copy of Walter's new DVD. Shortly afterwards, I congratulated Walter for selling a DVD to someone who hadn't got a DVD player at the time!
TINA TURNER Nottingham Royal Centre 1984	Tina's return from oblivion- with her 'cabaret' style band including James Ralston on guitar. You had to fight to get tickets for her after this!
JUDIE TZUKE Rock City Nottingham 1981 Royal Centre Nottingham 1982 Newark Palace Theatre 2002
UFO Ilkeston College 1973 Nottingham Clarendon College 1974 Mansfield Swan Hotel 1974 Nottingham Boat Club 1975 & 76 Nottingham Albert Hall 1975 Sutton in Ashfield Diamond 1976 Sheffield City Hall 1977 Leicester De Montfort Hall 1978	Saw Michael Schenker for the first time at Clarendon. Met the band at Mansfield but Michael could only speak German then! Pete Way was a bit of a hero in these days
VAN HALEN Birmingham Odeon 1980	Pure Thunder - got the best seats in the house, middle of the balcony upstairs. Anything you put on the wall in front of you vibrated backwards and fell on the floor near your feet!
STAN WEBB (& BROKEN GLASS) Birmingham Barbarellas 1975 Nottingham Royal Centre, 2004
THE WHO/QUADROPHENIA Hyde Park, London 1996	Contained Geoff Whitehorn..... and would you believe it... Gary Glitter!
EDGAR WINTER Nottingham Royal Centre 2004
WISHBONE ASH Liverpool Stadium 1972 Liverpool Stadium 1973 Sheffield City Hall 1974 Leicester De Montfort Hall 1977 Sheffield City Hall 1978 Mansfield Civic Theatre 1990 (x2) Mansfield Civic Theatre 1991 Mansfield Civic Centre - ASHCON 1997 Mansfield Civic Centre - ASHCON 1999 Derby Flowerpot 2001 Mansfield Civic Centre - ASHCON 2004	Original band up until 1974 - then surprisingly once again (only) in 1990. Another bass player hero = Martin Turner - in this band.
ROY WOOD & WIZZARD Liverpool University 1973
ZOMBIES (Colin Blunstone & Rod Argent) Wolverhampton Robin RnB 2 2005	Little Jim Rodford is STILL in this band - I remember him being taller than he looks now?
ZZ TOP Birmingham NEC 1995	3 dots on the stage - could have been anybody! I'd always wanted to see these, their videos suggested what a good time they had - never saw any of it!