OK, right from the off I need to say that I haven’t seen all that many big bands or stars, certainly not in the Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones or The Beatles category anyway. No, I tend to have cornered the market in smaller, cult bands, the ones which tended to pack out smaller, more intimate venues rather than the more expansive arenas used by the bigger rock bands. That said, I can count a few big bands on my fingers as you will find when you explore this site in greater detail.
I count myself exceedingly fortunate to have been born in the late 1950s, thereby becoming a “child of the 60s”, and whilst I well remember the music and the bands/artists of that decade, I cannot remember one single thing about the very first acts that I saw in “The Billy J. Show” at Blackpool ABC in May 1964; I was, after all, only six years old! No, my introduction to the “live music scene” began right at the start of 1974 with Leo Sayer, and I then served a three year apprenticeship at The Penthouse, Scarborough, with a smattering of festival fare at Reading in the mid-70s. What a great time to be alive and what an introduction to music the 1970s were; they had it all – glam-rock, prog-rock, classic rock, heavy rock, pub-rock and, finally, punk-rock! Truly, as Mott the Hoople famously sang, the 70s were indeed “The Golden Age of Rock and Roll”!
In building this website I have tried to recreate a couple of books that I had back in the day – my “Bands Books“. In these I recorded every gig that I ever went to, supplementing each entry with tickets, press cuttings and photographs where available, and other memorabilia such as official stickers and other mementoes or advertising material often distributed by roadies clearing up after gigs, as well as several bits and bobs picked up for free at my local record shop, Bernard Dean’s in Scarborough. I also stuck in gig flyers and posters pinched from the Penthouse walls at chucking out time, and even included some of my own artwork, slavishly copied in the style of Roger Dean. And then, during the course of a house move in the 1980s, I inexplicably threw both books away, an action which I have bitterly regretted almost every day since. As part-penance for my sin, I have recently begun to rebuild the books using the internet to trace images of tickets and such like, but it’s not the same, and it uses a hell of a lot of ink and Pritt Stick! And now there’s this, a digital version of the books, one which I should be able update with ease.
The greatest difficulty of all in this is, of course, trying to remember it all. Many of the gigs listed here are now going on fifty years ago and unless something happened to make one stand out then it’s really hard to recall anything at all, let alone specific details. And then there are bands like The Enid and A Band Called O each of whom I saw over half a dozen times; how to differentiate one performance from another? But as I’ve said, some bands give a stellar, standout performance – step forward Fusion Orchestra, Slack Alice, Ange and a few others. On some occasions it might be something peculiar that happened to me; breaking a watch, receiving a bus ticket upon entering a venue, or even missing the start of a performance because I was buying a t-shirt!
In May 2024 I added a ‘star rating out of 5’ for as many gigs as I could remember, as well as a couple of extras: firstly the common social media ‘like’ button (which you can click once per review); secondly, a ‘claps’ button whereby you can express your delight at any given review (no limit as to the number of claps that you can award, as far as I can tell, so feel free to fill your boots! 😊)
But you might have been to some of these gigs and your memory might be far better than mine; if that’s the case PLEASE get in touch by adding a comment/reply on each and every post.
Enjoy, and please SUBSCRIBE, FOLLOW and COMMENT! 🙂
My first gig
It’s 1964, and I’m in Blackpool for ‘The Billy J. Show’. Do I remember it? No, but you can read about it here.
My first paying gig
Leo Sayer at the Spa Grand Hall in 1974, the first concert that I ever paid money to see. You can read about this one here.
My first Penthouse gig
Ange at the Penthouse exactly three weeks later on Friday 15th February 1974, a red letter day for me. I don’t remember much, but what I do recall is here.
Gigs'n'Stuff 