The Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer here in the U.S.A.
In the meantime, feel free to use the comments section, to talk among yourselves, and share some music.
While you're there, enter the
'Who is Babs Seeing This Weekend?' Contest
.
See you May 28th!
Good as any place to stick this. BBC documentary about Tom Waits. Nothing groundbreaking, but it is a good overview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu8LuziJBas
ReplyDeleteHere's a bit of mp3 zaniness, Exploding Pig - Jazz Futura. It's been described at least once as "jazz meets 70's porn", hope you like it. https://we.tl/t-W3zgnqzUdb
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing Babs is going to see the Stones at MetLife Stadium this weekend?!?!
ReplyDeleteSounds plausible.
DeleteRight! While Babs is out of the room, let's have a dirty words contest! I'll start: MESS
ReplyDeleteGrime and sludge
ReplyDeleteGbrand
FOUL
ReplyDeleteSucio!
ReplyDeleteAs yesterday was Mr. Zimmerman's birthday, I digitized two Westwood One shows sourced from the tour with Petty. As usual, I've preserved the commercials. The second show duplicates all but three tracks of the first show, but together they represent all songs broadcast by WW1.
ReplyDeleteSuperstar Concert 87-F = https://mega.nz/file/nQwgDQBT#5gDG4LKvgQNVmzbff99hwdYQZFXjh2uhxehMaShqzG8
Superstar Concert 99-06 = https://mega.nz/file/3RAjCTJC#FOelP0SfcHIxzmFFa3mbo8ND4V-iecSTdzVFcAEdRwY
Stones at MetLife Stadium could be right, but I don’t recall Babs going to any stadium gigs previously.
ReplyDeleteSo I’d be interested to know why people do go to stadium gigs? I’ve been to one, Pink Floyd in the 90’s which was ok, and also Neil Young and Crazy Horse in Hyde Park 2014 (not a stadium gig), but so many people that I had to watch the gig on a screen half way to the back, a waste of money.
I went to Glastonbury Festival for years and saw many bands on the main stage, and with little effort you could get a good place to watch the bands. Festivals seem to work well for me, all the young people cram in down the front leaving a fair bit of room further back for the seniors.
Glasto is too big for me now but the small festival scene still has an attraction.
I just find the massive gig experience a real let down, even arena gigs have disappointed me if near the back, what are your opinions of stadium gigs?
I hear you Bambi. My first concert was KISS at the LA Forum in 1977 which as a 7th greater was awesome of course but that was my last stadium concert until 40 year later when I got free box seats to see Elton John on one of his farewell tours. Otherwise it's always been tiny to medium sized venues which is where the artists I tend to favor end up playing.
DeleteBut to answer your question, I think people go to stadium shows because it's the only way to see a lot of great artists like the Stones. I seem to recall Babs saying she's never missed a Stones tour. She probably has great seats though! I seriously thought about getting tickets to the Stones concert here but in the end decided not too for the reasons you state but I'm sure it would have been a blast despite the downsides.
If that's the only place the bands play, it's the stadium or you don't see them.
DeleteIt was one of the reasons I ended up a punk rocker. In '74 I wen the third of Bill Graham's "Day On The Green" shows at the Oakland Coliseum. We camped out overnight and spent the day in a concrete baseball stadium with some insane number of people (50,000+) watching Crosby Still Nash & Young, The Band, Joe Walsh, and Jesse Colin Young sing anthems about getting back to the country. I felt something had gone wrong, this wasn't for me.
I soon discovered night clubs, with bands playing right up close. I've attended the big shows along the way, but most of what I see is up close.
Tomorrow me (68), my wife (66), son (32) and grandson (11) are going to Rancho Nicasio to see Los Lobos do a show, and eat some barbeque.
Love Los Lobos! Enjoy the show & your fam!
DeleteI think the answer for me is the smaller the better whether it be a stadium, a festival, a theatre and university or a dance hall and small clubs are even better. You stand far more chance of interaction with the band and see so much more at a dance hall or a university gig than at a festival or stadium. When I was younger I've been up on stage with Ray Dorset and Mungo Jerry dancing in a dance hall, on stage with 'the Lurkers' at a punk gig in a hotel in 78 (don't ask) and sat 6 foot away from Paul Weller and the Jam on the stage at a University gig when the barriers collapsed (I just gestured to the bouncers I wouldn't move and they left me there) as Weller blasted out Going Underground just after it came out and went straight to No. 1 over here. Amazing. You would never get that at a big concert anywhere.
DeleteSmaller gigs at dancehalls, cinemas and theatres and the likes are always better to me than the giant shows. You just get so much closer to the artists.
That said only once that I recall have been so far away that I couldn't see the bands properly though and that was at Wembley before it was rebuilt when I went to see Fleetwood Mac and Jethro Tull and it seemed like we were miles away. It was strange because I don't think it was as far away as you can stand from V festival's main stage (where all the bars are) yet it seemed much further. It might be because V festival main stage is on lower ground and the bars are up higher so you can see over the main crowd from the back. You could hardly see a thing at Wembley which was flat and people (up on shoulders) were everywhere obscuring the view.
But as people say if you want to see the really big groups you have to go to the stadiums and arenas.
Mr Dave, yes if Babs is seeing the Stones she will have a VIP pass that’s for sure. I remember the Neil Young Hyde Park gig had fenced off areas for those prepared to pay extra.
DeleteDraftavoi, enjoy Los Lobos, they are a great band, only saw them once.
I guess us oldies often can afford the expense, and who knows when these big bands decide to retire. Personally I’d rather spend my money on a theatre gig, every time I see Chuck Prophet live I can’t believe I’m able to get to the front comfortably - so don’t go telling anyone how good he and his band is. :-)
My first arena concert was Springsteen, and so was my last. I saw him at Wembley Stadium amd the NEC Arena at Birmingham, on the River and BITUSA tours. My main problem - insurmountable - was that I'd seen him at the Hammersmith Odeon on the BTR tour. Hammersmith was a cinema, basically, and pretty small by today's multiplex standards, so at a third of the way back it was up close and personal. It was also the best gig I ever saw in my life (as it was for everybody else). So I felt I'd been "edged out of his gang" by latecomers who'd never heard of him in '75. The intimacy of Hammersmith was gone, and in its place was - sitting sideways on to some tiny figures on a distant stage, a glossy tour programme and thousands of fistpumping fans in denim cutoffs and (maybe) headbands. Bruce had entered the No Style zone, after being the coolest dude on the planet. I never went to another enormodrome gig in my life after that. And yet - nobody was lifting a phone, because nobody had them back then. People went to gigs for the direct experience, not the opportunity to record the experience so they could *cough" re-live it later.
DeleteI saw Springsteen about two weeks earlier at the Paramount in Oakland...3,000 seats. He played there a second time...then the Berkeley Community Theater (8,000), Winterland (5,400, but two nights in a row)...and after that, it was the Oakland Arena. It's like watching ants play teeny-tiny instruments with a boomy mushy sound. Worse is the outdoor Coliseum, where you'd get the echo effect-fect-ect-ect-ct as the sound pingponged off the concrete walls.
DeleteSaw Springsteen at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre in NO, right before BTR was released. Theatre might hold 2200 people, and as Farq states, it was memorable. There's an 80 seat Cultural Center about 5 mins from our place in Seville, that hosts concerts about 3 times a week. Jazz, flamenco and Mediterranean music typically. Its always nice, but on two occassions so far this year, it was jaw droppingly good. Concert by a Sevillian group, O' Sister (several lps on all the usual stream services) about 3 mos ago, and this past week, a set by an Argentinian bandolin player, Diego Jascalevich, during which he was supported by a violin, viola and cello. Diego has appeared on other musicians' albums, and this summer is going to record an album with the band he had in Seville. 80 people is about the largest configuration I can handle these days.
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DeleteHa, yes the sitting sideways thing at arena gigs is annoying (Zappa at Wembley '88 - not good), and people filming with their phones really winds me up. I'm guessing we were lucky to see some magnificent bands 'up close', in the last century.
DeleteI saw The Beatles in a cinema in '63 or '64 or whenever it was. Screams drowned out everything. Hendrix and the Floyd at the Marquee in '67 (more earsplitting noise - this time from the stage). From then on it was the gym hall at Lanchester Polytechnic, probably the Goldilocks size for a gig - big enough for maybe a few thousand standing up, bar off to one side, proper sound systems ... saw some great bands there. You'd have a great night out even if the band was a bit shit, too. The whole enormodrome experience is a bloated parody of what a gig should be.
DeleteFarquhar old bean. You got me thinking
DeleteClearly I'm a bit younger than you as my first gigs were at the local dance hall and other occasional venues in the seaside resort where I grew up in the mid 1970's so who was appearing were bands from the back end of the Glam era mixed with pop and soul bands and there would maybe be a couple of gigs a month if you were lucky.
Anyway your post made me wonder, for the first time, what the scene was like in the decade before I properly discovered pop music and I was amazed. Pretty much the cream of British rock music appeared down there from 1963-1972 (so just before I started gigging). The Beatles played 6 nights at the biggest venue in the area in 1963. The Kinks and the Stones played 4 days apart in early 1964 at a venue barely 2 miles from where I lived that was renamed 'the Cavern' at the time and resembled one (being dug out of the coastal chalk cliffs) probably better than the Liverpool version ever did (which was smaller in comparison). Bands like the Who, the Yardbirds and Spencer Davis were regular visitors throughout the sixties and just about anyone who made a name for themselves and many of those UK bands whose music is widely sought after these days that didn't make it back then (the Action, Artwoods etc) all appeared down there. David Jones and the Lower Third actually played at the same venue as the Lurkers gig I mentioned above was held. The scene was thriving with gigs at least twice a week a lot of the time and there were 6 or 7 different venues whereas there were maybe two in the 1970's.
So getting around to your enormodrome experience observation, the whole supergroup syndrome of the early 1970's has got a lot to answer for. It clearly damaged the music scene where I grew up and by 1975/1976 even those venues that were still open were virtually band free.
I couldn't believe the contrast between the two decades and the worst thing was as a kid I was completely oblivious to it. In fact I hadn't realised it until you sparked my curiosity. So thanks for that. I've always had a feeling that in some ways especially musically I was born 10 years too late!
And it seems I was. Ho Hum.....
Gig-going - I'd say up to the punk years - was just something you did. You'd go up the pub (more likely the newdent stewnian bar, where Newquay Brown were like thruppence a pint) and you'd see who was on where and amble over. I can remember (incredibly) NOT going to see Love because, well, reasons. They were just across the street and I could not be arsed. The point was, this was every weekend, just routine. I saw Elton John even though I didn't like him because it was something to do. It didn't require booking (or even "pre booking"), setting out early, driving for hours, trying to find somewhere to park, walking for hours around some concrete wasteland, buying an overpriced beer in a plastic beaker, watching the band on a screen, then battling your way home through carparks and traffic jams. I'm sure there are still hot local scenes and kids today have the funnest times within their budget because I want to be seen as as a down wiv ver kids guy. You know - it's just the same today, only there are just so many Jimi Hendrixes and Whos and Led Zeppelins it's hard to find them it the sheer human torrent of musical talent that is today's vibrant music scene!
DeleteWhen I first went to gigs (late ’70’s) in Bournemouth, we had a lovely old theatre, with renowned great acoustics. All the greats had played there in the 60’s and early 70’s. I was mainly into rock music, and like Phantom would go to two or three gigs a month, but orchestras also regularly played there.
DeleteIf I was short of money you could buy ‘restricted view’ cheap seats at the sides by the pillars, this was fine for a rock gig because although people sat down for the support acts, generally lots of people would rush the stage for the headliner, this ploy didn’t work for the John Martyn or Rick Wakeman gigs though.
Fast forward to 1984, Bournemouth Council opened a new conference hall, this attracted big name acts to the hall, but with pretty awful acoustics, and the lovely old theatre swiftly declined, eventually closing in 2002 and is now demolished. Progress, so now the local gig experience is expensive and not very enjoyable anymore.
As for FT3's comment on "booking or pre-booking", the fees some companies charge (02 venues for instance) are robbery, in 1980 a £2.00 ticket for Rick Wakeman cost £2.00.
I’ve just checked an online inflation calculator, my £2.00 ticket for Rick Wakeman in 1980 (maybe ’81) would cost me £8.30ish in todays money, the fisting (sorry booking) fees alone would be that sort of money to see Rick today.
DeleteI also saw Def Leppard that year, I paid £1.95 (I’ve still got the ticket), their tickets these days, well I wouldn’t go to an enormadome if you paid me to see them.
FT3, any idea how much Bruce at The Hammersmith Odeon cost you - question mark, ! damn keyboard is playing up.
I can't remember how much the ticket was, but I kept it safely in the sleeve of BTR until it just magically disappeared.
Deletedraftervoi, (& everyone else too) here's a link from Live Music Archive of Los Lobos on 5/26/2028 - https://archive.org/details/LosLobos2024-05-262024-05-26 They are absolutely one of my favorite bands
DeleteThank you for the link...now, that's a thing that's different in the future. Four days after the concert and I'm dowloading a soundboard of the show.
DeleteIt doesn't antimatter now but two days ago, May 24th, Doug Ingle died. The voice & keyboard of Iron Butterfly & last remaining original group member. Everybody should give a quick listen to In A Godda Da Vida. Hey, I still like it.
ReplyDeleteA quick listen to a 17 minute song? The last time I tried played it, I couldn't make it all the way through, but RIP, Mr. Ingle.
DeleteOK, " a quick listen" was kind of a joke. Glad you got it notBob.
DeleteThere was also a 2 1/2 minute single edit that pretty much summed it up as I recall, but I preferred the other side of the album. BTW, I think Ingle was 17 when he joined the band...Those were the days!
DeleteTrue story: The first time I ever heard it was on the then-new "underground radio". The DJ said it was brand-new, long and "far-out". About half way thru, I had to leave to answer nature's call, and when I finally returned, it was still playing. Far out!
DeleteSo Phantom, even being 10 years older than you, I had the same feeling that I should have been born 10 years earlier. Cause that was what I was listening to. (The new stuff didn't come out fast enough so I worked backwards through their catalog.)
ReplyDeleteWord on the street is that Babs is now seeing Taylor Swift. It's all hush hush and on the QT, but Tay Tay threw over that footballer fella for someone slightly more mature who can school her on the finer things in life, sex, drugs and music.
ReplyDeleteOn a serious note, I recently found the music of LaTasha Lee, a young singer from Austin TX who appreciates classic soul. There's a bit of reggae influence too. This is a great album, released a decade ago:
Deletehttps://latashalee.bandcamp.com/album/latasha-lee-the-blackties
Dead at the Sphere. Watch the video at the bottom.
ReplyDeletehttps://ultimateclassicrock.com/dead-company-sphere-photos/
Maybe that's where Bab's is. Las Vegas at the Dead show. Nah, I wouldn't want to be in that crowd.
DeleteHowever, if I was younger, dosed, and in the crowd, I'd have been there. Weren't the Dead crowd the best to be crowded with.
DeleteI haven't been to a Dead show since Jerry died. Too bad these new guys don't know the power of that. But at least they are still going to the shows. .More power to them.
DeleteThe emotion that Jerry brought with his guitar.
ReplyDelete