As a supporter of Liverpool and with Iron Maiden being the first 'proper gig' I attended, I'm particularly amused by the news that Bruce Dickinson has flown the team to Italy ahead of their Europa Cup match in Napoli on Thursday!
Hopefully his band's affiliation with West Ham won't cause him to seek revenge for the 2006 FA Cup final ...
Showing posts with label Iron Maiden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iron Maiden. Show all posts
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Friday, 7 August 2009
From Iron Maiden to the Only Ones in just 21 years ...
I still have in my possession tickets for pretty much every major gig I've been to. A few are signed (Tigertailz at the Astoria; Enuff Znuff at the Bristol Bierkeller; Bobby Conn at the Garage) - I do have a tendency to talk to anyone and everyone at gigs, particularly towards the end of the night (can't think why ...).
I seem to have lost a few from the mid-90s (although to be fair I don't think I went to many), and there are numerous gaps where venues didn't issue tickets. So I only have one Redd Kross ticket - for the Marquee - but I can think of at least four other occasions that I went to see them - twice at the Powerhouse, once at the Subterannea (both long-closed London venues) and once at the Fleece & Firkin in Bristol.
Going back through these tickets leads to the inevitable thoughts of 'which was the best gig?'. And as ever there's no easy answer.
Iron Maiden at Oxford Apollo (1986) has potential, but then it was the first proper gig I went to and so immediately scores high. The New York Dolls at the Royal Festival Hall, (2004) Hanoi Rocks at Camden Palace (2002) and the Only Ones at Shepherd's Bush Empire (2007) all benefit from being gigs by bands that I never thought would happen (and some would argue given the line-ups involved technically never did).
Oddly Black Grape at Cardiff University in 1995 is another I have fond memories of - the audience and the band seemed to feed off each other in a way I'd not witnessed before (there could have been a lot of Ecstasy involved though - not on my part I hasten to add). The way Ryder, Bez and co dealt with their power being tripped due to general overheating within the venue - and the need to call in the Fire Brigade before switching it back on -merely added to the night.
So I'll be going back through these gigs over the coming months - I need something to ensure I focus a bit more on this blog! Two months without a proper post really isn't good enough ....
I seem to have lost a few from the mid-90s (although to be fair I don't think I went to many), and there are numerous gaps where venues didn't issue tickets. So I only have one Redd Kross ticket - for the Marquee - but I can think of at least four other occasions that I went to see them - twice at the Powerhouse, once at the Subterannea (both long-closed London venues) and once at the Fleece & Firkin in Bristol.
Going back through these tickets leads to the inevitable thoughts of 'which was the best gig?'. And as ever there's no easy answer.
Iron Maiden at Oxford Apollo (1986) has potential, but then it was the first proper gig I went to and so immediately scores high. The New York Dolls at the Royal Festival Hall, (2004) Hanoi Rocks at Camden Palace (2002) and the Only Ones at Shepherd's Bush Empire (2007) all benefit from being gigs by bands that I never thought would happen (and some would argue given the line-ups involved technically never did).
Oddly Black Grape at Cardiff University in 1995 is another I have fond memories of - the audience and the band seemed to feed off each other in a way I'd not witnessed before (there could have been a lot of Ecstasy involved though - not on my part I hasten to add). The way Ryder, Bez and co dealt with their power being tripped due to general overheating within the venue - and the need to call in the Fire Brigade before switching it back on -merely added to the night.
So I'll be going back through these gigs over the coming months - I need something to ensure I focus a bit more on this blog! Two months without a proper post really isn't good enough ....
Monday, 22 December 2008
Iron Maiden - Oxford Apollo 3/10/86
The first of an occasional series, and where better to start than that classic music chat staple - 'my first gig'.
Naturally I'd like to claim that it was something prodigious. Hanoi Rocks did make it to within a few miles of my hometown, but in June 1983 I was 12 and completely unaware of their existence.
I did, though, see a gig at my local youth club circa 1984 that featured a band called Glamour Eyes who, I was told many years later, covered 'Don't You Ever Leave Me' (again, I wouldn't have known the song at the time). The guitarist in Glamour Eyes, one Richard Davies, later achieved a certain degree of fame in Tiny Monroe and was even touted as a possible replacement when Bernard Butler left Suede.
Local gigs aside though the privilege falls to the mighty Iron Maiden, out on the road to promote Somewhere in Time in 1986. Support act Paul Samson's Empire therefore became the first 'proper' band I saw live, and to be honest I can remember precisely nothing about them - we weren't there for them and as proficient as I'm sure they were, they simply weren't Maiden. 2,000 people effectively saying "Move on, there's nothing to see here" - a scene repeated down the years at pretty much every gig I've been to.
Although not on a par with the Long Beach Arena (as pored over on Live After Death
), Maiden are a band that treat every show as though they're playing in a stadium and so I didn't feel short-changed even though one prop (a robotic alien Eddie) had to be pulled as the Apollo couldn't accomodate it. And 'scream for me Oxford' doesn't have quite the same ring as the famous 'scream for me Long Beach'. As far as first gigs go though there was a very real chance that it could only be downhill from then on ....
Two years later Maiden were headlining at the Monsters of Rock in
Donington Park. A lot had changed in that time, and with Appetite For Destruction having been released the year before - and Guns N' Roses taking a lowly spot on the bill - we all trooped up in our glam finery (or rather our very bad interpretation of it). Along with my friend Mark we made it very clear that we had no interest in watching Iron Maiden .... until approximately five seconds after they took the stage, sufficient time for Bruce and the boys to make it clear just how bloody good they were and we found ourselves desperately clawing through the crowd to get as close to the stage as possible. A reminder to one and all that you should never restrict yourself to one form, genre or sub-genre of music. If it's good, it's good.
Naturally I'd like to claim that it was something prodigious. Hanoi Rocks did make it to within a few miles of my hometown, but in June 1983 I was 12 and completely unaware of their existence.
I did, though, see a gig at my local youth club circa 1984 that featured a band called Glamour Eyes who, I was told many years later, covered 'Don't You Ever Leave Me' (again, I wouldn't have known the song at the time). The guitarist in Glamour Eyes, one Richard Davies, later achieved a certain degree of fame in Tiny Monroe and was even touted as a possible replacement when Bernard Butler left Suede.
Local gigs aside though the privilege falls to the mighty Iron Maiden, out on the road to promote Somewhere in Time in 1986. Support act Paul Samson's Empire therefore became the first 'proper' band I saw live, and to be honest I can remember precisely nothing about them - we weren't there for them and as proficient as I'm sure they were, they simply weren't Maiden. 2,000 people effectively saying "Move on, there's nothing to see here" - a scene repeated down the years at pretty much every gig I've been to.Although not on a par with the Long Beach Arena (as pored over on Live After Death
), Maiden are a band that treat every show as though they're playing in a stadium and so I didn't feel short-changed even though one prop (a robotic alien Eddie) had to be pulled as the Apollo couldn't accomodate it. And 'scream for me Oxford' doesn't have quite the same ring as the famous 'scream for me Long Beach'. As far as first gigs go though there was a very real chance that it could only be downhill from then on ....Two years later Maiden were headlining at the Monsters of Rock in
Donington Park. A lot had changed in that time, and with Appetite For Destruction having been released the year before - and Guns N' Roses taking a lowly spot on the bill - we all trooped up in our glam finery (or rather our very bad interpretation of it). Along with my friend Mark we made it very clear that we had no interest in watching Iron Maiden .... until approximately five seconds after they took the stage, sufficient time for Bruce and the boys to make it clear just how bloody good they were and we found ourselves desperately clawing through the crowd to get as close to the stage as possible. A reminder to one and all that you should never restrict yourself to one form, genre or sub-genre of music. If it's good, it's good.
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