ROCK CONCERTS or I WAS THERE
Rock Concerts
Or
I was there
Chapter 60
Mid 1970’s >>>>
( Photo 1 ) . The music set that Alice Copper played at the Wembley Concert.
In the mid 1970s, I went to a tremendous amount of music concerts and music events.
One of the most iconic concerts that I can remember was at the Empire pool Wembley in London, later the name of this venue was changed to the Wembley Arena.
I travelled to London on a train from Cardiff with two friends from the Garw valley, I was 18 or 19 years old and this was a massive adventure for me, the actual date of the concert was 11/9/1975.
I really enjoyed the concert, and still listen to Alice Copper on my iTunes even today, I will always have a lasting memory of Alice Copper only being three inches tall, well that is how tall he looked to me, having a seat at the back of the concert hall, tucked away as far as possible away from the performance stage.
Alice Copper was in my top ten of favourite rock group which included Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Bad Company, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zepplin and of course lynard Skynard, there are more, but I would fill the whole blog with naming rock groups.
The trip to London was very expensive and relatively uneventful, except for the time we managed to become lost on the London Underground three times.
Once in London, we did not expect the expensive London prices to be so high compared to back home in the valley.
( Photo 2 ) . The ticket stub for the concert.
We did not have enough money on us to buy anything to eat or drink, after paying for the concert tickets and the return train fair, we had very little money left for luxuries like food and drink.
The three of us pooled what money we had left, which was basically a hand full of change, and had just enough to buy a warm can of Coca Cola off a street vendor, we shared the can, all taken a few gulps each and that is all we had all day, we were starving hungry by the time we arrived home, so hungry we could have eaten a scabby horse.
It was a long trip to London on the train, and the return trip back to Wales seemed even longer, we could not wait to get back home, all I did on the journey was to stare at the passing scenery as it rushed past, strangely I found this fascinating, noticing the different building types, and the ever-changing countryside, when we arrived on the outskirts of London the view from the window changed dramatically, gone was the countryside and the small Victorian towns with their medieval church towers rising up out from the ancient tall trees that populated the countryside back then, the countryside landscape as changed dramatically since then with urban development and the expansion of the road systems, all I could see when we entered the London suburbs was dirt covered buildings covered in graffiti that backed on to the railway sidings, and occasionally the rooftops of houses and a rubbish strewn railway track, I am curious of everything and found the changing landscape fascinating, but the long journey was well worth the effort in many ways, in our eyes Alice Copper was regarded as a rock god, I collected all his albums up until 1978 with the album titled ( FROM THE INSIDE ) which was the last one I bought as an 12” LP record, I have most of them in digital format nowas days, but still have the plastic LP’s stored away in a shed up the at the farm in Cefn Cribwr, I have even tried to obtain some of his less known older albums from the music shop in Cardiff called (SPILLERS), just to let you guys know Spillers is the oldest record shop in the world, established in 1894.
The albums were called ( PRETTIES FOR YOU 1969 ) and ( EASY ACTION 1970 ), I am still living in hope of owning them one day.
With the exception of local bands that preformed in pubs and clubs in Bridgend and Swansea, and a very small amount outside Wales the most famous name bands I saw were in the 70`s in Cardiff.
The venues were either in Cardiff castle or the Capital Theater in Queen street Cardiff.
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CARDIFF CASTLE
12/7/1975
( Photo 3 ) . The flyer for the 10cc concert.
This concert was held in the grounds of the castle itself, it was an extremely wet day, and never stopped raining, the concert was attended by around 15,000 people, there were many left outside who were turned away because they did not have tickets.
The compare was DJ Pete Drummond.
He was born in Bangor Wales, and worked for BBC Radio 1 and 2 from 1967 until 1997, he was also a DJ with radio Luxembourg.
The bands performing were :-
THIN LIZZY.
STEELEYE SPAN.
THE MAN BAND ( local Welsh band ).
10cc.
It was a very wet day, it rained and rained and never seemed to stop, the dark grey clouds and the dark gray rain made the city look grey and miserable, there were large puddles on the pavements created by overflowing roof gutters and the down pipes spilling their torrents of rain water on to the walkways, the road gutters had become rivers making walking close to the edge of the road hazardous as cars passed by, there was no escaping the cold damp world that Cardiff had become.
On such a day it was better to stay indoors, but oddly Cardiff was packed with people, there were hundreds if not Thousands of people walking through the streets of the city.
All of these wet and damp looking people were heading in one direction up Saint Mary's street, toward Cardiff Castle for an open air concert, none of the concert goers were bothered by the rain, they all had one objective and that was to see some of their favourite rock groups playing live, bad weather was not going to stop them, and I was in amongst these rock drones marching ever onward towards the castle.
I always made a great effort to obtain a concert ticket for a multi-band event, it was also possible to turn up at event and obtain a ticket, it all depended on who was playing any big name performing and you would need to get you ticket as early as possible, back the in the 1970`s you had more than a 50/50 chance to buy tickets at the entrance to the gig, if there were spare tickets available.
When we finally arrived at the castle gates there were hundreds of people just standing around in the rain, I could hear someone shouting over the crowd “ Anyone got tickets for sale, paying double the price “, “ I’ll take any ticket “, I don’t know if the guy was a ticket tout or just someone who was desperate to get in to the concert.
( Photo 4 ) . 10cc on stage at the Cardiff castle concert with the naff arches.
The concert was totally sold out, all of the people standing outside the tall stone walls of the castle had no chance to get in without a ticket, all of the damp and depressed people were in hopes that the bad weather would leave some spare tickets available in the allocated amount of people allowed in to the concert.
All of the people who were refused entrance, just stood around waiting for a miracle to happen, because that is what it would have taken to get in without a ticket, they just stood around in the rain getting wetter and wetter.
Inside the castle grounds, it had been noted in the media of the time that15,000 people attended the concert.
There were vendors, selling ordinary black plastic rubbish bags to be used as some protection from the rain, they enterprisingly cut a V on top of the bag and stated calling them ( Rain Cheaters ).
The V was for the customers head to go through and the bag rested on their shoulders, they were selling like hot cakes at inflated prices, I didn’t buy one, I’m welsh, I am` used to the rain, and it was pointless anyway, my leather jacket was already soaked through, buying one of these expensive plastic coverings was a waste of money, and it was like bolting the stable door after the horse had bolted, everyone was soaked to the skin, there was no way of avoiding getting wet.
The concert started on time and I enjoyed thin lizzy very much, they looked and sounded like a proper rock band, I also enjoyed the Welsh group the Man Band, I had seen them a couple of months earlier, they were/are one of my favourite welsh bands.
The rain seemed to ease off a little during the Steeleye Span music set, not that it mattered at this stage in the event everyone was soaked to their very bones, we all looked like drowned rats and rattled with the cold.
Steeleye span must have had some issues with their sound system, because I could hardly hear them, nor could anyone else.
Many people in the crown were shouting at the band saying things like “ turn it up, we can't hear you “, “ Sort your speakers out, their not working “.
The music they were performing was so quite, the shouting from the crowd assembled in front of them was louder, the session was so quite that it failed to have any impact on an eager audience, Steeleye Span at this concert played to a very disappointed crowd, who were expecting a good time, it may well have been a technical issue with their equipment and was out of the bands control, but Steeleye Span, paid the price for the failure of their performance with a lot of heckling from the crowd.
10cc were the last group on and they were headlining the whole concert, their music set started with a fire work display which seemed a little pointless, they also had a number of arches on the stage that had different coloured light bulbs strung along the arches, I thought it looked a little naff, and cheap and nasty for an international known big group, they began to play some of their classic tracks, which many in the crowd sang along too, but for some reason a minority in the wet audience boo`d the band as they played some new tracks, some individuals in the crowd shout up at the group saying things like “ this is a rock concert, what’s a pop group doing here headlining the gig “ , they must have known 10cc were at the concert before they bought the tickets, I could not understand why they were complaining so much.
The stage officials were very concerned with the fact that there were electrical leads and units all over the front of the stage that were getting wet and they made a great effort to warn the audience to avoid going anywhere near them if possible, the ground was soaked through, and some of the electrical leads on the ground were actually sitting in puddles of muddy water.
10cc were a good live act, and preformed very well, apart from the weather conditions it was a good concert, and in my opinion Thin Lizzy were the best band of the evening, and rocked castle.
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CARDIFF CASTLE
24/7/1975
( Photo 5 ) . The souvenir booklet from the concert, 40p is equivalent in purchasing power of around £4 in 2022 .
This concert was held in the grounds of the castle itself.
The weather was fine and dry.
The compare was DJ John Peel.
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft
30 August 1939
Born Heswall, Cheshire, England
Died in Cusco, Peru 25 October 2004 (aged 65).
Died suddenly at the age of 65 from a heart attack on a working holiday in the Inca city of Cusco in Peru.
He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967until his death in 2004.
The bands performing were :-
STATUS QUO.
THE STRAWBS.
CURVED AIR.
HAWKWIND ( SPECIAL GUEST ).
JACKIE LYTON.
BUDGIE ( LOCAL WELSH BAND ).
It was great day for an open air concert, I felt the heat of the day as I disembarked off the train at Cardiff central railway station, everyone we past as we meandered in to the old town was in a holiday mood, you could feel the excitement in air, the sun was shining high in the sky, the sunshine poured down on us, it was a gloriously hot day.
We made our way immediately to castle, there were what seemed like 1000`s of people heading in the same direction, when we got closer to the castle, we could hear the ticket touts randomly calling to the passing crowd of people that shuffled past them.
“ Concert tickets, get your concert tickets, only a few left “.
I approached one of the touts, and drew his attention from the crowd by saying, “ What gate entrance do you have “, I was asking this because Lawson had a different gate entrance to myself and Trem, Lawson was a little concerned that if he entered by a different gate then us he would not have found us again in the many 1000`s of people in the castle ground, take a look at Photo 8, And you will see why he was worried about not finding us again inside, and just to remind you there were no mobile phones back then, so there was no way he could contact us after we entered the castle.
The ticket tout had a North gate ticket, which was the same of myself and Trem had, Lawson wanted to just swap the tickets, but the tout would have none of it, he said he would swap the ticket but only if Lawson gave him £1 on top of the swap.
One pound does not seem a lot nowa days, the ticket cost £3.50 in the first place, £1 in 1975 was worth around £9.00, the equivalent cost of the ticket in 2022 would be around £32.00, this again does not seem a lot, but if you compare the wages in 1975 to how much the ticket cost, you could see the relevance of that one extra pound Lawson had to pay to the tout, so he would not feel abandoned in amongst 15,000 concert goers, the average full-time weekly wage was £41.70 in 1975, (£2,168 per year).
Lawson paid the tout the extra one pound, and was happy with the fact that we would all enter the castle at the same gate.
We arrived at the castle north gate entrance, there were people everywhere, including more ticket touts selling tickets at twice the original purchase price, They too were calling out the crowd, “ last chance to get a ticket “ and calling out “ any tickets for sale, we buy your tickets, paying good money “.
And yes people were paying the inflated price, £7 a ticket was almost two weeks wages for me, but people paid the price all the same.
( Photo 6 ) . An image of Status Quo preforming at the castle.
There was a great atmosphere in the castle, everyone in the crowd was enjoying the sunshine and the event, and were looking forward for the bands to assemble on stage and to get the concert started, there were a number of hot dog vans and ice-cream vans around inside the castle grounds with long queues waiting to be served, I could not afford anything they were selling, the van vendors were making a killing with the over inflated prices and having a captive audience they went home with their pockets jingling with coins.
There were 1000`s of people there inside the castle grounds, and strangely I recognized someone I knew in the sea of faces.
He was someone I knew briefly in the Garw valley when I was much younger when I attended FFaldau junior school, which would have been ten years or more.
He had a strange name, if I remember correctly it was something like Buzzertail or something similar, I approached him, confidant it was him, he was with a few other guys who must have been his friends.
I said, “ Hi, do you remember me “, he looked at me for a few seconds and said “ yes vaguely, you were one of the boys I went to school with in the valleys “.
I said “ yeah that’s me “, I had a short conversation with him, he told me, his family moved to Cardiff after briefly staying in the valley for a short time, he also said he was a member of the Cardiff bike club, called ( The Wild Welshmen ).
He was around my height, maybe a touch shorter, to me he looked very Jewish, not that mattered to me then or now, I never have a been a racist, well maybe I scowl at English people sometimes, but you can't paint people with the same brush the world is far to diverse for that kind of attitude.
My new-found friend had very dark black hair, and a large nose, he seemed very excitable to me as if he was on something, which he may well have been, one of his fiends who was with him looked like a typical hairy scruffy biker with an unkempt beard, he too seemed as high as kite.
Buzzertail told me he rode a YAMAHA TX 650, but he said he had been banned for two years for numerous traffic offences, he did not have a very good opinion of the police, I knew how he felt I had the same opinion.
I told him I remember him being shot in the face by a pellet gun ( air rifle ) back in the day.
I could still see the scar it left on the side of his nose.
He said “ Yeah, I remember that well “, as he said this, he touched his scar were the lead pellet had entered his nose.
This shooting incident happened because they were careless and letting 10-year-olds unsupervised with a riles was always going to lead to some situation were someone would be hurt, safety was never consider back then, all you would get from an adult was, “ be home when the streetlights come on ,or you’ll have no supper when you come in “.
Buzzertail, was setting up some old tins cans as targets, to be shot at by his friends, as he set up the tin cans his friends started firing at the tins, he did not get out of the way in time, and he was shot sideways on, straight into the side of his nose.
I only spoke to him briefly, and then he was gone in to the crowd and I have never seen him since that time.
What are the odds of bumping in to someone in amongst a crowd of more than 10,000 people.
( Photo 7 ) . The ticket stub for the concert.
The first band on stage was the local group BUDGIE, which everyone seemed to appreciate with great enthusiasm, the assembled crowd wanted an encore, but the concert was well-organised and once the time slot was over, they were disappeared from the stage and then there was a flurry of activity all over the stage to get it ready for the next group on the list.
The other group who were listed for the concert were the STRAWBS which were an ok band, CURVED AIR was interesting, it would have helped if I had listened to some of their music beforehand, so I had an idea of what music they played, I had never paid any attention to them before, I did like their style of music, they were defiantly an improvement to the Strawbs, and JACKIE LYTON, who the fuck was Jackie Lyton, never heard of the guy at the time, and never have since, and to be honest, I don’t have any real memory of the man/band or whatever his set was, obviously, I had no interest in his music when he was on stage, the headline group for this concert was STATUS QUO but ignoring them for the moment, the last but not lest, the special guest at this blazing hot concert was HAWKWIND.
Hawkwind were and still are the worst group I have ever heard live, their performance was diabolical, listening to these bunch of monkeys was torture to my ears.
The only track I recognised was their one hit wonder ( SILVER MACHINE ), and that track they murdered to death.
( Hawkwind released this single three times, first in 1972, it managed to obtain number 3 in the U.K. single charts, and released it again 1978, only managing to get to number 34, and then again in 1983, only managing to get number 67. )
The whole band looked as if they were off their tits on drink or drugs, the lead singer was getting all his words of the songs muddled up, he was also rambling in the songs and between them making no sense whatsoever, it was all complete crap, The lead singer had decided not to wear a top in the hot sunshine, his upper body looked as if someone had been whipping with guitar leads, and he looked as he could do with a large Sunday roast dinner.
The only words I could really make out with any certainty was “ Silver Machine “, which he repeated over and over and over, and in between he kept shouting “ VIKING IS ON MARS “.
Around a week before this concert, the Viking 1 lander, an unmanned U.S. planetary probe, landed successfully on the planet Mars, this event must have been the singer's inspiration for his Viking ramblings.
The rest of the band sounded like a practice session of a group of 6-year-olds that just had a set of drums and a couple of guitars for Christmas, a room full of Raccoons in a Kitchen shop would have made a better job of creating music, the groups physical bodies may well have been on the planet earth, but their minds were floating around in a psychedelic cosmos somewhere of their own making.
I was not impressed.
But on the flip side of all this musical torture, I enjoyed Status quo immensely.
They played all their classics, which is what the assembled crowed wanted, Status Quo had 10,000, backing vocals with every track they played.
I remember they played the song “ In My Chair “, I really loved that song, and it was good to hear it played live, this song for some reason always reminds me of the bikers pub the Knights arms in Porthcawl.
Status Quo were very well-received by the crowd of fans watching them play, and I think everyone was very satisfied with the end performance of the concert.
After the concert had finished, a heard of people shuffled along like a flock of sheep all heading for the railway station.
By the time everyone arrived outside the station, it looked very similar to the music concert we had just left, with all the 1000`s of people looking in one direction waiting to be left in to the station.
We all stood still waiting for the doors to open, for some reason the doors to the station were all locked shut.
The railway officials would not allow anyone in to the actual station itself.
The last train for the night that was heading for Bridgend was due, the railway staff kept all of us outside, and just stared at us from behind the locked doors, and then we heard the rumbling of the train arriving at the station.
Nobody in the crowed outside the station knew what was going on, the Bridgend bound train had arrived, and we were all still locked outside, and to everyone’s dismay we heard the diesel train powers its engines up and leave the station, leaving us stranded in Cardiff.
Why this happened, I have never found out, maybe it was because the station master was concerned that there would be to many people on the platform, there were in my opinion far to many people for the platform to hold safely, so maybe everyone missing the train avoided a disaster, I don’t really know, but I do know it left 1000`s of people looking for an alternative journey home, there were no busses running, and nobody back then would have considered having a taxi, so the options were walking home or kipping in a shop doorway, which I had to do at a previous concert after missing the train staying to long in the pub after seeing a concert at the Capital theatre, which was a very uncomfortable and damp night. ( See the Barclay James Harvest concert ).
But it turned out we were very lucky, Lawson recognised one of the vendors who was at the concert, he knew him because Lawson’s father was in the Glamorgan fire Service and the vendor served with him at the same fire station, he was selling chilled Ice pops ( Tiptop’s ), and he had rented a Bedford box van and luckily the day had been boiling hot, so he had sold a lot of stock and had space in the back of the van for us.
He agreed to give us a lift, as long as we didn’t touch any of the unsold stock in the van he did not seem very keen to give us a lift, and if it was not for Lawson he would not have.
It was a long dark and uncomfortable ride back home, we had to hang on to the sides of the van to stop being thrown around as the van took the corners, and it was hard work to avoid the flying boxes in the van.
I think the diver was thinking that he was driving a Formula One race car, because every bend he went around threw us and the boxes around inside the van, I would swear he was on two wheels going around some of the corners.
He dropped us off on the outskirts of Bridgend near to Waterton roundabout near the A48, which was a relief, and from there we walked the last four or so miles to Sarn.
It was a good day, and I enjoyed most of the bands at the concert, the weather was glorious and I would do it all again in a heart beat.
( Photo 8 ) . Arial view of the Status Quo concert at Cardiff Castle, I am in there somewhere, see if you can spot me.
STATUS QUO`s PLAY SET FOR THE CONCERT IN CARDIFF.
Junior's wailing
Backwater
Just take me
Is there a better way
In my chair
Little lady
Most of the time
4500 times
Roll over lay down
Big fat mama
Don't waste my time
Roadhouse Blues
Also possibly included in this set : Down the Dustpipe, Down Down and Caroline.
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CARDIFF CASTLE
10/9/1976
( Photo 9 ) . The concert flyer for the castle event.
This concert was held in the grounds of the castle itself.
The weather was very wet, it rained with a vengeance.
The compare was Whispering Bob" Harris.
Robert Brinley Joseph Harris
Born 11 April 1946 Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, his father was Welsh from Pontardawe hence the Welsh name
Whispering Bob Harris has been broadcasting on the BBC since 1970 and still works at the BBC 52 years later, he is also famous for presenting The Old Grey Whistle Test rock music show on BBC Two from 1972 until December 1979.
The bands performing were :-
QUEEN.
MANFREDMANNS EARTH BAND.
FRANKIE MILLERS FULL HOUSE.( SCOTTISH BAND ) .
ANDY FAIR WEATHER LOW. ( LOCAL WELSH SINGER ).
BUDGIE. ( LOCAL WELSH BAND ).
It was the mid 70`s, in fact the date was the 10th of September 1976, it was a Friday, and the number one single in charts on this day was ( You to me are everything by the Real Thing ).
I caught a train from Bridgend to the central Cardiff railway station with two or three friends, time as fogged some of the exact memories, but I do remember that we did not ride the bikes and used the train mainly because we intended staying in Cardiff all day and have a mini pub crawl after the concert had finished, and the weather was atrocious, it rained all day.
We were off to Cardiff to a rock concert at the medieval Norman castle at the very center of Cardiff.
It was going to be a good line up on stage, Queen topping the bill of course, I was also keen to see the local Welsh band Budgie performing, I had watched them before and loved their song ( BREAD FAN ).
I was a little disappointed that that Richey Blackmoors ( RAINBOW ) had pulled out of the concert.
The reason for the band pulling the plug on concert is a little unclear, one story goes that the stage was not big enough for his rainbow and if his rainbow could not be on stage nor will he, another story is that the Queen management team were somewhat concerned that the rainbow would up stage Queen, and so they made it difficult for Richey to have his rainbow on the stage, whatever happened and whatever the truth was, Rainbow did not perform at the concert.
But, there was a silver lining, they were replaced by Manfredmanns Earth Band, which I saw as a bonus, manfredmann were excellent live, they preformed the song ( Blinded by the Light ) for the first time in public.
The song was released on the 27/8/1976, just a few weeks earlier then the concert, the song was written by Bruce Springsteen, the band manfredmann seemed to enjoy the concert as much as the 1000`s of people crowed in front of the stage.
At the time I had never heard of Frankie Millers Full house, he was totally unknown to me before this concert, they were a Scottish band, Frankie’s only single that managed to get to a top ten position in the U.K. charts was ( DARLING ) in 1978, number 6, a rock and blues version of a song that was composed in 1970, his gravelly voice giving the song some feeling “ Frankie never rated the song he believed it wasn't at all representative of his music ”, I enjoyed them so much I bought their album because of the concert.
Andy Fairweather low, I’m afraid I do not remember him playing, to be honest, if I did hear him play, I must have, we were a captive audience inside the castle grounds, I soon forgot the performance, it must have been nothing to write home about.
The weather was terrible, everything was wet and damp, it rained and rained, there were street vendors taking advantaged of the poor weather conditions by selling over priced black bin bags to be used as a form of protection from the incessant rain.
Queen were the last act to come on stage to finish the night off, the crowed castle waited, in the rain, while we all waited it started to rain even heavier than it did earlier in the day, it must have been one of the heaviest down pours of the day, Hey Jude by the Beatles was blasting out from the speakers, and everyone in the crowded audience was singing with one voice.
The stage officials did not let the Beatles song Finnish, it was cut short and then Queen came on to the stage to a great uproar from the gathered crowed.
The rain came down, and everyone stayed and sang along to all the tracks that Queen had played, even thou were all soaked to our skins.
While Queen were playing one track, I watched Bryan May the lead guitarist step backwards and fall over on to his arse on the stage, he was flat out on the wooden stage floor and stopped playing guitar, but strangely the music did not change, I did not notice any difference in the track.
Mid-way through the music set, Freddy Mercury announced that they were going to perform a brand-new song, and this was first time that this track was to be preformed in front of a live audience, and the song was called ( Fat Bottom Girls ).
In my opinion Queen were the best performing group of the concert by far.
On one of the wall towers at the end of the concert, a small muted explosion occurred, whatever it was it failed big time, it was possibly a going to be a loud firework display of some kind to finish off the queens music set, but and there was only muffled bang and a small grey mushroom cloud that rose in to the dark night above the Castle.
Everyone there was wet through and shivering with the cold, but the concert was a success and enjoyed by everyone there.
We caught the last train back to Bridgend and had a last pint in the railway pub at the bottom of station hill.
I had arranged to kip on a friend's settee for the night, I think it may have been Trem`s, it was a wet day, but a good one.
( Photo 10 ) . The stage at the castle that Queen preformed their set on, the photo does not show it , but it was still raining.
Queens likely set list.
(no recording appears to exist).
Bohemian Rhapsody
Ogre Battle
Sweet Lady
White Queen
Flick Of The Wrist
You're My Best Friend
Bohemian Rhapsody
Killer Queen
The March Of The Black Queen
Bring Back That Leroy Brown
Brighton Rock
Son And Daughter
ë39
You Take My Breath Away
The Prophet's Song
Stone Cold Crazy
Doing All Right
Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon
Fat bottom girls
Tie Your Mother Down
Keep Yourself Alive
Liar
In The Lap Of The Gods...revisited
Now I'm Here
Hey Big Spender
Jailhouse Rock
God Save The Queen
Fat bottom girls
Queen called two of their LP albums after two Marx Brothers films, The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949.
The two albums and films were called :-
A Night at the Opera.
A Day at the Races.
Apparently they called the albums by these names because it cheered the band up.
Andrew Fairweather Low is a Welsh guitarist, songwriter, producer and vocalist. He was a founder member and lead singer of 1960s Welsh pop band, Amen Corner, and in recent years has toured extensively with Roger Waters, Eric Clapton and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.
He was also a Member of: The Bleeding Heart Band · Amen Corner · Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings · Fair Weather · Aztec Camera & Andy Fairweather-Low
He produced a number of single, but notably the two below were his most successful
( If Paradise is) Half as Nice.
Recorded by Amen Corner as their debut single,
it reached number one on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in February 1969, and number 34 when it was reissued in 1976.
Wide Eyed And Legless
The song written and performed by Andy Fairweather Low in 1975. The track peaked at No. 6 in the UK Singles Chart in December that year.
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Some Facts About the Capital Theatre.
116-118 Queen Street,
Cardiff, CF1 4EY
( Photo 11 ) . This is what the capital theatre looked like when I attended the concerts.
A great theatre which opened on 24th December 1921. Built for an independent operator, it was taken over by Paramount in 1931 (leased). The building also had a ballroom, three restaurants, a banqueting suite and a snooker room. It was taken over by Odeon Theatre's in August 1941 (leased) and finally purchased by the Rank Organization in April 1964, as a cinema it had one screen and seating capacity for 2,800, people.
The Capitol Cinema had many famous stars appear on its large stage, including Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Bill Haley & The Comets, Danny Kaye, The Bay City Rollers, The Moody Blues, Roxy Music, Donovan and on 7th November 1964, The Beatles.
Closed on 21st January 1978 with the X-rated double bill program “Yellow Emmanuel” and “The Street Killers”. It was demolished in February 1983 and the Capitol Odeon Cinemas were built on the site.
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THE CAPITAL THEATER QUEEN STREET CARDIFF
22/5/1975
( Photo 12 ) . The album cover from the concert tour.
The band performing :-
THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND.
A great Scottish band, and in my top ten of favourite rock bands.
They were on their ( TOMORROW BELONGS TO ME ) tour, after their performance at the Capital theatre, I bought their album there and then at the concert.
Some of the tracks they played on the album tour.
"Action Strasse"
"Snake Bite"
"Soul in Chains"
"The Tale of the Giant Stoneater"
"Ribs and Balls"
"Give My Compliments to the Chef" ("Shark's Teeth" (Harvey, Cleminson) – 5:54
"Shake That Thing"
"Tomorrow Belongs to Me"
"To Be Continued...(Hail Vibrania!)"
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THE CAPITAL THEATER QUEEN STREET CARDIFF
26/10/1975
( Photo 13 ) . The album cover from the concert tour.
The bands performing were :-
BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST.
They were on their ( TIME HONOURED GHOSTS ) tour.
Supported by :-
CAFÉ SOCIETY.
They released a single in 1975 called, ( Whitby Two Step ).
The band made one album reputedly only sold 600 copies.
CAFÉ SOCIETY later became ( THE TOM ROBINSONS BAND ).
Famous for their one hit wonder, ( 2-4-6-8 Motorway ) The single reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart in1977.
I did not know what to expect at this concert, the tickets were bought randomly, I had never heard of the band before this night, and had no experience of their music.
I found the Barclay James Harvest concert was very pop/folky, but to be honest, I enjoyed it, the band played well, and seemed to enjoy their own performance, I was in the upper tier of the old concert hall on the balcony, I could see the audience below me were enjoying the band to the point they did not stop screaming, others kept clamping all the way through the music set which I found a little odd, I discovered later that the bands type of music had a lot of revved up religious content, there were many happy clappers there, at the back of the stage, something very large and strange with no real shape was very slowly getting bigger and bigger as the concert progressed, when it finally inflated it turned out to be a giant butterfly, I don’t know if the slow inflating progress was part of the act or if it just took forever to get to its full size, it was curious to watch, at first I thought it was a T. REX, I put that observation down to having a couple of pints in the Globe inn pub opposite the castle before we went in to the concert.
After the concert had finished, we popped in to the Owen Glyndwr pub for a couple of pints, as we had an hour or so for our train to arrive, we stopped so long in the pub that we missed the train home back to Bridgend, and there were no busses running, so we spent the night all Cwtched together in a shop doorway, opposite the graveyard in the center of Cardiff.
I did not sleep a wink all night, it was far too cold and damp, I could not relax, being in the middle of a city that did not seem to sleep.
We were valley people and not used to all this activity so late in the night, back in the valley every pub and chip shop closes at 11:00, after this time the valley was dead, no people and no traffic, it is very different in a large city.
We were turfed out from or doorway home at 6:30 am, when the city woke up and started prepping the shops for the coming days business.
The hustle and bustle had increased dramatically as the sun rose over the roofs of the city, the city became loader and the streets filled up with people rushing to nowhere.
We waited outside a Café, like a troupe of tramps waiting for food scraps, as soon as the doors were open, we rushed in and sat down in the warm room with mugs of tea cupped in our hands.
I could not wait to get home and climb in to bed, and that is only train I have ever missed in my life since, except for one other. ( See the Status Quo concert ).
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THE CAPITAL THEATER QUEEN STREET CARDIFF
19/11/1975
( Photo 14 ) . The concert ticket for the Night at the Opera gig.
The bands performing were :-
QUEEN.
They were on their ( NIGHT AT THE OPERA ) tour.
Supported by :-
MR BIG ( uk ).
Their single "Romeo" reached No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart in 1977.
Excellent concert, everything I expected from Queen, everyone enjoyed the concert, very impressed with the event.
Only one very odd thing happened after the concert when we were walking back to the railway station, there were parked cars on the side of the pavement in Saint Mary`s street crowds of people were passing by, and then someone started to bang on one the roof of a car, and shouting at the occupant inside, sitting in the driving seat, the driver was wanking as people past him bye, in plane view of everyone, this was spotted by some passer-by's and they stated rocking the car, and shouting abuse at him, he drove off in a hurry presumably still with his dick in his hand, big city's can be strange places.
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THE CAPITAL THEATER QUEEN STREET CARDIFF
25/10/1975
The band performing were :-
STEELEYE SPAN.
There was only two song that I recognised at this concert, and they were ( ALL AROUND MY HAT ) and ( GAUDETE ), the second song Gaudete was originally a sacred Christmas Carol, composed in the 16th century, first published in 1581, Steeleye span sang the song in Ecclesiastical Latin.
Steeleye span was not a group that I would normally go to see, but at the time they were the only tickets we could get for a concert on that weekend, they were selling tickets in the foyer of the Capital for the band that was playing there the next day so we took the opportunity and bought the tickets for the Barclay James Harvest group, which was another band I had never heard of, and to be honest it was not one I would have chosen if there was a choice, but a weekend of listening to different types of music and a couple of trips to Cardiff and a small tour of some of the pubs in the big city, how can I say no.
Both the groups have a pop/folk element to them, it was a type of music I had no interest in, they preformed their sets very well and I can not complain about the quality of the music or their musical ability to play the tracks, but for someone who likes heavy rock, both groups felt a little smooth and downbeat for me, but I preferred Barclay James Harvest to Steeleye Span.
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THE CAPITAL THEATER QUEEN STREET CARDIFF
1975
The band performing were :-
MELANIE
The Melanie concert was another artist that was randomly chosen due to the non-availability to obtain the chosen groups we wanted to see, we were always too late to get the tickets, the concerts were sold out in hours, but a concert is a concert.
Her style of music was in the folk/pop/country category.
Melanie`s real name was ( Melanie Anne Safkaschekenryk ), try and say that when you're sober.
She was best known for her 1971 hit ( Brand-new key ) and her cover version of ( Ruby Tuesday ), also ( What have they done to my song ma ), she also had a hit with ( Lay down ( candles in the wind )), which I have never heard of.
It was an ok concert, the audience seem to enjoy it, Melanie put a lot of effort in to the performance.
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CARDIFF’s BIG WEEKEND MUSIC FESTIVAL
3/8/2003
( Photo 15 ) . Aerial view of Big Weekend, the all day concerts had just started.
It was a very dry and warm evening, and a very well attended open air concert, the Cardiff Big Weekend was a regular yearly event and was held in Cathay’s Park, Cardiff, from the early 90`s up until 2017, with many famous groups attending the music festivals, I believe the music festival is set to return to Cardiff in the future when the world gets back to some kind of normality.
The band performing in 2003 were :-
THE PROCLAIMERS.
When the Proclaimer’s played their popular single ( I'M GONNA BE (500 MILES )), I think all of Cardiff joined in with the chorus.
The single was first released in 1988, and managed to achieve position 11 in the UK music charts, it was again released in 2007, and became number 1 in the charts for 3 weeks.
THE WATER BOYS.
The group sang their single ( WHOLE OF THE MOON ) and again, everyone joined in with the song.
Whole of the Moon was first released in 1985 and achieved number 26 in the UK charts, the song was re-released in 1991 and hit the number 3 spot.
I can’t remember much about the support groups, they never made any impression on me, and I have never heard of any of them since.
The Elephant is Gerald.
Shod.
Kings pleasure and the biscuit boys.
La bottine souriante.
The music festival was free and open to everyone, with whole families in the audience including children, I took my 13 year son Liam along to his first music concert, there was also a huge funfair there, the coloured lights from the fair rides made the whole event magical.
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BRANGWYN HALL SWANSEA
30/5/1975
( Photo 16 ) . I have a torn ticket stub somewhere( Cant find it at the moment ), but watch this space.
The band performing were :-
THE MAN BAND (WELSH BAND ) .
One of my favourite bands, they played to a packed house, at the end of their gig, they played over the speakers from a recording, their new single ( your out of your head ), which I found odd, as they could well have played it live?.
Supported by :-
ALKATRAZ.
A Scottish/ American band.
They were a good support band, and set the mood for The Man Band.
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THE SEABANK HOTEL PORTHCAWL
1/9/2006
( Photo 17 ) .My ticket from the Knights Arms reunion.
The compare :- DJ ROBBIE OWEN.
The bands performing were :-
( ALL WELSH BAND ).
RACING CARS
THE ROGER CLATTWORTY BAND.
BLISTER.
S.E.X.
EZZRA.
SECRET ARMY.
GAZZARDS. Morty from racing cars backed Gazzards.
JAY ASTON from JEAN LUVS JEZZABEL.
This was the first Knights arms reunion held at the Seabank Hotel in 2006, the place was heaving, people were four deep at the bar, they eventually ran out of beer at the end of the night. it was a ticket only concert and Ken Evans the old landlord of the Knights was there, he greeted the guest as they entered, he signed my book for me ( knights to Remember ).
It was a good night with some of the old bands that appeared at the Knights on stage.
There was another reunion in 2007 at the bigger venue of the Porthcawl Pavilion, with another gaggle of bands performing in the night, on both nights, the last song played was ( FREE BIRD ) by lynard Skynard, this song was also played at Kens funeral.
I remember Morty the lead singer of RACING CARS, saying just before the band played their popular track “ ( THEY SHOOT HORSES DON’T THEY ), “ we are going to play the next song you are all asking us to play, I don’t know why you guys like it so much, its not that good “, he then shrugged his shoulders and shook his head slightly, and then played the song.
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THE N.E.C BIRMINGHAM ENGLAND
8/5/1982
( Photo 18) . The ticket stub for the Meat Loaf concert
The band performing were :-
MEAT LOAF
Myself and My friend Wobble rode up to Birmingham on our Honda CB 550`s, when we arrived at the concert we were made to hand over or crash helmets, I was made to remove a timing chain off my cut-off that I had stitched on to the sleeveless denim, I did ask why, and the reply came back as it can be used as a knuckled duster, I said “ yeah ok, fair comment ” and I ripped the chain off my cut-off and placed it inside my helmet, and then we were searched and patted down in a very aggressive manner, the guard searching me got very intimate with me at one stage by grabbing my crotch, I said “ hey, buy me dinner first “, I smiled making a joke, he did not smile back, that was ok with us, but what we found odd was the security did not do the same to the others that were attending the concert, when they had finished molesting us we were escorted to our seats, they didn’t do this for anyone else either, I think they did this to know were we would be in the concert hall, I found all this a little over the top, we came to watch a rock concert and enjoy live music by a band we liked and not to start a riot.
I did learn later the security at the concert were off duty soldiers, moonlighting as security for the concert, being singled out for special treatment was ok with us, we were used to being treated like potential criminals, it was the mindset of the media and general public back then, and just a normal event to us, the Meat Loaf concert was excellent, Meat Loaf sang his heart out, and put everything into his performance, he sang all his classics off his albums, Bat out of Hell, etc, the crowd loved it all, and wanted more at the end.
On our way back home we diverted to a town called Bromsgrove as Wobble wanted to see an ex-girlfriend of his, who was at collage there, it was a good concert and well worth the trip.
The music set for the concert.
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THE KNIGHTS ARMS PORTHCAWL
MID 1970`s – 1981
( Photo 19 ) . Outside the Knights on a summer evening.
Some of the bands performing at the Knights over the years were :-
Mostly local Welsh bands.
RACING CARS.
DAYS OF GRACE.
S.E.X.
SECRET ARMY.
NIGHT TIME FLYERS.
CHARTERED HURRICANE.
RED & WHITE STAINS.
THE ASTON TWINS, who became Jean luvs Jezebel, they were popular when they toured America.
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THE STONELEA CLUB PORTHCAWL
Mid 80`s
The band performing were :-
TREDEGAR ( WELSH BAND ).
Tredegar, made one single called ( DUMA ) in 1986.
Supported by :-
PRATS ON THE PROWL ( LOCAL WELSH THRASH BAND ).
Myself and my friends went to see ( Prats on the Prowl ), a number of times, they preformed at the York Hotel in Bridgend, the Stonelea night club in Porthcawl, plus other local pubs, I knew one of the band members ( Dai John ), so that was the main reason we went to watch them, and it was a night out somewhere different, thrash music, if that is what its called was a little to chaotic for my tastes.
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I went to two Bulldog Bashes in Kent, a concert festival or a proper party as they called it, run by Hells Angels MC England.
There were bands playing, but there again I have no idea what bands were playing or what if anything that happened on the weekends, Crazy Days.
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I went to a concert event at Doddinton park, I was so drunk and high all throughout the weekend that I can't remember anything that happened, I can not even recall getting home, let alone knowing what bands played at the concert, I also have no idea of what year it was, this was a very crazy time in my life, I’m just surprised I survived it, these were my Planet Caravan years, Happy Days.
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I have seen many local welsh groups at the Knights arms pub in Porthcawl back in the day, many of which became very well known in the Welsh pub/club music circle, well in South Wales anyway.
I have had the pleasure of seeing a number of present day live band, like Fat Larry’s Soul band, Funeral for a Friend, and Bullet for my Valentine, local Bridgend bands, etc but none of these modern groups will ever compare to the groups of the 1970`s.
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The title ( I was there ), is a Welsh joke, made by the Welsh Comedian/Folk singer Max Boyce, who I happen to have seen twice, I think you need to be Welsh to understand the humour, I have also seen another Welsh Folk icon Dafydd Iwan, and heard him sing his famous song ( Yma O Hyd ) numerous times at the Royal Welsh Show in Llanelwedd, Builth Wells.
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