These Boyz Make Big Noize! Slade are back. Still playing it LOUD and proud. Only Dave Hill remains from the original band but they are still a great night out and lotz of fun. The memories come flooding back from seeing them at Sunderland Locarno in 1971 and 1972, the Lincoln Festival 1972 when they turned round a hippie/hairy crowd who saw them as pop chart artists and who started by booing them and then proceeded to get really into them and ended up singing, dancing and clapping along. That day was a triumph for Slade. Then a concert at Newcastle City Hall around 1974 when they were at the h ..read more

One Step Beyond! The nutty boys returned with a triumphant performance at Newcastle Arena. The arena was absolutely crammed, fully sold out and everyone was in the early Christmas spirit and ready to party with Madness. Elaine, Jackie and I went along expecting a fun night of hits and craziness and that is exactly what the boys delivered! First up were support The Lightning Seeds and the arena was full to see them perform. These guys also delivered playing all the hits, resulting in a great reception from the crowd and lots of singalong. I had forgotten just how many songs I knew. I recognised ..read more

Two bands that I have never seen before. However, on checking (on this blog) I discovered that I saw Extreme in 1992 supporting Bryan Adams (my blog is useful in refreshing my memory!). The City Hall was absolutely crammed. All standing downstairs and upstairs also completely packed. Elaine and I were seated on the viewing platform, looking over the heads of the crowd with a great view. Jan was seated upstairs centrally, again with a great view of the proceedings. From the tour proportion material: “With the force of a Boston wrecking ball, EXTREME swing between unapologetic fits of fret-burni ..read more

It is some years since I had the pleasure of seeing China Crisis. I recall seeing them in the 1980s supporting simple minds at Newcastle City Hall and (I think, but can’t be certain) at Redcar Coatham Bowl one Sunday night, when I used to go there regularly in the late 1970s and 1980s. Of course I remember some of the better known songs such as “Black Man Ray”, “Wishful Thinking” and “King in a Catholic Style”, but to my shame have to admit that I recall little else about this band. However, they were performing at my lovely local venue The Fire Station so I decided to go along and see what I ..read more

Down to the Doctors again! It has been a long time since I have witnessed Dr. Feelgood in concert. I first saw that in the early to mid 1970s supporting Hawkwind. They emerged from the Canvey Island/London pub rock scene and had a unique blend of rhythm and blues with rock, fronted by the charismatic, seedy, haunting show man Lee Brilleaux on lead vocals and mouth harp, alongside the equally charismatic and energetic guitarist Wilko Johnson who strutted about the stage and played magnificent chubby, staccato guitar on his Fender telecaster. They were unique and the forerunners of what was to c ..read more

The rock legend, rock god, who is Robert Plant continues to follow his muse and play intimate venues such as The Glasshouse when he could be filling arenas or stadiums if he were to sing more Led Zeppelin songs. He has now established himself as part of the band Saving Grace and retains a strong faithful fan base. His fans continue to go to see Robert Plant sing with a relatively unknown female vocalist, Suzi Dian (who has an exquisite voice), and perform a set of quite obscure folk/world/country songs which the majority are not  familiar with. I am glad that he does so and I once again c ..read more

I saw this show around a month ago at Whitley Bay Playhouse. However, I was tempted to go along again for one reason: to see one of my all-time heroes Steve Ellis, formerly of the Love Affair, who had been added to the lineup this time. The rest of the bands are also fun anyway so all good! No programme to buy this time as I already had one from the previous show. I have written about each of the bands previously so I am going to cheat a little and use some song lyrics to illustrate each act. This seems quite appropriate any way :-). First up were The Fortunes who sang several of their hits in ..read more

This event has been going for many years, starting off in Leeds and then moving north to satisfy the need for an annual convention for the many fans of the great band Free in the north-east. My friend John, who is a massive Free and Paul Kossoff fan has been wanting to go for many years. However, he now lives in the USA, so arranging things to attend this event has been tricky. Things changed and this year he happened to be over in the north-east at the same time as the aforementioned convention. Demand for tickets for the convention was such that the originally scheduled Saturday night sold o ..read more

It is almost 50 years since I last saw Tangerine Dream at Newcastle City Hall. I saw them twice during the early to mid 1970s. They had recently released their highly successful Virgin records album Phaedra , which was a seminal record in the history of Psychedelic /Trance /Dance music. I recall those concerts well. The 1st time I saw them with my friend Norman, we were amazed and bemused by strange electronic soundscape that we were presented with. The 2nd time, which came shortly after our 1st experience, the band played from behind a black net curtain appearing only as silhouettes and shado ..read more

I have lots of fond memories of seeing Dave Stewart in many incarnations. First, in local folk rock band Longdancer at Sunderland Locarno (the Mecca; see later) in the early 1970s. Then, some years on, with Annie Lennox in the Tourists again at Sunderland Locarno, at Newcastle City Hall and at the Reading Festival. Further on in his career, I was lucky enough to see Eurythmics perform at Newcastle City Hall. I also recall seeing Dave Stewart join Fergal Sharkey on stage for an encore at Newcastle City Hall, on Fergal’s first solo tour after leaving the Undertones. I then saw Dave with Rin ..read more