It has been a long time since I last saw Paul Young in concert. The last time I saw him in concert was in the 1980s when he was at the height of his career. So, I was looking forward to seeing Paul again and catching up with him. Jan and I were sat in a nice box close to the stage and with a great view of the performance. The show was in two parts with a short interval. The Forum website told me: “He’s been a major star for four decades. Paul Young broke into the big time 40 years ago when No Parlez went to number one and spawned iconic hits like Wherever I Lay led to My Hat (That’s My Home ..read more

This was a Mini festival of music which started at 4:30 PM! As I had other commitments on the afternoon I could not make the start of the show. I went along at around 7:30 PM just in time to catch the end of The Farm’s set which was of course “All Together Now” (In No Man’s Land). A massive singalong and a great introduction to our evening. Sadly, we had already missed Theatre of Hate, a band I have fond memories of seeing in the early 80s and Tom Hingley & the Kar-Pets (Tom was a member of Inspiral Carpets). Nevertheless, there was still plenty of great music to go.   Next up was the ..read more

Much respect to Lulu. She has achieved so much throughout her career which now spans six decades since she first hit the charts with “Shout” as a young, wee Scottish lass who came down from Glasgow and hit the lights and 60s magic of the big city, London and met other people from the North such as the Beatles. But more of this later. The show was a mixture of Lulu recounting her memories and the songs which made her famous along the way. The Glasshouse website promoted the show thus: “The tour will get under way in Lulu’s hometown of Glasgow on April 9 and The Glasshouse – which changed its na ..read more

The evening started with a massive and welcome surprise. Jackie, my carer for the evening, enquired of the steward “what time does the concert finish and is there a support act?” I was so pleased and surprised when she returned and said “there is a support act and they are called Son of Man”. Well, the reason I was so pleased was this. Many moons ago I was a massive fan of the band Man who were a Welsh band often compared to the Grateful Dead. I saw Man many times over the years including concert appearances at the City Hall in the early to mid 1970s. Indeed they were one of the first bands I ..read more

The Glasshouse website announced this concert thus: “Cultural. Multifaceted. Still capturing the zeitgeist. Don’t miss your chance to see one of the world’s most important and entertaining spoken word artists at his bold and brilliant best. Watching John Cooper Clarke perform is an opportunity to see a living legend at the top of his game. His sense of humour resounds throughout his career, and his latest live show is a mix of classic verse, new material, hilarious ponderings on modern life, good honest gags, riffs and chat.” “And so the stick man poet came to the north-east Dressed in trendy ..read more

My friend John was over from the USA. It was great to meet up with him again and to share memories of concerts that we enjoyed together at Newcastle City Hall in the 1970s. This was the second time I have seen Slash As a solo artist. The first time was at Glastonbury some years ago. I also saw him with Guns & Roses many years ago. John is a fan and has seen him several times in the US. So, we were both looking forward to the concert. Elaine was my carer for the evening and John, Elaine and I all went off together in the taxi to the City Hall. First up as support act was an American band ca ..read more

Another great concert at the Fire Station which is proving to be an excellent hometown venue. And with two of my favourite 1980s bands. Support came from the semi psychedelic music of the Icicle Works. Now, I was a big fan of the Icicle Works during the 1980s and saw them perform several times in that period. Ian McNabb has kept The Icicle Works flag flying in recent years performing their material as a solo artist. However, this was the first time in 25 years that he and original bassist Chris Layhe have played together. So, the lineup I saw was this duo of McNabb and Layhe and it was great t ..read more

I am entering this report for completeness really. I went to see Barbara Dickson recently and she played quite a few Beatles songs, mentioning that the Beatles have been an important part of her career, starting with her rendition of Beatles tracks for the musical John Paul George Ringo & Bert which I saw at Sunderland Empire sometime around 1974. So I searched on my blog for the musical and to my shame discovered that I had not done an entry for this. So here I am today rectifying this error. To help me remember something about the musical I bought a copy of the album (see images) on eBay ..read more

It has been many years since I last saw Kiki Dee in concert. It must have been in the early to mid 1970s at Middlesbrough Town Hall around the time she had been in the charts with the lovely, haunting “Amoureuse”, “Star” and “I’ve Got the Music in Me”. All classic songs from a great artist. So, it was about time I saw Kiki again. Especially as she was playing in a local venue 1719, named so because of the date it opened : “Holy Trinity Church (sometimes Church of the Holy Trinity or Sunderland Parish Church) is an Anglican church building in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear formerly the area’s parish ..read more

I go back a long way with Gong and have seen them several times over the years since I first saw them at Newcastle City Hall in the early 1970s. That was at the time of the Flying Teapots Trilogy and just after the Camembert Electrique album. The line – up of the band has changed many times over the years with the one (almost) constant factor being found remember Daevid Allen who sadly passed away in 2015. The last time I saw Daevid Allen in the band was at Allston Town Hall with my daughter Laura in 2012. “Australian beatnik poet Daevid Allen (ex-Soft Machine) began making music with his part ..read more