Music Stories - What's Yours? (singing, bootleg, house, albums)

[quiet walker]

Do you have a favorite story regarding yourself and music? Here's one of my favorites...

Mid 70's, my girlfriend and I went to an Elton John concert at Washington DC's Capital Center Unlike most concerts there this one was "festival seating" - first come first serve - no reserved seats. So we got there several hours early, like many did, and got pretty good seats near the stage. We spent our time playing the card game cribbage which had become a passion between us, and also enjoyed people watching in the huge arena. Over the next few hours the place filled up and people started to become restless, awaiting the show.

Finally the concert time arrived and there were signs of activity on the stage. Then, the lights went down - awright! And a band came out, took their places on what was a badly lit stage, and began to play. And they sucked! This opening act was awful, we didn't even know who they were. People who had been waiting, some for hours, were not pleased. There was a lot of grumbling. The band finished their number, and all were hoping they were over. But NO, they started another. They were not only bad, but were also annoying, just not what this crowd needed. Shouts of "Boo!" and "Get Off!" began to be heard. They finished their second number, amid yells from the crowd. But then, Oh No!!! They started a third number. The crowd was yelling and getting ugly. This was not good!

Now in the midst of this third number, with the crowd ready to riot, there appeared a hard to define small figure, bounding about the very badly lit stage. Short and dark, what could it be? A monkey? The figure began to flit around a large dark object. Suddenly stage lights, really really bright ones flooded the stage. POW! The small figure jumped up and flung off a black cloak. It was Elton John in a super sparkely suit. And he ripped a huge black cover off of the dark shape which was a grand piano with bright moving lights encircling it. The formerly sucky band began a tight heavy beat leading into the song that Elton sat down to play. Everyone was stunned. I don't remember the song but it was the first of many we were to enjoy at a long excellant show. I will never forget that concert

[DOUBLE H]

I'm not sure how this fits in to to the subject but I'll give it a try. Long before the days of Ticketmaster, datatix, and other related agencies there was a time that one would buy a ticket from a record shop, a grocery store, or just a small business in general who got a small percentage from tickets sold. Neil Young was going out on a solo tour, his first. CSNY released Deja Vu just 6 months earlier. Bought my ticket at Juli "J"s Record Shack on South Colorado Blvd. for $5. This concert was scheduled for late January 1971. After The Gold Rush just come out so needless to say the show sold out. Drove up to Boulder as the show was at the Boulder Fieldhouse. When I got there several people were led away by the law, some in handcuffs. I got in about 1/2 hour before it started and was lucky. The real rumble started right after I sat down as dozens of people were arrested for throwing rocks through windows, fighting with Fieldhouse employees. The security people wouldn't let those people in as they said the tickets were counterfeit. Apparently someone or someones printed off a couple hundred tickets that were a slightly different color than what you bought at the store and were not honored at the door. They must have had the whole police force there for a short time, and to my knowledge the guy never was caught. It was a huge mess. That concert was a knockout as he was introducing material from After The Gold Rush and Harvest. The concert found its way on bootleg vinyl as well. It was a 2 hour show. Lots of audience participation on a 10 minute version of Sugar Mountain. The next day the review of the concert was in the Denver Post as well as the melee before it started. If memory serves, it was another 6 to 7 years before computer related tickets were developed. The concert, as I recall, was reserved seating. Some of the people who got into the building had phony tickets, complained that someone was in their seat, and were told to leave. They didn't leave quietly either. What a mess!

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

The concert found its way on bootleg vinyl as well. It was a 2 hour show. Lots of audience participation on a 10 minute version of Sugar Mountain.

I did not go to that concert, but I sure do remember Juli-J's. Bought a few tickets there myself.
And I have a black Neil Young bootleg album with a long version of Sugar Mountain.

I have lots of concert stories.
I think I already posted here about helping Leslie West (of Mountain) after he barfed backstage, and getting tear-gassed at the Jethro Tull riot/concert at Red Rocks.
Those were memorable, if not exactly pleasurable.
One somewhat poignant memory I have is the several times I saw local guitarist Tommy Bolin, who played with a band called Zephyr.
(This was Mammoth Gardens, the same little sweaty concert hall where I got to shake hands with Pete Townshend. ) Bolin would just wail on that guitar, and Candy Givens prowled the stage, both fierce and heartfelt on vocals. Givens played harmonica, too.
They did a wicked version of St James Infirmary. Zephyr got into a lot of improvisation.
I could stand right there at the stage and watch Tommy work the wah-wah pedal. He experimented a lot; never sounded the same twice. Always had such a sweet smile on his face, too.
I saw the band several times, and bought their albums. I was a 16 year old kid, and the musicians were not all that much older than me. Bolin was maybe 19 years old.
Maybe five years later, Bolin OD'd. Maybe a decade after that, Candy Givens did the same.

[DOUBLE H]

Ah, Tull and the teargas incident. What a boondoggle that was. I remember afterwards Mayor Bill McNichols barred concerts from Red Rocks indefinitely. And it was five years later he finally relented when Leon Russell came in in September 1976. BTW, if you get a chance, BWP, pull up Jethro Tull's site. THEY ARE COMING TO RED ROCKS IN AUGUST!! I'm goin'! Ought to be real interesting.

[LINCOLNSHIRE]

I collect plectrums,,Not any old plectrums, but I have made a nuicance of myself over the yrs in my pursuit of them. I have a Ronnie Wood,,a Steve Marriott,, a Deke Leonard [Who?? ] and almost anyone who is anyone you can mention, and alot that mean something to me, but nothing to you ..
All, apart from a very few, I have got from them in person..But to the story..

I did some work on a pub in Lincoln [The Strugglers] in 1997. It involved some design and I was working through things with the Landlord on a Friday lunchtime, around 1pm. All we heard was " DO YOU DO FOOD " blasting from a tanoy. Before we had chance to get to the window to see what was occuring in he walked,,with his entourage.. Ladies and Gents I give you Captain Sensible. Drunkenness ensued for many an hour. I had the wife [as was then] collect me at 2am and the buggers were still there when I left.. I did at least get free tickets for the Sat gig, which I gave away, but I didn`t get a plectrum from any of the buggers,,,My fault!!!

Bless The Damned,,,and Bugger The Captain..


YouTube - Captain Sensible - Wot -

Don`t miss this one 6.3.

[quiet walker]

Awesome stories! Keep 'em coming

BTW Captain Sensible - Wot! just wonderful, haven't heard that favorite for a looooong time

[Stone28]

My friends father and uncles were in the stagehands union in NYC. I'm not sure what year it was, I'll guess and say 82. U2 who were a "cult band" at the time were playing at the Pallidum on 14th street in Manhatten. So my friend got us in for free through the employees entrance.

The concert was really intense. There were swarms of people rushing the stage and security couldn't really handle it.

The concert ended and I noticed I somehow lost my car keys. So my friend said his father would drive us home after he was finished working. In the meantime I stayed in the Pallidum looking for my keys.

Now its about an hour later and I'm right up by the stage while all the workers are clearing everything off when all of a sudden I hear this guy with an "Irish accent" say "I want you to apoligise to my wife". To my friends father boss.

It turned out to be Bono. What I found out later happened was...During the concert while the fans were rushing the stage people were getting hurt and Bono's wife was yelling for them to do something. She was accidently pushed and fell over.

So now Bono's is still there on stage making a big scene. And my friends father boss is ignoring him until Bono grabbed him by the shirt collar and pulled him. Now it turned into a brawl all the U2 people Vs the Local NYC stagehands. It got really ugly, some very nasty name calling and threats.

My friends fathers boss said to Bono "I'll make sure you never play in this city again!"....We all know how that turned out. lol

[BigSwede]

I saw Kiss perform with their original lineup in 1997.
It was twenty years later than I would have wanted,but they were still great.

[DOUBLE H]

Blue Willow Plate had some great observations on Tommy Bolin on her post on Saturday. I got to see him only once. Deep Purple came into Denver with Rare Earth the opening act. Tommy just wailed on guitar the entire night. Purple was on their Come Taste The Band tour, and this was around January '76. Bolin was on fire the entire evening with great solos all night long. It was very sad to see him die so young. That Deep Purple concert, and the Deep Purple show from '73 with Savoy Brown as the warm up are in my top 10 of best concerts. #1 for the LOUDEST!

[desertsun41]

Hey I like this forum. You guys are all great. So here I am going back looking for good posts to resurrect. I have a couple good stories Id like to share.

Jethro Tull concert MSG. Livingston Taylor, James Taylors brother came out to warm up and started singing some dumb Beatles song. Now everyone came to see some hard rock so what was Ian Anderson thinking bringing that guy on stage? After the 2nd song the crowd could not take it anymore so they bombed the guy with anything they can. Even glass bottles which were not banned at that time. Taylor ran for his life off stage and Ian came out to talk to us. He said "that was my good friend and you insulted me, that was not a good idea". So after a very long wait he came out and did 3 songs and the curtian came down. No oncor. He was done.

Genesis concert Rockland Community College 1978. It was a general admission show. Thousands of ticket holders were waiting for the doors to open and the rent an oinks were trying to keep people on the sidewalks and off of the grass. They were succeding and the crowd was calm. There was 6 of us and we planned to run across the grass and right past the rent a oink to get to the door when it opened. 3 oinks stood right in front of us and one said to the other, "when that door opens Im outta here". The other one said "I'll holdem". With that the door opened and everyone ran foward. The oink grabbed me and I saw my friends getting away so I took that guy and flipped him on the ground. I looked back once and he got trampled on badly. This was the greatest show I ever been to.

Capital Theater 1978. The Police were unknown. They warmed up for Peter Gabrial. Before the show we made our usual quick run to the bathroom. Everyone was smoking pot of course. Well all these fully uniformed cops walked in and everyone flushed their stash down. The cops took their pee and left without a word. Shortly after these same guys dressed as cops came on stage. The people who tossed their drugs were mad as hell. They were the damn band. We all know where the popularity of the Police went from that point.

Foghat in Rockland Community College. Another sellout general admission show. We got there late and the show was so oversold that there was just no place to sit or stand. Rod Price called us 4 to sit up on the stage. We sat right in front of those huge EV speakers with the loudest band in the world. We were deaf for a week but loved every bit of it.

My wife wants to add one. 1978 Houston Astrodome. ELO and Steely Dan. Some fights were erupting right in front of the stage while ELO was up and some guy got stabbed right next to her. The blood spurted on her shirt. The show was called for an hour before resuming.

I have more but lets see if anyone wants to here them.