Old Man Riva

Blimey, yeah, the Top of the Pops albums. My dad would occasionally buy one (they were fairly cheap, in relative terms, as I recall) and I’d then be telling my mates I’d got the singles, albeit as part of an album! Until the day a mate’s all-knowing older brother informed us that they weren’t actually the actual bands performing - which is why Marc Bolan didn’t sound like, erm, Marc Bolan! Probably the same older brother who gladly informed us all that George Best didn’t actually take the time to sign the bottom of every column he did for Shoot!. “Apologies, Miss World, I cant make it tonight, I’ve got to sign every copy of a kids footie magazine” - yep, sounds feasible enough. On the subject of those Music for Pleasure type albums, my dad (again) entered and won a crossword competition in the local paper (Coventry Evening Telegraph) and the prize on that occasion was a selection of MFP LPs - ‘Greatest War Themes’, ‘Classic Western Themes’ etc. There were a couple of pieces in there that I really clicked with, even as a kid. The Lonely Bull by Herb Alpert’s Sounds of Tijuana Brass was something I played over and over - “it sounds like a lonely bull!?!”, and Beck’s Bolero (contained as part of a compilation I don’t recall the name of) sounded like it came from another planet. In truth there was probably something on all of the LPs that I found appealing, just because it was recorded music, and at that age there wasn’t that much I could get my hands on...

This is a good read... https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/18/andrew-weatherall-10-greatest-tracks?CMP=share_btn_link

I have, I was having a reminisce about how the whole Screamadelica album and how much it changed my view of music at that time and thought of the track. I think the album was released on the same day as Nevermind, which never had an impact on me at all - just didn't 'get it'! Screamadelica, on the other hand, was something else. Still is, in fact. In a previous life I worked with someone who had been produced by Weatherall and they absolutely raved ('scuse the choice of word) about him. Properly creative and 'out there'!

Bit of a game-changer this, when I were a younger man... Never heard anything like it at the time.

Slade - where it all began for me. Bowie - Starman on TotP started it, and he's been a constant ever since. Prince - from 1999 through to Lovesexy he was the "Bowie of his time". As an aside, one of the most influential/ albums I've ever heard (and that was a bit of a game-changer for me and my mates at the time) was Screamadelica. I'll give it a spin tonight and have a think about Mr A Weatherall who departed us today...

Off to see ‘Tubby Hayes - A Celebration of his Music‘ by the Simon Spillett Quartet in about half-an-hour just round the corner at Loughton Methodist Church. Bought tickets on Thursday to see Jeff Beck at Albert Hall in May.

It’s an age thing!! Also to add... an honourable mention would have to go to Bohemian Rhapsody. I remember to this day how I felt the first time I ever heard that via Radio 1.

Apologies, misread the title of the topic. If it’s ‘teens’ then Golden Years by David Bowie...

Starman - Bowie Virginia Plain - Roxy Music Gudbuy T’Jane - Slade 1972 was a very good year for Top of the Pops..!

From 1974, Alphonso Johnson has a bit of a wah noodle on this (excellent) track from around 2:20... If you can listen to this without tapping a foot and/or nodding along then there really is something amiss!

I’d forgotten Comsat Angels were support on that tour. You’re right, they were excellent. Saw U2 on that tour at Warwick University and, again, you’re right, they did seem a little unsure of themselves - they did a track off October, I Fall Down, which had The Edge alternating between guitar and piano and it sounded really odd/off. The tracks off Boy were really good, as I recall - The Electric Co and An Cat Dubh were something else.

That will have been the gig! As a young teenager it wasn’t really my cup of tea but got taken along and as a live gig it was great. I hadn’t realised what a voice she had. I remember the local buzz around the Elton John gig - I think it was one of those gigs where the venue limited the amount of tickets a person could buy (same with Genesis gig in the same year, as I recall). Another Cov Theatre gig from that year was Be Bop Deluxe. Blew me away!

Cov Theatre 1978 Headliner: Black Sabbath (10th anniversary tour) Support: Van Halen (first UK gigs) Never seen anything like it before or since.

Yeah, I think that era was a good time for live music. There always seemed to be a band touring that would be appealing. Quite a lot of bands seemed to miss out Coventry on the circuit and play up the road in Birmingham (the Odeon was popular at the time, along with the Hippodrome and Town Hall) so tickets for gigs in Cov tended to be cheaper. I was lucky enough (or unlucky, depending on one’s musical tastes!) to see the likes of Nazareth, AC/DC, Tom Petty, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Thin Lizzy, Sad Cafe, Elkie Brooks, UFO, Rush, Magazine/Simple Minds, the Specials all at Cov Theatre or a Cov venue in the space of a year or so. And then it was off to Birmingham or farther afield for some of the other/bigger gigs.

Love that, the first track in particular - wasn’t aware of him so thanks for that!

First concert - Hawkwind - Coventry Theatre 1976 Last concert - Snarky Puppy - Albert Hall 2019 Best concert - David Bowie at Stafford Bingley Hall 1978 Worst concert - The Who - Birmingham NEC 1981 Loudest concert - AC/DC - Coventry Theatre 1978 Seen the most - UFO (oddly enough?!) Most surprising - Elkie Brooks - Coventry Theatre 1978 Next concert - Not known. Wish I would have seen - Prince and the Revolution 1985 Parade Tour

I was about 14 or 15 at the time. As I may have said on here before, as a kid myself and my mate used to try and go and see any band we could - generally we’d get taken along by my mate’s older brother (he wasn’t particularly pleased about it but did it anyway - once we were at the venue he’d tell us to bu**er off and arrange to meet us at the end!). We’d save up pocket money from milk rounds, paper rounds and doing chores etc. and it all went towards going to see a gig or Coventry City! My dad was also brilliant as I’d invariably not have enough money and he would always try and help me out if he could. Lone Star was a great experience. I’d seen my first gig the previous year (Hawkwind at Cov Theatre) and Rush earlier in ‘77 at Brum Odeon and also Nazareth (still one of the best gigs I’ve seen) at Cov Theatre the same year so seeing Lone Star was a bit different. They were fairly unknown at the time but my mate’s brother had a couple of tickets and his mates dropped out so we went along instead. It was a Saturday night so we were able to go across on the train in the afternoon and visit a place called Reddingtons Rare Records (an amazing place, stacked with records, used to spend hours in there) and Woodroffe’s Musical Instruments (just to look at the basses hanging on the wall!). The gig was a fantastic night, and as I said earlier, the singer was a proper ‘rock star’! It was my desperation to want to go and see any gig I could that drove me to get a Saturday job at a local Woolworths as soon as I was able to, where all the money went towards records or gigs. As a kid, they were brilliant times!

Soul Jazz Records put together some great compilation albums, their catalogue is really worth checking out. This is what’s wafting through the airwaves this morning... getting down with Sarah Webster Fabio and friends on a Saturday morning is good for the soul!

His show could be like that. I’ve a cassette of his show I recorded from the mid-70s (77?) where Suburban Relapse by Siouxsie is followed by Draw the Line by Aerosmith. He offered a fairly eclectic mix of music around that time..!

I went to see them at Brum Hippodrome on the Firing on all Six tour - as a kid I was blown away by it all. The sound seemed massive and John Sloman was my first taste of ‘rock god’ vocalists! Odd things you remember; the place was littered with A5-sized flyers with a Geoff Barton quote, “Lone Star: Catch Them Before They Become Too Big!”. Not sure what it meant but me and my mates collected dozens of them as mementos!! The things you do, eh?! I bought a tour t-shirt, which I think I’ve actually got somewhere - it was salmon pink!!

I think you’re right, it feels as though it’s an intentional part of the track. I really like the bass playing throughout the whole album. I’m a complete sucker for that sound/tone!

Yeah, yeah, I know we’re all sick of being bombarded with rare Japanese jazz rock/funk from the mid 1970s, but what the heck, this is what’s being listened to today. Worth a listen just to hear the solo bass at around 8mins in where someone (presumably the player?!) is merrily grunting along to the playing! As an aside, I really like the bass sound/tone on the album...

Sam Wilkes?

Thanks for further replies - again, really helpful and much appreciated.

Was back at my mum’s recently and had a dig around for some old concert stuff. Found these two programmes, both just a couple of weeks apart from each other - Weather Report at Brum Odeon followed by AC/DC at Cov Theatre (front row!!). There was a bus strike the night of the AC/DC gig so my dad dropped me off and picked me up afterwards - thought it was highly uncool at the time but of course loved him for it! I’ve still got the tour t-shirt from the Weather Report gig, which, needless to say, hasn’t fitted in years!