TrevorR

How about Michael and his Engineering type chaps?

Nazareth

Fairport Convention’s big annual summer festival. Every August bank holiday weekend..

Well that means there’s a good chance you’ve seen Thompson and Tull too... I’m going to have a second go and say Rush.

Does it count as GAS if when you’re looking you 100% know that you’re NOT going to buy anything? I know exactly which models of Sandberg, Overwater Chowny and Maruschathingy basses I would buy if I was going to buy one, including detailed specs and colours... but I am absolutely not going to buy one.

Swarbs and Martin...

You mean kinda like...

I’ll take The Stereophonics (although I’d rather not)

And we have a winner... would have loved to have seen the classic blues rock line up of The Snake with Marsden, Moody and Murray. Once they went 80s hair metal with Vai, Sykes, Vandenberg et all they held absolutely no appeal. In 81 when I’d seen Lizzy and Elkie and had tickets booked for Gillan (with Janick Gers rather than Bernie Tormé sadly) both pocket money and Dad’s taxi service (the only Cornish venue was 20 odd miles away from Truro in St Austell) were too stretched to fit in another gig.

Did From A Distance with the folk band I had back around university (before it got ruined by Cliff and Bette Midler) so listened to a lot of Nanci’s albums. In fact our singer did the song at our wedding during the signing the register bit. Seen Nanci live many times and interviewed her for a web magazine I used to write for. Still love her tunes. Also, a lovely singer chum, Edwina Hayes has supported her several times which was a bonus!

Elkie was my second ever proper gig! One week after seeing Thin Lizzy back summer of 1981 (the tickets were my birthday present). I had liked Fool If You Think It’s Over and picked up a few of her early (Lieber & Stoller) produced solo albums. Much more Vinegar Joe than Pearl's A Singer. It was when Nights In White Satin was a hit and unlike Lizzy was a seated gig at the Cornwall Coliseum. She did a short 20 minute greatest hits set with all the tunes from the radio then said, “Right, that’s got that out of the way. Now let’s have some fun. Let’s rock and roll!” and she proceeded to do a fabulous hour”s blues rock set. The MD for the band was Geoff Whitehorn so that gives an idea of the level of rockiness! My ears rang louder and longer for that gig than for Lizzy. Heaven help the folks who came along expect two hours of Pearl’s A Singer! Saw her headlining an open air (bring wine and a picnic type) gig in the 2000s at Ascot Racecourse doing a jazz set. That was great too!

When they did the big PG reunion raise funds for Womad thing they did a small warm up gig so, basically, they could rehearse all the old tunes. Saw them at the Cornwall Coliseum - a medium sized regional venue. Couldn’t have held more than three or four thousand for a standing gig! They did loads of PG era stuff. So as well as Follow You Follow Me, Abacab and Turn It On Again we got tunes like Watcher Of The Skies, Carpet Crawlers, I Know What I Like and a full length Supper’s Ready! Was about 20 feet from the stage, right in front of Mike for most of it! Beats half a mile away at Wembley, any day!

His Loussier plays Bach albums are just fabulous!

They never ventured south of the border in their own right nearly enough. Promised myself I’d get up for Celtic Connections one year but it’s never happened!

Loved Capercaillie for years. Only seen them once, though. Reading Hexagon. Surprise, surprise, they were fabulous. Karen Matheson... what a voice!

I’m still just trying to get my head around the converse concept of “rational GAS”!

For some reason, right now I’m on a bit of an After The Fire kick... Been listening through their “Complete CBS Recordings” double album (all three 70s/80s albums plus Der Kommisar and bonus tracks).

OK here goes... 1. After The Fire 2. Elkie Brooks 3. Big Country 4. Whitesnake 5. Genesis 6.Nanci Griffith 7. Capercaillie 8. Gillan 9. Paul Simon 10. James Taylor

Evanescence?

I've seen B*witched loads and loads of times. But never singing... When they were recording their first album - or maybe when it was in the can and waiting to come out I used to chat to them most weeks. To make some money they all had jobs working on the tills at our local little Tescos. Being from the Emerald Isle (North bit rather than South) myself the sudden appearance of four Irish girls, including a pair of twins, on the tills made me go "oh!" - so of course me and the Mrs would say hello and chat (about nothing really) when they were ringing up our shopping. Then about 3 months later they started having hits and the house they were sharing in the town was suddenly deluged by screaming pre-teen fans... Claim to fame... I've never met Sinitta but I've known her mum for years and played bass for her on multiple occasions. She's a former Hi Energy disco singer and actress called Miquel Brown. These days she's mostly focusing on acting and theatre/gospel/worship singing. She's come along and sung many times at our church and so I've backed her on bass as part of the worship band. Lovely, lovely woman - and dead useful to know for those 6 degrees of separation games!

Frankie Miller

Took my, then, girlfriend to see her in early summer 1983 on The Changeling tour. Had absolutely no expectations but Lucy wanted to see her. The show was blooming brilliant! She was a great front woman and the band included Bebop Delux’s Andy Clark on keys, Phil Spalding on bass and a very young but no less brilliant Simon Phillips on drums! 😮

We have a winner. ELO (and Thin Lizzy) are by far my favourite band. And have been since the late 70s but I’ve never seen them live. ☹️ I was too young and lived too far from civilisation to see them in the 70s or early 80s. And then it seemed like Jeff would never tour again. I did see ELO Part II in the early 2000s which featured most of the band except Jeff.... Bev, Mik, Kelly, Hugh... which was an absolute treat. One of my fave ever gigs. Down near the front at a decent sized venue for it still to be intimate (Guildford Civic Hall) and singing along to all those great tunes. Wonderful. Since the Hyde Park gig our little boy has been too young to take to gigs but last year we took him out to his first ever “real gig” - The ELO Experience featuring our very own @casapete. Wonderful open air gig with a Blondie tribute band supporting. He loved it. So, we thought “Well next time they tour...” but when the tickets came out this spring took one look and thought “£450 - £600 quid for tickets for the three of us... And no guarantee he won’t get overwhelmed by being in an enormodome and we’ll have to leave part way through... I really don’t think so!” So for now I think we’ll just keep it to The ELO Experience for our ELO live fixes! Irony is I now know no less than 2 members of ELO. One of my little boy’s friends in his class, his Grandad was in the band on cello for a couple of albums in the early years. And a guy I know, Jo, has been playing keys for them for the last couple of tours. Still don’t think I’ll ever see then, though...

Saw them for the first time last summer at Wembley on their farewell tour. A chum’s wife was ill so he called me up and asked if I fancied going. Abso-flippin-lutely!

Headlined Penwith Rocks! in 83. Both them and 10cc were bloomin’ brilliant!