Totally agree about Wembley arena being a dump, we went to see Santana there and paid top dollar for what we thought were good seats turned out we were at the back but also to the side of the side tier of seats and spent the whole concert craning our necks to see just part of the stage swore never again to set foot in there
My 'seat' ticket was £90. I was in B4, in front left of the mixing desk. That area has no raking so view of the stage would have been limited, even before Steven Wilson invited the audience to stand! I had Stephen Merchants two taller brothers a couple of rows ahead, so viewing was ****. The fact the venue acoustics are also appalling didn't help either. However.... I wouldn't have missed the occasion for anything - and I'll wait for the Blu-ray to watch/listen in detail
You should see the looks on people's faces when we turn up. Tall people have to stand somewhere... We always try to stand behind someone quite tall...after first standing in front of the shortest people we can find...just for the hell of it. I just love their disappointed little faces...
I actually quite like 'In The Court of The Crimson King' it is totally out of my normal range, but there is something about it that in certain moods really hits the spot. Then again I am currently listening to a lot of jazz like this please log in to view this image and loving it
Just been notified that Van Morrison is doing a showcase of his new album at the Stables Milton Keynes, fantastic chance to see his royal grumpiness in such an intimate venue , that was until I saw the ticket prices starting at £103 plus booking fee ...........no thanks
That's a lot. Mrs B and I are booking to see The Skids @ The 100 Club on 17 or 18th March for £28 + booking. That's a lot more like it! Also, I spied The Spurs Show Christmas Party, also @ the same venue, for £17.50 + booking on 20 December. Robbo, England's No1, to be in attendance.
Me and my lad went to a few of those before Covid , good night , one I remember was with Jah Wobble so both my loves covered in one show
I assume Jobson still fronts the Skids does he? Very charismatic in his time does he still work the audience well?
Oh yes. We saw them in Blackpool and then again at The Damned's first reunion gig at Hammersmith (less than 3 months apart) and he was as enjoyable the second time as he had been the first. Mrs B can be a tough nut to crack as far as bands are concerned. If she's not impressed, she goes for the throat...and from the first time we saw them at The Royal Albert Hall, she was impressed. In Blackpool, he went after Stuart Adamson a fair bit, which got a few "Oooohs!" from the crowd. He really didn't rate Big Country...and that's me being nice, but it's like me railing about Mrs B II, you have to have had feelings for someone before you can stick it to them that badly.
At Hammersmith, we saw Pogo Pete for the first time since Blackpool and he had recently seen Jah Wobble (somewhere near his new Lincs stomping ground) doing a dub Metal Box set. I stood back and enjoyed him recounting his love of the gig to Mrs B, who saw them do something similar at The Furs RAH gig and isn't having it...not at all. Very funny.
I only saw Big Country once, supporting The Jam at Wembley in 82, we have touched on the audience at those gigs previously they were in no mood for a support act, and I remember going out to the bar whilst they were playing saying who the **** makes their guitar sound like bag pipes! I never really revisited them after that.
Now you've written that, it sounds vaguely familiar...but I have no recollection of Big Country from that gig, at all, so I must have been pretty well oiled when they played or have missed them completely. Given that I was sporting a very significant quiff and largely punkabilly look at the time, a fair few drinks helped when surrounded by thousands of beered up mods! If you're standing out that much, appearing completely unaware of the situation helps significantly.
You had some company that night. As you can probably imagine, I'm used to standing out in a crowd and take what comes as part of the deal...but that night was definitely going into the lion's den. I've been in a few places where I've been less kindly received, but not a vast amount more than that night.
I also saw them once, but supporting Bowie. Have to say I enjoyed them. Went down well with the Bowie fans.
One of my sisters was a fan. She's 6 years younger than me, so would have been in her early teens when they emerged. As I didn't own any of their records, my sister didn't nick them, unlike albums by The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, Joy Division, Echo & The Bunnymen, etc. I recall thinking that they were a bit one dimensional. Yes, your guitar sounds like bagpipes, now what?
Stuart Adamson, formerly of Skids, has a good reputation. I think lyrically they were strong. In a Big Country stands up well I think.
Adamson's a great guitarist, no argument but I wonder whether he/they had it in them to be better than Skids had been. It's a bit like Mick Jones in BAD, they were very good but I couldn't say that they held a candle to The Clash. There were a fair few better bands around at the time, so being great was a lot harder than it is now...plus it's all subjective...and recent exposure to Jobson has probably got to me... ...in Blackpool he said he'd been travelling up through Scotland and all he could hear was "...On fields of fire" over and over again...and he wasn't a fan of it.
Strange how these things happen, happily listening to the skids earlier this afternoon after Brians post this morning, it's a very decent catalogue of songs (Working For The Yankee Dollar will always be my favourite), but spotify through in a curveball about an hour in by playing Wonderland by Big Country, I thought to myself that's not Jobson. but it was very different from the 'bagpipes' of Fields of Fire, not unpleasant but out of kilter with the Skids for sure.
