Your first concert - music thread

In an effort to add more variety to the threads. The first concerts I ever went to where as a snotty nosed kid at the Rickmansworth Grammar School dance - unbelievably Supertramp and the Groundhogs played there ! I then graduated to shaking my hair around to bands like Stray, the Groundhogs etc. at Kingham Hall. The first really big one was Led Zeppelin at the Bath festival. Other great memories in the 70s were seeing Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers at successive Knebworth festivals - concerts by Humble Pie and Stone the Crows also remain firmly entrenched in the memory. What were the first/best concerts which other posters first went to ? Video clips are also welcome on here - but I don't know how to do it !

 

My first was The Love Affair, Casuals and TheWalker Brothers
I then spent about 4 years almost living at rock festivals etc
First big one: IOW 1969 with Bob Dylan

Most memorable ...was Glastonbury 1971

Favourite gig: King Crimson Watford

I was fortunate to see almost every top performer live in that era...

Most enjoyable perfomrances include:
Grateful DeAD AND mUNGO JERRY at Newcastle under Lyme
Hendrix IOW
Floyd Rugby
Quintessence The Roudhouse

... so many...

When i was at Snorbens FE college I organised a rag concert with The Pretty Things..... we shared a pipe with them before the gig and I woke up on the floor in the hall after it was all over

 

Used to go and see this guy in Watford Jazz club in the 1950's.

 

Thank you so much, Cologne. I always thought that Supertramp played at Ricky Grammar but as I got older I started to wonder if my memory was playing tricks on me. As you say, the thought is unbelievable.

My first concert was at the Royal Festival Hall to see Curved Air, supported by Marc Ellington and the Mick Abrahams Band. (I've just discovered that Mick Abrahams was born in L*t*n, but I won't hold that against him - too much). I think the ticket cost 7/6d.

The strangest gig was at the International Football Stadium, Khartoum at what was labelled a 'Jazz Festival'. The guy I was with and I were the only two Europeans there, and when we were spotted in the stands we were brought onto the pitch in front of the stage and told to dance. We were surrounded by people who started clapping a rather complicated rhythm and the band improvised to the beat. Later we were taken back stage, where we met all the bands and the Minister of Culture, with whom we got totally wasted.

 

This certainly brings back forgotten memories. I used to go to the jazz at the Pumphouse on a Thursday evening in the mid seventies. Once I was accused of blackmail by my then employer. He wanted me to drive a lorry into London on a Thursday evening but this meant I would have missed the jazz. So I asked him to pay me four hours for the job to compnesate me for losing my evening. He refused and accused me of blackmail.Everybody else had refused the job. So I went to see the jazz.
My first concert was Mott the Hoople, Queen were the support group just prior to Bohemian Rhapsody. My second was to see Sherbert in Perth WA. and my third and last was Sir EJ at the vic. I am not a great music lover, but hearing Aker Bilk again has stirred my jazz hormones.

 

Too many to remember for me.
Ones that stand out for odd reason were the Who at Charlton Football ground the Valley.
Floyd as often as I could see them
Moody Blues at Uni
Genesis (and others) at Knebworth
- possbily not the best was Gong at Watford Town Hall -oh dear
Actually slightly to one side of the subject I also attended an election meeting with Harold Wilson at Watford Town Hall and a so called comedy chat with Jimmy Greaves and Phil Tufnell there - so none of them amazing experiences

 

Sherbet - Australia's answer to the Bay City Rollers!! I can't mock though - I've seen them in concert too. In the mid 70's, a Great Barrier Reef island called Great Keppel was owned by Trans Australia Airlines. The island resort ran some 'sun, sea and sex' long weekends catering for the 18-30s, and marketed them Australia wide by including pop concerts in the price. Fortunately, us locals didn't have to pay - we simply went over on a friend's boat, anchored off-shore and swam to the island to see the concerts, camping on the beach overnight. I managed to see the likes of Sherbet, Little River Band and Joe Cocker that way - some brilliant memories.

In the 60s I used to frequent a pub in Harrow, called, if I remember rightly, The Bridge - for gigs by Chicken Shack and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers - the last gig I saw of theirs left me deaf for three days and put me off concerts for a few years

My most memorable concert was actually held in a cathedral in Brisbane in 1973 - local rock band Railroad Gin performed Rock Mass with the Queensland Youth Orchestra. Not far behind that was Gordon Lightfoot at the Albert Hall - musical and vocal perfection...

 

There is a Mott the Hoople song that refers to these sort of experiences - (Do you remember) The Saturday Gigs?

 

My very first was Feeder (!) at some point at the end of the 90's at the good old Astoria. It was the start of a good few years around the London venues with the remnants of Britpop but that was the first.

 

Not sure what was the first. I only came to live concerts late but did get to Bowie (twice), Ry Cooder (three), Paul Jones Blues Band, Bruce Springsteen (Wembley), Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Stranglers, Elvis Costello, Courtney Pine, Average White Band, Buena Vista Social Club. Lots of less well known bands playing pubs of course, none of which I could claim later turned out to be huge stars. Ry Cooder remains probably my favourite musician.

 

The very first live perfomance I now remember to be Paco Pena the great spanish guitarist who played at Pitlochry when I was there on a holiday with my parents aged 14....

 

The Spencer Davies Group/Band? Keep on Running at the Watford Odeon
The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton at the Ebury Hall in Rickmansworth
The Zombies She's not There at the Ebury Hall in Rickmansworth
The WHo before they were the Who at the Watford trade Union Hall
The Who the first time they trashed their instruments at the Watford Trade Union Hall
All in the very early sixties

 

when i was 10 i wanted to go and see Slade but my mum wouldn't let me. Gutted still! I don't remember the first one but it was possibly Rush, or David Bowie..but i saw Queen 4 times so i guess they were the bestest for me!

 

I went to musicals in the West End before I went to concerts. I don't know if you guys would class the Schools Prom at the Royal Albert Hall as a concert (like one of the normal Proms season, but the acts were all school bands, orchestras, choir etc.).
I don't remember any of the acts I saw at the club in the Student Union building while I was at University, but I did see Bryan Adams at Wembley Arena in the tour he did after "Everything I Do" and Dire Straits at Cardiff on their "On Every Street" tour at Cardiff Arms Park on a baking hot summer day. Their warm-up act was Was Not Was.
On the island, I've seen a Queen tribute act, Jools Holland and his rhythm and blues orchestra - I didn't realise he was in Squeeze until I saw the video for "Up the Junction" recently and Katherine Jenkins. This weekend is the Jersey Live festival which has Richard Ashcroft and Madness as a couple of the artists. I always avoid that, but I would like to go to the Rewind Festival but so far haven't had the opportunity.
Now a shameless plug. If any of you like Rock Choir and you see that they are appearing in Watford or Hemel, it is likely to be the one that my sister is part of.

 

I was taken to a classical concert at the Watford Coliseum aged 9 to see a pianist progidy by my music teacher when I was playing violin and receiving extra tuition from the lead violinist of the LPO.
First rock gig was Kiss at Wembley 1980. I had already played the esteemed Marshalswick Youth Club by then.... a few of our own songs and a few covers including Deep Purple Woman From Tokyo, We Will Rock You and Genesis Many Too Many.

 

Somewhere I have a list of the concerts I went to in my youth (sad eh). The first live band I remember was at a dance somewhere in Harrow called The Outside System, I saw them a few times and during that period they changed their name to The Outside Toilet - a great improvement in my view. They played good rock/pop covers for freaking out too.

The first "professional" band I saw were The Who (clue here somewhere) at the Lyceum Ballroom in London (supported by Roger Ruskin Spear - remember). My jaw was on the floor throughout and my ears rang for days afterwards, they played Tommy, Pete smashed his guitar & the ceiling and I think the drums left the podium too. This was the first of 17 concerts of theirs I have been too (inc Charlton mentioned earlier) and no 18 is next April in Glasgow. They have always been my favourite band playing F**k off music with the same attitude. I was just not old enough to discover that The Who played the Railway Hotel Wealdstone on a weekly basis otherwise my Who gig count might have been in 3 figures.... and I would be deafer than I am now probably. Oh I was an extra in the Tommy film whilst at Southampton Uni (pinball wizard scene - no close up though) for which we were rewarded with a free concert some weeks later. Another mate and I found ourselves at the front and as we were in the middle of finals revision we sort of lost it a bit.

I have seen most of the great bands of our era with some significant omissions in the form of The Beatles and Hendrix. My mate and I used to go to the Albert Hall and concerts by Johnny Winter were memorable and one which included Tir na Nog, Procal Harem and Jethro Tull (why we went) which cost 40p!

Memorable bands always worth the ticket were/are Pink Floyd (including Atom Heart Mother free at Hyde Park), Jethro, and Led Zep who played the Soton Guildhall one night and the following night played the Uni students union where they used the Rolling Stones mobile recording unit to capture the concert. 3 hours and 3 encores and my mate & I were 5' from the stage, oh Wow. Sadly these tapes have not seen the light of day which is a shame as there is no decent live recording of LZ in their pomp & glory. I was lucky enough to get tickets for the O2 reunion concert where we really felt the noise!

This makes me sound old (I am) but today's stuff does not really move me - if you hear Whole Lotta Love or Won't Get Fooled again or Brown Sugar your ears pick up, nothing I hear today does that for me. Muse though have the right idea.

Enough for now, maybe I will find my lists to jog further memories and maybe I'll post about classical and world music at some point.

Great thread Cologne, thanks for the memories all.

 

Lots of interesting replies here. My first wave of concerts and festivals was in the 70s - nothing happened in the 80s - I was busy with married life in rural Somerset. In the 90s (actually up to 2009) I lived in Hamburg, which is a great place for music. Being over there meant that I didn't have to endure so called 'Britpop', for which I am eternally gratefull. The Germans had a taste for classic old rock bands who were not filling stadiums in England, but were in Germany. So I was able to see a lot of musicians second time around as it were - a little bit older, less hair and plumper, but still good. During that time I saw Santana (improved with age), Jethro Tull twice, Neil Young playing together with Tom Petty (that was a good one), Alvin Lee, Lynyrd Skynyrd (very different line up) and Crosby Stills and Nash (looked a lot older and thicker around the middle, but you only had to see them for 5 minutes to realise why nobody has ever tried to play their songs). The Hamburg blues festival was always good as well. There was also lots of so called Ethnic music around as well - one of the best was Bratsch (a group of French free jazz musicians (of diverse origins) playing mostly East European Gypsy music, which I love). Now I content myself with Youtube.

 

I remember seeing a load of bands at the Albert Hall including chicago and family.... there was a riot at the family gig when they turn off the sound dead on half past.... and i just avoided being arrested when a 'friend' punched the copper who had me in a neck lock

 

When I was a student in Stafford in the late 70s I was involved in putting bands on. We were very good at selecting up and coming bands whilst they were cheap. One Christmas we had Alberto y Los Trios Paranoias but, because it was the Christmas do, we got a support band for 125 pounds called The Police. I saw them 18 months later in Cairo. We also had a double bill of The Clash and The Damned. That was a good night. There are lots of other stories with people who became famous for a while, and some who are still famous. I crawled across the stage whilst Richard and Linda Thompson were playing because Linda could smell burning; played football with Richard Digence (does anyone still know who he is?); saw Judas Priest in front of an audience of about 8 people. They smashed up the dressing room afterwards so we didn't pay them.
We were also involved in helping to set up a local agricultural hall which had really big names. The Stones wouldn't employ us but Floyd, Genesis and Queen, among others did. The Floyd concert was during the Animals tour when they had a large inflatable pig that went form the back of the hall to the stage on a wire. It was our job to get the pig in position but there was a balcony rail that we had trouble getting the pig over. A mate of mine grabbed the nose and gave it a big tug. I just managed to get hold of my mate's legs before he went over the audience with the pig hanging onto its nose.
I was young and pretty in those days and when Queen came the head roadie took one look at me and said, "keep him away from Freddie"! I spent the evening in the staff bar - free drinks.
The best two concerts I've been to were Leonard Cohen at the Albert Hall and Taj Mahal at the Commonwealth Institute. The Bhundu Boys at a little club in Hoxton comes very close.
The biggest disappointment were The Who in Edmonton in 1974, and sleeping through most of Van Morrison's set at Glastonbury some time in the 80s.
I could go on but it will get boring.

 

I'd forgotten Alberto y los trios Paranoias. Saw them at Brunel where they did a Neil Young parody, squirting talcum powder all over everyone! Funny at the time!

Non-music meetings with pop stars would make a separate thread no doubt. I did play cricket against Ray Davies once. He was pretty hopeless but did buy his rounds in the bar afterwards.