Midnight, But No Oasis...

-

 

The soundtrack to my adolescence was brought back to me this afternoon: watching a documentary about Jethro Tull. The picture shows the cover to their first album, on top of which is the stub of the ticket from the one time I saw them in concert. September 1970: I was fifteen and growing up rapidly. It's no exaggeration that this lot were very important to me at the time - still are, as far as their earlier stuff's concerned - and that this one particular gig was very special indeed.

They were scheduled to play back-to-back shows at Birmingham Town Hall, which hosted some of the biggest artists in the late sixties and early seventies; the first at the usual start time around seven in the evening, and the second kicking off at midnight. We'd elected to go to and bought tickets for the latter. A clutch of us - all mates from school - gathered at my house for the evening before catching the bus into town for the gig. The last record we played before setting off was the B-side to Deep Purple's 'Black Night': 'Speed King'.

Fuelled by nothing but excitement - not even a can of beer, well maybe a couple - we headed off to get the B82 bus into Brum.  The atmosphere around the Town Hall seemed entirely foreign, almost exotic, as I was yet to become a habitué of the night proper: I was subsequently to spend a lot of the mid-seventies lounging around after hours in the Town's nightclubs and cafés. I can't remember who opened for Tull, but they came on stage about 1:30 in the morning and stormed it from the opening bar of 'Nothing is Easy': there was no let-up until we spilled out onto the streets at around three in the morning. Magic - ah, youth...

Comments

  1. Steve31 January 2021 at 14:39

    Gig was opened by Tir na nOg and Procal Harum. Don't remember much about either set. You're right about Tull though, they were epic. Finished with 'We Used To Know'. Have to say that the albums through to 'Aqualung' were great but sadly went down hill from then, (IMHO!), with a slight return with 'Heavy Horses'.

    ReplyDelete
  2. sideways31 January 2021 at 18:54

    I knew I'd seen Procol Harum, but for some reason didn't connect them with the Tull gig - thanks, Steve...Totally agree: I lost interest after Aqualung.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des...
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [...
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more