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It's my first time, be gentle with me

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JD View Drop Down
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    Posted: April 26 2023 at 17:31
My first time seeing Chris de Burgh was when he opened for Gino Vannelli in London Ont, at Alumni Hall around 1975, before his first album came out. I don't recall the actual date. He was a complete unknown, at least in this country.
He opened the show by walking out on stage with his guitar in hand, sat down on a stool next to another stool with a glass of water on it and began to strum away. Now you need to understand, Gino Vannelli was a rockin' Canadian boy with lots of radio play and the crowd was there to rock. Soon he began narrating along...

"There's a Spanish train that runs between
Guadalquivir and old Saville
And at dead of night the whistle blows
And people hear she's running still

And then they hush their children back to sleep
Lock the doors, upstairs they creep
For it is said that the souls of the dead
Fill that train ten thousand deep"

Well the crowd was stunned, you could hear a pin drop. What is this????
Then suddenly the narration became song and his voice was absolutely mesmerizing.
And when he sang those words "this one's mine" the chills ran down my back.

He went on to captivate the audience with a control I've never seen again.
Well, when he finished the song and hung that last note out to it's dying moment, the auditorium was absolutely silent, and then in a few seconds it erupted in thunderous applause.
The rest, as they say, is history.

So this leads me back to my subject...

What band/artist did you see before they became a huge success, but knew immediately that you had just seen something special ?
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Grumpyprogfan View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Grumpyprogfan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2023 at 18:00
National Health. Not a huge success but something special. November, 1979. I remember the huge ring on Pip's finger, John doing a cue ball bass solo, Phil throwing sheet music on the floor, and Alan pacing, smoking a cig, waiting to attack the keys. At most 100 folks there. They blew the doors down.
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Lewian View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lewian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2023 at 18:26
I saw Portico Quartet before they released their first full length album. They were very good and I have followed them ever since.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Dark Elf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2023 at 18:56
Not prog, but saw Aerosmith for $5 in 1974 at the Allen Park Civic Auditorium (Allen Park, MI population around 30,000).

Saw some unknown California band backing up Black Sabbath in 1978. Van Halen. Who knew?

Saw Bob Seger playing at a high school in '72 or '73.
...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Gentle and Giant Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2023 at 04:36
Not prog either but one I can think of is Deacon Blue - I saw them in a spit and sawdust bar in Aberdeen in the late 80s. No idea how big they are outside the UK though.

Also the Wigan Pier used to hold heavy metal shows in the early 80s - saw Angelwitch, Samson and maybe Iron Maiden (that one is a blur lol).
Oh, for the wings of any bird, other than a battery hen
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BrufordFreak Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2023 at 07:21
Saw Tori Amos at a free, solo concert (no other bands; just she and a piano) in a warehouse-like venue in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the Winter of 1992. She was doing this tour of free one-woman concerts to promote her debut album, Little Earthquakes. A dynamic performance--even from her seat at the baby grand piano--I was already convinced from my ownership of Little Earthquakes (released in the US February 25 of 1992) that she was going to be a household name.

An as-yet unconfirmed sighting: in November of 1978 I went to a concert in Nancy, France--in a small warehouse / arena in the industrial district of the city--where I watched a young (18-year old) Yannick Noah practicing tennis before a Peter Gabriel concert (a concert that is not under the lists of Peter's concerts on Concert Archives though a concert in "Nantes" is listed from a date slightly later than the one I attended). Then, sitting on the concrete floors, wearing my full winter regalia due to the ambient temperature in the unheated building, I sat four people deep from the center stage while a tiny brown-haired wraith-like dynamo dressed in a skin-tight one piece black "leather" one-piece jumpsuit with a large, torso-length front zipper revealing some not inconsiderable cleavage sang her set of highly-animated (and TOTALLY unfamiliar) songs in the shrillest voice I'd ever been exposed to (singing in English) while flying around the stage in front of her band. I'd never heard of this artist--or any of her songs--before, so her name or the name and content of her songs did not register to me, but I've always been willing to bet my bottom dollar that it was Kate Bush. (Either that or Pat Benetar--but why would Pat Benetar be touring Europe in 1978--especially when the first record of her touring on The Continent was in 1983?) While I've never heard of (nor have I been able to confirm) Kate doing any concerts in Europe--ever--I do know that at this time she was in full training for her Hammersmith Odeon concert series (May of 1979) and that she was already acquainted with Mr. Gabriel, so in retrospect, when I later became aware of the music and existence of this theatrical comet (Kate Bush), I quickly deduced that it could have been her making a little jaunt across The Channel for a little "quiet" (under the radar) practice experience--all under the protection and tutelage of a seasoned veteran of the stage and theater (or theatricity). What also contributed to my rhapsodic belief that it might have been Kate was the fact that it was soon revealed that Mr. Gabriel had, in fact, been sitting directly behind me (on the floor) during the whole of Kate's performance before getting up with his reflective vest and cyclopically-torched minor's hard-hat to make his way up the front steps to the stage for his own set. I know he thanked the warmup artist for her set, but the name he used to identify her never registered with me.

Not that anybody's life depends on it, but, I've asked this question before here on PA: Does anybody have any suggestions on how to verify the possibility of this uncharted stage appearance from Ms. Bush in late 1978? I mean, it would make some sense to do some "secretive" practice stage performing as her career was taking off. ("Wuthering Heights", Kick Inside and Lionheart were all phenoms of 1978.)--especially to gain a sense of direction: how she wanted her stage performance to feel, look, and unfold. (We all know that her Hammersmith Odeon shows were filled with many costume changes and lavish theatrical staging. This performer/performance in Nancy lacked any costume changes and no other ancillary stage performers [other than her band]. And this artist only sang and ran around the stage--she played no instruments during the concert. [Remember: as a warmup performer, her setlist was limited. I'm guessing that she did seven or eight songs. I was completely sober at this concert and a newcomer to all-things European--living as an exchange student in Strasbourg--which, I think, is why so much of this experience remains so fresh to me. Plus, I was a tennis player, which is why the weird chance encounter with Yannick Noah remains so vivid.]) Anybody have any insights or suggestions?






Edited by BrufordFreak - April 27 2023 at 07:24
Drew Fisher
https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/
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