Concerts

Velvet evil bastard Swedish Clown you old man you saw Gentle Giant! I am jealous. I would give my sex life away to take a time trip to see this band in their prime back in the mid seventies I hope my wife doesn't see this. Well here goes here are my most memorable shows:

 Grobschnitt, Manhiem 1978

King Crimson, Montreal 1984

Marillion, Montreal 1984

Larry Coryell, Montreal 1983

Anne Clarke, Montreal 1983

Black Sabbath, Montreal 1983

Discipline, Montreal 1980

Mariah Carey, Montreal 2004

I didn't start seeing bands until the nineties so my most memarable concerts/gigs are:

Peter Gabriel on the 'So' Tour at Earls Court (Massive concert and featured Sinead O'Connor dueting on 'Come Talk To Me'.)

ELP on the Black Moon Tour at Colson Hall,Bristol. (only time I saw ELP live.They were great of course!)

IQ on the Subterranea tour at London Astoria (they did 'Last Human Gateway' as an encore ,all twenty minutes of it.Wonderfull!) 

Flower Kings at Whitchurch festval 3 years ago.(They were late on and then proceeded to do what looked like a 30 minute sound check.To cries of ''Come on girls get on with it!'' from someone in the audience they eventually got started.The gig was great and the sound quality was of course excellent!)

Carl Palmer at Swindon Arts Centre about 3 years ago.(Fantastic to see a drumming legend in my own backyard, literally 5 minutes walk down the road!!---and he's coming back in 2 weeks.HURRAHHH!!!!)

Twelfth Night at the Target, Reading, 1979 (Yes, when they recorded THAT live album!!)

Twelfth Night at the Marquee 1983, (Yes, when they recorded THAT other live album!)

Marillion at the Top Rank, Reading, 1982 (No, they didn't record a live album of it, but the guys came out and chatted to those of us that didn't want to leave the bar). Also Reading Festival 1982 and 83, and Hammersmith Odeon 1984 and 85.

Hawkwind at Stonehenge, 1982, 83 and 84, Reading Hexagon, 1982 and Donington Monsters of Rock 1982 (Status Quo headlined).

Diamond Head Donington Monsters of Rock 1982, and supporting Metallica, Milton Keynes Bowl 1991.

All awesome shows - but I think the Stonehenge 1982 takes the trophy, as Hawkwind had an incredible laser show, and a white double-decker bus which was used as a projection screen. They played a set which must have lasted 3-4 hours until just before the sun came up, as far as I remember... a few hundred of us followed the druids and watched the ceremony as the sun rose over the stones. Incredible!

I can remember three which that are very special for some circunstances:

1.- 1976 or early 77: Maybe some of you know about Frágil, a peruvian symphonic prog' band from the late 70's - early 80's, they have one great album "Avenida Larco", but back to the point.

This band started doing covers of Genesis, Yes, etc . Around 1977, when I was 13 only listened to radio music (and Roundabout), but a friend's older brother told me to go with a group of guys and see this progressive band that was the opener for the most popular pop band in Perú (You) who played Wings covers.

Honestly I went to see "You" but I noticed the audience was not normal for a POP concert, almost all were males with long beards and hair, almost as left oriented intelectuals.

The concert started with a guy dressed with a strange hat and a flower in his teeth singing a strange song named I Know What I Like, amazing a new world opened for me, then he started to tell stories while the other musicians tuned their instruments, the next songs were 11th Earl of Mar, Close to the Edge, Stairways to Heaven and Supper's Ready, the crowd was really thrilled.

After a couple of hours the lead singer from You (the Pop band) climbed the stage and said: "Well guys you are here to see us so give a warm applause to Frágil and let's Rock with YOU!!!!!!!.

Bad mistake....the crowd went mad, they started to throw objects to the stage like cans, beer bottles, etc everybody was shouting the name of Frágil.

The poor guy from You started to sing "Silly Love Songs" and it was worst, 50% of the audience went out (included myself) and the other 50% was shouting and throwing things, 2 or 3 blocks away I could listen the name Frágil shouted by the crowd.

This concert changed my life and my understanding of music.

2.- Sep. 1993 Lima - Perú, Rick Wakeman: This was the first important concert played in Lima, because we always get third class (or almost dead) artists. Rick was here at 10:00 in the morning, but the instruments were not. Because a confusion with Iatta codes the instruments went to Paraguay (Pa) instead of Perú (Pe).
The concert was programed for 9:00 pm, with a full auditorium of 7,000 thousand fans, but the concert started at 1:00 am, the incredible thing was that nobody left the hall, Rick was so moved that played extra time (until 4:00 am) , and surely gave his best, he was so happy that he came back two more times.

3.- Oct 1994? Lima - Perú, Jethro Tull: This was the group's second concert in less than a year, and as he always does, Ian started to jump and play around the stage, sudenly he vanished, the stage broke, and his leg also broke. We thought the concert was over, but he asked for a chair sat down and gave one more hour of music. He must have been in great pain but sung as if nothing had happened. Really I never saw such a demonstration of professionalism in my live.

Iván

I've only ever attended two concerts.

1. Radiohead in Vancouver.  They were my first concert, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into before I arrived there that night.  The opening band was Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, and they sucked, which had me thinking "am I wasting my time being here"?  However, when Radiohead came on it took them about two minutes to make me realise that this was going to be an amazing experience.  Once they started rocking out during 2+2=5, I entered a trance of some sort, one that I would emerge from a couple hours later in complete awe.  If anyone has ever told you they have a great live show and you've disregarded it, go punch yourself in the face.

2. The Pixies in Victoria.  It was a fun show.  I'm not a HUGE Pixies fan, so it wasn't like this was an experience I had been wishing to have for ages.  They played well though, all the songs I wanted to hear were played, and there was tremendous energy.  Plus I was right up at the front of the venue, which made it even better.