I recently bought tickets to the upcoming Moody Blues and Jethro Tull concerts in Brisbane. Now before I’m consigned permanently to the Jurassic I must declare that I am eclectic in my music tastes and have always been a fan of new music. It’s just that I’ve never fallen out of love with the music I grew up with. So that makes me lucky. I can appreciate the best of new music while still spinning the old vinyl (without purposely scratching it).
The thought of seeing Tull and the Moodys again made me reflect on the concerts I’ve been lucky enough to see over the years. Now for those of you in London, Paris and New York, seeing big international acts any old day of the week is no big deal, but for a boy in Brisbane, Australia big tours happened very infrequently. Nevertheless I‘ve been fortunate to see many of the great artists over the years.
The first was Led Zeppelin in February 1972. Led Zeppelin 4 had just been released, so Stairway to Heaven was a new song (imagine that). I’d been a fan for about three years and all of us tried playing Zeppelin stuff on our guitars. The concert was at Festival Hall in Brisbane – a classic old style inner city stadium that had hosted pro-wrestling, boxing, the roller game and The Beatles. Everyone played Festival Hall. Tickets cost about $4.00 from memory. No support act, just two hours of Zeppelin.
It was my first indoor overseas act and I guess I wasn’t really prepared for the noise. I had seen plenty of local acts there including Australia’s loudest band, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, but Led Zeppelin was something else. They started with The Immigrant Song and when Robert Plant’s voice hit that first wailing series of notes it was like someone put a hot knitting needle in one ear and out the other. A couple of people near me got up holding their ears and left. Silly bastards.
All the classics were played, except the new song Rock and Roll (I think they played that in Sydney.) There was a great acoustic set half way through where Stairway to Heaven was given an airing. They finished the night with a Whole Lotta Love medley that included Dion’s The Wanderer. I’ll never forget that night.
Over the years I’ve seen the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, T-Rex, Paul McCartney and Wings, Focus, Slade, Jethro Tull, The Moody Blues, Black Sabbath, Yes, Rick Wakeman, Elton John, Steeleye Span, Fleetwood Mac, Brian Ferry, Status Quo, Ike and Tina Turner, Roberta Flack, The Police, The Eurythmics, U2, BB King, Santana, Plant and Page etc etc.. I may have forgotten what else happened in those years but not the concerts. They’re all vivid memories.
Only one regret – the 1980 Kiss concert. Events overtook us that day and we weren’t able to go. I still have the unused tickets.
Music date-stamps our lives.
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