He had a reputation for that I believe, but I had an almost religious experience Halo.
It was a few years back at the Hammersmith Apollo (2008?) and Reed was touring the Berlin album. Just that. Start to finish. In order.
He was backed by a local gospel choir and there wasn’t a lot of chat. As it’s conceptually a very emotional piece, it would have have been out of place to have engaged the audience.
From memory, he did a couple of encore tracks, but that was it.
I wished I’d made the effort to go and see Pink Floyd at Earls Court in the early 90’s. An ex girlfriends uncle also worked for Sony and I had the opportunity to go and see whacko Jacko but couldn’t be arsed because I’ve never really liked him…looking back I wish I had, just to say I’d seen him if I’m honest.
A band that I now wished I’d seen live was one that formed the musical backdrop - usually, the unwanted musical backdrop - to many of my formative years, which is somewhat strange because, back then, very few people in my peer group, myself included, actually liked them; or, at least, were prepared to admit that they liked them. I remember a girlfriend describing her sister’s new boyfriend to me: “he seems like a nice bloke, except that …”, lowering her voice, “he likes Abba”.
I was pretty lucky, looking back. Managed to see Led Zeppelin (not a big fan now though), The Who at the Valley, Dr Feelgood, Dylan at Earls Court, and then again at Hammersmith, The Ramones, The Jam, The Clash quite a few times, load of Two-Tone bands (The Specials, Madness, Dexys Mignight Runners and The Selecter on the same bill - hah!), and quite a few old legends no longer with us - Muddy Waters, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield…
But the one I really regret not seeing was Bob Marley. Bit too young for the Lyceum in 1975, but could have made the ‘Rastaman Vibration’ or ‘Exodus’ tours. I probably thought I’d get around to seeing him sometime but by 1981 he was gone
Not one for the Punk Era kids but I was sorry to miss Steely Dan. A lot of the Punks I used to know at work have tempered their opinions on them in recent years. They were supposedly the antithesis of Punk but they were simply a great Rock band.
My girlfiend and I had tickets to see them at the Top Rank in Southampton around 1974 IIRC…we were walking up and everyone else were going in the opposite direction…“Forget it Donald Fagan’s got a bad throat…gig’s cancelled”
Saw them on a couple of occasions…one “Lizard” era at the Old Refectory, Southampton Uni (cracking gig) and also McDonald & Giles at an open air gig in the Uni grounds.
Not one for the Punk Era kids but I was sorry to miss Steely Dan. A lot of the Punks I used to know at work have tempered their opinions on them in recent years. They were supposedly the antithesis of Punk but they were simply a great Rock band.
My girlfiend and I had tickets to see them at the Top Rank in Southampton around 1974 IIRC…we were walking up and everyone else were going in the opposite direction…“Forget it Donald Fagan’s got a bad throat…gig’s cancelled”
With you on that one. I was playing cricket at Havant that day and got the driver to get us back at breakneck speed only to be told it was off.
Wasn’t it at The Guildhall though? Definately 1974.
Not one for the Punk Era kids but I was sorry to miss Steely Dan. A lot of the Punks I used to know at work have tempered their opinions on them in recent years. They were supposedly the antithesis of Punk but they were simply a great Rock band.
My girlfiend and I had tickets to see them at the Top Rank in Southampton around 1974 IIRC…we were walking up and everyone else were going in the opposite direction…“Forget it Donald Fagan’s got a bad throat…gig’s cancelled”
With you on that one. I was playing cricket at Havant that day and got the driver to get us back at breakneck speed only to be told it was off.
Wasn’t it at The Guildhall though? Definately 1974.
It was “Top Rank”…I remember because it was very unusual…Doobies at the Guildhall around the same time. The only other rock band I saw at “Top Rank” was Focus…not sure of the date on that one.
I should have added REM to my list. At their peak they were awesome.
I left The Beatles off purely because of all the screaming girlies. I went to see T.Rex at the point they stopped being a hippy duo and turned into and electric teenybopper combo. Ride A White Swan and Get It On had turned them into a big act and I was swamped with screaming prepubescent girls. Rolf Harris would have loved it!
I was fortunate enough to see Arthur Lee with a backing band back in the early 2000’s, but would have loved to have seen the original Love lineup as well.