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Concert Etiquette – The Do’s and Don’ts Of Gig-Going

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I was listening to the magnificent Goodbye Cream LP today (on vinyl, natch) and as Eric, Jack and Ginger brought the mammoth 9 minute white hot solo of I’m So Glad to a screaming, shuddering halt, steam coming off the brake pads and rivets straining on the engine room boiler, a few people actually began to applaud during the few moments of ensuing silence. Yes APPLAUD. What were they thinking? Didn’t these lightweight fans know that this was just a temporary halt in proceedings before the band launched back into the main theme of the song and the closing vocal verse?

All of which brings me to concert etiquette. Have you ever noticed that there are several levels of gig-going fans? There are those who applaud the instrumental introduction to a song, presumably to show how clever they are. Then there are others who wait until the opening vocal line before the penny drops, at that point it’s safe for THEM to applaud. Still others wait until the very END of the song to clap, which is just as it should be,

Alternatively, some people like to applaud specific passages of a song. For example, Dylan’s It’s Alright Ma, » Continue Reading.

Farewell Robert Stigwood

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Farewell Robert Stigwood who died yesterday aged 81.

It was a game of two halves for Stigwood. He came from Adelaide, South Australia in 1954 to London where he worked with Joe Meek, Larry Parnes and others before forming his own production company.

Stigwood was also supposedly the man Don Arden’s heavies dangled out of a first floor window for trying to poach Arden’s band the Small Faces

The first record I’ve found with his “RS” logo was by soap star turned pop crooner John Leyton who spent 15 weeks at number one with the Joe Meek produced Johnny Remember Me

After that he managed The Graham Bond Organisation featuring Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. This lead to Cream being signed to Stigwood’s own Reaction label with its wonderful mod-tastic label design.

He lured the Who away from Brunswick for one Reaction album (A Quick One) and a handful of singles.

At one point Stigwood managed both The Bee Gees and Cream which lead to claims of neglect from both bands.

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Cream and Buffy

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I was watching that Buffy the Vampire Slayer the other day and noticed a song in the background… didn’t recognise it but caught a few lines of lyric and Googled… It was Tales Of Brave Ulysses by Cream (Giles – and Buffy’s mum – had eaten trippy chocolate, as had everyone else in town, victims of a dastardly demon plot to undermine the discipline of adults, make them behave like lippy teens then the demon would sneakily eat the contents of the local maternity unit)… The Buffster saved the day, of course… Sarah Michelle Gellar is now 38