I was excited to find this photo today at the bottom of a box of music paraphernalia. It’s rubbish quality but I treasure it because it’s almost certainly the earliest photo I ever took at a concert. It’s Donovan of course, but it took me a while to work out when and where I had taken it. Then after a little detective work I figured out it’s the 7th Jazz & Blues Festival, Windsor, August 1967.
We see John Cameron (far left) who was Donovan’s music arranger on all those great psych LPs and interestingly he’s playing John Mayall’s Hammond organ! Mayall was also on the Windsor bill and it’s just about possible to read his name writ large on the back of the organ.
Cameron later worked with Cilla Black and Hot Chocolate, but his biggest claim to fame was as a member of CCS with Alexis Korner where he arranged their version of Led Zep’s Whole Lotta Love which for many years was the Top Of The Pops theme
Third left is the great Jamaican born jazzman Harold McNair. He played flute on Donovan’s early albums and also recorded with John Martyn and Ginger Baker’s Airforce. He died in 1971, aged only 39.
With the advent of the cursed smart phone everyone has a camera with them at all times these days. So, even if you’re one of those annoying types who holds their iPhone aloft for 10 mins at a stretch, we can absolve you here. No excuses, let’s see the best pictures (stills) you’ve taken at a gig. Preferably with a little bit of back story.
http://i.imgur.com/qEroM3d.jpg
Here’s that August 1967 Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival line-up in full.
I believe it was the debut Fleetwood Mac gig, too.
Read ’em and weep.
11th August
• Small Faces
• The Move
• Tomorrow
• Marmalade
12th August
• The Nice.
• Paul Jones
• Crazy World Of Arthur Brown.
• Zoot Money,
• Aynsley Dunbar
• Ten Years After
• Amen Corner
• Time Box
( Pink Floyd were originally bill, but were replaced by The Nice)
13th August
•Cream.
• Jeff Beck.
• John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers
• PP Arnold
• Alan Bown
• Chicken Shack.
• Fleetwood Mac.
•Donovan
• Denny Laine
• Blossom Toes
• Pentangle
That’s some line up Johnny C. A few years after that I remember seeing Chicken Shack then billed as Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack on a double header with Savoy Brown at Birmingham Town Hall. My memory is fading but I think Christine Perfect had left by then.
The interesting thing about that incredible line-up is the sheer quality and longevity of the musicians.
With the possible exception of Alan Bown, Blossom Toes and Timebox who had brief but interesting careers, every single name on that bill went on to greatness (or at least some of the members did – ie Steve Howe from Tomorrow).
And Christine Perfect left the Shack for a solo career in 1969 then joined Fleetwood Mac following Peter Green’s meltdown in 1970
And Jim Cregan (from Blossom Toes) had a pretty good career later with Family, Cockney Rebel, Linda Lewis and Rod Stewart.
Ah, yes. Forgot about Jim. That’s true.
And of course Jess Roden and Robert Palmer were in various line-ups of The Alan Bown Set over the years. Not sure if either of them were there in ’67 though.
I’ve got an old poster of this gig from Q
There was a gap between the afternoon session from 2.30 to 5 and the evening bill which started at 7 and carried on to 11
How long did everyone play for?
Appreciate that sets were shorter than nowadays but some of the bands lower down the bills must have been on for about 20 mins
Did the headliners play for over an hour?
Not mine but this is a treasure trove…
http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/
And heres some from the Windsor festival of 67
http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/1967-windsor-festival.html
Pretty sensational line up there.
The Donovan photo is ace. Harold McNair is a great favourite of DuCool and myself.
Check out his Flute and Nut album. It’s on Spotify.
When I think of Harold McNair, even more than Donovan I think of his work on the second John Martyn LP The Tumbler and in particular this track Sandy
Yeah – Harold McNair also played – beautifully – on the soundtrack to Ken Loach’s film “Kes”.
He was a product of the famous Alpha Boys School in Kingston, Jamaica – the school that also gave us Tommy McCook, Don Drummond, Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks, Rico Rodriguez, Yellowman, Vin Gordon, Joe Harriott, and all 3 members of Israel Vibration. For fans of reggae and jazz, that’s an impressive list indeed.
That’s some good info duco.
The debonair Harold McNair (as Donovan called him) also had a 1965 LP on Island LP Affectionate Fink recorded with & Ornette Coleman’s Sidemen. It’s on the early (pre-pink) white & red label and now sells for the thick end of 500 quid.
It also gives the lie to the story that John Martyn was the first white artist on Island.
http://i.imgur.com/hriSGIC.jpg
And I see Harold spelled his name “MacNair” back then,
Let’s have a listen to a track.
It’s interesting how I only took just the one picture of Donovan that day, despite sitting through Jeff Beck, Cream, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and the rest
I can only think it was because we just didn’t have the same mindset back then. Now we have to share photos of our dinner and/or our cats with the world all the time.
Will look out some photos later, remember Johnny that in those days you only had 36 frames on a 35mm camera, and so you had to be careful with how many photographs you took. Nowadays you can shoot off hundreds and delete the crap ones.
Also shooting in low light was difficult too.
I think another reason we didn’t take photos at gig way back then was, quite apart from the lack of camera technology etc, we thought we were just too cool to do it.
When we were young it all seemed a bit naff to take photos at gigs, but now I really wish I’d taken many more.
There was also a fairly good chance of having your head kicked in by one of the bouncers.
*nods gravely* Yes, there was that too.
Anyone still got the little black&white photo that was in the little pink envelope? Lost mine somewhere along the way about forty years ago ? but still play the album and love it. F&N also a fave.
That’s true Hubert. You had to take the film to the chemist and pay a fortune to get it developed even if they turned out shit.
Speaking of which, here’s a shit picture I took at the Rolling Stones free Hyde Park concert in July 1969. That’s Mick miles away above the guy holding the camera aloft.
These days it would be a sea of iPhones, but there’s just that one guy
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/Afterword/stones-01.jpg
I too was at both of these (with admittedly very little memory of what went on, maaaan……)
I seem to remember that The Who & Chuck Berry (with an early Status Quo as support) were playing at the Albert Hall as part of the Pop Proms on the same day as the Stones were in Hyde Park. I passed Hyde Park on a bus on the way to the Albert Hall and was amazed at the size of the crowds. Not sure I made the right choice but The Who were great with Daltrey in full fringed moccasin, mike twirling mode.
Continuing the theme here’s a couple of rubbish box brownie snaps I took at the 1969 Blind Faith Hyde Park free concert, a month before the Stones concert above.
It was their only UK concert
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/Afterword/hyde-pk-bfaith-winwood.jpg
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/Afterword/BlindFaith01.jpg
I was standing a little to your right about the same distance from the stage (unless you were using a zoom lens). Eric was very much in the background if I remember correctly.
I was there (without a camera of course) at both Blind Faith and the Stones. To think, our paths might have briefly passed!
Striking how close they are standing to each other. Stages are much bigger these days.
Watching the Blind Faith DVD it’s clear that Clapton didn’t want to be there. And yes we may have passed like ships in the night
As soon as Ginger muscled his way in BF were doomed. If ever a band didn’t need a drum solo…
Well, I don’t remember seeing any of you. Somewhere I have a rubbish shot of a sea of heads in Hyde Park. The Stones (indeed the stage) aren’t visible at all.
Who could have predicted that 45+ years ago, half the elderly membership of the Afterword would have been at the same two concerts?
Anyone know who else was possibly mooted for the drum seat?
According to Clapton, nobody. He and Winwood, having nothing much to do post Cream and Traffic, were happily getting together for jammin’ ‘n’ weed from time to time, when Baker turned up and demanded to know what they were up to. Clapton was twitchy (a) because Cream, and (be) because he knew it would inevitably mean they had to form a band, and he was over bands at the point. But Winwood was intrigued by the possibilities, and before they knew where they were they’d hired Grech and they had a band.
OOMBA, of course.
Re the iphones comment it’s not something you see at gigs in the states in my limited experience, whether or not the band ask.
That’s interesting. I haven’t been to many UK gigs in recent years, but at Australian shows iPhones are everywhere.
Led Zep – Boxing Stadium, Dublin – T’internet tells me it was March 6th 1971.
They were touring small venues.
Me and my mate’s seats were just in front of the speakers – not great for the ears.
After the show started noticed a number of seats right in front of the stage just a couple of rows back. We grabbed them – happy days.
Sign ogf the timmes I was able to get on back stage no problem.
Here we go lets see if I can attach the photoes – well slides origionally.
Excuse spelling – multi-tasking issues.
Fantastic Zep shots – in that new-fangled colour too!
Here’s one from the Ovel ’71 – No idea who’s on stage.
The Who topped the bill.
Rod and the Faces next on bill. (Maggiw May was no 1 in both UK and US that week)
I was there but see earlier comments above….
ps a camera, a camera – you guys owned a camera back then? Cameras were the mark of the bourgeoisie, a symbol of capitalist oppression – and anyway, I had spent all my student grant on a cool leather jacket not some poxy middle-class camera.
Mtself and my brother bought a 2nd hand twin reflex camera between us. We used slides because they were cheaper than ordinary film and developing costs.
Wow. Some impressive ones here. I don’t think I ever took any photos at shows until about 99,, took one of those disposable cameras (remember them?) to a Stones show at Shepherds Bush Empire. Got about 24 photos of the backs of people’s heads! So then gave up until the digital age.
I’ve been going to gigs since about 1969 so I was a bit surprised to discover that, despite digitising all my hard copy snaps a few years back, I don’t have any gig photos before the early 2000’s. Where’s the photos from my University days I hear you cry? The answer is that I didn’t have a camera. At all. I probably bought one when we first had children, which coincided with me stopping going to gigs
Here’s one I took in 2007 on my 3rd visit to Merlefest in North Carolina. I spent a lot of time watching the female string band Uncle Earl who I thought were just wonderful. They played all over the festival. I saw this particular set at the Creekside stage. After about 2 tunes banjo behemoth Bela Fleck came on stage, to the obvious delight of the band, and never left. Some time later he married Abigail Washburn, the lady banjo frailer in this photo. There’s a gene pool to conjure with! The guy on the right joined in a few tunes later. He’s making his second appearance in this thread as he’s in Ger The Boptist’s second photo. It’s that well known bluegrass fan and mandolin picker, Mr John Paul Jones
At that time Uncle Earl were a 4 -piece who hired a female double bass player for their live work. I was delighted last week to read, probably rather late catching on, that the quartet shown in this photo have reformed. I hope they tour the UK again as they were always great entertainment
Emmylou Harris ath the Dome, Brighton, 12th February 1976. If the pic comes up, it will be a miracle. My success rate posting images here is almost nil and if it happens it’s a fluke.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8069/8191283086_23acd56043_z.jpg
Great pink paisley Fender Telecaster onstage there. That can only be James Burton?
You rang?
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/telecaster-discussion-forum/237816d1401711616-new-james-burton-telecaster-third-usa-series-400-jpg
Fendertastic!
See here: http://www.tdpri.com/2015/05/17/53-tele-turns-up-on-antiques-roadshow/
for a bunch of people discovering how much their dad’s/mum’s/grandma’s old Tele is worth. *grinds teeth and curses his dad for not playing in a Western Swing band*
Whenever you see 50s or 60s footage of American campus life, or small time bands onstage they ALWAYS have droolworthy Fenders, Gibsons, Martins etc.
Meanwhile in the UK we could only dream of owning a quality American guitar. Not only did they cost two months wages, but they simply weren’t available until the early 60s.
Meanwhile every American college student was wandering around the campus tunelessly singing Kumbaya while strumming his Gibson J45 or Martin D28.
Bastards.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g401/mikethep/misanthropes_zps6cwuhxso.jpg
We got lovely copies from the Freeman’s catalogue though. My first guitar (the 12 string). Laramie.
This was Scarborough in summer 1977.
Things had got much better by the 70s when the Japanese started making good cheap copies of Gibsons & Fenders, but in the 60s the cheap European guitars really were poor.
Give that man a coconut!
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8478/8190198167_c8aaa95bcb_z.jpg
They made a companion blue floral model too.
The design was basically just wallpaper glued on to the body. No one liked them at the time (1968/68) and they were quickly withdrawn. But they’ve since acquired a kitsch appeal and are highly sought after.
http://i.imgur.com/xkDsIGa.jpg
I know nothing about the guitars but I was mightily impressed when James Burton played it behind his head.
Take two: Elkie Brooks, same venue, 31/15/78
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8479/8200744338_0fa9deac1e_n.jpg
31st May 78
Can you tell who it is yet? In fairness this was taken on a compact digital camera, using zoom from the very back of Manchester Arena. Freebie tickets so cannot complain.
https://flic.kr/p/At89vn
Looking at the svelte figure on the white Les Paul and the St George’s crosses on the Marshall cabinets I’m saying that’s the Sex Pistols in 2007
Correct! Here’s your coconut. This photo is a scan of one given to me by a friend from the first Pistols gig I worked on. It appeared in The Word. Whatever happened to that?
https://flic.kr/p/BspXER
Cheers Beany, that’s two coconuts I’ve won today.
You know what gave it away? It really was the rotund figure of Steve Jones on the right.
Following day, same venue. Better seats, prize draw freebies. No prizes.
https://flic.kr/p/At89w4
Great thread, I enjoyed reading every post, thanks to all, ; ))
This is the artists dressing room at The Iron Horse in Northampton, Massachusetts, and that’s David Ford waiting to go on. Touring The States as a solo artist isn’t all limousines and cocaine – you get up, drive, set up, sit in a room like this on your own, go on stage and be the centre of attention for 200 people for two hours, and then you back to this room again.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/botlblonds/DSC00205_1.jpg
just scanned these;
Ashley Hutchings liked this after he signed it that he asked for his own copy. Taken at Cropredy as the rain poured down.
http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u577/Mrpolly/ashley_zpseeziopeb.jpg
The Fairport one was in the eighties at Leeds Poly, Simon Nicol asked for a copy of this too and used it on his first solo album (I was credited as Happenstance)
http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u577/Mrpolly/fairport_zpseziyeqhv.jpg
Great story Hubert. And it was used on the LP sleeve too! Respect.
I still refuse to own a smartphone, so I have to take my camera along if I want to take photos. I don’t know why, but taking photos at gigs makes me feel like a sad bastard…so sometimes I don’t even get the camera out even if I did bring it! And it never even occured to me that you could photograph at gigs until a few years ago…
So I can’t say I’m swamped with great gig photos exactly. I haven’t been to any concert since I bought my new and vastly improved Nikon a few months ago, so these are shot with my old crap camera as well.
Anyway, here’s Beth Orton at the Stockholm Music & Arts festival in 2014. She had to go on stage and start the gig on her own, as her husband Sam Amidon had been on a delayed flight and didn’t make it there in time.
She was very nervous and unsure about what songs to do until he got there. It was almost a bit painful to watch her so uncomfortable.
The relief when he finally rushed onto the stage was palpable, and shared by the audience… Here’s the two of them, and a stage-hand, reuniting after a week apart:
The gig got a lot better after that (but not much time left of her slot, unfortunately…)
From the same festival, the same year: not an artist that’s well-known to many here, I’m sure, because she’s Swedish, but I love these photos of Jenny Wilson, so I’ll share them anyway.
It was quite an emotional concert, a defiant celebration of beating breast cancer and she was kick-ass cool and her guitar-playing sister was equally cool, as seen in this photo:
And here’s Jenny up close:
Rab Noakes a couple of weeks ago, looking fit after his treatment! He must be nearly 70.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/0LpE9dk.jpg[/img]
I wouldn’t have recognised Rab from that. He has a look of Peter Capaldi about him there.
The last time I saw him was on the Gerry Rafferty documentary I think.
Great to see he’s fit again.
Who? Gerry?
Boom, tish!!
Here’s a picture of Bert Jansch taken at a club called The Basement in Sydney during his Aussie tour of the early 90s.
http://i.imgur.com/wNz0UE5.jpg
I didn’t take these but I was there. A mate took them, back in the hey day of post independence Zimbabwe. Thomas Mapfumo , 1982 I’d say, at his peak, playing in the beer garden at Queens Hotel in Harare.
Best quality pics so far JW.
Fairport Convention toured Australia in 1995 in an acoustic line-up (ie no drummer). These pics were taken at the Fly By Night Club in Fremantle. I was standing in the wings and as it was pre-smart phones I used a full-on Pentax SLR. Almost all of the two rolls of film were unusable because of the low light level. These are the best of a bad bunch.
Maart Allcock was in the band at that point and I think he and Peggy were also doubling with Jethro Tull at the time. That would explain the Thick As A Brick t-shirt.
Fairport need another star guitarist like RT or Maart these days in my opinion.
http://i.imgur.com/H2UkvDF.jpg
Another Fairport Acoustic shot from the same gig showing (L-R) Ric Sanders, Dave Pegg, Simon Nicol and (seated) Maart Allcock.
http://i.imgur.com/MOb9UKb.jpg
Here is the late great Remy Ongala posing for me at a Womadelaide festival, late nineties possibly
View from the front row
Steve Howe – Yes
http://i.imgur.com/2UfNiqi.jpg
The late Chris Squire – Yes
http://i.imgur.com/qnQ1CeS.jpg
I’ve seen Steve Vai live several times and he’s always great. I’m not a huge fan of the shredders, but Vai’s Zappa credentials always make for an interesting show:
http://i.imgur.com/AzAnVVm.jpg
JC
What is the guitar Remy is playing on my photo?
It’s Steinberger headless guitar. Not sure of the model number. Possibly a GL-47 from the late 80s
Probably my most “Rock” photo
Oops. https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7022/6495023293_8e11629cf0_b.jpg
It’s Si Hayden at Butlin’s Skeggie. Rock ‘n’ Roll!
Great photo!
The year before the Sex Pistols played at Leeds Poly we had these jolly bunch of folk rockers. I took these photos of the Strawbs and digitized them from the negatives with one of those hit-and-miss gizmos. These come out more red than the original prints. Interesting to see a seated crowd behaving themselves,
https://flic.kr/p/B1hUy5
https://flic.kr/p/B1hUyA
Dave Cousins playing a now-unfashionable Ovation 12-String there
I now curse my younger self that I was too cool to have a camera with me at gigs. Then again, I ‘m sure I didn’t own a camera at that time. Now, thanks to a smart phone, I’ve gone to the other extreme and take far too many photos, in the hope that some will be OK.
A daytime gig is so much easier than one in the darkness. The stage lights tend to mess about with the readings from the phone.
Here are a few from Roskilde 2015 of the Foghorn String Band: two couples from the Seattle area who play bluegrass. Not only are they very photogenic, they also played a blinder of a gig, which had the audience eating out of their hand. Despite the fact that most of us had probably heard anything by them before the gig.
Top class old timey entertainment with some great musicianship.
http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u417/John_Farrow/duo%20couple_zpsd5hy2bjo.jpg
http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u417/John_Farrow/duo%20girls_zps3sphxooe.jpg
http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u417/John_Farrow/Duo%20guys_zps63g52d04.jpg
Boston. Out by Edinburgh Airport….the car market or Ingleston Indoor Market? 1978/79?
Setlist.fm give the concert details as:
26 October 1979:
Boston at Ingliston Showground, Edinburgh, Scotland
Men with perms. It can only be AOR
Come on DuCool! You must have a snap or two in your archive.
I suspect you are rather a perfectionist about your photos. Maybe you have something a little more unbuttoned you can treat us to?
Ingliston Showground; I’d forgotten about that place. I saw Genesis there in 82-ish I think it was. Nice photo.
Norman Watt-Roy at a Blockheads show for The Word at The Lexington. He is an extraordinary creature, sort of Dickensian-alien. You can see the sweat pouring through his suit. Funky in every sense. He only makes sense when he’s attached to that bass. There’s no zoom on this, I was actually that close. Well, I may have cropped it a bit…
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/botlblonds/9577960016_9d218b9357_o.jpg
Fantastic! Great shot.
The Flaming Lips at Summersonic Festival a few years back. An incredible live experience
http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t407/maggieloveshopey/Flaming%20Lips%20Summersonic%202006%20-%202_zpsaeeplznw.jpg
Lynval Golding
http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t407/maggieloveshopey/The%20Specials%20Cardiff%20Nov%202009%20-%202_zpsan1nr7mg.jpg
Lynval looks good, but the part that makes this photo great is the bouncer with the earmuffs and that look on his face!
I know! I was going to crop it to get rid of the back of the head, but losing the bouncer was too high a price.
Was thinking gloomily about having nothing to contribute to this thread, when I remembered dear old Wilko, Exeter Oct 2012. His, er, Farewell Tour. Mrs theP, and I’m sure she won’t mind me mentioning this, admitted to enjoying the show so much she had a teeny tiny orgasm. ‘That’s because you’ve never come across Wilko before,’ I quipped. How we laughed!
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g401/mikethep/wilko2_zpsfb9s9cwr.jpg
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g401/mikethep/wilko1_zpsjjyry1de.jpg
And stone me, here’s Oasis, at the Eden Project in 2009. It rained. NME said something like ‘Oasis battled the rain’…er no, that was the audience.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g401/mikethep/IMG_3796_Snapseed_zpsws7dgx1l.jpg
And Afterword Sweetheart Flo, also at Eden. Machine not pictured.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g401/mikethep/flo_zpsvnlcpubs.jpg
And finally…not sure I achieved the effect I was after here. Tinariwen, End of the Road, Sept 2011.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g401/mikethep/tiniwaren_zpsqzvf3hmd.jpg
Roddy Frame and Aztec Camera at the warehouse, Leeds, 1980-ish.
Roddy Frame and Aztec Camera at the warehouse, Leeds, 1980-ish.
https://flic.kr/p/4Mp9WL
http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u577/Mrpolly/fotheringay_zps2uhnfcb6.jpg
Photo taken of Fotheringay in June at Lowdham.
Signed last Thursday at Saltaire in Bradford.
(Print quality not very good alas)
Nice one Hubert