What was the FIRST concert you went to?

The Greg Lake Band, live at the Liverpool Royal Court.

Arrived on the bus, and the driver asked who the hell was playing as he'd never seen queues of people as long desperate to get in.

The Buzzcocks, 1978, The Electric Ballroom.

Not a bad place to start.

-- Ian

The Modern Lovers, Hammersmith Odeon, mid to late 70s.

Paul

My first was Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, but that won't count because I didn't know who they were at the time - I was taken. Of course I am dumbstruck by what I didn't realise what I was seeing!!!
My first that I went to by choice was Roxy Music on the For Your Pleasure tour. That was followed when I took myself off to the 1975 Reading Festival at 15 years old on my own. As a parent now, I can't understand why I was allowed to do that.

The Doors, Seattle Center Arena, summer '68. I was fifteen. They were white-hot; lucky for me, as histories of the band all indicate that they were very inconsistent due to Morrison's, er, chemical balance.

This is always embarrassing....

Adam...umm... Ant. Sometime around 1983.
A friend of my older sister took pity on me, however, and soon after dragged me to see CSN.

dn'l

Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) - Italian prog rockers on their Chocolate Kings tour approx '76 (?) - at York University. Quite why them I dunno - my best mate was a fan and I'd borrowed one album and played it once so it was all a bit lost on me. Liked the volume though!

Rich

Simon & Garfunkel in a football stadium 1983 - at a time when open air concerts still had this wonderfully smooth and powerful 'full-scale' sound, produced by huge piles of speakers. Good old days

Cheese

My first proper rock concert (or rock and roll concert) was when my Mum and Dad took me to see Bill Hailey and the Comets at the Rainbow Theatre London back in 79.

That was followed by

Springsteen - The River Tour at Wembley
Genesis at Wembley
Simon and Garfunkel at Wembley

Being a very regular concert goer ever since

Cheers
Adrian

Jez,

Brilliant thread idea - apart from the bands that played at the school disco, I believe it was Camel at Brighton Pavillion, then Enid at Farnborough tech then Buzzcocks (Ian- brilliant band weren't they?) at Farnborough tech - all 1977 I suppose. Immediately got hooked so not sure of the exact order.

Jeremy

First for me was also Camel, at the Brighton Dome on the Snowgoose tour.

Lot's of "Kraut Rock" (Guru Guru, Nektar, Inga Rumpf's Atlantis, Klaus Schulze, Alexis Korner, ...) in the early seventies, little later John McLaughlin (Shakti), Zappa, Softmachine, and - Police (as the "warm up" band, before Eberhard Schöner was starting his wobble, wobble kind of early electronix music)

My first Jazz concerts were probably Volker Kriegel's Mild Maniac Orchestra and - Oregon, late seventies.

God, this thread shows the age of people...

Best regards, freundliche Grüße

Stefan

My first gig:

Pink Floyd at the Empire Pool Wembley, March 1977. Taken by my big cousin Gary. I was 14. They did the whole of "Animals", followed by all of "Wish You Were Here" with "Money" as an encore.

I was amazed, and was a bit disappointed by the sound quality at gigs for a long time thereafter!

First gig I went to with people of my own age and under my own steam was either Thin Lizzy or Rush (I can't remember which wwas first) at Hammersmith Odeon in 1978.

Kevin

I think my first was in '63ish to one of these sixties everybody on it tours at a cinema in Brighton just up from the clocktower,I'm sure a local can supply the name.
All I can remember taking part were :-
Lord Rockinghams XI,The Undertakers and starring were The Searchers. We only saw them because their huge 30 watt amps were drowned out by the girls screaming.

Howard

Tom Robinson Band at Guildford Civil Hall - April 1979
I was 13 at the time and I have been passionate about music ever since
Later that year I saw (a 25th anniversary):
- The Who, Stranglers and AC/DC at Wembley (in the Summer)
- The Stranglers at the Rainbow in October (my first visit to my favourite venue)
- The Jam at the Rainbow - December '79 (legendary 3 nights - released a couple of years ago in the BBC Sessions set as a bonus disc)
Happy days!

Howard
The cinema was closed in the late 60's and a small area of the basement was used for a very early Virgin Records shop in the early 70's which had bean bags on the floor and headphones from the walls. I didn't live in Brighton then, but it probably added to the attraction of the town and probably contributed to me living here now. I used to get the train here most weekends to go to Virgin and listen to early Floyd, Wishbone Ash, Mike Oldfield, etc. I was about 12-13 then. I moved here in '79 when I was 19. The cinema was knocked down and the whole corner site is now Boots.

Cheese - I had forgotten about the PA speakers. I went to see The Muffs, Sons & Daughters & Futureheads last night, and there was no PA on stage. There never is now. It just isn't the same. We always used to compare PA sizes of bands
Top thread Jez.

LOL,
good thread.
In the same week:

Depeche Mode, Simply Red, and Ultravox. Jeez I feel old now!

andy c!

Ahem,

The Glitter Band at Deeside Leisure Centre!!!

Top that!!!

Mike

Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Hammersmith Odeon 1975.

The Byrds, December 1965 at my high school gymnasium in northeastern Ohio,with the Dick Clark "where the action is" tour (don't remember, and didn't care, who else was on the bill). McGuinn (then Jim) was wearing granny glasses (as was I) and Crosby had on the poncho, just like the cover to Turn Turn Turn. For me, Gene Clark was the MAN. Very short set, but very good.

Jeff A

1979 (I Think....)
Can't remember which one was my first.....

Motorhead supported by Girlschool promoting Overkill - Aylesbury Friars

Siouxsie & The Banshees - Aylesbury Friars- stopped after 6 songs because there was so much aggro

The Damned supported by the Ruts (waht a double bill) - High Wycombe Town Hall

Great memories

Mf

Roy Orbison, late 60s, Odeon Glasgow. Engelbert Humperdinck and Mary Hopkin, 1969 Odeon Glasgow. Both had about half a dozen support artists, each playing 3 or 4 songs. I remember Orbison's voice being unbelievably powerful, much more than I'd expected as I'd only heard him on TV or cheap tranny.

First real concert though was Deep Purple in Green's Playhouse in March 1971. I know I've been to better concerts since but this made more of a mark on me than just about any other. Just wonderful.

That was on the Friday and on the following Monday I saw the Stones who were good but completely upstaged by Purple. At the end, when it was clear they weren't playing an encore the crowd started shouting for Deep Purple. I don't expect that happens very often at a Stones concert.

Girlschool, at the Marquee, sometime in 1982.

Pretty soon after saw Robert Calvert at Dingwall's, Camden. Over three hours. Completely mind-blowing set and joined on stage by Nic Turner on sax. Had never heard such noise before.

Thinking about it, this was probably Nik Turner's band Inner City Unit, but fronted by Robert Calvert.

Peter

[This message was edited by nodrog on Thu 09 December 2004 at 15:49.]

Wedding Present at Huddersfield Poly.

Didn't know about support acts so tried to get out after the first band whilst thinking "Shame they didn't play any of the songs I knew". Luckily the door was locked (Keith Lard turns in his grave!).

Embarrassing thing was my Dad was out with his mates that night and told them all I'd gone to see the Village People .

Jonathan