[begin old git ramble]
I saw Rainbow at The Rainbow with Ozzy on vocals and left early. It was dull. Blackmore didn’t appear to be interested. It felt like some kind of contractual obligation gig and I’ve seen footage from other concerts of that era depicting much more spine tingling performances.
I went to roughly two concerts a month from the mid 70s to the late 80s. Some in huge venues, many in small venues and pubs. I didn’t get to see any of the other artists you mention perform live. There were so many fantastic concerts I’ve lost count but it’s the ones that were truly awful that stick out because they were such let downs and wastes of money.
Including: Stones at Wembley using a PA system that just made noise. When we were queuing up a tout offered my GF and I £50 each for tickets which had cost us £15. We refused. We regretted it. Fleetwood Mac at Wembley, playing out of time, bickering and at one point Buckingham and McVie brawling on stage. Rainbow at the Rainbow going through the motions. Hawkwind when they were AKA Hawklords, possibly Rainbow possibly Hammersmith Odeon, appearing to forget there was a paying audience present. Easy to forgive because I’ve seen them live many times and they were only bland and boring that one time. Yes at Wembley on the 90125 tour with Tony Kay back on keyboards looking very tired and sloppy and the sound was rubbish.
The Earls Court gig was a magical experience in comparison. I managed to get some photos of that concert.
I must have seen 10 superb gigs and maybe 2 absolutely amazing ones for every duffer. I’ve seen Peter Gabriel many times and on two occasions, Earls Court and Hammersmith, the concerts were beset by technical problems. They played well and did their best to work around the bugs. Not bad concerts, just bad wiring.
ELO, when Roy Wood was with them were playing at a small venue local to me when everything cut out. It took about one to one and a half hours to fix during which time the band stayed on stage for the most part. A practice amp was rigged up on some sort of power supply and through one microphone they told jokes, sang quartets, and played acoustic pieces and improvs on a variety of instruments. When the power was resorted, they played until the police turned up to order us to leave. That’s value for money and true professionalism.
It’s impossible to name an all-time favourite. Too many talented and hardworking people, some famous, some never heard of again, delivering top quality entertainment. It would be unfair to single anyone out, but since you mentioned Genesis in your post I’ll mention Six Of The Best, the Genesis and Peter Gabriel reunion concert (to bail out Gabriel from WOMAD debts) at Milton Keynes Bowl. I’d only got around to seeing Genesis post Gabriel so had missed what were some of the greatest performances in first part of the band’s career. The sound wasn’t brilliant and Gabriel had forgotten some of the lyrics to The Lamb songs, probably because he had only toured them once. It pissed down with rain all day long and all through the headline performance that evening. We were soaked through and past our ankles in mud. We didn’t care. When Steve Hackett walked on for the encore you would have thought it was the second coming from the crowd’s reaction. One of the better performances I’ve ever seen, bugs, rain, mud and all, and worth a hundred smashed millionaires playing badly and swearing at each other on stage (take note John and Lindsey, not that you would care).
At the time it never occurred to me how lucky I was to be able to attend so many concerts, including some of the big ones. Or how magical it was to walk into a pub or small local venue to see bands including Chicken Shack, Suzi Quatro, Dr Feelgood, Steve Hillage, Dave Edmonds, The Jam, Mott The Hoople, Manfred Man’s Earth Band, Curved Air, ELO, Fruupp, Hawkwind, Medicine Head, Edgar Broughton, Soft Machine, to name a few bands I saw up close playing small venues. We took it for granted. I don’t know how much it would cost to attend a big concert today and what the chances would be of getting tickets. Too much for me to stomach I suspect. We still nip out for the odd local-ish gig when someone comes to town or a nearby town. It’s difficult. We’re getting on a bit.
[old git ramble off]