Friday morning

Tired and sore this morning. Last night's gig was excellent but we were standing - I was knackered after it finished. Somehow it's a lot worse standing than walking - I think nothing of walking for 4 hours round a golf course, but I'm not used to standing for over 2 hours nowadays - it's something we used to do at football matches, but no longer in the modern era.


My football blog (http://bvetsfootballgroup.blogspot.com/) shows some photos and videos of Seasick Steve and his support Amy LaVere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_LaVere), a young double bass playing singer who also appeared on Jools' Later with SS a couple of weeks ago.


Ross was back on to favouring the Lumphanan property again yesterday - until this morning when he spotted this: http://www-r.aspc.co.uk/cgi-bin/public/LiveProperty/267373?ID=MCEJODBF#picture


I've agreed to play football again tonight - and it looks like it will only be 5-a-side (usually 6's) - sounds like hard work to me - hope I survive OK!


I've also bought tickets to see Seth Lakeman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Lakeman) at the Lemon Tree next Thursday - the first time we've been there since it re-opened.


All this talk of gigs reminds me of some of the shows I've seen over the years - so that's the subject of today's list(s). Early live music tended to be at dancehalls - the Beatstalkers at the Mitchell Theatre, Jimmy James & the Vagabonds and Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band at the Maryland in Glasgow in the mid 60's.

In the late 60's we moved in to the rock era -progressive was king those days. Green's Playhouse (which became the Appollo later) was the first to feature "name" bands in a concert hall. I was at the very first gig there, which was The Nice. After that, we went back many times - I can only list those that come to mind today - no doubt there were others. Jo was (a little reluctantly) with me a few times, but mostly it was a lads' night out. Bands were always notoriously late on stage then - they could be 2 hours later than billed and nobody batted an eyelid. Here's the other ones I remember:

Pentangle; Jethro Tull; Chicken Shack; Rolling Stones; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Family; Faces

Check out Wikipedia and/or You Tube if you're curious about any of these names. Some of them I saw several times.

I also remember going to the City Hall in Candleriggs to see Stone the Crows and Rory Gallagher.

When we got married and went to London, regular gig-going wasn't possible, although in the last year we were in Broxbourne, our neighbour Tony and I did go to Dingwall's and the Roundhouse a couple of times and saw Graham Parker, Pere Ubu and Joe Jackson. I also remember brother Barry coming down with his pal, Les and we went to Dingwall's (I think) and saw The Jags - well, with a name like that, we had to go didn't we?

When we moved up to Edinburgh, it wasn't a regular thing either, but I do recall going to see the legendary Bo Diddley with Jo and my American work colleague, Carter, at the Playhouse. I also saw the Specials and Talking Heads - amazingly, the latter 2 bands were on the same bill.

When we moved to Banchory and after a few years when the kids had grown up a bit and the Lemon Tree opened as a new music venue, regular gig-going started again. We've seen loads of acts there and at the Music Hall, and occasionally at the barn-like AECC. The latter venue hosted Radiohead, Bob Dylan and Chris Rea. Lots of the gigs were tribute acts - Bootleg Beatles, Billy Shears Band, Backbeat Beatles, Maximum Who, Australian Pink Floyd Show - and Jimi Hendrix and Small Faces acts too.

There's also some hybrids we've seen - From the Jam didn't feature Paul Weller and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and the Blockheads obviously couldn't feature their long since departed main men. The Animals only featured original drummer John Steel - but it was still a good show.

Probably the best live act was Nils Lofgren who we've seen 3 or 4 times now. We saw a very early version of Texas and also Del Amitri about the same time. Glenn Tilbrook (twice), Julian Cope, Roger Chapman, Billy Bragg, Ralph McTell and Roddy Frame are among the other acts I remember well.

Of course, we've also travelled to Glasgow and Edinburgh occasionally to see name artists like Neil Young and Eric Clapton. Last year, Dave W and I were down in London to see the cricket and took in Lou Reed at Hammersmith, and later in the year went back to Glasgow to see the re-formed Squeeze. The latter gig was at the Carling - a converted old cinema with appalling sound - avoid like the plague. On the other hand, if you ever get a chance to see anyone in Glasgow Concert Hall, take it - good accoustics, viewing and comfortable seating enhanced the experience of seeing BB King and James Taylor there.

A sad experience was seeing Peter Green at the Douglas Hotel in Aberdeen when he had just come back from years in the wilderness - a shadow of his former self. Another venue was Tunnels, where we saw Ian Hunter early this year.

Woodend Barn is a local hall we've occasionally visited - recently Karine Polwart and, next month, Beth Nielsen Chapman.

That's about as far as my memory will take me today, I'm afraid.