| Before Your Generation Music 07:11 - Apr 8 with 5360 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
...that you love. The stuff you were too young to see live but can't get enough of.
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| Before Your Generation Music on 18:58 - Apr 9 with 659 views | BrianMcCarthy |
| Before Your Generation Music on 18:38 - Apr 9 by VancouverHoop |
I was lucky to have been at the first show of the Stax/Volt revue at Finsbury Park Astoria.
A mate of a mate had got four tickets, another friend and I ran into them both in Stevenage Town Centre early that afternoon, and they asked we wanted to use the two spares. Well, sure!
It was an amazing experience in so many ways. First, it was the first half-and-half black and white audience I'd been part of. Though a big mod town (hence the love of Stax) Stevenage was very whitebread in the 60s. The noise was was incredible, mostly from teenage girls in the front of stalls. We were about three-quarters of the way back, and the 5'5" 50+ year-old Irish usherette had to brusquely move four very large dudes out of our seats – something I doubt we'd have had the courage to do! The intensity just built and built from the moment Booker T & the MGs hit the stage until Otis closed the show. Sam and Dave were incredible, and perhaps the most memorable performance, partly because they weren't particularly well known at the time, and like... just the way they moved! Up and down off the stage, back on, driving the teenyboppers crazy. And of course, there was Otis. In his pink suit with half-mast trousers (the suits got brighter, the bigger the act – Arthur Conley and Eddie Floyd had to make do with beige or brown.) He was awesome, such a big guy the stage almost seemed too small for him. One of my memories is of a persistent little female voice, between songs, pleading "Sing 'Good to Me' babe!.. Oh, man sing 'Good to Me' !... Oh, puuuuhlease sing 'Good to Me'!"
Sadly he never did. The song list for everyone was nailed down and everything seemed timed to the second.
We left exhausted and overwhelmed. And wishing we had tickets for the next show. [Post edited 9 Apr 2017 18:40]
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Fantastic!
What a memory that must be! Great post. |  |
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| Before Your Generation Music on 19:21 - Apr 9 with 648 views | karl |
Given his age I notice Baz has held back on his choices? Wham, Bros perhaps......  |  | | |
| Before Your Generation Music on 20:16 - Apr 9 with 634 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
| Before Your Generation Music on 19:21 - Apr 9 by karl |
Given his age I notice Baz has held back on his choices? Wham, Bros perhaps...... |
I was actually listening to Fleetwood Mac when the thought popped into my head.
Otherwise Dead or Alive was number one when I was born. | | | |
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