Ticket from my first ever Be Bop Deluxe gig. Can you remember yours?...
Discussion
Having been a big fan in the 70s (saw BBD at Liverpool Empire 1976) then losing touch, then coming back 3 years ago to discover Bill's astonishing output over the years, and being blown away by him twice at the Clothworkers, today I started on a bonkers project I've been thinking about for ages. To listen to the lot, chronologically, working from a discography. This can't include all versions and obscurities etc, I know! But at least all the available albums. Call me crazy! (no don't :-) np: https://www.billnelson.com/sounding-the-ritual-echo cheers! Toby
Actually, this was the second time I saw Be-Bop Deluxe...The first time was opening night of the Modern Music tour on 20th January 1977, at Sheffield City Hall, but I couldn't find the ticket stub....Steve Gibbons Band were supporting act on the tour...needless to say, it was simply amazing.
I was lucky enough to see Be-Bop Deluxe several times, including on the Drastic Plastic tour and every concert just blew me away...I've never known a happier, more 'in to it', or more satisfied crowd from the hundreds of gigs I've been to over the years, than those who were at the Be-Bop shows I went to..When something happens like that, it stays with you forever.
I still have quite a lot of memorabilia I bought at these concerts, and photos I took myself from both tours, and signed tour programmes from the whole band...and one or two stories.
They were great days...I was 16 at the time.
By the way, the Steve Gibbons Band were very good on this tour and had an album out about a year or so later called 'Down In The Bunker', which really is very good...I listened to it not so long ago and it has stood the test of time and still sounds fresh...recommended.
Typical...Sod's law really, when I was putting the above tour program and ticket stub away, I had a quick rummage through a bit more memorabilia and found the ticket from my first Be-Bop gig, inside another tour program.
So, this was my first Be-Bop gig, Thurs 20th Jan 1977:
Always liked the look of that tour programme. DARK IS THE SPARK.
I remember my first Be Bop gig. I went with my friend Mark to see Cockney Rebel with Be Bop Deluxe as support at Tiffanys in Hull in 1974. We were both underage but managed to get in. I have vivid memories of Rob Bryan staring at the audience for most of the time Be Bop were playing, and someone getting on the stage before they appeared to ask if anyone had some hairspray Be Bop could 'borrow'. I bought Axe Victim shortly after a memorable night. In the taxi home, the driver had 'Midnight at the Oasis' by Maria Muldaur on the radio. I have loved this song ever since.
My only Be Bop gig was on that tour in early 1977. Can't remember the date, but it was at the Caird Hall in Dundee.
Would have liked to have seen the Steve Gibbons Band, but they were unable to appear. The story that went round was that they had got into a fight the night before, in Aberdeen, and someone was injured. I have no idea if that was true.
A local band had been drafted in as support, at very short notice. I remember nothing about them except that one of their songs had the beguiling chorus "I love you like the shithouse door". Sophisticated art rock at its finest.
Indeed. Scatological excellence...
Perfect Monster, the Caird Hall concert was on Sunday 6th Feb...just so you know😉
I really ought to have mentioned, to those who may be interested but didn't know, Steve Gibbons is now 77 years old (soon to be 78) and continues to tour and perform with his band in the UK and around Europe, and still sounds really good too!...here's a recent performance from last month (10/05/19)..
Seen the man tons of times over the years, Tourist. Notably supporting The Who, Queen & loads more. Consumate performer, iconic voice. Much respect...
My first Bill Nelson concert was the Red Noise Tour, 1981 at the Whiskey in Los Angeles. I don't have a ticket, but I got to interview Bill for KSPC FM. I will never forget watching Bill walking around the pool (kings row hotel, in West Hollywood, I think) listening to his Walkman with headphones! That was the first time I ever saw a Walkman!
Now THAT'S a response. VERY jealous, dadadi...!!!
Very cool, dadadi. Do you have a recording of that interview available? I only got to see Bill perform once at Tower Records in Hollywood around 1995. I still listen to K-SPC too (the Tony Palpavic show with all the jazz fusion from the late 70's is great). I really enjoyed the latest live stream though with Harold Budd and Theo Travis...hope to see Steve Jansen & Richard Barbieri there playing with Bill next time.
I first saw Be Bop at The Hammersmith Odeon, 26 February 1978, absolutely fabulous gig.
The big thing I remember (and I think I'm remembering correctly) is that they didn't play anything pre Drastic Plastic with the exception of Forbidden Lovers. I'm sure Bill said something about a 'London audience' being able to cope with just the new songs. I hope someone else was at the gig and remembers this!
I was at the Red Noise gig at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. Tourist can probably tell us the date :)
I couldn't hear it, but there must have been heckling about the setlist, because at one point Bill said something similar to that crowd, including "It said Red Noise over the door, not Be Bop Deluxe!".
So either Bill had to say that a lot, or you might have the two gigs mixed up - after all, it was 40 years ago :(
Perfect Monster said:
"I was at the Red Noise gig at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London."
That was on 18th March 1979.
I was at the Drury Lane gig as well so maybe it was that gig and not the Be Bop gig were Bill wouldn't play 'old' stuff. But I hope someone else was at the Hammersmith gig and has a better memory than me and can either definitely put me straight or coroborate.
Red Noise gig was fantastic. I was into New Wave/Power Pop and Sound On Sound is still one of my favourite albums ever.
Red Noise play Be Bop Deluxe live at Sheffield City Hall.
'Possession' 13th March 1979..
..Bill's voice sounds great
Setlist for this gig:
Don’t Touch Me (I’m Electric)
Furniture Music
Stop/Go/Stop
The Atom Age
Possession
Substitute Flesh
A Better Home in the Phantom Zone
Radar in My Heart
Art/Empire/Industry
Revolt Into Style
Stay Young
I was at this gig in Sheffield on 13-Mar-1979. The support was Fingerprintz. It was a fantastic experience made all the better by it being recorded by the BBC and broadcast soon after. I have a tape of the whole concert including Fingerprintz which is played often in my home.
I may have written about this on the previous board. Or the board before that. I won a record via a trivia question on the radio and was given the album Sunburst Finish. 2 tickets to the show were included. I want to say first US tour. Big pink barn of a coliseum in Spokane Washington. I have bought everything since. Have not regretted it for a moment. Even after I sobered up and turned my back on that previous chapter of my life by discarding all sorts of reminders, I kept Bill and the songs in my heart.
This was very touching - brought a tear to my eye. Says so much about Bill and the influence he and his music have had on us.
Modern Music Tour.. 1977/8 ...I think? It was at Bracknell Sports Centre. Support act was The Steve Gibbons Band. The Sports Centre wasn't actually the best of venues...a bit echoey and slightly impersonal. A great show none the less. Obviously I don't still have the admission ticket after all these years, -:)
I was there. My first gig as I was only 14. Never forget it.
Sunburst Finish tour at Colston Hall Bristol.i remember Bill had a very cool silver jacket..I am pretty sure the support was John Cooper Clarke...
Our first BBD show was the show with Ted Nugent and Rush. I think that we went to the first night only. That was November 26 1976. (We missed the April 10 1976 (Golden Earring/Slade) because we were travelling.) I wish that there was a bootleg of that one. BBD played Red House. Oh yes they did! When Ted Nugent came on stage, he said, mockingly, ' How 'bout them Be Bop Deluxe' or something to that effect. Anyway, we enjoyed the show. Especially BBD and Rush.
One of the two times I saw BBD (Palace Theater, Albany, NY), they did Red House as an encore.
Always liked a bit of blues in those days! (And, those of you who have kept up with my music will know that the blues still emerges from time to time in my more recent recordings.) 😉
The evidence... The so-called 'Nelsonic Blues' from the Rivera Theater Chicago 1976 .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZO0hwy-a1k
Bill and the band in fine form 😊
@merikan1 Not heard that before, thanks for the link. Shit that's good.
@Zebrapolish That entire show is killer. One of my favorites (sorry Bill. I know how you feel about bootlegs.) It is available on Youtube. Look for the longest version you can find in order to get the full blazing version of Blazing Apostles. Also, check out the Calderone show from the same year.
I'd been looking for the date I first saw BBD, which I recall being on a Saturday in Hertford approx June 1975. I found the post about tour dates, on the old forum, which ends with a discussion about Saturday June 14 1975. Perfect Monster seems to resolve this by giving a link to an advert for the entire Futurama tour, that shows Oxford Poly for that date. The discussion concerned the fact that there was a BBC concert broadcast on that day of the band playing Golders Green Hippodrome.
The curious thing is that I remember that when I went to see them, I heard the concert on the radio in the pub beforehand. I say "curious" because it seems unlikely I went to Oxford, which was a long way from where I lived at the time, when they were playing at Victoria Palace in London the next day, which would have been much more convenient. Yet apart from that it ties up perfectly with the idea that the broadcast was a recording that aired on the day of another gig, i.e. the one I went to. Hertford is not on the advertised tour schedule at all. Could the venue have been changed from Oxford to Hertford after the advert was published?
Incidentally I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise to Bill for my behaviour at that gig, because my other memory of it is standing right at the front directly beneath him, very earnestly giving him "full attention" and "shining with bright eyes" at the key moment during "Axe Victim". I will never forget his pained expression, I guess it happened at every gig that some idiotic teenager gave him this treatment!
Also saw them at Bracknell Sports Centre on 29/1/77, probably the same gig as Major Snagg.
Well Be Bop Deluxe did play the Aylesbury Borough Assembly Hall on Saturday 19th July 1975, which is only around 40 miles west of Hertford, so the day coincides, the date is near enough and the distance not too far and The Old Grey Whistle Test was also broadcast that very same night and just happened to feature Be Bop Deluxe (Lynyrd Skynyrd were also featured)...Be Bop played 'Maid In Heaven' and 'Sister Seagull'.
Could you have gone to this Be Bop Deluxe concert and then got home that night, switched on your tv and seen them on The Whistle Test?...or, gone in a pub after the gig, which happened to have the tv on, again showing Be Bop on TOGWT?.....just a thought, as exact details from that long ago can be a little foggy...but it does seem to coincide with your 'sketch' of the event.
@Tourist
Thanks for the idea but I don't think so. The date is feasible but I'm pretty sure it wasn't The Friars I went to, the venue was more basic. Also I can picture the bar in the pub beforehand and hearing the radio (no TVs in pubs in those days that I remember!), thinking it was funny to be listening to a "live" concert for a band I was about to see in actuality. I've just revisited the "gigs" thread on the old forum and there is a discussion earlier on about BBD playing Hertford (Balls Park College) on 14 June of an unknown year, probably 1975. That's enough for me, it would be too much of a coincidence when combined with my recollection of seeing them in Hertford around that time and on the day of a radio broadcast. If I'd had to make an educated guess of the venue based on such photos as I've been able to find, I would have thought the Corn Exchange rather than Balls Park College, but I don't remember much of the venue beyond vaguely entering and it being a rather bare hall with a high stage - consistent with the Corn Exchange but there aren't enough photos of Balls Park to indicate that it couldn't have been there.
So I conclude that most likely the schedule was changed after the tour was originally announced, and on 14/6/75 they played in Hertford instead of Oxford, the radio broadcast being a recording from an earlier date.
@bopcat
Sounds like you figured it out....I'd stick at that anyway, it's so long ago.
But let's not overlook the fact that my comment my have had some deeply hypnotic, subconscious, mind-probing effect, that helped wheedle out this end result..😉
Now we're agreed on that, sit back and relax, close your eyes, you're feeling sleepy, very sleepy...
...Good, now cast your mind back, way back and tell me, "What happened to that, the, missing Be Bop Deluxe film?"...you can do it...………………..
Actually, I'm feeling sleepy, very, very, sleepy and it looks like the med's are wearing off!😉🤣
Glad you sorted it bopcat!...any photos, or memorabilia from those shows?...I have quite a bit from back then.
The old site says that it was at DeMontford Hall, Leicester. I thought that rang a bell. Not a BBD bell though. Part of the original Genesis Live from 1973 was recorded there. Small world heh?
I'm utterly envious reading these posts as I never saw Be Bop Deluxe live. However, aged about eleven, I did see Global Village, I believe, when they played Clarence Park back in 1969. It was all by chance as I'd been to the fair. I was one of the kids who went up on stage and I got the drummer's autograph, who, I remember, was very polite to me, and appeared pleased to be asked for his autograph, despite the stage being mobbed.
I also saw Be Bop Deluxe in concert on television about 1978-ish. I've looked for mention of the concert but never have tracked it down. I have a feeling it may only have been screened by Yorkshire Television in the region they then covered. Sadly, I caught just the tail end of the programme, having just returned from the pub, but I remember 'Sister Seagull' being part of the set and the band played to an audience in what looked like a TV studio, rather than a theatre or similar concert venue.
My first BeBop show was 12-9-76??? Bill opening for Rory Gallagher at the Calderone Concert Hall LI NY. That was a tough Rory crowd, they usually were, but Bill put on a fine performance and we saw every tour Bill did after that. I made a recording of the show and I still have the cassette somewhere!!!
When Bill returned to the Calderone headlining later on I was working at WLIR radio which was around the corner from the venue and I was responsible for the Hospitality for the show, food, drink...I believe Bill requested a little wine, cheese , fruit for the band. I remember the band being a fine bunch of chaps, very respectful!!!
I had a copy of the lost film, but the quality was terrible. I also think that Bill put a copy of one track on this site on videos. My copy was video and really bad, but it was a full concert.
Someone on this site must still have a copy.
My first Be Bop concert was at Eastfield school, Lightcliffe. Saw every tour after that. Last one at Leeds Grand Theatre on the Drastic Plastic Tour. They did all of the album except for Elec Language and Visions. The Encore was Forbidden Lovers and Blazing Apostles and that was that!
I saw Red Noise at Birmingham and the set list was pretty much as the BBC concert, but I’m sure they played Superenigmatix as well. Hopefully the live concert will be available soon.