May 11th 1985 - Hammersmith Odeon We'd been to see Ultravox at Hammersmith Odeon and had such a great time, that when we saw The Alarm were going there too and on a Saturday, we jumped at the chance to have a full day out in London. Getting to London from Leicester was pretty easy,... Continue Reading →
March 22nd 1985 - Leicester University This gig was postponed from February 1985 and rescheduled for 22 March 1985, 7 days after Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Which meant they were going to struggle to follow that hype....and they couldn't (but still a great sounding gig). The guys were one of the bands signed to Paul... Continue Reading →
March 15th 1985 - De Montfort Hall In the eighties, Wham were big, Culture Club were huge, both had created an enormous amount of hype and excitement about their tours. Well, Frankie Goes To Hollywood were just MASSIVE. The hype was MASSIVE......your parents were not impressed with the "Relax" single, I can tell you!!! Mind... Continue Reading →
February 2nd 1985 - Leicester University In December 1984, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure did something truly amazing, something that has changed charity giving since. There was a human catastrophe in Ethiopia, a famine which was killing hundreds of thousands of people and had been going on since 1983. The guys felt things weren't being... Continue Reading →
January 21st 1985 – Leicester University 1984 and 1985 had some fantastic learning concerts in them!! Killing Joke had hit my radar through my bestie, Geoff (most of my punky/industrial stuff started here!). I really loved this album, with Love Like Blood and Eighties on it, really hard for me at the time and warrior... Continue Reading →
November 29th 1984 - Mr Kiesa's Cabaret Voltaire never did loads of gigs, let alone come to Leicester, so when Kiesa's got them it was a must go. Crackdown and Just Fascination were great electronic tunes and the Cabs were Sheffield's answer to Krafkwerk. I don't think this tour had a name. Stephen Mallinder, Rich... Continue Reading →
November 28th 1984 – Leicester University I'm not sure if this was the "No Rest" or "Vengeance" Tour....I'll investigate further, if I was to bet, I'd go for "Vengeance". I'm afraid this is another gig where the ticket doesn't exist anymore. I don't think I understood the beauty of them for the early concerts. New... Continue Reading →
November 11th 1984 - Mr Kiesa's Another first for me, seeing a band twice in the same year! Actually kept my ticket this time! The Alarm had still only released the Declaration album at this point, but were attracting a good following having supported U2 a few times. I'm not sure why they ended up... Continue Reading →
October 16th 1984 - De Montfort Hall I'm not sure why, maybe because The Jam passed me by and I regretted not getting into to them while they were around, but I got a touched obsessed with finding more out about Paul Weller, The Style Council and what ultimately turned into Respond Records artists. I... Continue Reading →
September 19th 1984 - DeMontfort Hall Two gigs in a week, that was pretty special. I hadn't really come down from the wonderful Echo and the Bunnymen concert and now we are back at the Demontfort Hall again. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark were one of my top 5 bands at this early point in... Continue Reading →
September 17th 1984 – DeMontfort Hall Echo and the Bunnymen will become one of the bands I have seen the most over the years, which may seem strange, as they have never been known for their crowd interaction skills or stage show lighting, or adding any kind of extra on top of the music. That... Continue Reading →
June 7th 1984 - Hammersmith Odeon My first travelling gig! So far, concerts had been in Leicester, either De Montfort Hall (the main gig venue in town) or Leicester University. So to be considering travelling was a real look in to the big wide world. Having seen Ultravox once already on the Quartet Tour in... Continue Reading →
March 19th 1984 - De Montfort Hall 1984 was a cracking year for music for me. Maybe it was because it was my first year of concert going and starting to create a real social life with like minded friends from school and now, sixth form college (Wyggeston QE1 in Leicester - I wasn't destined... Continue Reading →
March 5th 1984 - De Montfort Hall Musically, this was a bit of a switch for me, or more likely an extension of the type of music I would listen to. Marillion were a mix of prog rock, pure rock and synth music. A real mixture which appealed to a wide range of fans, they... Continue Reading →
January 27th 1984 - Leicester University I'm only a couple of years into gigs, but I'm starting to move away from purely pop and electronic music and into rock. I'm listening to U2 and David Bowie and revisiting music from the late 70s, such as Alice Cooper, The Who, Black Sabbath and got a bit... Continue Reading →
December 12th 1983 (matinee) - DeMontfort Hall There was massive hype in 1983 around this bunch of popsters! Colour by Numbers was a huge success, selling over 6 million records at the time. Boy George, the very colourful lead singer set tongues wagging with articles outwardly questioning whether he was a boy or a girl!!... Continue Reading →
October 21st 1983 - DeMontfort Hall I went quiet on music gigs for a bit, I can only assume it was because of a mixture of money and a bit of a strict up bringing. Through the early 80s my collection started to grow. As mentioned in previous post, my first record of significance was... Continue Reading →
April 15th 1983 - DeMontfort Hall Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.....now there's a name!! I think I was always going to like them just because it was a ridiculous name. In reality, we all called them OMD. This was the start of me getting a little bit of pretentiousness into my music. I mean, the... Continue Reading →
November 23rd 1982 - DeMontfort Hall My first ever concert. I was just turned 17 and Dad took me. If we go back a year to 1981, as a wet behind the ears 16 year old, I'd heard Sleepwalk on the radio and really like how different it was from what I'd heard before, but... Continue Reading →
