Garyswordz

The early 70’s was not short of singer songwriters. Elton John, Bowie, Rod Stewart, Leo Sayer, Gilbert o Sullivan, Brian Protheroe, and  the greatest piano singer songwriter from the 60’s, Neil Sedaka, still around. Elton was not destined for global superstardom, although he did steal a march on his Uk contemporaries with an early impact in the USA, through a combination of great songs, great management, hard work and flamboyance. His subsequent superstardom was by no means a given.  But his fey, theatrical shows were underpinned even then by several years working the bars, pubs and clubs combined with session work- he was tougher than he at first appeared.

1982, was not his most auspicious year , the Jump Up album struggled to make an impact in the post punk/new wave era   but his performing repertoire   was so strong that did not impact interest in his 135 date world tour which closed with this 16 night season in London. It also marked  Davey Johnstone’s return to the Elton John band, reuniting the classic band on stage for the first time in eight years.

Funeral for a friend/ love lies bleeding was a perennial opening favourite and did not disappoint. “Goodbye Yellow brick Rd” had already assumed cult status  as a standard alongside   such greats as “Somewhere over the rainbow”, it is both a song of hope and regret, of expectation and lamentation.   Quite simply it was magnificent.

Elton is not infallible and two of his favourites, fan favourites too have always grated on me, “Bennie and the Jets” and “The Bitch is back” their live renditions here did nothing to change my mind Material from “Jump up” was well represented of which “Empty Garden” was the best.

The pacing of the finale did not work, the poignant ballads Your song and Daniel were interspersed with the rip-roaring “Saturday Night” during which Davey Johnstone was on fire , leaving the always reliable “Crocodile Rock” to pick up the mood from “Daniel”.

Of course the rock n roll medley encore was fun and  a throwback to his bar room days, so nostalgia heavy, but it was at the expense of numerous original songs which could have done an equally good job. “grey seal” , Take me to the Pilot” and “Your sister cant twist” to name but three. Although a major international pop star his subsequent status and longevity could not have been anticipated back then. His song writing and performing went on to develop and mature. “Your Song” remains one of the great pop ballads, “Saturday Night’s alright for Fighting” is one of the great guitar driven rockers, “Rocket man has evolved into a psychedelic tour de force, and “Circle of Life is a musicals standard.

So a great night, with some great performances, but marred by an uneven setlist.

setlist

Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding

All The Young Girls Love Alice

Someone Saved My Life Tonight

Better Off Dead

Ball And Chain

Empty Garden

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

The Bitch Is Back

Pinball Wizard

Song For Guy

Elton’s Song

Chloe

Where To Now St. Peter?

Blue Eyes

Where Have All The Good Times Gone?

Rocket Man

Bennie And The Jets

All Quiet On the Western Front

Your Song

Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting

Daniel

Crocodile Rock

Encore

Rock and Roll Medley: Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On/I Saw Her Standing There/Twist And Shout

Elton John  NEC Birmingham England  3/7/2002

And so, twenty years on…

He still opens with Funeral for a friend but wow has his repertoire matured! I can forgive him “Bennie and the jets” which was surprisingly  jaunty because this time the setlist and pacing was impeccable. And played with an energy, dynamism and commitment that belied his 55 years.

At a concert you are fortunate if a handful of songs take off, here the entire evening levitated from “Rocket Man” and never came down. The song is now much stretched out and rearranged from the original, and much for the better. “I guess that’s why they call it the blues” I have always found routine on record, but live it takes on another dimension and becomes a narrative story, it brought the house down.

“I’m still standing” was a more than adequate stand in for “Saturday Night” “Crocodile Rock”  was fun, feisty and elegiac bringing the main set to a close. The encores combined the pizzaz of “Pinball wizard” with  the pathos of  “Don’t Let the Sun” and Your Song”. The perfect setlist for a perfect evening.

Setlist

Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding

Bennie And The Jets

Daniel

Someone Saved My Life Tonight

Ballad Of The Boy In The Red Shoes

Philadelphia Freedom

The Wasteland

Rocket Man

I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues

I Want Love

This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore

Take Me to the Pilot

Sacrifice

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

Oh My Sweet Carolina (Ryan Adams cover)

American Triangle

Have Mercy on the Criminal

Holiday Inn

Tiny Dancer

Original Sin

I’m Still Standing

Crocodile Rock

Encore

Pinball Wizard

Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me

Your Song

And twenty years on in 2022 Elton, aged 75 is playing his farewell tour

East Anglia was honoured to have Tina pay her first ever visit to the area for a two night stint at Ipswich Town’s handsome football ground for her Foreign Affair tour(also known as the Foreign Affair: European Tour 1990) It supported her seventh studio album Foreign Affair (1989) and  was Turner’s first stadium tour and only reached European countries. Overall, it was attended by approximately three million people—breaking the record for a European tour that was previously set by The Rolling Stones at the time.

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Her touring band included the extrovert  Tim Cappello (born May 3, 1955),  an American multi-instrumentalist, composer and vocalist. primarily known for his saxophone work supporting Tina Turner . Star guitarist was John “Music was my first love” Miles  with trademark blonde hair as side man.

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I wasn’t familiar with her back catalogue beyond her hits, but when you have had hits like her that doesn’t really matter.

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Dressing like no  51 year old you were ever going to see in Suffolk she stormed onto stage as if she had just walked of the “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome “ set seemingly as  Mad Maxine, but still the “Queen of Rock n Roll”.

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Was this the best time to see her? I suspect that  would have been in the late 60’s, but commercially her  1984 multi-platinum album Private Dancer which contained the hit song “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, and  won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year was still high in the public consciousness and featured strongly amongst the evening’s songs.  Her stagecraft was impeccable, her voice strong and her back catalogue now boosted by contemporary hits as well as her sixties material.

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The opening “Steamy Windows” was perfect for a stadium surrounded by the town’s redlight district, but the evening really ignited around “We don’t need another hero”, dramatic, bombastic and grandiose, electric fans blasting Tina’s tousled hair, she transported us to a different, other worldly place, as great singers do, segueing into “Private dancer”. Somehow Tina transported us from the sweeping landscapes of the Australian  desert to an intimate  private booth in a lap dancing club for the Mark Knopfler penned composition. Knopfler had previously complained about the Jeff Beck solo on her recording, this night, John Miles did a fine job.

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There are some classic songs where only the original artist will do. Hearing Tina bark out “NutBush City Limits” was one of “those” moments where rock n roll history is lived out before your very eyes, “Proud Mary” similarly.

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Only a handful of the thousands of artists whom I have seen perform live have earned legendary status before my eyes, Diana Ross, Cher, Tom Jones, Robert Plant, The Who, amongst them, for this performance Tina joins them.

Setlist

Steamy Windows

Typical Male

Foreign Affair

Undercover Agent for the Blues

Ask Me How I Feel

We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)

Private Dancer

I Can’t Stand the Rain

(Ann Peebles cover)

Nutbush City Limits

Addicted to Love

The Best

I Don’t Wanna Lose You

What’s Love Got to Do With It

Let’s Stay Together

Proud Mary

Encore

What You Get Is What You See

Show Some Respect

Better Be Good to Me

Be Tender with Me Baby

Television / the Only Ones – Hammersmith Odeon London, April 17^th 1978.

Much talk was made of American/ New York punk, in the Uk. With the exception of the Ramones and Richard Hell and the Voidoids, its impact was insignificant.  Their new wave was however a different story with Patti Smith, Blondie, Pere Ubu, Talking Heads and the Flaming Groovies notable protagonists. Foremost amongst the American new wave was Television as represented by twin guitarists Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine. This slice of New York talent was hugely anticipated when they arrived in London.

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Their story, as they arrived in the UK was built around one album “Marquee Moon” and a distinctive angular duelling guitar sound, borrowed from classic rock, but distilled, twisted and refined into something very different.

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That sound was defined by their two guitarists, Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine. Television were born out of the mid 70’s CBGB’s rock scene . Their debut album ‘Marquee Moon’ released in February 1977  featured  punk power chords in a progressive jazz-inspired interplay with an intricacy that Steely Dan would  have been proud of. It’s a multi-layered recording with melodic lines and counter-melodies unlike anything before, with no short songs , instead each is given a chance to breathe. The follow up album “Adventure” is no less impressive.

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Support were the scintillating  Only Ones with their much-lauded debut album to promote, played in its entirety. Hit single “Another Girl Another Planet” predictably closed the set, but the haunting “The Beast” was the highlight. Their brevity, quality, and showmanship set a very high standard for Television to follow.  Lead singer Peter Perret strutted, strolled, growled and howled like a bona fide Rock star, and then they were gone- neat.

The Only Ones were the closest thing the UK had to Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers, a charismatic , shambles of a band who were capable of creative greatness and self indulgent implosion. The experienced drums and bass of  Mair and Kellie provided an inventive platform for Perry and Perret’s guitars. Perret channelled the velvet underground’s sound with Lou Reed perfectly. Unfortunately he and the band also channelled the VUs  drug use, and they were deep channels. These two shows at the then prestigious Odeon were probably their finest hour, artistically. They went on to support the Who, but by then the drugs had destroyed rather than inspired them. Yet that night they were unbeatable.

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The evening was by no means perfect, the previous week a crew member had died falling from the lighting rig  in Bristol  and  we sensed an uneasiness as they took the stage. Opening with the unknown “Fire Engine” by the 13^th Floor Elevators added to the tentative start.

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The 13th Floor Elevators were an American rock band from Austin, Texas,  together from 1965 to 1969, and during that period released four albums and seven singles. The Elevators were the first band to refer to their music as psychedelic rock, with the first-known use of the term appearing on their business card in January 1966. They were later to be name checked by Primal Scream.

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There is no staging, no production, no stage presence as such. Lead vocalist Verlaine is  taciturn, stage banter is zero. The musicianship was excellent, the sense of occasion muted. Yet slowly, but surely, as Lloyds’ and Verlaines’   sinuous guitar lines intertwined, the magic began to be revealed. “Friction” was the moment  when it all came together, with the spelled out coda the defiant climax.

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Then we were on the home straight. An exquisite “Careful”, a spell binding “Little Johnny jewel” which felt as we were in the confines of the 100 Club, not the expanse of a theatre, a performance of searing intensity leading into a blazing “foxhole” . “Knocking on Heavens Door”, Must be one of the most covered songs   and benefitted from their angular approach. Of course they finished with “Marquee Moon”, and it was not the gratuitous curtain closer of their biggest song, it needed the build up emotionally and musically of what had come before.

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How do you top that? With an original reworking of a Stones number (I can’t get no) Satisfaction, and then their very own jingly jangly  “See No evil” to close.

Fire Engine

Venus

Prove It

The Dream’s Dream

Ain’t That Nothin’

Friction

Careful

Little Johnny Jewel

Foxhole

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

Marquee Moon

Encore

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

See No Evil

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And then they were gone, the cool late spring evening air shocking our systems as we left the theatre, the sinuous guitar leads floating in the memory like a spiders’ web in a gentle breeze. I had never seen a band like them, forty-five years later I still haven’t.

The mid to late 70’s was an incredibly diverse time for music. The early 70’s was experimental and primarily featured disco building upon 60’s soul, prog rock developing hippy rock and hard rock, pop, and Rnb rock n roll. .  Graham Parker and the Rumour built upon all of those traditions as Pub rock broke, with chief fellow protagonists being the likes of the Kursaal Flyers, Dr Feelgood, Kilburn and the high Roads, Hatfield and the North,  Burlesque, Kokomo, Brinsley Schwarz, Ducks Deluxe, and Ace.

Music is a fluid entity, and the forces which spawned pub rock also spawned punk in the summer of 76, and in turn, New Wave. Very little in music is original, but Pub Rock was overtly derivative, that was what drew crowds, you were listening to something that you seemed to already know. Punk seemed new, I was a teenager going to live gigs, it felt exciting, and fresh ( in truth was it any more new than the New York Dolls ( who were not gigging in the UK), early Who, or early Rolling  Stones? Probably not, but that was the music of old people, and this music was for me.

By 1975 the Rumour had been assembled in London by the Hope and Anchor above which Dave Robinson of Stiff records fame, had a studio. Parker became a staple  artist at the Hope and Anchor, and  Fulham Greyhound in Hammersmith two of the hippest venues in London with a burgeoning live reputation boosted by the seminal “live at marble arch” bootleg. His early sound , vocals and presence was reminiscent of Van Morrison.  Contemporaneously Elvis Costello with  a formidable family music tradition, and Joe Jackson with formidable compositional ability, were the competition.

And so in 1978, on the basis of the above and the great “Hold back the night”  hit single cover, I went to see them live  at Leeds university. It was to be one of the best shows  I  had ever seen.

I arrived early, early enough to chat to Graham as he arrived for the sound check to claim my place at the front, and what an experience . Parker’s passion, Brinsley Schwarz’s searing guitar , Bob Andrews’ keyboards, Andrew Bodnar’s bass, Steven Goulding’s  drums and the Rumour Horns, a live  rock n roll combination only Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band could match.  The 2000 capacity all standing venue  packed with under 25s was perfect.

This was the perfect setlist of their early material with his cover of Ann Peebles’ “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down” absolutely showstopping. He channelled Peebles later in the set for a magnificent, soulful “Watch the Moon Come Down”, Parker crouching under a solitary spotlight. It was a great time to see hi. He had broken out of small venues, the Rumour was tour tight.

Like the most powerful gospel soul from the early sixties, “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down” serves notice on a cheating lover (or is it white supremacist America?) declaring that the free ride has come to an end. It’s a restatement of the revolutionary gospel anthem “Samson and Delilah,” and the message is the same: “If I had my way, I would tear this building down.”

Peebles is a pivotal figure in understanding early Parker. She was also influenced by R&B performers, including Muddy Waters, Mary Wells and Aretha Franklin. Her first record, “Walk Away”,  reached the R&B chart in 1969, as did the follow-up, “Give Me Some Credit”, and she released an album, This Is Ann Peebles. All her early records on Hi  Records  featured the signature sound of the Hi Rhythm Section and Memphis Horns, a sound that the Rumour were to duplicate In 1970, her single “Part Time Love” – a version of Little Johnny Taylor’s 1963 hit – reached no. 7 on the R&B chart, and no.45 on the pop chart, and she began working with the Hi label’s songwriter Don Bryant.

Two of her most popular songs were “I Can’t Stand the Rain”, which she wrote with her husband Don Bryant and radio broadcaster Bernie Miller, and “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down” She was also the only female singer on Hi to release a string of albums, including Straight from the Heart and I Can’t Stand the Rain, which contained many tracks that she co-wrote with Bryant. The title track of the latter album, written by Peebles and Bryant with DJ Bernard Miller, was her biggest commercial success, reaching no. 6 on the R&B chart and no. 38 on the pop chart in 1973.

The  set opener was a storming “Stick with me”, horns blaring, Parker snarling, setting a pace and energy that never let up, we really did want to “Hold back the Night” one that was too good to end. Every show has its purple patches, here it was the triumvirate of “Fools Gold” featuring Schwarz’s guitar, “Playhouse” and “Hey lord” a classic audience call and response number.

Set list

Stick to Me

White Honey

Lady Doctor

Fool’s Gold

I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down (Ann Peebles cover)

Hey lord, Don’t ask me Questions

The Heat in Harlem

Silly Thing

Gypsy Blood

Back to Schooldays

Heat Treatment

Watch the Moon Come Down

Thunder and Rain

The New York Shuffle

Soul Shoes

Encore:

Hold back the Night

Just under a year later I caught him again in London with a setlist significantly bolstered with songs from the excellent “Squeezing out Sparks” album several of which were new set highlights, particularly “Passion is no ordinary word” “You cant be too strong” and “Nobody hurts you” even if the cod reggae of“Protection” and  vitriolic “ Mercury poisoning”  were unsubtle and raw cries de Coeur.

Hammersmith Odeon, London April 3^rd 1979

Discovering Japan

Local Girls

Thunder and Rain

Don’t Get Excited

Back to Schooldays

Passion Is No Ordinary Word

Fools Gold

You Can’t Be Too Strong

Love Gets You Twisted

Mercury Poisoning

Heat Treatment

Howlin’ Wind

Stick to Me

Crawlin’ From the Wreckage

Saturday Nite Is Dead

Nobody Hurts You

Soul Shoes

Encore:

Hold Back the night

Protection

Ultimately there was only room for one angry young man songwriter, and Graham and Joe Jackson played second and third fiddle to Elvis Costello. Live this was his high water mark of popularity, although he was to return to the Odeon, while other bands moved on to arenas, he was stuck in theatre sized venues, which for a numerically big band  will always create financial pressures. Subsequent tours saw him play the smaller Hammersmith Palais, then by 85, without the Rumour ,he was playing Dingwalls and the Marquee while the Jam and Stranglers had played Wembley arena.

Subsequent to this, having borrowed from Dylan on his first few albums he courted Springsteen, but was not in the same league  on vinyl although “Fools Gold” was a great tribute. The ill-advised collaboration on the subsequent “ Up escalator”  with Springsteen was to be  his swansong.

In those days  a show at the Hammersmith Odeon was a prestige date, and this was one of two sold out nights, rapturously received by a home crowd and bizarrely featuring a stage invasion  from a fan on crutches! It  was a night in his career he never bettered.

“mercury poisoning” was his take on his demise I think it was more complex than that.

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Mercury records themselves were a fine, large, established, diverse record company, producing hit singles and albums for Paper Lace,  bachman turner overdrive, 10cc and Rod Stewart- a pretty impressive contemporary roster.

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I think that GP was a victim of bad luck, bad timing and  bad judgment.

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Unquestionably GP& The Rumour were the toast of the Pub Rock scene. But before pub Rock crossed over to the mainstream, punk broke, and the band were no punk band. Some rode the wave, adapted and survived after a fashion, most notably Eddie and the hot Rods.  Some stuck to their guns and prospered, most notably Dr Feelgood. Some great bands were overwhelmed like the Kursaal Flyers and Ducks deluxe, some adopted, adapted and developed like Kilburn and the high Roads/ Ian Dury. Bad luck.

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As punk morphed into new wave, two singer songwriters  emerged, Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. Ian Dury also reinvented himself both as a singer songwriter, and with the Blockheads as a first rate live act. It was a crowded market, bd luck and bad timing.

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Ditching his horns section for “Squeezing out Sparks” had no negative creative effect, possibly the reverse,  and saved him money, but the soul sound  of the band was gone. His subsequent flirtation with Springsteen for “The Up Escalator” had some commercial upside, but it was short-lived. Graham was no Bruce. Bad  judgment

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The Uk pop market in the late 70’s and early 80’s was unbelievably fast moving from month to month. Parkerrhad neither the time, nor the money, to commit to touring America for months on end and abandoning his home market to the competition. Bad luck and timing.

The talented racing Cars and Motors were both consumed by the vicissitudes of that era. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers rode it out, the Cars faked it. That’s  the music business for you.

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To graham’s great credit, he has kept going, and continued to earn a living from music which is more than most