graham
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Post by graham on Mar 26, 2006 14:01:54 GMT
Sensational Alex Harvey band at the Kursaal Thin Lizzzy at the Kursaal Hawkwind at the Kursaal (lots of times) Henry Cow at the Queens Hotel Lol Coxhill, Gerry Fitzgerald, red Square and Henry Cow at the Lindisfane Community Centre Southend Sounds 76, the closest we ever got to a music festival at Roots hall football ground, featured Alvin Lee of Ten Years After as top billing!!! Steve Hillage at the Kursaal Manfred Mann's Earthband at the College Budgie at the Kursaal Can at the Kursaal
Any more???
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Post by martin on Mar 26, 2006 15:42:20 GMT
a couple of others that come to mind from that time at the Kursaal:
PFM (Chocolate Kings Tour) Gong (Shamal tour) Man (?)
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Post by thedimlocator on Apr 3, 2006 0:04:31 GMT
Well, you did ask. UFO, Queens and Kursaal, "Rock bottom" "Doctor doctor" "Lights out", how could they fail. Pink Fairies Queens and Kursaal but Kursaal the best, 10CC, suprisingly good, Hatfield and The North at the Queens, they had a Gibson SG nicked from there, all part of that Canterbury scene, art school boys and girls, used to give you grants then I'm told. Gentle Giant, Van Der Graaf Generator at the Kursaal, prog rock but they were great VDGG were intense. Tangerine Dream at The Kursaal, quadraphonic sound and lasers, Arthur Browns Kingdom Come at the Queens with a very early drum machine, Focus at the Kursaal with Philip Katherine on guitar, not at all engaging as if the audience weren't there at all but still very good, Amon Duul 11, Nektar at the Queens, Amon Duul 11 were fantasticallly loud, had two drummers and it was Kraut Rock, which is what you wanted then. Lindisfarne at the Kursaal I remember being very enjoyable I even remember the last time Barclay James Harvest played at the Kursaal the crowd were really quite rowdy which obviously rather took them by suprise. Status Quo, "Down down" "Big fat mama" "Roadhouse blues" "Paper plane" "Caroline" they were never the same after the line up changed. And gig going in Southend has never been the same since we had those two regular complementary venues.
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graham
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Post by graham on Apr 3, 2006 21:54:13 GMT
I'm envious that you caught all that Kraut Rock at teh Kurssal & Queens, unfortunately i started going to gigs a little later than you, as stated elsewhere my first was Thin Lizzy at the Kursaal in march 1976, when that era seemed to be over, at least as far as Southend was concerned...
I did however go and see Kraftwerk with Gary Get & Steve Dobson in London in 1980 (or was it 81?), and ended up spending the night at the Poison Girls house in leytonstone. The next day I went up to Birmingham where I saw The Stray Cats...
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Post by thedimlocator on Apr 5, 2006 23:48:22 GMT
Kraut Rock in Southend, it's only through chance that you missed it, there were two good sized old ballrooms in Southend that were never going to be used for ballroom dancing again, they'd never be able to compete with TOTS or The Zero without having a truck load of money spent on them so what have you got to lose by letting them be used for concerts every now and again, you don't even have to spend any money on the things. You could get any band you want playing in Southend, if you've got venue, promoter and audience, I've seen bands play with no audience but always always been a venue, and we don't have and never really have had any here. Think of all the places you've watched bands in Southend, could you put bands on there now, would you want to ? If bands played The Esplanade, Chinnery's, Chesters, Saks The Toothbrush, Barons, The Grand, The Top Alex, The College, Shrimpers, Rascals, Zhigavos, The Dickens, Reids, Focus, if they got a record deal had a single in the in the charts and an album out, where do they go, Cliffs Pavilion,you'll have trooped up to London to see bands more often than you've been to concerts at The Cliffs. If it ain't there you can't have it, so from 1976 and Thin Lizzy onwards remember what The Shocks sang, "And you be thankful for what you've got". And obviously we have been.
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graham
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Post by graham on Apr 7, 2006 0:10:15 GMT
I agree with you Audi, and totally take your points about the Queens and the Kursaal being major local venues more by luck than design. I still regret missing Tangerine dram, Kraftwerk, Nue, Nektar, etc, although I cearly remember seeing Can, and remember seeing one keyboard player ringing the other one up at the other side of the stage...
martin hardy reckons I was at the late Gong gig (post split from Daevid Allen when peire Moullin had taken control of the group) where they did the 'Shamal' set but I'm sure I was in Germany watching The Banjo Boys with Trevor Quy... But i was certainly at the Planet Gong gigs at the Zero 6 when they played witrh Alternative TV.. We were too young to get in (the bouncers had already turned us away), so we went round the back and 'roadied' for ATV/Planet Gong/Here & Now and got in that way. My first introduction to the dubious comforts of 'new age traveller' lifestyles, ("Wow, they've got beds and bookshelves and a cooker on this bus...."
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steve
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Glitter, stardust in dull, camp form. Hero are you out there, or are you just a shadow?
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Post by steve on May 14, 2006 15:39:09 GMT
This may not count, as I did not see this band in Southend, but I actually saw the MC5 at a Rock and Roll event in 1972! It was a huge festival at Wembly Stadium and had Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and, er Gary Glitter. I rember there was a lot of promotion for a clothes outfit called 'Rock On' in the flyers. This organisation, I later learnt, was run by Malcom Mclaren and Vivien Westwood. I can not say that I remember that much, but they (The MC5) did not go down too well with the crowd as they were not rock and roll enough. I must have been about 10 or 11 at the time and went with my Mum. Mind you I did wear a pair of pink jeans....
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Post by andiprey on May 14, 2006 18:52:49 GMT
Dr Feelgood played at that gig, and they got the idear for the black& white Down by the Jetty cover from The MC5, Wilco even painted himself gold for a few gigs because The MC5 did it too.Bet the pink jeans were flares.
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steve
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Glitter, stardust in dull, camp form. Hero are you out there, or are you just a shadow?
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Post by steve on May 14, 2006 22:21:50 GMT
Oh yes he jeans were flared! With an orange t-shirt with an aztech print on! I totally forgot about Dr Feelgood! I remember Shakin' Stevens was there with his band - 'The Sunsets'. Gary Glitter didn't go down a treat either, again he was not 'pure' Rock and Roll and got booed.
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Post by thedimlocator on May 20, 2006 0:26:00 GMT
The Status Quo "Quo Live" EP had one song recorded at the Kursaal, 1st March 1975, does anyone know what happened to the rest of the tape, will it ever be released ?
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firestorm
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Aka Dick Sinker
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Post by firestorm on Jun 28, 2007 13:01:08 GMT
Slade at the Kursaal followed 3 days later at the Hammersmith Odeon, Got the late bus home from Newbury park with Ozzie, first time I had met the geezer, top bloke
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vicar
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Post by vicar on Jul 15, 2007 1:28:16 GMT
Thin Lizzy at the Kursaal. Queen at the Paddocks Community Centre on Canvey Island just after they released Seven Sea's of Rye. About a dozen of us in the audience!!
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Post by budgie on Feb 2, 2008 21:50:13 GMT
Can't remember exactly when it was but I remember Frankie Miller being booked at the Kursaal, but as there were no more than about 50 punters there, all that happened was that he stuck his stupid top-hatted head through the stage curtain to look at the few sorry straglers with nothing better to do on a Saturday night. The hat disappeared and almost immediately there was an announcement that the gig was cancelled. We all go our 75p's back and I still consider it money saved. Back Street Crawler played to just as small an audience and they were incredible. PFM gig was pretty good exept for horrendous feedback all the way through until almost the last number. I seem to remember Camel playing the Kursaal a couple of times playing " The Snow Goose ".
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graham
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Post by graham on Feb 19, 2008 21:07:51 GMT
I remember (or rather don't, as I didn't go...) the Frankie Miller non-gig, i fact I had a letter published in the Melody maker about it as Henry Cow quite happily played to just as small an audience around the same time.
Were Back Street Crawler part of that 'package' gig at the Kursaal in 1976 where about 5 bands played and you got a free EP called 'Heat On The Street'? I used to have that but don't know what happened to it... IIRC the idea was that this tour was to 'showcase' what bands were going to be 'the next big thing', but oh dear, suddenly punk rock happened and hese bands were never heard of again...
Anyone else remember that The Racing Cars (who I also saw at the Kursaal) were also touted as being the 'next big thing' just before punk??
On the subject of ill-attended gigs, I saw Citizen Fish at the Royal Hotel a few years ago, not only was there hardly anybody in the audience, this was compounded by the ballroom being a huge space. The band were obviously really pissed off, and wouldn't come on to do an encore after their set.
i bumped into Dick Lucas, their singer, in the bogs, he said he was pissed off that so few people had bothered to come to the gig and wouldn't do any more songs. i told him I thought he was being disrespectful to the people who had made the effort, and that he should play to the people who HAD come rather than worrying about those who hadn't, he said, "Yeah, your right!", jumped back on stage and did an absolutely blinding and energised second set!
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Post by budgie on Feb 20, 2008 19:30:31 GMT
Not only do I remember Racing Cars, I think the support act called The Bowles Brothers (sort of Manhatten Transfer lite) had the misfortune of appearing on the same edition of So It Goes as the Pistols. After an incredible performance of Anarchy, Tony Wilson marveled that neither of these bands had yet got a record contract. I believe one of the bands did go on to sign a contract, and in fact change British social history, but on the other hand, Southend Council never banned the Bowles Brothers, so I ask you, in the long run, who was the real winner? I don't remember anyone else being on the bill with Back Street Crawler, when I saw them, certainly the posters advertised it as a Crawlers gig. However we didn't get to the Kursaal until the band were on stage, so we would have missed what was going on before. I definately never got a free single!
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