Jump to content

Bands you saw before they were big


chillumpuffer

Recommended Posts

Not sure if this has ever been covered but here's mine.

Sometimes we used to go to Manchester Polytechnic students union ( a place I saw Plants Honeydrippers after Zepp finished) on our way to The Pheonix club on Oxford Road. One night @ 1978 we heard some thumping stuff coming coming out. The poster on the door said it was a local band called, and I kid you not,"The Albertos Los Trios Paranois". I sort of heard of them. But the guy on the door said " Check out the support band" they're just warming up. A three piece combo called The Police. He let us in for free and I sat on the stage in front of the bass player. They were great.

Saw Iron Maiden in 1979 3rd on the bill at Manchester Umist union with Nutz & Saxon. Cost a quid to get in. They were crap. Met up with the band a few years later in a bar in Jersey. I mentioned that they were crap then. They agreed and we got hammered on Tequila.

Happy days

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw Queen before they were big, at the time the first Queen LP had not long been out and the single was "keep yourself alive", they played unsurported at Peterborough Town Hall, which was odd as they were on tour supporting Mott The Hoople, but played this one-off show on their own at very short notice, hence no tickets were ever printed and we had our hands ink stamped. I remember the date 22nd Dec 1973 as it was a year to the day after my second Zeppelin show Ally Pally '72. At the time, as you will all know in '73 Queen were nothing like the band they later became, and were much more rocky in those early days. Although Queen were not yet huge stars they still charged as much as Zeppelin did for the Ally Pally shows, which was an extortionate ONE POUND!

Oh and I saw Def Leppard at The Old Derby Playhouse, but they were crap, I mean anyone that misspells the first part of their name by dropping the letter "a" is bound to be onto a loser aren't they??? Hang on, wait a minute........

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aside from Tift Merritt I don't know that I've seen anyone that was unsigned either but have I seen a few bands before they hit it big; Phish at the Boathouse in Norfolk, VA, Widespread Panic at the Attic in Greenville, NC and Def Leppard opening for Blackfoot and the Johnny Van Zant Band at Minges Coliseum (also in Greenville) around the time On Through the Night had been released.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Before one of those Silverdome mega-shows (probably Seger in '76), the local radio station held a battle of the bands contest and the winner got to open up the show. The band was the Romantics and they played a brand new song called "What I like About You". By the time that song hit nationally, we were already very tired of it.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers...right before Damn the Torpedos was released. They did some great covers in the early days...The Byrds, Animals, and a knockout version of "I Fought the Law".

Saw The Runaways at Cobo in '77.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jimi Hendrix.

I saw him right after The Monterey Pop Festival and if you listen to part of that show when they say he's going to play there was no applause as he was still pretty much unknown then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, you saw Jimi Redrum? Where?

(and to Walter - yes, Randy Rhoads was in the band then)

All in San Francisco. 5 times to be exact with one time as 'The Band Of Gypsys'

He came up to SF right after Monterey and he played for free in the Panhandle at Golden Gate Park and I saw him later that night at the Fillmore.

The other times were all at Winterland.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at my high school gym in....maybe 72 or 73. They had been around since 66 and at the time I saw them had just released Mr. Bojangles. I guess technically that was my first concert.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Van Halen warming up 4 Sabbath Never Say die tour Nassau Coliseum Long Island NY. Stevie Ray Vaughn pier 42 NYC, GNR Ritz NYC (MTV taped and aired the show), Metallica Cheers Long Island with no more then 25 people in the bar. Iron Maiden Northshore stage (1000 seat theatre) Long Island. Def Leppard warming up for Ozzy. Stray Cats in every bar on Long Island as well as Zebra, Twisted Sister and Blue Oyster Cult. At all of the Lamour's club in Queens/Brooklyn/Commack LI and the Sundance Bayshore LI, i saw bands like Bon Jovi, White Lion, Kix, Megadeath, Faster Pusscat, LA Guns, Yngwie Malsteem w/Grahram Bonnet, Quiet Riot with Randy Rhoads, Queensryche, The Cult, Motorhead, Manowar, MSG, Riot, T.T Quick, The Ramones, Anthrax, Venom, Slayer i could go on forever. Saw Janes Addiction, and Hanoi Rocks at the Limelight NYC. On the Sunset Strip in LA i saw bands like Ratt, Dokken, Warrant, Cinderella, Motley Crue.

Yep I was a metalhead back in the day. I was in the movie the Decline of the Western Civilization Documentary for like 2 seconds hanging out on the Sunset Strip. It was alot of fun in the clubs back then but man have my taste in music changed since then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure this qualifies but I saw Kiss on their first tour in the spring of 74 at the Gardens Aud. in Vancouver. They were backing up Manfred Man . I'd never heard of the band at time and I don't think there were many in the audience who had. Sorry Kiss fans but IMHO, they were horrible and ridiculously loud. Couldn't hear properly for weeks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...