Some of my observations looking back - What a great time to be a teenager when touring promoted album releases. Going to a concert was in some cases just a quarter of the cost of an album. Contrast that with more recent stadium concerts.
A surprise among these bands is that for me and pure entertainment value, Sha Na Na stood out, for their precise dance routines, vocal skills, and musicianship, and how to put on a show. I saw them at least twice. They may not be considered musical giants among some of the other bands here, but they certainly knew how to entertain.
impressive Jeff, thanks for showing here
I’ve also seen Jethro Tull, Wishbone Ash, Pink Floyd & The Stranglers.
T-Rex, Gentle Giant, Zappa and Beefheart must have been really cool
Here’s a few… the e-ticket has pretty much ended getting many more.
I have been going to shows since 1975…but kept few tickets.
The light one was Wilco…
You’re right about tickets becoming uncollectible Dennis. Here’s a Genesis ticket from “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” tour. I did keep it however and a Google search reminds me that this was indeed a Genesis show.
I can’t imagine how many thousands of concerts I’ve been to, but just to depress myself I took a photo of all the paper tickets for shows that were cancelled immediately after lockdown started on 17 March 2020. By the looks of it there were at least 12 shows in the first 20 days. I shredded the lot.
p.s. Looking at that, today is the second anniversary of the first night of lockdown. Seems a lot longer. 17 March 2020 was meant to be Jonas Kaufman and Lise Davidsen’s final performance in Fidelio at Covent Garden with a global live broadcast. The ticket on 19 March was going to be a Lise Davidsen recital at the Festival Hall. We ended up sitting at home expecting the world to come to an end.
I hope you checked before shredding that none of the events were likely to be rescheduled and that your original ticket would have gained you admission.
Unfortunately everything got cancelled, except for one show in Paris pre-booked for October 2020 that was moved to October 2021 and we couldn’t get there. Those damned people over there wouldn’t give us a refund.
We actually went to quite a lot of shows after the first lockdown. The night before the second lockdown in November 2020 we went to a pre-lockdown special, Imogen Cooper on the ivories and a lot of alcohol. Opera and dance took a lot longer to come back than other gigs as they weren’t match fit, but they are now doing many more performances and it is more popular than ever.
There is a big “Dance for Ukraine” show tomorrow night at the Coliseum, organised by two great Royal Ballet stars, Alina Cojocaru (Romanian, but trained and started her career in the Kiev Ballet) and Ivan Putrov, who is Ukrainian born and trained. The top lady UK-based Russian dancer (Osipova) has signed up. Will be interesting to see if the top bloke (Muntagirov) appears. Others coming from Paris. There are so many Russians in classical music, opera and dance, and it seems they are quickly having to decide where they stand, no fence-sitting allowed, and many are going against Russia. Those going pro-Russia (notably Gergiev and Netrebko) have been unceremoniously dumped. The irony is that Netrebko’s occasional alternate, a fine Ukrainian singer called Liudmyla Monastyrska (heard her only a few weeks ago) is now getting her gigs. The Russians take their dance very seriously and their top lady decamped to Amsterdam last week, slagging off Putin on the way. Interesting times, but unfortunately no paper tickets.
One of the victims of Covid seems to have been paper tickets, they now all seem to have gone to electronic. I think it was just easier not knowing whether things would happen or not.
I feel them not helping. I booked a trip to England before the start of covid, I couldn’t get a refund because “the hotel is still open”
That I couldn’t get there. Wasn’t their issue.
If anyone wants the name (South Place) of an awful company in London, I may know one.
Drove over to Spokane, WA a couple of weeks ago to see the Marcus King Band - It was our first indoor show since COVID. Four previous shots of Moderna coupled with 3 Hendricks and tonics at the show seemed to keep the virus at bay
Caveat: I didn’t take these following pics from the show:
