Legends your parents saw

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 5:38 am

Well, not my parents, cos that wasn't their thing, but a friend's mum saw Dylan as he was turning electric, the Beatles twice, Hendrix (who she dismissed as 'awful noise') as well as lesser acts like Manfred Mann and Herman's Hermits. Then she got married aged 21 or something, had a string of kids and never went near a gig again. A big cheese at work disclosed this week that he saw Bowie twice in the Ziggy era (you'd never have thought it to look at him now).

Made me think there must be a lot of people from earlier generations who we know or who are our parents who saw some amazing stuff. Any good examples?

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 7:12 am

When a Phil Ochs tape fell out of my bag while visiting an older friend in New York in the 1980's I was astonished when she casually referred to Ochs show she had seen. Of course , I now get that look when I talk about seeing The Smiths at tiny venues back in the early 80s.

Post by **BlueChair** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 7:55 am

My mom saw Janis Joplin and The Who in 1970. My dad saw Led Zeppelin in the early 70's, and they both saw Paul Simon on the Graceland tour with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

My uncle was at the Madison Square Garden Rolling Stones show that resulted in Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out

DrJ · Post by **DrJ** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 9:03 am

Thanks BC, now I feel old: The Graceland tour was my first proper gig when I was 12. Paul was joined by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba. Got Paul to sign my program (but I didn't meet him) and his car pulled up beside us in the traffic on the way home. As I posted elsewhere, saw Simon & Garfunkel last week which was another dream gig.

I was also at U2's apparently legendary New Year's Eve gig in 1989.

My dad was backstage when the Beatles played Dublin in 1964 and they walked past him. He also casually revealed a few years ago that he had met Bob Marley in Heathrow Airport and had a chat with him.

DrJ

elvicos01 · Post by **elvicos01** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 9:36 am

Do Steve and Edie count as legends? Chuck Mangione? Well if not them, how about Sammy Davis Jr?

While I didn't appreciate it at the time, my grandparents took me to see Cab Calloway party back in the 70's. I was at my grandfathers annual union party.

SoLikeCandy · Post by **SoLikeCandy** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 9:48 am

My father used to be a full-time musician back in the day--he played guitar in a band called Baby Willie and the Fabulous Four. He and a bunch of his childhood friends got together and played damn good music--my dad was known as the best guitarist in town.

There was a band playing at the Elite Ballroom one night. The bandleader got pissed off and broke the guitar player's hand--my dad, then only 15 or 16, was in the audience. The singer in the band asked the audience if anyone could play guitar--everyone pointed to my dad.

That night my dad played with Ike and Tina Turner.

I'm not bullshittin'. He has pictures.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 10:27 am

Great story! Quite a roll-call of names here...

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 5:14 am

I don't think anyone can beat SLC's story.

Elvis01 - Steve and Edie were legends in my house - my folks have seen them a bunch of times.

My dad's oldest college friend and best man at his wedding impressed me with his story of seeing Charlie Parker in the early 50's.

I spent several hours with U2 before a show on their Boy tour in 1981.

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 6:53 am

My Father, Alfred:
Hoagy Carmichael, met and spoke with him about songwriting.
Miles Davis post Kind of Blue and right around 1960.

Since I'm old enough to fit in th e"old man" category:

Dexter Gordon many times, hanging with him before and after some great shows.

My first concert, Grand Funk Railroad, April 27th, 1969. Opening act was Bloodrock. 12 years Old.

My second concert, Deep Purple (Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore) December 07th, 1970 with Fleetwood Mac opening. !3 years old.

SoLikeCandy · Post by **SoLikeCandy** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 9:32 am

BWAP--the funny thing is that my dad has quite a few stories like that. I really wish he'd made music his day job. Every now and then, his best friend (whom he's known since they were 11 and who plays sax) will get together with some other people and "fuck around at playing music". They ALWAYS sound perfect. But, Dad has said that being a father and a husband is more important than starving and trying to look for a record deal.

Bless his heart. My dad is the shiznit.

pip_52 · Post by **pip_52** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 10:22 am

My mom saw Three Dog Night 3 times . . . does that count?

She also saw Jackson Brown, Blood Sweat and Tears, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Chicago, Moody Blues, Dan Fogelberg, John Prine, David
Bowie, Santana, Pure Prairie League, and Arlo Guthrie.

And I saw Al Green . . . though that was only last year.

pophead2k · Post by **pophead2k** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 11:17 am

My mom and dad were at the original Neil Diamond "Hot August Night" concert from the Greek, back when Neil was pretty interesting and weird.

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 3:08 pm

Before I was born, my father was a travelling salesman for a sports equipment vendor. On one occassion at some 2nd rate lounge he watched an impossibly drunk Charlie Rich fall over at the piano trying to get through a set. This was right before Rich's "countrypolitan" renaissance where he was the biggest thing in Nashville for two or three years. My father also caught a Stax/Volt review featuring Eddie Floyd, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave and Booker & The MG's. When my parents lived in Memphis during the 1970's they also caught Elvis (the OTHER Elvis) in concert several times.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 4:19 pm

Talking of attending famous recordings, a guy I knew was at one of the shows where Stop Making Sense was recorded. He said it was every bit as good as you'd expect.

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 11:01 pm

Summer of '76 - my parents saw Elvis Presley at his last Memphis show before he died. My mom had recently had a hysterectomy and insisted on being in a wheelchair for the show (although she didn't really need one). Since her sister, my aunt, also lived in Memphis and was going to the show, she insisted that she come to the show in a wheelchair also.

So there is my dad and my (then) uncle - taking my mom and aunt to an Elvis show in double wheelchairs. What drama queens. Anyway, they saw Elvis at his last hometown show. He died just over a year later.

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 11:38 pm

This thread is making me feel OLD!! I don't think my dad saw anyone (not that he ever told me about), but I can list a few of the acts I saw which even pre-date some of the poster's dads in this thread:

The Bee Gees (circa Spicks and Specks and New York Mining Disaster - 1967?), The Easybeats and Olivia Newton John at a "Go Show" in Melbourne's Myer Music Bowl - it was one of those showcases where each act performs two or three songs.

Led Zeppelin at Melbourne's Kooyong Tennis Centre in 1972

Jethro Tull performing Thick as a Brick at Melbourne's Festival Hall in 1972

The Rolling Stones at Melbourne's Kooyong, and at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse promoting Exile on Main Street (1973)

Heaps in 1974 to 1975 when I was living in London... most memorable were:

Traffic, Little Feet, Tangerine Dream, John Martyn, and Lou Reed at various times at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park

Led Zeppelin at the Earls Court Pavillion (concert is on the DVD set put out recently)

Bob Marley and the Wailers (concert featured on their first live album)

The first two Knebworth concerts which included acts like Captain Beefheart, Tim Buckley, Linda Lewis, Allman Brothers, Van Morrison, Pink Floyd, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Roy Harper and so on

Can, Hawkwind, John Cippolina (from Quicksilver Messenger Service) playing with Welsh band Man, Average White Band, Cockney Rebel, Edgar Winter Band, Edgar Broughton Band, Freddie King, and so on at various times at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm

Heaps of pub bands such as Ian Drury's Kilburn and the High Roads, Snakefinger's Chilly Willy and the Red Hot Peppers, Dr Feelgood, Joe Strummer's 101ers, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Be Bop Deluxe, Brinsley Schwarz, etc etc (mostly at the Hope and Anchor pub in the Angel Islington).

At my age, I am surprised I remembered all of that!!

katoomba · Post by **katoomba** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:34 am

My father in law worked with the Beatles on the clip of Strawberry fields, its the one where they pull a piano up into a tree and there is a fair bit of motion in reverse. He was working at the BBC at the time, I think.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 2:32 pm

Tim(e), sorry, it was meant to be 'Legends you/your parents saw'!

That is an awesome roll-call. Well remembered! Out of all that legend, could you name a couple of real highlights? When's your autobiography coming out?

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 5:46 pm

Of those listed above, the most memorable shows would have to have been Bob Marley and the Wailers, the first ever Knebworth concert (Allman Brothers headlining), Led Zeppelin at the Earls Court Pavillion (this concert was the first time lasers had ever been used as an on stage effect), and the 101ers/Eddie and the Hot Rods double at the Nashville Room in West(?) Kensington.

There were a couple of later concerts I would rate up their with those such as The Clash at Sydney's Capitol Theatre on their Magnificent Seven world tour (1980?), The Residents at Sydney's Checkers (now Metro) on their 13th Anniversary world tour (this would have been one of the last shows before Snakefinger was sadly taken from us), and of course Elvis Costello and the Confederates in support of King of America at Sydney's Entertainment Centre in its "in the round" mode.

I fear I may have opened the floodgates as all of these concerts I attended are filtering back into my memory - shows like the Members, UK Squeeze, the Vapours, the Cure, the Cramps, Los Lobos, all at relatively small venues in Sydney. I better stop.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:08 pm

I'm probably the biggest music fan in my family, so I've seen more music legends than just about anyone else...nevertheless, my grandmother claimed to know the Marx Brothers as a teenager. When she was older she got to meet Clarence Darrow and, I think, Walt Disney and once got real excited after getting her hand kissed by Charles Boyer.

My grandfather is supposed to have met a young woman who was unsure if she should give up her career in order to get married and my grandfather is supposed to have told to stay with it if it was she loved. He then supposedly got real excited after seeing "Mrs. Miniver" when that young woman turned out to be Greer Garson.

My father saw the original production of "Of Mice and Men" on stage with Burgess Meredith and, I think, Lon Chaney Jr.

My mother saw Kay Kaiser play, but I'm not sure he qualifies as a legend!

I was with my parents as a wee child of about six or seven at Disneyland and we passed a band shell where I was just a few feet from Duke Ellington == even then I didn't understand why my parents wanted to keep watching. Even then, I knew this guy was the real deal, legend wise.

Gotta go!

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 6:31 pm

Cool list! I was pretty awestruck, as a teenage Bogart worshipper, to see Lauren Bacall on stage in the 80s. Actually, I was pretty amazed to see Judi Dench in February. And it was something else when Clint Eastwood stride into the Royal Festival Hall with his ex Diana Krall at Elvis's show last October.