Dave Black - Reflections

by Ian Ravendale

One of the magazines I contribute to as ‘Ian Ravendale’ is Classic Rock, by a very long way the UK’s biggest selling rock magazine. The mag came up with a feature article idea based on the premise that rock and metal in the  UK started in 1969 between the Led Zeppelin 1 and Led Zeppelin 2 albums and asked some of its regionally based journalists to supply material that would fit into this '300 Days That Changed Rock-The Birth Of Heavy' concept. I provided the North East research material for the story, speaking to the likes of The Animals’ John Steel, legendary promoter Geoff Docherty, recording studio pioneer Ken McKenzie and Dave Black who was a teenager at the time but already playing guitar in bands on the circuit.

In light of Dave’s untimely passing and to the commemorate the early days of his forty year-long career as a musician what follows is the full interview I did with him which starts with a brief introduction. Only a couple of paragraphs were used by Classic Rock so most of this hasn’t been generally seen before. The full story, with contributions from many musicians who were around in 1969, appeared in Classic Rock 193 (February 2014).

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Following on from playing in the North East band Kestrel guitarist Dave Black replaced Mick Ronson in the post-Bowie Spiders From Mars and went onto to have chart success with Tyneside band Goldie in the late 1970's.

Dave Black: There was so much music going on in 1969. My older friends were into Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Country Joe and The Fish. I was being influenced by early Yes, early Genesis and Family and wrote a whole album based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. The best bits of that went on to the album I recorded with Kestrel a couple of years later.

Ian Ravendale: John Peel was very influential, of course.

DB: Everyone listened to his shows. He'd play bands who were less famous, like The Junco Partners from Newcastle. He was a big fan of theirs.

IR: Were you listening to much rock music at the time?

DB: The first Led Zeppelin album blew me away completely. I was just getting the hang of the guitar and wanted 100% to be like Jimmy Page. I'd go round to my friend's house and his older brother would be playing John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. All the English blues bands like Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown and Chicken Shack were big influences. I listened to Cream's records until they didn't have grooves left in them! Cream and Jimi Hendrix definitely influenced the rock bands that came later. Ritchie Blackmore has said that Speedking is a deliberate lift of Hendrix's Stone Free.

A friend introduced me to the Edgar Broughton Band. I was more keen on the image of them than the music.That ridiculously hairy, loud, noisy band. I was offered a job with The Edgar Broughton Band in 1975 and declined it. It would have been playing guitar to back Edgar up as he wasn't the most brilliant guitarist in the world.

IR: Did you feel that the music was in the middle of something exciting, that things were changing?

DB: Without a doubt! It had got away from the crooners and pop acts. The snake had shed it's skin in 1969 and went on to crawl through the annals of rock!

IR: Talk us through some of the main local gigs and bands on the North East circuit in 1969.

DB: The Rex in Whitley Bay was the big gig for us who lived on the coast. Two bands on a Saturday and one on a Monday. It was pretty much the same local bands going round and round so you got to know pretty quickly who the good ones were.  The Junco Partners used to do it a lot. They were up to the standard of any of the national bands I saw at Newcastle City Hall. Other great local bands included The Sect, who had a lot of country influences, Downtown Faction (who became Lindisfarne) were a  great blues band while Raw Spirit were a big, loud rock band, with in-your-face power chords. Mr Poobah's Chicago Line, Dr Finket's Steam Coffin-they were good! They changed their name to Fat Grapple and Eddie Jobson, who went on to be in Curved Air, Roxy Music and UK joined them.

They got name bands at the Rex too. I saw the very early Genesis there and Family. North East soul bands changed into rock bands in 1969. They still had their brass sections but started rocking it up and doing songs like Sunshine Of Your Love. 1969 was the first time bands started writing  songs based on riffs. The Newcastle band Bullfrog were a good bluesy riffing band. Their guitar player Robin Herd was particularly good. He had a finger missing on his left hand. Lucas Tyson were a local band who were very popular but I wasn't keen on them. They were doing big heavy psychedelic numbers like The Groundhogs Split Parts 1 & 2. Ginhouse were a really good local band. They won the Melody Maker Battle Of The Bands competition in 1970. They wrote their own material and did weird versions of other people's songs, including a heavy version of The Beatles’ And I Love Her! They had enough songs of their own to make an album which was the prize. There was only a handful of local bands who did original material in 1969. Ginhouse, the Juncos, Spyda. The rest were just doing covers.

Most local musicians were oblivious to what was going on in the other parts of the country, apart from London because you'd read the adverts for the London gigs in the back of Melody Maker.

One of the biggest gigs was Newcastle Mayfair. It was huge! Big dance floor, lots of different bars and  revolving stage. With a very diverse bunch of bands playing there from the rock bands to pop groups. The Sunderland Locarno was the sister venue which also had a revolving stage. Kestrel did that one and they didn't tell us to unplug our gear and half the PA was pulled over when the stage revolved round! Then there was the Oxford Galleries, who had their own dance band and was like a smaller version of The Mayfair.

The national bands used to love to come up to the North East because the audiences would go apeshit. In London the audiences had seen it all and were more blasé as everything was on their doorstep.

IR: Was there much of a music business locally in 1969?

DB: Ivan Birchall was the main entertainment agent. He'd get you out four or five nights a week, which is what happened with Kestrel. Ivan was very influential on the local scene because he booked all the main venues. He would put bands into university gigs, town halls like Bellingham Town Hall, all the big ballrooms like The Rex, The Argus Butterfly in Peterlee and the Mayfair along with social clubs.  He had a big Volvo and the first man I saw with a carphone, with the aerial in the boot! He was very well educated and well spoken and had a son called Jolyon.


Ian Ravendale (January 2014)

Hungry Heart - Bruce Springsteen's Newcastle debut, 11th May 1981.

by Bill Norman

I write this not long after the 32nd anniversary of what is often regarded as one of the great gigs of all time and certainly the best gig I have ever been to.

Bruce was well known but not the muscle-bound thug rock superstar of 'Born in the USA' three years later. Indeed he was still the wiry kid with something to prove in many ways.  His 5th album 'The River'  had been released some six months earlier to rave reviews.  Most Brucophiles reckoned it would have made a stunning single album.  It had quite a bit of filler, but hell, we would have accepted him singing Phil Collins songs at that point in time …

This was the first proper tour in the UK since 1975 - Newcastle upon Tyne was the opening gig.  Originally scheduled for 31st March it was rescheduled through illness for 11th May which, as it turned out , was significant for music in another way, being the day Bob Marley died.

Ticket scan from Jules Boynton

I thought "palpable sense of expectation” was just a phrase used by rock journalists when they ran out of inspiration but I really could feel the magic in the air as I entered Newcastle City Hall.





Highlights of the four hour show:

• 11th May was almost the 25th anniversary of 'Heartbreak Hotel' entering the UK charts (12th May 1956) which is appropriate as Bruce opened solo with an Elvis cover - 'Follow That Dream'.
• Two John Fogerty covers 'Who'll Stop the Rain?' and finishing with the audience singing along with the house lights up to, 'Rocking All Over the World'.
• Changing “lately there ain't been much work" to “no work on account of the economy" in 'The River' as a reaction to the deepening unemployment in the UK and in the North East in particular.
• The cover version of Ennio Morricone’s 'Once Upon a Time in The West' as a prelude to "Badlands" – he didn’t officially record it till nearly 30 years later and then won a Grammy.
• Electrifying silences for all the ballads and for which he thanked us at least three times!
• Bruce going out into the audience to sing – something I had never seen anyone do up that point.
• The audience singalong of 'Hungry Heart' and Bruce responding, “You're Hired!” 
• Turning average songs into something great live - especially 'Point Blank'.
• Finishing off part one with Thunder Road - singing the “maybe we ain’t that young anymore" line for the first time and starting part two with an astounding 'Cadillac Ranch'.
• The simply heartbreakingly beautiful, 'Racing in The Street' and 'Independence Day'.  There was a lot of throat swallowing for those two and that was just the blokes…
• A tremendous version of Woody Guthrie’s 'This Land Is Your Land' with an improvised new verse.
• The wonderful stories with Clarence - laughing and joking - especially the climbing the wall into Gracelands tale - how different to the perfunctory grunts of acknowledgement between them in later years as Bruce tried to outdo the Ramones for continuous music.  No , this was this was a show with pace.
• Doing the Mitch Ryder Detroit medley as heard on the 'No Nukes' album 

Photo by Colin Richardson

Photo by Colin Richardson

There were some omissions – 'She’s the One' and 'Jungleland' being the obvious two, but even their absence could not dim the glory of that night.

But you know, the other main star that night was Newcastle City Hall itself - a simply perfect find your feet gig for Springsteen - magnificent acoustics, a common sense approach to curfews.  The management let people enjoy themselves and at that time we still had audiences who knew how to sing and shout: "Brooooooooce!"

As a post script, 20 years later I found out that a work colleague I didn’t know at the time had been at the gig – I brought in some photos a friend had taken and lo and behold my colleague was on one …

"We're a Poob Rock Band" - Sonic Youth and Mudhoney in Newcastle and Glasgow

by Hazel Plater

The following is a transcript of an NME review from Sonic Youth and Mudhoney's 1989 UK tour, written by David Quantick and photographed by Jayne Houghton, from the 1st April 1989 issue.  No copyright infringement is intended.

The shows took place on Friday 17th March 1989 at Riverside Newcastle and Saturday 18th March 1989 at Glasgow Strathclyde University.  While we recognise that Glasgow is a little out of the catchment area of this North East Music History blog, it seemed wrong to omit the last section of the article.

Additional colour photos included here were taken at the Riverside Newcastle show by promoter Babs Johnston, used with kind permission.

WE'RE A POOB ROCK BAND

SONIC YOUTH

MUDHONEY

NEWCASTLE RIVERSIDE CLUB

GLASGOW STRATHCLYDE UNIVERSITY

"Banned from the poobs! Banned from the poobs!" Thurston Moore sings this happy song in the dressing-room as he fiddles with his guitar.  Lee Ranaldo's child plays with some fruit, Kim Gordon sits quietly, a monument to fun fur, and Steve Shelley lurks in his duffelcoat; Steve is probably the only duffelcoat-owning drummer in the history of American rock.

Mudhoney are soundchecking, their insidious blare almost drowned by bloody Thurston singing "Banned from the poobs!" in his weird New York/Albert Tatlock voice.

Sonic Youth and Mudhoney's tour is an infinite round of vans, signings, food, and concerts.  I am lucky enough to join them at dinner in The Naked Lunch restaurant.  Naturally, they go mental when they find out the name of the eatery.  Thurston keeps shouting "Dharma!"

During the meal they shout at Mudhoney and ask each other and ask each other about 'Shipbuilding' as it trips from the cassette player.  "Did Elvis Costello do this before the Robert Wyatt version?" asks Lee worriedly.  "Or did he do it after?"

Kim belches.  "That'll go in the article," predicts Thurston with some accuracy.  "The bass player belched," sighs Kim.

Finally, Mudhoney have enough of being shouted at and go onstage.  The audience correctly interpret this decision as a signal to shout and swear and try to get onstage too.  At one point singing Mudhoney Marc (sic) reverses the process and leaps into the audience for a tumultuous few minutes.

Mudhoney are astonishing.  From the dirty corners of the '70s, where the crap guitar solos live and the wah wah pedal still walks the earth, Mudhoney have extracted the essence of what was good about that music and rammed it like French fries up the scabby nostrils of hardcore.

They stand in a shaking row onstage and rock obscenely; on another planet in another galaxy, moss creatures tried to copy the Quo and Mudhoney were the result.  They are dead funny and proper rock music too.  The audience senses this. They shout "Ya fookun wunkahs!" and wave their fists appreciatively.

"I love those baby blue guitars," sighs Kim as Mudhoney leave the stage.  In the toilet is a piece of graffiti by one of Goodbye Mr Mackenzie.  Fiver or we print it!

Sonic Youth begin to look edgy.  Steve Shelley becomes lost in his duffelcoat.  Thurston has forgotten the words to 'Teenage Riot'.  "Da da da da," he sings to himself, then discovers he has forgotten the words to the others songs too.  "I love it when you make the words up," says Steve.  "It really gives me faith in the band."

 Onstage and rocking, Sonic Youth become even stranger.  Guitars racing in and out of spaces in the songs, shouted lines of tackiness and urgency, a version of rock music tunes by moss creatures and played by people who shout, "Banned from the poobs!" at the audience, who seem puzzled.

Sonic Youth, Riverside Newcastle - photo - Babs Johnston

Sonic Youth, Riverside Newcastle - photo - Babs Johnston

Sonic Youth, Riverside Newcastle - photo - Babs Johnston

'Teenage Riot', wrong words or not, wins on audience recognition; much Sonic past is not present and we have no opportunity to observe the bare bones of Sonic interplay, the rush of parts of songs as they collide and leap off again.  Sonic Youth can now mimic conventional rock music like those weird flies that look like wasps; they're completely alien to rock but they just sound that way sometimes.

Now Thurston is talking to the audience, except he can't understand them. "Ya fookun wankah" roars a cack-faced youth.  "Schizophrenia? Right!" agrees Thurston inaccurately.  Kim lies on her back and plays the bass guitar.  Finally it all ends with a version of 'Rocket' with Marc (sic) holding a guitar as Thurston "shows him the chords".  Our ears are ringing but there's no one home to answer them.

Thurston Moore's Mark Arm guitar arm.

Dressing-room fun.  Mudhoney start talking about Sham 69.  Thurston expresses interest in the idea that punk made crap English towns world-famous.  "Hersham!" he snorts, baffled. 

SonicYouth guitars at Riverside Newcastle - photo - Babs Johnston

People come in and have their photo taken "with the band".  We are invited to a party.  We are so, so rock 'n' roll, that we go home. 
 The Hong Kong rock press are with us.  Kim reveals that she lived in Hong Kong when she was 13.  "Are you an adult band?" the Hong Kong journalist asks.  "I'm 35," says Kim.  "I don't know if I'm an adult or what," ponders Steve, "like I'm 27 now and I feel, er, 27."  Bedtime all round.

AND IT'S tomorrow!  Time to go to Glasgow.  Steve sleeps late, waiting for his breakfast which never comes; even now, it wanders Newcastle, waiting for him.  Thurston has bought a Quiet Sun LP.  Everyone agrees that it is rubbish but it's very rare so Thurston is happy.

A long van journey ensues.  Four hours of hardcore tapes also ensue.  We pass by Lockerbie and Hadrian's Wall as the van fills with wild grunge and bits of music papers.  Refreshed, we "hit Glasgow" and go to a record shop, where pasty-faced youths proffer records and T-shirts to be written on.  Lee goes mad and empties a girl's bag and signs three old bus tickets, her diary and her cigarette lighter.
"Signing records has its own routine," explains Thurston.  "You begin writing different things for each person then you give up being interesting in the middle, and you get enthusiastic again at the end."
More soundchecks, then...curry!  Sonic Youth order the world and leave half of it.  They insist on talking about Australia.  "We like the kangas," explains Kim, and the farms where everything is the biggest.  The Big Pineapple, the Big Lawn-Mower... and we went to Wagga Wagga.  What a great name."
The concert tonight is larger and, being composed of many students, calmer.  Mudhoney burn their way through their tunes, baby blue and hairy.  "Halloween!" burbles a stude.  "We call it Hallowf--ingween!" shouts Marc (sic), with some difficulty.  Mudhoney depart, fame and fortune soon to be theirs.  The famous and fortunate Sonic Youth follow, louder than before and still more awesome.  Unfortunately, Thurston has lost his mind.
"I don't know if I can carry on," he announces to a concerned audience, "I had an onion bhaji and I think it's coming back."  Bravely he soldiers on.  "I'm going to see Scandal tomorrow!" he roars, "who wants to come?"
Finally, Sonic Youth crash through 'Rocket' and Thurston is overcome, his curry coursing through his veins like a drug he races offstage, presumably for a personal function.
The next day, as I leave, the staff of the Glasgow Odeon are startled to see 300 pale students queueing up for cinema tickets at three in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, The Lady and The Tramp is showing instead and Sonic Youth and their fans mutate into adorable chipmunks, Steve Shelley-style.  They swarm the streets of Glasgow, squeaking horribly.  "Banned from the poobs!" they horribly squeak, "banned from the poobs!" 

David Quantick 

 

  

  

Save Newcastle Hall Petition Hand-In

 

We were a bit windswept, but it was the Council that were blown away when we gave them 13,000 signatures in support of Newcastle City Hall.

Tyne Tees TV's report is here: http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/story/2013-01-31/save-the-city-hall-campaign/

And we're also on Sky Tyne and Wear, with Cllr Veronica Dunn. So, Newcastle City Council says here that they will work with the users of Newcastle City Hall. That's us, the people. Let's see if we can now find a way forward. http://tyneandwear.sky.com/news/article/55062

http://tyneandwear.sky.com/news/article/55062

 

Thanks to all who have signed and shared the petition, which remains open. The petition will also be formally submitted to a full council meeting in the Council chamber next week.

With best wishes and fingers crossed for a positive future for Newcastle City Hall,

North East Music History

http://www.facebook.com/groups/northeastmusichistory/

 

Save Newcastle City Hall - an update

By North East Music History

The Newcastle City Hall Facebook page has added a new post about its future which you can find here: https://www.facebook.com/Newcastlecityhall/posts/10151306398704204

North East Music History (NEMH) has the following comments to make about this: Firstly, as we’ve made clear previously, the focus of our campaign is certainly not the management and staff of the venue itself. Our campaign is targeted at the people in Newcastle Council who will determine the future of the City Hall. The key decisions on this will not, alas, be left to the people who work at the venue. The statement indicates there is now considerable speculation that the City Hall is under threat of closure. That’s true and is hardly surprising when Cllr Nick Forbes, Leader of the City Council and the man ultimately responsible for decisions on this issue, told the BBC on 27th November, “the whole site - the City Hall and Pool - doesn't have a long-term future given the current funding climate.” Whilst NEMH welcomes the statement that the venue management has “put forward a series of proposals to enhance the financial viability of the City Hall”, we do not consider that, in itself, changes anything regarding our campaign. We don’t know the details of these proposals, we don’t yet know whether the Council is prepared to accept and implement them – and we still don’t know what the Council’s own plan is for the long term use of the site. In short, we believe our campaign to save the City Hall as a vibrant performance venue is still very much needed. The campaign will continue and indeed will be intensified early in the New Year. Finally, as the Newcastle City Hall post says, the venue is continuing to operate and tickets are on sale for a range of gigs in 2013. NEMH hopes you will support the venue by going to City Hall gigs and continue to support the campaign by signing the petition at www.change.org/savenewcastlecityhall , which has so far collected over 8,000 signatures online and in the street. The two things are hardly mutually exclusive!

Save Newcastle City Hall

by North East Music History



PRESS RELEASE – NORTH EAST MUSIC HISTORY – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


NORTH EAST MUSIC LOVERS CALL ON COUNCIL TO SAVE NEWCASTLE CITY HALL 





The North East's music-loving public are rushing to defend Newcastle City Hall, demanding that it should continue as a performance venue. Newcastle City Council has asked for people’s views on the future of the City Hall, within the recently published Budget proposals.


The North East Music History group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/northeastmusichistory  has once again demonstrated the power of social media, by launching an e-petition calling for the City Hall to be saved as a music venue. In less than 24 hours, it has already gathered more than 1,000 signatures and expects to attract at least 10,000 signatures by the end of the consultation period.


North East Music History group and blog admin, Hazel Plater, author and ex-employee of Newcastle's legendary Riverside music venue, which closed in 1999, said,“We have lost Newcastle's iconic venues The Mayfair and Riverside in recent history, and the Club A-Go-Go before them. Newcastle City Hall has so much history; from orchestras and opera, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Dylan, Beatles, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Bowie, Blondie, Lindisfarne Christmas Concerts, Stand-up Comedy and much more. It’s not at all clear what Newcastle City Council’s intentions are towards the City Hall site. Our group believes that the Council should do whatever is necessary to save the City Hall as a performance venue. This would not only recognise its iconic status and its rich musical history but also acknowledge that it still has massive potential as a performance venue in the future, as part of the cultural industry activity that we hope will form an important part of our future local economy.”


Tony Stephenson, North East Music History group contributor said, "We need first to secure the council's commitment to retaining the City Hall as a performance venue in a way that will enable to offer a great experience to the ticket buying public. Whether that is as a wholly run public enterprise or as a partnership or a privately run deal (with absolutely binding terms and conditions from the Council) I, personally, am prepared to be pragmatic about. The important thing is to secure its future and commitment to its continuation as a viable venue, not to sell it off now or allow it to pass into the hands of people who will run it down in order to pitch for change of use of the site and then it's lost anyway."


Martin Craig, a musician and also part of the NEMH group said, “We want more members of the public plus performers linked to Newcastle City Hall to sign the petition before the end of the consultation period on 1st February 2013. We are conducting a high profile campaign to save the City Hall for future generations.”


If you want to add your voice to the e-petition to save Newcastle City Hall you can go online at:

https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/newcastle-city-council-save-newcastle-city-hall




WEB LINKS:

Relevant Newcastle City Council document: http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/sites/drupalncc.newcastle.gov.uk/files/wwwfileroot/your-council/budget_and_annual_report/budget_2016_-_13_-_city_hall_and_city_pool.pdf

North East Music History Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/northeastmusichistory/

North East Music History blog: http://www.northeastmusichistory.org.uk




ENDS. XXXXXXXX

Newcastle City Hall - under threat.

The Tube

by Hazel Plater

This month marks 30 years since The Tube television programme was first broadcast live from Tyne Tees Television on City Road, Newcastle upon Tyne to the music lovers of the nation.

Channel 4 had just begun, and this show, presented by Jools Holland and Paula Yates was its flagship music show, featuring, over its 5 seasons, performances from a huge number of artists, including The Jam, The Smiths, REM, U2, The Cure, Pet Shop Boys, Tuna Turner, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Duran Duran and even Madonna.

The Tube was named after the distinctive entrance to Tyne Tees Televison

The majority of music appearances on the magazine-style show were performed live at Tyne Tees' Studio 5.  The video clip below, however, shows Billy Bragg, busking to the queue of people waiting to come into the studios to be part of the live television audience.





A large number of hip young people around the North East at the time, remember taking part in the show, a night which would often begin in the adjacent Egypt Cottage public house, where celebrities could often be seen propping up the bar.  The pub was such a part of the show that it was dubbed 'Studio 6' and was famously where presenter Paula Yates first met INXS frontman Michael Hutchense as part of a 1986 episode.

The Tube was last broadcast in 1987.  The Egypt Cottage and Tyne Tees are now both no more, having been demolished in recent years.

Post your recollections of The Tube below, or at the North East Music History Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/northeastmusichistory/