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/