Drum Solos, Bottles and Bands: Memories of a Concert-goer 1981-1999

By Colin Bertram

The title of this book comes from the inevitable drum solos at rock concerts, the plastic bottles thrown in the air between acts at the Monsters of Rock festival and some of the many bands the author saw playing live around Scotland, at Castle Donington and in London between 1981 and 1999.

This musical journey starts in the sedate surroundings of Edinburgh's Usher Hall with Sky - the rock group formed by classical guitarist John Williams. We then move on to The Edinburgh Playhouse, Scotland's main concert venue in the 1980s, with the author attending concerts by big names such as Elton John, Madness, Iron Maiden and Motorhead. Two years at college in Aberdeen, seeing artists as diverse as The Stranglers and Stephane Grappelli, are followed by a move to London with the excitement of seeing Eric Clapton at the Albert Hall and The Who at Wembley Arena along with plenty of gigs at smaller venues. The final chapter sees the author return to his native Scotland and includes memorable gigs by Manic Street Preachers and Iggy Pop in Glasgow.

But this book is not just a list of bands and venues. Having been to over 300 concerts in those 18 years, the author focuses on events that made certain ones stand out - a smoke alarm going off midway through a Jane's Addiction gig, Captain Sensible of The Damned returning to the stage to play an encore wearing nothing more than his beret and sunglasses, and ex-Strangler Hugh Cornwell stopping half way through a song to push a drunken fan off the stage. There are also stories of unpredictable bar staff, overzealous security men, hard working road crews and concerts being cancelled or moved to a different venue with little or no notice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Colin Bertram
• Release date: Jul 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476385914

Colin Bertram

I am currently living in Lancaster with my wife and our cat Rosie. I have just published a book about some of the rock concerts I went to between 1981 and 1999 in the UK. Up until March this year I was a volunteer presenter on Diversity 103.5FM but sadly the station was shut down. So now I am broadcasting on the internet station Acoustic Spectrum and I upload the shows to Mixcloud - see the links on my web site. I'm also a musician and have got some songs on Soundcloud. They're mainly covers but there are a few original compositions too.

Book preview

Drum Solos, Bottles & Bands

Memories of a Concert-goer 1981-1999

by Colin Bertram

Published by Colin Bertram at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Colin Bertram

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the above publisher of the book.

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Acknowledgements

With thanks to Ron Scowcroft and Ginnie Smith for their advice and encouragement and to Sam for her love, support and proofreading.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 - The Early Years

Chapter 2 - The Rock & Metal Years

Chapter 3 - The Student Years

Chapter 4 - The London Years

Chapter 5 - The Fife Years

Afterword

Introduction

I had the idea to write this book in the summer of 2011 whilst on holiday in the south of Ireland. My wife and I were spending a night in Dungarven before getting the ferry home. It was a beautiful sunny evening and we were sharing a bottle of beer looking out over the water. I had been thinking about what I was going to do when I got home as I had been out of work since the start of the year. I had written the occasional concert review for the now defunct Lunacy Review on wordpress.com but had never attempted anything on this scale. But as everyone is supposed to have a book in them, I thought to myself why not write about the concerts I went to in the 1980s and 90s? When we got home to Lancaster I went online to see if there were any similar books out there already. The ones I found were generally written by people who were already known for other things. They were by broadcasters or journalists but there didn’t seem to be any books written purely from a fan’s point of view. My only connection with the music business has been my involvement with Diversity FM, a community radio station in Lancaster. I presented a weekly folk music show, called Off The Beaten Tracks, from 2008 until 2012 when the station was shut down due to a lack of funding. It was unpaid voluntary work but good fun and for the last year and a half I co-presented the show with my mate Wes Martin.

What follows is edited highlights of some of the 300 or so gigs I went to over an 18 year period from 1981 to 1999. I've kept most of the tickets so can be sure of the dates and venues and I bought programmes at quite a few of the concerts I went to back in the 1980s. Other than that I've had to rely on my memory and whatever information I could find on the internet. Inevitably, having been to so many gigs, there are some I don't even remember being at, despite having the ticket to prove I was there, but others I can remember aspects of quite clearly. So I've concentrated on those which stand out. The title of this book comes from certain memorable events including someone shouting his displeasure during a Chris Slade drum solo at a concert by The Firm in 1985 and my own rather bloody experience at Castle Donington the same year thanks to a bottle someone threw into the air before ZZ Top took to the stage. And the bands - from local bands in pubs to the big names at stadiums and festivals I’ve seen, maybe not them all, but a fair few. But before we get into the nitty gritty, here is a brief history of my musical life up to the first concert I went to on my own in 1981.

I was born and brought up in Edinburgh and music was a big part of my childhood. My sister Sue and I had piano lessons for a couple of years before I took up the violin and she moved on to the guitar. Mum would have Radio 3 on in the kitchen and one of my dad's favourite ways of relaxing of an evening would be to play classical music on his radiogram. He also enjoyed his jazz so at weekends we would hear the likes of Benny Goodman and big bands featuring trombone players such as Tommy Dorsey. I played in the school orchestra and my early record collection included, amongst other things, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. My first pop records were gifts from my Auntie Kay who bought me The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ and ‘Lily The Pink’ by The Scaffold.

I would have become aware of pop music when Sue, who is two years older than me, started watching Top of The Pops. I loved all the pop and glam rock bands of the day like Abba, Mud and Gary Glitter though the first singles I bought in 1974 were 'If You Go Away' by Terry Jacks and 'Remember You're a Womble'. If I was trying to impress people I’d probably say my first single was 'Fox On The Run' by The Sweet, with a very heavy sounding song on the B side called 'Miss Demeanour'. But I was ten years old and I liked The Wombles.

After early infatuations with the likes of The Osmonds and David Cassidy, Sue moved on from such teen idols to more serious rock music and her record collection included LPs by the Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton and Led Zeppelin. She also had a copy of Fragile by Yes which was a gift from her boyfriend Rab. I thought Rab was pretty cool as he played the drums and to my delight he gave me a pair of his old practice sticks. He even sat patiently one afternoon and encouraged me to try and play along to 'Black Betty' by Ram Jam. I should say that despite being impressed with ELO's Mik Kaminski and his blue violin I desperately wanted to play the drums. I even cobbled together a home-made kit out of old ice-cream tubs and a tambourine and would sit on the floor pretending to be Queen's Roger Taylor or ELO's Bev Bevan.

1977. Punk rock. One weekend I discovered that a friend of Sue's had left behind a copy of 'God Save The Queen' by the Sex Pistols - the record so shocking it had been banned by the BBC. It was left out in full view, no doubt as an act of teenage rebellion on the part of my sister. But this was my opportunity to find out what all the fuss was about. So one afternoon, when I was alone in the house, I took the record out of its sleeve and played it on our Dansette record player. I must admit to not really liking it and I didn't even play it all the way through. But I