ONCE IN A LIFETIME

The first live gigs that I went to were back at the old Glasgow Apollo in 1978. That makes the maths easy – 30 years ago. I have no idea just how many singers, bands and acts I’ve subsequently seen on stage – it’s something I wish I had been anal about and kept lists of dates, venues and ticket prices.

Seeing a band on stage is always a completely different experience than simply hearing them on record. I’ve been disappointed more times than I care to remember, with one of the worst being a gig I mentioned in a previous posting - Blondie at the Apollo on New Year’s Eve 1979.

This was a gig that was broadcast live on BBC Television at the time, and strangely enough, it was shown one evening a couple of months back on an obscure satellite station. I tuned in out of curiosity, and yup, the gig was every bit as awful as I remembered. The band, other than drummer Clem Burke, were a bit of a shambles, and Debbie Harry could hardly hit a note.

But sometimes I’ve gone along to see an act who I’ve not been all that bothered about on record only to be blown away by how good they are live. One such occasion was at Strathclyde University in 1984.

Level 8 of the Student Union was where I did most of my socialising throughout 1984 and 85. I lived in a student flat less than 600 yards away – there was an indie disco every Thursday & Friday night, while Saturdays would usually see a live act take to the stage often in front of a capacity audience of 500. Back then, tours weren’t as slickly organised as they are nowadays, and there was a tradition of playing the student circuit. There was also a lack of decent venues in Glasgow, and so chart bands with substantial followings would often end up at student unions. The venues themselves controlled the sale of tickets, with the students getting to hear about things in advance of anyone else, so getting to see anyone was rarely a problem.

Spear of Destiny were not the biggest band in the UK at the time, but they sold enough records to a loyal fanbase to ensure their LPs made it into the Top 30. I had seen them on TV a couple of times and thought they were OK. I also reckoned that they hadn’t released anything that was good as Do You Believe In The Westworld? by Theatre Of Hate which was the former band of lead singer Kirk Brandon.

I wasn’t expecting much other than 45 minutes of entertainment prior to the indie-disco kicking in. But on entering the concert venue, it was immediately clear that this was going to be a slightly different Level 8 concert than normal. The audiences tended to be a mixture of regulars (i.e. students) and fans of the band. You would get the fans right up at the front, while the casuals/indifferent folk would hang around the side of the hall or at the bar until the last possible minute. But the placed was mobbed at a very early hour, and it was soon clear that it was filled with at least 90% hardcore fans who were here to pay homage. To coin the cliché – there was a real buzz about the place.

And it was a buzz that the band fed off. They literally leapt on to the stage and straight into their set – guitars, bass, keyboards, saxophone and drums competing against one another in a wall of noise. And at the centre of the maelstrom, stood a blonde-quiffed bundle of energy in the shape of Kirk Brandon. Actually, stood is the wrong word. The man didn’t stand still for a second.

No sooner did one song finish than the next started. And the next again. I reckon it was about the fifth or sixth song in before the band took a break and finally said good evening to a by now ecstatic and very sweaty audience. It was one of those gigs where the condensation was running down the walls. And it was great.

Other than a couple of singles, I had no idea what the band were playing, but it just didn’t matter. It was a night where I got lost in the music and the occasion, and that hasn’t happened too often when I’ve turned up to see a band I know little about. It remains the only time in two years of going to gigs at Level 8 that I was so physically exhausted at the end that I could stay on for the indie-disco afterwards. It’s also been one of only a handful of gigs in my being where I’ve ended it stripped to the waist with the t-shirt needing wrung-out…..

Over the next couple of weeks I saved up and bought the band’s first two LPs.

I soon found that I didn’t like them…..they just came nowhere near capturing the raw power and emotion of the live gig. The records seemed strangely subdued…

I never did go back to catch the band in action ever again as I didn’t want to end up feeling let-down by a sub-standard performance. Nor did I buy anything of their records that came out in subsequent years. As such, I can’t say that I’m truly a fan of Spear of Destiny, but they did provide me with one of the best live experiences I’ve ever had:-

Mp3 : Spear of Destiny – Flying Scotsman
mp3 : Spear of Destiny – The Wheel
mp3 : Spear of Destiny – Liberator

Those were the days my friends, we thought they’d never end.

Keep tuning in for more nostalgia.

Ciao