Category: Gigs

The Wonder Stuff, @ Rock City,Nottingham 25-10-88

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Erm,i was a bit drunk at this one because we didn’t manage to see the gig around the corner at The royal centre!! What? You’re saying?? Around this era, Rock city gigs ran real late,often the headline act wouldnt be onstage till 11.30pm. If there was a gig at the Royal centre, opposite,it was possible to see 2 gigs in one night! We were due to see JULIAN COPE at the centre. He cancelled, so we HAD TO got to the pub for next few hours..he he hick (We never did manage to do the two gigs in one night. The closest we got was this one or when we saw Siouxie & royal centre, The Cult were playing Rock city. Unfortunately, there was only one ticket left for Cult, so we left.>

Metallica, Danzig, @ City Hall,Sheffield , 30-9-88

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What a show. The place was defo over sold (such a difference to the Puppets tour where it was half empty). In the late ’80s there used to be a guy in Sheffield who filmed gigs at the City hall (Magnum, Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden etc) I was looking forward to going to the next record fair & buying his Metallica recording. But it never happened…or maybe he got caught ? A video of Danzig did circulate.

 

Metallica, Danzig, @ St Georges Hall,Bradford 26-9-88

 

 (Cheers to Neil for letting me scan his ticket. 29 years later)

This was a hell of a gig ! Absolutely brilliant stuff. I also saw them in Sheffield on this tour. Stand out memories of the night : I hadn’t been to Bradford since seeing Maiden there in ’86. I kinda remembered the route into the city & to the hall. I couldn’t work out why so many people were looking at us as we drove past St Georges hall. Then i finally realised i was driving the wrong way down a one-way street ! They’d changed it since last time 😉 Also remember seeing Metallicas big silver tour bus. It wasn’t your typical UK style tour bus. There were a bunch of Americans in the crowd & they were literally throwing people in the crowd. It was like when you get a leg-up from a mate by putting your foot in their hands which are cupped together. I’ve never seen anything like it before or ever since. Dunno why, but i also seem to think around the time there was a documentary on UK tv & it featured these Americans. The Metallica show was just bloody great. Whilst the album had great songs, it just seemed to be a very “dry” mix. No power. In the live setting, it sounded so much better…yeah, you could hear Jasons bass 😉 Another funny thing was that both myself & Neil were down the front, next to the PA & both running the Sony Pros. A certain Mr Mensch was briefly stood near us 😉 Finally, shouldn’t laugh, but, a mate who went with us had recently had a small operation so was “tender” & couldn’t really get amongst the thick of things….” Keep away from my dick ! ” lol

Monsters Of Rock, Iron Maiden, Kiss. David Lee Roth , Megadeth , Guns n Roses, Helloween @ Castle Donington .20-8-88

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The biggest, the best & unfortunately the worst also 🙁 The biggest ever attendance at Monsters. Unfortunately, it got too dangerous. During Guns set the whole crowd towards the front moved. 2 people got crushed under foot & died. It’s the most frightened I’ve ever been at a gig. Was hard to keep stood up & not get trampled even towards the side… Maiden were fantastic.

After the tragedy in ’88 there were lessons learned about crowd safety. There was a full inquiry about the events. You can view this online here :

http://www.gkstill.com/Support/Links/Documents/2004-upton-1.pdf

This resulted in “The guide to health, safety & welfare at pop concerts & similar events”. In the industry, it’s referred  to as “The Purple Guide “. There used to be a copy of this online & it was free to view, but now, it seems you have to pay.