trooper

Same day I went to Knebworth to See Deep Purple. The buses for U2 & Deep Purple left Central Station at the same time. It had pissed down all week & never let up on the day. It was still a great day though

August 19th 1989 my 30th birthday & I celebrated at Milton Keynes Bowl seeing Bon Jovi on the "New Jersey Tour". They brought on 2 surprise guests Steven Tyler & Joe Perry (Aerosmith) & they all played Walk This Way

Did Milton Keynes Bowl a couple of times. 1986 for Simple Minds the same day England played Argentina in the world Cup finals the "Hand Of God" game. Jim Kerr told us what had happened. It was a cracking day

I've been lucky enough to see just about see everybody i ever wanted. But one band I regret not seeing was the classic YES line up of Anderson, Bruford, Howe, Squire & Wakeman. I had a chance to go to see YES on the Drama Tour" but by then Anderson & Wakeman had left the band & were replaced by Geoff Downes & Trevor Horn from Buggles. The band were quickly nicknamed YEGGLES. I just couldn't face Horn trying to sing Anderson's parts so never went to see them.

Yeah I met Brian one Saturday Night at our local CIU club. We spent almost all night talking absolute gentleman. He was telling me at the time Van Halen were on the verge of splitting up. Brian said him & Eddie were good friends & Eddie had asked about joining AC/DC he said Angus wasn't having it. BTW the acoustics at the ice rink were shit as are all these big arenas

That wasn't the Crazy Nights gig I was at in 1988 The gig your on about was from the 1983/84 Unmasked Tour with the tank turret

I was at that one the band were playing "For Those About To Rock" & when they set the cannons off some of the polystyrene ceiling tiles came off landing on the crowd stood on the boards covering the ice.

Honestly it played out like a comedy film. We couldn't believe the guy in the suit not sure how he got home without any clothes lol 😆

Did Knebworth in 1985 for the re-formed formed MKii Deep Purple. It rained all day in fact it had rained all week & it was nicknamed "Mudworth" as we were ankle deep in mud. The only time we got a tiny glimpse of the sun was when UFO played lights out. The entire day was recorded & broadcast by Radio 1 the following Saturday. I manged to record the broadcast on 2 C180 cassettes (3 hours each) Our bus got stuck in the mud trying to get out of the makeshift car park (it was a field) Although I was soaked, full of mud & freezing it was a cracking day & another great memory

Cheers Alex honestly I have never laughed so much as I did that weekend. On reflection we should have taken a responsible adult with us 😀

Saw The Quireboys a couple of times once at Donington once at Newcastle Uni

In 1977 my mate came round & said he'd heard s band on the radio called Rush who were coming to England to play. We got tickets to see them it was the 2112 Tour saw them 4 times after that night. All The Worlds A Stage Tour AFarewell To Kings Tour, Hemispheres Tour & Permanent Waves Tour after that tour their stage productions became to big for the City Hall. A brilliant band

Saw Rainbow 4 times 2 consecutive nights in 1977. We all nearly got blinded when Cozy Powell played his drum solo to the 1812 Overture & set off a blinding pyro. Saw them at Ingleton Edinburgh & Whitley Bay Ice Rink

2 of my favourite gigs were Alice Cooper 1986 The Nightmare Returns Tour & KISS 1988 Crazy Nights Tour. Both shows were total opposites. The stage for Alice was strewn with boxes mannequins even an old fridge. He stuck a microphone stand through a photographers stomach. Then at the end of the show Alice got guillotined. But still came back to sing Schools Out just shows you can't keep a bad man down. Then the KISS show was the total opposite no make up, costumes, blood or fire. Just 2 hours of brilliant music with the band & everyone in the City Hall leaving with massive smiles they even played some Beatles & Stones songs it was another Crazy Night. When the band came on I kept looking for another guitarist on stage until I realised Wilko played both rhythm & lead guitar together & his machine gun walk. Absolutely brilliant

I was at that one I saw Girlschool a couple of times cracking band

Mines Dr Feelgood Newcastle City Hall in 1975. I actually saw them 1st by default. I was 16 & started work at a food warehouse with my first wage (£15) I went to get a ticket for Manfred Manns Earthband who were on the following night. As I was in the foyeri saw a poster for a band called Dr Feelgood who were playing that night so I got a ticket for both ( about £1.20 each) went to see the and that night & loved them. I saw them a few times after that. In fact I virtually lived at the City Hall, mam & dad called it my 2nd home asi was never away from the place until the bigger productions couldn't fit in the City Hall.

Part 4 No Beer We must have spent more time than we realised at the airport. Because we checked the time & it was 11.15. Never mind we'll walk fast back to were the festival was,we'd still be one of the first in the queue as there was nobody there when we left lol. Our hearts sank as we got near to the gates they were not only open but there was a massive queue to get in. All we could do was join the end & wait to get in. Eventually we got in. The placecresembled a cricket ground with a seating area & a building that was used as a cafe. Today it was selling food & beer. We weren't hungry but we were ready for a beer. We all decided we were getting 4 cans each to start with. As we were moving up the queue we noticed they were only selling little cans of beer. No problem we'd get 6 of those each. Eventually it was out turn to be served. The woman serving pointed to me & said " the wee laddie wont be getting any beer he looks about 15. I was actually 20. There was another one of the lads she said was to young I think he was 19. Eventually she reluctantly served us with 6 little cans between us. Telling us we'd be getting no more as she was there all day. We went back in the arena we all took a can each and shared the final can between us. A couple of the lads tried to get more beer but the woman wouldn't serve them a second time. So that was it no more beer but it didnt mattervthe music was about to start. Part 5 Man In suit A couple of bands had been on everyone was in a great mood. It was now reggae band Steel Pulse's turn to play. We were having a great time. Suddenly this guy came & stood beside us. He wouldnt have looked out of place riding a Harley Davidson bike. Nothing strange there you'd think it was a music festival. Except he was wearing a shirt & tie & a 3 piece suit. He was swigging from a bottle of whisky having a great time. When he'd finished the whisky something very bizarre happened. He took off his jacket & folded it neatly on the floor. This was followed by his waistcoat & socks & shoes. He was dancing around now really enjoying himself. We were all keeping one eye on the stage & oneceye on this guy. Then all of a sudden he whipped his pants off folded them up & he was completely naked. He then disappeared into the crowd & we never saw him again. His clothes will still in a pile when we went for a sit down. We couldnt stop laughing. Part 6 BusxStrike Just after Squeeze had played their spot we overheard someone saying the buses were stopping at 10pm as the drivers had called a lightening strike. It meant the last bus we could get back to the train station would be now 9.45. Ive since found out thecfestival was just over 8 miles from the train station. The last train to Newcastlecwas about 11pm we had to be on that as the next train was 10am Sunday morning. None of us fancied being stranded in Edinburgh. We left the festival at about 9.20 as Van Morrison was playing his spot. We just managed to squeeze onto the bus back to the station it was packed. We got on the train & arrived back in Newcastle at about 1am Sunday morning. We all shared a black cab home. What an adventure that had been. Part 7 Sunday Night

Part 1 Friday Night This is a true story about me & 4 of my mates who went to the Edinburgh music festival in 1979. In the August one of the lads mentioned there was a music festival on in early September up in Edinburgh & we should go. In the end 5 of us got tickets. At the time we all lived in Cramlington which is approximately 9 miles north of Newcastle Upon Tyne. The initial plan was to get the early train on the day of the festival a Saturday. Get there nice & early to get a good spot. We decided instead of our usual Friday night drinking in Newcastle we'd stay local & just have a few drinks. We met up in our local pub. We were looking forward to the next day we were definitely getting the early train in the morning. After another drink or two someone said " why dont we go tonight get the last bus into Newcastle get the train to Edinburgh have a few hours sleep at Edinburgh railway station then get the bus to Ingilston were the festival was . I said I knew were Ingilston was in reality I'd been to the market once with mam & dad in the car all I knew was the market was near the airport lol. We all agreed we'd go tonight we'd have one more drink go home get our tickets & get on the last bus into Newcastle. So that's what we did we got on the train at Central Station & we arrived at Edinburgh Waverley Station at about 1.30 to 2 in the morning. We found a quiet corner & tried to get some sleep so far so good. Part 2 Bus Journey As we were getting settled we were visited by 2 police officers who said get up & out of the station or we'd be arrested. We quickly got out of the station & found ourselves on Princess St at 2am in the morning not knowing were to get a bus & nobody around to ask. We walked for a few hundred yards & seen someone in the darkness we decided we'd ask them were to get a bus. It was a man who was clearly drunk & when we asked about a bus he said no chance tonight theres a bus station behind the shops. So we walked down a side street & eventually found the bus station with everything shuttered up it was now about 2.30 am. We looked at the bus timetable and worked out which bus it was we needed. The bad news was it wouldnt leave until 6.45 am. We had about 4 hours to wait & no chance of getting any sleep so we had to wait it out. At about 6.30 a lady turned up at the station & it turned out we would be getting the same bus as her. She was only going a few stops but said we should ask the driver to let us know when we got to Ingilston. At 6.45 the bus turned up we got on told the driver were we were going he said he give us a shout when we were there. It took about half an hour to get to were the driver dropped us off. The bus pulled away & we realised we didnt have a clue were we were. All that was around were fields there was nobody around. Part 3 Airport We noticed across the road from the bus stop were what looked like sheds with a really high stone wall around them. There was no indication any festival or anything was going on. It was now about 7.30am so we decided to follow the wall round we had nothing to lose we were walking around when one of the lads said " we must be close theres the camp site. We looked there was a small single man tent in a field lol. We continued walking round & eventually found some big black wooden gates with a poster stuck on advertising the festival. This was it we were here it was now about 8am. But the gates didnt open until 12 with the first band on at 2. We had about 4 hours to kill. I'm not sure how we did it but we worked out that the building quite away off was the airport. I think the fact that planes were landing & taking off there gave it away lol. We decided we'd go to thecairportvuse the facilities & get a wash. We'd get something to eat & drink & have a 5 minute sit down. It seemed to take ages to get to the airport but eventually we got there. This was at a time when you could walk into an airport there was no security etc. We all had a wash got some sandwiches & drinks & found some nice comfy seats to sit in. It felt so good.

I'll split this into a few posts for easy reading I hope you all have a laugh reading it.

Cheers lads

Might need a gushing river for this today lads if anyone would be so kind. I'm stuck in bed after twisting my right ankle the one that works. Cheers lads Trooper

4 games in 12 days coming up Brighton (h) Southampton (a) Chelsea (a) Everton (a) Howay The Lads

The turn around in Big Joe since Howe got here is amazing

So from Thursday if you test positive you can still wander round infecting other people. I mean what could possibly go wrong. This should have waited until all the younger kids who are being offered the vaccine had theirs. But what do I know ?