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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
 Posted - 23/05/2012 : 12:46:31
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Tonight 23rd May was OK. Arthur was in a fairly good mood for the Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London gig. I think he was a bit fed up with playing small to medium gigs and playing in a decent sized theatre with a crowd who knew and appreciated his music as opposed to playing background music to a student beer drinking contest,and in London as well, cheered him up and he obviously knew that the Rainbow was a world famous gig where everybody that was anybody had played. I have it in my diary that there was a reception after the gig but I do not think that lasted long if it did happen. I did not see any of it, all I remember is that the record company left us some display boards with pictures of Arthur and his album covers and we were told to put them in the entrance to all future gigs. They did not last long !! During the Rainbow gig I was standing behind the P.A. speaker cabinets as usual and Arthur was messing about pretending he was going to fall into the orchestra pit in front of the stage which was usually covered over but that night was open and Zappa had been pushed/fell in there some time before. So I think Arthur enjoyed that gig and at the end as he had done before he threw the maraccas into the audience. That was about the 3rd set of them we lost and they were not his ,they belonged to the support band who were getting fed up with losing them. I sometimes managed to rescue them with bribes of signed drumsticks etc but not always.So Arthur was happy as can be heard from the quarter track reel to reel I made from a crossed pair of microphones out at the mixing desk which Arthur had asked me to make and which I transferred to cassette and sent to the record company in the USA, and which then 'escaped' and has been heard by many people. I played it to Arthur the next night at Slough and he and the band seemed very happy with the result. I think John's effects pedal went wrong at the Rainbow gig as he bought it to me at the Slough gig and said it was not working. I took it apart and I could not see anything wrong so I had to take it to London to get it looked at.
Harvey the roadie |
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John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 23/05/2012 : 16:55:16
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| I remember Elektra cashing in on this tour with adverts in the music press. Featured were covers of the only three albums that were available in Britain at that time: Da Capo, Forever Changes and Love Masters. |
Edited by - John9 on 23/05/2012 16:56:37 |
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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
Posted - 23/05/2012 : 20:32:10
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There was quite a lot of Press interest in the tour especially in Melody Maker. At the Stirling University gig one of the road crew found a rose on a dinner table at the gig and taped it to the mike stand and that was reported in the M.M. and quite a lot of significance was put into it. Do not think they got many interviews with Arthur throughout the tour as he kept himself to himself. I think the record company that dealt with the tour was A & M and I think Herb Alpert came to some gigs. The support band Casablanca were on Rocket Records and they seemed to have a lot to do with the tour, providing equipment and crew and transport which they paid for and I know they paid the crews wages and the fuel bills. Doubt if they paid Arthur which may be why he had a bad tour. They were just using his name to try and launch Casablanca really and I think people like Bernie Taupin came to gigs to see them not Arthur and I do not remember many people of note that came backstage to see Arthur even after the Rainbow gig.
Harvey the roadie |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 23/05/2012 : 21:33:27
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I guess 1974 was when Love started going down. After that tours of the UK were hard to come by, and Arthur was doing the odd gig on the west coast (one assumes)
after
Last Love release on a major label (RSO) was Real to Reel |
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Ashrob
Second Love
49 Posts |
Posted - 23/05/2012 : 22:50:43
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| Perhaps the poor attendances in 1975 were the consequence of the short lack lustre displays of the 1974 tour |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 24/05/2012 : 02:33:17
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when was it that Arthur was making to wipe his butt onstage with a sign or something at the gig? I remember reading of it in the Castle
1975?
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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
Posted - 24/05/2012 : 13:01:33
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It was not in 1974. Apart from a couple of short sets he was quite respectful to audiences but some of the venues were fairly small and some of the larger ones were not full so I think he might have realised that he was not that well known here. This may have affected his attitude in 1975. But the gigs in 1975 look as though they had more capacity and if he was a bit less 'medically suppressed' in 75 it might have occurred to him if gigs were not well attended that he might be losing support. Also the 74 tour had quite a few university gigs which were attended by students who would probably not have known who he was and were only there to get drunk. Only the gigs where people who knew him and his music really appreciated what he was trying to do in 1974 but without the horns and strings it was a losing battle really. The music press were not really supportive in 1974 and as usual in Britain if you are an underdog they will build you up but if you had made it they will try and knock you down and Arthur did not really fit into either category and many of the journalists would not have seen him before and would only have listened to the records and so would report the gig as they saw it. I would have to find the Melody Maker reports to find their attitude as they did bother to send someone to most gigs. I am pretty sure that audiences attitudes to Arthur in 74 would have affected his view in 75 but his memories may have been selective as I am sure some gigs he was so out of it he might not remember.
Harvey the roadie |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 24/05/2012 : 19:43:51
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was the 1974 tour when Robert Plant was apologizing for him in the musical press?
apparently he was getting complaints about the live shows, and without the proper delicacy on the sensitive numbers like Andmoreagain
I can't imagine he was doing too much from Forever Changes, but then again, I think the double album Out Here (Blue Thumb) did very well in the UK (top 30 or something - might even have done better than Forever Changes)
as for the album around this time (1974) it was a bit of a shambles if you wanted psychedelic pop; Real to Reel is soul and influenced by Otis!
Guess the band was past caring by this point. Suranovich probably left around this time, and he was with Arthur the longest (since Four Sail? |
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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
Posted - 24/05/2012 : 20:33:33
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Not 1974, I do not remember a bad review in Melody Maker but I will have to go and dig out the old copies some time.There are set lists on this site for the 74 tour, I cannot remember if the 74 album was the reason for the tour or if the tour caused the album to be made. We had only listened to older albums and he seemed to play a lot of tunes that I knew from the albums but I was surprised he did not have any strings or horns. Tonights gig at the old Slough leisure centre was quite good and the band were fairly happy having listened to the tape from the Rainbow last night. Slough was a nice gig, played there many times but now all demolished and turned into a large Gym/fitness centre. I worked for bands there a few years ago in the new place and not a patch on the atmosphere and sound in the old place. I went to the gig tonight in my Sunbeam Alpine sports car and after the gig was over had to give a lift home to a young kid who had volunteered to help us load and unload the equipment. No help really as he kept dropping things, then could not remember where he lived so I had to drive round until he recognised somewhere. Really not what you want as I had to be up early next day to meet up with the others in the crew and get to Leeds University. Still in those days you could drive around and petrol costs did not really bother you. Could not do it these days. Tonight was when the backline equipment hire man (Peter 'Wimpy' Webber ex salesman for Hiwatt amplifiers) turned up and I 'had words' with him about the missing earth connections on the amps. Later I got to know him and used him many times for equipment rental. Owns a pub in the West Country now I have heard.
Harvey the roadie |
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Ashrob
Second Love
49 Posts |
Posted - 24/05/2012 : 23:13:54
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Joe - I don't know about 1974 but Melody Maker published a letter from a disatisfied audience member at one of the 1970 gigs. Robert Plant wrote a letter in Love's defence and the bunch of crawlers at the MM made it the Weekly Star letter which carried the prize of a free Album token - as if he needed it !
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 25/05/2012 : 00:20:35
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| Castle 7 covers Reel To Real & the second & third U.K. tours of '74-75 |
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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2012 : 00:53:59
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Saturday 1st June 1974 was the gig at the Brasenose College Oxford June ball. Gig opened with a Band called Blackfoot Sue who had a Hit with a song called 'Standing in the road'. I had supported them before with another band so I knew them and their roadie. This time they were supporting Arthur and Love. Gig was in a tent in the Quadrangle and after the set up we spent a lot of time in some rooms in the college. Gig began early evening and was populated by lots of already very drunk students. Half way through the first set as it was getting dark the power went off. Some of us traced the main cable back to a room in the Quad and the main power switch had been pulled off the wall with a piece of rope put there apparently by a rival college who wanted to ruin the gig. I repaired it and switched it back on and things continued. The students were getting more and more rowdy and falling about and kept jumping on to,the low stage and grabbing the microphone off Arthur who did not seem to know what to do.In the end he decided to throw them back into the audience and I stood along side him and helped throw them back along with members of the college Rugby Club. One or two fell into the P.A. Stack and almost knocked it over so that had to be put back. Gig went on until very late when most of the audience had collapsed on the floor, so the bands and everybody stayed overnight at the college. Really was one of the worst audiences I have ever seen, just a load of well off kids getting completely legless. I did a bit of vandalism as there was a vending machine with cartons of cold milk in and it kept taking my money and only giving me milk once every 3 or 4 coins so I kicked it and it broke open so everybody got free milk. So we left early in the morning before we got into trouble.
Sunday June the 2nd at the Croydon Greyhound was the last gig with Arthur and Love on the 1974 tour. Bad night, one side of the P.A. was cutting out so we had to stop for a bit and sort the amp out, bad connection. Arthur not in a very good mood, possibly because of this, and did not do a very good set. So that was how they left UK on a low point as had happened at gigs before. Quite a bit of unrest in the crowd and when we got out to the truck after the gig it had been vandalised. Diesel poured all over the windscreen and the wiper blades and arms ripped off. It was raining so the drive back to Hampstead where we were based was pretty awful as we could not see where we were driving and had to keep stopping to clean the screen. First bad weather I remember on the tour. I had to get the parts to repair the truck for the next days gig with Casablanca at Leeds Playhouse Theatre with Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel and Bill Nelson's Red Noise.
About a week later the sound engineer took some Amyl Nitrate and then had a hot bath and died of a heart attack in the bath but most of the tour he had kept Arthur supplied with the necessary stuff and had been almost as high as Arthur most of the time but he was scary to drive with in the truck. I was working for another band by then but went back to see Casablanca on the 12th June and that is when I heard. So a pretty disastrous tour at the end, casualties included people, reputations, equipment etc. etc. So that was 38 years ago, does not seem that long ago.
Harvey the roadie |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 04/06/2012 : 00:14:18
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| Gosh! its good the Rugby team was there! |
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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
Posted - 04/06/2012 : 01:46:47
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Rugby players tend to provide better security than Hells Angels, especially at an Oxford college. Surprisingly they stayed sober most of the evening and helped us load the truck in the early morning.
Harvey the roadie |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2012 : 03:06:47
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Rugby players are the best Love fans of course!  |
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Memories of The 1974 tour
