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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
 Posted - 25/05/2014 : 23:35:29
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Saturday 25th May 1974 was the Leeds University gig. When we go there one of the Fender Amps was not working but I managed to fix it. John and one of the female singers from the support band Casablanca were talking and Joe said 'Johnny got a girl friend' and Arthur told him to 'Shut up' . Later they were messing about with some props they found in the back of the stage and Arthur said 'Stop fooling about' and they all stopped so he was in charge of the band and they knew it. They all stopped when the University Social Secretary walked in. She was a really attractive girl and they all went for a drink with her. The gig went quite well and was fairly well attended . People have talked on here about a gig at Greenwich Festival in Charlton House on Monday May 27th which was Bank Holiday Monday. It should have been with Alvin Lee and others. Arthur and Love were never there and I know where the equipment was so I do not think it happened.
Harvey the Roadie |
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John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 26/05/2014 : 20:54:04
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Going back to the Rainbow, the thought of that one has always held a certain mystique for me. When Arthur appeared there in 1974, it had recently hosted Pink Floyd, Queen, Clapton, Genesis and Van Morrison - and so it was a high profile venue. Later in the same year Jethro Tull also played there before honouring the theatre in song. Although Rainbow Blues has an attractive melody and lyric (not to mention some sublime flute and guitar passages), it was not included on an original album - but it did show up as the b-side of a single a couple of years later
Through northern lights on back streets
I told the coachman, "Just drive me on,
It's the same old destination
but a different world to sing upon."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goN5BWbvn-I&feature=kp |
Edited by - John9 on 26/05/2014 21:00:22 |
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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
Posted - 27/05/2014 : 13:05:07
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The Rainbow is now a Happy Clappy Church. (someone else's description not mine) Like many famous Venues in England it could not be sustained and was nearly demolished . Several others demolished or turned into supermarkets or other use. Great shame, great memories .
Harvey the Roadie |
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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
Posted - 28/05/2014 : 16:36:14
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Tuesday 28th was the Biba Gig, Upstairs in the Rainbow Room. Lots of record company people there supporting Casablanca. Arthur not in a very good mood and short setted which made crowd angry. Refused to go back on again and would not talk to members of the band or crew so we gave up. Casablanca went back on and did some more. Crowd still pretty annoyed so we got equipment out as quickly as possible. There was a lighting rig and a disco there and the lighting rig was making a slight noise on the P.A. so that may have upset Arthur. After we had loaded van the sound engineer noticed that the DJ had left a pair of record decks so he decided to put them in the truck. That may have been the reason we left the P.A. Multicore cables behind by mistake in the hurry to get out. Could also have been the reason why the foam armchair we took from the gig the other night got left on the roof of the truck and fell off in Knightsbridge somewhere.
Harvey the Roadie |
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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
Posted - 29/05/2014 : 19:43:23
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Wednesday 29th May 74 was the Gig at Manchester Free Trade Hall. In our rush to get out from Biba's last night we left the P.A. Multicore cables behind. So we had to plug the microphones straight into the desk which we put near the stage. The cables did turn up in the end having been sent up from London on the train but it was too late to use them. Everything seemed to work ok. Not an easy gig to do as the stage had all sorts of steps and platforms on for use by orchestras so stage was a bit narrow. All seemed to go ok .
Harvey the Roadie |
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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
Posted - 30/05/2014 : 15:10:14
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Thursday 30th May 74 was the Electric Gardens gig in Glasgow. See above (Page 2) for some of my recollections. Gig was in Sauchiehaul Street just around the corner from the recently badly damaged Glasgow School of Art Mackintosh Building. I remember in those days Glasgow was pretty run down, and the people were pretty unfriendly to English people . A night in a hotel in Glasgow was pretty unforgettable, noise of fighting in street going on all night. Gig was OK, fairly well attended but Arthur not in a very good mood. I think he had been warned that if he short setted there would be real trouble.
Harvey the Roadie |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9873 Posts |
Posted - 31/05/2014 : 22:10:12
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Thanks for all these Love/tour posts, Harv! Very Good!
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"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music".
-Aldous Huxley
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Dukie
Fifth Love
United Kingdom
410 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2014 : 15:04:09
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Thanks Harvey, I really enjoyed your stories. Now if only we could find the crew from the 1975 tour....
I saw Love in Glasgow at King Tuts on the 2003 Tour - yes, a night in Glasgow can be unforgettable. Luckily, I had some good friends with me - Scottish Keith, Lizzy B and a few others.Good Times! |
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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2014 : 16:06:06
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Tonight was the Oxford Brasenose College gig . For their late May Ball. We drove down from the JB's at Dudley gig which was Casablanca only not Arthur and Love as has been suggested on here . Nice hot day I remember but difficult get in at Oxford as we had to find a member of staff with a security key to let us in which cost us time. Gig was in a large tent in the quadrangle. Line up was Arthur and Love, Casablanca , and Blackfoot Sue who were a British pop band really, who had had a few hits. Two brothers, Tom and Ted Farmer were the mainstay of the band one played drums and sang and was the central focus. I had worked with them before and knew them and their crew. Bands were all put up in the rooms at the college and partying all the time. The gig was a demonstration of what the upper class well educated students get up to . All of them completely legless all evening, getting on stage and grabbing microphone. Spent most of the evening throwing people off stage, Arthur threw a few off, P.A. stack got knocked over. Security was supposed to be by Oxford University Rugby club but they were a bit outnumbered. At the start of the evening the power went off and Blackfoot Sue's roadie and I went to find out why. Someone had wrapped a rope round the main isolator switch on the wall inside the college and pulled on it and pulled the isolator box off the wall. Everybody said it was a rival college trying to ruin the evening. I managed to fix it all again and everything was ok. As I say the evening gradually got worse and worse with more and more drunks throwing themselves about. Managed to get through the evening and eventually about 3 am, all students lying on floor too drunk to stand. We and all the bands stayed overnight in the college, partying again. I spent most of the night on the stairs stopping unwanted people getting into the party. In the morning we took out our frustration on the college milk carton machine that kept taking money and not working so we smashed it and took all the milk cartons and distributed them. Beautiful sunny day in Oxford but ruined by disgraceful behaviour of students. All the bands played well but totally unappreciated . Great memories. With reference to the 75 tour crew the only one I know was on 74 and 75 was Bruce Riley.
Harvey the Roadie |
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John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2014 : 17:31:59
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| Supporting the slimmed down version of Love in 1975 was Dog Soldier - I have only just found out that they had been formed the previous year by Lancashire's very own (and now sadly,late) Keef Hartley. That surprises me because I remember them as having been painfully loud - in comparison Love sounded like ethereal soft rock...although I think I was lucky to catch them (Love) on an especially good night. |
Edited by - John9 on 01/06/2014 17:34:27 |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9873 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2014 : 15:43:36
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quote:
Originally posted by Dukie
Thanks Harvey, I really enjoyed your stories. Now if only we could find the crew from the 1975 tour....
I saw Love in Glasgow at King Tuts on the 2003 Tour - yes, a night in Glasgow can be unforgettable. Luckily, I had some good friends with me - Scottish Keith, Lizzy B and a few others.Good Times!
Where IS Lizzy B, J9? We miss Lizzy!
________________________________________________
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music".
-Aldous Huxley
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harvey
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
155 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2014 : 19:44:03
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Sunday 2nd June 1974 was the last gig of the tour with Arthur and Love. The Greyhound in Croydon. Not a very good gig as we had to stop part of the way through as one of the Phase Linear amps powering one side of the P.A. stopped working. We got it going again but audience were pretty rowdy. After the gig we went to load the equipment and found the truck had been vandalised. Diesel fuel poured all over windscreen and the wiper blades snapped off. Difficult journey back to base as it was raining and we had to keep stopping to clean screen. So that was the end of the tour. I never met Arthur or any of the band again. Never saw them again as I was always busy working for other bands. Watched them whenever they were on TV in later years, on Jools Holland and Glastonbury. I carried on working for Casablanca so had to get up early next day to fix truck wipers as another gig at Leeds Playhouse theatre tomorrow with Bill Nelson and others.
Great Tour, Great memories, does not seem like 40 years ago. To sum it up, The band Love were a great bunch of blokes but Arthur could be very difficult to work with sometimes. Best gig of the tour was the Rainbow .
Harvey the Roadie |
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Dukie
Fifth Love
United Kingdom
410 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2014 : 14:49:33
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| Thanks Harvey - I interviewed Bruce Riley after the opening gig at Birmingham on the 1975 tour. I was supposed to interview Arthur later in the tour but it didn't happen . The three gigs that I saw were great (despite PA problems at Salisbury), and I recorded the Lyceum show -good times |
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John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 04/06/2014 : 00:45:10
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quote:
Originally posted by lemonade kid
quote:
Originally posted by Dukie
Thanks Harvey, I really enjoyed your stories. Now if only we could find the crew from the 1975 tour....
I saw Love in Glasgow at King Tuts on the 2003 Tour - yes, a night in Glasgow can be unforgettable. Luckily, I had some good friends with me - Scottish Keith, Lizzy B and a few others.Good Times!
Where IS Lizzy B, J9? We miss Lizzy!
________________________________________________
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music".
-Aldous Huxley
Hi LK - I've met Lizzy (along with Tina) only twice - at Arthur Lee birthday gatherings in York during 2010 (when Dukie also attended) and 2011. So many people have come and gone during the time we've been on this board - it would be wonderful to hear from people like Ed The Bear and Rocker once again - and Caryne of course - with whom we used to debate on just about everything under the Sun - they were great days. |
Edited by - John9 on 04/06/2014 00:49:11 |
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Dukie
Fifth Love
United Kingdom
410 Posts |
Posted - 04/06/2014 : 18:21:29
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It is Tina's birthday today, and Lizzy has sent her best wishes.
We may have to arrange another UK get-together.
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Love Tour of U.K 1974
