Aston Uni has a long history of gigs organised by the Student Union and their Events Officer. One of their most prolific officers was Pat Myhill in the early 70s. Pat put on numerous gigs and also developed light shows while there. You can read about this fascinating development here.
Pat and his wife also designed the posters for the gigs and Pat has sent some of these to the BMA. As well as being incredibly important historical documents of music activity at Aston and the city, they are also brilliant examples of design and the extraordinary craft that went into live music posters during this time.
Our aim is to build a complete list of gigs at Aston University. Here’s a start but we need your help!
Yardbirds, Simon Dupree & The Big Sound 08/03/68
Hawkwind 19/03/71
Colosseum, Mick Abrahams 07/11/71
Lindisfarne, Head Hands & Feet 15/11/71
Amazing Blondel 18/11/71
Sandy Denny 21/11/71
Slade 30/11/71
Flash, Tony Hazzard 01/03/72
Genesis 17/03/72
Stone The Crows 21/04/72
Argent 06/10/72
Stray 13/10/72
Curved Air 21/10/72
Head Hands & Feet 27/10/72
Status Quo 10/11/72
Little Free Rock 17/11/72
Blackfoot Sue 15/12/72
Caravan 12/01/73
Kevin Ayers 19/01/73
Pat Myhill also sent this list of bands he saw/worked with at Aston Uni into the archive:
Pat also sent this list into the archive of bands he has seen:
Here’s a list of bands I can remember, still have posters for
Sabbath (as you know)
Dupree/Yardbirds
Arrival
Blonde on Blond
Liverpool Scene + Stone the Crows
Heavy Jelly
Marsha Hunt (doing a Janet Jackson)
Pink Floyd Jan 68 (first Dave Gilmour gig?)
8.3.68
Yardbirds
Simon Dupree & the Big Sound
Chuckles
Mandey’s Movement
Sight & Sound
Factotums
Lemon Line
Hari Kari
18.10.69
Marsha Hunt
27.11.69 (Heavier Jelly)
Blonde on Blonde
20.2.70 (Heavier Jelly)
Liverpool Scene
Stone the Crows
2.3.70 ( Key ‘Shopwindow’ concert at which Sabbath were picked up by London agents)
Black Sabbath
Locomotion
Tea & Symphony
1.5.70 (Charter Ball)
Chris Barber
Fourmost
St Christopher Steel Band
John Foreman
1.7.70
Arrival
Colonel Bagshott’s Incredible Bucket Band
Pete Quin
Love Sculpture
Zoot Money & the Big Roll Band
Dantelion’s Chariot
Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
Chicago Climax Blues Band
Graham Bond Organisation
Alexis Korner
Champion Jack Dupree
Humphrey Lyttleton
Temperance Seven
Liverpool Scene
Stone the Crows
Moody Blues
Move
Rockin’ Berries
Spencer Davies
New York Public Library
Jimmy Powell and the Dimensions
Lucas + Mike Cotton Sound
Alan Price & Georgie Fame
Shakin’ Stevens & the Sunsets
Junior Walker
Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band
Jimmy James & the Vagabonds
Robert Plant and the Band of Joy
Genesis
Van Der Graaf Generator
Clouds
For Evermore
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
Status Quo
Hawkwind
Ten Years After
Family
Jigsaw
Orange Bicycle
Roy Harper
Folk Club
Ralph McTell
Fred Jordan
John Foreman
Watersons
Strawbs
Dominic Behan
Tom Paxton
Fairport Convention
Principle Edwards Magic Theatre
Pete Quin
Bert Jansch
John Renbourne
Cliff Aungier
Pentangle
Deep Purple
Soft Machine
Keef Hartley
Colosseum,
Fleetwood Mac (Elvis period)
Wizzard
Chicken Shack
Kevin Ayres
Spooky Tooth
Joe Cocker
Atomic Rooster
Manfred Mann
Edgar Broughton Blues Band
Free
Procul Harum
Brian Auger Trinity
Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Tremeloes
Alvin Stardust
ELO
Derek & the Dominoes (Town Hall gig, autumn 70)
Caravan?
There Are Currently 53 Comments for this Post
Went to printing college at Aston University so knew the place very well. Saw The John Miles Band and The Ian Gillan Band there early 80s. Very enjoyable gigs.
Was miffed to find Slade played there in 78 but inexplicably didn’t go. However, did see them at the Town Hall a few weeks earlier.
I remember going to the Slade gig – possibly 1977 rather than 1978? I’m not sure. The bass player climbed on a monitor and did the first few riffs of Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze.
My favourite concert was Doctor Feelgood, which I think must have been in 1975.
The Cure played Aston University on 1st december 1978 supporting Generation X
True, the Cure did “play” but, if I remember rightly, had just fallen out with their record label (Polydor?), so refused to do any of their songs, thrashing at their instruments in a kind of free-style jazz/thrash. Luckily Generation X played a corker.
I was on the entertainment committee (enscom) at Aston in 1969-1970 . I went to a lot of gigs there . Black Sabbath played nearly every Tuesday night (heavy jelly night) ,Stone the crows were other regulars. I saw the following Keef Hartley, Tea and Symphony,Coloseum, Fleetwood Mac (Elvis period), Deep Purple, Wizzard , Chicken Shack, Kevin Ayres, Clouds, Hawkwind,Spooky Tooth to name but a few.I also spent many enjoyable nights at Mothers in Erdington. I went to the Rainbow room to see Johnny Winter (and met him afterwards) and to see Johnny Johnson and BW ( which was surreal as we were the only White guys there. The girls wouldn’t dance with us because of that). I took many photos of some gigs which are buried somewhere in the attic. I did have some posters and they could be up there as well.
dewi, are you the dewi from llangefni i remember meeting all those years ago.
I know Texas played there, around 1988 I think it was. I didn’t go but I remember sitting outside the student guild at the time. I know they’d been booked just before they hit the charts so it was quite a coo to have them while at the top of the charts.
I booked Texas 1988.
I was a member of the Aston ents team from 67 to 70, starting on the lightshow, then heading lighting and presentation before becoming Social Sec and chair of Entscomm in autumn 69 through to summer 70.
We had a superb team at both the technical level and in event management, generally being reputed to be the best campus lighting team in the country. We took great pride in the standard of our shows and were good enough to go out on the road, particularly with the disco – Impact – and the lightshow. Our posters were always good as well, often too good as they got pinched to decorate flats!
The chairs preceding me were Keith ?, ( a Geordie), Mike Whitehouse (who went on to manage the Red Arrows as part of his RAF career), Al Langlois (ex rag chair) and Dave Thomas (briefly between Al and myself. Dave was a long standing deputy chair over most of that period). Dave Fildes followed me. Other key players I remember were Brian Lovering, John Sherwood, Graham Knaggs, Rob Pearson (door staff), and the two Judies plus Paul Denison Edson who was rag chair in 70.
In the early days the successful standard formula was two £50 (or so) jobbing bands each doing 2 x 45 mins for a Saturday night dance with the Impact disco on Wednesday (and always a sell out). We had a very good team of Djs as well. Larger balls were held at the beginning and end of each term, usually in the University Great Hall, with additional mid term dances on a larger scale such as the Pyjama Hop and Carnival (rag) Ball in Feb. That involved bands in both the Union Hall and Great Hall with the two headliners playing both venues. It was quite an exercise in logisitics to handle the changeover and have enough crew to run both events. Folk Club was on Mondays, possibly Tuesdays at one time, Film Club on Sunday and most Thursday nights saw a society disco. Events Group put on ‘cultural’ events usually on a Friday. So overall the tech crew were pretty busy.
Heavy Jelly started in autumn 69 and was actually on a Friday, (Dewi, I suspect you’re thinking of Henry’s Blueshouse on a Tues). It was a disco based ‘happening’ type event involving poetry etc as well as music. Principle Edwards Magic Theatre launched it. It was intended to develop ‘progressive events’ and a stronger audience for them. Occasionally it moved into the main hall for a Heavier Jelly with named bands
The Joint Guild of Students was formed when the Students Union opened in 66, it served the colleges of Art and Commerce as well as UAB. There was an interesting and valuable mix of skills, creative from Art, commercial from Commerce and technical from UAB, which is probably why we had such a good team.
By the time I took over the chair, Entscomm was experiencing financial problems. The original set up involved different and funded clubs for Folk and Film, Events Group, also funded and handling ‘culture’, with Entscomm handling popular entertainment and expected to pay its way, but not getting any of the massive bar profit from the gigs. All the different groups were separately and independently run with no joint programming.
From about 68 onwards we had a split developing in the audience with the Art College leaning much more towards emerging progressive music whilst UAB and partially Commerce were still heavily into soul/Motown. So it became difficult to satisfy the audience and pull in the numbers to the Sat night hops to cover expenses. Impact was still a runaway success and subsidised the dances, but financial reserves were depleting, inhibiting splashing out on big names which was also complicated by the split market.
Mothers had opened, and was a serious competitor as well. In trying to cater for the progressive audience, and with funding available as ‘risk’ money, Events Group started to put on large Friday night events which competed with and undermined the Sat hops. There was also criticism, particularly from new students, that we were not booking big enough bands. Much of this reflected a lack of understanding of the costs/capacity issues as well as the split audience. In those days, Who were £1,000 which was an awful lot of money with a Union Hall capacity of 800 and average Sat night prices of 30/40p!. By comparison most ‘name’ bands were £300 – 450 at that time. I remember booking the Moody Blues in 70 for £405! The Yardbirds/Simon Dupree dance heading the list above was a rag ball and was 65p and the Arrival gig 40p in advance and 50p on the door – I’ve still got the posters!
My first act was to use my Appointment as Social Sec, (which went with the Entscomm chair), to institute a joint programming meeting to ensure the competition and clashes ended and also to get all the bodies merged together under one umbrella headed by the social sec. Funding was pooled, though original allocations were respected and an underwriting sum (all of £700!!) arranged primarily for Entscomm but there to cover the whole budget. This plan, programme and budgeting system worked well and there was a much better feel of co-ordination and co-operation across the board. After a trial spell named Juggernaut, the whole operation became Aston Campus Entertainments and we started to return to financial health, proved by putting on Eric Clapton in the Town Hall as opener to the 70 autumn term.
I have great memories of the period and some of the bands we worked with. The Bonzos were a gas, Roger Ruskin Speare an absolute maniac. The Moodies were always a delight to work with as was Jimmy Powell – one of the great Brum artistes who didn’t make it as big as he deserved. Geno could wrap the audience round his little finger in minutes, (as could Jimmy), and Junior Walker was the supreme professional. One year he went straight on stage minus one member of the band and with others injured, having been in a car crash on the way over from an earlier gig in Leicester, and put on a superb performance.
I always think of Impact, our disco, when I hear Roadrunner – we used it to test out and tune the sound system, which, believe it or not, was a Leak Stereo 70 amp with, latterly, 4 x 18” Goodmans speakers in custom made cabinets that must have been about 5’ tall.
Dave Swarbrick and Dick Heckstall-Smith (Fairport and Colosseum) were awesome soloists and Alan Price had to be poured onstage. Cliff Aungier had THE guitar, a custom Martin complete with his name let into the fret in mother of pearl. Arthur Brown was zany but lost the audience with a monologue on religion and lovely Joe Cocker was smashed out of his mind, as were a few others. Marsha Hunt behaved like a prima donna and nearly flounced offstage after the spannermen started chanting for a bit of exposure as in Janet Jackson – first done on TOTP by Marsha Hunt, her agent was daft enough to send photos, which we used on the poster! Deep Purple were, frankly, difficult and opinionated. When late in the act they launched into a fake equipment smashing session under a strobe, we could see from the wings that the instruments were going nowhere near the speaker cabinets they were ‘being smashed into’ and realised why half the cabinets had seemed amazingly light when we put them onstage – dummies to be toppled as part of the ‘destruction’!
In the spring of 1970 we put on a shopwindow gig for Black Sabbath, Locomotion and Tea and Symphony in the Union hall. I understood it to be a showcase for Sabbath with London agents invited who signed them up and from there on they catapulted to fame, sadly leaving behind Brum agent and manager Jim Simpson who had arranged the gig and supported their development. (London and its agents was like a vacuum cleaner, sucking in provincial artistes). My (then) girlfriend, (now wife), Cathy did the poster and we both did the lightshow that night, and what a night! Amazingly, we were contacted last year and lent our copy of the poster for the Heavy Metal exhibition. In June 2011 we returned to Brum having been invited to the launch, and met up with Tony Iommi and Jim, having a good chat with both.………..and, 40 years on, we returned to the Union hall for a look around. It hasn’t changed much, even the old cherry picker was still there!
Now what a thought that is, the reformed Sabbath doing some retro gigs in the Union hall trying to recreate those heady days of the sixties! ……….and what a crowd puller as well, with a relatively small and intimate auditorium.
It was a tremendous time and we had great fun as well as working very hard. So much so that sadly some first year students became too involved and didn’t make the second year.
Happy days, if only I could do it all again! Actually I almost am!
After a long time away from the business, I got reinvolved in event support up here on Skye 6 years ago and it’s been a gas, despite the hard work. I’ve also re-established a genuine 60’s style lightshow with vintage projectors and made contact with some great lightshow people and managed to develop some new techniques based on the old days but exploiting new and better materials and technology. And have worked with some superb young bands.
Great memories. I was a Chemistry undergrad at Aston 1969-73, new to city life and loved the music scene in the Students’ Union. Superb variety of bands and a great atmosphere (mostly – I was there when Marsha Hunt told us all to f-off.) Met a girl at the Wednesday Disco who is today still my wife, so “Impact” indeed.
I was at Aston 1967/69 and how we loved Impact, never missed our Wednesday nights. brilliant. Whenever I hear ‘Heard it on the Grapevine’ it brings back those times.
The late Gary Moore played there 3 December 1982 touring Corridors of Power and he was on fire. The band included Ian Paice, Don Airey and Neil Murray. I’ve still got one of Ian’s drumsticks that he lobbed into the crowd. One of my favourite gigs.
I was part of ACE ’78 – ’81 (ish) and saw many, many bands as a result – some awesome nights!
I was also (im)famously probably the only ACE DJ of the time who could change the tunes from disco to rock AND keep a full dancefloor 🙂
When I failed, I stayed in Brum for a while and drove the PA around for Bandanna …
Good Times !!
Maths,Comp Science 71-74, I was telling someone in the pub that the best band I ever saw was Ten Years After with Alvin Lee then I looked on line to see what Alvin was upto and found out he had died early this year, The live music was legendary, couldn’t happen today. The May Ball, Moot the Hoople, Shakin Stevens,Ottiley Patterson and Kenny Ball ! Where’s Tim Izzett and Tim Barber?
Happy Days!
John
Hi John,
I’m here – living in Withington near Cheltenham for the last 30 years. I keep in touch with Tim Izzett, Paul Fortune and Ron Cameron. I’ve still got a photo of you and me doing a practical somewhere in the Applied Psychology Dept.
D:Ream (most likely with a certain Mr Brian Cox), Louise and Heaven 17 played the May Ball in approx 1994 or 1995. I have a vague memory of being disappointed that Heaven 17 didn’t play Temptation.
D:Ream was ’95, Louise headlined in ’97. From what I remember, Louise did 3 tracks off a backing tape in a 20min show in the Great Hall……..and I think Strike were the main act in the Guild. ’97 was also the year we put the searchlight on the roof of the main building.
Blur played in the Guild one Freshers week or possibly May Ball around1994-ish. I thought they were toilet.
Blur played the freshers ball at Aston University in Sept 1993 during their Modern Life is Rubbish tour. Great tunes but the sound was awful, and everyone was off their tits anyway. Six months later they released Parklife and everyone loved them. Saw them at Wolverhampton in the June of 94 and they were awesome.
The following is what I remember but might not be perfectly accurate…
D-Ream played the May Ball in 1994. Bjorn Again played the on the same night. In 1995 it was the bootleg beatles and I think Rolf Harris. In 1997 it was Olive (the same week that You’re not alone was number 1 in the Top 40) and Kenickie…..
I remember seeing Pink Floyd for free. A group of us Mothers regulars managed to sweet talk the bloke on the door. He must have pitied us penniless working class hippies from Handsworth.
Attended Aston 1978-82. Can remember during that time seeing John Cougar Mellencamp, The Police, UB 40, King, and The Glitter Band
SCREAMING LORD SUTCH
A few more band names I saw at Aston in the 80’s:
28/11/1980 U2 / Midnite & Lemon Boys
06/11/1901 Splodgenessabounds / Biddy & Eve
13/11/1981 ALTERED IMAGES / Flock of Seagulls
22/01/1982 OK JIVE / The Dancing Did
?/?/1982 THE CHAMELEONS / Willy & Poor Boys
28/2/1982 Morrisey-Mullen
11/3/1983 PIGBAG / Laurel & Hardy
Would love to rewind some of these and see them again (U2, Chameleons, Altered Images), the others I have tried to erase from my memory. I remember A Flock of Seagulls being the loudest gig I had ever been to, must have been the quite low ceiling. The venues gradually got bigger for U2, up to the stadiums that they play nowadays. Saw them at 5 different Birmingham venues during their rise to super stardom.
Hi Derek
I was the booking agent for U2, Atered Images and The Chameleons and booked these shows into Aston. I worked at Wasted Talent.
do you have any specific stories or any anecdotes for these shows that you could share with me?
I am writing a book about Wasted Talent.
I’d much appreciate your feeedback.
Thank you
Ian Wilson
Hi Ian,
I remember U2. Dave Stacy booked them (Dave then went on to work at ITB before leaving us far to soon) and we all really looked forward to the gig. Dave was the Social Sec for a few years and booked at lot of the great bands into Aston around that period. He was also the DJ at the regular Saturday disco (I did the lighting) which usually sold out with about 1,000 people going for it.
In the U2 gig – unfortunately Bono decided he could mix the band at the sound check better than the sound guy. Needless to say it then took the sound guy a few songs into the gig to get the mix right and to be able to hear the vocals.
I would have been at Altered Images and the Chamelions but the memories have faded. I had seen Altered Images a few years beforehand at a tiny venue in Norwich which was amazing.
Cheers,
Phil
Hi Derek,
I’m working on a web site about U2 and their early days. Any memories you have about those U2 gigs would be very helpful. As the venues & line up changed a fair bit from what was published, any first hand information would be great. Also if you have any memorabilia scans of that would also be very welcome.
As an example U2 were due to play a town in Devon (Totnes), I found a clip in the local newspaper saying that U2 had to cancel the gig because one of them was ill. A couple of year later I stumble across this site & find U2 played the Golden Eagle in Birmingham that very same night. Jeff
Me and 3 mates tried to get in to see Fashion on 1st Februray 1980……Freezing cold night arrived far too early at about 6.30pm….Was aged 15 and probably looked about 12 so didn’t stand much chance of getting in as had to be over 18….got told by the doorman we needed to be signed in by a student….managed to get one about 2 hours later only to be turned away by the same doorman….gutted and reluctantly had to phone my mates dad to come and pick us up to take us home……
I’ve long believed it was at Aston Uni that I saw John Martyn with Paul Kossoff making a guest appearance
Fairly certain of Seeing Rory Gallagher there too.
And a few years later being impressed by The Dancing Did who I think came from Evesham. Also remember a band called The Bloomsbury Set there .
John Martyn did play Aston, maybe 75 or 76 and Paul Ko ssoff was supposed to be with him. However Kossoff didn’t turn up and Martyn had a rant about him on stage. Kossoff was tracked down by guys on the Ents Committee to The Parisian in the city centre where he was in what could only be called a drunken drugged up stupor. Needless to say he didn’t play alongside Martyn on that occasion.
I think there was Then Jerico ~1988. 1989-1993 is very blurry, but I think I saw…..
Rolf H (shhh)
Bad Manners
Doctor and the Medics
if I think of more, I’ll post em
A band has been ‘bugging me’ in my mind for many years. They played in years 1970-74. The band I feel must have been the Alexis Corner band – but I remember the songs sung on the night of the May Ball, sounded very philosophical/story type songs. But when I have listened to Alexis corner since – the songs sound nothing like that.
Above someone mentions John Foreman – I don’t remember him,. but perhaps that is who I am referring to. does he sing those kinds of songs. I’d like to lose that bug, so any help is welcome. thank you
Am posting again. I believe I have a couple of prior May Ball programs,. I’ll try to dig them out. I think this year will represent the 50th Aston University Ball. I would like to get along to it – as it’s a piece of history in the making. have contacted the student union to get a ticket but so far no reply. Does anyone know of a contact person in the University to put a in application for a ticket in? Or an e-mail address to get one? Anyone else thinking of returning for the forthcoming night?
I am starting to think that (from the above helpful postings) that it is Paul Kossoff I am thinking of – I remember first letter was a ‘k’ – and isn’t alexis korner. Diid Kossoff sing philosophical/story type songs?
Paul Kossoff was the guitarist in Free until 1973 and then Back Street Crawler until his death in 1976.
Not sure whether his songs would be classed as ‘philosophical story-type though.
Re a question above, John Foreman was a folk singer known as the Broadsheet King. He had a background in printing and used to make up and publish his own broadsheets.
His trick was to announce that he’d only a few laeft of the latest sheet, going at ? (not much). Then when he’d sold a few he’d pull out loads and give them away for the audience to follow the next song.
He only sang songs he’d learned as a boy – I think in the East End
Great guy, a regular at the folk club
At Aston, 1966-69 and have to say that Pay Myhill’s list is quite comprehensive. Couple of points: When Crazy World of Arthur Brown appeared in the Great Hall and did their usual “Fire” number, the fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate for about 30 minutes while the Birmingham Fire Brigade checked out the place.
When Pink Floyd appeared – yes, as a five piece with Dave Gilmour, the majority of the audience (the Motown lot) disappeared and only a handful of people stayed to watch the set. Accordingly, I was able to sit on the edge of the stage to watch them go through most of Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
One night, I believe the Swinging Blue Jeans cancelled at the last minute and were replaced by a local Brum band who were making their first public appearance – Black Sabbath?
When Soft Machine played, Robert Wyatt started into “We Did It Again” which he sang the same line for nearly 15 minutes rapidly emptying the Hall.
Good times!
I lived in Dalton Tower as a first year civil engineering student 1979-80.
I remember John Peel Hosted the Freshers ‘Ball’ which included ‘The Beat’ (now known as ‘The English Beat’) Apparently he was so impressed with them he swapped his fee cheque for theirs. They returned a few times including The May Ball that year which included ‘Rockpile’ (Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe).
I’m pretty sure I also saw ‘U2’, ‘Duran Duran’, ‘Flock of Seagulls’, ‘Altered Images’ ‘Simple Minds and many other who didn’t go on to make Top-Of-The-Pops. I also recall Toyah Wilcox but that may have been in the my second or third year.
October 3rd, 1980 me and a mate went to try to see The Bodysnatchers, an all girl 2 tone/ska type band, but it was a Fresher’s Ball and me and a mate couldn’t get in. Heard one of the support bands, Duran Duran playing but didn’t see them. About half an hour later a side door opened so we rushed to it to try to sneak in. A band were loading their gear into an old Ford Transit van, asked who they were, ‘Duran Duran’ they said (I think it was Nick Rhodes. Asked what type of music they played ‘Just New Wave’ was the reply. We then asked if they could sneak us in, but they said they diudn’t want to get in trouble!!! Hated them ever since. A punk band were also playing that night, The Androids of Mu, I think they were called. We were talking to a couple of punks who couldn’t get in either; they went off to see Echo & The Bunnymen at The Cedar Club in Birmingham, and I really wish I’d gone with them instead of failing to get in to see The Bodysnatchers!!
I was at Aston from 78 to 82 and joined ACE to help with the gigs and the disco. Lots of very hazy memories of those days. But here are a few.
The second time GenerationX played they were supported by the Police. About 50 people left the bar to watch them – they were very good. A few weeks later they sold out Digbeth Town Hall.
Duran Duran in the Stephen Duffy days played a few times. But when they changed to the Simon Le Bon line up they rehearsed in the Hall for a week before heading off on tour. The deal was they would play a free gig at the end of that tour. Planet Earth was then released but they came back and did the gig. We had hordes of young teenage girls trying to get in – a very different audience. I think they supported Fashion on one of their early gigs – they definitely did at othervFashio gigs – was there one in the Botanic Gardens?
We booked John Peel for the freshers week. The deal with Peel was you had to find a local band to support him. Obviously lots of bands wanted to p,ay so we went around various pu s to choose one. We saw the Beat in a small pub in Digbeth. Ranking Roger kept breaking out in giggles every time his girlfriend caught his eye. They were brilliant and we booked them. Peel loved them, we were paying him £350 and the Beat £50. Peel swopped his cheque with them and asked them to come back on and play their set again.
John Cougar Mellencamp was booked and we sold about 5 tickets. When he arrived his manager said he couldn’t play to an empty hall so we went around and gave away the tickets. It was a really impressive all white stagecset – including g baby grand piano and PA. He did a fantastic set.
U2 should have been a great gig. But Bono decided to mix the sound in the sound check which meant the vocals were all over the place u til the sound guy got them under control.
My first gig there was the second Stiff tour with Wreckless Eric and Leann Lovich. Steve Gibbons played a few times. Bad Manners and the Body Snatchers were great. QTips and Splogeness Abounds were amazing great entertaining. Other I remember include The Adverts, The Photos (with Radio 1 DJ Mike Read). And last but not least Hot Gossip was a pretty popular gig. We probably promoted about 20 concerts a year so this is just a small number of the 80 or so we had on when I was there.
Aston was restricted to NUS members and their Guests only due to the city licensing authorities and it was really tricky to get late bar licenses in those days so we needed to be carefuls. We did try to sign as many locals in as we could but obviously could never advertise the fact.
We did have one near miss. We had double booked two local bands on our Wednesday night free gig. We went with the band of the brother of one of the Union officers. We ended up throwing out the other band Dexy’s Midnight Runners- no wonder they disliked student gigs….!
Cheers
Phil
You must have been threre just after me. I left in 1978. I was ACE head technician for a while.
I remember well John Peel “discovering” the Beat at the freshers week. I also recall the Ruts played the same week and were an absolute pain as they wouldn’t play unless their non student fans were allowed in. I passed on free tickets for John Cougar – daft name and hadn’t heard of him- and a few weeks later he was No.1 in the USA. Good times!
I was dj-ing on URA (University radio Aston) when John Peel and The Beat were on. Remember all the bands you mention. Plus Simple Minds!
The Photos were great, and I remember thinking that Paul Young, in Q Tips, would go places. I thought U2 were ok – the “Boy” tour. Think Corinne Ryan was in charge of ACE at the time…..
Also Gnome was a friend at the time (see earlier in this thread)
Personal favourite from 88/89 were the Sandkings
Student [sometimes] at Commerce !964-68 lived with Roy Worsley and Bob White who were on Ents Com. Bob, a pharmacist [appropriately] seemed to spend all week at the Marquee in London booking bands
remembering,
Lots of Brum bands like Keith Powell and the Valets, Brumbeats, Rockin’ Berries, Carl Wayne and the Vikings, The Move etc…loved Jimmy Powell.
Other notables were Moody Blues and Spencer Davies with the 16 yr old prodigy Winwood who also used to sit in with big bands on a Wednesday
Bob set up ‘Three Shades of Blue’ with Champion Jack Dupree, Jesse ‘Blind Boy’ Fuller the one man blues band and a very youthful but brilliant Buddy Guy,..even played his guitar with his teeth!
The great Frankie Miller stands out.
Zoot Money always terrific.
Georgie Fame both with and without Alan Price excellent.
The Animals headlined an end of term ball at Bingley Hall, an absolutely rubbish venue.
Tom Jones storming off at another end of term do as he was being booed for not trying
He was playing for peanuts and ‘Its Not Unusual’ had just gone to No1. Came back and nailed it….rumours were of more cash being injected.
Drove all the way from London with terrible flu’ to see Junior Walker only to find the gig had been cancelled.
Best thing ever was being persuaded to leave the comfort of ‘The Duke’ on wet Wednesday to hear an unknown called Chris Farlowe…fan ever since.
I did all the music stuff every week and got the degree I deserved…but I LOVED it.
The bands I remember – it was all a bit hazy! – between 1985 and 1989, included Doctor and the Medics (i definitely remember these as they played on my first night there, Freshers night 1985), The Housemartins, Erasure, Edwin Starr, Stray Cats. Edwin Starr and the Stray Cats I remember playing in the main building at a May Ball. I’ve just seen a video on facebook and youtube of Aztec Camera playing Oblivious at Aston in 1983, filmed as part of a BBC “Whistle Test on the Road” series, search for that one you wont regret it!
Cheers, Paul.
Phil
I was there for the police gig – and they were third on the bill behind John Cooper Clarke and the headliners were a band from Liverpool called Supercharge.
I was one of the 50 !!
Neil
So I booked – Hazel O’Connor, The Men they Couldnt Hang, Deacon BLue – but they didnt turn up so replaced with Stax Bodene, Bliss. Also while I was there, M People, Katrina and the Waves. Sweet, Mud, the Larks, King Pleasure/
I had the pleasure of being ACE Officer in 1978-79 and (by cock up rather than plan) booked bands on both the Friday and Saturday nights. As it happened with the two supporting bands being The Cure on Friday 1st December(supporting Generation X) and The Police on Saturday 2nd December (supporting Alberto Y Lost Trios Paraoias) it had a happy ending. Both support acts cost £50 normally paid by cheque but as The Police had to pay the landlady they asked for cash and as they were nice friendly lads I duly obliged. They had released their first album Outlandos D’Amour so the limited audience (as most students were in one of the three bars getting blathered before the main event) was treated to Roxanne, Can’t Stand Losing You and So Lonely. At the request of a couple of the ACE girls I got the band over a beer to sign some of the posters. I wonder if they held onto them. The others I had were sadly left on the 5th floor of Dalton Tower when I departed for my year industrial.
The Ian Gillan Band was booked for the following Friday, 8th December so I billed the two weekends events as the inaugural (and possibly only) Aston Rock Festival. Aston was well regarded by the music industry largely due to its ACE team who could unload and reload vans and occasionally pantechnicon in record time. As a science and technological university, we were always well supplied with technicians. The Guild of Students was a closed venue as part of its licence and therefore got the occasional pre tour gig.
The year before 1977/78 I worked as stage manager when the Boomtown Rats appeared. We supplied bands with a crate of beer and a round of sandwiches (two crates if the main act) and on popping into their dressing room they were sitting around looking sullen as no bottle opener had been provided. Easily remedied by showing them how to open bottles on the dressing room door lock although this resulted in some spillage. One of the ACE team delighted them by showing how he opened bottles with his teeth! Refreshed the band did a cracking gig, although I had to placate the porter I found mopping the dressing floor muttering about punk bands pissing on the floor. Oops.
I remember the Boomtown Rats gig. I was one of the ACE technicians in 1976 – 78. It was during rag week (or carnival as they called it). That evenign was the pyjama party and when the drummer heard, he said he would wear his pyjamas on stage.
It was 1974/1975 and I was going out with one of the Student Union’s Entertainment Team .Mike Harding was booked to play, but had had a disastrous journey to get to Aston and was running late. . He had expressed the dissatisfaction that he’d had no time to get anything to eat all day, had no time to get anything now , and was sick of having to grab endless bags of chips . My boyfriend at the time volunteered me to rustle up a “ quick meal” for him. ( I couldn’t cook ! )
I kept it simple – boiled potatoes, frozen peas , and a cheese omelette, rapidly cooked and laid out in the student’s Hall of Residence kitchen ! Mike was very complimentary , and appreciative ,saying it had been a welcome change from endless chip suppers. Afterwards, I was able to lead him down to the Student Union Venue, where he was playing , and I really enjoyed his concert. !
When people ask if I have a claim to fame, I always say “ I once cooked a meal for Mike Harding “ !!
I spent an really enjoyable 4 years at Aston 1970-74 doing Environmental Health. Does anyone remember a (local?) group called Gasworks? I remember seeing them at the Union several times. Their guitarist, who was made up and dressed as a woman, went by the name of Bunches because that’s how he wore his hair. I remember one of their songs was “Verbalise your Pre-orgasmic Tensions!”. Anyone who was on that course who is still alive, please feel free to drop me a line and I’ll find a place for you into my memoirs/autobiography !!
A very memorable event for me was the QUINTESSENCE gig played at the Aston Students union on 26th FEBRUARY 1972.(ONE FOR THE LIST ABOVE). I met my husband 49 years ago on 24th and then went to the amazing event on the Saturday. I went to see him on the Sunday night, sensing he was something special. He was ! I married him the following 1st of July and still celebrate our anniversary of meeting – he was together enough to have made a note in his diary at the time!!
For the record the Quintessence Concert was on the Friday Night – 25 February1972 but I was still buzzing the day after! And that’s the day I remembered.