My first RETROspective blog entry is an account of a live music concert that I attended a few years ago. The event, in April 2004, was the Celtic Warriors 12th Birthday Bash in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. The all day event was held at an unusual venue - an animal shelter!Rockers, Hells Angels and anyone wearing black attended the event which also offered overnight camping on the adjacent fields. Proceedings kicked off shortly after lunch time as over a dozen bands appeared on the bill. Most of the bands fell into the Heavy Metal category, with a couple of tribute acts thrown in for good measure. The shelter was half full during the afternoon and on entering the venue we were met by a sea of black and more leather than a SCS warehouse!
The Quireboys were headlining this event and they took to the stage at 9.00pm prompt. The two supporting acts were Saxon and Skyclad, which will be featured in another RETRO blog entry in the next few days. We were backstage from 7.00pm courtesy of an Access All Areas pass that we were given, as we were photographing the event for Skyclad, a folk/metal five-piece band from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. A brief insight into background of The Quireboys begins here...
The Quireboys are an English hard rock band
formed in 1984 in London, England, with strong ties to Newcastle. When the band formed they were originally known as The Queerboys and later as the London Quireboys in the United States. The band were successful during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their debut album A Bit of What You Fancy reaching number 2 on the UK charts. Their highest charting single for the band was with the song "Hey You", it reached number 14. With a new drummer, Rudy Richman, they began working on the follow-up, Bitter Sweet & Twisted, which was released in 1993; but the birth of grunge changed the music scene and they were left behind. Axl Rose asked them to join the "Use Your Illusion Tour" with Guns N' Roses, and they followed the band for a while during their 1993 summer European tour. In 1993, the Quireboys broke up but briefly reformed live in 1995 with different members. A more permanent reformation came in 2001 when frontman Spike, guitarist Guy Griffin and bassist Nigel Mogg put together a new line-up. The band is still active, recording new material and playing live. In 2010, The Quireboys teamed up with Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott to record an album under the name 'Down N Outz'. Two singles have been released to date, both of which are covers of Mott The Hoople songs: England Rocks (June 2010) and Overnight Angels (January 2011). Down N Outz will be supporting Paul Rodgers on tour in April 2011.
Backstage was a bit of an eye opener.
The brick shithouse of a bouncer let us through the security gate after we flashed our passes and we were met by a guy sitting at a table who's job it was to make 'rock n'roll cigarettes' for all who fancied one. I politely declined the offer before walking through to the dressing room area directly behind the stage. After a few minutes I felt half-stoned just from passive smoking. I'm pretty sure on a clear day you'd be able to see the main stage!!!
The Quireboys are an English hard rock band
formed in 1984 in London, England, with strong ties to Newcastle. When the band formed they were originally known as The Queerboys and later as the London Quireboys in the United States. The band were successful during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their debut album A Bit of What You Fancy reaching number 2 on the UK charts. Their highest charting single for the band was with the song "Hey You", it reached number 14. With a new drummer, Rudy Richman, they began working on the follow-up, Bitter Sweet & Twisted, which was released in 1993; but the birth of grunge changed the music scene and they were left behind. Axl Rose asked them to join the "Use Your Illusion Tour" with Guns N' Roses, and they followed the band for a while during their 1993 summer European tour. In 1993, the Quireboys broke up but briefly reformed live in 1995 with different members. A more permanent reformation came in 2001 when frontman Spike, guitarist Guy Griffin and bassist Nigel Mogg put together a new line-up. The band is still active, recording new material and playing live. In 2010, The Quireboys teamed up with Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott to record an album under the name 'Down N Outz'. Two singles have been released to date, both of which are covers of Mott The Hoople songs: England Rocks (June 2010) and Overnight Angels (January 2011). Down N Outz will be supporting Paul Rodgers on tour in April 2011.Backstage was a bit of an eye opener.
The brick shithouse of a bouncer let us through the security gate after we flashed our passes and we were met by a guy sitting at a table who's job it was to make 'rock n'roll cigarettes' for all who fancied one. I politely declined the offer before walking through to the dressing room area directly behind the stage. After a few minutes I felt half-stoned just from passive smoking. I'm pretty sure on a clear day you'd be able to see the main stage!!!As Quireboys were preparing to hit the stage we had a chat with Spike, lead singer of the band, who introduced us to one of the guitarists who was from Blyth in Northumberland. Spike insisted that we shared his bottle of Jack Daniels as we chatted. Not being one to turn down a free swig of the good gear I duly obliged, as a flashgun went off in front of us (see photo 1). I then took a photo of Spike with his rather gorgeous girlfriend - the lucky so and so. And that was that. The MC introduced Quireboys and the lads made their way onto the stage, accompanied by the theme music from the 1970's TV show 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads'.
At this time we headed past the 
engineers desk and out front and into the photographers pit, facing hundreds of rockers in the audience as we went. Sitting next to the barrier facing the stage I got me hair ruffled a few times off the rock chicks directly behind me. Nowt to do, other than laugh it off, he he. The show was quickly underway and the place was jumping. I'd never seen Quireboys play live so I was looking forward to what they had to offer. It was Rock n' Roll all the way. I photographed at will, between supping Stella Artois from the stock of four tins I'd bought earlier from the bar. The PA system right in front of us done nothing for our hearing, although the music was good and not too distorted. This was loud stuff alright. After three songs me heed was ringing and the 5% dizzy watta didn't help either. God knows how I managed to get some decent shots - I was dizzy as the preverbial duck - some people coin the phrase 'Pissed as a fart'. Aye, that was me!
engineers desk and out front and into the photographers pit, facing hundreds of rockers in the audience as we went. Sitting next to the barrier facing the stage I got me hair ruffled a few times off the rock chicks directly behind me. Nowt to do, other than laugh it off, he he. The show was quickly underway and the place was jumping. I'd never seen Quireboys play live so I was looking forward to what they had to offer. It was Rock n' Roll all the way. I photographed at will, between supping Stella Artois from the stock of four tins I'd bought earlier from the bar. The PA system right in front of us done nothing for our hearing, although the music was good and not too distorted. This was loud stuff alright. After three songs me heed was ringing and the 5% dizzy watta didn't help either. God knows how I managed to get some decent shots - I was dizzy as the preverbial duck - some people coin the phrase 'Pissed as a fart'. Aye, that was me!It was a great night and one that I'll always remember. These AAA passes are a bit of alright.
I'd write more but that's all I can rembember, to be honest. The rest, as they say, is just a blur!
More RETRO to follow. Thanks for reading.
Ash
