Unforgettable concert moments

Talking of unexpected appearances, I went to see Roy Harper in 1980 at Leicester University - a special guest ambled on half way through proceedings - none other than Dave Gilmour!!  

Could you explain that last sentence, please?  Is it American?

Jimi Hendrix. Philadelphia. 1968.

Kenso at ProgFest 2000 in La Mirada, CA...

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: The first Rick Wakeman concert in Lima. His instruments were sent to Paraguay instead of Perú (PA vs PE IATA codes), and the concert was delayed for 4 hours (Started 1.00 am), I went with a friend to take a drink to the hotel casino where Rick was hosted and when it was time to enter, there was a three blocks row with people fighting (literally) to get in. Suddenly saw Rick with his son with 4 gorillas (It was 91 or 92 and there was terrorism) and we decided to join his crew, a gorilla almost hit us, but Rick said let them come with us, don't you see they are fans and not terrorists?. So we entered to the concert with Rick making jokes about little people all the 200 Mts. to the hall (It was about me because I'm 1.80 but my friend, Rick and his son were around the 2 Mts)  and signed our booklets, the next day everybody in the office knew I was in the concert, because my friend and I were in the newspaper entering to the show with Rick.

Second most memorable moment, ASIA's first concert tour, in my home town London Ont. I went to the venue to try and get my album cover signed and was able to get in for the sound check. I sat a few seats across from the sound desk and watched as the guys came in. eventually I approached the stage for signatures and was able to get them from all. But that wasn't the best part, I had a lengthy conversation with one of my all time heroes Carl Palmer. Having told him I was a sound man he even asked me my opinion on the tuning of his drums. I was in heaven. But then...after I had Geoff Downes sign I mentioned my work with the keyboard duo BUSKER. He got this big eyed smile on his face and said "Come up here, you want to see the new Fairlight I just got?" Upon which he took me onstage to his keyboard castle and proceed to dazzle me with his phalanges fantastique. I though, "this just can't get any better". However as it turned out, when I was sitting in the seats talking to Carl, he had actually been sitting in the seat I had a ticket for.




Edited by JD - January 15 2017 at 06:35

Dave !

Here is another one. I already told this story in another post (with a slight mistake; I remembered the name of the venue wrong), but I will tell it again.

Peter Hammill gave a concert in a suburb of Cologne named Worringen at a venue called "Krebelshof" (I remember the name correctly now). The venue was very small and was usually a disco on weekends. The concert was originally scheduled for the afternoon (it must have been a weekend) but was postponed to the evening on short notice which I did not know about, so I arrived way too early. Since I was there by public transport going back home and returning later did not make much sense; I would only have had a short time at home.

So I stayed and ordered a beer. Suddenly Peter Hammill came out and sat down not far from me, and I decided to talk to him, but not in a "You Peter Hammill, me fan" way; I approached him just as I would have approached any other person. I was around 20 back then and still had my hair, by the way.

We talked a while, and then suddenly Hammill suggested we should go for a walk. We walked down the Alte Neusser Landstraße (which means "Old country road of Neuss") which stretches Northeast in a straight line from that venue for a few kilometers.

We walked slowly and talked about all kinds of things, none of which were directly Hammill-related. Indirectly yes - we talked about things that interested both him and me like math, natural sciences, Zen Buddhism, art, music (but not music of Peter Hammill) and other things.

After we had walked for a few kilometers we came to a bridge behind which the next suburb began, where we decided to walk back. When we were back he gave me a friendly hug.

The whole walk must at least have taken two hours, if not more; I had no watch with me.

After the concert Hammill and I had a beer together (something I forgot to mention in the other post) and talked some more.

This was almost 30 years ago, and I had almost forgotten about the incident when I wrote the original post. This may sound strange, but for me this incident is not filed under "I had a long talk with Peter Hammill" but as "I had a long talk with an interesting person who just happened to be Peter Hammill".


Edited by BaldFriede - January 15 2017 at 19:10

Raff wrote: Dave !

Hello, Mistress!
Hope your holidays were grand.
Just getting ready to treat myself to your best of 2016 article. :)

(Apologies for thread hijack. Back to the subject:)

Peter Gabriel So Tour Berkley Theater another highlight!

verslibre wrote: Great story, BaldFriede!

This is how I looked back then, by the way: