I cannot make it through this clip. Three times I have sat down to continue from where I left off and my tolerance gets shorter and shorter. I wonder can anybody sit through the entire thing, especially since our old prog-expert friend tonyola seems to be lost to us?
Go ahead, Rock Town Hall: I dare you!
Townspeople, I dare you to listen to this live 1979 studio jam featuring Journey with friends, including members of The Doobie Brothers and Tower of Power horns! Just as Journey was hitting it big, with the addition of new vocalist and sex kitten Steve Perry, they performed live in the studio with other San Francisco musician friends for a very special edition of the King Biscuit Flower Hour. Legal entanglements stopped this historic jam session from ever being broadcast. Now hear’s your chance to witness history…if you dare.
Your mission, should you accept it, is to listen to this concern in its entirety and report back to the Hall with your impressions. All entrants will automatically be registered in a drawing to determine the winner of the patented RTH No-Prize!
The last time we ran one of these Wolfgang’s Vault-related contests, no one won, which given the rules of the game makes me think that no one may have even bothered to enter!
While that original contest is still open for anyone brave enough to listen to and report back to the Halls of Rock on a 1984 Billy Idol show, I thought you might be game for a more perverse show: The Kiki Dee Band live at Robertson Gym, in Santa Barbara, CA, in 1974! Here’s an excerpt of the concert description:
It was during the American tour promoting the release of her I’ve Got The Music In Me album that this recording was made. Opening for Steely Dan at Robertson Gym on the campus of UCSB in Santa Barbara, this set captures the Kiki Dee Band in their prime. Dee had assembled a remarkable band for this tour which featured Toby “Bias” Boshell, a veteran of the British folk-rock band Trees as her musical director on keyboards. The group also featured ex-Joan Armatrading guitarist Jo Partridge, veteran Liverpool drummer Pete Clarke, bassist Mike Wedgewood, and B.J. Cole, one of the greatest and most widely respected British session musicians on pedal steel guitar.
Who even knew Kiki Dee had her own Band? I know I’m not British and aware of a fraction of that nation’s minor pop stars, but I never considered that Kiki Dee existed beyond singing with Elton John on the charming “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”. Am I forgetting an appearance on AbFab or a single with Pet Shop Boys?*
The rules are simple: Be the first Townsperson to listen to this archived concert and report your impressions back to the list. The winner will receive a choice between the Gap Mangione album of his or her choice or the patented RTH No-Prize!
I dare you, Rock Town Hall!
*What do you know–I just checked the clip that kicks off this post, and I totally forgot about the title track from the album she was touring behind in 1974!
We’ve got an honest-to-goodness contest to announce for those of you with a strong constitution and creative writing skills.
The fantastic Wolfgang’s Vault site, which holds an incredible amount of otherwise unreleased streaming audio concerts from the “exquisitely preserved, original archives of Bill Graham Presents.” There are classic concerts by all the big arena names of the past, from Aerosmith through ZZ Top. You can even hear The Sons of Champlin‘s legendary 1972 gig at Winterland!
One gig that never occurred to me as being available at Wolfgang’s Vault, however, is Billy Idol’s 1984 show at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. I don’t know, I would have figured no one would take care to preserve such a recording.
To my surprise, Billy Idol’s 1984 show at the Oakland Coliseum has been preserved, and now you can listen to it in streaming audio at Wolfgang’s Vault. Check out this excerpt from the concert summary:
This show was captured for the King Biscuit Flower Hour Radio Concert Series in 1984, when Billy Idol was at the peak of his popularity. He had become a poster child for MTV, and his Elvis-inspired “snarled” upper lip and spiked blonde hair had become a popular pop culture image all over the American landscape.
Although this set only features about half of the songs played during the entire show, it’s almost a greatest hits collection. Included are air-tight versions of “Rebel Yell,” “Dancing With Myself,” “Hot In The City,” “Mony Mony” (his rocked-out cover of an old Tommy James & The Shondells song), an extended version of “White Wedding,” as well as a blistering eight-minute version of “Flesh for Fantasy.”
You get that last part, which promises a blistering eight-miinute version of “Flesh for Fantasy”? I dare you, Rock Town Hall, to listen to this concert. Who among you is brave enough to take on this task?
The Townsperson who reports back to us with the most detailed, descriptive, vivid review of this streaming concert will win something even better than the patented RTH non-prize: a limited edition Rock Town Hall t-shirt, like the ones our models have been advertising. No joke! I know this is a difficult mission. You have until midnight, Sunday, December 16, to post your review here, in the comments field accompanying this post. The winner will be selected shortly thereafter and contacted regarding shirt size, address, and the so forth.
I dare you, Rock Town Hall!
