1979

	DATES
	1979
	8th/9th
	January	Filming “The Great Rock & Roll Swindle” with The Sex Pistols
		John Lydon: Malcolm auditioned for other Johnny Rottens. They conducted the auditions at the Astoria in Finsbury Park – a real insult because the place is directly opposite where I lived all my life. Friends of mine went down there and tried out for the part. Even my little brother Martin went over. They were trying to get the Pistols going again but with a replacement for me. Malcolm desperately wanted to continue the Pistols but he couldn’t. I know who won the audition – a wanker called Ten Pole Tudor.
	14th January	The Joe Erskine Benefit Concert
		Featuring Muhammad Ali and The Treharris and District Male Voice Choir

	26th/27th
	January	The Osmonds
		Alan Osman recalls: We were working the Rainbow Theatre. Girls camped out the night before and slept there. There was such a scene - havoc. There were Bobbies all over the place. They decided to put the tickets on sale at midnight. The girls in the back heard about this and literally ran over the girls who were sleeping, and a lot of them didn't get in, and there were fights. They had to call the woman from our fan club to calm everyone down! And Maureen – a WPC recalls: 5:00 in the morning, I had a phone call from the police - they were in total chaos. I was put on top of a police van with a loud hailer, telling everyone to go home. There was, I'd say, 20,000 people there - for 2,000 tickets


	28th January -
	8th February	Frank Zappa Rehearsals
		The pit is covered in this time, to prevent any other “accidents”

	12th February	Boxing - Lenny McLean Vs Cliff Fields

	16th February	Herbie Hancock


	17th/
	18th February	Average White Band, Inner Circle





	19th-22nd February	Bad Company Rehearsals

	23rd/
	24th February	The Jacksons, The Real Thing
		The Destiny tour


	25th February	Bill Anderson, Faron Young

	2nd/3rd
	March	Steve Hillage, Telephone


	8th/9th
	March	Average White Band, Inner Circle
	10th March	The Darts, Late Show

	17th	Bill Haley & The Comets, Wild Angels,
	March
		Flying Saucers

	15th-23rd	Stage build and Equipment get-in for Kate Bush "Tour of Life" rehearsals
	March
	24th/25th
	March	Culture, Tribesman

	26th-
	29th March	Kate Bush - Rehearsals
		Rehearsals for her only tour entitled “The tour of life”
	30th	Eddie & The Hot Rods,
	March	The Members, The Magnets

	4th April	Jean LucPonty
	7th April	Siouxie & The Banshees, The Human League,
		Rema Rema

9th April	Boxing Cliff Fieds v Ron Redrupp

12th April	Japan, Reggae Regular


22nd April	Inner Circle

28th April	The Only Ones, The Leyton Buzzards,
	Lonesome Nomore, John Cooper-Clarke

29th April	The “Liverpool Explosion” Show with Gerry &
	The Pacemakers, Billy J.Kramer & The Dakotas, Tony Crane & The Merseybeats, The Fourmost, Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders, Dave Berry, The Cruisers, Tommy Bruce
	2nd May	The Who
		First gig after the death of Keith Moon, with Kenny Jones on drums



	4th/5th	Dennis Brown & The Professionals,
	May	Rudy Thomas

	9th May	Penetration, Radio Stars,
		Cowboys International
	10th/11th
	May	The Jam, The Records
		Nick Kemp reviewed in POP STAR weekly on 14th May One sentence. "Ullo, this is the Modern World". The audience went berserk and The Jam had taken 20 seconds to consolidate their position at the top of the New Wave hierarchy. The Jam have progressed considerably in the last year or two. The first time I saw them they were supporting Squeeze at the Marquee... and on a free night at that. In those heady days they'd play In The City about five times and they were the only support band I ever saw that always got at least 2 encores. Nowadays they don't play In the City at all, but with songs like A Place I Love and Mr Clean in the set, you don't really miss it. The first highlight had to be Strange Town, which didn't retract from the single version except perhaps the live sound was beefier and even easier to relate to. News of the World & London Girl served as a prelude to the big one and over the PA the tapes played of that well known sound of an underground train pulling onto the station. The Rainbow went bananas, and we were taken away from Finsbury Park Astoria to Finsbury Park Station, and the incredible Down in the Tube Station at Midnight. "They smelt of pubs/and wormwood scrubs/ and too many right wing meetings" Weller muttering the lyrics and Foxton soaring above him on backing vocals. Here comes the Weekend was taken at a faster pace than usual and following that Weller took the time to emotionally thank the appreciative crowd, who were mostly decked out in Sta-prest pants and Parka's decorated with Lambretta badges and The Who insignia....! With the final crash of Rick Buckler's almost desperate drumming a bomb exploded on the stage heralding A Bomb in Wardour Street, and terminating a magnificent set from a magnificent band. Encore one comprised of two cover songs, first an old Motown classic Love is like a Heatwave, and then another Jam biggie, David Watts which had everybody either pogoing or dancing. Off, to thunderous applause, finally back to play a medley of Standards, Bricks & Mortar and winding up with the silliest number on their first album, The Batman Theme. We would have stayed there all night had we been allowed, but the sight of the safety curtain being lowered put the majority off. Simply the best gig I have seen in Ages


	12th May	John Otway, The Headboys, Dafne & The Tenderspots



	15th May	UK

	21st-
	24th May	Steve Hackett - Rehearsals

	28th May	Harry Chapin, Tom Chapin

	9th June	No Dice, Straight 8

	15th June	XTC, Viva, The Yachts

	16th-
	20th June	Barclay James Harvest - Rehearsals


	21st/22nd
	June	Peter Tosh

	23rd/	Third World
	24th June

	28th/

	29th June	Van Halen, St Paradise
	8th July	Blondie
	11th July	Iggy Pop

	13th July	Pete Townsend Band, The Pop Group, The Ruts, Aswad
		This was Townshend's second live solo concert, and his first outside of The Who, staged during recording sessions for "Empty Glass." He says of Cat's In The Cupboard "Here's one that I wrote last week and I recorded on Monday for my solo album, what I'm recording at the moment, while Kenney Jones is getting drunk."


	14th July	The Clash, Mysty in Roots, Bongo Danny, The Enchanters
		The second in a two day series of concerts organised by the Anti Nazi League under the banner of 'Rock Against Racism'. The gig was to raise money to fund the defence of kids arrested at an anti racism demo in Southall, West London.


	16th July	Peter Tosh

	25th July	The Clash, Aswad, The Members

	28th July	Sham 69, Little Rooster, Low Numbers

		The Sham 69 gig ends in a fiasco. The gig lasted 20 minutes through fighting, stage invasions and skinheads out in force.The fire curtain is dropped and isn't raised until the audience are gone.

	10th August	Wings film “Back to the Egg”
		The last film to be show using in house carbon arc projectors
	21st/22nd August	Nils Lofgren - Rehearsals

	4th September	Status Quo - filming video for “Whatever you want”
	10th September	Boxing – Cliff Field v Tshaka
	12th September	“Buddy Holly Night” - Rehearsals with The Crickets, Paul McCartney



	14th/	Nils Lofgren,
	15th September	Live Wire
	17th September	XTC, The Yachts, The Dazzlers
	28th September	The Slits, Prince Hammer & Creation Rebel, Don Cherry & Happy House

		This was a stressfull gig for Creation Rebel. Their drummer Style Scott had gone down with acute appendicitus in the night and had been rushed to hospital."We ended up with our guitarist playing drums" remembers Adrian Sherwood
	5th October	The Rasses

	6th October	The Portsmouth Sinfonia

	13th -
	17th October	Boston, Trickster
		Fans described the Boston show as “Brilliant!” The original line up. The image of Tom Scholz appearing from underneath the stage, wearing a cape, playing at a huge organ, This organ was transported around Europe in it’s own truck and rigger, this was the only UK concert it was used as all the other stages in the tour were too small


	19th October	The Stranglers, The Curves

	20th October	The Cimmerons

	24th October	Gillan, Randy California, Samson, Speedmetors
	27th October	Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, John Hiatt
	30th October	The Undertones, Ten Pole Tudor

	1st November	The Stranglers

	2nd November	The Skids, Fingerprintz

	3rd November	Richard & Linda Thompson
	4th-
	6th November	The Boomtown Rats, Protex

	9th/	The Buzzcocks,
	10th November	Joy Division
	11th November	The Enid, Jon Benns

	12th November	John McLoughlin, Billy Cobham, Jack Bruce, Stu Goldberg
	17th November	After The Fire, Passengers, Interview
		“Christian Rock!” Greenbelt festival comes to The Rainbow

	25th November	Caravan
	29th November	Boxing - Lenny McLean Vs Paul Sykes
	30th November	The Damned, Victim, Spodgenessabounds, Auntie Pus
		Captain Sensible dressed in dinosaur outfit, ends the evening totally starkers along with Rat Scabies. a few seats ripped and thrown by the audience, Captain Sensible throwing equipment back at the audience.


	2nd-4th
	December	The Jam, The Vapors

	5th December	Wings

	8th December	Secret Affair, Squire, Back to Zero
	14th December	Queen

	19th December	The Police, Wazmo Nariz


	20th/
	21st December	Dire Straits

	22nd December	John Otway, The VIPs


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		Copyright © Rick Burton 2011