Bands you saw before they made it big I’ll start, I saw Slade and status quo at the great western festival 1972, Cream at streatham ice rink , Cockney rebel at the The Greyhound pub Fulham 1972 Cliff Richard at Tooting Broadway Granada cinema
Bay city rollers. Did a season in Guernsey, early seventies before they made it big. They had all the tartan then and were regarded as a bit of a joke.
But they turned out to be one if the earliest and biggest boy bands ever with a few great hits. Upon the end of their career they all went in different mundane directions and as i recall a few sad deaths
Iron maiden down in that cockerney town early 80s. Wouldn't have owned up to seeing cliff 60 years ago Bazza
A certain present lady singer B Hill. I have a CD of her singing while my son plays piano with her at school ( They’re still friends ) God I feel so crass telling you all that!
I (occasionally !) attended Leeds poly and there was usually some funny little weirdo with his boyfriend in the grub queue at break time , but a year above us ... A few weeks after the course started a few of us were out around Bradford partaking of a light ale or two and Top Of The Pops was on in the background playing a catchy little ditty called Tainted Love sung by - you guessed it - the little weirdo in the dinner queue - a certain Mark Almond !! Funny how he dropped out , never again to mix with the riff-raff Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
Queen, unheard of support act for Mott The Hoople, November 1973, Lancaster University Great Hall, I couldn’t believe it when I saw them on Top of the Pops a few weeks later. It cost me a princely £1.50. My second ever gig, my first was Free at the same venue, there was a knife thrower in the interval, and I bought my first ever half of bitter.
Human League at the Sandpiper club at Nottingham in 1979 along with Wayne County and the Electric Chairs both were pretty much unknown at that time .. Wayne was not Jane then and the human League did not have the two women with them then . Jayne county has got to be the most sex filth punk band on record ...she had a massive capacity for creating a menacing atmosphere ,brilliant live . Saw her at Leicester De Montfort Hall at an all day festival massive . When the Electric Chairs came on stage it was just recently she had the sex change and rolled up with a skimpy mini skirt on , She took hold of the mike and told everyone to be silent . She then proceeded to explain to everyone that she was now Jayne and not Wayne and in her gutteral southern yank drawl she said . Now listen here now folks my name ain't Wayne no more am Jayne ...And iv'e now got Ma seylf a real fine Veeegina Then lay straight into a number called ..I got .... by the devil last night . What a band ..they certainly don't make like that now .
When I worked in Dorset parts, there was a bloke in the office next door by the name of Tim Berners-Lee. Whatever happened to him? Seemed quite a bright guy.
I think the most before was probably Biffy Clyro in 2001 supporting Cooper Temple Clause in Portsmouth…. They had a couple of albums that were more obscure before Puzzle blew up. Saw Keane just as they exploded in Portsmouth. They got upgraded from the indie venue to the mid sized venue and my mate at the time said he didn’t want to watch a band he hadn’t heard of… I took his girlfriend instead. also saw Arctic Monkeys there just after they’d exploded… so I guess that’s not really before.
Does a bit of web development ? He was much younger in my day. Only recently, the penny dropped that I had actually known him (and his first wife).