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  #1  
Old 02-11-2011, 07:09 AM
THD THD is offline
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Default Reminiscences of F Mac Gigs prior to Mid 70's or Memoirs of an English Blues Fan

As I posted a couple of reminiscences( Lyceum Ballroom April 1970 ) on other disparate threads it seems like a good idea to put these in one thread ,in the one place ,so that other reminiscees? can find them easily
So here goes. I'll start with the first one I saw -Battersea town Hall 1968,but I'll make it a new post .
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  #2  
Old 02-11-2011, 09:47 AM
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Default Battersea Town Hall ,22Oct 1968

My mum had to phone up the number from the B&W posters plastered around Battersea (see attached photo) to find the details as I was too scared -I hated using the phone . I went with my best friend Dave we were both enthusiastic young guitar players,aged 16 , in our own band We might even have gone on his Honda 125 We were a bit apprehensive ,as local grammar school boys ,that there might be trouble ie a fight might break out or at least I was- My fears were groundless The gig was in a hall at the back half of Battersea town Hall (Now the Battersea Arts Centre) The band hadn't arrived. Need Your Love So Bad was playing on a Dansette type record player ! The crowd was building up, and a couple other school friends had arrived At some point Fleetwood Mac arrived. Mick was very ,very tall .I'd read on the sleeve notes of Mr Wonderful that he was 6 ft 6, and seen him on TV, but that was sitting down behind a kit .Seeing him in the flesh for the first time was startling! Danny was wearing a green Harris tweed Jacket (Now how come I remember this, but not what anyone else was wearing ?) He'd only recently joined the band They got on stage and played brilliantly I can only remember two specific numbers Albatross and Stop messin' Round, and Jeremy did his slide numbers( but no parodies .) and was brilliant I was concentrating on what he did with his slide , how he did it ! Before the Dustbin Album, w,hich I borrowed of a mate I'd never heard a slide guitar (that I was aware of ) It said on the notes Slide Guitar ,so when I first heard it it blew my mind! It was like my first kiss ,the first Indian meal ,So exotic! How did he get that sound out of a guitar ?Then you saw them on TV Oh that's it- a metal tube on his finger , but it still doesn't sound right when I try! Then a clue in the magazine Beat Instrumental -you have to tune your guitar a different way Ah that's it ! And when he wasn't performing his numbers, Jeremy would slope off and quietly sit behind a speaker cab at the side of the stage ! I feel they might have done Jigsaw puzzle Blues but it's a vague feeling Stop messin' Round had a really extended guitar break in which, for several verses, Peter just played the same two notes, but with devastating effect , like he was teasing us This is difficult to explain in words, but the song begins with the guitar phrase dee dur dee dur dee If you can imagine him playing just the two notes dur dee over and over for four verses (OK I don't know how many in reality) but varying the syncopation then you've got the idea ,and then he returned into a solo of more varied phrases . Somehow I think this was the last number they did The climax of the night I learned two great lessons from this : that you can keep it incredibly simple ,but have a devastating effect. It was incredibly exciting .And that what the rhythm section do here is vital- they built it up to more a more overpowering level without this it would have been nothing
I wish now I'd waited behind to meet them leaving, but I was too timid and there was school tomorrow I don't remember what Peter was wearing, or what he said other than it one point" Let's try that thing in G minor !" But I do remember he made a profound impression on me , and made me feel I'd like to play the guitar in such a way that moves people in way he moved me ,as no doubt did thousands of young players who saw them live .
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Last edited by THD; 02-11-2011 at 12:09 PM.. Reason: left a word out , corrected punctuation
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  #3  
Old 02-11-2011, 11:40 AM
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Wonderful notes, THD! Thanks so much for sharing and looking forward to seeing more!
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  #4  
Old 02-11-2011, 12:17 PM
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Wonderful notes, THD! Thanks so much for sharing and looking forward to seeing more!
You're very welcome
Incidentally, When I was returning from school one day ,prior to the concert when I noticed corrugated steel fence in Battersea Park road which had been plastered with several of these posters I managed to get one off intact ,amazingly! The poster is on my wall at home!(the one in the photo ,of course !)

Last edited by THD; 02-13-2011 at 06:18 PM.. Reason: Additional info
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Old 02-13-2011, 12:40 PM
Ms Moose Ms Moose is offline
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Default Where the hell is my time machine???

Wonderful reminiscences (difficult to spell!), THD!

It's almost like being there: "Need Your Love So Bad was playing on a Dansette type record player"........"But I was too timid and there was school tomorrow..." - it's like a film. You almost expect Carol White and Terence Stamp to enter Sigh!

Well thank you. Thank you for sharing - we are looking forward to read on - in your own time of course.

Ms Moose
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Old 02-13-2011, 01:43 PM
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Wonderful reminiscences (difficult to spell!), THD!

it's like a film. You almost expect Carol White and Terence Stamp to enter Sigh!


Ms Moose
Oh! Did I forget to mention they were there too ?!!! I snubbed them of course!
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Old 02-13-2011, 02:24 PM
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Terrific sunday reading, thanks THD!

/z
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  #8  
Old 02-13-2011, 06:22 PM
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Terrific sunday reading, thanks THD!

/z

Thanks Zoork I appreciate it .

Standby for the 2nd bit of the Lyceum show memories which I've just finished writing
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Old 02-13-2011, 06:36 PM
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Oh! Did I forget to mention they were there too ?!!! I snubbed them of course!
Of course you did!

Ms Moose
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  #10  
Old 02-15-2011, 02:16 AM
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Default Thd

Did it sound like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl3c8H3Dd6I
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  #11  
Old 02-15-2011, 07:44 AM
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a) Are you asking did the Stop Messing Round 2 note instrumental break sound like this ?
Or
(b) are you saying did the band in general sound like this at Battersea ?

(A quote from my post would have helped me get at the heart of the question !)

Er ..well no it/they didn't (Though they may have played something similar at some point at the Battersea gig) for two reasons:

1) Also answering point(a)Stop Messin Round is a high octane blues shuffle, and when I say he was playing only the same two notes for several verses I really mean that -only the same two notes

2) Also answering point( b) The whole show sounded different cause Danny was now in the band ,so you didnt get the sparseness such as you you get in the clip you offered ,which is pre Danny (I'm not knocking this clip, it's excellent playing from them all , and gives almost a premonition of Fighting for Madge, and those extended Jams that were to come, and thanks for directing me to it, as I'd never heard it )
But, it indicates Peter's problem .When ,at that time ,Jeremy slunk off behink the amps, FM became a trio . Being a trio alows a lot of freedom , but to a man like Peter ,there's only so much you can do live before it becomes harmonically boring,One of Peter's many musical gifts was his instinctive feel for harmony He(Peter) didnt even have anyone to do an imitation sax riff on guitar like he did for Jeremy on Heart Beat Like A Hammer , for example, and he was listening to BB King,(say Live at the Regal )and hearing BB backed with a brass section or organ or whaever .).Danny or someone had to join!

The clip above proves the point .You've got a bass line ,you've got a lead line( if Peter's not playing chords, which he isn't ,)then all harmony is implied ( compare the sparse trio format of Merry go Round from the Dustbin album (very fine )with say some tracks on blues jam at chess where Danny provides almost jazzy 9th and 13th chords to Peter's lead line .

Last edited by THD; 02-15-2011 at 07:48 AM..
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  #12  
Old 02-15-2011, 04:35 PM
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a(I'm not knocking this clip, it's excellent playing from them all , and gives almost a premonition of Fighting for Madge, and those extended Jams that were to come, and thanks for directing me to it, as I'd never heard it )
I've listened to this clip a few times now, and there's something wrong here .
To my ears it just doesn't sound like the Mac in the summer of 1968 (pre Danny ) I know it is dated as june 68, but it sounds like it should be a year later It sounds like a Les Paul through an Orange amp to me(a bit contraversial -my necks on the block now) ,
But here's the puzzle ,if it is later, and somehow mis-dated, why is there only one guitarist playing?
It just doesn't make sense .

Confused? You will be !
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Old 03-01-2011, 09:08 PM
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Default Surrey Rooms 9th May 1969

I recommend Blue Horizons really excellent account of this gig Thread :Early Mac Memories 12.17.2004 (can’t figure out how to do a direct link --is it possible? ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=17300&highlight=surrey+tavern

I can only add a few things :

The Surrey Rooms or Surrey Tavern was an ugly 1960’s box shaped building stuck on to the elegant Victorian redbrick structure of the Oval cricket ground, (and it was recently demolished - it won’t be missed !) The gig was upstairs, in a low ceiling- ed boring big white? room, probably with supporting columns getting in the way ,and some one said, possibly Peter , something along the lines of “the sound is going to be a nightmare cause of this low ceiling.” Can’t honestly say that I noticed . I think it was actually during the show (though it could have been before they started but had taken the stage ) that Peter ,who wanted to do a very slow blues number (so I’m deducing it was Love that Burns) complained that it was too bright to play the blues properly , and could they turn off the lights above him to make it “more intimate “ and I think everything stopped, and a roadie actually took bulbs or fluorescent tubes out of the ceiling panels above his head and above the stage ,When he resumed it was very moving bit of guitar playing (there was no stage lighting ie directed at the stage from a distance or it was rudimentary)
I can absolutely confirm what Blue Horizon says in his account , that Peter played in a Gorilla mask for part of the show , for some reason Also, at some point a (drunk?)guy attempted to get on the stage to help sing one of the numbers, and the roadies grabbed him, but Peter indicated it was OK, and to let him sing ,which he did . I think they were using a mix of Orange amps and Fenders I don’t recall offstage desk with multicore ,if not it was soon to come I remember being in the midst of a ,basically all male audience rocking along with the music, and leaving a happy man(youth)
I wish I could remember more!
I wish I’d kept a diary at that time!,
I wish I’d kept the ticket !
I wish……………

Regrets……. I’ve got a ………

……..million !

Last edited by THD; 03-01-2011 at 09:27 PM..
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  #14  
Old 03-07-2011, 02:59 AM
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My mum had to phone up the number from the B&W posters plastered around Battersea (see attached photo) to find the details as I was too scared -I hated using the phone . I went with my best friend Dave we were both enthusiastic young guitar players,aged 16 , in our own band We might even have gone on his Honda 125 We were a bit apprehensive ,as local grammar school boys ,that there might be trouble ie a fight might break out or at least I was- My fears were groundless The gig was in a hall at the back half of Battersea town Hall (Now the Battersea Arts Centre) The band hadn't arrived. Need Your Love So Bad was playing on a Dansette type record player ! The crowd was building up, and a couple other school friends had arrived At some point Fleetwood Mac arrived. Mick was very ,very tall .I'd read on the sleeve notes of Mr Wonderful that he was 6 ft 6, and seen him on TV, but that was sitting down behind a kit .Seeing him in the flesh for the first time was startling! Danny was wearing a green Harris tweed Jacket (Now how come I remember this, but not what anyone else was wearing ?) He'd only recently joined the band They got on stage and played brilliantly I can only remember two specific numbers Albatross and Stop messin' Round, and Jeremy did his slide numbers( but no parodies .) and was brilliant I was concentrating on what he did with his slide , how he did it ! Before the Dustbin Album, w,hich I borrowed of a mate I'd never heard a slide guitar (that I was aware of ) It said on the notes Slide Guitar ,so when I first heard it it blew my mind! It was like my first kiss ,the first Indian meal ,So exotic! How did he get that sound out of a guitar ?Then you saw them on TV Oh that's it- a metal tube on his finger , but it still doesn't sound right when I try! Then a clue in the magazine Beat Instrumental -you have to tune your guitar a different way Ah that's it ! And when he wasn't performing his numbers, Jeremy would slope off and quietly sit behind a speaker cab at the side of the stage ! I feel they might have done Jigsaw puzzle Blues but it's a vague feeling Stop messin' Round had a really extended guitar break in which, for several verses, Peter just played the same two notes, but with devastating effect , like he was teasing us This is difficult to explain in words, but the song begins with the guitar phrase dee dur dee dur dee If you can imagine him playing just the two notes dur dee over and over for four verses (OK I don't know how many in reality) but varying the syncopation then you've got the idea ,and then he returned into a solo of more varied phrases . Somehow I think this was the last number they did The climax of the night I learned two great lessons from this : that you can keep it incredibly simple ,but have a devastating effect. It was incredibly exciting .And that what the rhythm section do here is vital- they built it up to more a more overpowering level without this it would have been nothing
I wish now I'd waited behind to meet them leaving, but I was too timid and there was school tomorrow I don't remember what Peter was wearing, or what he said other than it one point" Let's try that thing in G minor !" But I do remember he made a profound impression on me , and made me feel I'd like to play the guitar in such a way that moves people in way he moved me ,as no doubt did thousands of young players who saw them live .

If you believe Paul McCartney died with a woman named "Rita" in a downpour 11/9/66, then you believe this long winded story.
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Old 03-07-2011, 03:04 AM
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As I posted a couple of reminiscences( Lyceum Ballroom April 1970 ) on other disparate threads it seems like a good idea to put these in one thread ,in the one place ,so that other reminiscees? can find them easily
So here goes. I'll start with the first one I saw -Battersea town Hall 1968,but I'll make it a new post .
.
Give Me Fillmore East 3/71 WITHOUT TORRENT (Youtube!), and we can do there.
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