Musical Legends December 2007

  

Helen Rose  Hill Diary

Photo: jack bruce. Although hill walking takes up a great deal of time, I still pursued other interests. This year I managed to see musical legends at various venues and I shall share these with you as a break from the overdose of hill walking I have written about in the last few years’.

In January, I went to see Bob Dylan at the SECC in Glasgow. I remember him from my youth and he seems to have been around forever. I like his voice and how he was the first of a genre of protest folksy singers. He regularly appears in Glasgow and friends have told me how wonderful it was to see him in concert. The largest hall at the SECC was packed and we were in the tired seating at the back so that we could remain seated as everyone stands in the stalls. The benefit of these seats is not having  to stand for the full two and a half hours he was on stage but the disadvantage was he seemed miles away and we needed binoculars to see him as he was a speck in the distance. Although the performance was memorable and enjoyable, the songs and those that were classics were reworked beyond recognition. Also, he played keyboards rather than the guitar. It was an experience and the most expensive of the legends.

In May, Jack Bruce, the guitarist of the Cream, played at RSAMD for a £1 entrance. He had been a former student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and had just been awarded an honorary PhD by them so this was his way of saying thank you playing alongside the students. This was a great night with an audience of young people and oldies like me reliving their youth. The atmosphere was electric as we all swayed along to the music ending on a crescendo with Sunshine of Your Smile.www.jackbruce.com

In July, it was T in the Park, the largest outdoor musical festival in the

Scotland and I won day tickets from the Students Unions at the University of Glasgow. I chose the Saturday as Amy Winehouse was billed but unfortunately she called off. However, I did see Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys with his band. He did all of the Beach Boys hits which even pre date my youth. There was a great atmosphere as all the young people and us oldies danced around. These hits are just as popular now as they were in the late fifties and early sixties. I loved T in the Park apart from the toilets which were undescribably awful. Oxfam had a retro tent where young men had bought old wedding dresses and were wearing them rolling around in the mud. There was a party mood everywhere and we even had a ceilidh dance in the mud.

To round off the musical legends, it was the singer from the Drifters at the Glasgow Show in Glasgow Green in August. Although he was very elderly, he sang all the Drifter’s hits from the fifties. I think the entrance to the Show was about £2 so another bargain. Unfortunately, it rained through the performance but that did not stop us enjoying ourselves throughout the performance.

Not a bad round up of musical legends for around £45 this year. I wonder what next year will bring?

 

Coming attraction; a night at the dogs.

 

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Apologies for no photos but if you have any from these musical legends, please email them to me.

 

 

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