ROCK’S BIGGEST BANDS
AS MUSIC GIGS GET UNDERWAY AGAIN, AFTER LOCKDOWN, MARION McMULLEN LOOKS AT THE DEBUT GIGS OF SOME OF
SINGER-SONGWRITER Noel Gallagher was not even part of the band when he went to his first Oasis gig 30 years ago in Manchester.
His brother Liam was the lead singer and Noel had been working as a roadie for fellow ‘Madchester’ band Inspiral Carpets. The elder Gallagher brother asked to join Oasis after seeing them play in 1991, offering them a slew of songs he had been writing as an added incentive.
Flash forward to 1992 and, in a tiny rehearsal room at Manchester’s Boardwalk Club one evening, Noel taught his bandmates songs like All Around The World, a song he had already earmarked for their third album – some 18 months before they even recorded their first.
“A lot of people at the time didn’t believe me when I said I’d written the first three albums before Definitely Maybe came out,” says Noel, “but I’d written All Around The World and I’d had the idea for D’You Know What I Mean?, before Rock’n’Roll Star. All Around The World was 11 minutes long then and I remember playing it in one go and (Oasis guitarist) Bonehead had the look of a man who’d seen a ghost.
“Trying to convince the band, who don’t have a manager, a record deal or any fans, that this song is gonna be the centrepiece of our third album – it takes some doing!”
Noel’s arrival brought a new energy to the group and they later signed to Alan McGee’s Creation Records, releasing their debut album Definitely Maybe in 1994 and their second, (What’s the Story), Morning Glory? in 1995, establishing their reputation with classic songs such as Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back In Anger.
London’s Marquee Jazz Club was the setting for the first Rolling Stones concert in 1962. It is said the band had to borrow money from Mick Jagger’s father to rent the equipment they needed and the guys reportedly offered to step in when the venue’s regular band Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated was unable to perform.
Keith Richards later recalled in his autobiography that the set list included songs like Got My Mojo Working and Confessin’ The
Blues.
He wrote: “There’s something beautifully friendly and elevating about a bunch of guys playing together. There is this wonderful little world that is unassailable. It’s really teamwork, one guy supporting the others, and it’s all for one purpose, and there’s no flies in the ointment, for a while. And nobody conducting, it’s all up to just. It’s really jazz – that’s the secret. Rock and roll ain’t nothing but jazz with a hard backbeat.”
Rock band The Who began making a name for themselves in 1962, playing in West London and went on to have weekly residencies at the White Hart Hotel in Acton and the Oldfield Hotel in Greenford. They even opened for the Rolling Stones at St Mary’s Hall in Putney in 1963.
Drummer Keith Moon, who died in 1978, once admitted: “I told people I was a drummer before I even had a set.”
A band called Smile was booked to play a gig in Truro City Hall in 1970, but their singer Freddie Mercury announced on stage that the group had a new name... Queen. They were paid seven shillings and six pence for their debut performance. Freddie later said: “I thought up the name Queen. It’s just a name, but it’s regal, obviously, and sounds splendid.”
A plaque at James Hornsby School in Basildon marks Depeche Mode’s first gig in 1980. Band members Dave Gahan and Martin Gore met when they were pupils there. Dave said: “Depeche Mode have never got over their teenage awkwardness with each other. We’re still like that.”
A student music and fashion show called A Music Of Pure Pleasure marked the debut of The Smiths. The event was held at The Ritz in Manchester in 1982 and the future stadium-filling band was the support act for Blue Rondo a la Turk.
The Smiths went on to play at the city’s Haçienda nightclub the following year and singer Morrissey later said: “Age gives you a great sense of proportion. You can be very hard on yourself when you’re younger, but now I just think ‘well everybody’s absolutely mad and I’m doing quite well.”