They were rocking all over the Toon...
FOR those about to rock, we salute you...
So sang Brian Johnson, the Dunston-born singer of AC/DC in 1981.
It was a time when the giant rock acts of the previous decade were coming to the end of their cycle.
Led Zeppelin, the biggest band of the 1970s, had broken up in 1980, following the premature death of drummer John Bonham.
Pink Floyd had released arguably their last meaningful album, The Wall, in 1979.
Meanwhile, pioneering bands like Black Sabbath were undergoing major personnel changes; and Deep Purple had splintered into offshoots Whitesnake, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and Gillan.
New bands were more than ready to step into the shoes of the old masters.
The late 1970s and early 1980s saw a host of ‘new’ major acts appearing on Tyneside.
At Newcastle City Hall, among those rocking the venerable old venue to the rafters were Rush, UF0, Motorhead, Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, The Scorpions, Whitesnake and Van Halen, as well as a few who’d been around the block a bit, Queen, Bad Company and Status Quo.
And then there was the legendary Mayfair Ballroom where the likes of Def Leppard, Blizzard Of Oz and AC/DC stepped out.
The venue also welcomed a host of rip-roaring young bands as the so-called New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) gathered force.
Samson, Witchfynde and local acts like Tygers Of Pan Tang, Raven, and Fist
all found a platform at the Newgate Street venue.
These largely unseen images were captured during that era.
They were kindly shared by South Shields photographer, filmmaker and rock blogger, Gary Alviki.
All appear on Gary’s website and were captured variously by John Edward Spence, Ian Coult and Tony Maddison.
Gary says: “Today most people carry mobile phones and taking a photograph is so easy.
“Back then, before iPhones, it was different. Fan photos of concerts from that time are quite rare.
“How many people bothered to take a camera to the City Hall or the Mayfair when they were having a night out?”
Our photos include snaps of David Coverdale’s Whitesnake at the City Hall, The Scorpions at the same venue, and Randy California at the Mayfair.
On a personal note, I was at that last show as a fresh-faced 16-year-old.
Decades later in 2016, the guitarist, who died in 1997, was posthumously named in a lawsuit that accused Led Zeppelin of lifting the opening guitar riff of their masterpiece Stairway to Heaven from a song by his former band, Spirit. Zeppelin won the case.
The Mayfair closed in 1999 and was demolished to make way for The Gate leisure complex.
“It’s still a big miss,” says Gary Alviki who was a regular at the Friday rock nights there. “Something was lost in the city when it went.”