Frank Zappa
Brighton Centre April 16, 1988
‘A cod-reggae Stairway To Heaven sparkled as an encore.’
Although I was a mere stripling of 18 years, by the time Zappa’s Broadway The Hard Way tour rolled into my adopted University seaside town, I’d notched up a few decent gigs – a clutch of Doningtons, a hat-trick of Hawkwind, a brace of Marillion, and, to my eternal regret, I had an unused ticket for Guns N’ Roses at the Marquee. Zappa, however, was next-level stuff, something that, with all due respect, Magnum at Penyrheol Leisure Centre had ill-prepared me for.
After strolling on stage with a crack 12-piece band, complete with brass section, the drum count-in to set opener Stinkfoot still reverberates in my cerebellum 30-odd years later, 18 being a particularly ripe age for every sort of imprinting. At around the four-minute mark, Zappa picked up his guitar from its stand and received a level of audience approbation previously heard at only Cup Finals. The band were in playful mood, the customary improvised in-jokes abounded, and even a thrown drink didn’t mar proceedings. Jazzy digressions and covers were the most memorable: the Ike Willis-fronted I Am The Walrus was played with a remarkably straight bat, and a precocious codreggae Stairway To Heaven sparkled as an encore, its guitar solo rendered flashily by the brass section.
The tour collapsed a few months later amid accusations and recriminations, and it was the last time Zappa ever toured. But, as they say, I was there.