Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band havde natten til søndag tourpremiere i Pittsburg, PA på den nye The River Tour. Her er hvad førstaftenen bød på, inklusive ovenstående hyldest til David Bowie…

Meet Me in the City
The Ties That Bind
Sherry Darling
Jackson Cage
Two Hearts
Independence Day
Hungry Heart
Out in the Street
Crush on You
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
I Wanna Marry You
The River
Point Blank
Cadillac Ranch
I’m a Rocker
Play Video
Fade Away
Stolen Car
Ramrod
The Price You Pay
Drive All Night
Wreck on the Highway
Badlands
Wrecking Ball
Backstreets
Because the Night
Brilliant Disguise
The Rising
Thunder Road
+ + +
Rebel Rebel
Bobby Jean
Dancing in the Dark
Born to Run
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Shout

In 1978 I did my first tour of Europe as “stunt” guitarist and singer for Frank Zappa’s band. The night we played in Cologne, Germany unbeknownst to me Brian Eno was in the audience. Brian knew David Bowie was looking for a new guitarist for his upcoming tour. He called David after seeing our show and told David he should come see the guitarist for Frank’s band.

The next night we performed in Berlin. There was a part of the show where Frank took an extended guitar solo and most of the band members, including myself, left the stage for a few minutes. As I walked to the back of the stage I looked over at the monitor mixing board and saw David Bowie and Iggy Pop standing there.
Wow! I couldn’t believe it! 

Lad os lige blive obskure for at se de små ubetydeligheder på vejen mod storhed. På denne dato i 1963 påbegyndte Liverpool’s The Beatles en fire afteners skotsk tour i Two Red Shoes Ballroom i Elgin, oppe nordøst for Inverness, i det skotske højland. Salen i bygningen på billedet her ovenfor var L-formet, hvilket betød at flere betalende fik hørt, men nok aldrig set de kommende verdensstjerner. To af de planlagte fire skotske shows blev efterfølgende aflyst grundet snestorm. The rest is history.

The Clash’s Paul Simonon indtager USA.

For et par uger siden oplevede Politikens Erik Jensen Motörhead, tungrockens svar på The Ramones, i Berlin, og skrev da på Facebook om hvor forstemmende det var, at opleve bandets leder Lemmy i så svag en forfatning som den aften bød på. Det havde så åbenbart sin gode grund, for Lemmy er siden i går ikke mere. Her et track med ham og Motörhead, et band vi aldrig så live, men som var kendt for at spille til og trykke på volumenspeederen så det gjorde noget. Mit eneste møde med Lemmy var således en gang i firserne, jeg bogstaveligt talt løb ind i ham ved indgangen til Huset i Magstræde. Han bar sit jernkors, sine signatur-ansigtsvorter og var stor som et tårn, så det var indiskutabelt mig der måtte vige for ikke at ende sidelæns i rendestenen…

Den engelske producer Ian Caple skriver følgende mindeord om Lemmy på sin Facebookside:

Very sad to hear about Lemmy’s passing …
I’ll always have fond memories of him, as Motörhead were the very first band that I engineered for… one of their earliest gigs.
It was the long hot summer of 1976, I had left school but was trying to avoid getting a real job. I knew a guy who was a roadie for a local 3 piece band called Stray. They had a big P.A. system & a wall of Marshall amps & were constantly gigging round the country. I would jump in the van help him out from time. As the roadie’s assistant I was just about the lowest in the food-chain – lifting huge flight cases in & out of the van & down flights of stairs in dodgy clubs & student unions around the country for £5 a gig – but I loved it.
That summer they played an all-night gig at the Lyceum ballroom in the Strand – a beautiful old theatre in the West End, opposite the Savoy Hotel.
The first band would go on at about 10.00 pm & it would finish at about 7.00 in the morning !
Stray were second on the bill to Motörhead who went on stage about 4.00 am. The engineer doing the sound had been smoking large amounts of weed all night & just as Motörhead were due to go on, he was found collapsed in a heap in the dressing room – so I was pushed into the space behind the desk & suddenly became the sound engineer !
I stood nervously behind the desk as Motörhead came on stage & they burst into the first number – Lemmy didn’t look happy – he kept signalling in my direction to turn it up. I stared at the faders & found the one marked ‘bass’ & in desperation pushed it up to the top. The ground shook, Lemmy looked happy. I then found the master fader & pushed that to the maximum. The volume was deafening, Lemmy looked even happier.
Despite complaints about the noise from the manager of the Savoy, we continued til the morning & I drove the van home with my ears still ringing.
It was my first experience behind a desk & thanks to Mr. Kilmister I learned a valuable lesson – when in doubt, turn the bass up & then turn it all up !
R.I.P. Lemmy.

Alle, der er gået forbi på hovedgaden i Islington, ved, at Hope & Anchor bare er endnu en ærketypisk britisk pub. Men for 37 år siden i aften var den noget helt andet, nemlig hjemstedet for den lille scene, hvor Manchester’s Joy Division for første gang nogensinde spillede et show i London. Ifølge forlydender var omkring 30 betalende tilstede i øllokalet i Nordlondon. Man skulle med glæde have været der…

Bliver det for kedeligt at sidde hjemme en lørdag aften? En af Danmarks allerbedste sangskrivere, Kristoffer Munck, kan med sit band Mellemblond i aften opleves i Musikcaféen, i hjertet af København. Senest i hovedstaden, som support til Simpson i Vega, var bandet bedre end nogensinde…

Mexxrissey er det noget håbløse navn på et nyere mexicansk Morrissey-tributeact. Deres ‘El Chico de La Espina Clavada’ her, en spansksproget liveversion af The Smiths-singlen ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’, er noget af et specielt treat…

I aften for ti år siden var det blæsende, koldt og kulsort i København. Nogle få trodsede dog elementerne og drog mod Christiania, hvor et i England anmelderrost amerikansk band ved navn The National gav første show på dansk jord. På et alt andet end fyldt Loppen drak deres sanger sig undervejs mod til i showet og bankede sin knytnæve i loftet over scenen, men fremstod i sin aparte scenekrækspændetrøje ikke som en mand, der troede, han få år efter skulle være et helt andet positivt sted i sin karriere med bandet. Her The National’s køreplan fra den fra deres vinderhånd desperat spillede aften, som vi gik fra med feeling af, at have overværet et stort men underkendt band. Det sidste skulle ændre sig…

På sit seneste album Let England Shake sang PJ Harvey om det unge engelske blod, der flød gennem skyttegrave og gødede de belgiske og franske marker omkring 1. Verdenskrig. I dag kommer nyheden om, at Harvey til sommer vil underholde det menige og hårdtprøvede fodfolk i slagmarken på Roskilde, det formodentlig med et nyt album i bagagen…

25-35 fremmødte på KB18, mere var der sgu ikke, som henførte vidner til en dynamisk og eksplosiv magtdemonstration i moderne rockmusik lørdag aften. Glem skuffende EL VY forleden, afvis storcharmøren Father John Misty, vågn op fra det underskønne Beach House-valiumskud i Store Vega – det her stod hurtigt lysende klart og højt som efterårets koncert i København. Hvem der var i Hamburg i aften og kunne få samme tur igen!