What was your very first concert?

**glencro** · 08-26-2011, 01:05 PM

Mine was CHIC, Sister Sledge, SOS Band & GQ and it was the spring of 1980. I was in 8th grade.

RossHolloway · 08-26-2011, 01:20 PM

Diana Ross in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Summer of 1983, just a few weeks after her Concert in Central Park.

**roger** · 08-26-2011, 01:27 PM

The Four Tops .. Sheffield City Hall, Sheffield, England .. Spring/Summer 1970, about the time that "It's All In the Game" was released as a 45.

Roger

**motony** · 08-26-2011, 01:47 PM

tried Motortown Revue in '62 but show was at Miamis' Harlem Square, so I was too young & too white. tried Dee Dee Sharp at Ft. Lauderdale War Memorial Auditorium in '63 my Dad was even gonna take us but you had to be 13, finally 1966 Orlando Auditorium The Joe Tex Show co-starring MARY WELLS, featuring Lee Dorsey, Howard Tate, Mabel John, The Blues Busters, Barbara Lewis,Pig Meat Markham, all backed by the Clyde Williams Orchestra.

**blueskies** · 08-26-2011, 02:05 PM

The Supremes.....Civic Arena, Pittsburgh...1966
My Mom took a bunch of us kids, dropped us off and she went to see Carol Channing in Hello Dolly. Apparently, lots going on that night in Pittsburgh.

**soulster** · 08-26-2011, 02:16 PM

Originally Posted by glencro

Mine was CHIC, Sister Sledge, SOS Band & GQ and it was the spring of 1980. I was in 8th grade.

I would have rather seen that one than the one I did go to, but the one I did go to was great. It was Foreigner and the Doobie Brothers. I had a hell of a good time.

**BobC** · 08-26-2011, 04:18 PM

Rufus Chaka Khan in 1979. Unfortunately, Chaka was so messed up on drugs she was singing the wrong words and then she fell off the stage and the show was cancelled. So that concert doesn't really count. Heart was the next concert, and after that, maybe Bad Company? God I hated that music--I only went because of peer pressure. I've seen Rush, Bad Company, Cheap Trick and many other heavy metal bands and hated them all.

**carlo** · 08-26-2011, 04:36 PM

Diana Ross, Scherrie Payne & Lynda Laurence - Return To Love Tour 2000, Air Canada Center, Toronto, Ontario.

**carlo** · 08-26-2011, 04:37 PM

Originally Posted by BobC

Rufus Chaka Khan in 1979. Unfortunately, Chaka was so messed up on drugs she was singing the wrong words and then she fell off the stage and the show was cancelled.

Wow!!

**BobC** · 08-26-2011, 05:00 PM

True story. If you read Chaka's memoirs, she goes into great detail about her life before Rufus, and about her life after she quit drugs--but there is almost no information about her big years. I'm pretty sure she just doesn't remember.

uptight · 08-26-2011, 05:29 PM

It may have been Prince with Rick James if we're talking about major acts. Each of them were in the early stages of their career, with Rick having a bit more seniority. I was a kid, but my family knew I loved music and took me along.

**reese** · 08-26-2011, 05:40 PM

An Evening With Diana Ross, 2/12/77.

**john_c** · 08-26-2011, 05:58 PM

Grass Roots opening for Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969, Memorial Coliseum, Portland, Oregon.

I also remember seeing the Supremes at the Portland Auto Show in 1965 or 1966.

**robb_k** · 08-26-2011, 06:18 PM

I saw The Miracles, Jerry Butler, Dee Clark, The Shirelles, LaVern Baker, Clyde McPhatter, Little Anthony & Imperials, and Ben E. King at The Regal Theater in Chicago, in Summer of 1961. It would be tough to top that. I don't think I ever saw one with more top stars.

dianesfan_1965 · 08-26-2011, 06:43 PM

The Dino Ross and the Pterodactyls, my ass is OLD!

**144man** · 08-26-2011, 06:49 PM

The Crystals at the Finsbury Park Astoria, London, in 1963 or 64.

**tsull1** · 08-26-2011, 07:31 PM

The Edgar Winter Group when I was in 7th or 8th grade. Hey, they were pretty good, Rick Derringer and Dan Hartman were in the lineup.

**Doug-Morgan** · 08-26-2011, 09:34 PM

Amboy Dukes, 1968 at the Blue Light in Midland, MI

**motony** · 08-26-2011, 09:49 PM

BobC I know what you sayin about Chaka Khan I saw Rufus when Bootsys Rubber Band & Parliment/Funkadelic were the opening bands. Chaka just sat down in the middle of the stage while the band was playin the hits the crowd started leavin but after the Funk Mob Chaka/Rufus were a BIG letdown anyway. JoBETEROB, what a show that was!Do you remember the Miracles set? "Way Over There"?144MAN I bet the Crystals were great, wasn't Manfred Mann their band over there for that tour?

smark21 · 08-26-2011, 09:59 PM

Originally Posted by RossHolloway

Diana Ross in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Summer of 1983, just a few weeks after her Concert in Central Park.

Are you from Kalamazoo RossHolloway? I'm from there though I didn't go to her show in 83. Didn't even know about it.

**soulster** · 08-26-2011, 11:05 PM

Originally Posted by BobC

True story. If you read Chaka's memoirs, she goes into great detail about her life before Rufus, and about her life after she quit drugs--but there is almost no information about her big years. I'm pretty sure she just doesn't remember.

Maybe that's part of the reason we will never see a comprehensive Rufus and Chaka comp/box. Maybe she's trying to wipe out that entire part of her life from hers, and everyone else's memory. That's OK, i'm compiling my own, as soon as I find good sounding copies of three of their pre-1974 hits.

**daddyacey** · 08-27-2011, 02:42 AM

Isaac Hayes at the Apollo Theater in Harlem ,1971 , touring during the Isaac Hayes Movement album period. John Blair was the violinist , who turned the show out with his solo on The Beatles "Something". I was 14 . Never forget that shi... to this day!!!!

**dave_clegg** · 08-27-2011, 03:32 AM

The Beatles with Mary Wells at Bradford Gaumont 1964

**davidr** · 08-27-2011, 04:29 AM

Four Tops at the Fairfield Halls Croydon England 1970,up on the stage with Levi.

Fantastic memories.

**whitesoxx** · 08-27-2011, 05:06 AM

Diana Ross, Rotterdam June 12, 1982. Simply amazing!

**144man** · 08-27-2011, 06:24 AM

Originally Posted by motony

144MAN I bet the Crystals were great, wasn't Manfred Mann their band over there for that tour?

The Crystals were very good. I think "I Wonder" had just been released as their latest UK single. I don't remember if Manfred Mann were on the bill, but I do remember seeing Joe Brown and Heinz on the show. I'll have to check the program.

My memories aren't very clear. Perhaps they were blown away by the next show I saw: The Motown Revue.

**paladin** · 08-27-2011, 10:55 AM

As a young adult The Temptations 1968 at The Capital Theatre in Chicago. We were late getting to the show and The Temptations were tearing the place up, they had on green suits with darker green vests and silk shirts......Paul Williams sang the extened version of Dont Look Back and the crowd went wild.......it was pure pandemonium. I'll never forget it.........

this was not my first live show, that occurred at the Regal and Tivoli Theatre, my mom would take me whenever she could, but this one I was with my boys from around the way.....blocks and blocks from our neighborhood and we almost didn't make it back........."Warriors, come out and play"!!!!!!!!

**cdiii** · 08-27-2011, 01:18 PM

Apollo Theater, February 1966: The Marvelettes [[headliners), Jackie Lee [["The Duck"), Deon Jackson [["Love Makes The World Go Around"), Dee Dee Sharp [["I Really Love You"), and Wayne Cochran.

**moe** · 08-27-2011, 01:39 PM

I can't remember which venue came first, but the group is the same: The Temptations. I saw them at the Syria Mosque and the Twin Coaches, both in Pittsburgh, and both in the later 60's.

**rovereab** · 08-27-2011, 02:29 PM

The Four Tops at the East Ham Odeon, East London. My Mum took me to this concert probably sometime around 1967.

**brother_love** · 08-27-2011, 02:45 PM

Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Jackson Five, Edwin Starr & The Edwin Hawkins Singers [[The Forum, L.A. - 1969)

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**tamla617** · 08-27-2011, 03:45 PM

the o'jays,billy paul and the intruders at the hammersmith odeon [[now the apollo) london,1973 and 2 days later the same groups at the california ballrooms,dunstable,bedfordshire for a combined ticket cost of about 4 quid,dont mention the journey costs!130 miles for the 1st,100 miles for the 2nd

**motony** · 08-27-2011, 08:32 PM

Originally Posted by cdiii

Apollo Theater, February 1966: The Marvelettes [[headliners), Jackie Lee [["The Duck"), Deon Jackson [["Love Makes The World Go Around"), Dee Dee Sharp [["I Really Love You"), and Wayne Cochran.

What a show that was!What was the Marvelettes set?

**cdiii** · 08-27-2011, 08:43 PM

Dear Motony:

Now I'm going to recall as much as I possibly can from 45 years ago--LOL!!! "Don't Mess With Bill" was their hit at the time, and was the next to last song they did; they closed with "Danger, Heartbreak Dead Ahead." The rest of the set also included: "Too Many Fish In The Sea," "Please Mr. Postman," "Playboy," and probably "Strange I Know" and "Locking Up My Heart."

Though I loved The Marvelettes, the performance I'll NEVER forget that day is Jackie Lee doing "The Duck," which was a HUGE favorite of the audience that day and a song that was currently on the charts. You've just inspired me to fire that up on the iPod!--LOL!!!

**motony** · 08-27-2011, 09:48 PM

Yea, that record "The Duck" is baad, love the backgrounds.

**nysister** · 08-27-2011, 10:23 PM

The original Miracles at the Apollo Theatre. My older sister took me and I remember the women trying to pull smokey off the stage, and I had never seen anything like that in my life. It was frightening but Smokey kept on singing...lol!

**caliluv** · 08-28-2011, 12:10 AM

Solomon Burke. I was 13 yrs. I got a chance to tell him too a couple of years before he passed. Surprising to me he remembered the show.

**cdiii** · 08-28-2011, 03:33 PM

Motony:

Yes, the background singers to "The Duck"! And, that's what made that performance so memorable to me. Jackie didn't have background singers on or offstage with him; but he "had" a group of young ladies in the audience up in the balcony, singing that "Come on, ba-by" line, ON TIME AND TO PERFECTION!!! I will NEVER forget it as long as I live!!!

**sunshineonacloudyday** · 08-28-2011, 04:07 PM

JAMES BROWN showed up at my high school in, I think, early '67 while on his "Don't Be A Dropout" tour of schools. We were called to the auditorium for an "assembly", expecting some boring school thing, and THE GODFATHER OF SOUL walks out on the stage!! Life was never the same after that day.

**tallone** · 08-28-2011, 04:56 PM

James Brown at the Apollo....I think it was 1960 or 1961.

**tamla617** · 08-29-2011, 03:59 PM

the duck...........what a track.still got the london 7"loved jackie lee in all his guises,bob and earl,jay dee

**timmyfunk** · 08-29-2011, 06:08 PM

Originally Posted by motony

BobC I know what you sayin about Chaka Khan I saw Rufus when Bootsys Rubber Band & Parliment/Funkadelic were the opening bands. Chaka just sat down in the middle of the stage while the band was playin the hits the crowd started leavin but after the Funk Mob Chaka/Rufus were a BIG letdown anyway. JoBETEROB, what a show that was!Do you remember the Miracles set? "Way Over There"?144MAN I bet the Crystals were great, wasn't Manfred Mann their band over there for that tour?

Why am I not surprised!

**timmyfunk** · 08-29-2011, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by sunshineonacloudyday

JAMES BROWN showed up at my high school in, I think, early '67 while on his "Don't Be A Dropout" tour of schools. We were called to the auditorium for an "assembly", expecting some boring school thing, and THE GODFATHER OF SOUL walks out on the stage!! Life was never the same after that day.

Now that is badd ass!!!!

**timmyfunk** · 08-29-2011, 06:14 PM

Believe it or not, it was Ben E. King in a park in Queens in 1980. Free show. Pretty damn tight.
The second was Rufus featuring Chaka Khan at Belmont Park in Queens, also in 1980. Unlike the experience related by BobC, they turned that place out. They only charged $2.00 for a ticket, but since there was a hole in the fence surrounding the park, a lot of people including myself got in for free.

**motony** · 08-29-2011, 08:55 PM

cdiii, I bet that was baad...my most fun concerts were those in the 60's and it was jus innocent fun, no smokin & drinkin, too young but jus real fun with the music.Sunshineonacloudyday, that is Outta site" I would have jus died if JB had come to a school assembley.

**chidrummer** · 08-30-2011, 11:50 AM

1st concert - Friday, July 23, 1971

The International Amphitheater in Chicago. A group entering it's heyday called, The Jackson 5. Opening for them, an unknown group that Motown hadn't even put a record out on yet called, The Commodores.

**MIKEW-UK** · 08-30-2011, 11:58 AM

The Beatles at the ABC Cinema, Plymouth 1963 http://www.chrisrobinson.co.uk/pages/beatles2.shtml

**glencro** · 08-30-2011, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by brother_love

Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Jackson Five, Edwin Starr & The Edwin Hawkins Singers [[The Forum, L.A. - 1969)

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I was only 3 then but WOW would have loved to have been there

**1382hitsville** · 08-30-2011, 01:50 PM

Diana Ross in Rotterdam, 1997. I was starstruck when she came out....

**tamla617** · 08-30-2011, 02:04 PM

chidrummer
i was in hawaii just after that and i saw the massive poster at the 50th state fair.with that lot on it,j5 and commodores and someone else.they were appearing there that week and it was sold out and if it wasnt i wouldnt have had enough folding to pay for it.i can remember being so p*********d off because that was the 1st time i'd been even "close" to seeing a motown act.