My Life in Concert.com - (EP 27, no.19) Police Picnic ’83 featuring The Police, Peter Tosh, James Brown, King Sunny Adé, Blue Peter, and The Fixx: Walking on the Moon CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Friday August 5, 1983

(EP 27, no.19) Police Picnic ’83 featuring The Police, Peter Tosh, James Brown, King Sunny Adé, Blue Peter, and The Fixx: Walking on the Moon CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Friday August 5, 1983

09/20/22 • 89 min

It’s the third and final Police Picnic on August 5, 1983, once again at CNE stadium as well as the 4th and final consecutive summer of attending a huge, open air festival.

This time around the fest featured James Brown, Peter Tosh, King Sunny Adé, Blue Peter, and The Fixx along with the titular hosts.

While the first fest ran overlong but otherwise smoothly, the 1982 edition was the worst concert experience of my lifetime, even if the music was good.

As was also the case with 1982, this 1983 excursion came complete with a drug misadventure .... wait, scratch that last bit. What’s the opposite of “misadventure”?

For this episode, not only will Special Guests aka Phil Robinson be re-joining in looking back on this event, his pal from back in the day, Noelle, also joins us in this episode. The two of them went to festival along with a group of people and reconnect live for the first time since the 80s, and help each other piece together their experiences from that day.

So, it’s a first for the podcast, with a 3-way interview and reminiscence. We not only recall the show but also touch on late-night speakeasys, mammaried Police enthusiasts, how lucky we were to have The New Music, import 45s, and where did Simple Minds play here in London in the early 80s?

Tune in dear listeners for a euphoric day of great music, accidently taking narcotics, being trapped in a revolving door, smashed porcelain smokers on Queen Street West, and a goodbye to the tea-drinking Police, who were in Synchronicity with the world at that moment.

Click here to read the original 2011 blog entry.

Next on Stage -->: Join me next time as I recall one of my Top Three best shows I have ever seen here in my hometown of London, Ontario, Canada, when the one, the only, the legendary & the regal Marianne Faithfull grants us an audience on a packed-to-the-rafters Fryfogles on a steamy, August night.

This hotly anticipated show was a distinctly more intimate experience than the Police Picnic. By this point in time, the former Jagger paramour and ‘60s pop icon was in the final throes of a triumphant, early ‘80s comeback, triggered by her late 1979 LP Broken English, one of the true all-time classics. At this point in ’83, she was touring her third Island disc, A Child’s Adventure.

Conveniently, she began her tour at my local watering hole.

Indeed, this date kicked off her first-ever Canadian tour, with London lucking into hosting this debut performance.

Join me next time for thigh-slappin’ rhythms, backstage gossip, contented smiles and ... dangerous acquaintances.

021. (EP 28) Dangerous Acquaintances: Marianne Faithfull, Fryfogle’s, London, Ontario, August 15, 1983

Click here to read the original 2011 blog entry.

mylifeinconcert.com

It’s the third and final Police Picnic on August 5, 1983, once again at CNE stadium as well as the 4th and final consecutive summer of attending a huge, open air festival.

This time around the fest featured James Brown, Peter Tosh, King Sunny Adé, Blue Peter, and The Fixx along with the titular hosts.

While the first fest ran overlong but otherwise smoothly, the 1982 edition was the worst concert experience of my lifetime, even if the music was good.

As was also the case with 1982, this 1983 excursion came complete with a drug misadventure .... wait, scratch that last bit. What’s the opposite of “misadventure”?

Click here to read the original 2011 blog entry.

Conveniently, she began her tour at my local watering hole.

Indeed, this date kicked off her first-ever Canadian tour, with London lucking into hosting this debut performance.

Join me next time for thigh-slappin’ rhythms, backstage gossip, contented smiles and ... dangerous acquaintances.

021. (EP 28) Dangerous Acquaintances: Marianne Faithfull, Fryfogle’s, London, Ontario, August 15, 1983

Click here to read the original 2011 blog entry.

mylifeinconcert.com

Previous Episode

(EP 26, no.18) John Cale: I Keep A Close Watch, Fryfogle’s, London, Ontario, Canada, Monday June 13, 1983

The Velvet Underground’s John Cale comes to Fryfogle’s and plays an intense, riveting solo set in June 1983.

It was particularly extraordinary for me that I finally got to see him at this point in time, not only because I was way deep in Velvets-mania in the early 80s — with all the original Velvets albums finally being widely and easily available, arriving alongside “Edie: An American Biography” — but also because I ended up sitting cross-legged on the stage about two feet in front of Cale as he performed. Indeed, this was the best seat I have ever had at a live show!

And I thought I’d had it good during the previous fall when I got to park my elbows on centre stage during a Joe Jackson show (EP 19).

Tune in for a disciplined bladder, a set list of my dreams, and being able to see the pores on John Cale’s face.

Go to mylifeinconcert.com to read the original 2011 blog entry.

Next on Stage --> It’s the third and final Police Picnic on August 5, 1983, once again at CNE stadium as well as the 4th and final consecutive summer of attending a huge, open air festival.

While the first fest ran overlong but otherwise smoothly, the 1982 edition was the worst concert experience of my lifetime, even if the music was good.

As also was the case with 1982, this 1983 excursion came complete with a drug misadventure .... wait, scratch that last bit. What’s the opposite of “misadventure”?

For this episode, not only will Special Guests aka Phil Robinson be re-joining me to look back on the day, his pal from back in the day, Noelle, also joins us in this episode. The two of them went to festival along with a group of people and reconnect live for the first time since the 80s, and help each other piece together their experiences from that day.

So, it’s a first for the podcast, with a 3-way interview and reminiscence.

Please return next time dear listeners for a euphoric day of great music, accidently taking narcotics, being trapped in a revolving door, smashed porcelain smokers on Queen Street West, and a goodbye to the tea-drinking Police, who were in Synchronicity with the world at that moment.

Go to mylifeinconcert.com to read the original 2011 blog entry, (EP 27, no.19) Police Picnic ’83 featuring The Police, Peter Tosh, James Brown, King Sunny Adé, Blue Peter, and The Fixx: Walking on the Moon, CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Friday August 5, 1983.

Next Episode

(EP28, no.21) Marianne Faithfull: Dangerous Acquaintances, Fryfogle’s, London, Ontario, Canada, August 15, 1983

Ten days after the final Police Picnic in Toronto at the massive CNE Exhibition Stadium, I took in a more intimate, but hotly anticipated, show by the legendary Marianne Faithfull. The by-then gravel-voiced ‘60s pop icon and former Jagger paramour was in the final throes of a triumphant, early ‘80s comeback.

She was undertaking her first-ever tour of Canada, where her records had performed very well, conveniently beginning her tour at my local watering hole here in the Forest City.

The episode also features a four-minute interview that I did with Marianne six years after this gig, in 1989.

Tune in for thigh-slappin’ rhythms, shitfaced patrons, contented smiles and ... dangerous acquaintances.

Next On Stage –> This is the big one! THE ultimate! The single most anticipated show I ever attended, when I—along with my co-hort Miss Bennies—and 60,000 other fans, all of whom going Absolutely Freakin’ Bananas, moseyed on down to a packed CNE Exhibition Stadium on the Sunday night of a swelting Labour Day weekend in 1983, for DAVID BOWIE, on his Serious Moonlight tour for his worldwide smash hit album, Let’s Dance, with the great ROUGH TRADE opening the show and warming up the troops.

On the exact same weekend a year earlier, I had seen The Clash, and in the podcast for the show, Episode 18 and the blog entry as concert no. 12, I discuss how seeing them made for the most-anticipated gig I had attended up until that time.

Well, this David Bowie concert one year later—at the same venue but utilizing the full stadium—left that prior show’s sense of anticipation in the dust as I finally got to see the performer who had long occupied the No. 1 spot on my “Must See” list.

Bowie and his seventies output made a seismic and enduring impact on my life, and in this next episode I will discuss this along with looking at the actual show, on that gorgeous Labour Day weekend in 1983, ending one of the most memorable summers of my young life with an unforgettable climax.

Also, the great Rough Trade, another act I love and made an impact on me in the 70s and 80s, was the opening act, and I will be talking about them as well.

Tune in next time for life-changing radio Oddities, bamboo steamers among the Bowie masses, and the most exciting show of my life with Episode 29, Concert no. 22, Let’s Dance: David Bowie with Rough Trade, CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday September 3, 1983

You can also read the initial blog entry at mylifeinconcert.com, broken down into two blogs: 022a. Changes: Bowie, The 70s, & Me; and 022b. Let’s Dance: David Bowie with Rough Trade, CNE Stadium Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday September 3, 1983.
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