My Life in Concert.com - (EP30, nos.23&24) The Circle Jerks/Psychic TV, The Reggae Lounge, Wednesday, November 16/Danceteria, Thursday November 17, both in New York City, USA, 1983: Back Against the Wall with Discopravity

(EP30, nos.23&24) The Circle Jerks/Psychic TV, The Reggae Lounge, Wednesday, November 16/Danceteria, Thursday November 17, both in New York City, USA, 1983: Back Against the Wall with Discopravity

03/28/23 • 96 min

My final 1983 gig-going-entry recaps a couple of shows I took in during a crazy/nuts four-day trip to NYC.

While I will be discussing the performances by hardcore titans The Circle Jerks and post-Throbbing Gristle offshoot Psychic TV, I’ll also be looking at the madcap trip to Manhattan as a whole, recounting the hijinks that MZ, Miss B, myself, and others got up to.

If you’ve heard or read EP 25 on the Flipper show at Fryfogle’s, then you’ll have somewhat of an idea of what to expect.
Tune in for destroyed hotel rooms; terrified cousins; "Peace, Love and Groove!"; Danceteria bathroom hallucinations; Brooke Shields' husband, Broadway Bob; and pterodactyls and manifestations.
You can also read the original blog entries for The Circle Jerks and for the Psychic TV show on the mylifeinconcert.com blog.

Next On Stage –> I am jumping back further into the past as I recall a cabaret show that happened between my first and second “official” gigs (Roxy Music at the London Arena on February 5, 1975 and Bob Seger at the London Gardens on May 19, 1978).

I saw the cabaret in Portsmouth, England, in August 1977, and it featured early-60s popster Susan Maughan, she of the 1962 hit, “Bobby’s Girl,” and possibly the legendary Tessie O’Shea.

I had initially planned to discuss it as part of upcoming compilation episode but have instead decided to make it a stand-alone episode.

The EP's Special Guest is my 96-year-old mother—we’ll call her Vera Various Artists—who attended the cabaret along with me and my late father.

My mum shares her vague memories of the evening, including that she feels the legendary Tessie O’Shea was on the bill. If my mother is right, then boy do I wish I could remember that. I wouldn’t have known who she was then but I sure do now.

We do both remember humourist Pam Ayers and the Famous People Players being part of the show.

My mother also recalls the venue itself, the Portsmouth The Hippodrome but also The King’s Theatre in Southsea, as she grew up in Petersfield, but later moved to Portsmouth after marrying my dad, and both my elder siblings were born there.

In the interview, she discusses listening to the radio as well as records in the UK as a girl in the ‘30s, and also music and live shows she enjoyed after to moving to Canada in the mid-50s and onwards.

I also talk about my experiences on this trip in the ultimate UK punk year—1977—amid the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.

Tune in for dangerous radio batteries, hanging out in British record stores to hear the latest releases, what double album of my mum’s drove me nuts in the ‘70s, punk rock mania, not seeing The Sex Pistols, and what Ethel Merman was really like live.

That’s all coming up in Episode 31, Concert no. 001.5, entitled UK 1977: VA’s Mum on Ethel Merman and Susan Maughan at the Portsmouth Hippodrome and the Music of Her Life + My UK Trip Amid the Year of the Punk Rock Explosion and Silver Jubilee

mylifeinconcert.com

My final 1983 gig-going-entry recaps a couple of shows I took in during a crazy/nuts four-day trip to NYC.

I saw the cabaret in Portsmouth, England, in August 1977, and it featured early-60s popster Susan Maughan, she of the 1962 hit, “Bobby’s Girl,” and possibly the legendary Tessie O’Shea.

I had initially planned to discuss it as part of upcoming compilation episode but have instead decided to make it a stand-alone episode.

The EP's Special Guest is my 96-year-old mother—we’ll call her Vera Various Artists—who attended the cabaret along with me and my late father.

We do both remember humourist Pam Ayers and the Famous People Players being part of the show.

I also talk about my experiences on this trip in the ultimate UK punk year—1977—amid the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.

mylifeinconcert.com

Previous Episode

(EP 29b, no.22b) David Bowie with Rough Trade: Let’s Dance, CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Saturday September 3, 1983

This is the big one! THE ultimate! The single most anticipated show I ever attended, when I—along with my co-hort Miss B—and 60,000 other fans, all of whom who were going Absolutely Freakin’ Bananas, moseyed on down to a packed CNE Exhibition Stadium during a sweltering Labour Day weekend in 1983, for David Bowie.

He was on his global 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 at this same venue (EP 18). Now I was back and seeing an even more hotly anticipated show. And he surpassed my expectations.

In Part One, Episode 29A, Changes: Bowie, The ‘70s, and Me—a prelude to this episode about the show—I look back on first hearing David Bowie on the cusp of 1973 as well as take an in-depth journey through his recording career, from 1964’s “Liza Jane” through 1983’s Let’s Dance, but also examine his impact on me and the larger culture throughout the rest of that decade.

In this Part 2, join me in returning back to this CNE show on that gorgeous Labour Day weekend in 1983—ending one of the most memorable summers of my young life with an unforgettable climax.

Tune in for being caught up in the rush of crushing crowds, Hamlet references, bamboo steamers among the Bowie masses, and the most exciting show of my life.

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

Next On Stage –> My final 1983 gig-going-entry recaps a couple of shows I took in during a crazy/nuts four-day trip to NYC.

If you’ve heard or read EP 25 on the Flipper show at Fryfogle’s, then you’ll have somewhat of an idea of what to expect.
Tune in for destroyed hotel rooms, terrified cousins, "Peace, Love and Groove," Danceteria bathroom hallucinations, Brooke Shields' husband: Broadway Bob, and Pterodactyls and Manifestations in Episode 30, Back Against the Wall and Discopravity: The Circle Jerks at the Reggae Lounge on Wednesday November 26th, and Psychic TV at Danceteria on Thursday November 17, both in New York City, 1983.

Click on the links above to read the original blog entries at mylifeinconcert.com.

Next Episode

undefined - (EP 31, no.1.5) Mum’s the Word!—In Town Tonight—In the City—UK ’77: My Mother’s Life in Music + a Portsmouth Cabaret with Susan Maughan, Tessie O’Shea, Pam Ayers, & more + Our UK Trip Amid Punk Rock Mania, August 1977

(EP 31, no.1.5) Mum’s the Word!—In Town Tonight—In the City—UK ’77: My Mother’s Life in Music + a Portsmouth Cabaret with Susan Maughan, Tessie O’Shea, Pam Ayers, & more + Our UK Trip Amid Punk Rock Mania, August 1977

With this episode, the series jumps back in time to a Cabaret show I saw in Portsmouth, UK, in August 1977 with my parents when I was 14.

The cabaret took place between my first (Roxy Music at the London Arena, February 8, 1975) and second (Bob Seger at the London Gardens on May 19, 1978) official concerts.

My initial plan was to include it as part of an upcoming compilation episode.

However, I’ve decided that this cabaret was a unique live performance along with being the only one I ever saw with my now 96-year-old mother. Therefore, I am giving this show its own entry.

I wanted to take this opportunity to capture not only what she remembers of the event, but also her music-and-technology-related memories from her life growing up in the UK, having been born in December 1926.

Taking in this show with my folks occurred during a three-week trip to the UK. The vacation could not have possibly been more fortuitous for me.

I had been following punk rock from its 1975-ish NYC inception via the underground press, and then later the British arm of the punk scene through the weeklies (when I could get hold of or afford them) which was absolutely exploding through the UK at the time of my visit. Getting to be there and experience it happening real time was one of the luckiest tunes-y strokes of my life.

So, in this episode, I interview my mother about the music she’s enjoyed and seen live, but also about the variety of technologies she has used to hear and enjoy it, starting with her hand-cranked family radiogram in the 1930s through to her love of streaming music today.

Later on, I turn from looking at my mother’s musical youth to my own experiences, including this live cabaret show we saw in 1977, but even more so about the excitement and impact of being able to spend time in the UK at the peak of punk.

My mother had In Town Tonight. I had In the City. (Listen or read to find out more about all that).

Listen to the podcast to hear the full interview as she talks about the musical journey of her life.

Tune in for Worker's Playtime, “Attention K-Mart Shoppers!,” The Man in Black, children with acid batteries, revelations at Boots—or was it Woolies?—and what was Ethel Merman really like live?

Next on Stage -> I jump a bit more into the future with The Stray Cats at Alumni Hall here in London on March 26, 1983. Technically this should have been Episode 16 but, as with this 1977 entry, this show was initially meant to be included with the upcoming compilation episode.

I don’t have a ton of memories about this show, but luckily MLIC podcast regular Phil Robinson as well as Noëlle from the Police Picnic ’83 episode (no. 27) both have lots of great recollections from the night.

Tune in for stage dancing, artistic representations, Britt Ekland sightings, and what was the unforgettable message that Brian Setzer imparted to Noëlle backstage?

Episode 032 (Concert no. 025) Rock This Town: The Stray Cats with The Bopcats, Alumni Hall, Western University, London Ontario, March 26, 1983

mylifeinconcert.com