Bob's Chat - The Ones I Missed

As I mentioned in a recent chat I got to see some mighty fine performers in Australia in the 1970s.

 However, I also managed to miss a few good ones:

 Deep Purple played in Perth on May 6, 1971, at the Beatty Park Aquatic Center, as part of their debut Australian tour with Free and Manfred Mann. Back in 1971 I was a serious blues aficionado with very little interest in rock/pop music. I had certainly heard Manfred Mann's 60s hits on the radio but had never even heard of Deep Purple or Free, so I gave that concert a miss. A couple of years later I got to hear some Deep Purple, in particular songs like "Highway Star" and "Lazy". Ritchie Blackmore quickly became one of my top favorite guitar players and I kicked myself for missing that chance to see the classic Deep Purple Mk II lineup.  

The following year in 1972 Cat Stevens played his first Perth concert at the WACA Ground. I actually quite liked Cat Stevens but not enough to go see his concert, so that one got a miss too. A day or two after that Perth concert I ran into a friend who was there. He told me supporting Cat Stevens was some old cowboy singer wearing a cowboy hat and playing acoustic guitar and harmonica in a rack. This turned out to be none other than Ramblin' Jack Elliot. I had no idea Ramblin' Jack was on that show. I had missed a chance to see one of the legends of country/folk & folk/blues, who had played and traveled with Woody Guthrie and other early legends of Americana music.

By February 1975 I was a penniless art student struggling to get by on a meager allowance plus a part-time job loading bread vans at a bakery a couple of nights a week. Rick Wakeman was in Perth with his "Journey to the Center of the Earth" show, and a few days later Ike & Tina Turner were playing. I couldn't afford both shows and a couple of friends were raving on about Rick Wakeman and convinced me to see that concert with them. So I passed on Ike & Tina. Well disappointment struck again, I was bored stiff at the Wakeman show, and kicking myself after some fellow art students who attended the Ike & Tina concert told me what I had missed. Like the solid blues set they did, including "I Smell Trouble" and "Dust My Broom" with Ike wringing the daylights out of his Fender Stratocaster. And to make matters worse it was one of the final chances to see Ike & Tina perform together, the following year they were all over.

And a few months later I missed yet another one when Lou Reed played the Perth Concert Hall on July 11, 1975. I had heard of Lou Reed but had never listened to any of his albums, so that one I gave a miss too. Much like Deep Purple it wasn't until a couple of years later that I heard some Lou Reed and realized I had stuffed up again. In particular, to see and hear Lou Reed performing "Heroin" live is something I would loved to have experienced.