St George's Hall Bradford and discovering Rock

 

Everyone has the place that they went to their first proper gig. Mine, and I suspect all of my siblings, have St George's Hall in Bradford as that place. 

It is a grand concert hall that is  over 170 years old, and when it was opened in 1853 a Councillor Smith  in his opening speech said that it would be "The best means of removing the vice and immorality so prevalent in our population," I'm not sure it quite always lived up to that, well not in my days.

It could take about 1500 souls into its plush but slightly fleabitten interior, and as far as I remember, all those downstairs seats were removed for the rock gigs and people just stood and listened, yelled, danced or pogoed on the sticky floor of the auditorium. If you had never been to a gig before, it was an eye-opener.

I'm sure I could be nerdy and actually find all the dates of the gigs we went to in the 70s, but I know I saw Thin Lizzy, Graham Parker, Dr Feelgood and Eddie and the Hotrods at least, and all of those were belting acts. Even their support acts were great, and I remember Graham Parker being supported by a 12-piece called 'Southside Jonny and the Asbury Jukes'. They had a brass section - I was very impressed. 

We must have got alcohol from somewhere, but the details are blurry. I know that the noise probably started off any hearing decline we now have in our mid-sixties. But the thought as a 16 or 17-year-old that this was what real students did every weekend, must surely have contributed to the efforts we put in for our school exams. The dark, the noise, the excitement, and the whole sense of entering a new world were very compelling. I'm sure other immorality of a more chemical or tactile nature took place in other parts of the hall (apologies, Councillor Smith), but I have to confess that I never located it and was probably too young to make much use of it then. University filled in most of those gaps. 

But St George's Hall will always be the place where I lost at least my Rock virginity, and for that I will hold it dear in my heart. And as I am intending - in Angie's words - to live with 'incorrigible gusto', I might even make a return visit when I am next up north, and watch a new generation discovering their own musical futures. 

PS: video of Southside Jonny and the Asbury Jukes in the 1970s

Southside Jonny and the Asbury Jukes