British New Wave band Ultravox had a hit in 1980 with “Vienna”, but except for the singing of the title, to quote the song itself, “this means nothing to me”.
What I do recognise, however, is “Slow Motion”, from their 1978 album “Systems Of Romance”, which I have.
I haven’t played it for ages, but I remember “Slow Motion” because the band Snatch at the Majestic Hotel in Palmerston North, New Zealand, used to play it when I went there regularly around that time as a student.
I just listened to several of the other tracks from that album, most of them didn’t really resonate, but there were a couple that brought back memories.
Apparently the album didn’t sell that well at the time, but I bought it, on the strength of hearing the tracks that Snatch played.
Here’s “Vienna”, their first mainstream commercial success it would seem, just out of the Seventies in 1980:
This one’s more like it, “Slow Motion”, from 1978 album “Systems Of Romance”:
From the same album, “Maximum Acceleration”:
And another one from “Systems Of Romance”, called “I Can’t Stay Long”:
The British New Wave band XTC, with songs like “Statue Of Liberty”, “Radios In Motion”, “Making Plans For Nigel” or their very unique version of the Bob Dylan song “All Along The Watchtower” (most famously covered by Jimi Hendrix), came to my attention towards the end of the Seventies.
In the late Seventies, while studying at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, on Fridays and Saturdays we tended to go to a pub called the Majestic – sadly no longer in existence I hear – where we put up with the Leopard beer to listen and dance to a band called Snatch, who played a lot of New Wave stuff like XTC. (You’re likely to hear more about Snatch in later posts…)
As a result, I bought their 1978 album “White Music”.
I don’t remember most of the tracks on this album, but one of them was “Statue Of Liberty”, played here live:
Also from that album, and also live (in 1978), is “Radios In Motion”:
“Making Plans For Nigel” was a UK hit in 1979:
Here’s “Making Plans For Nigel” live on the German TV concert Rockpalast in 1982:
I’m not sure where “She’s So Square” is from, but I quite like it (the video shows the cover of “White Music”, but it’s not on the one I have):
“Spinning Top” is from the “White Music” album:
And, as mentioned, “All Along The Watchtower”, first the album version:
The first Cheap Trick song I remember hearing, and one that has always stuck in my mind, was “Surrender”…
“Mommy’s all right, Daddy’s all right, they just seem a little weird, surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away”:
It must have been 1979 when I piled into a car with a few other guys and headed for Wellington for the “Dream Police” tour concert.
In a scene reminiscent of “Wayne’s World”, with the windows down and long hair (in my case at least) blowing in the wind, we sang the songs all the way from Palmerston North, a trip of about an hour and a half if I remember rightly.
Unfortunately, when we got there, we waited, and waited, and waited…
It turned out the truck with all the band’s gear had come off the road on the way from Auckland to Wellington and ended up in a ditch.
So we all got back in the car and went home.
There was a happy ending however, as next day (I think) off we went to Wellington again.
It was great.
There was seating in the Wellington Show Building, and we were right up the front on the right hand side – about 6 to 10 feet in front of these MASSIVE speakers.
I got a really good view in particular of the bassist, Tom Petersson with his legendary 12 string bass (if you know anything about rock music, you’ll know a bass usually only has four strings!), and behind him the poker faced drummer, Bun E. Carlos, contrasting with the lively vocalist Robin Zander with his long blonde hair.
And of course madcap Rick Nielsen was batting guitar picks out into the crowd with one of his many guitars.
Speaking of which, to show you how maniacal he can be, here’s a live recording of “Dream Police” with a long intro of Rick playing not one but THREE guitars (this was made about two years later):
Or if you prefer the original studio video…
And this track from “Heaven Tonight (the same album as “Surrender”) says it all:
You’re takin’ me back…
You sure are!
But wait, there’s more – finally found a live version, albeit around 20 years later:
Still hitting the high notes.
And to close out, from the same concert, another track from “Heaven Tonight”, called “On The Radio”:
Okay, not quite closing out, I just had to leave you with this hauntingly beautiful track from Cheap Trick’s “Lap of Luxury” album, not strictly from the Seventies, but I covered myself for cases like this in my very first post 🙂 (“My Seventies Music – Welcome!”).