1989: As usual, this page, as with a great part of the rest of the site, would not have been possible without the help of ex-BOC roadie, Sam Judd, and it's his notes which inform many of the facts contained herein...
Have you got anything to contribute to this page? Reviews, missing info, ticket stubs, posters etc etc - if so, let me .
There was a blizzard that night, so the crowd was sparse. As a treat for the faithful, they did "The Last Days Of May".
GREAT!!!
I have memories of a show in Trenton at City Gardens during the Imaginos tour. I was psyched thinking all the boys were back together. The club was lets say,a hole in the wall. Circus of Power( or Pain) warmed up for them.
When BOC came on, I was bummed that Joe and Albert weren't there but happy to see that Allen was on keyboards. I can definately say that I lost partial hearing from that concert. I still hear some of those sustained high notes as I write this.
We were standing right in front of Buck and the guitar was extremely loud. We had no earplugs and it was LOUD! We kept giving Dave, Bucks guitar guy the sign to turn down the guitar. So what does he do... he cranks it up to 11!
The other vivid memory after the show was Allen leaping off of the stage and running to the bar for a drink. He almost knocked me over on the way. A very memorable show!
Dallas in Hamilton 14/1/89 - Kinda' snowy that night but we made it there and back. As the name suggests, it was a country western bar complete with mechnical bull.
Weird place to see the Imaginos tour, to paraphrase the Blues Brothers, "The Good Old Blue Oyster Cult Boys Band!"
Did BOC play behind a cage? I hope they encored with Rawhide for the locals... by the way - I presume there was no support at this gig? - unless you count the mechanical bull...
Funny you should mention it, there was chicken wire around the DJ booth in the corner but not by the stage. Actually, for all the trappings of a country bar it was pretty cool because the stage came out from the wall toward the center of the club so people were actually seated (well standing by gig time!) on 3 sides of the stage so it wasn't your typical band in front type secenario.
I'm sure that was because it doubled as the dance floor since it was quite low but made for good site angles from all over the club, too, since they had space around the stage then elevated levels beyond that and an even higher bar area.
No rawhide, though... ;-)
The set list was:
I was there, at this neverlasting show (19 songs). Like if they did their last concert.
I remember Eric Bloom opening at the end of the show a bottle of Champagne, shaking it and watering the audience. Like if he had won a car race (with a Maserati GT, maybe ?).
A great, great show... In the presence of another world, fantastic, and very rare !!! And beautiful harvester of eyes and Golden Age of leather!
How lucky we were...
The greatest BOC show I ever saw. Look at the setlist !!! First I was happy because Allen Lanier, my hero, had come back. I was happy to may hear songs as "Flaming Telepaths", "(This Ain't) The Summer Of Love", "Golden Age Of Leather"... I was happy because I was just in front of Eric in the first rows during the whole gig. I was happy because the Palais des Sports is a very good theatre for rock concerts that always sound great.
Patrick Rondat is a french guitar player who plays in the manner of Satriani. The BOC called him back to play Roadhouse Blues with them. I think he was very intimidated.
It's the return of the louts - the umlauts, that is. As Buck Dharma (not his real name) is oft heard to say, there's only one Cult, and Ian Astbury, though undeniably a brazen thief of other coves' ideas, has yet to wrestle those sacred, magical two dots from the possession of BOC.
To welcome back the original smart heavy rock band was also to tremble with a smidgen of apprehension: would they be absolutely obsolete in their somewhat traditional forays into interstellar leather-clad walking nightmare?
Would what seemed like unparalleled coolness in '75 (or even '79) slither under the sticky veneer of the passing of time, '89 style?
For shame, for shame. They're wonderful. Lets not concern ourselves with exactly who wrote which bits of 'Imaginos' and instead reiterate that it is the best BOC album since the monumental 'Agents of Fortune'. In between times, of course, came 'Spectres' among others. And it's that album's 'RU Ready 2 Rock' (listening, Prince?) that points this show in the direction of the big rock candy mountain.
Laying into 'ETI' as a chaser, they whip you with their classically clean sound. Buck Dharma's solos swirm out from behind the snazzy laser display, punch the choruses home and explain in volumes exactly why Sandy 'That Sucks' Pearlman came back from the fold to renew their acquaintance.
This is a band with too much history to want to blow it all by living in the past.
But old songs, inevitably, is what Manchester craves. 'Last Days of May' is lovely, 'The Golden Age of Leather' outrageous and contagious, and even the drum solo in the midst of an otherwise fluent 'Godzilla' can't hurt the flow. The BOC anchor, hoisted on canvas at the back, flickers under laser attack, and turns into a winking snowball head a la Raymond Briggs.
When they play '(Don't Fear) The Reaper' what could have been a messy reunion becomes an utterly flawless, triumph-precise fusion of past glories and future intentions. Thank Christ for these intelligent kickers of asses.
And when it's over, nobody knows - or cares - what time it is. The present-past-future's so bright you gotta wear shades...
1989 and it was back to Edinburgh... This show coincided with Scotland beating France in a World cup qualifier.
Eric made the announcement during the show although he wound up the audience but saying he had some bad news concerning the result.
Another great show and just when we thought we had them sussed with an opening number they threw in the golden age of leather.
During this show, Eric mentions at one point (before Astronomy, I think) that the gig is being recorded (by Radio Clyde?) that night. Does anyone have any knowledge whether this show is avvailable complete or otherwise, from any broadcast? I used to listen to Tom Russel's Rock Show on Radio Clyde, but at the time of this gig, I did not live in the broadcast area for this station.
Yes, I too have wondered for many years what happened to the Radio Clyde tape. I was at the gig and remember Eric mentioning about the taping. Cracking gig, Jon Rodgers vocals were a real standout!
I also remember that that was the night of a Scotland v France match with Eric kindly keeping us up to date with the score.
(2-0 Scotland if I remember, with that little wanker Mo Johnstone scoring both!)
Thats right Steve. Eric took great delight in giving us the footie score. If I remember rightly he said I have some bad news for all you Scotland supporters...long pause...Scotland won 2-0!! Mighty cheers erupted around the hall. Undoubtably one of the best of the 30 odd BOC gigs I have seen. I am sure that show lasted nearly 2 hours. Must admit, at the time, I thought it was a farewell gig from the band. How wrong can a person be!!
That gig was always one of the worst in the world for Taxi (Radio Car) traffic coming into the wireless guitar rigs... you could have it all sussed & dialed in so there's no aggro in the afternoon, then smack in the middle of the show here comes some cabbie arguing with his dispatcher waay louder than the guitar signal... happened every damn time....
good Haggis there though... blood pudding as well....
Radio Clyde sent the tapes of the show to somewhere in London for mixing and after the delay in returning them, interest dwindled. I was told by a friend that the tapes are complete but Radio Clyde have no intention of airing them unless BOC's popularity increases.
This was the best show of the six i saw on that tour but i was dissapointed they didn't play Jailbreak which they had rehearsed earlier.
Once again we find ourselves in sunny Newcastle... after a great round of shopping and an afternoon cuppa... a couple of the local cops turned up in the backstage asking if it's true that we have a Paul Mandel working with our tour?
On our confirming this fact they informed us that he was in HOSPITAL having stepped off the curb into the path of an oncoming BUS!!(It's a special little problem us sceptics have after growing up all our lives looking to the LEFT before crossing)... Paul had several broken ribs and strains and bruises everywhere but he was able to stay on the tour... although getting into and out of his bus bunk was a very painful thing for him....
So I always mind my P's and Q's when in Newcastle as we have a history there that ain't pretty... is the fine City Hall still there?It's a small stage really but a solid gig if I ever saw one... (when it's not on fire... see Nov 20 1975)
My name is Andrew and I come from Northern England. I'm a long time (since 1976) Boc fan - when I heard OYFOOYK and AOF in the mid seventies it was like a door to the future being opened. Bocs imagery and weird titles and lyrics were something totally fresh, and not since equalled.
Although Boc have visited uk many times (all praise!), I didn't see them till the Revolution by Night tour. On the Imaginos tour, I managed to see them twice - Newcastle and Nottingham. You won't believe it but they were better than they had been previously!
The support was an American-Italian band - I forget their name - but they finished with a track like "pizza house massacre" and then the Cult came on - they were superb. The energy of the past was rekindled.
For a start they kicked off with a meaty version of RUR2R, which I hadnt expected, and which I particularly liked as I admired the song from Some Enchanted Evening. I thought they might have opened with DAS (as they did when I saw them in late 85) but no - anyway, they always second with ETI, so I expected that. But no ! Out came DAS, absolutely melting, and then ETI - by this stage I was in seventh heaven. Three good old classics - bang bang bang!
They also satisfied by playing cof, tratb, flaming telepaths, reaper, godz, jc, bfy AND a storming votpw, where buck nearly set the amps aflame.
Take me away, and three tracks from Imaginos - Astronomy, IATOYWMO and ITPOAW were superb. (At Nottingham they dropped Joan Crawford but put in Black Blade! This was the first time I saw a song from CE, so it made that trip well worthwhile). These are the best gigs I ever experienced.
Amazingly, after the gigs we hung around the stage door - Buck and Eric chatted and posed for photos, gave autographs and were extremely pleasant and appreciative of our appreciation - Eric said that he thought that the current band was "a better band " than the Club Ninja band.
I was well impressed by their professionalism, both on and off-stage, and by their readiness, despite a biting cold March wind (it's bloody cold in Newcastle) to chat to us... Indeed, they remarked on Allen's absence at the stage door - "he always gets colds in Europe"...
This gig, I'm afraid to say, was a sorry affair.
I drove down on a wet night on my own from West Yorkshire and having got there found there were only a few people there (maximum of fifty), and with Sheffield City Hall being a seated venue (cinema type seats) it wasn't conducive to getting the scattered audience together.
I'd come out to see my number one band, but it seemed even among the other visitors, some had only come along as a matter of interest.
I was doing my best to enjoy myself, but this almost seemed to be frowned upon by some others in the audience (maybe I was singing along out of tune again). I nonetheless bought the tour T-Shirt (see above).
The band did their best under the circumstances, but I drove back home pretty sad...
Last time I saw Blue Oyster Cult was five years ago, in a packed out show in Newcastle. The contrast between then and now only served to make Saturday night's show an even sorrier sight.
Don't get me wrong - the band themselves were great. Far better than I remember them, in fact. Eric Bloom's still striding about with his sunglasses on looking dark and mysterious and as for the rest of the band, you couldn't find a dodgy note or a missed cue if you tried.
And personally, I enjoyed the choice of material. The new material from the Imaginos album came over well, with several of the old classics, like Godzilla and Don't Fear the Reaper thrown in for good measure.
So what was wrong? Simply, there was hardly anybody there!
Maybe it was the ticket price (at £7 each I thought they were pushing it a bit) or maybe Hull's rockers just aren't into Blue Oyster Cult.
As it was, I don't think the place was even half full, which was a great shame. It could have been a brilliant gig, instead of the average affair I ended up at. Originally printed in "Hull Daily Mail" 11 March 1989
I was at the Hull gig and sure the BOC played a blinding set. I can understand Gill Dummigan's lack of enthusiasm as it was a very sorry site as there was hardly anybody there as she said. Me and my mate could have had a five-a-side game of football and still have room to spare. A very sorry state as I felt that people were missing out on seeing on a most important band.
I remember Eric looking quite sinister and effective, Buck being quite casual and Alan Lanier coming over quite arrogant as though he was the star of the group. I didn't know all the song but had a good sing-a-long with the ones I did and was pleased that they played "Dominance & Submission". The funniest thing on the night was my mate was going to the toilet when the opening bars of "Don't Fear The Reaper" were being played and you never saw anybody run back so quick as this was the only song he knew by them.
A great gig by the Cult who gave their whole which was very suprising due to the low numbers in attendance.
Hull 1989 I was there, and I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than the reporter! The set list is wrong, they definitely played Magna of Illusion from Imaginos, and possibly Del Rio's song?
Also I believe the support were a Spanish metal band, Baron Rojo or similar. Had a great T-shirt with the Imaginos castle front and "A bedtime story for the children of the damned!" on the back.
Regarding "Magna of Illusion" and "Del Rio", The setlist given comes straight off a tape of the show, so can be considered accurate - actually, despite touring in support of Imaginos, BOC only rehearsed and played 3 songs off that record, which was odd - No Magna or Del Rio, unfortunately....
Support for the whole 89 tour was Miss Daisy, an American-Italian band...
The Hummingbird venue has long since closed, probably ten years now.
But during the late eighties/early nineties it was buzzing with activity, though this hadn't always been the case. It had been closed previously for quite a while.
BOC had played the Odeon in Birmingham on their two previous tours but this venue had closed too - to be converted into a multi screen cinema. So this was a definite down-sizing for the band, but this was true for other acts as well (Jimmy Page played at the 'Bird). At that point in time, Birmingham didn't have a decent, medium-sized venue so I guess that promoters really had no choice. It reminded me of the old Top Rank type venues that most cities had, you know, a little down at heel, mirror ball above the dance floor type of place.
This was my third BOC gig and I was quite nervous about attending, as I'll explain. My two previous BOC gigs had been disasters (not the fault of the band).
First gig was Donnington Monsters of Rock (the less said about this the better) and the second was Birmingham Odeon on the Club Ninja Tour. Which was a great gig but I had to leave before the end due to a train timetable mix up!!! The worst moment of my concert going life.
So you can perhaps understand my apprehension, anyway back to the Hummingbird.
BOC make good albums on the whole and now and again they turn out a real gem such as Imaginos. I know that some fans think of the album as a compilation but it has so many interesting facets - its very dramatic, it has some great performances, great production, superb songs, and is sonically very rich.
This is my second favourite BOC album behind Secret Treaties, which I consider to be a masterpiece. I had been listening to Imaginos intensively leading up to the gig and I was hoping that the show would match the albums sonic intensity.
I needn't have worried - These were my personal highlights:
RU Ready to Rock - My favourite opener, very solid, rock and rollllll! Eric really looked the part in his biker leather and denim jacket
ETI - Those chords, that delay - Buck was in total control
I Am The One You Warned Me Of - This is what I'd come for, something from Imaginos!
The boys in the band were enjoying the new material too
Astronomy 2 - on a par with the original? Almost
In The Presence Of Another World - For me The highlight of the show. The eerie opening arpeggios gave me the shivers - then thunderous drums, intense strobe lighting, and the maniac voice overs from the album built to a dramatic, chaotic climax. I've been to hundreds of gigs over the years but believe me, this was something special, it felt like an 'out of body' experience.
Maybe it was the strobes, I don't know but I know I'll never forget that song
Last Days Of May - What a thrill, I wasn't expecting this (it was as if I had wrote the set list).
Not everyone knew this song, just the hardcore fans (I don't consider myself a 'hardcore' fan but I know virtually everything the band has ever done). Buck was great on this
The Red And The Black - Again the hardcore fans lapped this up, one guy near me went ballistic.
I have to say that this was my best BOC gig and that includes the recent years as well (I was at the Robin Bilston gigs).
Just having a bit of a browse and I thought I'd send you the set list for the Victoria Hall gig (Hanley - Stoke on Trent) on the 13 March '89 (Imaginos Tour).
Been meaning to forward it for ages, only thing is I cannot be absolutely sure of the order - In fact I'm sure it is the wrong order. For your own peace of mind, I wrote down all the songs of BOC gigs on a scrap of paper at the gig (or a mate did) then we just did a neater version back at home so I am confident as I can be that it is the correct set of songs. Sorry. Hope this is helpful...
I guess it is quite possible they dropped Red And The Black and Cities On Flame from the previous night and Summer and ME262 were encores (but I cannot recall).
Check out the stub above - it says Monday 20th March!! The advertised date was Sunday 19th.
Can anyone shed any light on this mystery?
Just having a look at the giglopaedia and notice you've got the issue re: the 1989 Nottingham gig.
I can confirm it did happen on the 19th - I have a diary entry to confirm this. My ticket is for the 19th too.
Thanks Marc. Then the ticket stub dated 20 March leaves four possibilities:
Does anyone know which option is correct?
Here's the setlist to BOC - April 28, 1989 - Night Moves - Memphis, TN
Setlist:
I was there and recorded the show (audio only). Hope I helped fill a tiny gap...
This gig is confirmed by a guy called Chuck Padgett who posted that he saw it on the following link:
Like the above show, this gig is also confirmed by Chuck Padgett on the same page:
BOC, @ Beethoven's in raleigh, north carolina, May 28 1989(last days of may).
Beethoven's was a small club that had just opened. BOC packed the house, limo's and everything. I stood against the stage for whole show not even moving to get a drink. It was incredible, sounded just like "on your feet or on your knees", a classic set list. Alan lanier had blood dripping from fresh stabs in his arms, just smokin' and jammin' away. Buck and Eric were in good moods. They had the new rhythm section they were good too.
I noticed in your gig list for the year 1989, you do not have the Summerfest set listfor 7/1/89. Here it is.
This was taken off the setlist that Jon Rogers was writing down that I got after the show. I also have a pic of him writing it down.
Not included on Jon's list are the encores, which were E1 Summer of Love and E2 Roadhouse Blues.
July 12, 1989 show at Cleveland's Peabody's Down Under... This was near the end of my 'going to live concerts' career and this show helped to put a nail in that coffin.
Cleveland's Flats was resurgent at that time, just having gotten rid of some of the sleazy peep shows and strip clubs in favor of sleazy yuppie fern bars. Peabody's wasn't all that big, but it seemed like BOC had brought the 'stadium sound set' along for this small club concert.
It was blisteringly loud, even by my standards, and I'd seen The Who in 1971 when they were still the loudest rock band in the world. My ears rang for literally days afterward. In addition to the extreme blaring sound, the club was overcrowded so you couldn't see worth a damn.
To top it all off, someone had clogged one of the women's toilets and it flooded the whole place. Yech! I seem to recall that Godzilla was a really tight fit under the ceiling and I don't remember hearing a Harley this time - maybe because the entrance was a tight stairway.
At any rate, this is one concert I try to forget, along with the abominable Who performance I also saw that summer. Maybe this is why you don't already have a review for this one. Everyone else who was there was lucky enough to forget it.
The opening band was Bronx Zoo.
I remember seeing my "fantasy group" back in the late 80's at the VOGUE in Indianapolis, IN. I had been a fan from the moment "Don't Fear the Reaper" was introduced on radio.
I was always fascinated with their sinister sound and eerie lyrics - and almost scared of them to tell you the truth. Being a Christian, my friends were telling me to "get rid of any albums by BOC"....how could I ??
I pocked weeks of lunch money during high school to buy an vinyl album each week. But the story is, when I saw them at the Vogue in Indy, I remember seeing the big touring cases with BOC and the emblem on each one and thinking: "Wow, I'm really going to see these guys for real."
And from what I remember, it was one of the most awesome and inspiring days of my life. I was nuts after that and followed them to every concert - almost every one... I lost count after a while. But it was a small arena, and we were up really close, and I remember these guys looking as intimidating as ever - even if Eric wasn't as tall as I remember from the low-angled photographs of their albums.
So that was it... no women throwing their panties and dancing naked... but who was paying attention to the crowd anyhow.
On Aug 21 1989 at the Hollywood Palace in Hollywood California I opened for BOC when I was the lead singer of D.C. LaCroix. I have a photo of that gig on www.myspace.com/joedansereau
Our manager at the time, Bennett Glotzer who managed Frank Zappa through-out his entire career got us on the bill at the last minute. He said the palace owed him a favor and thats how we got on the show.
Black Cherry was also on the bill with us. We opened the show. For the first three songs we had NO monitors and I could only hear guitars and no vocals. I think they were mad at our manager so they (Black Cherry) made sure our monitors were shut off.
There was no performance here in 1989. I would have gone. I was still living in North Carolina then.
I'll leave it listed for now as it's included on the Official Site's giglists - this data was originally taken from the old band itineraries that BOC's management gave Bolle Gregmar access to in the late 80s - but these itineries DIDN'T seem to include notice of gigs which were cancelled or added at short notice - so they ARE very useful but by no means Gospel.
So all this means for sure is that BOC were scheduled to play Baity's Music Garden on 8 Oct 1989 but doesn't mean they actually DID!!
Does anyone out there know for sure if this gig took place?
BOC - Airport Music Hall, Allentown, PA - 11/14/89
My source for the above was my notebook - I wrote down the set as soon as I got home from the show. As far as I know, there's no recording of the gig, but I'm still hoping one turns up.
The opening act was a punk band called the Blissters. Never heard of them before or since.
This was my first BOC show - I'll try to do a write-up over the weekend.
I was at that BOC show in Allentown, PA. The Blissters, the "punk band" that warmed up for BOC were/are all friends of mine and the promoter, Tom Makoul of Makoul Productions was my fiancé.
Although it was many moons ago, I can try to find out if someone recorded it... it was a great night, and the 4th time I saw BOC.