Something of both a retrospective and forward looking post this time. Must be feeling philosophical or something. It’s coming up to almost forty years since the start of the whole New Wave of British Heavy Metal thing. That’s a long time. Whilst it never ceases to amaze just how much longevity NWOBHM has, how relevant it remains today and how much the genre has developed over the last four decades, it’s just got me to thinking how stage shows have developed over the same period.
The very first concert I went to was Rush in in 1977. Three Canadian geezers up on stage in front of a sparse but enthusiastic crowd. A bit of a light show, great gig all about the music. As I got in to it more after such an introduction to the live heavy stuff taking in the emerging NWOBHM bands it wasn’t much (or anything) more than blokes up on stage giving it their all and a rudimentary light show often constrained by the size of the venue. And perhaps finances.
Def Leppard at a local WMC, Iron Maiden, Angelwitch, Witchfynde et al at small clubs. The stage show did not matter. Music, atmosphere, awesome.
Though slowly things began to change on stage as bands named above and NWOBHM in general took off. Venues grew along with fan bases, small clubs were outgrown and larger capacity venues came to be the norm. Then came the extra influence of spectacular stage pyrotechnics pioneered by the likes of Alice Cooper, Kiss, Blue Oyster Cult and similar. The stage show started to become more and more involved and part of the overall heavy metal concert experience.
I recall seeing Blue Oyster Cult on the Spectres tour (1979 I think it was). Full on laser show and everything. Laser all over the place. Eric Bloom’s wrist laser, others fired on to the mirror ball during Astronomy and all that. Very spectacular, very memorable even now. Every Rush tour brought with it a more elaborate stage/lighting show. Hawkwind, back then, probably lead the way for the domestic acts getting in to the whole laser/super light shows and whatnot. It’d be Iron Maiden today I guess.
And so it has grown and developed ever since. The (now) rather rudimentary BOC stuff evolved in to more of an entertainment laser experience (not unique to BOC of course) as more and more metal/rock bands had more money to play with as the whole experience became more important and the competition hotted up.
The Pink Floyd took it to new heights (no pun intended) with The Wall and of course Roger Waters worked it up even more in to a full on stadium multimedia show super experience event of epic proportions. And there’s so much going on at a Rush concert today it’s a true assault on the senses – the music, the lights, the entertainment laser – though always awesome.
I’m still more than happy watching a band which does not have to rely on gimmicks and have enough talent and stage presence not to need any. Though that said, the big arena/stadium theatrics are still good fun. Really is amazing how it’s all changed over the years….don’t you think…with the theatrics and lasers playing a bigger part.