Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Little Richard slams The Beatles in concert
by Adam Kane, What Goes On Entertainment Editor

What Goes On reader Mary Spencer from Leicester, UK, has written in to tell us of a really negative experience she had last week at a Little Richard concert at Nottingham Royal Centre.

Mary says that during the show, in between virtually every song, Little Richard went off on long rambling monologues that most of the audience couldn't understand at all. She says many other people who were near to where she was sitting had the same feelings, and some people were laughing at how embarrassing the show was, while others were shouting get on with it and play music.

Mary says that one point during the concert, Little Richard mentioned he was offered a 50 percent stake in the Beatles during the early days, but he said no because he thought they sounded like the Everly Brothers. At this point, Beatles and Everlys fans didn't stand for this, and Mary says a fan shouted out "they sold a LOT more records than you ever did!" And he quickly changed the subject.

Mary says she and her fellow audience members got the impression he was trying to say he was better than anyone else ever, but the irony was that his concert performance was awful. At one point the power went off, but he kept going even though no one could hear him. His entire performance was totally unprofessional, and yet ticket prices for this show were much higher than other shows at the same venue, £35, compared to most gigs costing between £17 to £25.

To add insult to injury, Mary says that his "people" were the worst she has ever seen at a gig with regard to their attitude to paying fans. If anyone even dared to take a single non-flash photo of Little Richard they were treated like garbage, even though this venue usually allows a few non-flash photos and usually has a very friendly atmosphere. Afterwards he did an autograph session, selling his autograph for £20, and Mary reports that the autograph session was even worse than the concert. Mary says that every other artist who she's ever seen do a signing allowed fans to take photos during that, but again his people were very rude, ordering paying fans who tried to take photos to leave.

Mary says that in over 20 years of going to performances of this kind, she's never seen anything like this, and wants to warn other What Goes On readers what to expect at one of Little Richard's shows.

This is very sad.....sources say he was drunk

Well, you know that there's always
"Something About Mary"..........

That sounds a lot like a "1984"-era Van Halen show! Dave, SHUT UP!!

Went to see him last night at the festival hall.....what a disappointment......NO RICKENBACKERS.........but then again..........he was OK, just a bit old and possibly a little tipsy? But if I'm still touring at 72..... I'll send you all a postcard!

Little Richard has never been the least bit reticent about saying what's on his mind, right or wrong, I personally think he's a riot. And to be fair The Beatles probably would have sounded like The Everly Bros. back then to other musicians especially to someone like LR who came before them not after as they pretty much wrote the book on harmony singing in rock n roll, were a major influence on the Beatles and The Beatles supposedly considered calling themselves 'The Four Everly Brothers' at some point.
We all have bad shows once in a while, now if that happens over and over again, then I would think twice about going to see him, but I never write off a performer because of one negative review even if it's written by Mary.

Little Richard is on stage for 50 years, now.
He's the Architect of Rock 'n' Roll, the greatest rock 'n' roll singer of all times.
Without Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins there would have been no Beatles.
Every one wants a 325C58 now. Ha!
We should be glad to see the original one and only Little Richard live and still alive on stage today!

OK, there's a political vote from the president of the LR Fan Club...

I didn't know he played a 325C58.

But if he did, so did Liberace.

Another great Rocker!...well at least wardrobe-wise.

I must say, though, that The Beatles would have been The Four Everly Brothers except for two things: George Martin and, dare I say...

...Owsley...

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more...

" JOHN:... it's hard for people to imagine how thrilled we, the four of us, were to even see any great rock'n'roller in the flesh, and we were almost paralysed with adoration with both (Gene Vincent and Little Richard, WG) of them, and the side note was Little Richard's organist
was Billy Preston. He looked about ten then...
... we used to stand backstage at Hamburg's Star Club and watch Little Richard play. Or he used to sit and talk. He used to read from the Bible backstage and just to hear him talk we'd sit round and listen... I still love him and he's one of the greatest"
The Beatles Anthology Book, pp 77 and 78.

You can see him sing and play "in the flesh" today.
But you can only play a copy of a 58 capri.

There's a difference--a huge difference--between watching and playing.

There's also a difference--much smaller--between playing a genuine '58 and a copy.

John worshipped Little Richard because in those days Brits worshipped anything American Roots.

I remember Mick Jagger commenting on his first visit to Marshall Chess' office on S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago, in 1964 or '65: He was chatting with Chess, very excited to be where so much of his inspiration was born. He asked if it might be possible for him to meet Muddy Waters. Chess chuckled, and led him into one of the studios. Muddy was painting the ceiling. He wiped the paint off his hands and shook Jagger's.

LR is no doubt an experience, but I've always been alternately amused and repelled by his "I am the greatest" act. Years ago, he actually started believing it.

In Rolling Stone a couple of weeks ago, they did a series on 100 Rock Giants, with short essays written by various current luminaries on why so-and-so belonged on the list. (The Kinks, by Peter Buck, etc.)

Little Richard's was written by himself.

The Self-Annointed, Self-Appointed Queen of Rock-N-Roll (she knows who she is...)

He is one of the 10 greatest rock n roll artists in history IMHO and whether he is full of himself or not, you can't take away his talent. McCartney's early rock n roll singing is straight from Little Richard. The Beatles worshipped the early american performers because we originated rock n roll not because we were americans. They worshipped the music and rightfully so and then immitated it. Those 50's guys are the people who's shoulders all us rock n roll musicians stand on all over the world, if there were no Elvis, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Everly Bros, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Gene Vincent, etc. there would be no rock n roll anywhere. Those guys originated it and are copied ad infinitum and got royally screwed monitarily and still get screwed to this day, no wonder they blow their own horns, radio doesn't play them anymore, they are pretty much dismissed as being just old and anachranistic. Those guys are almost all bitter as they started it and didn't get a slice of the pie; they got it stolen from them, they should all rightfully be millionaires. All the blues guys also got screwed.

But that dosent give him the right to speak badly of the beatles.......it just dosent

Bob, I agree with your list but I'd add a couple more. Eddie Cochran is still, to me, the most under-appreciated and least remembered of the early giants. Had he not dies so young, there's no telling how big he could have gotten. Arthur Alexander is another one that should get a lot more recognition than he does. As for Little Richard, if he hadn't done "Long Tall Sally" Paul might never have down "I'm Down". Besides, it ain't braggin' if it's true. Little Richard IS one of the giants of early rock and roll.

Still, Alex is right ... let's not be allowing any dissing of the boys.

OK, let's build a church instead. Then LR could declare himself a minister--again.

Every single person who you mention, Bob (except Gene Vincent, who died too young...), was or is a millionaire. The guys who really got screwed were the earliest blues guys. The second generation bluesmen got shafted early on and learned the ropes. Men like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, et. al., lived the last few decades of their lives in relative comfort, even if they weren't worth millions.

LR has a lot of talent and flamboyance, it's obvious, but he runs off at the mouth too much. I'd say he has poor impulse control, but that's just my way of trying to understand the most irritating aspect of a complex personality.