Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I was fortunate enough to attend this concert yesterday in Leeds. See link below for some pictures that I took. All taken from my stalls seat D5. Performing were The Dakotas, Wayne Fontana, John Walker(Walker Brothers), The Merseybeats and the Searchers. A superb concert with all acts putting on a fine show.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/c.mclean57/index.html



Best Wishes from Rob

"What? No Rics?" Kiddin'.
Cool pics, Rob. Could you kindly tell more stories about the show?

Rob

So close yet so far I was in C row, wish I had known you were going to be there I would have liked to have met you.

I thought I had filmed them doing Running Scared but either I can't work the camera right or have not figured out where clip is!!

I was actually surprised by John Walker, he was not lead vocalist on The Walker Brothers hits though he did take lead on some album tracks, but he came across well and not a bad guitarist too.

Roy, I was at the matinee 4pm performance. Is that the one you were at?

Sheena, I will post more later when I get home from work!!

From Rob

No I was at the later show Rob you were at the breakfast show as Wayne Fontana called it.

"I don't normally get up till 4.30 p.m". was his quip.

I am afraid though that whilst I think he made some good stuff in 60's and still has a good voice for pop songs, his crude humour in parts let's him down.

I remember Wayne Fontana as a singer much in the same field as The Walker Brothers. A dramatic, pompous voice. "Easier to hurt her" comes to mind. Was he with the Mindbenders when they had their "Groovy kind of love" hit?

PS Nice pics, Robert!

"Groovy kind of love" was sung by Eric Stewart, Wayne was out of the band at that moment, but IIRC, he did his own version of the song later.

A few details about the concert.

First up were the Dakotas who did three tracks including 'Bad to me' and one of Cillas 'Your my world'. I really enjoyed them and wish they had done more. They stayed on stage and backed Wayne Fontana during his set. Roy is correct about his lavatory humour which was not to my taste either but did get a few laughs. I am not familiar with his hits to be honest, so cannot remember what he sung apart from 'um um um um' and 'groovy kind of love'. Not really my cup of tea to be honest but seemed to go down well with the crowd. On next was John walker and his sexy looking wife on backing vocals, also backed by the Dakotas. He looked pretty old to me and his voice was not brilliant (29 concerts in a row, must do some damage to the voice box) but he got better as the show went on and he could play a great guitar as well. 'Sun aint gonna shine any more' was particularly good. After this there was a 15 minute interval. Up next were the Merseybeats with a great show. Highlights were an Everley brothers track 'let it be me' a great version of 'live and let die' with strobe lights that made me dizzy and finishing on 'high-ho silver lining' that had most of the crowd on its feet. The Searchers were last on and were as wonderful as ever. This is the 3rd time I have seen then and this was the closest I had been. I was 4 rows from the front, right in front of John Mcnally. I could get an idea of just what a great guitar player he is, and so full of enthusiasm too. As soon as one number ends he is swopping guitars in the blink of an eye and straight on to the next number. They played a great set as usual cramming as many numbers as they could into the time they were on. I was disappointed that they did not sing 'till I met you' or 'In this life' or 'every river' but you cant have everything, can you? they finished with 'rocking all over the world' and then off I rushed for the bus home!!

A memorable concert and long may they continue!!

From Rob

Thanks to you, Sheena. I didn't know about Stewart's past as a Mindbender!

Stewart was actually one of the founders of the band, together with Wayne Fontana, Ric Rothwell and Bob Lang, Einar (see band's bio). And Gouldman was also a member of the Mindbenders for a while.
Thanks for a great review, Rob!

I decided not to go and see this tour this year. I have seen it at least a couple of times in the past, but I find the comments made between the songs never change. The artists should put more effort (or some effort) into changing their chat annually, if not weekly or each performance. The Searchers and Wayne Fontana are particularly at fault with this. Come on guys show some imagination. The music is OK but crambed into the small amount of time allocated.

I was pleasantly surprised by John Walker on this show,I had a somewhat blinked view perhaps of thinking how can he possibly reproduce the hits that were sung by Scott Walker.

Walker Brothers of course really meant nothing in US, though they were Americans.

He pulled it off however IMO though ably assisted, I have to say, by the excellent Dakotas (though not one of them anything to do with original Dakotas) and his wife on backing vocals.

Merseybeats,again one of those groups that never meant anything stateside did their usual polished performance and still two original members from 64.

Wayne Fontana had a number 1 in US and that was it, I actually liked WF in 60's particularly when he went solo made some excellent stuff, but now he is something akin to a comedy act.

And to be honest if you remember him from the 60's and have not seen him since, I think it is far to say you would recognise him.

The Walker Bros were fairly well known here, had a couple of big hits. Take it easy on yourself was them wasn't it? I think they sounded too much like the Righteous Bros to be taken seriously here.

I was and am a fan of the Walker Brothers and like them much more than the Righteous Brothers. Never actually saw them all together, but have seen Scott in around 1970 and John a couple of years ago.
I was surprised how well John dealt with the bass notes of the Walkers songs. Very good.