THE MOST UNUSUAL
POP AND ROCK PERFORMANCES
1. Johnny Cash
at Folsom Prison, 1968
Johnny Cash had been playing in prisons
in as early as 1957 and he often sang about people who
lived outside the law. By the late 1960s. his career
was not doing well, and his record company suggested
actually recording an album at Folsom Prison, near Sacramento,
California, which had been the subject of one of his
greatest songs, Folsom Prison Blues. The result was
perhaps the greatest live album ever. It was full of
tension as Cash joked about the warders who were in
charge of the 2,000 prisoners.
2. The Beatles
on a London rooftop, 1969
Since 1966, the Beatles had been avoiding
touring and the screaming of their teenage fans. After
several years of being together in recording studios,
Lennon and McCartney could hardly stand each other’s
company. Following a meeting in the offices of their
company Apple in London`s Savile Row, it was decided
that they would play their last few songs live a few
days later on the roof upstairs. The 42-minute early
morning ‘concert’, which amazed commuters below and
was later featured in the film Le It Be, was
the Beatles’ last live performance.
3. Pink Floyd at
Pompeii, 1972
The rock scene of the early 1970s specialised in finding
peculiar places to perform in. Pink Floyd were masters
of that art, but they came up with something different
when they held a concert in the recently excavated Pompeii
(the Italian city that had been buried for nearly 2,000
years after the volcano Vesuvius erupted). But there
was a major drawback — there was no audience. The resulting
lack of` a real concert atmosphere meant that, in the
movie that they made of the event, half the songs were
actually filmed later in Paris. This explains why keyboard
player Rick Wright has a beard in some songs but not
in others.
4. Spandau Ballet
on a battleship, 1980
The fashion called ‘New Romantics’ was the big thing
in Britain and London’s Spandau Ballet were the scene’s
hottest band. Their manager thought of an idea that
he hoped would get his group a contract with a major
record company. He hired a former battleship moored
on the river Thames by Tower Bridge, saying that it
was for a group of students and that a jazz band would
be playing. Instead, the boat filled with Spandau Ballet’s
fans, the band put on a great performance and soon afterwards
they were offered a contract by a major record company.
5. U2 on a hotel
rooftop, 2000
U2 first made a rooftop appearance in 1987 at the Million
Dollar Hotel in Los Angeles, where they tried to play
a live concert while shooting the video for the song
Where the Streets Have No Name. But police
came along and stopped them. In 2000 in Dublin, with
4,000 gathered on the road below, they performed several
songs on the roof of the Clarence Hotel, which they
owned. There were no problems with the law there.
6. The Others on
a London Underground train, 2004
Inspired by the fact that new technology meant that
a band’s fans could be contacted by text message, a
fashion for suddenly-arranged performances grew quickly.
The strangest was one by The Others, who assembled a
crowd on the London Underground, took them all on to
a Circle Line train, and performed as the train made
its circuit around London.
7. Various British
musicians on Mount Everest, 2005
Over Christmas 2004, there were rumours that Coldplay
were going to play at Nepal’s Kathmandu National Stadium,
1,372 metres above sea level. This proved to be untrue,
but, inspired by the idea, a lesser-known bunch of British
musicians did a charity performance for Nepalese orphans
at Kalar Pattar, above Mount Everest’s base camp, at
a huge 5,545 metres above sea level. The 40-minute concert
in front of 100 fellow mountaineers is officially the
`highest gig on earth’.
A.
ONE BIG DISADVANTAGE
B. ALLOWED THE SECOND TIME
C. BIGGER THAN EXPECTED
D. POSSIBLY THE BEST OF ALL TIME
E. A RECORD IS ESTABLISHED
F. ON THE MOVE
G. IT NEVER HAPPENED AGAIN
H. A TRICK THAT WORKED
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