(EP 16, no.10) Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark with Mettle: Electricity, Centennial Hall, London, Ontario, Canada, Tuesday March 9, 1982
Electropop comes to London, Ontario on a freezing March evening with Liverpool’s Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, or as they are more simply known, OMD.
Their set may have been egregiously delayed amid a brutal Ontario winter storm, but OMD more than made up for it, playing a blazing show to a small but dedicated audience who danced right through the whole thing. London’s own Mettle, featuring former Demics guitarist Rob Brent, also delivered a terrific opening performance.
My special guest, “Special Guests” now in Leeds, UK, will return once again with his memories of the show.
Stay tuned for OMD restaurant waving, happy hoofers, and frozen winklepickers.
Read the original 2010 blog entry here.
NEXT PODCAST: It was Friday the 13th—in more ways than one.
Dear Listeners: Welcome to THE WORST CONCERT EXPERIENCE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!
One poster for the show read “…make this your lucky night.” Yeah, right.
While Police Picnic ’81 was a fairly sober and orderly experience for me and my compadres, the ’82 edition felt like a sadistic joke that wouldn’t stop. It was a day of being trolled by the concert gods.
The Talking Heads once again completely blew me away and The Police were radically improved from the ’81 edition, but even those silver linings couldn’t make the metaphoric dark clouds pass. Even the day’s one miraculous positive came with a big negative.
It was also my first of many visits to the now long gone CNE Stadium: the 60,000-capcity-for-concerts mega-venue in the heart of Toronto. (I made many visits there between 1982 and 1989, and shows by The Clash, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones are all coming up in this series.)
Join me in this delightful descent into festival misery and stay tuned for bad drugs, bad sound, obnoxious neighbours, pointless preparations, naive assumptions, swollen bladders, and a nightmare bus ride.
(EP 17, no.11) Police Picnic ’82 with The Police, Talking Heads, The (English) Beat, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, A Flock of Seagulls, & The Spoons: What A Day That Was, CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Friday August 13, 1982