First live guitar influence?

[buddyhu]

My first concert did not influence me much...even though the line up was good: Matthews Southern Comfort, Deep Purple, and Rod Stewart and the Faces.

Seeing/hearing Jerry Garcia (he sat in with the NRPS, who were the openers, and then the Dead played a nice set..this was at the Hollywood Bowl, I think it was '71) had quite an effect.

But I think the biggest live influence was a local guy named John Penn. He was a regular act at a local restaurant/bar, performing solo. A great baritone voice, and he played a Martin D 28 (of course!). I still remember his version of Steve Spurgeon's "Moonlight Motor Inn". John was a fine, understated performer. I Just wanted to sit in the bar (I was underage, but a friend worked there as a busboy, and he would serve me glasses of Almaden Mountain Rhine wine in water glasses with ice in them, and hoped everyone assumed I was drinking water), and listen all night to John's simple but powerful, and expressive offerings.

[Blackmore Fan]

I saw Def Leppard in January of 83 (scoff if you like, they were once a *hard rock* band), Van Halen in June of 94, Vivian Campbell with Dio sometime in 94 (he was very fluid back then), Alex Liefson with Rush sometime in 85, and SRV in December of 85. Seeing them all live convinced me that guitar had to be genuinely *interesting* to those watching--otherwise you're just going through the motions.

[Steel and wood]

Chris Isaak concert here in Canberra Australia. (Long time fan plus big fan in particular of James Calvin Wilsey who played lead for Chris, although Hershel Yatovitz had replaced him by the time I got to see him).

Confirmed my inner rockabilly and the impetus to finally learning guitar. (Many other influences since then of course but James Wilsey's playing and tone opened up so many musical doors for me).

[Silly Moustache]

You are all sooo young!

My sister is nine years older than me - born three months before the war broke out and brought up with the bombs falling all around my paretn's newly built house. My Mum loved music and the radio was on all the time, and she would sing along (she had a beautiful voice).
My suster was a dancer and ice skater and turned professional at the age of sixteen in 1955, (I was seven) and the family started traveling to see her shows, including a regular summer season in a seaside resort called Bournemouth.
There was a beautiful pasrk called the wintergardens with a large bandstand which featured big names and I remember seeing the Ted Heath Band with singers Lita Rosa and Dickie Valentine, and a guitarist called Ivor Mairants, and a drummer called JackParnell. The Band was inflenced by Glenn Miller, but renowned thught the UK and further.

My parents cold not pull me away - I just wanted to watch them all day - particularly Jack the drummer. That was sometime in the mid '50s.

My sister was doing a ot of shows with a latin American flavour when she was home (rarely) she would drag me into her room to act as a stooge for working out her routines listening to Perz Prado and Edmundo Ros etc., and I wanted to be a percussionist playing bongos, congas, Timbales etc.
My first "instrument" was a set of bongos.

I was just a few miles west of West London in the early sixties. I saw Cyril Davies on Eel Pie Island. (Cyril died in '64)



I saw Alexis Korner a number of times -


I used to chat with Champion Jack Dupree at the Osterley Jazz club


This was when I was still listening to "Trad" jazz (British New Orleans style)

I often saw Jeff Beck and the Tridents -

I saw the Artwoods

and of course - I saw the Rolling Stones - I'd leave school ad 4ish and cycle to the next town and take off my school blazer and tie and stuff them in my saddlebag, throw my bike into some bushes and wait for them to turn up. then I'd help them unpack their VW van and carry the gear onto Eel Pie Islands and Charlie Watts would get me in free on condition that I set up his Ludwigs then he'd give me a short lesson ...and homework! Kieth and Mick were always keen to tell us kids about the blues and names or artists to look out for and where to buy their records (that I couldn't possibly afford) .

Outside the falling down hotel on the island was a rather nice garden area leading down to the river.
I remember being ni a circle of guys drinking and chatting. There was Long John Baldry, Rod (The Mod) Stuart, Mick and Brian Jones (maybe Kieth) Jeff Beck, Art woods and his brother Ronnie, and some others that I forget now.
I often saw Ginger Rogers and I think Jack Bruce might have played with Art.

I was probably 16. Very shortly after I was playing in a working band called Blues Etc.

In 1966 (?) I took a girl to a folk festival to see a chap called Tom Rush. He made me start thinking about playing acoustic guitar.

I saw the Yardbirds, the Downliner Sect (who managed us for a time) Led Zepp, Love (Arthur Lee), Spirit, Free, I saw the Beatles (couldn't hear them) and so many more .
All of them influenced me in one way or another.

[Dronfield]

Originally Posted by Blackmore Fan

I saw Def Leppard in January of 83 (scoff if you like, they were once a *hard rock* band), Van Halen in June of 94, Vivian Campbell with Dio sometime in 94 (he was very fluid back then), Alex Liefson with Rush sometime in 85, and SRV in December of 85. Seeing them all live convinced me that guitar had to be genuinely *interesting* to those watching--otherwise you're just going through the motions.

I saw Def Leppard just a month ago in mine and their home city of Sheffield - sold out gig, they still rock!

Had Cheap Trick as support, who were pretty good.

Rich

[Ozzy the dog]

I got my first guitar at about 14 and just messed about with it. Whilst still at school I had seen Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Yes etc and although the likes of Page, Hackett and Steve Howe influenced what I listened to none of them really inspired me to try with the guitar. I thought they were special and to play the guitar how I would want to meant being out of the ordinary and that wasn't me, so I didn't bother.

Then when I was 18 I was having a really bad attempt at jamming with a friend and he had a friend with him called Phil Shackleton. Phil played his instrumental version of Killing me Softly and I was blown away. This was an ordinary guy playing like those heroes off the stage and telly. That was the point that lit my touch paper an I've never looked back.

We can all talk about the influence the big stars have on us but we don't always appreciate the influence we might be having on others.

Phil is still playing small venues (in Germany) and wouldn't know me from Adam but without that chance encounter, I'm not sure I would have put enough effort into the guitar when I was younger.

[k_russell]

In 1965, while attending grade school, I watched and heard a concert that the local symphony orchestra presented for the area's school students. The soloist was a classical guitarist. He played a movement from a guitar concerto with the orchestra.

The music fascinated me. I hum sections of that piece every day, even now. My first guitar and my first lessons came that following summer.


Later in the 1970's, a college friend, that I did not know at the time of the concert, told me that Christopher Parkening played the guitar and that Vivladi composed the concerto. My college friend, who attended a different school, also went to the same concert in 1965.


My guitar lessons began in 1965 mostly inspired by that concert. I doubt that I will ever perform that concerto, but classical guitar is still my favorite. These days spend equal amounts of time with steel string acoustics, the electric bass guitar, and classical guitar.

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

You are all sooo young!

My sister is nine years older than me - born three months before the war broke out and brought up with the bombs falling all around my paretn's newly built house. My Mum loved music and the radio was on all the time, and she would sing along (she had a beautiful voice).
My suster was a dancer and ice skater and turned professional at the age of sixteen in 1955, (I was seven) and the family started traveling to see her shows, including a regular summer season in a seaside resort called Bournemouth.
There was a beautiful pasrk called the wintergardens with a large bandstand which featured big names and I remember seeing the Ted Heath Band with singers Lita Rosa and Dickie Valentine, and a guitarist called Ivor Mairants, and a drummer called JackParnell. The Band was inflenced by Glenn Miller, but renowned thught the UK and further.

My parents cold not pull me away - I just wanted to watch them all day - particularly Jack the drummer. That was sometime in the mid '50s.

My sister was doing a ot of shows with a latin American flavour when she was home (rarely) she would drag me into her room to act as a stooge for working out her routines listening to Perz Prado and Edmundo Ros etc., and I wanted to be a percussionist playing bongos, congas, Timbales etc.
My first "instrument" was a set of bongos.

I was just a few miles west of West London in the early sixties. I saw Cyril Davies on Eel Pie Island. (Cyril died in '64)



I saw Alexis Korner a number of times -


I used to chat with Champion Jack Dupree at the Osterley Jazz club


This was when I was still listening to "Trad" jazz (British New Orleans style)

I often saw Jeff Beck and the Tridents -

I saw the Artwoods

and of course - I saw the Rolling Stones - I'd leave school ad 4ish and cycle to the next town and take off my school blazer and tie and stuff them in my saddlebag, throw my bike into some bushes and wait for them to turn up. then I'd help them unpack their VW van and carry the gear onto Eel Pie Islands and Charlie Watts would get me in free on condition that I set up his Ludwigs then he'd give me a short lesson ...and homework! Kieth and Mick were always keen to tell us kids about the blues and names or artists to look out for and where to buy their records (that I couldn't possibly afford) .

Outside the falling down hotel on the island was a rather nice garden area leading down to the river.
I remember being ni a circle of guys drinking and chatting. There was Long John Baldry, Rod (The Mod) Stuart, Mick and Brian Jones (maybe Kieth) Jeff Beck, Art woods and his brother Ronnie, and some others that I forget now.
I often saw Ginger Rogers and I think Jack Bruce might have played with Art.

I was probably 16. Very shortly after I was playing in a working band called Blues Etc.

In 1966 (?) I took a girl to a folk festival to see a chap called Tom Rush. He made me start thinking about playing acoustic guitar.

I saw the Yardbirds, the Downliner Sect (who managed us for a time) Led Zepp, Love (Arthur Lee), Spirit, Free, I saw the Beatles (couldn't hear them) and so many more .
All of them influenced me in one way or another.

Silly, you of course win the thread wire to wire and going away! I'm Peter Green with envy. Of course, seeing Ginger Rogers and Jack Bruce must have been something particularly rare and fine. Was Jack dancing or did Miss Rogers take up playing drums?

[51 Relic]

The Shadows together with Olivia Newton John at the London Palladium. Followed by Todd Rungren at the Hammersmith Odeon and David Bowie and the Spyders from Mars live at the Romford Odeon. Hank Marvin together later with Ralph McTell has been my inspiration for the last 60 years and my fascination for Burns Marvin guitars AC30s and Tape Delay units not to mention J45s and 50s

[Skip Ellis]

I'm almost 74 and have only been to one concert in my lifetime - went to see Chet, Floyd Cramer, and Boots Randolph in Tampa sometime around 1973 or so and had lousy seats. All my influence has been from recordings starting with Duane Eddy, The Ventures, and folk music of the 60's and, later, Chet, Merle Travis, and Doc Watson. Electric-wise, my influences were James Burton, Roy Nichols, and Dickey Betts. Never got to see any of them in concert but was fortunate enough to count Dickey, Greg, Rook, and the rest of the guys as customers at my retail store back in the day. We even refretted Dickey's old goldtop LP. I've got pretty bad PTSD from Vietnam and can't stand crowds so concerts are pretty much out for me. Not much of anybody I want to see anyway - easier to watch on You Tube.

[FrankHudson]

It's not hard for me to select the live guitar experience that shaped my approach to the instrument, even though it involves no one famous.

I grew up in a small town with more accordion players than guitarists. I was 19 and it was 50 years ago. I'd heard a bunch of records and radio too. I believe I'd seen John Denver play in a small room when he was "The guy from the Chad Mitchell Trio after Chad Mitchell left" (and a 12-string Guild jumbo does sound marvelous that close). I'd seen local rock bands. I was a big Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen fan, but from records.

Nothing had prepared me to experience what acoustic guitar could do. That happened in a dorm room. Another student, one who'd grown up in the Twin Cities instead of a little farm town like I had, took out his acoustic and played a John Fahey tune and another original fingerpicked tune of his that was Fahey-like. And then he played a bottleneck bottleneck slide blues (with his own homemade bottleneck) and then he played "Vaseline Machine Gun" at tempo, though on 6 string (I'd not heard it on record before).

I had not heard Fahey or Kottke on record before that day, I'd heard electric slide guitar and lots of pedal steel, but I may or may not have heard Dylan's first record (which has some acoustic slide). So my first experience of that kind of wooden music was in a small room a yard or so from the guitar and it's player. Absolutely changed my conception of acoustic guitar.


The kid's name was Don Williams. He may be dead by now, and his name is too common to be found with casual searches. I'd really like to thank him for that.

[SpruceTop]

First live concerts attended: Pete Seeger 1964; Peter, Paul & Mary 1965; The Kingston Trio 1966

[JKA]

Elton John. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour in Auckland New Zealand. 1971...I think. First appearance of Ray Cooper as his percussionist.

I remember Davey Johnstones amazing lead playing particularly on I've Seen That Movie Too.

Lots of great concerts over the years but one of my favourites was The Wall in Berlin just after the wall came down. At the front with 300.000 behind me

[musicman1951]

In the 60's we had a local bowling alley converted to a concert space. I saw Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck (with Rod as lead singer) and a bunch of other good players pretty darn cheap.

Leslie West with Mountain was impressive both times I head them. Woodstock was fun, but we left before Hendrix.

But my greatest influence was Eric Clapton and Cream. I never went to a show.

[started with 1]

Originally Posted by J Patrick

..John Martyn...saw him at the Cellar Door in Georgetown DC in the mid 70’s....

,,,actually my electric playing was influenced by Duane and Dickey when I used to see them play in the late 60’s/early 70’s....even played a show with them the summer of 1970...at a racetrack in Martinsville VA....shortly before they hit the bigtime....

My high school shows were in DC too. Carter Baron and RFK stadium and the Dead at the Cap center.

Saw Bonnie Raitt at Carter Baron in the 70s too with members of Little Feat sitting in.

Marshall Tucker at merriweather post and Talking Heads there too.