first ever rock concert...

I was 19 years old, and had just come down to London from the Orkney Isles a couple months before to start to my training as a Silversmith. Someone had a spare ticket, and I was so desperate to go that I ended up going with a group of
people that I had never met before. We only had one thing in common, and that was our love of Queen. They were my favourite band in the whole world at the time. I had only discovered them the year before after I had borrowed Sheer Heart Attack from a friend at work. We had a tape swapping group going, as listening to music and talking about music was the way in which we passed time in our monotonous jobs. I saw Queen at Wembley Arena on Wednesday 10 December 1980, it was the last night of a three night stint at Wembley on The Game tour.

Freddy was fantastic. I sang until I was hoarse, and my hands hurt from so much clapping. The image that always sticks in my mind is when they played the opening intro to Flash. The stage was in darkness and all we could hear was the dundundundun intro. When it got to the "Flash, aaahaaa" bit, the lights all around Roger Taylor's the drum platform came on streaming beams of the most amazing white light across the audience. Completely dazzling me into the bargain. The white spots stayed in my eyes for ages afterwards.

It was a great night, and still remains with me as one of the best concerts I have ever been to. I even bought a programme, something I don't do anymore. I kept my programme and tickets for years afterwards, but lost them in one of my many moves over the years. I wonder what happened to it.

I love the internet. I remembered going to see Queen in 1980, did a bit of digging around and found a wonderful site with details of all of Queen's concerts. The main picture is from the 1980 tour, and might even have been taken at Wembley, who knows...The site even included a track listing for the gig that I saw.