Once in a Lifetime – The Final Tour of the 70’s Music.

Once in a Lifetime – The Final Tour

The Music of the 70’s

Granddad Al & myself were lucky enough to get tickets for free to this concert at the Liverpool Echo Arena.  friend of our Sharon & Mark had tickets to go with another couple who couldn’t go at the last minute so we was asked & jumped at the chance. We had great seats on the floor of the arena in Block A. Being born in the early 1960’s, the 70’s is our music memories.  So off we went as a party of four.

Ticket for the Once in a Lifetime - The Final Tour 70's
Ticket for the Once in a Lifetime – The Final Tour

Once In A Lifetime The Final Tour 70's

Sadly on the way there our car decided to overheat, & of course every traffic light was on red. I could feel Granddad Al’s blood pressure rising at every light.  But eventually we got there without doing any damage to the car.  Knowing we would be able to leave it to cool down for a good few hours.

As I’m a registered disabled driver I could get the car parked in the disabled bays on the ground floor, I need the extra space to allow the car door to open so I can be helped out of the car.

When we got to the arena, a really nice greeter allowed us to enter straight away without having to join the VERY long queue, for which I was very grateful, as walking & standing is a bit of a no-no for me at the best of time, but with my dodgy knee it is even worse!  Just after we entered we inquired how far it was to our seat & discovered it was miles away, but they called for assistance to help me get to it.

A really nice couple of ladies from the St Johns Ambulance turned up with a wheelchair. Once I was sat, in the wheelchair, we was off & I mean it was like a race, the lady pushing was walking so fast the other three had to virtually run to keep up with us. We got took through the back way to the arena floor, via a lift & past some of the dressing rooms,, sadly not the ones in use on this night. The ladies were very polite & professional.

But soon we was all seated, with what I thought at the time as great seats! The tension was building as the start time came nearer. Everyone was excited including us.

The Bay City Rollers 70's
The Bay City Rollers in the 1970’s

The first act up was Les McKeown & his Legendary Bay City

Les McKeown & his Legendary Bay City Rollers 70's
Les McKeown Bay City Rollers

Rollers, I was a big fan of this group when I was a young teenager & had looked forward to seeing them.  They got a great round of applause when they came on stage.  Some of the first words out of the front mans voice was “Let’s have you all on your feet”  &, sadly, there went my view of them.  I got the occasional glimpse through the crowd as they moved & swayed from side to side. But I sang & clapped along to all the tunes.  Singing songs like Bye Bye Baby & Shang-A-Lang brought back memories of my best friend in school Margaret Teale, we loved the Bay City Rollers. Each of us wore a tartan scarf.

Bay City Roller Fans 70's
Bay City Roller inspired clothing

A snap of two ladies we met outside the Arena wearing the style of clothing that the Bay City Rollers inspired. From the tartan edged trousers to the scarf on their arm – yes I to once wore clothes like this.

Next up was Showaddywaddy, a very rock & roll, teddy boy band, that make your feet want to dance or is that just me?Showaddywaddy 70'sShowaddywaddy 70's

A group that mainly sang covers of some songs like Blue Moon, Three Steps to Heaven & Chantilly Lace, but they also did original songs like Hey Rock & Roll.  The guys really got the crowd rocking to their music. Sadly I never really saw them this time, but here is a few photo’s our friend Mark took.

SHOWADDYWADDY 70's

This is how they looked in their heyday.  Yes there was that many of them, the lead vocals was the guy sat down front right in the pink satin teddy boy suit.

After a short 20 minute interval up next was the fabulous David Essex, Sharon was especially looking forward to seeing him as she was a big fan. I’d actually forgotten how good he was. He played some of his great songs Imperial Wizard, Silver Dream Machine, but also a tune called Reflections from a new album of the same name.

David Essex in the 1970's 70's
David Essex in the 1970’s
David Essex in 2014 70's
David Essex in 2014

I really enjoyed his set.  I’m sure you can understand why he had a big following from the ladies from the first photo of him, those eyes ahhhhhhhhhhh.

The Osmonds 70's

Then we came to the star billing group The Osmonds, well to be honest three of The Osmonds, we had the honour of Merrill, Jay & Jimmy (or Little Jimmy as he was once known) They came on singing Crazy Horses, & I was reminded how much of a rock group they actually was. Even though they sang a lot of boy loves girl songs.  Sadly no Donny who was mine & around 50,000 other young girls favourites.  But they did a good show.  Jimmy singing his own hit single “I’ll be your Long Haired Lover from Liverpool” quite apt for the occasion

If you don’t know about The Osmonds they are a family of Mormons from Ogden in Utah, who started

Early picture of the Osmond Brothers 70's
Early picture of the Osmond Brothers

singing with the four eldest brothers doing barber shop singing in 1958. They where Alan was 9, Wayne 7, Merrill 5, and Jay 3, so you can see they started young. They became regulars on the Andy Williams Show & the Jerry Lewis Show in America & being good, clean cut boys they were took to the Nations heart. Donny joined them during this time & they became five.  In 1971-72 they decided

The Osmond Family 70's
The Osmond Family

they wanted to sing more popular tunes, they were known to be very professional. It was at this time that Donny took over the lead singing from Merrill, they had a hit with One Bad Apple, it launched them into stardom & as a young 8-9 year old I was in love with Donny.  They only have one sister Marie who had hits as a solo artist on her own as well as with her brothers.  Donny & Marie had shows of their own, doing sketches & having guest on.  They took Britain buy storm with scenes reminiscent of the Beatles.

Here is the brothers as they are now

The Osmonds 70's
The Osmonds in 2014

Jimmy Osmond & the Flaming Guitar 70's Jimmy singing Long Haired Lover from Liverpool 70's

They really did a great set, but sadly the gig came to an end, but we was all very happy.  The same St Johns lady took me & Granddad Al back through the labyrinth to the car park. Whilst Sharon & Mark took chance to have a breather & walked out through the front doors.

One thing about the whole evening I found weird, when Sharon went to buy us a bottle of water, to cool us down, they took the tops off & she wasn’t given them.  This actually caused us problems as you can’t clap, dance (in their cases not mine) with a bottle of water with no lid.  I noticed a lot of drinks had been knocked over during the event, which when you think that they are overpriced to begin with is not good.

When we got back to our car she had settled down, Granddad Al & Mark where under the bonnet, they a few things out & we decided to risk getting home in her.  It was now gone 11:15pm, so the roads where lovely & quite, even the traffic lights on a whole cooperated & we all got back home without any major problem

Nanna Jane

Other Family Clan posts you maybe interested in:

Have you seen our giveaways? Just head to our giveaway page to see the list of prizes.

Silver Wedding Anniversary – Our Day

The Alphabet Project – H is for Hands

3 Thoughts to “Once in a Lifetime – The Final Tour of the 70’s Music.”

  1. Harline

    I remember the bay city rollers omg I loved them X

  2. Martina Evans

    I would have loved to have seen the Osmond’s live. I bet you had a fantastic time!

  3. Hazel Rea

    Sounds like an amazing concert. I really want to see Showaddywaddy as their music is fantastic. I have been to see The Manfreds and their concert was absolutely wonderful – such talented musicians in their own right as well as together in the group.

Make sure you leave us a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.