A trail of North London’s hidden musical hotspots
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Alexandra Palace
I was born in a house in the hilly behind Ally Pally - as it’s called in London. I’m too young to remember it’s seminal gig, Pink Floyd’s 1967 can remember hearing the 1974 Grateful Dead gig from our back garden. They were meant to have had one of the loudest PA systems in the world at that time. My first gig there was a Young Communist rally headlined by Soft Machine - squeaks and squawks, but the reggae band Aswad who were around the same age as the audience were great - exciting. Bizarrely, Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets were on the bill too. The next one I remember was the Capital Radio Jazz Festival in 1979 over three days - I saw Dizzy Gillespie, Chuck Berry Chick Corea, Muddy Waters, Herbie Hancock, BB King, Spyra Gyra? - we were school kids and just sat on the grass and watched these big jazz people. It was a big deal, The palace burnt down the next year - we watched the fire from the back. We also saw Sioux and the Banshees’ soundcheck - we were hanging around there as usual and they let us go in and watch. It was used more sporadically for a long while - the Brits one year with all the limos stuck driving through and kids knocking on the windows and generally tango the piss. it’s a venue again now though I can only hear the outdoor gigs from my back garden now. I played at the Kaleidoscope festival just after lockdown ended in 2021, and it
The Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park
It was once one of the world’s largest cinemas, but by the 60s it started hosting gigs including the Beatles Christmas Show i 1963. Jim Hendrix burnt his first guitar here and, despite the sound being notoriously iffy, the Beach Boys album Liven London was recorded here. In 1971 it became a full-time concert hall. David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, - to Bob Marley. The first gig I saw here was Chuck Berry - I’d be about 14. My Dangling went on far too long! After that I went often. I saw Marvin Gaye in the early 80s, quite showbiz with medleys of his hits but he was a showman. The best gig was a Santana - but their support band Earth Wind & Fire who opened. 1973? Quite unknown then despite being huge in the US, I certainly didn’t know them. A band of about 12 all singing, dancing, roaring drummers, levitating bas player, a spaceship came down. At the end they disappeared into a pyramid that. I gather David Blaine was involved as a young man. It closed in 1981. Now it’s a Brazilian Pentecostal church.