Nottingham's most opinionated grocers on...
David Bowie at Rock City (Tuesday 5 August 1997)
We were there! He played a half dozen of his big hits and then played lots of stuff from the album he was promoting at the time (Earthling). He was dressed up in a union jack outfit and had a woman on the drums who was brilliant. The night before Rock City had a Spiders From Mars cover band play too, which featured Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott and his brother. We went to both!
Elton John at Royal Concert Hall (Saturday 27 November 1982)
These were the hottest tickets in town and we had to queue for hours to get them. That was how you did it back then; before the days of the internet and booking fees. Elton John had requested to play the opening night of the Royal Concert Hall, which was considered ‘world class’ in terms of its acoustics at the time. He was supported by a band called the Stray Cats and played through all his hits. Except for the Diana and Lion King stuff as obviously that all came later. He was very good!
Favourite Notts Band or Artist?
We’ve probably talked enough about Paper Lace or Su Pollard. So we’re going to say Cantaloupe, which is the band of John 'Simo' Simson, an old friend of ours who also used to work in this shop. They were part of a local record label called Hello Thor and they had a marvellous record cover featuring beach huts that was designed by Jon’s wife. They also had a few tunes we liked very much.
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