I Was There: Gigs That Changed the World - Softcover

Paytress, Mark

3.7

60 ratings by Goodreads

9780753724576: I Was There: Gigs That Changed the World

Softcover

ISBN 10: 075372457X ISBN 13: 9780753724576

Publisher: Bounty Books, 2013

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A stunning companion to over a century of live music, this book is a long overdue and unique testament to once-in-a-lifetime, never beaten, momentous music concerts. You can now, finally, be up at the front with the photographers and fans at some of the greatest ever gigs. Join them at 101 live shows that changed the world and helped shape popular culture as we know it. From John Lennon to James Brown, Billie Holiday to Iggy Pop, the musically gifted characters who grace the pages of this book have all been captured at ther finest, or their most notorious, through vivid commentary and beautiful photographs, memorabilia and reminiscences from contemporaries and luminaries. The audience, too, play their part. Join the heaving masses at the Trips Festival, California and journey to Woodstock and the Shea Stadium, New York to watch The Beatles. With extraordinary pictures from leading rock photographers and exclusive contributions from audience and band members, including Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, and Woody Woodmansey of Ziggy Stardust fame, I Was There truly captures the essence of each gig - immense or intimate, polished or impromptu. Rights: UK & General Export

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About the Author:

Mark Paytress is a leading rock journalist, magazine editor and biographer, who contributes regularly to Mojo and Q magazines. He has interviewed countless musicians and, naturally, has been to hundreds of gigs.

From Publishers Weekly:

According to Paytress, this book "lifts the lid on a century's worth of classic performances... included here for their historical significance," But Paytress' "journey" begins in July, 1938, with the death of bluesman Robert Johnson, and "gig" means either one concert, an extended stay at a venue (Frank Sinatra's weeks at The Sands, 1966; The Beatles' stint at the Cavern Club, 1961-3), or a tour (Lollapalooza, 1992). The book lacks analysis of why most of the events are "historically significant," and many intriguing photos need explanations. Paytress' adolescent vision gleams in his description of the WOMAD Festival (July 1982), where he writes of "Echo and the Bunnymen's Ian McCullough bringing some monochrome, post-punk normality" to the event. The British Paytress' bias is toward UK gigs, perhaps explaining his choice of Bob Dylan's May 1966 show in Manchester over his famous electric debut in Newport nearly a year earlier. (And gear geeks will quickly notice that Dylan is pictured playing a Telecaster, not the Stratocaster Paytress describes.) The book is primarily an excuse for assembling hundreds of pictures, dozens of anecdotes and some of Paytress' questionable assertions of cause and effect, such as "the deaths of Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison at the turn of the '60s had prompted a mass flight into fanciful glam rock and progressive virtuosity." Colorful and beautifully printed, the volume puts style before substance, but, then again, the same can be said about most rock bands.
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