[Music] Stevie Wonder live at the theatre royal 1973

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I popped into tower records earlier and one of the first displays that greeted me was a cd of Stevie wonder live in Brighton in 1973.

It blew my mind that not only had Stevie Wonder played Brighton but he played it in 73 when he was at his absolute peak.

And then I realised that almost definitely some of you lucky old buggers on nsc would have gone.

So who did go? Who got to see Stevie in Brighton at his peak? What was it like?

 

[Silverhatch]

Gobsmacked by this! Then go on the interweb and not only is the concert detail confirmed but an actual very rare live recording of the show exists!!

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

Not me sadly. I’ve only seen him once live and that was about 10 years ago in Birmingham. He was still absolutely brilliant but you’re right that era from say 72-76 was his musical peak imo - a genuine musical genius

 

[Official Old Man]

Saw him live at the Brighton Centre in 1984. This was the year of 'I Just Called To Say I Love You', not my favorite Wonder song. Strange stage set up with the musicians in 'holes' in a slanting stage with Stevie up front on a revolving piano.

https://www.concertarchives.org/concerts/stevie-wonder--1397188

And here's that 1973 concert

EDIT MORE ON 1973 (wikipedia)
On August 6, 1973, three days after the commercial release of Innervisions, Wonder played a concert in Greenville, South Carolina. Afterward, he was asleep in the front seat of a car as his friend, John Harris, snaked along a road just outside Durham, North Carolina, behind a truck loaded high with logs. Suddenly, the trucker jammed on his brakes, and the two vehicles collided. Logs went flying, and one smashed through the windshield of Wonder's car and hit him in the forehead. He was bloody and unconscious when he was pulled from the wrecked car and lay in a coma caused by severe brain contusion for ten days.
Seems he was very lucky to survive.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Gobsmacked by this! Then go on the interweb and not only is the concert detail confirmed but an actual very rare live recording of the show exists!!

It's for sale here in Japan.

Stevie Wonder/Theatre Royal Brighton, England 1973

TOWER RECORDS ONLINEは、CD、DVD、ブルーレイ、本、雑誌、各種グッズ、チケットなどが購入できる通販サイトです。ポイントは店舗・ネット共通！CD、DVDの通販ならタワーレコードオンラインショップ。

tower.jp

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I didn’t see this thread coming.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Saw him live at the Brighton Centre in 1984. This was the year of 'I Just Called To Say I Love You', not my favorite Wonder song. Strange stage set up with the musicians in 'holes' in a slanting stage with Stevie up front on a revolving piano.

https://www.concertarchives.org/concerts/stevie-wonder--1397188

And here's that 1973 concert

EDIT MORE ON 1973 (wikipedia)
On August 6, 1973, three days after the commercial release of Innervisions, Wonder played a concert in Greenville, South Carolina. Afterward, he was asleep in the front seat of a car as his friend, John Harris, snaked along a road just outside Durham, North Carolina, behind a truck loaded high with logs. Suddenly, the trucker jammed on his brakes, and the two vehicles collided. Logs went flying, and one smashed through the windshield of Wonder's car and hit him in the forehead. He was bloody and unconscious when he was pulled from the wrecked car and lay in a coma caused by severe brain contusion for ten days.
Seems he was very lucky to survive.

Brighton Centre '84 was where I saw him as well (and remember the weird egg box stage).

Obviously a complete musical genius, but what blew me away live was how powerful his voice was

 

[HHGull]

.

 

[Skaville]

Wow. Such a legend. Would have loved to have been there

 

[Eeyore]

I popped into tower records earlier and one of the first displays that greeted me was a cd of Stevie wonder live in Brighton in 1973.

It blew my mind that not only had Stevie Wonder played Brighton but he played it in 73 when he was at his absolute peak.

And then I realised that almost definitely some of you lucky old buggers on nsc would have gone.

So who did go? Who got to see Stevie in Brighton at his peak? What was it like?

I have doubts, piecing together various concert lists online, that this concert took place. Even less at the Theatre Royal.

On the 3rd April he played a concert in California. Then he seems to have played a random concert at The Dome, Theatre Royal and even the Odeon (!) the following day in Brighton, which seems implausible. One site claims it was 4th April 1974. There are no independent references I can find of anyone who was there.

He did, for sure, tour England in 1972 and played The Dome on January 17th. Possibly with MAC and Katie Kassoon. Now that is one concert I'd loved to be at, but mainly for the Kassoons. I loved them as a kid. But as a boy not yet turned three, I doubt my parents would have let me go. If it was Val Doonican, perhaps.

 

[Binney on acid]

I only ever saw him once, and that was at the o2, in 2008. I think that was the concert that was released on DVD. 'Live at last', a Wonder summer's night. It was obviously very good, but the o2 is too big. I'd never go there again.

 

[Happy Exile]

I have doubts, piecing together various concert lists online, that this concert took place. Even less at the Theatre Royal.

On the 3rd April he played a concert in California. Then he seems to have played a random concert at The Dome, Theatre Royal and even the Odeon (!) the following day in Brighton, which seems implausible. One site claims it was 4th April 1974. There are no independent references I can find of anyone who was there.

He did, for sure, tour England in 1972 and played The Dome on January 17th. Possibly with MAC and Katie Kassoon. Now that is one concert I'd loved to be at, but mainly for the Kassoons. I loved them as a kid. But as a boy not yet turned three, I doubt my parents would have let me go. If it was Val Doonican, perhaps.

View attachment 172675

A few places list it as July 4th too, which again seems unlikely as he was in New York on the 3rd and Atlanta on the 6th.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

He did, for sure, tour England in 1972 and played The Dome on January 17th. Possibly with MAC and Katie Kassoon. Now that is one concert I'd loved to be at, but mainly for the Kassoons. I loved them as a kid. But as a boy not yet turned three, I doubt my parents would have let me go. If it was Val Doonican, perhaps.

View attachment 172675

In between the Strawbs and Black Sabbath

 

[Bedsex]

I only ever saw him once, and that was at the o2, in 2008. I think that was the concert that was released on DVD. 'Live at last', a Wonder summer's night. It was obviously very good, but the o2 is too big. I'd never go there again.

I was there at the O2 as well, right at the back. In fact I was so far back that I think he had just as much chance of seeing me as I did of seeing him

 

[Trevor]

I saw him at Wembley Arena approx 1988 . Concert in the round (revolving stage)

 

[lawros left foot]

I saw him at the Brighton Centre in 84,





But, he didn’t see me.



Honestly, I really did see him in 84, and the ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ gig at Wembley in 88.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I have doubts, piecing together various concert lists online, that this concert took place. Even less at the Theatre Royal.

On the 3rd April he played a concert in California. Then he seems to have played a random concert at The Dome, Theatre Royal and even the Odeon (!) the following day in Brighton, which seems implausible. One site claims it was 4th April 1974. There are no independent references I can find of anyone who was there.

He did, for sure, tour England in 1972 and played The Dome on January 17th. Possibly with MAC and Katie Kassoon. Now that is one concert I'd loved to be at, but mainly for the Kassoons. I loved them as a kid. But as a boy not yet turned three, I doubt my parents would have let me go. If it was Val Doonican, perhaps.

View attachment 172675

This has intrigued me. I didn't think anything of it when I saw the C.D/poster yesterday. It never occurred to me that it would be a made up gig. So I've done a bit of digging too and have found the following:

The official Tower records link for the c.d (https://tower.jp/item/6182074/Theatre-Royal-Brighton,-England-1973) says the gig took place on 4rth July 1973.

However according to this website(https://concerts.fandom.com/wiki/Stevie_Wonder_Concerts_1970s) he played Shea stadium on July 3rd and Atlanta Fulton county stadium on July 6th making it at the very least a bit random that he'd fit in one small gig in England between it.

Setlist f.m has a setlist for the 4th July in Brighton but I suspect that's been taken form the c.d. It also has a setlist for 4th April 1973 which is the same set as 7th July and the C.D. It also has a setlist for 11th September 1973 which is also the same set as the April gig and the July gig.

It seems highly unlikely he played three gigs in Brighton in under six months and played the same set each time. July seems unlikely because of the two U.S gigs either side of it and the September one seems unlikely because of the serious crash he had in August. This article (https://ultimateclassicrock.com/stevie-wonder-car-accident/) says he didn't play live again until January 1974 which is backed up by this website(https://concerts.fandom.com/wiki/Stevie_Wonder_Concerts_1970s). That website also has no mention of a 4th April 73 gig either.

It does say that he played Brighton on 4th April 1974 at the Odeon theatre but caveats it as unconfirmed. Setlist.fm don't have any setlist or mention of an April 4th 1974 gig.

So there is no clarity at all on this gig and whether it actually took place. It seems very strange however that a c.d would be sold claiming that it was from a random gig in a random small town on the other side of the world. It's a bit of a mystery.

 

[Eeyore]

In between the Strawbs and Black Sabbath

View attachment 172680

I love the price variations.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I only ever saw him once, and that was at the o2, in 2008. I think that was the concert that was released on DVD. 'Live at last', a Wonder summer's night. It was obviously very good, but the o2 is too big. I'd never go there again.

been a few times and if you get seats up in the gods, one may as well not bothered. Rubbish acoustics, rubbish view.

 

[Eeyore]

This has intrigued me. I didn't think anything of it when I saw the C.D/poster yesterday. It never occurred to me that it would be a made up gig. So I've done a bit of digging too and have found the following:

The official Tower records link for the c.d (https://tower.jp/item/6182074/Theatre-Royal-Brighton,-England-1973) says the gig took place on 4rth July 1973.

However according to this website(https://concerts.fandom.com/wiki/Stevie_Wonder_Concerts_1970s) he played Shea stadium on July 3rd and Atlanta Fulton county stadium on July 6th making it at the very least a bit random that he'd fit in one small gig in England between it.

Setlist f.m has a setlist for the 4th July in Brighton but I suspect that's been taken form the c.d. It also has a setlist for 4th April 1973 which is the same set as 7th July and the C.D. It also has a setlist for 11th September 1973 which is also the same set as the April gig and the July gig.

It seems highly unlikely he played three gigs in Brighton in under six months and played the same set each time. July seems unlikely because of the two U.S gigs either side of it and the September one seems unlikely because of the serious crash he had in August. This article (https://ultimateclassicrock.com/stevie-wonder-car-accident/) says he didn't play live again until January 1974 which is backed up by this website(https://concerts.fandom.com/wiki/Stevie_Wonder_Concerts_1970s). That website also has no mention of a 4th April 73 gig either.

It does say that he played Brighton on 4th April 1974 at the Odeon theatre but caveats it as unconfirmed. Setlist.fm don't have any setlist or mention of an April 4th 1974 gig.

So there is no clarity at all on this gig and whether it actually took place. It seems very strange however that a c.d would be sold claiming that it was from a random gig in a random small town on the other side of the world. It's a bit of a mystery.

It was a fascinating piece of detective work. The red flag was the Theatre Royal, a bizarre choice of venue for a concert for someone such as Stevie.

But it's a snapshot of how a ruse becomes reality. The Internet makes this more possible with it's linear regurgitating. There is no 'Q Source' on this one or any clue as to why they have labelled the recording as such.

One thing is for sure, the Dome concert would have been a humdinger, and even better had it been at the time of the alleged Theatre Royal event, as he released more good stuff in between.