Moncton "Classic" concert review from newspaper.
eBoLaGaY
Just thought I would send a little review of a concert that happened
this last weekend 17-18, in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
This concert was unique to three gigs. The other two were in Maine, and
Newfoundland. It was a rare treat of oldies but goodies. Attendance:
50,000 people or so. Weather: Hot and sunny, 30+. It was warm,
drunken, muddy, with no escape. Alot of fun! :) I must say I think I
had the BEST tenting spot there! I could watch the stage from the
air-mattress in my tent, (along with the help of my field binoculars).
It was kinda damp, but WHAT A GOOD TIME!
Tuesday, July 21, 1998
Mudstock mishmash of '70s and '80s
tunes
Minivans outnumber Harleys in Moncton for rock
festival featuring Peter Frampton
By Fiona Traynor -- Special to The Daily News
MONCTON - It wasn't Mudstock '98, but last weekend's
classic rock festival at Moncton's Magnetic Hill park
came very
close. The more than 42,000 music fans who packed the
site to
hear a strange mishmash of '70s rock and '80s shlock
groups
were ankle deep in a sea of smelly mud by the end of
the
two-day, earsplitting extravaganza.
But most fans were oblivious to the squelching in
their shoes
and instead focussed on bands who at one time
commanded
larger crowds (and pay cheques) all by themselves -
Steppenwolf, Peter Frampton, Heart (sans blonde sister
Nancy), Foreigner, Pat Benatar, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The groups performed on an all-black stage with 80
speaker
cabinets which hid the fenced-off altar where Pope
John Paul II
delivered mass in 1984.
Although concert promoter Jack Livingston was warned
by
officials the consecrated site was absolutely
off-limits to
drunken concert goers, even the wrath of God didn't
keep four
men from doing a quick wobbly dance on the altar
before
guards led them away.
Oops! Forgot words
Others in the crowd pumped fists in the air and swayed
with
lighters to the requisite standards which brought
these groups to
fame.
Ann Wilson of Heart and Pat Benatar belted out the big
tunes,
but Lou Gramm not only sounded like Marge Simpson, he
embarrassingly forgot some of the words to Foreigner's
1985
hit I Want to Know What Love Is. And with his
signature
frizzy blond mane shorn to a close crop of thinning
grey, Peter
Frampton, looked more like an amiable accountant than
the
rock God he briefly was in the late '70s.
But these changes aren't a problem when your adoring
fans are
either too young to know the difference, or too old to
care,
which was definitely the case at this concert where
minivans
outnumbered Harley- Davidsons and an estimated 60 per
cent
of the fans were older than 35-years-old.
Although Melanie Buckley of Riverview wasn't born when
the
late Ronnie Van Zant sang Sweet Home Alabama in 1974,
she
said she "loves all the groups playing."
And in an interesting switch, Melanie was at the
festival with
her father Stephen, who introduced her to the music.
"This is
my Father's Day gift from her," he said. If these age
differences
meant the fans weren't as discerning about the music,
it also
meant the whole temper of the event was surprisingly
mellow.
Popsicles $3
Even though lineups for water, food-and beer were
tediously
long (with waits up to 45 minutes for a drink) and
prices
ridiculously inflated ($2 for a 500ml bottle of water,
$3 for a
popsicle, and $4 for a beer), which could have caused
mayhem,
security chief Al Gregory said no major brawls broke
out over
the weekend. Medical staff reported only a handful of
heat-
stroke victims, even though the sun shone and
temperatures
rose above the 30C mark on both days.The crowd roared
its
approval when show-closer, Lynyrd Skynyrd ran through
a
lacklustre rendition of Freebird. But as one
45-year-old fan
said: "It's not the way it's played, it's the fact
that it's still being
played."