Five Acts That Have Played The Royal Albert Hall…
After the Arctic Monkeys released their stellar live album recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall, let’s have a look at five more acts who have graced the stage at the historic concert hall.
1.Jimi Hendrix
The legendary guitarist has played the Hall twice the first of which coming in 1967 with his band, ‘The Jimi Hendrix Experience’. However, the second time provided a more controversial show.
Hendrix and his band proceeded to play a number of blues covers leading to an angry reaction from the hordes of fans who packed the rows of the historic hall.
Eventually, Hendrix was forced to return for an encore performing some of his classic hits such as ‘Purple Haze’. The rock legend went onto display his supreme guitar skills by playing the guitar with his teeth as his fans mobbed the stage.
2. Pink Floyd
‘Pink Floyd’ graced the stage in 1969 with ridiculous consequences. The famous show ended up seeing not only the group banned from performing at the hall but all rock and pop stars.
The gig itself featured a man dressed in a gorilla costume, a live carpentry session during one of the songs and concluded with two cannons being fired.
This freaked out those in charge so much that a ban was put in place however it didn’t last for long with Floyd themselves returning in 1973.
3. David Bowie
The Starman himself never played the hall in his own right however did join Dave Gilmour of ‘Pink Floyd’ fame. His first and only appearance at the Royal Albert Hall also proved to be Bowie’s final ever public performance.
Bowie joined Gilmour to perform Floyd’s debut single, ‘Arnold Layne’ and ‘Comfortably Numb’ from 1979’s ‘The Wall’ on what would prove to be a momentous day.
4. The Beatles
‘The Beatles’ first performed here in 1963 performing at the ‘Great Pop Prom’. The prom was an annual fundraising performance for the Printers’ Pension Corporation.
What was interesting about this performance was that it was one of the only time that both ‘The Beatles’ and ‘The Rolling Stones’ performed together on the same bill.
5. Eurovision Song Contest
Yes I know it’s not an act as such but the hall played host to the 12th annual Eurovision Song Contest way back in 1968.
Britain’s entry that year was Cliff Richard’s ‘Congratulations’ which was somehow the favourite to win the whole thing. Luckily our European neighbours quickly put an end to that with Spain’s Massiel beating Richard.
Interestingly enough, however, Spain’s initial entry was not Massiel and instead Joan Manuel Serrat who was booted from the competition by dictator Francisco Franco due to the singer's insistence on singing in Catalan.
Later the contest was thrown into controversy when it was suggested that Franco bribed officials across Europe to help the Spanish win the contest.