Wishbone Ash live in London 1977

Wishbone Ash live at Wembley Empire Pool, London, UK
31/10-1977

Band
Martin Turner:Bass/Vocal
Andy Powell:Guitar/Vocal
Laurie Wisefield:Guitar/Vocal
Steve Upton:Drums

Setlist
0:00 - NICKY HORNE INTRO
0:11 - BLIND EYE
2:50 - LADY WHISKEY
5:41 - THE KING WILL COME
12:15 - WARRIOR
17:59 - THROW DOWN THE SWORD
21:30 - FRONT PAGE NEWS
27:26 - SOMETIME WORLD
34:51 - GOODBYE BABY, HELLO FRIEND
40:43 - RUNAWAY
43:59 - COME IN FROM THE RAIN
49:30 - PHOENIX
1:01:15 - JAIL BAIT
1:06:15 - BLOWINí FREE
1:12:36 - NO EASY ROAD
1:18:30 - BAD WEATHER BLUES

Wonderful set and great playing overall.
Enjoy/GråZon

Read about the band here:

Read about ”The Front Page News” album here:

Tape notes:
After Wishbone's comeback in style with their raw, "live-in-the-studio" 1976 "New England" album, the band obviously gave another shot at finally making it on the US market with their rather Americanised "studio-produced"-sounding "Front Page News" album. IIRC, it was Martin Turner who once stated that it was difficult for the band and in some cases even impossible to transfer some of this album's tracks to the stage. It seems that in order to counterbalance the somewhat more-pop-than-rock nature of the album for their live performances, they chose to undig a few numbers that they hadn't played in a few years - the first time in their career they'd do that. For what it's worth, it's exactly these numbers that make their 1977 tour so interesting to me: They did Blind Eye (not played since 1972), Lady Whiskey (not played since 1973), Throw Down the Sword (not played since early 1975), Sometime World (not played since 1974), Phoenix (not done since 1975), and No Easy Road (not played since mid-1976).

Wishbone embarked on a pretty sucessful UK tour, but the album didn't do much neither in Punk-stricken Blighty nor on the US market which they were obviously aiming at in the first place. This show here was set as the "grande finale" of their UK tour, and turned out to be their only ever headlining Wembley Empire Pool show. Never before or afterwards would they headline this prestigious 8,000 seater again, most likely their largest UK indoor audience as headliners ever - though they would support Gillan there on 17th Dec. 1982.

Underlining this show's status was Capital Radio's b'cast within their famous (or infamous, if you will) "Your Mother Wouldn't Like It" - radio show series, slotted for 9-11 p.m. on weekdays. Alas, for this occasion the band cut down their set a bit and dropped "You Rescue Me" which they had previously done along the tour. It may be though that was necessary to comply with the b'cast time limitations.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a low(er) gen. or even a pre-FM copy in circulation. All there is among collectors' circles is a home-made bootleg CD-R titled "Hellowe'en Headlines" on one Crafty Cat Records label that first turned up sometime in the early 2000's, was made from a not-really-low gen. copy of the b'cast and does not contain the last two numbers. Overall, it does not sound too bad though; furthermore, I am able to add Nicky Horne's intro and the last two tracks, "No Easy Road" and "Bad Weather Blues" from another, somewhat lesser source, thus giving you Capital Radio's complete b'cast.

In case you give a minimum sh*t, my favourites on this show are the rarely played "Sometime World" with Laurie's oh-so-tender quiet guitar part, and "Throw Down the Sword" with some of the most beautiful Andy solos I know of (listen yourself to sample #1).

On a side note, Wishbone Ash's new "The Vintage Years 1970-1991" CD-box contains the very poster for this show here but not the show itself!

Thanks to DocDondy for sharing.

[johngribben]

Really Doug it, reminded me, take a seat and play along a bit, agreed, throw down the sword, got me motivated.
My southern fried days instantly found my hands n feet.
Cheers brother, and thanks for the Saturday morning lift.
Johnny G.

[taimeuppe]

I sort of remember 1977 but remember seeing Wishbone Ash in 1971

[a.l.e]

Gracias por compartir 😃👍🎶🎶🎶🎶👍 WHISBONE 👍👍👍😁