June 29, 1980, Namur, Belgium: four months after Bon Scott’s death, a terrified Geordie sang his first AC/DC show weeks before Back in Black came out. Fans later carved the spot a monument.
Browsing: live music history
No album out, a midnight slot moved to 2pm, and a leader peaking on mescaline who thought his guitar was a snake – the 45 Woodstock minutes that made Santana famous before their debut hit shops.
1,128 shows in eight years, every one sold out, 636 of them in Vegas alone – and a private man who existed only at night, behind walls. The domestic Elvis the cameras never found.
Twenty million ticket requests, one night, and John Bonham’s son in the only seat that ever mattered – inside Led Zeppelin’s 2007 O2 reunion.
Days before playing to 250,000 people at the first Rock in Rio, AC/DC hit Ipanema Beach like ordinary tourists. Inside the January 1985 photo of a band on the verge of the biggest crowd of its life.
August 2018, beneath Cologne Cathedral: Joan Baez surprised Patti Smith mid-concert and the two sang Dylan’s ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ through tears – the night the torch visibly passed.
From $10 tickets and quad PAs to drugs, danger and pure musical magic, here is what going to concerts in the 1970s actually felt like.