Forbes KB - Trucker

Forbes KB - Trucker Freelance truck driver specialising in events, music touring and motorsports work!

In fairness, I've been on music touring with FlyByNite pretty much full-time since covid so availability these days is sometimes a struggle!

Originally opened in 1873 as The Palace of the People using building materials salvaged from The International Exhibitio...
08/11/2024

Originally opened in 1873 as The Palace of the People using building materials salvaged from The International Exhibition of 1862, the whole site was totally destroyed by a massive fire just 16 days later. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1875 and then completely destroyed by another fire in 1980, again rebuilt and reopened in 1988 this is a true survival story...a pheonix rising from the ashes...twice!!

The site of a Belgian & Dutch refugee centre and German, Austrian & Hungarian internment camp during WW1, and a refugee centre and Dunkirk staging post in WW2, in 1935 the BBC set up their first ever television studios here with the 2 studios using competing TV Broadcast technologies...Ally Pally is now a mutli-use venue hosting conferences, art exhibitions, sporting and music events!

In the music world Alexandra Palace has hosted some truly legendary acts. The 1970s saw Led Zeppelin, The Who, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Grateful Dead, T. Rex and Queen play Alexandra Palace. In 1979 the Capital Radio Jazz Festival featured B.B. King, Dizzy Gillespie, Muddy Waters, Dave Brubeck and Chuck Berry.

Despite the fire in 1980 Alexandra Palace continued to host the sound of the era, bringing in punk with Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Slits, The Jam and The Stranglers hosting their last gig with Hugh Cornwell. The reopening in 1988 brought…Barry Manilow!

In 1989 The Stone Roses played their first major London gig at the height of the Madchester movement and in 1994 Blur supported by Pulp, launched Parklife from Alexandra Palace, creating the sound of Britpop. Ally Pally hosted the Brit Awards and MTV Europe Music Awards, bringing Madonna, Take That, the Pet Shop Boys, The Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, George Michael and a duet from Elton John and Ru Paul.

Major 1990s gigs included Orbital and The Chemical Brothers. The MOBOs in 2000 featured the Fugees, Craig David and Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes. The new millennium saw the arrival of indie rock with The Strokes, The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian and The Arctic Monkeys. DJs, and drum and bass arrived with David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, Skrillex and Disclosure.

The Great Hall, Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill, UK



Where do I even start with this one! The hall itself was opened in 1867 but there's been a building on this site since t...
07/11/2024

Where do I even start with this one!

The hall itself was opened in 1867 but there's been a building on this site since the Middle Ages! In the 13th Century it was the site of a Carmelite Friary, then private residence called The Great House which Queen Elizabeth I visited in 1574, in the late 17th Century Edward Colston established a refinery processing sugar brought into Bristol from the Caribbean plantations, in 1708 he opened a School for Boys which continued on the site until 1857 when the site was sold onto the Colston Hall Society who then raised £12,000 in £10 shares to construct the hall in which the guys are performing this evening!

It has been rebuilt twice, first in 1901 following a fire which started in a neighbouring clothing warehouse in 1898 and again in 1951 again following a fire this time started by a discarded cigarette in 1945 which reduced the whole site to charred wood and hot metal! Ironically it surviving the extensive bombing of Bristol by the Luftwaffe during WWII pretty much unscathed!

The hall was renamed the Bristol Beacon in 2020 following sustained protests from the BLM movement regarding Edward Colston's significant involvement with the TransAtlantic Slave Trade and the memorable tossing of his bronze statue into the nearby harbour by protesters! It's recently gone through another refurbishment reopening in 2023...this time costing an estimated £132m which nearly bankrupted Bristol City Council!

Significant acts who have performed or spoken here since the original hall was constructed in 1867 have been David Lloyd George in 1915, The Rolling Stones and Ike & Tina Turner in 1966, Jimi Hendrix played here twice in 1967, Led Zeppelin in 1969, and Pink Floyd in 1972!

Queen have headlined here 3 times, first in 1974 to promote their album "Sheer Heart Attack" and twice in 1975 for the "Night at the Opera" tour...they outgrew this hall shortly after this switching to the Bristol Hippodrome!

The Beacon, Bristol, UK

Tour Day #8 of 13
Show Day #5 of 7



05/11/2024

I was last here with Michael Kiwanuka in 2022 so the next bit is a modified cut & paste jobber from my previous post!

quote
It truly is a voyage of discovery for me travelling to these historic music venues. Newcastle City Hall dates back to 1927 and was part of a council run complex which included the adjacent Newcastle City Baths!

This one's claim to fame is it hosted Led Zeppelin in 1968 when they were still called The New Yardbirds and Motorhead recorded most of their live album "No sleep 'til Hammersmith" here in 1981! Other notable acts who've played here are David Bowie in 1973 during his Ziggy Stardust era, Roxy Music in 1974, Emerson Lake & Palmer in 1971, The Animals in 1968, The Byrds in 1971 and Lyndisfarne in 1976!

Earmarked for closure by the council in 2012 the 2,000 capacity Newcastle City Hall was was saved by public petition and is now owned by The Theatre Royal Trust however it's day to day operations are run by Live Nation under their Academy Music Group branding!

Update: The Beatles played here 6 times the stage door guy was telling me!
Unquote

O2 City Hall, Newcastle, UK

Tour Day #6 of 13
Show Day #4 of 7



Slightly unusual one this as it's primary function is as classical music performance venue, the 2,475 capacity Royal Con...
04/11/2024

Slightly unusual one this as it's primary function is as classical music performance venue, the 2,475 capacity Royal Concert Hall being the home of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Opened by Princess Anne in 1990, this is the replacement for the St. Andrews Hall which was destroyed by a fire in 1962, and was built in response to Glasgow being voted European Capital of Culture...how can a City of Culture not have a dedicated classical music venue? The Glasgow Metro runs directly below it so the architects has to install a massive rubber membrane under the floor to dampen out the noise of the trains!

A relatively recent change of management has opened this venue to non-classical artists hence we've brought a New York based AltRock band here to perform as opposes to the O2 Academy which would be their normal manor!

Significant events held at the Royal Concert Hall include Nelson Mandela receiving his freedom of the city of Glasgow here in 1993, and Bob Hope performing in 1994 as part of the 50th anniversary of D-Day commemorations!

Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, UK

Tour Day: #5 of 13
Show Day: #3 of 7



Morning folks! Today we find ourselves in the city of Ghent in NW Belgium.Vooruit, which means "Forward" in Flemish, was...
22/10/2024

Morning folks! Today we find ourselves in the city of Ghent in NW Belgium.

Vooruit, which means "Forward" in Flemish, was built by the Vooruit Cooperative, the city's socialists, in an attempt to prove to the population that socialists weren't philistines and that they cared about the intellectual development of the workers however just 2 months after it's inauguration in Aug 1914 Belgium was occupied and the building was turned into a barracks by the occupying military!

The interwar period were lean times for Belgium as a whole, it was occupied again during WWII and once again turned into a barracks and recreation hall by the occupying forces. When the war ended in 1945, the liberating forces took over the building as an R&R facility and the Canadians renamed it "Cafe Quebec" so it never really got going as an independent entertainment venue for the people of Ghent until it was returned to the socialists in 1946 some 32 years after it was first opened!

Once the building was returned to the socialists the Multatulikring, Harmonie Vooruit, and the Rode Valken, once more transformed the Festivities Hall into a true beehive. A few new associations were also added to the mix: The Anseele Vrienden, the Studiekring Edward Anseele, a women's league 'De Samenwerkster', a women’s league and the Leesclub Boekuil however by the 70's the building was pretty much derelict with little income form the societies that occupied it to carry out the neccessary maintenance and repairs therefore it was abandoned by the socialists!

So upsteps an enthusiastic group of young artists who formed the non-profit Vooruit Socio-Cultural Centre and with the help of volunteers and many years of work and fundraising brought the Vooruit back to life reopening in 1982. In 1993 Vooruit, now run by the renamed Kunstencentrum Vooruit, is recognised by the Belgian government and receives government arts subsidies however it is stull run mostly by volunteers and on a cooperative basis!

It's a seriously complex building and houses a kitchen, a reception hall, a library, a 1,000 capacity Concertzall and a 1,600 capacity Theatrezall. When it was first built, the socialists wrote "Kunst Veredelt" in gold letters above the theatre stage which means "art ennobles" and that remains in place to this day!

Vooruit/Viernulvier, Ghent, B

Tour Day #12 of 16(+1)
Show Day #7 of 9



There's been a Tivoli in Utrecht since 1823. First they played concerts in the open air, then in 1871 they built the Tiv...
21/10/2024

There's been a Tivoli in Utrecht since 1823. First they played concerts in the open air, then in 1871 they built the Tivoli Kruisstraat. By 1955 it pretty much fell down on it own it was so hard used and they replaced it with the temporary, and entirely wooden, Tivoli Lepelenburg.

In 1979 MusiekCentrum Vredenburg was opened effectively closing the temporary Tivoli building...however, this was the 1970's and punk rock was the dominant genre so before they had the chance to take down the temporary Tivoli building it was squatted and the squatters started putting on completely illegal and unlicenced pop and punk shows...it wasn't long before a mysterious fire destroyed the whole building! Funny that! 🤔

After the fire, the organisers relocated to another abandoned building, and squatted there so the Tivoli was once again reborn as the Tivoli Oedegracht and by 1982 it had become a bit of a powerhouse hosting international acts such as Prince, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Arctic Monkeys, Nirvana and Queens of the Stone Age! Meanwhile MuseikCentrum Vredenburg kept rolling along in the background serving the classical and jazz lovers in the city!

Fast forward to 2004 and the City of Utrecht announces plans to create a brand new "Palace of Music" combining Tivoli Oedegracht, MuseikCentrum Vredenburg and a local jazz club called SJU.

So here we are...in 2014 Tivoli Vredenburg opened it's doors and now comprises 6 unique performance spaces. We're in the largest, Ronda, tonight which holds upto 2,000 punters and can, I suppose, be described as a bit of a "c***e" insomuch as it's wider than it is long! 🤣 Still it does ensure everyone gets a decent view of the stage! 🤔

Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrecht, NL

Tour Day #11 of 16(+1)
Show Day #6 of 9



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