Birmingham Odeon 1980: Only Pick Three

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It's 1980. You live near the Birmingham Odeon and only have money to attend three shows there this year.

Which three shows do you attend?

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YMO/OMD/Peter Gabriel

Iron Maiden/Judas Priest
Ozzy Osbourne/Budgie
Van Halen/Lucifer's Friend

This is so hard I had to look at the list 3 times

Motorhead
AC/DC/Starfighters
Slade

Slade on a Saturday night just before Christmas in their back yard is too good to miss.

Priest/Maiden
YMO
Duran Duran (it's 1980, Birmingham is their home town)

(which also applies to Priest of course)

Blondie
Motörhead
Buzzcocks

Priest/Maiden
YMO
Duran Duran (it's 1980, Birmingham is their home town)

YMO
Beefheart
Rush

This is impossible though, I'd have gone to at least 50% of those if I'd been living in Brum and not 12 years old.

Devo, YMO, Specials

(I figure '80 would probably be a bad year for Hawkwind, though I'd definitely go for Hawkwind in their prime. Also tempted by Angel Witch tbh)

Also if you squash 5th May and 10th May together you'd have a better act.

Blondie
Devo
The Specials

I saw Blondie and Motorhead on those same tours, at Edinburgh Odeon. Blondie was my first ever gig, Motorhead my 2nd. I'd also have happily gone to see 50% of these. I'll skip Hawkwind as they had too much guitar solo in 1980.

So, as i had already seen Blondie & Motorhead these tours i'll go for -

YMO
The Specials
Captain Beefheart

Genesis, YMO, Priest/Maiden

Genesis, Thin LIzzy, Beefheart (really wish that John Martyn was an option, though)

Ugh, I really want to go to a concert.

Gabriel, Genesis, YMO

The first concert I went to was at the Birmingham Odeon: Echo and the Bunnymen, Ocean Rain tour, 1984. Support was Let's Active. I was 14.

It was a large city centre cinema, in the days before these were split up into multi-screens or closed down. We sat upstairs in the circle, and in the interval usherettes came round selling ice creams. I saw the Bunnymen there again the following year with The Pale FOuntains; also Aztec Camera and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. We had learned by then that the better tickets were downstairs, in front of the stage, where the seats had been removed.

The Birmingham Arena was opened at the NEC around this time, which put paid to the Odeon as a venue for this type of mid-level band.

Ramones, Captain Beefheart, Adam & The Ants (late 1980 being a perfect time to see them).

Devo, Roxy Music, Captain Beefheart - I've seen two of them, but not in 1980!

On a rough count I have actually seen 30 of the bands listed! Mostly not in their prime though, other than Maiden and, er, Magnum.

The Birmingham Arena was opened at the NEC around this time, which put paid to the Odeon as a venue for this type of mid-level band.

this is v. tragic but the only three of the acts i've seen from that list are ultravox, dire straits and chris de burgh

But if you could do it all again, which three would you choose?

Wow, there are some tough choices. I'm confused about the size of the place, too. Doesn't seem like, say, OMD in 1980 would be playing the same place as Back in Black era AC/DC.

But I'd say: Peter Gabriel, Van Halen ... oof. Specials? Iron Maiden/Judas Priest? Is this still the original line-up of the Ramones or the Pretenders?

Saw in 1979: The Damned
Saw in 1980: Psychedelic Furs, The Undertones, Madness, UB40, The Specials, Pretenders
Saw in 1981: Duran Duran
Saw later in the 1980s: Peter Gabriel, Joe Jackson
Saw in the 1990s: Blondie
Saw after 2000: Roxy Music, The Stranglers, Gary Numan, Rick Wakeman, Buzzcocks, The Magic Band (no Beefheart), Yes, Adam Ant

I've definitely seen 20 or so of those acts, so I'm torn between bands I've seen before but in their prime, or bands I've never seen, period, like Buzzcocks, or Maiden, or hell, the Kinks!

How big is the Arena?

i'm guessing around 2000 - 2500. Edinburgh Odeon was 2000.

Sorry, i'm talking about Birmingham Odeon capacity.

NEC is around 15000.

Genesis, Dire Straits, Tangerine Dream

According to https://www.birminghammusicarchive.com/the-odeon/ Odeon seated 2,439.

I still don't get how some bands at the peak of their popularity and some bands that have barely been around can be filling the same sized place.

Oh shit, just saw that Carl Perkins is on there!

the one birmingham band that i would've given anything -both then and now- to have seen in 1980 was the beat. they played the top rank instead apparently, but god they were on fire that year and would have been touring off the back of 'i just can't stop it'

also at the top rank in 1980: siouxsie & the banshees supported by altered images

I'm sure it must have happened, but I would have loved to see a hometown double bill of the Beat and UB40 in 1980.

would it be greedy to ask for steel pulse too?

support at the Beat show was the Akrylykz, a ska band from Hull who had Roland Gift on vocals and sax

I saw UB40 at the Birmingham NEC in December 1980, headlining over Madness, Elvis Costello (whose set mostly debuted Trust), Squeeze and Dave Edmunds. They were utterly magnificent, the best act of the night. I also saw the Banshees at the Music Machine in spring 1980, supported by Subway Sect, and The Beat twice in 1981 - all superb. Age has its benefits!

awww, bloody 'ell!