The Pathfoot Building at University of Stirling is the starting point to what the campus has come to be today. As the first building on campus constructed in 1967, it is where many students’ higher education careers began – who knew it was a place that had music blasting, from live bands to a crowd of cheering students during the 1970s and early 1980s?
The campus saw quite a few prominent artists in the 70s before they made their big break. At times, Brig newspaper would advertise concerts in Stirling – Elton John, being the first especially significant one for Brig to report on. It was during his 1971 tour, the first venue he ever played in Scotland and a great success at that. According to a review in a contemporary issue of Brig:
Image credit: Ron Livingstone
“The Elton John, Dr Strangely Strange concert on Friday turned out to be not only the high light of the first week entertainments, but the most successful, and most packed-out concert ever staged at the University”.
When Bridget St John had a concert at Pathfoot in 1971, Brig journalists at the time were even able to get an interview with her about her concert. When asked if she liked playing at universities, she said: “Yes, mostly. I don’t like doing Union Balls and things like that when you get put on as a cabaret.”
The 1970s Brig journalists weren’t lucky enough to get an interview with Pink Floyd for their concert in 1971, however they did advertise that tickets for the concert were sold at £1 each.
Something that could be forgotten, is how much easier it was for older generations to get concert tickets – even with inflation, £1 would still amount to a cheaper ticket than what tickets for concerts are costing for students in this era of music.
Concerts are, unfortunately, not as accessible as they were for our parents and grandparents when they were students (not even for the fact that there are no concerts on campus at the scale it was when the likes of Elton John and Queen were rocking it up on a stage in Pathfoot).
In March 1974 Queen came to the university to perform in the Pathfoot building – yet not without some controversy. It was still early days for the British Rock band, with several universities on the venue list for their ‘74 tour – including Manchester and Glasgow. But things were moving fast, with the release of their second album ‘Queen II’ and the single ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ being their first hit – reaching number 10 on the UK Singles chart.
The German magazine Bravo described one of their 1974 shows as “…too hot to handle”. Describing Freddie Mercury as: “acting wild on stage, playing with his microphone, shaking his long black hair…”. Suddenly, when the band wouldn’t return to the stage after three encores, a riot broke out. The extent of it entailed the injury of two members of Queen’s road crew, having to be driven to hospital. The subsequent concert in Birmingham had to be rescheduled, as well as police inquiries made. Where did this happen? None other than at the University of Stirling.
When talking about these concerts during the 1970s with a current first year student at University of Stirling, Edyta, they mentioned that they had no idea that there were such huge artists having concerts here.
While walking around the campus, it’s hard to imagine such an event happening in the same place students go to for their day-to-day lectures.
Edyta says: “I think it would be awesome if the university managed to host such events again.”
There are more students like Edyta who would go to concerts on campus, if they were brought back – another first year student, Yasmeen, says:
“The concept of a concert happening on campus seems really exciting to me, it’s surprising but I would love to go with my friends.”
Hope is not lost for music events at University of Stirling.
The Venue on campus hosted the Stirling’s Battle of Bands, Music Quest, a music competition looking for Stirling’s most talented musical act – for the chance of winning the prize of a professional recording of their single at Studio 1790.
It might not be an event at the scale of a full out concert, but it is a start in bringing back live music events to the students of University of Stirling.
Featured image credit: Kristina Wikensten
First year Journalism student at University of Stirling.
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