Some of the world's biggest music acts stepped out at Gateshead International Stadium during the 1980s and '90s.
At a venue, well-known for its high-profile athletics meetings, the likes of The Police, Tina Turner, Bryan Adams, Dire Straits, Bon Jovi, Simply Red, Guns 'N Roses and Simple Minds all drew huge crowds.
Most recently Little Mix performed at the stadium on their 2018 Summer Hits tour.
Thirty years ago, it was the turn of the 'ageless' Rod Stewart to rock out in Gateshead. Rod was, in fact, a youthful 46 at the time. The Anglo-Scottish superstar played two shows in early June, 1991.
The first, on Sunday the 2nd of the month, went relatively smoothly, with our reviewer declaring how the singer "sailed into Tyneside giving 33,000 fans a night to remember".
"He blasted on to the stage with Tonight I'm Yours, and for the entire two-hour show he lived up to that promise.
"The fans were behind him all the way. And when he leapt in the air and asked 'Do You Think I'm Sexy?' he clearly got the answer he was looking for.
"The hits were endless and his energy boundless, with his agile antics knowing no restraint."
For the thousands of fans in the audience, the set list was also quite probably a soundtrack of their own lives, featuring classics such as The First Cut Is The Deepest, Tonight’s The Night, Mandolin Wind, You’re In My Heart, Baby Jane, Maggie May, You Wear It Well, I Don’t Want To Talk About It, and, inevitably, Sailing.
Status Quo and Joe Cocker were the big-name support acts on the night.
The only down side was the Tyneside weather, with our reviewer complaining "it was supposed to be flaming June, but icy winds and drizzle made it feel more like flaming February".
Whatever the cause, the second show set for the following night, Monday the 3rd, was postponed due to the singer developing 'voice problems' and was rescheduled for Sunday the 9th.
But it was a smaller crowd of 20,000 that turned up for that show, we reported.
Tickets priced at £23 were changing hands for £16, with some saying the official price was far too expensive.
And there were multiple complaints about the excessive noise, with one Jesmond householder telling the Chronicle his children couldn't revise for their exams properly because of the racket that boomed around Tyneside for several hours.
Notwithstanding, Rod Stewart would be back performing at the same venue almost four years to the day in 1995.
Owner of one of rock’s greatest voices, the charismatic superstar, now 76, has been a regular performer on Tyneside's concert stages since the mid-1960s.
It was back then that he first appeared at Newcastle’s Club a’Gogo as an unknown singer alongside Long John Baldry.
His last Newcastle Arena show came in 2019, and in the five and a half decades leading up to then he’d appeared at Newcastle City Hall, the Mayfair Ballroom, Newcastle Odeon, Gateshead Stadium and St James’ Park, among other North East venues.
Don't forget to check out our Memory Lane local history website that's packed with archive photographs and has an easy-to-use picture colourisation tool.
