We all remember our first rock concert. Realistically, nothing was ever going to prepare us for how loud it was going to be. For many of us, that unadulterated, visceral noise was the reason we fell in love with the genre in the first place.
If you went to your first gig as a child, there’s a good chance you went with your parents. And while some parents might choose to furnish their children with earplugs to keep their hearing safe, in the case of Richie Faulkner, his father chose a different tack to get him ready for his first show…
Specifically, Faulkner’s first-ever rock show was a date on Bryan Adams’ Into the fire tour in the late ‘80s.
“It was my first live gig in an arena, and my dad used to take me out in the car preparing me for how loud it was going to be. We’d crank Reckless really loud and drive around listening to songs like Run to You at full volume.”
He continues: “Everyone at school was getting into guitar music, but instead of buying a Guns N’ Roses record like everyone else was, I bought Live After Death by Iron Maiden.
“I remember trying to learn Hallowed Be Thy Name with the light and shade and the different parts. The guitars panned left and right, so you had Adrian Smith on one side and Dave Murray on the other. I’d learn Murray’s bits and then turn him off and play the gig, essentially. After school my friends would go out, and I’d just play guitar night after night with Iron Maiden.”
Sam is the Associate News Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Thoroughly immersed in music culture for the majority of his life, Sam has played guitar for 20 years, studied music technology and production at university, and also written for the likes of Guitar World, Total Guitar, Metal Hammer and MusicRadar.