Red Rocks Amphitheatre

We took a bus tour around the foothills of the Rockies.   Part of the trip was to Red Rocks Amphitheatre - 10miles from Denver.  Seating just over 9,500 people, the venue has played host to many big names from the music scene.  The stage is at the bottom right-hand side of the photo and whilst we were there we were lucky enough to hear a band rehearsing before their concert later in the week.  Out here in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by all these amazing red rock formations was quite surreal with the rock band playing full-on, it was very atmospheric.  The acoustics were brilliant - the sound just seemed to bounce off all the stonework.  
Concerts began here in the early 1900's and previous to that, the area would have been used by the Ute tribes (whose lives are also very well documented and a very interesting subject).  The rock formations date back to 160 million years ago and many dinosaur tracks and fossils have been found in the area.  The earliest noted rock n' roll performance here was by The Beatles in August 1964. In 1971, 1,000 Jethro Tull fans appeared here without tickets (the show was already sold-out) leading to riotous conditions.  This began a 5year ban on rock concerts at the venue.  U2 performed here as part of their War tour, which was recorded as a concert film 'U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky' and Stevie Nicks also recorded her concert for a DVD in 1987.  Depeche Mode played here 4 times.  Many, many others have played here as could be seen from the information in the museum inside.  This was a very enjoyable and interesting trip.