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Ahhh, such fond memories of the Lakeland Civic Center Arena. They had some of the best shows in Florida during the 1970s-80s arena concert heyday. Back then Lakeland was in the middle of nowhere between Tampa and Orlando; it’s about 50 miles from where I live in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area. In those days you could drive there in about 30 minutes – nowadays it takes double that time IF you’re lucky – it’s across the bridge and far away on the insanity that is Interstate 4. And it is no longer the middle of nowhere…Lakeland is smack dab in the middle of everywhere.

PHOTO: My tickets for Cinderella’s Tom Keifer with LA Guns on 6-11-2026 at RP Funding Center Youkey Theatre. Cost $85.63 inclusive of all fees ($64.75 plus sales tax and service charge). Elko Concerts. Go ahead and compare those prices and fees with the ones below, haha.

I’ll add here that I bought a band t-shirt at every single one of these concerts during my high school years, and proudly wore it as a badge of honor to school the next day. I clearly recall that if I didn’t have the $8 for a shirt, I would borrow money from my mom until I got my next Burger King, or later, Fayva Shoes, paycheck. Unfortunately, I do not have any of those shirts anymore.

Please let me know if you find any errors/reschedules/changes to the shows/musicians/albums/opening bands below. And show us your Lakeland Civic Center Arena concert ticket stubs in the comments!

REO SPEEDWAGON with THE ROCKETS – 2/6/1981

This was REO’s Hi Infidelity album tour – a massive hit for them. I was already a fan of the You Can Tuna Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish and Nine Lives albums. As for The Rockets, I recall finding, buying, and enjoying a discount bin cut-out copy of their Turn Up the Radio album a few months later.

At the time of this show I had recently turned 16 years old. It was the second concert I ever went to – the first being Van Halen with Talas (Billy Sheehan band) at the Bayfront Center Arena in St. Petersburg, Florida in October of 1980. REO was one of my three favorite high school bands at the time (REO, Journey, Rush).

VAN HALEN with G-FORCE – 8/19/1981

How I loved Van Halen, Eddie, those songs, that sound. I’m sorry to say that what I remember most about this show is starting to be disappointed in David Lee Roth’s live vocal abilities – I wanted to hear the songs I know and loved – but DLR was the master of prancing and Eddie was/is the GOAT so it was still awesome. And wow, my second Van Halen concert in less than a year at the ripe old age of 16. The good old days for sure. For more on my VH fandom, check out my post The Chronicles of a Van Halen and Sammy Hagar Fan 1980-2017.

I have no recollection of the opening act G-Force but an internet search tells me it featured Gary Moore who worked with an impressive roster of artists, including Thin Lizzy, and at one point featured Glenn Hughes on vocals.

FOGHAT, BLUE OYSTER CULT with WHITFORD-ST.HOLMES – 10/10/1981

THE KINKS with DANNY JOE BROWN – 10/11/1981

This was The Kinks Give the People What they Want album tour. I want to say that this was the first show that either me or the bff drove to Lakeland by ourselves and we got slightly lost – I seem to recall that the ticket is not torn because we got there late. I’m guessing we couldn’t get Doris to drive us there two nights in a row, or catch a ride with the neighborhood guys.

JOURNEY with LOVERBOY – 10/22/1981

TO THIS DAY when someone asks me the best concert I’ve ever been to, this is the show I cite. My first true concert high. I clearly remember I left with no voice. They played a lot of the Departure and Infinity albums, which are the only two Journey albums I ever loved. Still love them, be still my heart. My poor brother used to hear me singing along to those albums after school with my headphones on – sitting on my bed studying the vinyl album cover liner notes and lyrics – but in the end he didn’t mind cuz he was in his room making out with his girlfriend lol. The only way I’d ever go see Journey again is if they promised to play Infinity or Departure from start to finish…ahh, that would be heaven, no matter who was singing. (Side note: I did go see them once with Arnel Pineda a few years ago but he was having an off night and I was disappointed in the setlist; also saw them with Jeff Scott Soto singing).

And Loverboy was great too! They had just blown up on the radio around that time. I was lucky enough to see Loverboy again a few years ago at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre (Denver, Colorado) opening for Sammy Hagar and they still sound great…and I think I like the songs more now than I did then.

JEFFERSON STARSHIP with RED RIDER – 9/20/1981

THE MOODY BLUES with JIMMY SPHEERIS – 12/6/1981

I believe I wanted to go the Moody Blues show primarily because I had grown up listening to my mom’s 45 record collection, which included Nights in White Satin. And of course because I wanted to go to any concert I could lol. I had to look up Jimmy Spheeris as I am not familiar with the name. He had an almost-hit called I Am the Mercury in 1971 and was killed by a drunk driver a few years after this show ;o(.

RAINBOW with KROKUS (OUTLAWS CANCELLED) – 7/25/1982

We had seen Krokus open for Rush a few months earlier at the Bayfront Center Arena in St. Petersburg and became fans on the spot. It’s been awesome to see Krokus again a few times over the past decade on the Monsters of Rock Cruise. Screaming in the Night in the middle of the ocean under a full moon surrounded by your people is the best. And as for that St. Pete Rush show, I hate to but have to admit we were the weirdos following Neal Peart around the hotel across the street – which we eventually learned he despised – but all I wanted was to have a philosophical discussion with him lol.

CROSBY, STILLS & NASH – 10/16/1982

This was the Daylight Again album tour. The song Southern Cross was huge on the radio and I had always had love for hippie culture. To me I see a parallel – a heartening one – in the young’uns having a love for 80s metal culture nowadays. It’s fun to be a relic of such a great era just like the hippies were of theirs lol.

REO SPEEDWAGON with RED RIDER – 2/2/1983

Random fun fact – The Record Bar was across the hall from the Fayva Shoes I worked at in Clearwater Mall. I remember when they got a Ticketmaster computer as opposed to a stack of tickets. Sigh again.

RUSH with JOHN BUTCHER AXIS – 3/21/1983

This was the Signals album tour – also know as The New World Tour according to a search. There was still a lot of Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures songs going on. How lucky am I to have seen those tours? Back then bands seem to alternate between the Lakeland Civic Center Arena and the Bayfront Center Arena in St. Petersburg, so I saw a lot of these same bands at another local venue during that era. I was a Rush nerd for awhile there…I obsessed over Neil Peart (RIP) lyrics and they were all over my high school paper bag textbook covers.

IRON MAIDEN with QUIET RIOT – 10/16/1983

This was a memorable concert because I met some lifelong bffs that night walking around in my red spandex pants (or was it my fake black leather dress from Lerners?). Either way, my bff recognized an old bff from a different middle school and from then on we all started hanging out together in the local club scene. And it continues ;oD.

KISS with PAT TRAVERS and AXE – 12/29/1983

I seem to recall seeing Pat Travers A LOT here there and everywhere during my high school years, as an opening act and headlining clubs and local festivals. His stand-alone musical style has its own unique way of bringing me right back to that era. I once googled whether he was from Florida since he was around so much and was quite confused to learn he was Canadian. But then I was lucky enough to run into him at an empty lounge bar on the Monsters of Rock Cruise one year and asked him about it – and he said he moved to Florida in 1977 (78?). Explanation straight from the horse’s mouth! Love me some Pat Travers.

I’ll add I turned 19 years old shortly before this show, which was the legal drinking age (woohoo!) as the state was in the midst of segueing from 18 to 21. My first legal beer at the Lakeland Civic Center! And I could finally get into the rock clubs – up until that point I could only get into the new wave clubs as most didn’t ID. I’ll also say that I don’t remember a thing about this show lol.

OZZY OSBOURNE with MOTLEY CRUE – Rescheduled – 2/23/1984

OZZY OSBOURNE with MOTLEY CRUE on 2-23-1984 at the Lakeland Civic Center. Cost $12.50 (tax included), Festival Seating. WDIZ/Beach Lub/WYNF Presents. The show was cancelled and rescheduled on 5/20/1984 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa – see that stub below.

According to an internet search, Ozzy was injured while filming the Bark at the Moon video and had to cancel a few shows. Some friends of mine, being huge Crue fans, somehow figured out what hotel Motley Crue was staying at in Orlando and went there and partied with Mick Mars…definitely one of our collective fun stories of back in the day (see text excerpt from Blackie Rie below).

PHOTOS BELOW: Sometime around one of these 1984 shows Motley Crue made an appearance at Peaches Records and Tapes in Clearwater, Florida. I took a bunch of pictures with my trusty 110 camera but unfortunately I chopped them up ala “scrapbooking” (or perhaps ala speed cuz when I got high I got high on speed, but I digress lol). Notice Motley Crue’s lack of tattoo arm sleeves at that point.

Also below, FUN FACT: Lakeland was where Ozzy allegedly snorted ants(!) as told in The Dirt (Motley Crue band biography). I’ve included a photo of the book excerpt mentioning Lakeland below. And of course we’re not clear on the logistics of being at a hotel in Lakeland, but we did learn in the book that Ozzy preferred to hang with the Motley guys and bus over his own, so perhaps Motley stayed in Lakeland for the Tampa show. Book excerpt copyright 2001 “The Dirt Motley Crue Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band” with Neil Strauss, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, Vince Neil, and Nikki Sixx.

BLUE OYSTER CULT with ALDO NOVA – 3/18/1984

BILLY SQUIER with RATT – 10/25/1984

REO SPEEDWAGON with ZEBRA – 12/14/1984

REO toured for their Wheels Are Turning album, which I wasn’t a fan of but I still loved the band. Zebra toured for their No Tellin’ Lies album featuring their hit Who’s Behind the Door, a follow up to their debut album hit Tell Me What You Want.

Hard to believe it but I would not see another show at LCC for well over a year, and it would be my next-to-last ’80s show there, with one surprise visit in 1990.

AEROSMITH with TED NUGENT – 3/26/1986

RONNIE JAMES DIO with LOVE/HATE and COLD SWEAT – 10/5/1990

Weird memory – driving around town and to this show with Jon E. Love, Love/Hate’s guitar player. Jon and his girlfriend were roommates with me and my bf in Los Angeles (North Hollywood) for a few months in 1988. An interesting ending for my Lakeland Civic Center Arena concert era, and what a run it was ;o).

I know there were sooooooo many more great shows at the Lakeland Civic Center Arena that I did not see (but wish I had)….show us all your ticket stubs in the comments if you still have them ;o).

Check out my Rocksandy Facebook page soon as I will be posting some much older Lakeland Civic Center Arena stubs from The DJ Miss Mary Collection.