His last rally in London was in 1989, I'm pretty sure I went to it. Well, my Dad was a, what's the word, he showed people to their seats for the whole week or however long, and I went along one evening.
I went along again in 1996 at a theatre in London expecting a similar event. But it was all on screen, filmed in the USA and had a lot of modern pop-influenced music- very noisy.
That spoiled it for me. From what I remember of the earlier rally in '89 I felt God spoke to me, but the later one in '96 seemed all fake; I just assumed he did that because he was too old to come in person, so it didn't bother me.
I wonder if that's one reason why Christianity has been declining recently- that BG hasn't been able to continue his rallys in person.
The first mass rally I attended was by a German former POW, Anton Shulte, in Ayr...I expected the hysteria bit, but was pleasantly surprised by the poweful, expository preaching and dignified response.
My first experience of being a counsellor was at the Luis Palau Ayrshire Crusade in 1980; again, since the local churches had the biggest input, the set-up was dignified, the preaching more emotional but not OTT.
The Mission Scotland 1991 was a mixture of traditional hymns plus appearances from Graham Kendrick, Cliff Richard and my friend Ian White; a few testimonies from 'local' Scots, and Billy's incisive preaching.
The 'aftercare' when those who had come forward, was in an atmosphere of joy, and yet firmly rooted in Scripture without the much vaunted emotional hype.
