Memorable gigs

Mikey23

Just watching super tramp on sky arts and remembering that I saw that tour in 1979... Any that stand out in your life and were memorable for whatever reason?

ballysmate

Saw Deep Purple at the NEC in 1993. The gig after which, Richie Blackmore flounced off to play the lute.

chrisaonabike

Clapton at the Albert Hall in 2004(?). The tickets went on sale at 9, I was phoning from 8:58. Unbelievably, I got through immediately and got two tickets, middle of the 2nd row. Literally about 5 yards from him.

Amazing concert, and all the more so since it was like the whole concert was in my front room.

VTech

Robbins Williams at the bowl a few years ago and the stones in New York a few months ago were good for me.

If I had a time machine I would have loved to have watched queen. That must be ultimate concert kudos !

mr_goo

Rainbow at Wembley Arena in Feb 1980. Samson were the support group featuring vocalist Bruce Dickinson (now Iron Maiden) and Thunderstick on drums. They went down so well they got an encore. This pi55ed off Ritchie Blackmore and Rainbow only performed a 45 minute set, after which they went back to the hotel. Back in the Arena, mayhem ensued. My memories are of seeing seats and debris flying everywhere, in particular towards the stage. A rather naive roadie tried to protect Cozy Powells drum kit, this only made the crowd hurl more stuff at the kit until it was wrecked.

Great fun.

Blackmore, possibly the greatest rock guitarist ever, but a complete idiot and now playing the lute, as eluded to in earlier post.

daviesee

I have seen many a "big name" show and most of them were good, some of them excellent.
The one that stands out as most memorable, and most emotional though was The Skids at Dunfermline, 2010.
No Stuart Adamson of course but that was handled well IMHO.
It was just one of those concerts where the band and audience gelled.

Was going to see Queen but the tour was cancelled for the ultimate reason.

peat

Great gigs co-incide with your age. i.e: When you were young (I'm 30 and count those days as behind me)

During my student years, i went to ALOT of gigs of many genres. I'd have to say, the best i've ever been to was 'The Music' at Southampton Guidhall. Circa 2004. The stars alligned and i 'lost my sh!t' because it was so good.

3 or 4 years ago i went to see 'Tubelord' at the Jericho Taver, Oxford. That was another insanely good event.

Tried the whole 'big gig' thing a couple of times (Chilli Peppers, Muse) but really didn't dig it.

I've pretty much stopped going to them nowadays as i just don't get the enjoyment out of them that i once did. Maybe 2 or 3 a year at most.

daviesee

Peat wrote:

Great gigs co-incide with your age. i.e: When you were young (I'm 30 and count those days as behind me)

Not necessarily. I was 48 when I was at the Skids gig. :oops:
Beat any show I saw in my 20s.

random man

David Bowie at Slough Tech, Oct '71. What impressed me was how much he was enjoying himself on stage, so many bands at the time were pretty lifeless on stage.

Slade at the Rainbow, '73. Possibly the most fun I've ever had at a gig, plus Thin Lizzy as support.

U2 at Croke Park, June '85. Fantastic atmosphere, first time they'd played in Dublin for two years.

Oasis at Knebworth, '96. Their last good gig?

Neil Young, Nottingham 2010. Legend.

Andy525

22 June 1985 The Return of the Knebworth Fayre. With Deep Purple, Scorpions, Blackfoot, UFO, Alaska, Meat Loaf, Mama's Boys, Mountain. Pretty memorable as it rain for most of the day, but brillant day out though.

Tom Butcher

Gillan plus Budgie in 1980 - I was 12 and was nearly crushed to death in the mass of denim, leather, long hair and patchouly oil.

The Prisoners - Rotherham Town Hall 1985 - group of us went up on scooters, fantastic band and night.

Steve Marriott some pub in Leeds - late 80s maybe. Electric packed up for a bit so he did All or Nothing acoustically about 6 feet from me - voice was something else.

Edwin Starr with a full band at an allnighter in London - maybe late 80s/ 90ish. Seen him with backing tapes before but with a full band - brass section the lot - what a show, this was a soul legend on top form, WAR, 25 miles etc great.

Mikey23

I'm going to get some stick for this but the monkees at Plymouth pavilions ... My mates got me some tickets for my big 60 and it was a brilliant evening!

mudsucker

I think the best gig I went to was The Chemical Brothers at Olympia in about 2010. They are amazing live!

CHRISNOIR

Brian Wilson's debut of 'Smile' at the Royal Festival Hall in 2004 was a pretty great one to be at.

Arctic Monkeys at (small Manchester venue) Jabez Clegg was brilliant as well. It was just before they went stratospheric and I remember fearing that the floor would give way under the bouncing crush of people.

thegreatdivide

Went to loads of gigs pre 1989 but post it was mostly ‘gigs’ of the Acid House variety. However these stand out:

Leo Sayer @ Caird Hall Dundee - circa 1978
New Order ‘Lowlife’ tour @ Dundee Caird Hall – 1985
Jane’s Addiction @ Edinburgh Venue – 1989
Red Hot Chili Peppers @ Edinburgh Mambo Club – 1990 (tiny, tiny venue)
Revolting Cocks @ Glasgow Building & printing College canteen – 1990 (original gig was banned by local MP so it became a last minute venue with no proper stage – total riot)
Rollecoaster Tour featuring Jesus & Mary Chain, Blur, My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr @ SECC Glasgow 1992
Plastikman live (Ritchie Hawtin) in a barn in the middle of a giant corn field somewhere outside Windsor Ontario - mental - 1995
Metroplex 10th Anniversary Weekend in Detroit – 1995
Fever Ray @ ABC Glasgow – 2010

peat

daviesee wrote:

Not necessarily. I was 48 when I was at the Skids gig. :oops:
Beat any show I saw in my 20s.

Good good! I shan't give up all hope just yet then.

Frank Wilson

Parliament during the 70's

And after that any of the top US soul stars that you got to see for free at the USAF base at Upper Heyford.

thegreatdivide

Frank Wilson wrote:

Parliament during the 70's

And after that any of the top US soul stars that you got to see for free at the USAF base at Upper Heyford.

Beginning to think that Frank Wilson isn't your real name ;-) However if it is then it's bang on for a soul fan

MountainMonster

I saw the Backstreet Boys when I was like 9.

Most definitely does not qualify as a great concert to me now, but back in the day it blew my mind.

capt_slog

Around 1975-76 some school mates said to come and see this band that were playing in the local cinema, they said that the lead chap used to play in Hawkwind. I sort of liked Hawkwind, so I went along. At the time the place was nearly closed as a cinema and becoming derelict, they still showed films using just the balcony

We all sat in this dingy ground floor and onto a stage that was around 12 feet across came Motorhead. They shared the small stage with the speakers making a stage that Lemmy could stride from one side to the other in one go. There were about 40 in the audience at the most, scattered around the ground floor, and he said he wasn't going to play unless we came and sat in the front seats.

I can't remember much about the music, only that he wouldn't play "Silver Machine", because there was only him out of he three of them that knew it!

But I do remember that the seats were not fastened to the floor properly, and at one point the people in them behind me managed to lean back enough to pitch over the entire row. And, that around an hour in, a lady came down to the front and stood there with a tray of ice-cream with a light on it, just as she would have done if we were watching a film. No-one dared to go and buy any, and after 5 minutes of standing in front of one of the speaker stacks she left.

Altogether a memorable and rather surreal gig.

thegreatdivide

Capt Slog wrote:

Around 1975-76 some school mates said to come and see this band that were playing in the local cinema, they said that the lead chap used to play in Hawkwind. I sort of liked Hawkwind, so I went along. At the time the place was nearly closed as a cinema and becoming derelict, they still showed films using just the balcony

We all sat in this dingy ground floor and onto a stage that was around 12 feet across came Motorhead. They shared the small stage with the speakers making a stage that Lemmy could stride from one side to the other in one go. There were about 40 in the audience at the most, scattered around the ground floor, and he said he wasn't going to play unless we came and sat in the front seats.

I can't remember much about the music, only that he wouldn't play "Silver Machine", because there was only him out of he three of them that knew it!

But I do remember that the seats were not fastened to the floor properly, and at one point the people in them behind me managed to lean back enough to pitch over the entire row. And, that around an hour in, a lady came down to the front and stood there with a tray of ice-cream with a light on it, just as she would have done if we were watching a film. No-one dared to go and buy any, and after 5 minutes of standing in front of one of the speaker stacks she left.

Altogether a memorable and rather surreal gig.

Superb!!!

daviesee

thegreatdivide wrote:

...
Red Hot Chili Peppers @ Edinburgh Mambo Club – 1990 (tiny, tiny venue)

Would have loved to have been at that one! :P

edhornby

saw Mark Ronson at the Academy when his version album had just come out and was promoting it, virtually all the artists on the album were at the gig, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, Stuart Zenden is a top musician and made the gig come alive (no Amy Winehouse, saw her at V festival when walking past the mainstage when she was on, a total mess and quite sad to see)

saw Adele at the RNCM promoting the first album and she was good - she's less kooky and more polished nowadays which is a good and bad thing...

also at the RNCM I saw John Scofield, not a big name per se but one of the best singular performances from any musician I have ever seen

of mine... I did a benefit gig for the RSPB (dinner, charity auction, evening entertainment) and the dinner main course was Duck
a pub gig so packed that you could barely move, people spilling over the monitors in the crush etc - the man with the fish basket comes through the crowd trying to sell potted shrimp, haddock etc!

shockedsoshocked

CHRISNOIR wrote:

Arctic Monkeys at (small Manchester venue) Jabez Clegg was brilliant as well. It was just before they went stratospheric and I remember fearing that the floor would give way under the bouncing crush of people.

Saw em around the same time at the Arena in Middlesbrough. They'd bussed up loads of people from Sheffield so the place was full of Yorkshire lads, me and my mate only ended up getting in cos we headed there unusually early. And they were genuinely terrible. A Queen tribute act was on afterwards with a fat Freddy Mercury and they were much better.

Saw the Libertines at the same venue when they did a secret gig which was fantastic, just before they split. On stage bust ups between the band and everything. The bassist got abuse all night for looking miserable as sin.

My most favourite gig though was Sparks in 2006 at the Lowrie in Salford with Faith No More as their band. Was my 18th birthday, and the showmanship was fantastic. They absolutely nailed every song.

Alain Quay

Sparks will always remind me of this parody http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4LYBlmQd-w

Frank Wilson

thegreatdivide wrote:

Frank Wilson wrote:

Parliament during the 70's

And after that any of the top US soul stars that you got to see for free at the USAF base at Upper Heyford.

Beginning to think that Frank Wilson isn't your real name ;-) However if it is then it's bang on for a soul fan

You are dead right, it is a pseudonym, I suppose something like Major Lance would have been too obvious

Mikey23

Ah yes, hawkwind... Saw them at dreamland in margate with my sister. It was when that rather large lady stacia was with them and she used to dance naked. Wasn't quite sure whether that was a good thing or not... And about half an hour into their set, the power supply goes and they did quite a lot of it acoustic. An acoustic hawkwind doesn't seem quite right but actually sounded rather good... And quite a rarity I would think...

Bozman

Primal Scream Exterminator Tour at Rock City Notts, balls out from start to finish.
Purely for the event rather than sound quality, the Stone Roses at Spike Island, if you were of a certain age you had to be there but it was over hyped and the sound was shite.

Pross

Not your usual gig but for pure spectacle I happened to be in London on a weekend in 1988 and a group of us managed to somehow end up with last minute tickets to Jean Michel Jarre's 'Destination Docklands' concert. I suspect it would still class as spectacular even now but back then firework displays tended to be a few rockets set off by the local Round Table on November 5th, I'd never seen anything like it before and though I've seen big displays since I don't think any have quite reached those heights. Chuck in the laser show and the sound and I doubt I'll have a better experience at a music event. Only issue was having to leave a bit early to get the last tube back from East Ham to Hounslow!

thegreatdivide

Bozman wrote:

Primal Scream Exterminator Tour at Rock City Notts, balls out from start to finish.
Purely for the event rather than sound quality, the Stone Roses at Spike Island, if you were of a certain age you had to be there but it was over hyped and the sound was shite.

I forgot about this one...Guns n Roses @ Rock City - 1987

ballysmate

Last year I went to see Alice Cooper's Halloween Show at Wolves Civic. I got into the theme by hiring a ghoulish costume. My Brother in law hired a werewolf head costume. The number of women who wanted their pic taken with 'the wolf' was incredible. So there you have it - Wolf snares pussy.