Memorable gigs

Mikey23
Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
edited August 2013 in The cake stop
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?
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  • ballysmate
    ballysmate Posts: 15,921
    Saw Deep Purple at the NEC in 1993. The gig after which, Richie Blackmore flounced off to play the lute.
  • chrisaonabike
    chrisaonabike Posts: 1,914
    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.
    Is the gorilla tired yet?
  • VTech
    VTech Posts: 4,736
    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 !
    Living MY dream.
  • mr_goo
    mr_goo Posts: 3,770
    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.
    Always be yourself, unless you can be Aaron Rodgers....Then always be Aaron Rodgers.
  • daviesee
    daviesee Posts: 6,386
    edited July 2013
    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. :(
    None of the above should be taken seriously, and certainly not personally.
  • peat
    peat Posts: 1,242
    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
    daviesee Posts: 6,386
    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.
    None of the above should be taken seriously, and certainly not personally.
  • random man
    random man Posts: 1,518
    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
    Andy525 Posts: 58
    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.
    Andy

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  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    edited July 2013
    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.

    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    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
    mudsucker Posts: 730
    I think the best gig I went to was The Chemical Brothers at Olympia in about 2010. They are amazing live!
    Bikes are OK, I guess... :-)

    2008 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp.
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    1982 Holdsworth Elan.
  • CHRISNOIR
    CHRISNOIR Posts: 1,400
    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
    thegreatdivide Posts: 5,802
    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
    peat Posts: 1,242
    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
    Frank Wilson Posts: 930
    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
    thegreatdivide Posts: 5,802
    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 :lol:
  • MountainMonster
    MountainMonster Posts: 7,423
    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
    capt_slog Posts: 3,939
    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.


    The older I get, the better I was.

  • thegreatdivide
    thegreatdivide Posts: 5,802
    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
    daviesee Posts: 6,386
    ...
    Red Hot Chili Peppers @ Edinburgh Mambo Club – 1990 (tiny, tiny venue)
    Would have loved to have been at that one! :P
    None of the above should be taken seriously, and certainly not personally.
  • edhornby
    edhornby Posts: 1,780
    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!
    "I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, how good is that"
    --Jens Voight
  • 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.
    "A cyclist has nothing to lose but his chain"

    PTP Runner Up 2015
  • Alain Quay
    Alain Quay Posts: 534
    Sparks will always remind me of this parody http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4LYBlmQd-w
  • Frank Wilson
    Frank Wilson Posts: 930
    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 :lol:

    You are dead right, it is a pseudonym, I suppose something like Major Lance would have been too obvious :)
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    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
    Bozman Posts: 2,518
    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
    Pross Posts: 40,217
    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
    thegreatdivide Posts: 5,802
    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
    ballysmate Posts: 15,921
    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.