| Best and worst gigs you've attended 16:39 - Apr 7 with 22820 views | QPRSteve |
For me, my best gig has to be Thin Lizzy at the Marquee in the early 70's. A rumour went round that Gary Moore (then of Skid Row) was filling in for Eric Bell who was ill. I later heard there was around 900 people there in a club that was only supposed to hold around 300. Fantastic atmosphere.
A close second was seeing a then unknown Clannad performing in the foyer of Wandsworth Town Hall to an audience of no more than around 20.
Worst gig has to be Devo at the then Hammersmith Odeon that a friend persuaded me to take my girlfriend to. Spent most of the concert watching them on a screen before they finally graced us with their presence on stage for a whole 20 minutes! What a pile of crap they were too. |  | | |  |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 16:49 - Apr 7 with 9127 views | BrianMcCarthy |
Best: Stone Roses at the Ally Pally. Their first gig in the South and just before they broke through. That was the beginning of a new indie wave that night, one that was halfways towards dance and the place was mobbed, mostly due to coach loads from up North.
Cracking night even though the sound was godawful and Brown never could sing live, and I might've been the only one there not off my face.
Worst: I've seen hundreds and hundreds of gigs so I've seen some dross. If I had to go for a name it would be Van Morrison at the Point in Dublin. The ar€sehole was so lazy he got one of the band to do all the talking and intros. I walked out before the end. |  |
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 16:53 - Apr 7 with 9119 views | BlackCrowe |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 16:49 - Apr 7 by BrianMcCarthy |
Best: Stone Roses at the Ally Pally. Their first gig in the South and just before they broke through. That was the beginning of a new indie wave that night, one that was halfways towards dance and the place was mobbed, mostly due to coach loads from up North.
Cracking night even though the sound was godawful and Brown never could sing live, and I might've been the only one there not off my face.
Worst: I've seen hundreds and hundreds of gigs so I've seen some dross. If I had to go for a name it would be Van Morrison at the Point in Dublin. The ar€sehole was so lazy he got one of the band to do all the talking and intros. I walked out before the end. |
Best is impossible to keep down to just one. i could probably manage five.
Worst is easy. M People at Wembley. i didn't want to go anyway as i really didn't like them, but felt obliged to as a client invited me - utter banal crap, with an audience to match (apols to any M People fans reading this). |  |
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 16:57 - Apr 7 with 9114 views | MrSheen |
Best: Talking Heads at the Hammersmith Palais in late 1980. I got so hot I thought I might die. Their support was some up-and-comers called U2, who to be fair were also absolutely sensational.
Worst: Crass came to play a free festival in Gladstone Park, across the road from my house. Only about 100 people showed up, and when it started to drizzle two minutes before they were due to go on, they pulled out. |  | | |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 17:11 - Apr 7 with 9089 views | johncharles |
14 Hour Technicolour Dream at the Alley Palace. In true 60’s style I really don’t remember much about. I remember getting separated from my girlfriend and then amazingly finding each other again
I remember being in love. |  |
| Strong and stable my arse. |
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 17:16 - Apr 7 with 9074 views | stowmarketrange |
Possibly one of the best was Oasis and several others at knebworth.The 3 hour wait in the beer queue ensured I was almost sober enough to remember most of the day.
Choice of two for worst.Simply Red at Wembley stadium in 92,or being 4 rows from the front at Wembley arena for wet wet wet.I lasted 2 songs before leaving my wife to it and spending the rest of the time in the bar. |  | | |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 17:24 - Apr 7 with 9047 views | charmr |
Brilliant idea for a thread
Up there is the Idles here in Baltimore not that long ago, blew me away. Immense Rock and Roll show.
Most disappointing was the smiths at Brixton Academy. Think it was one of their last gigs before Johnny pulled the plug. Makes sense now
Honorable mention, James also at Brixton Academy. The band couldn’t start playing their next song(s) because the audience wouldn’t stop cheering and clapping after they finished their Previous song. Hairs on the back of the neck stuff. [Post edited 7 Apr 2020 17:28]
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 17:36 - Apr 7 with 9016 views | BrianMcCarthy |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 17:24 - Apr 7 by charmr |
Brilliant idea for a thread
Up there is the Idles here in Baltimore not that long ago, blew me away. Immense Rock and Roll show.
Most disappointing was the smiths at Brixton Academy. Think it was one of their last gigs before Johnny pulled the plug. Makes sense now
Honorable mention, James also at Brixton Academy. The band couldn’t start playing their next song(s) because the audience wouldn’t stop cheering and clapping after they finished their Previous song. Hairs on the back of the neck stuff. [Post edited 7 Apr 2020 17:28]
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I only owned a few James songs but a gang of us would see them live when we could. They were excellent live. | |
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 17:44 - Apr 7 with 9004 views | stowmarketrange |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 17:36 - Apr 7 by BrianMcCarthy |
I only owned a few James songs but a gang of us would see them live when we could. They were excellent live. |
They still are Brian.I saw them recently and they were fantastic. | | | |
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 17:59 - Apr 7 with 8970 views | NorthantsHoop |
Most iconic gig seeing the gods of rock Led Zeppelin aged 15 at Knebworth in August 1979. Best gig AC/DC Highway to Hell tour November 1979 at Hammersmith Odeon. Probably worse/most disappointing gig New Order at Brixton Academy and Supertramp at the 02. |  | | |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 18:18 - Apr 7 with 8924 views | Boston |
Every band has good and bad nights. Attended 100’s of ‘em when I was young, rarely enjoyed the bigger gigs as much as at a smaller venue. One larger event that I thought was stunning(I had good seats mind), Alice Cooper at Wembley Pool(as we used to call it), but for sheer raucous nonsense, those punk rock melees in 1977! | |
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 18:27 - Apr 7 with 8906 views | QPRSteve |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 17:59 - Apr 7 by NorthantsHoop |
Most iconic gig seeing the gods of rock Led Zeppelin aged 15 at Knebworth in August 1979. Best gig AC/DC Highway to Hell tour November 1979 at Hammersmith Odeon. Probably worse/most disappointing gig New Order at Brixton Academy and Supertramp at the 02. |
I remember me and a mate popping into the Red Cow on Hammersmith Road one day when we had nothing better to do. Turned out the band on that night was a bunch on unknowns from Australia called AC/DC.  | | | |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 18:28 - Apr 7 with 8905 views | BostonR |
Difficult.
Two best:
AC/DC: Powerage Tour - Hammersmith Odeon, opening with Riff Raff!
ZZ Top : El Loco Tour Hammersmith Odeon. The most raucous audience I have ever seen.
Worst -A painful evening watching Lionel Ritchie - I nearly died. |  | | |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 18:37 - Apr 7 with 8890 views | qpr_1968 |
best gig....smack bang in the middle of the 1976 drought, july I think, at Cardiff castle, no other than status quo......absolutely sensational that night.
the bands came on at 2.30...and ended with status quo.
the other bands on with them that day were hawkwind, budgie, and the strawbs..there was one other that I cant recall.
worse concert.....not because they were rubbish, but because I sold my ticket, gutted.
led zeppelin at earls court, '75 I think. | |
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 18:43 - Apr 7 with 8880 views | ted_hendrix |
I've got numerous best gigs but the one that stands out (just) was the band Free early Seventies, they were fcing awesome as was the late Paul Kossoff their guitarist, he 'owned' his fretboard and could hold a note, bend it, trill it for as long as he saw fit, a true blues guitarist.
None of the following gigs disappointed and all stood out; ZZ Top (Brixton Academy) Hawkwind (Reading Top Rank) AC/DC (Wembley Stadium) Ten Years After (Reading Uni) Rolling Stones (Wembley & Twickers). Ray Davies (one man show) had a backing band and he/they sang all of the Kinks songs, in between songs though Ray would tell stories about the Kinks, it wasn't what I was expecting but turned out to be a brilliant evening. (Who the fck don't love the legendary Kinks?) special mention for Dave Gilmour and Joe Walsh who I saw at the Strat Pack Wembley arena).
Worst Gigs.
Velvet Revolver at the Hammersmith Apollo, disappointing sound and all round gig, happy enough to have seen Slash live but the gig was a huge let down.
Bob Dylan, I'm a massive fan of his but his gig at Wembley Arena wasn't that great, his backing band were bloody good but Dylan himself seemed to be going through the motions and you kind of felt he didn't want to be there.
Clannad or Enya or whatever they are called at Readings Hexagon, bit of a family get together at a gig so I went to 'keep the peace' After sitting through the first two songs of someone warbling about trees and dolphins I walked out. Each to their own and all that but it was agony. Plenty of verbals from the Missus on the way home which sounded much better than the gig. |  |
| My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic. |
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 18:55 - Apr 7 with 8857 views | Juzzie |
Working for a record company, particular through the 90's, I was going to an average of 1 gig a fortnight. A lot to choose from!
Best? wow, so many but honourable mentions to Soundgarden at the Kentish Town Forum, gigs by Therapy?, GUN, Senser, Dodgy, Bryan Adams, Sting, The Bluetones, Extreme, Madness, Specials , Prodigy all around London but there were so many others too.
Went to a few stadium gigs (Police, Who, Tina Turner, U2, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith & Chris Cornell, etc) but it was more about being there .
Worst?.... Only one winner. Guns 'n Roses at the Hammersmith Apollo, It wasn't really GnR, it was Axl and Slash with a bunch of session musicians, all of them well past their best and looked like they didn’t want to be there.
They started and hour and a half late, many people had already left including my mate who had to get the last train home, the songs were awful, the guy on the piano did a 15 minute self indulgent look-at-me-I-can-play-the-piano set which bored the pants off everyone. Just as it was about to get worse they suddenly decided to do a few of their hits (Paradise City etc) which went down really well then it was over.
Truly awful. Thank god I didn't pay for the tickets and it was only 25 minute motorbike ride home for a much needed beer.
edit: Biggest regret...... Gun's 'n Roses at the old Wembley stadium just as they came into their prime. Could have gone, just didn't for reasons I have no idea. Made the gig at the Hammersmith Apollo above even more dissapointing.
[Post edited 8 Apr 2020 11:52]
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 19:06 - Apr 7 with 8817 views | Ned_Kennedys |
I love going to gigs: missing them at the moment.
Rammstein last year at Milton Keynes was spectacular.
Guns N Roses/Faster Pussycat/Quire Boys at Hammie Odeon just as G N R were breaking big.
Ice Cube at some dance festival in Brighton a few years back: he's not lost it.
About half a dozen Prodigy gigs over the years: RIP Keith.
U2 at Glastonbury about 10 years ago were dull as can be.
Can't think of many others where I didn't enjoy myself. |  | | |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 19:10 - Apr 7 with 8822 views | WrightUp5hit___ |
Best: Jeff Beck (with Tim Bogart and Carmine Appice) at Imperial college around 1973. Awestruck teenager watches rock god with awesome backing tear it up.
Who knows how good it was but good enough for me to be talking about it nearly fifty years later
Worst: George Benson at the Royal Albert Hall just last year. Not due to the artist but the audience. George started the set playing some wondrous instrumentals from his back catalogue (people forget how sublime he is as a guitarist) but then he started trying to sing and the voice just wasn't there. He apologised that he had picked up a throat infection. that didn't go down well with part of the audience who were barracking that they had paid to hear the hits. Lots started walking out George tried a few more instrumentals (again superb guitar playing) but the idiot part of the audience just didn't get it and carried on heckling. Show stopped, embarassing.
London audiences can be so tough. |  | | |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 19:21 - Apr 7 with 8803 views | colinallcars |
Best - the Jeff Beck group with Rod Stewart singing and Mick Waller on drums and Ronnie Wood on bass at the Marquee in I think 1968.
Worst - Kilburn and The Highroads at the 100 club early seventies. |  | | |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 19:54 - Apr 7 with 8759 views | derbyhoop |
Foals at Sheffield, with support from Everything, Everything about 3 years ago. Close 2nd Led Zep at Wembley Arena around 1973/4. Support from Stone The Crows, with the sensational Maggie Bell; plus Home.
Live 8 was good but Madonna, Velvet Revolver and McCartney weren't great.
Worst was probably PJ Harvey at Manchester Apollo. She played all of Let England Shake, but not sure she spoke 10 words all night. |  |
| "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)
Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky |
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 20:07 - Apr 7 with 8728 views | plasmahoop |
Best was the who at Wembley, worst was the beautiful south. My ex wife was keen on them. The saving grace was that she'd seven were in support, and they were great. Another bad one was van Morrison, paid loads to see them, he did about 20 minutes then pissed off. Terrible | | | |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 20:15 - Apr 7 with 8717 views | hantssi |
I was at Knebworth in ‘79 as well Northants!
Been to a lot of good gigs but best probably either The Christians at the Riverside Leisure Centre in Reading late ‘80’s or Deacon Blue at Wembley in the early ‘90’s.
Worst by a mile, Plan B at Victorious last year, a white bloke trying to be a black rapper and failing miserably. I left and went to the craft beer tent for a decent pint and listened to a really good country band.
An honourable mention must go to Basement Jaxx for the most eclectic gig but entertaining gig I’ve seen. | | | |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 21:04 - Apr 7 with 8620 views | Tonto |
James are bloody good live, but only get an honourable mention from me, as do Carter USM, Killers, Shed 7, GUN and Kasabian. But the best for me was Inxs. Seen them quite a few times but the best was Summer XS at Wembley. A bit of a festival with them as the headliner. Top day and Inxs really could play. Hutchience was a great front man.
Worst concert was Depeche mode at London stadium. Am a massive DM fan and seen them at least 10 times and usually they are good, but the sound was off big style. There was an echo and it completely ruined it. Massive disappointment although not of the band's making. |  |
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 21:10 - Apr 7 with 8608 views | qprxtc |
Best - XTC. Never actually saw them as I was 12 in 1982 when they knocked playing live on the head, but they would have been.
Worst - XTC. Because that plum Partridge cried off playing live before I got to see them. Bet they’d have been crap. |  | | |
| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 21:10 - Apr 7 with 8607 views | johncharles |
Liverpool Empire 1966, big package tour including The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Animals and Chris Farlow and the Thunderbirds who was sensational.
Michael Bloomfield on guitar with Paul Butterfield. Guitar hero or what ??????? | |
| Strong and stable my arse. |
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| Best and worst gigs you've attended on 21:16 - Apr 7 with 8592 views | easthertsr |
Deep Purple Rainbow Finsbury Park early seventies just absolutely fu*kin brilliant and the loudest thing I've ever heard! X) | | | |
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