Already mentioned my favourite show ,but seem to recall the old package tours of the 60s.once saw,The Beatles,Gerry and the Pacemakers,Roy Orbison ,Cilla black all on the same show at Woolwich \Odean,paid 7s and 6pence.
so many to choose from for best but I think Bowie at Glastonbury probably wins it, 100,000 people watching a genius at his best
also competition for worst but the winner must be a shocker I went to with @Oakster on/near Brick Lane. I can't remember who we were watching, just remember the sound quality being so appalling that it didn't matter who we were watching, the work experience sound engineer just totally wrecked it
Best - a number of Big Country gigs from 83 up to 1999. Stuart Adamson was brilliant. Always. Worst - difficult to recall really bad ones. I saw so many gigs at The Ship in Plumstead and many more at Thames Poly/Tramshed in very early 80s. Some of them were pretty bad.
I used to go to gigs at the Cellar Bar from 81-84. There were some really good ones and some terrible. I always seemed to miss the ones everyone talked about after (Echo & the Bunnymen, Wasted Youth being two). I missed the Jesus & Mary Chain there as I'd seen them at Alice in Wonderland in Soho and they were so bad I nearly nominated that as my worst gig.
Between 81-84 I was always going to gigs at the cellar bar. Saw Wasted Youth so many times but mainly at the Bridge House. Saw The Alarm at the cellar bar a few times.Remember bands like Praxis, Vaguely Divine etc. some really good times, really good gigs and some not so good. Sure we would have been at the same gigs during this time!
Yeah it was a real mixed bag. I used to work with the bassist from Praxis who went on to join the Bolshoi. And a mate who had been in Vex took over in the new version of Praxis on guitar. Played there a couple of times as well - they were probably the not so good gigs.
Thinking about it, I did see some cracking gigs there as well as some utter tosh. Remember the Alarm quite a few times including eventually they got big enough to play the hall upstairs. Conflict hundreds of times, leading to a really bizarre (and excellent) gig by the TV Personalities which had been wrongly advertised as another Conflict night and a load of anarcho-punks started heckling them, leading to them doing a 9-minute long anti-war rant based on their song King and Country, having a pop at the disco record "19". Surreal experience, it's on the "Live At Thames Poly" album from around 85.
I've seen a lot of the big acts of the last 30 years, I can count the bad gigs on one hand
I can choose a best one as generally I'll say the last gig I attended was the best, last weekend I did Chas and Dave on Friday and Noel Gallagher on the Sunday. Both of whom were faultless. I came out or both shows absolutely floating on air which is exactly the feeling you should get after a brilliant live show
In 2004 me and a mate went to see Kasabian at Brixton academy on the Friday and scored tickets for the killers on the Saturday. I think seeing kasabian do their first album in the best venue in London changed my life a bit they were that good. Then go to see this American band from Vegas who had had a couple of songs on the radio and they blew me away too!
One act that stands out as disappointing was Shaun Ryder at shepherds bush, some idiot threw a beer at him early on and he spent the rest of the night almost behind the backing singers and moaning.
Prince at the hop farm festival made me go from a plastic hits only fan to an acolyte of his
Chas and Dave never disappoint, oasis I've seen maybe 15 or 20 times and whilst I love them towards the end I got sick of the volume of piss that got thrown. Saw them twice at Wembley in 2009 so I think I was among the last to see them performance, live certainly in the UK
Kasabian are a band you have to see live, even if you are not sure of them, go along and be converted.
The foals I've seen once in Brighton and was so drunk I didn't appreciate the whole experience but I'd love to give them another go
I was lucky enough to be working in Southampton when the Arctic monkeys were touring their first album before they absolutely took off and when they walked out I thought someone was taking the piss, they all looked about 15!
I've seen burt Bacharach and mark knopfler do their thing, green day I saw for the first time in 1998 and they set fire to the drum kit and in doing so became one of my favourite bands.
Now I think of seeing them, I've seen three acts at the Miltown Keynes bowl. Oasis, Green Day and Eminem. Whilst I love Eminem, rap music is no fun live. So after much waffling.....
Best and most recent Noel Gallaghers high flying birds on Sunday in Brighton, I think it might have been the most complete performance ever,
Worst Emenem in Miltown Keynes, lesson learned about watching rappers in a stadium
Whoa, I've never met anyone who ever saw him live. Were those concerts something like 45 min back then?
From memory Buddy was on stage for about an hour, I cant remember the supporting acts but Des O'Conner was the compere, I was only 13 at the time
Must be such a great memory and I envy you enormously at having seen him, but the greatness of the experience has increased the time he played in your mind - he never did sets longer than twenty five minutes during his British tour - the rest of the show was given over to 'huge talents' like The Tanner Sisters, Gary Miller and The Ronnie Keene Orchestra.
Springsteen at Wembley in '85 was a great gig , lovely summers evening.
I have a bootleg of the 4th of July show from that stand. Opened with "Independence Day."
Since the concert has multiple nominations here, I think I might not be the only one who would like to know more about this. Video or just audio? Quality? I found a couple of clips on You Tube but just the odd song, and quality as ropey as you would expect. By contrast, I was able to assemble from You Tube his complete Prague 2012 set, my brother in law and I enjoyed it after Christmas lunch that year. So I guess it is normal now, but it is special to discover a recording of an old favourite concert where you were actually there.
Best for me Pink Floyd, The Wall Earls Court 1980 and 81. I’m not a Springsteen fan but Wembley in 85 was awesome, he must have played for 4+ hours. Some early Tangerine Dream when they were playing with Lasers was pretty awesome considering they were something really new at the time.
Trevor Rabin at Hammersmith in 77 was very memorable.
Mike Oldfield in 79 at Wembley Conference Centre was magical.
ZZ top at Wembley was a great experience.
Rush at various locations were always awesome, Neil Peart undoubtedly the best drummer I’ve ever seen.
Roger Waters in Sydney in 2012 was brilliant.
Kraftwerk in Brixton way back in the 80’s and again in Sydney in 2013 were Excellent.
The Undertones final gig at Sellout was awesome, I wasn’t a fan but boy did they entertain. I think I originally went along as Genesis were on the bill.
Genesis in 81 on my 21st Birthday with Chester Thompson and Phil Collins both on drums was something to see and hear.
Not many bad ones, but the absolute worst was Don McLean at the Orchard. As dull as dishwater and even his classics couldn’t lift a boring set in which I actually fell asleep towards the end.
Whoa, I've never met anyone who ever saw him live. Were those concerts something like 45 min back then?
From memory Buddy was on stage for about an hour, I cant remember the supporting acts but Des O'Conner was the compere, I was only 13 at the time
Must be such a great memory and I envy you enormously at having seen him, but the greatness of the experience has increased the time he played in your mind - he never did sets longer than twenty five minutes during his British tour - the rest of the show was given over to 'huge talents' like The Tanner Sisters, Gary Miller and The Ronnie Keene Orchestra.
Yes you are right, I just checked online, I don't remember Des O'Conner singing on there, to be fair I had never heard of him then and in my mind I was sure Buddy was the only act on part 2, still great memories
Best - a number of Big Country gigs from 83 up to 1999. Stuart Adamson was brilliant. Always. Worst - difficult to recall really bad ones. I saw so many gigs at The Ship in Plumstead and many more at Thames Poly/Tramshed in very early 80s. Some of them were pretty bad.
I used to go to gigs at the Cellar Bar from 81-84. There were some really good ones and some terrible. I always seemed to miss the ones everyone talked about after (Echo & the Bunnymen, Wasted Youth being two). I missed the Jesus & Mary Chain there as I'd seen them at Alice in Wonderland in Soho and they were so bad I nearly nominated that as my worst gig.
Between 81-84 I was always going to gigs at the cellar bar. Saw Wasted Youth so many times but mainly at the Bridge House. Saw The Alarm at the cellar bar a few times.Remember bands like Praxis, Vaguely Divine etc. some really good times, really good gigs and some not so good. Sure we would have been at the same gigs during this time!
Yeah it was a real mixed bag. I used to work with the bassist from Praxis who went on to join the Bolshoi. And a mate who had been in Vex took over in the new version of Praxis on guitar. Played there a couple of times as well - they were probably the not so good gigs.
Thinking about it, I did see some cracking gigs there as well as some utter tosh. Remember the Alarm quite a few times including eventually they got big enough to play the hall upstairs. Conflict hundreds of times, leading to a really bizarre (and excellent) gig by the TV Personalities which had been wrongly advertised as another Conflict night and a load of anarcho-punks started heckling them, leading to them doing a 9-minute long anti-war rant based on their song King and Country, having a pop at the disco record "19". Surreal experience, it's on the "Live At Thames Poly" album from around 85.
Springsteen at Wembley in '85 was a great gig , lovely summers evening.
I have a bootleg of the 4th of July show from that stand. Opened with "Independence Day."
Since the concert has multiple nominations here, I think I might not be the only one who would like to know more about this. Video or just audio? Quality? I found a couple of clips on You Tube but just the odd song, and quality as ropey as you would expect. By contrast, I was able to assemble from You Tube his complete Prague 2012 set, my brother in law and I enjoyed it after Christmas lunch that year. So I guess it is normal now, but it is special to discover a recording of an old favourite concert where you were actually there.
The thing about this concert for me was it was it was the first time I heard good quality loud sound at an outdoor concert. It took a few songs but during "Trapped" it suddenly felt more like a pub gig than a festival with tiny people on stage and the sound fading when the wind blew in the wrong direction.
Best - a number of Big Country gigs from 83 up to 1999. Stuart Adamson was brilliant. Always. Worst - difficult to recall really bad ones. I saw so many gigs at The Ship in Plumstead and many more at Thames Poly/Tramshed in very early 80s. Some of them were pretty bad.
I used to go to gigs at the Cellar Bar from 81-84. There were some really good ones and some terrible. I always seemed to miss the ones everyone talked about after (Echo & the Bunnymen, Wasted Youth being two). I missed the Jesus & Mary Chain there as I'd seen them at Alice in Wonderland in Soho and they were so bad I nearly nominated that as my worst gig.
Between 81-84 I was always going to gigs at the cellar bar. Saw Wasted Youth so many times but mainly at the Bridge House. Saw The Alarm at the cellar bar a few times.Remember bands like Praxis, Vaguely Divine etc. some really good times, really good gigs and some not so good. Sure we would have been at the same gigs during this time!
Yeah it was a real mixed bag. I used to work with the bassist from Praxis who went on to join the Bolshoi. And a mate who had been in Vex took over in the new version of Praxis on guitar. Played there a couple of times as well - they were probably the not so good gigs.
Thinking about it, I did see some cracking gigs there as well as some utter tosh. Remember the Alarm quite a few times including eventually they got big enough to play the hall upstairs. Conflict hundreds of times, leading to a really bizarre (and excellent) gig by the TV Personalities which had been wrongly advertised as another Conflict night and a load of anarcho-punks started heckling them, leading to them doing a 9-minute long anti-war rant based on their song King and Country, having a pop at the disco record "19". Surreal experience, it's on the "Live At Thames Poly" album from around 85.
I sense this might need to be a separate thread.
Yeah I knew nick and Keith from Praxis. Also remember Vex. Think you are right, separate thread needed. Blimey over 35 years ago!!!
Best - Queen Wembley '86. Absolutely at their peak live after resurrecting themselves at Live Aid the year before.
Worst - David Bowie Wembley '87 The Glass Spider Tour - A load of theatrical crap and I'm a massive Bowie fan.
With you on the Bowie spider thingy, was there too... Best was Steely Dan 2007 at Caversham winery Perth, followed closely by Gilberto Gill 1987 at Hammersmith Le Pale, Stevie Wonder 2012 at Margaret River W. Australia and Ray Charles 1982 Tel Aviv
Best one: Massive Attack, Midtfyns Festival (Denmark) 1998 Blew me away. Might have been a combination of things that you do (or take) on festivals, but it was on a different level.
Worst one: New Order, Wembley Arena 2006 Boring. Wanted to leave early and go to the pub.
Best: Chaz and Dave at Camberley 2017. I quite like their stuff, for a bit of old fashioned fun. I got brought tickets for my Birthday and went along open minded. Given their ages, and health problems they totally nailed it. Not one person in the theatre was in their seat by the end. Great, funny interaction with the crowd.
Worst: oasis 2000 at Birmingham. Poor. They were MUCH better on the other 2 occasions that I saw them.
Up there with the best gig I've seen is Lee Fields & The Expressions at The Electric Ballroom. The worst? Joint tie with the three times I've seen Van Morrison. Should really have learnt my lesson after the second time.
Went to a few gigs in the late 70s/early 80s where the atmosphere was a bit charged due to a high contingent of skinheads. Wasn't always that relaxing....
I had never heard of Nathan Carter until a friend told me what a great show he put on,so I went to see him at chatham Central Hall a few weeks ago,supported by a superb duo,The Haley sisters.This Young Irishman is a sensation,cant wait for his next tour.
Does anyone recall the 2 K club in Charlton Village.Albert Lee,Jimmy Page,Joe Brown,Acker Bilk,Brian Poole and many others all played there at the start of their careers,what great times.
Springsteen at Wembley in '85 was a great gig , lovely summers evening.
I have a bootleg of the 4th of July show from that stand. Opened with "Independence Day."
Since the concert has multiple nominations here, I think I might not be the only one who would like to know more about this. Video or just audio? Quality? I found a couple of clips on You Tube but just the odd song, and quality as ropey as you would expect. By contrast, I was able to assemble from You Tube his complete Prague 2012 set, my brother in law and I enjoyed it after Christmas lunch that year. So I guess it is normal now, but it is special to discover a recording of an old favourite concert where you were actually there.
The whole concert. Was recorded from the audience. I will have to hunt it down, but I first got it almost 30 years ago. At the time it was considered an "excellent" sound recording but the in the last 15-20 years recordings have become so much better that I am not sure what to rate it now.
EDIT: Here is the whole audio I have on YouTube of the show. The CDs apparently can be bought with a little searching online.
Does anyone recall the 2 K club in Charlton Village.Albert Lee,Jimmy Page,Joe Brown,Acker Bilk,Brian Poole and many others all played there at the start of their careers,what great times.
I don't remember the 2K club, would have loved to have seen Albert Lee or Jimmy Page there
Best: Springsteen - Newark, New Jersey - A few years back - I'm sure it wasn't on par with those mid 70s to mid 80s concerts - but I finally got to see him (on home turf also) and he was excellent. Pogues - Brixton late 80s - shambolic but brilliant. The Levellers - Glastonbury early 90s - frightening!
Worst: Dylan - Finsbury Park 93 - so bad we laughed. Happy Mondays - Glastonbury 90 - shambolic - I read some time after that they don't remember being there - unfortunately I can't say the same! Beiber - Denver, a few years back - my kids made me do it - technically it was probably a good concert - he did exactly what was expected of him - but if you don't like him or his music, that's no consolation. Add the 160 mile round trip drive at the expense of an hour of skiing and you get the picture. A long evening!
Best: Springsteen - Newark, New Jersey - A few years back - I'm sure it wasn't on par with those mid 70s to mid 80s concerts - but I finally got to see him (on home turf also) and he was excellent. Pogues - Brixton late 80s - shambolic but brilliant. The Levellers - Glastonbury early 90s - frightening!
Worst: Dylan - Finsbury Park 93 - so bad we laughed. Happy Mondays - Glastonbury 90 - shambolic - I read some time after that they don't remember being there - unfortunately I can't say the same! Beiber - Denver, a few years back - my kids made me do it - technically it was probably a good concert - he did exactly what was expected of him - but if you don't like him or his music, that's no consolation. Add the 160 mile round trip drive at the expense of an hour of skiing and you get the picture. A long evening!
Was the Dylan gig the same one when The Who & Clapton were on the same bill? He wasn’t great that day.
I was at Glastonbury in 90 too. Am a big fan of the Mondays but they were awful that night. We’d had trouble getting hold of decent narcotics that weekend and bought some trips of a random bird. Assumed they would be weak so me and @Les Berrys Tash necked 2 of them. About 30 minutes later we realised they weren’t shit and were wankered for hours. The Cure were fantastic the following night though.
Comments
Ian Dury and the Blockgeads were another terrible supporting act for either Weller or Madness, can't remember which
also competition for worst but the winner must be a shocker I went to with @Oakster on/near Brick Lane. I can't remember who we were watching, just remember the sound quality being so appalling that it didn't matter who we were watching, the work experience sound engineer just totally wrecked it
Thinking about it, I did see some cracking gigs there as well as some utter tosh. Remember the Alarm quite a few times including eventually they got big enough to play the hall upstairs. Conflict hundreds of times, leading to a really bizarre (and excellent) gig by the TV Personalities which had been wrongly advertised as another Conflict night and a load of anarcho-punks started heckling them, leading to them doing a 9-minute long anti-war rant based on their song King and Country, having a pop at the disco record "19". Surreal experience, it's on the "Live At Thames Poly" album from around 85.
I sense this might need to be a separate thread.
I can choose a best one as generally I'll say the last gig I attended was the best, last weekend I did Chas and Dave on Friday and Noel Gallagher on the Sunday. Both of whom were faultless. I came out or both shows absolutely floating on air which is exactly the feeling you should get after a brilliant live show
In 2004 me and a mate went to see Kasabian at Brixton academy on the Friday and scored tickets for the killers on the Saturday. I think seeing kasabian do their first album in the best venue in London changed my life a bit they were that good. Then go to see this American band from Vegas who had had a couple of songs on the radio and they blew me away too!
One act that stands out as disappointing was Shaun Ryder at shepherds bush, some idiot threw a beer at him early on and he spent the rest of the night almost behind the backing singers and moaning.
Prince at the hop farm festival made me go from a plastic hits only fan to an acolyte of his
Chas and Dave never disappoint, oasis I've seen maybe 15 or 20 times and whilst I love them towards the end I got sick of the volume of piss that got thrown. Saw them twice at Wembley in 2009 so I think I was among the last to see them performance, live certainly in the UK
Kasabian are a band you have to see live, even if you are not sure of them, go along and be converted.
The foals I've seen once in Brighton and was so drunk I didn't appreciate the whole experience but I'd love to give them another go
I was lucky enough to be working in Southampton when the Arctic monkeys were touring their first album before they absolutely took off and when they walked out I thought someone was taking the piss, they all looked about 15!
I've seen burt Bacharach and mark knopfler do their thing, green day I saw for the first time in 1998 and they set fire to the drum kit and in doing so became one of my favourite bands.
Now I think of seeing them, I've seen three acts at the Miltown Keynes bowl. Oasis, Green Day and Eminem. Whilst I love Eminem, rap music is no fun live. So after much waffling.....
Best and most recent Noel Gallaghers high flying birds on Sunday in Brighton, I think it might have been the most complete performance ever,
Worst Emenem in Miltown Keynes, lesson learned about watching rappers in a stadium
Some early Tangerine Dream when they were playing with Lasers was pretty awesome considering they were something really new at the time.
Trevor Rabin at Hammersmith in 77 was very memorable.
Mike Oldfield in 79 at Wembley Conference Centre was magical.
ZZ top at Wembley was a great experience.
Rush at various locations were always awesome, Neil Peart undoubtedly the best drummer I’ve ever seen.
Roger Waters in Sydney in 2012 was brilliant.
Kraftwerk in Brixton way back in the 80’s and again in Sydney in 2013 were Excellent.
The Undertones final gig at Sellout was awesome, I wasn’t a fan but boy did they entertain. I think I originally went along as Genesis were on the bill.
Genesis in 81 on my 21st Birthday with Chester Thompson and Phil Collins both on drums was something to see and hear.
Not many bad ones, but the absolute worst was Don McLean at the Orchard. As dull as dishwater and even his classics couldn’t lift a boring set in which I actually fell asleep towards the end.
Best was Steely Dan 2007 at Caversham winery Perth, followed closely by Gilberto Gill 1987 at Hammersmith Le Pale, Stevie Wonder 2012 at Margaret River W. Australia and Ray Charles 1982 Tel Aviv
Massive Attack, Midtfyns Festival (Denmark) 1998
Blew me away. Might have been a combination of things that you do (or take) on festivals, but it was on a different level.
Worst one:
New Order, Wembley Arena 2006
Boring. Wanted to leave early and go to the pub.
Worst: oasis 2000 at Birmingham. Poor. They were MUCH better on the other 2 occasions that I saw them.
Worst = Luke Bryan (Wrigley Field Chicago)
EDIT: Here is the whole audio I have on YouTube of the show. The CDs apparently can be bought with a little searching online.
Worst - Luther Vandross about 1988 at Wembley Arena
Worst: Dylan - Finsbury Park 93 - so bad we laughed. Happy Mondays - Glastonbury 90 - shambolic - I read some time after that they don't remember being there - unfortunately I can't say the same! Beiber - Denver, a few years back - my kids made me do it - technically it was probably a good concert - he did exactly what was expected of him - but if you don't like him or his music, that's no consolation. Add the 160 mile round trip drive at the expense of an hour of skiing and you get the picture. A long evening!
I was at Glastonbury in 90 too. Am a big fan of the Mondays but they were awful that night. We’d had trouble getting hold of decent narcotics that weekend and bought some trips of a random bird. Assumed they would be weak so me and @Les Berrys Tash necked 2 of them. About 30 minutes later we realised they weren’t shit and were wankered for hours. The Cure were fantastic the following night though.