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Worst live acts you have seen

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  • CatAddick
    CatAddick Posts: 2,385
    Lenny Kravitz and The Prodigy at Wembley Arena (not at the same time....). Left both gigs early.  Wondering if its a venue thing as neither Wembleys score high on my (gig) best list
  • fadgadget
    fadgadget Posts: 1,392
    Not because of the music, but Destination Docklands the open air concert put on by Jean-Michel Jarre in Beckton in October 1988 will chiefly be remembered for the freezing rain that fell that evening!

    I Was there , hours standing around in the pissing rain for most of the day and they nearly pulled the plug because the stage was on a pontoon in the docks and it was getting a bit choppy out there . ( still got my t shirt and ticket stub )
  • fadgadget
    fadgadget Posts: 1,392
    kafka said:
    Can’t agree on Sparks, but Destination Docklands was a few lights 2miles away in the rain. A real borefest 

    Agree , i saw Sparks a couple of years ago the Hippotomus tour , best gig for a few years .
  • Covered End
    Covered End Posts: 52,006
    The Cult Finsbury Park.  They got booed, told the audience to fuck off & I can't recall if they walked off or not.

    Marilyn Manson Brixton Academy - a fan probably  would have enjoyed, but he just screamed & screeched all the way through. 

    Morrissey   Alexander Palace just boring.

    Of Mice and Men - Brixton Academy - I bought the wrong tickets should have been Of Monsters and Men who are not so heavy.
  • Gerry Sadowitz stand up used to be very hit and miss. He invariably insulted nearly everybody but he was never boring. He had a gift for self destruction.


  • Anna_Kissed
    Anna_Kissed Posts: 3,302
    edited November 2020
    Re. Jean-Michel Jarre. I was in the vicinity, mooching about, trying to find a vantage point. Desolation. No vantage point. A faint sound. Lots of rain. Disappointment Docklands.
  • charltonbob
    charltonbob Posts: 8,259
    edited November 2020
    MrWalker said:
    Not because of the music, but Destination Docklands the open air concert put on by Jean-Michel Jarre in Beckton in October 1988 will chiefly be remembered for the freezing rain that fell that evening!


    I remember that. We was at an Acid House warehouse do up the river. Which I’m sure was a lot better
    I love your description of the event you went to as a, 'do'.
    Doesn't everyone describe a do as a do ? I do

  • iaitch
    iaitch Posts: 10,230
    Is 'Do I do' by Stevie Wonder your favourite song? 
  • TEL said:
    Don McLean....borefest at the Orchard Dartford
    Was that the day that music died? ;)
  • U2 and Echo and The Bunnymen, both at the Lyceum Ballroom on the Strand around 1978/79.  Both boring.

    Two others that stand out, not for how bad the performances were though.  Joan Armourplating at Blackbushe Aerodrome was totally the wrong act to have along side Graham Parker, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan.  The other was The Stone Roses at Ally Pally.  The sound was appalling.
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  • MrOneLung said:
    Someone I worked  with saw Kajagoogoo back in the day, and in their 10 song gig they opened with Too Shy, closed with Too Shy then did an encore of Too Shy 
    At the height of Kajagoogoo's fame, Limahl's sister's best friend's cousin's boyfriend was

    drum roll please

    me.
  • MrOneLung said:
    Someone I worked  with saw Kajagoogoo back in the day, and in their 10 song gig they opened with Too Shy, closed with Too Shy then did an encore of Too Shy 
    At the height of Kajagoogoo's fame, Limahl's sister's best friend's cousin's boyfriend was

    drum roll please

    me.
    Did you have the same haircut?
  • usetobunkin
    usetobunkin Posts: 2,184
    Ed Stewart, Lewisham Theatre, as a Pantomime Dame, Just terrible. Forgot lines and just plain uninterested.
    Some time later he went into MaccyDs and  effed and blind at a poor girl behind the jump.

  • Wheresmeticket
    Wheresmeticket Posts: 17,304
    edited November 2020
    Whitney Houston, Wembley Arena, early 90's I think, truly awful, she was high as a kite, voice was gone and spent most of the time wittering on incoherently about religion.... what a waste of an incredible talent.

    Bob Monkhouse in Watford on a works do, never liked the guy anyway, but live was just so bad, the least funny 'comedian' I have ever seen, and I've seen Gina Yashere.......
    I was a flyman at Her Majesty's theatre in the early 90s when Monkhouse did a corporate gig there on a Sunday - lots of extra money for us but he was such an obnoxious shitehouse I wanted to drop a lighting bar on his head and put us all out of his misery.
    What’s a “flyman” ?
    It's one of the people who operate the counterweight system that makes the scenery come in from above the stage - almost all automated now, but then it was a bunch of (usually) blokes at a long rack of ropes and pulleys and you heave on the ropes until you hit your mark - if you overshoot you crash a piece of scenery into the stage (some of them are a ton or two in weight) scaring the shit out of the actors and getting told off by the stage manager...Flymen used to be considered to be semihousetrained animals with a reputation for drunkeness and debauchery, we lived on a gantry about 50 feet above the stage in our own dimly lit little world...

    Her Majestys Theatre - Historic Theatre Photography
    This is the only photo I can find - during the set up before the audience come in.  I worked on Phantom of the Opera for 5 years....I used to have the music in my head when i went to bed.  It was awful.
  • MrOneLung
    MrOneLung Posts: 26,853
    Ben Hur Live at The O2

    took my parents and wife’s mum as big fans of the film

    other than the chariot race a complete pile of poo. 


  • Wheresmeticket
    Wheresmeticket Posts: 17,304
    edited November 2020
    I'm sorry to say Van Morrison at Plymouth about 3 years ago.  He hardly sang - just stood morosely in front of his team of competent but dull session musicians while they did barely recognisable funk versions of his lesser known hits.  If I remember Moondance went on for about 10 minutes and he sang for about 2 of them in the middle then everyone had to pretend to enjoy his terrible saxophone noodling...
  • Chippycafc
    Chippycafc Posts: 14,147
    Has anyone ever seen Amy Winehouse? I loved her music but her gigs always looked an utter shambles.

    I have seen her but not singing, a few years ago I went to the IOW for a few days and I didn't know the IOW festival was on. I was having an evening meal in a hotel in Newport and she came in with he entourage and sat at the bar and had a drink. She was lovely to other drinkers and had time to have a picture and give autographs, to be fair there wasn't that many people in the bar. Wish I had the balls to go up and ask now.
  • Has anyone ever seen Amy Winehouse? I loved her music but her gigs always looked an utter shambles.

    I have seen her but not singing, a few years ago I went to the IOW for a few days and I didn't know the IOW festival was on. I was having an evening meal in a hotel in Newport and she came in with he entourage and sat at the bar and had a drink. She was lovely to other drinkers and had time to have a picture and give autographs, to be fair there wasn't that many people in the bar. Wish I had the balls to go up and ask now.
    She always struck me as a really nice person with a f***ed up life. So sad she died so young.
  • Miranda Hart’s attempt at stand up comedy. I won tickets at work for their box at the 02 and took the Wife.

    She had this game where if you had to get up to go to the toilet you had to gallop like a horse (because apparently the word gallop is funny). This big Ross Kemp lookalike gets up and she screams ‘GALLOP!’. He turns round, gives her the finger and doesn’t come back.

    We left after 30 minutes. Not even the free booze numbed the pain.
    First prize two tickets to see Miranda Hart, second prize four tickets to see Miranda Hart.
  • Not because of the music, but Destination Docklands the open air concert put on by Jean-Michel Jarre in Beckton in October 1988 will chiefly be remembered for the freezing rain that fell that evening!


    I remember that. We was at an Acid House warehouse do up the river. Which I’m sure was a lot better
    Out of interest which acid party was it?
    Pretty sure it was called Apocolypse Now. One off ted type rave do. We were pretty early at the table my lot so by then we were already a year in. I was a member of Shoom and Spectrum, went to Boys Own, Future, Kazoo, etc years ago,  still pop out to things a couple of times a year (Faith, Boys Own)
    Genesis did an apocalypse now at the time so it was probably that , the bloke didn’t have much cash but got a load of cargo nets cheap from an army surplus.
    if you’ve not already read it have a look out for “class of 88” by Wayne Anthony, it should bring back some memories for you judging by your old haunts
    I am more than impressed that you can both remember where you went.
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  • Saga Lout
    Saga Lout Posts: 6,845
    fadgadget said:
    kafka said:
    Can’t agree on Sparks, but Destination Docklands was a few lights 2miles away in the rain. A real borefest 

    Agree , i saw Sparks a couple of years ago the Hippotomus tour , best gig for a few years .
    Well, They must've improved. ;-)
  • shine166
    shine166 Posts: 13,918
    Sticky vicky 
  • eastterrace6168
    eastterrace6168 Posts: 22,525
    edited November 2020
    Black Sabbath at Hammersmith Odeon in the 70's, Ozzy was pissed music was loud and unless you knew the songs couldn't understand a word he sung.

    The back up band called Bandylegs were fantastic but never heard from them again. In fact they did a couple of encores. which back up bands rarely do.

    Just found out by a colleague they changed their name to Quartz, and I have a couple of their albums, didn't know they changed their name.
    I think Ozzy being pissed is all part of the act ;)

  • DOUCHER
    DOUCHER Posts: 7,899
    primal scream - brixton about 8 years ago - reinforced they have 3 great tunes, the rest is pure durge and happy mondays circa 1990 - they had a fight on stage and were shit thereafter - shame coz i like/d em    
  • Sillybilly
    Sillybilly Posts: 9,236

    Two threads. One man. Best gig John Martyn 1982 with Danny Thompson. Glasgow somewhere. Mesmeric. Worst gig. 1983. John Martyn. Glasgow somewhere. Walked (that’s exaggerating) on stage. Sat on a stool. Said something like “shlweempthdnb”. Fell off stool. Crawled offstage. Announcement “sorry folks Mr Martyn is unwell”.   Legend. RIP big Muff. 
  • Covered End
    Covered End Posts: 52,006
    edited November 2020
    Re. Jean-Michel Jarre. I was in the vicinity, mooching about, trying to find a vantage point. Desolation. No vantage point. A faint sound. Lots of rain. Disappointment Docklands.
    Probably not Jean-Michel Jarre being a bad act, more that you didn't pay for admission.
  • Spitfire76
    Spitfire76 Posts: 1,136
    Not because of the music, but Destination Docklands the open air concert put on by Jean-Michel Jarre in Beckton in October 1988 will chiefly be remembered for the freezing rain that fell that evening!


    I remember that. We was at an Acid House warehouse do up the river. Which I’m sure was a lot better
    Out of interest which acid party was it?
    Pretty sure it was called Apocolypse Now. One off ted type rave do. We were pretty early at the table my lot so by then we were already a year in. I was a member of Shoom and Spectrum, went to Boys Own, Future, Kazoo, etc years ago,  still pop out to things a couple of times a year (Faith, Boys Own)
    Genesis did an apocalypse now at the time so it was probably that , the bloke didn’t have much cash but got a load of cargo nets cheap from an army surplus.
    if you’ve not already read it have a look out for “class of 88” by Wayne Anthony, it should bring back some memories for you judging by your old haunts
    I am more than impressed that you can both remember where you went.
    I read a lot of books on it trying to fill in the many many blanks!
  • Bob Dylan - Brixton and it was the first time I’d seen him.
  • PopIcon
    PopIcon Posts: 5,970
    The Stone Roses never failed to disappoint on the few occasions I saw them.
  • I was at the Live 8 concert at Hyde Park and Peter Doherty stunk the whole place out with Elton John for their 1 song. He could barely string 2 words together