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Saw Chaka Khan at MCR Apollo half a lifetime ago, she was pissed.
I feel for you.
Primal Scream at the Barrowlands. Absolutely mind numbingly dreadful. I clearly got the benefit of a pissed or stoned Bobby Gillespie. Or both. He was bloody shambolic. Out of time and forgetting lyrics. Only went because Alabama 3 were the support act. They were bloody brilliant.
Aerosmith at the SEC. Average performance, terrible venue.
Soundgarden at the Barrowlands supported by Moby were absolutely tremendous on the other hand. Possibly my best ever gig along with Eels at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. The gig was preceded by a documentary on E’s father who came up with the many worlds interpretation within quantum theory. It was a very special evening indeed.
Reef were terrific too every time I saw them live.
Oh and Hipsway performing their first album at St Lukes in the Calton. Top night out.
Is that a reference to Hugh Dennis a la The Mary Whitehouse Experience on Radio 1 many moons ago?
Cheers
Sanny
Heaton Park and Etihad. I actually thought Heaton park they were musically better than in 1990.
Agreed.
@Sanny wins not dissing Eels , Moby , Hipsway and Alabama 3 all total quality .
Possibly my best ever gig along with Eels at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. The gig was preceded by a documentary on E’s father who came up with the many worlds interpretation within quantum theory. It was a very special evening indeed.<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">
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<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Was that the Eels with Strings tour? I saw that in London and it was absolutely amazing.</span>
I once saw Stephen Malkmus and the support act were truly dreadful. I can’t remember who they were but the lead singer was in a white linen suit and fedora. At some quiet point in their set a voice from crowd shouted “the man from Del Monte, he say yes!” Which point they threw a proper strop and stormed off. Still makes me laugh to this day!
Saw Van Morrison at IOW and he had zero audience interaction but his voice was good, songs were great and the band were as tight as. I heard later that’s just what Van’s like and we were lucky he sang facing the audience.
SOP for Van, and recent comments by him don’t paint him in favourable colours, either.
Although, a bunch of my friends and I were in a restaurant in Bath one evening, and Van was a couple of tables away with his partner. We all knew who he was, but weren’t making anything of it, and at one point I was sat looking around the place, while the rest of my mates were carrying on a discussion about music, and by chance I caught his eye, nodded and tipped my glass, he did the same, and seemingly acknowledging the fact that he knew that we knew who he was, and just were cool about it.
Possibly the worst gig I’ve been to was a John Martin concert - seen him a number of times, but on this occasion he was absolutely slaughtered, incoherent, barely able to stand and play, dreadfully disappointing.
On the other hand, I saw Sparklehorse at The Fleece once, Mark Linkous walked on, took a bottle of Jack Daniels out of his jacket pocket that he’d already made pretty good inroads into, and swigged from it as the evening went on. At one point he forgot the chords to a song, despite the best attempts by his band to remind him, so he skipped it a carried on. At the end of the main set a roadie had to catch him as he almost fell straight off the side of the stage! They came back on for several encore songs, and I have to say it was an astonishing performance from someone so obviously completely shitfaced! To this day me and the mate I was reckon it’s one of our favourite gigs!
In a later interview, he apologised profusely for the state he was in and said he was really embarrassed about it.
Sadly, never got a chance to see them again and tell him just how much we loved the gig. 😕
Re - Pink Floyd; I saw them on the Wish You Were Here Tour, 1974, at Bristol Hippodrome. Enjoyed the concert, but the members of the band could easily have been shop mannequins dressed up, for all the communication they had with the audience.
Faith No More at Download sometime in 2010/11. I suspect much Colombian marching powder had been imbibed.
Aerosmith had really bad sound engineering headlining the same festival. Not really their fault.
Stand out worst gig was Kings Of Leon at some open air gig in London around 2010. I can’t pick out a reason for it to be so bad, because it was comprehensively bad.
Remember walking through the gates at Reading festival I think 2000 to see the singer of The Dillinger Escape Plan taking a shit on a towel bagging it up before saying to the crowd 'you are going to see a lot of this today!' before throwing it into the crowd. Couple of hours later on come Puddle of Mudd must be the worst performance I have ever seen, the Prodigy headlined and they weren't much better and I was looking forward to seeing them, left early!
Bob Dylan for me. Saw him in Liverpool a few years back, big venue, no support, bloody expensive tickets. He was just awful. Poor vocal performance, his band just looked bored, zero charisma or audience interaction. He played a lot of unmemorable deep album cuts alongside the odd classic "reimagined" as a pub band cover only vaguely recognisable if you listened carefully for the lyrics.
The highlight of the show was the end, where a busker outside was doing a far better Bob Dylan show than Bob Dylan had managed, so at least we got to have a laugh about that.
Yeah. van the Bam. Saw him 2, 3 times the last time (Crathes Castle) he deigned to turn up on stage for the fourth song in. He was grumpy back to the crowd the whole time we decided to leave early and not get stuck in the bottleneck of the car park/access drive (saw James Brown a year or two before, who was the exact opposite of Van, and it took about an hour to exit). We weren’t the only ones...
Saw Bob Dylan at AECC and thought it’s great. I’d been expecting what others have witnessed but really enjoyed it.
Worst gig wasn’t really anyone’s fault. First Aid Kit in Glasgow: the support act, some Irish guy who sang in an American accent had a fit (on stage) at the end of his set and they had the lights up and all stop for 45-60 minutes they sorted him out. Kind of killed the mood. The Emmylou encore was truly though...
Only gig that I’ve (paid for and) walked out of was Siouxsie & the Banshees Juju tour in Aberdeen. Can’t say it was actually bad, but I definitely wasn’t feeling it... it’s good to wind up a mate who is a big Banshees fan about though (he missed the gig...)
James Brown, when he was supporting the RHCP in Cardiff in about 2005, he was well past his best and the backing singers were doing all the heavy lifting. I think it was knowing how great he would have been in his prime really compounded the misery of seeing him like that.
I saw the stone roses a few times back in the day, in Amsterdam and Paris and at spike island it was a huge part of my fond memories of that period. So when they did the reunion gigs I decided that I wanted to keep those memories intact and not taint them watching a lackluster 3rd coming. Funny thing is as well, even when they had a couple of hits, they weren't mainstream, they were still an alternative act ( I think fools gold only spent a couple of weeks in the top 10, I don't recall it being a massive hit, most people were still listening to wet wet wet etc) so most of the people going to those new gigs were revisionists rewriting the musical tastes of their youth.
so most of the people going to those new gigs were revisionists rewriting the musical tastes of their youth.
Not so sure. I had very little money to spend in their heyday and taped a lot of songs when they were singles from the radio - as I saved my money to buy albums or got them as Christmas/birthday gifts.
Primal scream Cambridge X years ago, only time I'll ever pay to see them, dreadful! You can't blame drink or drugs, it was personality. In it for the money, no crowd engagement before storming off stage, 10/20 mins later back on giving the crowd loads of abuse before playing through more songs averagely, we left shortly after.
Interesting that De la Soul have cropped up a couple of times. I was so looking forward to seeing them at Glasto around 2004 i think? They were terrible and the sound was really bad. Just like they couldn’t be bothered neither could their sound engineer!!
U2 - Earls Court, London - 1991ish... Music was great but the constant pollical ranting/trying to phone the Prime Minister live on stage was ridiculous.
Gutting really as we had amazing seats as my mates Dad was MD of Island Records at the time.
Pink Floyd. Live 8 – Nick, your memory’s playing you tricks
I watched it last night on YouTube and it was better than I remember to be fair. 👍
Music was great but the constant political ranting/trying to phone the Prime Minister live on stage was ridiculous.
Bono being a total bell end? Surely not?
Bono being a total bell end? Surely not?
This was early days in the Bono being a total Bell end journey - wasn't widely recognised..
Gigs consisting of old people going through the motions for the cash are invariably shit. They are always the most expensive tickets and the crappest performances.
(Jesus & Mary Chain come to mind.)
That's the only reason I'm going to see PiL in a few months, so I can add something to this thread.
Gigs consisting of old people going through the motions for the cash are invariably shit. They are always the most expensive tickets and the crappest performances.
I reckon the upcoming Rolling Stones 60th anniversary gigs in London might fall into this category..
GZA a couple of years ago at SWG3. Supposed to perform Liquid Swords.
Came out and did a couple of tracks off the album. Barely coherent, sound was abysmal. Then brought on some new act he was promoting, they did a bunch of awful tracks, then he took over and was just as bad as before. I walked out shortly afterwards.
The Flaming Lips at Astoria 2 in the mid or late 1990s, before you'd all heard of them when they did druggy feedback rock (my favourite genre at the time).
Absolute tuneless ****ing din. And that's from someone who still probably has impaired hearing from enjoying MBV, early Mercury Rev and Suicide live.
On a similar note, the Mary Chain never failed to disappoint.
Ramones at the Barrowlands sometime in the mid-80s. There was an announcement at the beginning about audience ‘conduct’. There were so stoned they could barely play and got a bit huffy when the beer starting flying – they were dreadful.
I saw them at Brixton Academy in the early 1990s and they were really tight and exciting.
Badly Drawn Boy – must have been having an especially bad day but grumpy from the offset and having a go at people of at the back for daring to order a pint while he was playing.
My story. Saw him at a gig to celebrate Elliot Smith and raise money for mental health charities at the Windmill in Brixton. I think he got a bit pissed before going on, started an argument with someone in the crowd (who may have heckled him for being shambolic), called them 'mental' at which point it went downhill and he got, I think, booed off stage.
Primal Scream - some of the best, sharpest, gigs I've ever been to plus a couple where they were terrible (one of which I think was the Glasto performance where they just seemed pissed at not being top of the bill).
Steely Dan at the Wembly Arena was so boring I fell asleep. All very competent but a venue big enough you can barely see, with no atmosphere and over zealous security loudly telling people to sit down. We left before the end.
Likewise Public Service Broadcasting. They've removed every hint of funk, sex and danger from electronic music and a flashy light and video show doesn't compensate. When they tried to get the crowd engaged by punching the air and shouting "Go" I exchanged a glance with K and we left.
DJ sets - Grandmaster Flash at some event sponsored by Barcardi. "When I say Bacardi, you say breezer". No thanks. High point was when we had to wait for his laptop to reboot mid set. Not exactly rocking the wheels of steel.
I'll add 'most unlikely gig to see a fight break out' which was the Divine Comedy at at the London Palladium.
Gigs consisting of old people going through the motions for the cash are invariably shit. They are always the most expensive tickets and the crappest performances.
...you've got to feel for those folk who bough Glasto tickets only to find out Paul McCartney was headlining Saturday night!
I've said it before but its worth repeating
Guns n Roses 87 before most of the world know who they were and I certainly had no idea - shockingly bad
But really Bruce Springsteen - born in the usa, did a turgid 90 mins and after a 5 min break came on and did the same set again. soul crushing it was
I saw the Rolling Stones at Glastonbury.
The field was heaving, I've been to a lot of concerts and it's the biggest crowd I've seen by a country mile. We turned up, watched a couple of numbers, went "yup, we've seen the Stones live, box ticked" and then went to do something else more interesting. They weren't bad per se, they're just of their time and that time was before I was born.
Gigs consisting of old people going through the motions for the cash are invariably shit.
Oh how could I have forgotten the Velvets at Wembley Arena.
Audience seated and warm Carling in a plastic cup. Clear tensions between band members (mainly Lou obvs) and it didn't matter that the music was half decent, it all just felt wrong.
Likewise Public Service Broadcasting. They’ve removed every hint of funk, sex and danger from electronic music and a flashy light and video show doesn’t compensate
I saw Public Service Broacasting at a festival. Had no idea who they were at the time (and never really bothered looking them up afterwards), but in the moment they were absolutely banging. D'ffrent strokes...
Mungo Jerry at a small festival a few years ago, they seemed to play in the summertime for about 20mins just in different styles, that was bad.
Gigs consisting of old people going through the motions for the cash are invariably shit.
Yes, and god forbid they play any of their 'new stuff'.
Mungo Jerry at a small festival a few years ago, they seemed to play in the summertime for about 20mins just in different styles, that was bad.
Can you name anything else they released? I've just googled, and they had 9 - count 'em, 9! - charting singles in the UK, including 2 number 1s! They could have gone with Johnny B. Badde (failed to chart, surprisingly), or Sur Le Pont D'Avignon (failed to chart, surprisingly> 😀
Curiously they are listed on wiki as 1 hit wonders despite having two no1s.
But really Bruce Springsteen – born in the usa, did a turgid 90 mins and after a 5 min break came on and did the same set again. soul crushing it was
Really? I've seen him twice - once at Hyde Park when they turned him off (mercifully, as he'd just brought Macca on stage) and once at the Ricoh in Coventry, and he was phenomenal both times.
Speaking of festivals, last year at Lakefest (great little festival, BTW) they had Tom Jones. Obviously, not a massive fan, but figured that he's an old showman and singing Delilah with a few hundred mildly drunk people in a field could be a bit of a giggle. Cue Sir Tom cranking out songs from his new album, with the odd jazz/swing reworkings of a two or three things we might actually have heard of. Again, not bad per se, but not a 'festival' set.
Most disappointing band I've ever seen, after really looking forward to them, was Van Halen at The Monsters of Rock, Castle Donnington back in '84.
Dave Lee Roth was messing around with the lyrics, Alex had just started playing the "tinny" sounding drums and even EDV wasn't up to scratch. Michael Anthonys Bass solo was a highlight - that really was good.
Thankfully AC/DC were top of the bill and saved the day. They were awesome.
For me it was the Foo Fighters at Wembley in 2008. Was really looking forward to it, Supergrass supported and were great. Foos came on, sound was crap and really quiet. All you could really hear were people in the crowd around us chatting away. We left early as the atmosphere/sound didn't really get any better. To make matters worse, I had mates who went the next day,said the sound was mint and John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page joined them onstage for Ramble On. Would have enjoyed that...
Oh, and Smashing Pumpkins at a Reading Festival - again, crap sound ruining a performance of a band I really wanted to see.
I saw Mungo Jerry in 1972 at Bridlington Spa Hall. They were brilliant. I always thought Mighty Man was a good 'un.
Bad performances? Pink Fairies, Suzi Quattro.
Paul Young. All over the place. I heard directly from one of the other artists on the bill that it was largely because most of his profits went up his nose. Please don’t sue me.
I had to laugh at my m8 over this,after he waited all night to see PY and deliberately missed Sonia, he was pretty distraught after the first song and didn’t last the full set.
Sonia is actually really good live entertainment,I would have said she wasn’t my ‘cup of tea’ but I’ve seen her perform a few times and it’s been a pleasant time.
Minehead Butlins: you’ve got to experience it once in your life 🙂
Madness were also really good 🙂
Suede, at Doncaster Dome, not just horrible sound to us but the band weren't getting monitor sound right and it was just a mess, gave up after about 4 numbers, big disappointment, I'd seen them a few years earlier and they were epic. Only proper gig I walked out on.
The Fall, saw them four times, one epic, one ok, two shambolic.
New Order. How does a band so good manage to make it look and sound so difficult?
Happy Mondays at the SECC
I saw them supporting James at the Hacienda in 1988. Equally unimpressed.
Hawkwind at the Barrowlands god knows when. Think I lasted 3 tunes before splitting. I only went because Aphex Twin was backing them up. That was epic.
It's Sheena Easton at the Big Day circa 1990 Glasgow Green. Not so much a bad performance moreso a strained performance given she was being pelted with missiles.
That transatlantic drawl from someone from Belshill didn't go down well....
Gorillaz at Glasto circa 2010ish. They were embarrassingly bad.
David Bowie - Glass Spider tour 1987
Wembley
It was shocking!
Not helped by the fact that we’d travelled up to Wembley from North Devon on a scorching hot day, in my dad’s 1500 Allegro automatic…
James Brown, when he was supporting the RHCP in Cardiff in about 2005, he was well past his best and the backing singers were doing all the heavy lifting. I think it was knowing how great he would have been in his prime really compounded the misery of seeing him like that.
I saw James Brown on his final tour. I'm not sure what was propping him up but he was on form, bouncing round the stage for 3 hours. I was expecting something rather more sedate from other peoples experiences of him over the more recent years, but no, he gave it all. He was dead 2 months after.
Sonia is actually really good live entertainment,I would have said she wasn’t my ‘cup of tea’ but I’ve seen her perform a few times and it’s been a pleasant time.
Off topic but Sonia is an act I saw live accidentally, I'd arranged to go to a club with a group of geographically diverse chums and we'd no idea that she was playing. She was... not as terrible as we'd prejudged.
In near-identical circumstances (yes yes, a likely story I know but it's true) I also accidentally saw Chesney Hawkes. He was bloody brilliant. Charismatic, didn't take himself too seriously, and of course that song in front of a crowd well into a lake's worth of Red Stripe tore the goddamn roof off.
"Shockingly good live performances" probably needs a separate thread. (-: