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Take2 club, attercliffe, sheffield. Around time of chelsea girl single, must have been 89-90.
Close second
Spiritualized at the leadmill mid 90s. Total head****.
and don't say the pistols at the 100 club we won't believe you
The Alarm around 1990. First ever gig and it was very bouncy.
The Levellers - Town & country club (Forum). Watched them from the balcony instead of being in the mosh pit. The enery they produced was amazing.
Morrisey - First solo tour after the Smiths split.
The Crimea (formerly the crockets)
In the Coopers arms in Aberystwyth.
September 2005
Almost forgot
Pretenders:
#1: 1987 cardiff arms park supporting U2 (the alarm also on the bill) Chrissie Hynde does things with a microphone that make a 17yr old from the midlands look at her differently...
#2: 2006 Cornbury music festival- radio2-tastic! Pimms tent and all. Went mainly cos a friend's brother now playing bass with pretenders- Chrissie Hynde reminds a 30something dad of 2 that she still has it!
#3: Latitude 2009. Yep she's still hot!
And now my kids like her too!
Paul weller last year on my 40th which was followed by an invite to the aftershow party
Al Green, Fairfields Hall Croydon, 1999.
Utter genius. Started as a 'that'd be nice to go to' and ended as 'I want to die, right now, so that this memory won't ever fade'.
My first proper 'solo' gig has to be the best really - I went to Sheffield City Hall to see Def Leppard in about 1987 and it was amazing. I was 15, travelled there on a coach from Doncaster (on my own!) and it was just fantastic. My ears were ringing for days afterwards.
And I think this was when there were no seats at the front, so you could stand up front, right mext to the stage. Wow.
Honorary mentions go to The Pixies, also at Sheffield City Hall in 1990ish - it was a last minute decision because a friend ended up with a spare ticket. It was AMAZING.
Also Jack E Mcauley/Poormouth at the Half Moon in Putney - a proper bouncy folk gig. I think we may have been slightly alcohol fuelled but it was fantastic.
Like albums impossible to pick one.
The Jam in 79 Portsmouth Guildhall
Oasis 94? Wedgewood Rooms
Bauhuas Southampton (8?)
Underworld Creamfields (0?)
Regular Fries Wedgewood room
Orbital Post Guildhall
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Club Foot London
Wonderstuff - Portsmouth Guildhall
Eat - Portsmouth Guildhall
Black Grape - Wedgewood Rooms
LCD Soundsystem - Brighton Concorde
!!! - Brighton Concorde
Sex Pistols - 100 Club 77 😉
Forgot Pixies - 88 Brighton
Difficult but... top 3 would be:
House of Love at Newcastle Riverside ca 1987/88. Strobetastic
Sugarcubes - Newcastle Poly ca 1988/89. Late on stage because (according to Bjork) 'I was shitting' but fantastic experience
Pixies - Newcastle Uni June 1990 - the day i finished my finals.
Green day American idiot tour
Lamb at Koko in Camden a couple of months ago.
Happy Mondays at Roadmender Northampton a couple of years ago.
UNKLE at Glastonbury 1995.
Thin Lizzy at the Glasgow Apollo for the Jailbreak tour.
Very much a product of its time tho - doubt I would enjoy it so much now
Fat Freddy's Drop, Norwich UEA last December
Toss up between
Curved Air at Guildford Civic Centre around 1974
Springsteen Born in the USA tour on 4th July 1985 Wembley Stadium
Tricky, there've been a few contenders.
Carter at Brixton Academy 2007 - their first tour since splitting, 10 years earlier.
Pixies at Brixton Academy 2004: similarly, first tour since splitting.
REM in West Virginia in a college stadium.
The Shins at Kentish Town Forum, 2007(?).
Ozric Tenatacles, somewhere in a field in 1989.
Iron Maiden on the Beast on the Road tour in Bradford (just because it was my first at the tender age of 14).
But stand-outs for me are Queen at Maine Road, The Prodigy at the Leeds festival and Electric 6 at Leeds Uni.
Foo Fighters at Wembley stadium for me it was immense.
Got be either the past three iorn maiden album tours or motley crüe
AC/DC were very good at the Marquee, reckon about 78 ish,another memorable gig was Ted Nugent at the Hammersmith Odeon same sort of p[eriod
But my favourite was the Scorpions at Reading as a late stand in for Thin Lizzy, they really rocked
Leonard Cohen, preston Guild Hall 1979
Derek and the Dominoes, Manchester Free Trade hall 1970 (or 71?)
Rory Gallagher - anywhere!
Incredible String Band - Free Trade Hall 1971
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - Manchester Apollo 1970
Richard Thompson's 1000 years of popular music - Sage Centre Gateshead 2008
Any Megadog event or Orbital at Glasto 1994
Interesting to see so many saying Pixies. V jealous of those who got to see them at smaller venues in their prime. I saw them recently at the SECC and they were still amazing though.
[i]Interesting to see so many saying Pixies[/i]
3 times matey! Oct 88 T&C, [url= http://www.pixiesmusic.com/live_92.php ]Apr 89[/url] Brighton (the BEST - small venue), Oct 90 Portsmouth
Meatloaf, Manchester apollo, 1989 - Bat out of Hell 10th anniversary world tour, back when he could still belt 'em out. He's also there for my worst ever gig in that old station, about 5 or 6 years later - flat floor so couldn't see, plus horrible acoustics
Living colour, Manchester academy 3, 2005 or so. the room was jumping, small venue with an electrifying band. They're playing again in a couple of weeks but I can't afford to go 🙁
Easy.
The Sisters Of Mercy + New Model Army + Skeletal Family, Huddersfield Town Hall, c1983/4
Danzig- '91 bizzarre festival in germany, didn't expect much but he ****in raawked!
the datsuns at aucklnd uni student union last november, proper rock n roll band.
2nd Leonard Cohen, preston Guild Hall 1979....amazing
Gene Vincent Liverpool Poly
The complete Bath Festival 1970...Byrds, Cnned Heat, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Johnny Winter, Frank Zappa, Fairport Convention, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, John Mayall etc
now thats a concert!
Bruce Springstein, Bramhall Lane, Sheffield, 'bout 1989. Manics at manchester 1997, 10,000 Maniacs, Sheffield Poly, late 80's. Eee, those were the days.....
Mika was fab at Latitude last year as were Wild Beasts.
Royksopp a couple of weeks back at Shepherds Bush
King of Convenience a few months back in Bexhill on Sea
Sigur Ros last year at Ally Pally and again at Hammersmith 5 or so years back
Notable mention to Atlas Sound on Sunday at Cargo for being a nice bloke and doing a good job despite jetlag and the late hour
All recent-ish but all really excellent
I had my 8yr old on my shoulders for the whole of mika and we jumped up and down for an hour my neck hurt!
Alice Cooper on the "Raise Your Fist and Yell" tour
Ozzy Osbourne, Manchester Ritz Ballroom, 198?. Awesome!!!
Lemon Jelly at Kenwood House, 2005 I think.
Crash Test Dummies at the Manchester Apollo - 1995.
Eff knows waht happened to them cos they are now sh1t3
I thought the best band at latitude this year were the gossip- by a long way.
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Sisters of Mercy (leeds uni)
Southern Death Cult (Warehouse, leeds)
Dead Kennedys (leeds Uni)
Death Cult (Dortmunder, Leeds)
Loads of others, but these are the ones which stand out in my memory.
Faaaaar to many great gigs over the years, really, to pick a best, but Thin Lizzy were always great, saw them five or six times, Yes were good on the Close To The Edge Tour, Fleetwood Mac were fantastic, and there have been loads of excellent gigs in recent years, one of the very best, and one that will stay with me was Metric at the Thekla in Bristol recently. Stunning gig, Emily has just [i]so[/i] much energy packed into a little body. Killing Joke at the Beirkeller in Bristol was also memorable for the insanity of the moshpit, with me walking away with a leather jacket soaked clean through with sweat, and me an unhealthy shade of deep red 'cos of the heat. 
grateful dead, last brtish tour
In date order.
U2 - Pop tour, Belfast
Red Hot Chillies - V fest, 02/03 can't remember the exact year
Nine Inch Nails at the O2 earlier this year.
Keef Hartley Band, Kingston Hotel 1968.
Isle of Wight Festival, 1970 (Hendrix, J.Tull, Family, Rory Gallagher, Free, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, The Who, Tiny Tim, John Sebastian, etc etc etc)
The Faces, QE Hall 1969.
Pink Floyd, Knebworth 1975
Anti-Nazi League march, Victoria Park 1979 (The Clash, X-Ray Spex, Elvis Costello).
John Stevens Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Half Moon, Putney 1979.
All the gigs I played at the Marquee and the Paradiso (Amsterdam) in the '80s. Every single one.
Billy Cobham Trio (QE Hall, South Bank) 2002.
Green Day's recent tour in Birmingham at teh end of last month.
Adam and the Ants in Southampton late summer 81 the support band 'Gods Toys' stole the show for me. Look them up on Youtube.
in no particular order:
Violent Femmes, Manchester International
Motorhead, Deeside (seen them at Mcr Apollo too but they always seemed louder at Deeside)
Thin Lizzy, Apollo
plenty of excellent stuff since (much of it probably better musically) but my best gig would be picked from those three.
Blackpool empress ballroom around 1993, haggled with the touts outside and did a deal to see Ride and The Charlatans on a double bill. Ride were rather impressive (Going Blank Again era) so much so we thought the Charlatans were going to die on their arses. Oh yea of little faith, they blew the place apart. Great night out.
Other good ones:
Wedding Present at Preston Poly when they were doing a single a month for a year
Mudhoney twice in a week whilst touring My Brother the Cow
Julian Cope various times
haven't been to a gig for ages 🙁
muse wembley 2010!!
hmmm zootv popmart vertigo or 360?? One of the above probably vertigo manchester with athlete as support.
other great gigs, pretenders newport ? 95, INXS get out of the house tour at cardiff uni was mad, REM at the arms paaaaark too many to list
Blur at Southend this summer.
Prefab Sprout Jordan tour Portsmouth 1990.
Thompson Twins Into the Gap tour Southampton Guamont