Forum menu
For me, without a doubt, the original Live Aid (I had a Saturday job and they wouldn't let me have the time off so I stupidly didn't take my chance).
Or AC/DC in Paris in 1979 (with Bon Scott on vocals)
Attend Woodstock!
The sermon on the mount
Queen at Wembley.
I was offered tickets but turned them down. "No, I'll see them next time" I said.
Doh!
White Stripes. I hardly ever go to gigs and it was cancelled
AC/DC Live at River Plate
Aside from the obvious, like Jimi at the IoW, during my lifetime there's:
White Stripes, Concorde 2 Brighton, Nov 2001. Only band I've been desperate to see and missed.
Also the Tad gig at Portsmouth Poly when I saw them walk past the building where I was working, but didn't know Nirvana were supporting. I didn't really like Tad.
Maybe The Stooges around 1970.
Or Sly & the Family Stone in the late '60s.
Or Bowie in the '70s.
Lucky to have seen most of the bands I'd have wanted to from the 1990s onward.
The Steve Earle/Guy Clark/Townes van Zandt gig that's recorded for the 'Together at the Bluebird Cafe' live album.
@martinhutch - I have seen that so many times and love it - utterly bonkers.
@boris - not Wembley, but I did see them at Maine Road (with Status Quo and Belouis Some supporting) in 1986 🙂
Deep Purple Mark 4 at one of their better non uk gigs before they folded.
Pink Floyd @ the Royal Albert Hall 1996(?)
Was thinking of maybe a Zappa or Black Sabbath show from the late 70s but think I'll go for one of the Hawkwind space ritual performances.
Attend Woodstock!
This. Absolutely the top of the list. Thank goodness for youtube though, there's plenty of Woodstock performances to be enjoyed there.
Not really a gig fan at all, Queen at the Maracana in '81 would have been awesome though.
My variant: gigs I had tickets to but didn't go:
Buzzcocks supported by Joy Division, 1979, leeds uni student union. I probably tell people I actually went to this as I had a ticket. Can't remember whether I sold it or just didn't bother as I had homework or something...
Led Zep - 1978 (or 9?) Knebworth. Again had a ticket someone got me but wasn't that into them, so sold it. Would now actually like to have seen them I guess.
James Brown, playing Istanbul, 1988. A few of us, living on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, he was playing the European side. We had tickets, but an unprecedented metre or thereabouts of snow started falling out of the sky (closed school for a fortnight), ferries stopped running, and the taxi driver refused, ironically enough, to take us to the bridge.
Another one who passed up the chance to see Queen at Wembley.
Gigs I didn't get to - all injury/illness/hospital related:
Bon Jovi at the last gig in the old Wembley
Def Leppard - at least twice I've been hospitalised when I should have seen them. Truly a band with a curse
Pete Tong and the Heritage Orchestra this year
The Steve Earle/Guy Clark/Townes van Zandt gig that’s recorded for the ‘Together at the Bluebird Cafe’ live album.
Well, that's now two people I know that have that album 🙂
AC / DC with Bon Scott back in the day.I saw them a couple of times in the early 80's with Brian Jonson but wish I'd seen them with Bon Scott.
First few that come to mind.
Bowie
T-Rex
Small Faces
XTC
Talk Talk
Joy Division
The The
Nirvana, Nov 4th 1991 Bristol Bierkeller.
I mean, I was there, I just wasn't wearing my glasses.
True story.
I've only ever seen Bruce Springsteen with a post-Clarence E Street Band, I'd have liked to have seen them all together.
Beastie Boys at the barrowlands .
The cancelled Nirvana gig I had tickets for in '94.
For a couple of reasons.
25/03/89
SECC
New Order supported by A Guy Called Gerald
My first gig and was brilliant would love to refresh my memory.
The Clash, Brixton Academy, 17th March 1984. Sadly I was only 13!
What a setlist.....
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-clash/1984/brixton-academy-london-england-73c67e05.html
The Ramones. Must have been late eighties/early nineties when they came to Birmingham. Can't remember why I didn't go, but what a mook. 😐
Also regret not seeing the Pixies when they were good, Stone Roses too. In fact, so many bands I didn't go and see, most probably because I was not in good headspace.
Ignore me. Wrong decade.
I saw them a couple of times in the early 80’s with Brian Jonson
Yeah, first time I saw them was on the 'For Those About To Rock' tour with Brian Johnson. I also missed Black Sabbath with Ozzy first time around as I was just that bit too young. I have seen them since though (including their warm up gig for the '13' tour when they played the tiny O2 Academy in Brum - no stage set or anything, just the four of them on stage and me at the front centre 🙂
The cancelled Nirvana gig I had tickets for in ’94
Yeah, I had tickets for that (and the re-arranged date). Stupidly I returned the tickets for a refund as I believe they are worth good money now.
Faith no more, Brixton Academy 1990...
Stone roses spike island.
Daft punk coachella 2006.
I would like to have seen The Smiths , anywhere.
& depeche mode did a gig in barrowlands for bbc music, year or so ago - with Alan Wilder! It looked ace on the telly.
+ plus 1 for the beastie boys, anywhere.
peajay
Subscriber
25/03/89
SECC
New Order supported by A Guy Called Gerald
My first gig and was brilliant would love to refresh my memory.
I was at that one, came up from London to see it. Great gig.
Would like to go back for
The Pogues @ Hammersmith ,St Patrick’s Day 1986, best gig I ever went to
Redskins, was due to see them but they split up, and about the same time The Smiths cancelled a gig I had tickets for so never got to see them either.
Stone roses spike island.
Daft punk coachella 2006.
Absolutely. Know loads of folk going to the former. Can't remember why I didn't. Didn't go to Ally Pally either. Idiot.
On the other hand, I did see a fair few of the bands listed above, including, Smiths at Sheffield uni bar 2. I think it was 50p to get in, though they'd just been (or were just about to be? I forget) on the front of the NME for the first time. Took a look for a few songs, then wandered out.
Woodstock.
Mothers at Manchester Free Trade Hall.
Cream at RAH.
Several nights in the Middle Earth Club.
1982 Glastonbury with Van Morrison, Judie Tzuke, Jackson Browne, Roy Harper, Richie Havens. Just check who is on before saying Nah cant be bothered.
The Ramones. Must have been late eighties/early nineties when they came to Birmingham.
I saw them in London early '90s, was one of the best gigs I've ever attended. Unlike a lot of punk bands we saw around that time, they absolutely still had it.
+1 for Stone Roses, did they tour when Fools Gold came out at the end of 1989? Would have liked to see them in a decent venue then rather than Spike Island.
Turned down the chance to see them when they first reformed, dunno if that was a mistake or not.
The Zappa concert I didn't get to see because some nutter had pushed him off the stage earlier in the tour.
Or Beethoven's concert in 1808 where the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Choral Fantasy were premiered.
I was at both but I'd watch them again:
Queen at Wembley (its a Kind of Magic Tour) and Jean Michel Jarre, Destination Docklands.
The Doors
or Chas 'n' Dave
The Who Live at Leeds 1970.
Dr Feelgood's original line-up; farewell gig at Southend.
Another vote for Woodstock and Live Aid.
For those who didn't see AC/DC with Bon Scott - you missed a treat!
Cream farewell concert
Leonard Cohen at the IOW festival 1970
Joni Mitchell - anywhere, anytime!
Bob Dylan and the Band
Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsies concert 1970
I guess I'm just an old fart ......
LCD Soundsystem at Madison Square Garden in 2011. Sounded like a massive party.
I looked into it but too much $$$.
Charlie Parker in his prime in 1942/43 or maybe Miles Davis around the time of Kind of Blue with Cannonball or Coltrane with his quartet
Apparently Jimi Hendrix played the Co-op New Century Hall in Manchester, that would be ace because I work for the Co-op now 🙂 I think Ike and Tina also played there, that would be another on the list.
BB King at the Regal, imagine being there in person when the album is being recorded !
The Small faces
The Clash
Steely Dan
Nirvana
I saw Nirvana at the Hummingbird in Brum in the early '90's. I'd like to go back and watch them again.
Lynard Skynard at the LA Colosseum.