In November last year The Coral supported Courteeners and were just awful. Too many instruments all fighting for attention and it ended up as just tuneless noise for the most part. Thankfully Courteeners and The Snuts made the gig a success with blinding performances
Funny int'it. I love the coral, enjoyed every gig of theirs I've been to, think they always sound Bob on (although their audience interaction can be lacking!)
Courteeners on the other hand I find extremely naff nowadays. Bit more interesting earlier on, just naff now.
Worst performance I've seen is probably Baby shambles. On late coz Pete was out scoring smack. He then kept forgetting how to play the guitar and the lyrics and kept falling asleep. Had a physical fight with the other guitarist who stormed off stage. Pete disappeared then came back out with a tourniquet round his arm and did a bizarre attempt at an acoustic solo set sat on top of the speaker stack, but again he'd forgotten every song ever written.
We hung around for a bit, think there was probably about 50 people left when we called it a day. Venue holds 3000.
The Ramones were one of the best bands I've ever seen, Brixton Academy early '90s.
So much energy from them and the crowd - in a venue that I'm not that keen on usually.
1970s -
Pink Fairies at Sheffield Poly. Dreadful noise.
Also Suzi Quattro at Sheffield Uni Rag Ball. I popped up to the coffee lounge instead where Bert Weedon was playing.
Coliseum II at Reading Festival. So boring the audience all turned to watch a group of guys building a pyramid out of Party 7s. The band stopped mid song to find out what was going on.
Catatonia (reading '99)were so bad we left the area but the sound of strangling cats travelled. Red hot chilli peppers were terrible too, also at reading in 1999
PWEI, saw them a lot in their early days, always utter rubbish.
Everything they did was, at best, shit.
Remember seeing Black Grape, appalling, completely off their tits, which made up for it 😀
A few memorable ones here
De-la-soul....can't remember where but they were rubbish.
Happy Mondays...a few times...Ryder was mashed and pretty much just mumbled incoherently throughout the gig.
Blur at the Pitz in Milton Keynes..way back. They got kicked out when (I think coxon) threw his guitar at a heckler in the front row and knocked him out
Zodiac midwarp ..roadmenders in Northampton....****in rubbish.
Grand master flash..at MK11 in milton keynes...piss poor..pretty much just pressing play on an iPod.
Sly and the family stone.... Band played for ages before they pretty much wheeled sly on for one or two songs at the end.
DavidB
I saw Sigue Sigue Sputnik in Queens Mary’s college London on their first ever tour. Top gig full of incident, breasts and blood.
Ah Sigue Sigue - me and my mates went up to London twice in their early days - all the hype about miming and stuff was just bull - they were a superb live band. Really put on a show
I saw Blue Oyster Cult at Hammersmith during a dodgy period in the bands internal dynamics.
When the band go off for a break and the bass player comes out and does an insanely angry 5 minute solo and goes off without saying a word and then the drummer does the same it is a bit weird. And a total vibe killer.
Also they are the shortest band I've seen since Stone The Crows.
I saw a reformed Jesus & Mary Chain go through the motions in Brixton, some charity gig. It was the complete opposite of the excitement they generated in their early days. And they had some woman stand in for the Hope Sandoval part in Sometimes Always who was completely out of tune. Dismal.
Tool, at Milton Keynes. No interaction whatsoever, no interesting playing or Events, just the band hiding in the corners, Maynard in his pants standing up t he back of the stage facing away from the crowd for the entire show. It was technically excellent of course but you might as well have just put on the CD and put some cardboard cutouts on the stage, at least they might have blown over or something to add some interest. I’ve seen less capable performances of course but never a worse gig.
Amen to that, when they went off at the interval ,they put on recorded music, didn't even know they had gone off.
Shame as Maynard really used to put on a good show.
David Bowie played in Cardiff supported by Morrisey, mid-90s. Morrisey’s fans disappeared after he’d played a wholly forgettable set, not including anything famous. Bowie - who I love - came on and played only his recent stuff. The stuff nobody remembers. It was empty enough that you could get close enough to him to see his odd eyes!
I saw Ian Brown at glasto many years ago
It was amzaing, he managed not to hit a single correct note on any songit sounded worse in person
Brown supporting the Manic, 2003ish. Came on, argued with the audience, got booed off. It was probably for the best, considering the little music we heard from him.
Meatloaf, Knebworth 83.
Utter, utter dross: fairly sure he was off his face, the crowd booed and chucked bottles of suspicious amber fluids at him. He stormed off stage, came back in and announced that if the crowd didn't stop chucking bottles he was finished. That had the expected result, never seen so many bottles airborne before or since.
Deep purple were headlining, I remember they were really good. Long time ago now!
The Shamen at an anti nazi rally in Newcastle 1992. Turns out they'd charged 5k or something, which offended the crowd who booed them off. The band threw some chairs into the crowd and it all kicked off. Brilliant fun.
Black Crowes at Leeds (can’t remember the venue). They basically played no songs from the album they were touring and the brothers just stared at each other with pure hatred the whole time. Utterly boring.
Saw Fu Manchu at the cockpit a few weeks later and they were ace. Just a wall of speakers with the band wedged in between. Remember the singer saying “man, this is the smallest ****ing gig we’ve ever played” then the band proceeding to go nuts. Honestly thought I’d lost my hearing for afterwards. Total opposite of the Black Crowes experience
Band I would love to see/have seen live would be Mötley Crüe, now that would be a show if nothing else…
Saw them 4-5 years ago supporting Def Leppard. First time I'd seen them, and was disappointed. The drum kit trick is impressive if you've not seen it before, but the sound was awful - made me wonder if the headliners had set that up. (Steel Panther opened the show. Now that was a blast!)
Hold on, that guy from the Lemonheads.
Glastonbury, 93/94/94 no idea which. So bad I’d have been better.
Edit, Evan Dando. That was the most I’d seen anyone heckled. He stormed of after a couple of, ill be generous, things attempting to be songs.
Worst: Saxon, went to accompany friends. The music was dire, but worst of all was how lame they were.
Most disappointing: Bowie. Too many people. He couldn’t hit the high notes.
Most tedious: Michael Jackson
Best for entertainment value: Slade. They put the whole audience in a great mood!
Mary Chain were crap on the Rollercoaster tour in the 90s as well TBF.
Haha! Meatloaf - sure that wasn't Castle Donington in 83? Terrible. Best bit was the half full bottle of p!ss bouncing off his forehead as he tried to replicate Dee Snider earlier in the day threatening to kick the asses of 100,000 people...
White Denim. A mate was going, said they were good, id heard a song or two on six music, so I togged along and blagged my way in. I got about halfway through before adjourning to the bar - their first song had more time signatures than a whole Rush album and I couldnt keep up. They were very proficient, The rest of the crowd were clearly fanatics and loved them. But I found it self indulgent pompous nonsense.
I think i've been fortunate in that I cant remember seeing any band who were truly rubbish. Counting Crows almost, but It couldve been dodgy sound..
Best for entertainment value: Slade. They put the whole audience in a great mood!
Ha! I saw Slade at the Top Rank in Doncaster when they were still skinheads. Absolutely brilliant.
Yep, Slade, 1984, week before Xmas, last date of the tour, Liverpool Royal Court. Brilliant gig.
Newcastle City Hall 1984, Status Quo on their End Of The Road tour. Power packed up half way through - wasn’t their fault and they got going again but the whole show had the feel of going through the motions. Think Rossi had collapsed with exhaustion at one of the other tour gigs, and it showed.
They managed another 30 years though...
New Order are my absolute favourite band but absolute shite live. Seen them enough times to know better, from Finsbury Park in 86 to Victorious last year - Barney's voice is so bad live.
Arctic Monkeys probably the most disappointing. They were way too cool for school and clearly couldn't be arsed.
Best: probably Green Day at Reading 95 or Chase and Status at T in the Park 2011 - had never heard of them before but a couple of thousand pilled up Scots bouncing in a sweaty tent was nuts 🙂
Blue Oyster Cult and The Killers , decades apart but both shite .
Another vote for the Kings of Leon. The only gig I’ve walked out of, after looking at my mates and saying ‘is it just me, or is this utter gash?’. We were all in agreement it was complete shite - they looked bored, we most certainly were - so we went to the pub instead.
They didn’t engage with the crowd at all, not one word, and looked like they’d rather be anywhere else on earth rather than on stage. *s!
It probably wasn’t helped by the fact that 2 nights earlier we’d watched the Prodigy in the same venue (Manchester Apollo) and they absolutely took the *ing roof off!
I saw the Happy Monday’s loads of times, back in the day, and they were either absolutely brilliant or absolutely ****ing awful, depending on how many days they’d been on a bender for.
Billy Bragg
Nick Cave
Arctic Monkeys are a good shout but to be fair the crapness of the gig was mostly caused by the bloody crowd who insisted on singing every word at the top of their voices so you couldn’t actually hear them.
Supported by Maximo Park though who were awesome.
Catatonia (reading ’99)were so bad we left the area
That was getting towards the band finally breaking up, Cerys had a reputation for hitting the bottle, and the internal pressures were really starting to show. I saw Catatonia a bunch of times, and they were always loads of fun, but later gigs were showing some ragged edges for sure.
The worst gigs I can remember are Katastrophy Wife at the Fleece in Bristol. I’d seen Babes In Toyland before and really enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to Kat Bjelland’s solo project. It was awful, difficult to describe other than a catastrophe!
John Martyn in Bath; he was completely shitfaced when he came on, could barely play or sing, the whole gig was a complete shambles.
65daysofstatic - I hadn’t planned on seeing them, I’d bought tickets to see Asobi Seksu at a venue in Oxford, but for whatever reason they became the support act for 65daysofstatic, so rather than lose the money me and my mate went to the O2 to see both bands. Asobi were ok, but only had 30-40 minutes, so that was disappointing. We left after 65daysofstatic’s first number and went to a pub down the road. Dull, duller, dullest.
Saw Catatonia in the early days when they had just released Way Beyond Blue and they were great. Their first album was and still is a great pop record but everything after that went downhill in my opinion.
Ash - Murrayfield Stadium supporting RHCP 2004
@ads678 I was at that gig. Was it Dixie Chicks?
Could have been actually....I just remember them talking far too much and getting booed off.
James Brown was only on for half a song at a time but it just felt great actually seeing him live.
Hawkwind in the late 80's, old men going through the motions.
I saw FL supporting the Chili Peppers
Oh lord, a twofer! RHCP are the only band I have regretted seeing. No crowd interaction at all.
Gene Loves Jezebel, late 80s
Never was a pool table more welcome
Phoenix Festival mid-90s, Van Morrison followed by Bob Dylan, how could you not be excited? As it turns out, if they forget everything they are known for and mumble in front of a massive brass band, then excitement is long gone.
Saw John Martyn in Glasgow on his last tour as a birthday surprise my wife organised when our kids were toddlers (in short, it took some work on her part). He was clearly ill/morbidly obese and also relying on brass band backing to help out. However, I just don't care. I'll always remember hearing May You Never sung for probably the last time as my live stand out moment (and I saw Queen's Kind of Magic tour at the old Wembley).
It probably wasn’t helped by the fact that 2 nights earlier we’d watched the Prodigy in the same venue (Manchester Apollo) and they absolutely took the ****ing roof off!
The Prodigy could pretty much blow anyone off the stage. They were the first live band I ever saw at the peak of the Firestarter hysteria. It took 20 years but I saw them again and they were even better. So many massive bangers.
Oh heavens, I've just looked up what Sigue Sigue Sputnik look like now. Respect for still being out there but now need a bottle of eye bleach.
Actually, sod it, just be who you are Sigue Sigue, keep on keeping on.
A yes John Martyn - his drinking must have affected my memory....I saw him piss himself on stage, have a fight with a sound engineer, and sit and slur lyrics while pretending to play his guitar (not all the same gig) He could be brilliant or embarrassing.
Oasis, Berkeley, 2000. Immobile Noel hiding behind his effin' sunglasses. We only went to see Travis who were supporting. And who were rather good.
Honourable mention to Tangerine Dream, Picture House, Edinburgh a few years ago. Walked out after 4 songs. Was not like I remember when I saw them in 1986 at the Edinburgh Playhouse. You can never go back.
Mrs. Zigzag agrees with RHCP comments.
Jamiroqui at Birmingham NEC - their first ever stadium gig and they were lost. JK was like a small child on stage - terrified and without any of his perceived’cool’
Second was Keizer Chiefs at Elland Road in 2008? Leeds fans (named after a Leeds player) at the ground at the weekend Leeds were in a playoff final. They played like the team did at the time unfortunately.
Cypress Hill, Reading 94, so so so bad!
Hold on, that guy from the Lemonheads.
Glastonbury, 93/94/94 no idea which. So bad I’d have been better.
Edit, Evan Dando. That was the most I’d seen anyone heckled. He stormed of after a couple of, ill be generous, things attempting to be songs.
95. I hope you stayed in the tent for Portishead afterwards!
Kings of Leon for me. Birmingham arena circa 2008. First time seeing a band I really enjoyed looking utterly bored whilst playing. Zero charisma and zero stage presence.
Gig was made worse by topless, gilet wearing proud boys talking incessantly before suddenly recognising ‘sex is on fire’. Jumping, dancing, hugging, proclaiming it to be the best gig ever...
Not listened to another note since.
