I think I spent that entire day in the evening session stage, except for Atari Teenage Riot.Readng
Atari teenage riot were the best band on that year
In 98 prodigy stopped their set to tell us that beastie boys had called them the night before & told them not to play Smack My Bitch Up
Obviously they did, obviously the crowd went was bonkers
When beastie boys came on after & then stopped their set to explain why, obviously they got a lot of abuse, 2nd half of their set was flat after that
Aqua. Barbie girl was awful live 😉
I saw At the Drive In and Refused back to back on Réunion tours. Very disappointed.
Sometimes best not to see your heroes!
Re Deftones and Manson, bands with drugs problems can be pretty hit/miss. I remember Deftones at Reading 2000 and Manson 2001 being amazing, but when Chino is high as a kite, you are on to a loser.
Also, agree Atari Teenage Riot in 99. Great show!
Charlatans late 90's Poole. Completely soulless. Imagine Madame Tussauds with cd on in the background.
PWEI - always seemed to miss them back in the day, saw them more recently (2014 ish) wish I hadn't.
Was that at Scarborough OAT? I kinda like Ghostpoet but that was a rotten performance.
Yessir.
I saw The Fall about 15 years ago – Mark E Smith was wasted and the songs were barely recognisable, he lurched around for a bit and then mumbled ‘bleeearrrrgggh **** off’ at the end..
The same, only at Reading 99 (I think). He spent more time offstage than he did on it.
Saw them about 2 years later and they were perfectly reasonable. I was working backstage too, and his backing band were basically a bunch of students, sitting in awe as he held court and lectured them all about his Views On Life. It was a bit sad.
I saw Fiddy Cent once...
Bjork - Gmex 96, height of her powers, it was cold, thin crowd, no atmosphere, crap sound, gave it 30 mins, went to the pub
The Orb - Last year at Band on the Wall, couple of blokes on laptops, tedious
Reading Festival 2002, I was about 16. Turned up nice and early on the Sunday and wandered over to the main stage to see what was going on and who were playing. Had no idea who the Dillinger Escape Plan were but after a short while I turned to my mate and said "is that bloke taking a shit on stage?" Sure enough, there he was, their lead singer curling one out at about midday. He then threw it into the crowd, who threw it back, and he then wiped it on himself. We headed off promptly after that.
Oasis at the aberdeen exibition centre - utter shit
Weirdly both Blur and Oasis were both shit when I saw them . Oasis did an additional gig in Embra on the standing on the shoulders of Giants tour. They just couldnt be arsed . Similiary Blur played mile end Stadium around 95 so at their prime really. It pished down all day and i got hammeered on cider which probably played a part.
I've seen the Chili Peppers a few times and they have been good but at Hampden they had zero chat and just ploughed through tracks. But the actual worst artist Ive ever seen is Pete Doherty , what a mumbling boring **** though he did take his dug on stage.
Rolling Stones - Millennium Stadium Cardiff @2006
Just felt like a band going through the motions and money making exercise - Kooks were supporting and were way better!
Psychedelic Furs at Leeds Uni 1983 - an era where production costs obviously dipped so that bands with floppy haircuts could churn out relatively coherent singles without the ability to perform them live. Compare with punk where production costs meant anyone could record anything ... Provided you nailed it in 30 minutes.
Easily forgotten, but something just reminded me of an NME Tour gig where The Thrills (of Santa Cruz, You're Not That Far one-hit wonder fame) were on the bill. The most weedy, insipid, joyless sound I've ever suffered.
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
Seen RHCP loads of times and Anthony was shit every single time - turn up do the set with no crowd interaction then bugger off.
Pwei at the Manchester Academy when they reformed minus Clint, they were probably okay but it was the realisation that when we'd seen them the first time we were all tripping/whizzing our tits off teenagers smashing each other up in the mosh pit, fast forward to the reformed gig full of balding/grey haired middle aged professionals talking pensions/share prices in the toilets and stood politely nodding to the music. Worst gig ever due to crushing reality
On the other hand, I first saw Sparklehorse at the Fleece and Firkin in Bristol in 1998. Mark Linkous broke his weird noise making tape machine, got shitfaced, nearly fell off the stage, gave up playing Hundreds of Sparrows halfway through the song, apologised profusely to the audience for doing so and then played Pig (and the rest of the set) without any obvious trouble. And it was great!
Ha! I was at that gig! Standing right in front of Mark, tried to swipe his bottle of Jack Daniels that was by the side of his mic stand after the main set, but had to hand it back to the roadie. It was exactly as you say, and one of the best gigs I’ve been to. Mark did apologise profusely in a later interview about that specific gig, he was really embarrassed about it, but I was astounded that he was able to function as well as he did while that pissed! Of course, the fact that as soon as he came on he took an already open bottle of JD out of his jacket pocket and swigged at it should have been a clue. 🤣
What was funny about Hundreds Of Sparrows was the other guys in the band were showing him the chords and everything, but he just couldn’t grasp it. 😁
Still got the tee shirt too, one of my favourite designs.
