In addition to the ‘first live band you saw’ thread. Mine would be (at least for today) :
Best – The Clash, Leeds Uni (1978 or 79, somewhere about then).
Worst – Bowie, Phoenix festival 1996, I went back to me tent and made a cup of tea rather than face anymore.

best, alabama 3, town and country, leeds.
worst, elton john, galpharm stadium, huddersfield.
even worse, santana, men stadium, manchester.

ton – as a Wakey lad, did you ever go to Players?

i did mate, downstairs?

Aye. I used to play drums for the Juvies 😳 so practically lived there at one point.

Best – Probably Dr Feelgood @ a random pub in that London 75ish

Worst – Ozzy Osborne [can’t remember where]

best, The Clash 78, Out On Parole tour, Torquay Town Hall.
worst, killing Joke about three weeks ago in Exeter. Probably seen worse but they were recent and reminded me never to see old reformed punk bands!!

Worst is easy – Clapton sometime in mid nineties. Just awful.

Best – Radiohead at Meadowbank Stadium

Best – Pink Floyd on their final tour, Earls Court 1995, I think.
Worst – Testament, Bradford St George’s Hall, sometime in the late 1980s.

Best – The White Stripes in Glasgow a few years back. Not even that big a fan but that bloke is hands down the best rock performer I’ve ever seen.
Also Bonnie prince Billy in Edinburgh one time was amazing (seen him a few times and he’s hot and cold).

Worst – Seen some shite at festivals over the years. Worst who I actually liked and expected to be good was Pavement in London mid-90s. Didn’t seem to have it that night.

Best: Same as the first. The Cult at Manchester Apollo 1985. Or teh Pixies. One of the last gigs before they split up. Oooooooooh -or Kraftwerk at Manchester Velodrome. That were ace!!! 😀

Worst: Probably Kings of Leon at the Apollo. Looked like they really couldn’t be arsed being there. The fact we’d seen the Prodigy the night before at the same venue just served to emphasize their meh-ness

mitch, i thought the juvies were a skinhead band?

Best: either Pantera at Plymouth Pavillions roundabouts 1993, or Badly Drawn Boy in one of the domes at the Eden Project last summer.

Worst: mmmm, probably Senser at a ‘don’t bring in the JSA’ demo/free festival in about 1996; after the rather intense rapping bloke had left. Oh, or Saxon circa 1993, whose novelty wore off after about one and a half tunes.

Ton – no love, they were a rockabilly / psychobilly band.

Best: Cold War Kids, Side Room of the Academy, Birmingham.

Worst: Coldplay, Birmingham, NIA.

talking about rockabilly, i saw the stray cats…..they were fantastic.
and can you remember the soliciters? saw them at the jockey, fantastic.

Worst – John Butler Trio at Brixton Academy. The venue was full of very loud Aussies so you could hardly hear the band. And when you could they were poor. We had one beer and left.

Best – Massive Attack in a square in Bristol. Absolutely stunning.

Best – mmm. toughie – i’ve not been to many, thankfully, they’ve mostly all been good…

Worst – Jools Holland and his big band at M’cr Apollo – had seen them at their outdoor gigs a couple of times, enjoyed them.
Apollo was just to small for them – too much / too many sounds for the space and, oh, i was with the soon to be ex mrs mm – stood together yet so far apart….

A very random gig memory – Simple Minds at Maine Road…. between acts I pop to the little boys room. As I, ahem, sat and pondered, I could hear a steady increase in the number and volume female voices. A lot of them. I was 100% sure I was in the gents as i’d passed urinals on the way in…
Next thing I know a female face appears over the door.
‘ere, will you ‘urry up – there’s a queue!’

Best: Sisters Of Mercy + New Model Army + Skeletal Family, Huddersfield Town Hall c1983/4
Worst: Gene Loves Jezebel c1987 Bradford Uni. So bad i spent the whole gig playing pool

Best – Pixies at Newcastle Uni, Sugarcubes at newcastle poly, or House of Love at Newcastle Riverside

Or of course any Wedding Present gig ever

Worst – Martin Stephenson and the Daintees. Rubbish, and i got told off for singing along to just about the only song i knew.

Best – possibly Fear Factory on the Demanufacture tour, Iron Maiden in Paris in 1999, Pantera on the Reinventing the Steel tour, or Rammstein. Any Rammstein. It’s the flamethrowers,see.

Worst – I’ve never been to a gig I’ve not enjoyed, but I have seen some truly terrible support and festival acts. Thought Kiss were a bit bobbins at Donington 95, as were Manowar at Dynamo 99. Therapy? have been toss every time I’ve seen them live too, which was always disappointing.

I bow down to anyone who saw The Clash in 77 or 78. They trump anyone else 8)

Best: I think the Stone Roses at Spike Island just for the spectacle of it (rather than the acoustics) and as a 17 year old stone roses nut who had got the bus down from Aberdeen it was pretty amazing. Jah Wobble supporting too (with Gary Clail)
Other than that Curve at The Astoria in 1991 blew me away (standing 2 ft from Toni Halliday was pretty mind blowing in itself).

Worst: Blur at Glastonbury 1994. Got so bored with it all I crowd surfed out and went off to another stage.

Best (atmosphere) – the Levellers at Solfest a few years back
Best (seeing an idol) – Steve Earle at Leeds Grand

Worst, by a mile – Noah and the Whale, Leeds Cockpit. They’re a s##t band, I got dragged by my missus and her housemates. The support band couldn’t sing in tune never mind in harmony like they were trying to, the main set was dire, and they had to keep the one song anyone knew for the encore, or everyone would have left early…

Best – either Thin Lizzy 1976 or maybe Joe Jackson jumpin jive tour – a great gig

Don’t remember any real stinkers

I bow down to anyone who saw The Clash in 77 or 78. They trump anyone else

I saw them @ the Newcastle Mayfair around that time and they were very good indeed, I still think Feelgood were better though 🙂

One of the best – Bruce Springsteen, The River Tour, 84’ish. Wembley Arena. No support, great atmosphere, had the place jumping
One of the worst – Bruce Springsteen, can’t rremember the album, 98’ish, SECC. No atmosphere, off tune, just poor. We left before the end and there were a good number of people on their way out.

I saw them @ the Newcastle Mayfair

I remember the day Strummer died I met a bloke in the pub who had seem them in Newcastle (oh dear I must have bored the pants of him extracting his views on his night out 25 years prior)…

Best The Orb
Worst Frank Zappa

Best?

God knows, possibly Faith No More at the International, Here & Now at Band on the Wall, the remnants of the Bonzo Dog band at Bolton last year, Hawkwind (with Simon House, playing the Calvert era stuff) or the Beta Band at the Acadamy.

The worst?

Van Morrison at the Apollo was a grumpy, truculent waste of time.
Saw the Stone Roses support James at a legalise dope benefit at Manchester Uni before they caught on. They were awful.
They did get a lot better over the next twelve months though 😀

Best: Jane’s Addiction, any of several shows

Worst: Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Hyde Park (2005?) – only redeeming feature being the support act – James Brown.

+1 for fond (but hazy) memories of Players, Wakefield btw

Best was either Joy Formidable at the O2 last year/year before maybe, tiny gig, but they’re such a good noise, that or the Sleigh Bells at Bristol, Sooooooo loud.

worst: Primal Scream 2005 Glastonbury, shit.

Therapy? have been toss every time I’ve seen them live too, which was always disappointing.

Wow, I’m surprised at that. I’ve seen them a couple of times and they kicked bottom.

Best: Foo Fighters
Worst: U2 at Wembley stadium. Utter sh*te. If I saw Bono in the street, I’d kick him in the balls

Best – Faith No More at Brixton Academy 1992 – proper mad. no more to say.

Worst – St Etienne at Bristol Uni 1996 – zero charisma or stage presence – would have been better listening to the CD at home. A real shame as I really like their music.

Best: King Adora, Oxford Zodiac 2002ish. I’d never even heard of them before they on but they were ace. The clips on Youtube really don’t do them justice.
And don’t laugh but The Wurzzels are excellent too, they’ve been at it long enough to know what they’re doing. And long enough for one original member to have died…
Worst: Gay Dad, somewhere in London 2002ish. They spent the whole gig up the own backsides.

+1 for Therapy being rubbish, they were contenders for my worst until I remembered RHCP

Husker Du in Stow Hill Labour club in Newport was memorable. FNM at Brixton for that Video.

Worst Crass or the Exploited because of the mindless violence in the crowd.

Meteors beyond bad due to the Wrekin Crew taking over the security and the moron Fenech directing the fighting from the stage.

Too many great ones to pick out a best, I think. The Flaming Lips are always pretty special live, though.

Worst. Hmm, well MGMT in Glasgow a couple of years ago was pretty disappointing, as were Midlake a few months earlier. Plus there was one Tori Amos gig that I recall trying to fall asleep in – and usually I’ve enjoyed her gigs.

Two many great ones, recently the naked and famous were pretty amazing, although for sheer intensity, will haven at the barfly will take some beating. They were brutal.

Best – Pearl Jam at the Astoria ’06
Worst – RHCP at Excel. A soulless venue and far too much guitar wankery.