Worst probably Van Morrison at Llandudno, sang one song then went off. I like his music but he is a prima dona.

Best has to be Bruce Springsteen, sheer value of effort,content and duration. Saw him in Nottingham and Roundhay park on the same tour. Couldnt kill the bugger with a stick. Brilliant.

Best was Ben Harper at the Jazz Cafe in Camden in about 1994.
Worst…..weirdly because I love their music Iron and Wine, could have just stayed at home and listened to the cd

Most Iconic was J R Cash at Glasters

Best one – if I can only have one, then Public Enemy & Run DMC at the Barrowlands, 89(?)

Worst one – U2, Hampden a couple of years ago. Got free tickets. Left after about 20 minutes. Couldn’t believe people are willing to PAY stupid amounts of money for that!

Worst one that left me gutted – New Order, SECC, 89/90(?) Too awful for words, still pains me to think about it.

Best: either The Who, the first time they reformed at Newcastle Arena, it was incredible hearing all those songs live, or sparklehorse at the sheffield leadmill, on their first UK tour, i honestly can’t pick.

Worst: Brian Wilson at Newcastle city hall, the tour before he did Smile. Dreadful, or Elbow after their first album, so dull.

Best – Madonna @ Wembley 2006 (although £170 per ticket was just scandalous). Fantastic performer, the set was immense and her dancers were amazing. That was the first time I experienced a gig outside of Glasgow and found the crowds don’t go mental like we do. They’re a lot more reserved and it took quite a bit of asking by Madonna before they’d get involved.

Worst – The Prodigy @ Glasgow SECC 1997, crap venue anyway, but the lazy sods were over an hour late on stage (to a lot of boos) and the sound was awful. I had my ass kicked in the mosh pit and was crushed at the front.

Best: either Converge at CBGBs 2001, Snapcase TJs Newport 2000 and something, Helmet, kerbdog & Understand Wulfrun hall 1995. Or maybe Fugazi. or Metallica. Or Roni Size live. More recently Gallows and Trash Talk was ace. Dunno, there’s too many.

Worst: probably Hole just after Cobain topped himself. Understandably his missus was not really interested. I’ve managed to see Jools Holland twice, was like being punched in the ears with boredom. loads of crap support bands.

Best: Either ‘The Smiths’ at the Kilburn National (87? – as heard on ‘Rank’) or ‘Microdisney’ circa 86 – ULU Aldwych.

Worst: Aztec Camera – Dominion or Lloyd Cole and his annoying Commotions – MK Bowl

Best – Rush Brum Odeon 1980 or U2 Cork 1993, saw them a couple of weeks earlier and they did a live link with Sarajevo, ok he wanted to get a point across but please – dropped it for Cork and were excellent.

Worse – U2 1997(ish) Popmart tour at Wembley, boring.

U2 doing quite well in the worst band stakes.

Flip, to choose 1 best out of what I’ve seen is pretty impossible! Short list would have to include the Jam (pompey guildhall), Pixies (brighton), Au Pairs (pompey mecca ballroom), Bauhaus (pompey guildhall), Lcd Soundsystem (brighton concorde), Sleigh Bells (Brighton Audio), Oasis (pompey wedgewood rooms), Sugarcubes (pompey guidlhall), Underworld (in a field)…. (just thought of a couple more) Red Hot Chilis (club foot, london, supported by a dj called Norman Cook), Chemical Brothers + Fatboy Slim (london)..

Worst: Depeche Mode , chichester festival theatre – had my review of this gig published in the NME 🙂

Best: Leonard Cohen, Preston 1979. Stunning.

Also worth a mention: Richard Thompson (any time)

Worst: Roxy music c. 1974. Appalling, from what I remember.

Worst gig is fairly easy ..
Amy Whinehouse at Harrogate International Centre , just after she broke on the scene and Parky etc were all raving about her great talent … unfortunately it was a sign of things to come,… Stumbled on stage drunk and late, slurred a few intros, forgot a lot of words to the extent she actually started one song again as the band were playing 1 song and she was singing another , staggerd off stage after an hour, came back to do an encore and introduced it as a brand new tune … pity she had opened the set with it, only saving grace was that I got hr ticket cheap at the last minute box office.

Don’t get me wrong being drunk does not spoil a gig on it’s own I saw the Pogues at Leeds and Shane was awesome but Amy just didn’t cut the mustard….

Best Gig is way way harder, I’ve seen so many great ones

The Clash at Leeds Queens Hall ( tram shed ) with Eddie & the Hot Rods as support

Queen at Knebworth …

Alabama 3 … nearly every time I see them it’s great but the best was the first time at Bingley as I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, never been disappointed by them since then

Saw Doctors … Leeds Academy last year … right back on it !

But to be honest the list could go on and on

Who at Newcastle,
Be Bop Deluxe Leeds Grand Theatre
Madness ( bradford 1st time round or Leeds 2nd time round )

It really i hard to recall all the good shows after 40 ( ish ) years of seeing and loving live music

Best:-

Billy Bragg in some village hall on Isle Of Skye around ’97. He was having a holiday and doing some warm up gigis before returning to touring proper after having kids. About 30 or 40 people, bar was the serving hatch into kitchen and they had a raffle at half time.

Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine in back room of Oddfellows Arms, Southampton around ’89. Not a huge fan but a housemate was well into music and said they were going to be big. Again about 30 or 40 people, stage was a 1 foot high platform, their album had just got into the charts, they were on a high and gave it everything they had.

Sisters Of Mercy, Academy, Bristol 2003. One of my favourite bands I wanted to see for years but thought they’d stopped touring. More than met my expectations. It was wall-to-wall black in the Hatchet Inn beforehand.

Worst:

Lou Reed at Brixton Academy in ’92. I really like Lou Reed and they played flawlessly through the latest album and a few old favourites. But that’s all they did – absolutely no involvement, I might have well just stayed at home and listened to the CD.

Almost any headline gig at Glastonbury but it’s more the atmosphere and people than the bands. You have to camp out to get anywhere near the front and if you’re not near the front people get annoyed if you junp around a bit. They’re just there to say they were there. If you have to watch it on a screen you might as well be watching the TV at home.

Best: any one of Pixies (2004) in FInsbury I think, Alabama 3 (2007) London, Weddings Parties Anything (Melbourne, 2008) or Beck (2002 ish) Brixton Academy,
Worst would be America and Chicago on supporting Brian Wilson (wife bought the tickets), not really my type of music.

Should one include festivals or pub rock gigs?

Assuming we’re only talking about big acts, and not pub acts…

Best: Radiohead at the Empress Ballrooms in Blackpool. Small venue (for a Radiohead gig) and Radiohead were on top form just before they released ‘In Rainbows’

Worst: Red Hot Chilli at Hyde Park. Massive venue, only went cos I had a free ticket. Supported by ‘Chicks on speed’ who left stage after lead singer was hit by a bottle. James Brown was the other support act, who totally upstaged the chillis.

Best: Rise Against / Biffy (before they turned shit) both at O2/Carling Academy in Brizzle, Frank Turner (playing to 20 people) 6 years ago, Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip at 2k Trees last year. Enter Shikari (don’t laugh!) put on an amazing show a few years back, only like their first album tho.

Worst: Get Cape Wear Cape Fly. Seen him twice, both times he was utter shit.

Best – M People at Mancehster Free Trade Hall. Small and intermate, which created a great atmosphere. This was topped off when Heather Small came out afterwards and got on our coach to sit and just chat with everyone.

Best big venue – Guns n Roses at Maine Road. Even though we were kept waiting for hours before they arrived late on stage the performance more than made up for it.

Worst – Some local radio stations party in the park thing at Southport. Inbetween broadcasting they just kept threatening the audience to end the concert if people stood up or moved about. Most of the audience walked out and started booing from the sidelines.

Best, hmm…
Hello Sailor at the Havelock pub in 91. One of the biggest bands in the country, playing an acoustic tour. Had a beer with them afterwards, very down to earth guys.
Or the Pixies in 07. Never thought I’d see them live.
Or the Nile River Music Festival in th mid 90’s. Great bands, awesome site.
Worst,
Youami at the Falls. Tim Rogers was so f’ed up he could barely stand let alone sing.

Mastiles – I was also at the front for that Prodigy gig at Leeds fest. It was a pile up – it was my first ever festival as well!

Best gig – The Cat Empire on the beachfront at St Kilda Festival in Melbourne. The energy there was amazing, lovely summer evening as well.
Corinne Bailey Rae’s comeback gig in Leeds after the death of her husband was also amazing in a different way.

Worst – got to be John Squire in the Seahorses days in Manchester – he just came across as really arrogant and detached.

Worst – Red hot chili’s (again), Ulster hall Belfast in 92 or 93. In their defence, they had a few issues going on at the time and John Frusciante left the band a few weeks later but I saw them again at Phoenix park in Dublin 2004 and once again they were terrible. Never again.

Best – Has to be the Prodigy at Ibiza Rocks Hotel 2010. It was a warm up gig for their appearance at MK Bowl a few days later and they absolutley owned the place. I consider myself a very lucky boy to have been among the 800 or so people there that night. Other memorable gigs were Nirvana (Kings hall Belfast 92), Alice in Chains (Ulster hall Belfast 93) and a special mention goes to Machine Head when they supported Slayer in 94 and almost blew them off the stage.

Best – The Chameleons, Manchester Academy 2000. Or Black Grape, somewhere in Blackpool, some time in the early 90s. All a bit vague. 😉

Worst – The Fall, Manchester Free Trade Hall mid 90s. Saw The Fall at the Ritz a year or two earlier and it was jumping but the FTH was too big and they were lost in it.

Seems to be RHCP racing ahead of U2 in the “most sh*t live act” awards here, by a sizeable margin too.

Best: Bowie at Milton Keynes Bowl 1984 (Serious Moonlight tour)- went twice, Friday and Sunday. Just breathtaking.

Worst: Simple Minds at (I think) Hammersmith Odeon in 1984 (Sparkle In The Rain tour). Jim getting all preachy, perched on a sort of post-modern pulpit thingy – he’d just found the Alleged Nazarene courtesy of his little pal Bono. Performance was complete dreck. Me and the rest of the band left during the performance. From the fourth row. Watched by Jimmy, bless him.

Best. Sonic Youth at the Forum ( had my head by Kim Gordons bass amp all night, fantastic ) closely followed by Orbital at the Royal Albert Hall, sometime in the late 90’s.

Worst. Subways at UCL, teriible sound, follwed by Beck at Wembly, same reason, coudn’t hear a thing. Spiritualized a Glastonbury coming a close 3rd. Bunch of losers. 😡

Few memorable ones:

Best:
Queens of the Stone Age in San Diego at the height of their powers about 10 years ago.
DJ Shadow at Brixton Academy about the same time.
Plus although they are a band that I wouldn’t normally listen to, I saw Elbow at Wembley about 2 years ago, fantastic live, he is a brilliant front-man, cracking voice and they sound very tight, but still sound like they are enjoying themselves.

Worst:
Saw Kasabian at some festival (V Festival i think), although i like them as a band, they were rubbish, he couldn’t sing for toffee and the sound was rubbish, big disappointment.

Best was also kind of the worst – Mastodon. Sound was awesome, they played really well and the crowd was really into it, but they also have zero crowd interaction so it kind of felt a bit impersonal or something, can’t really explain it but you should know what I mean!

Actual worst was seeing HIM supported by Cathedral. Not really sure why I went as I don’t like either band. The sound was dreadful (guitarists were using gain like it was going out of fashion) and both bands seemed like they couldn’t be arsed.

Best: Foo Fighters (2005) and being near the front.

Honourable mentions: We are Scientists as a support act in Cardiff. I don’t remember who the main ticket was…
Arcade Fire (Neon Bible tour), really interesting keeping up with everything going on.

Worst: Charlatans, Leeds Festival in 2005. It seems nostalgia isn’t always a good thing.

Much better than expected: Madonna in 2006. The wife dragged me along and I actually enjoyed it, apart from the grannies in cowboy hats.

Absolute worst was Underworld a few years ago at the Roundhouse. Was packed full of 30-something ex-ravers (I’m 30-something but not really an ex-raver) who were trying to relive their youths by getting drunk rather than taking pills and getting lairy. After one bloke cracked my wife on the side of the head with his elbow and I asked him to give it a rest, he asked me if I wanted “to go” and his missus said “leave him, he’s not worth it”. Underworld were good, the crowd was packed with arseholes which made it a little less fun.

Best. Hmm. Been to a lot of great ones. In terms of their sheer exuberance, maybe the Flaming Lips as they really looked like they were enjoying being exactly where they were. Likewise, I saw a band called Future Islands a month or two back and although most bands in Luxembourg look puzzled about where they are, these blokes seemed very happy to be on stage in front of people who wanted to see them.

Best – Pogues Kliburn, St Patricks day, 1986. A wild evening with MacGown at his best and the SPG in offensive mode outside. A riot inside and outside. Worst Squeeze, at a open air festival somewhere – years ago dreadful sound and we got soaked.

Best (without a doubt) this exact gig

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a09yS5zJQWo[/video]

Second Best – Eels 21/07/2000, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, front row center, doesn’t get much better than that

Honourable mentions – Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Thrum, Pearl Jam and Bladdered (an unheard of covers band made up of guys in their late thirties early 40’s, played an hour and a half of punk covers, fantastic)

Worst – Counting Crows 16/02/2000, christ that was hard work

Best: either Moby, supported by Lamb at MENA in 2003 (?) or perhaps AC-DC at download 2010. The Charlatans at Leeds T&C in ’95 were awesome. I also have great flashbacks of PWEI in Bradford Uni around the same time.

As a complete curveball, got dragged to Take That in the Stadium of Light by me mum & sister. As a spectacle it was stunningly good. Would actually go again.

Worst: Kings of Leon in Hyde Park 2010. A stand-out performance lacking in commitment, talent or sobriety. Totally unable to command an audience of that size. £50 and a Wednesday evening I’d really like back. Please desist.

Best – Shooglenifty @ the opening of the island of Eigg’s village hall. Radiohead @ Dundee Caird hall a close second.

Worst – Manic street preachers @ SECC. All I remember is people fighting and rubbish sound quality.

Seems to be RHCP racing ahead of U2 in the “most sh*t live act” awards here, by a sizeable margin too

Only for those who saw them late. I saw them in 1987 (Hilel Slovak on guitar) and they were utterly fantastic.

Chili Peppers on the Mothers Milk tour were fantastic, a real breath of fresh air.

Best:
Bob Calvert supported by Inner City Unit
Neko Case
Gil Scott Heron
John Scofield w/Dennis Chambers on Drums.

Worst:

Level 42 (used my last money for a month to go an see Allan Holdsworth play with them and left after 10mins…total shite).

Stone Temple Pilots…boring, boring, boring.

Best – Massive Attack, Carling Academy Birmingham.
Worst – Massive Attack – Brixton Aademy London

easy:

Best: The Prodigy Milton Keynes
Worst: Morrissey MEN Arena

There’s been quite a few memorable ones:

Autechre in 95. They only played for 45 minutes but I idolised them and the set represented a totally different side to the band. It was beautiful and brutal, often at the same time 🙂 Have seen them a few times since and they never quite got the balance right for my preferences.

Radiohead in 97. First time I really got them as I’d spent the previous few years consumed by electronic music. I prefer smaller venues in general, but seeing them at Glastonbury makes me believe there are exceptions.

Sigur Ros in 2004. Played () from start to finish, an album I’d listened to at least once a day for an entire year because I used it as an alarm clock. Somehow made it more special than all of those experiences put together.

Can’t remember any truly awful ones. I do remember having to leave an Earth gig at ATP one year, but that was because the noise made me feel actively uncomfortable in a visceral way, not unlike being disembowelled. I still look back on that fondly 😆

Too many to think of….

Best:

Massive Attack – Marcus Garvey Centre Notts 1995
Dinosaur Jr – Reading 1993
Paul Weller – Aston Villa Sports and Leisure Centre 1992
The Verve – 9:30 Club, Washington D.C 1997
Greg Dulli & The Twilight Singers – Rescue Rooms, Notts 2006
New Order – Alexandra Palace New Years Eve, 1998

Worst:
E.M.M.A, Sheffield Octagon 1995
The Hives – Hard Rock Calling 2010
Placebo – V2001 – Chelmsford

Can’t really think of any more bads ones at the minute. I guess i’m fairly lucky.