What was your first live gig?

Still remember it like it was yesterday.

Then you weren’t there, man

The Cure; Hammersmith. 1983 ish. Had to leave before the end to catch the last train back to rural Essex 🙁

Donington ’90 was my first proper (ie, non-pub) gig.

Thunder,
Quireboys,
Poision,
Aerosmith,
Whitesnake.

Top do, bit of a baptism of fire though.

Thinking about it, my first ever live gig was the Animal Kwackers in a sports hall at the Hyndburn Sports Centre. I still have a signed LP somewhere…

The stranglers cambridge corn exchange 1979 can’t remember a single thing about it.

The Police, Ghost in the Machine tour Queens Hall, Leeds. Not sure of year maybe 81 or early 82. Saw Crass in May 82 so defo before then.

Northwind – Member
I’m jealous of lots of stuff in this thread but this one in particular… Not that I would have gone, at the time, but it was the day I started listening to music. 5 minutes into Metallica, my folks are going “what is this rubbish” and I’m going “I have no idea but I’m going to find out…” Genuinely can’t even think how much that changed my life. Completely, I reckon.

Introduced me to a lot of stuff. The line up was cracking. A lot of the stuff before the main show when the remains of Queen came on was great. Metallica, Def Leopard, Guns ‘n Roses, and… Spinal Tap!! (missing from the video releases).

And then I got to see David Bowie also! and Mick Ronson reunion with Bowie, though sadly his last gig really before he died.

A bunch of garbage in there too, but generally amazing experience and think that was the last time I’d been to old Wembley.

1987 – Meat Loaf – Newcastle City Hall. It was tremendous, went on about 3 hours.

Status quo , Hammersmith 1981 before they went tits up and became a joke .

The Four Tops, Liverpool Empire 1971

Darts, remember them? Glasgow Apollo, circa 1979, just after Den Hegarty had left. 12 years old at the time. Allowed to tag along with my dads best mates’ wife and her brother.
Brilliant gig and can remember a huge scrap breaking out when Horatio Hornblower, the saxophonist, (probably not his real name), threw his waistcoat into the madding throng of Weegie teddy boys.
Still love them and Duke of Earl pencilled in as a funeral song.

Focus – Leeds Uni 1974 I was still at school). The next two would also have been at Leeds
Wishbone Ash 1976
Rory Gallagher 1977?

Last band ? UFO last year – still as good as the first time I saw them (Exeter Uni 1981)

Hmm. I think it was probably Slade at the Top Rank in Doncaster when they were still skinheads. Date unsure. The first biggy was Pink Floyd, Sheffield City Hall, 1971 (I think). The first half was the yet unreleased Dark Side of the Moon. Second half was Ummagumma and Echoes era. Brilliant stuff.

Jimi Hendrix at the Troutbeck Hotel Ilkley 1967.Chaos! Awsome! I believe the hotel is now a nursing home

Is seriously envious.

Marillion at the Cornwall Coliseum, ‘Clutching at Straws’ tour, so must have been ’87.
The gig was fantastic but the coach took bloody hours to get there & back from Exeter, i think we left about 2 in the afternoon & got home about 3.30am!

Slade – B’ham Odean. 😯

The wedding present in The Mandella Hall Belfast, around 1987ish i think.

I’d just like to say that I am very envious of quite a few of you. And I’m also younger than quite a few as well!

Currently listening to live recordings from the 1974 Knebworth Festival. Cost of one day ticket was £3 on the door. 😀 Was very expensive at the time but line up included Van Morrison and the Allman Brothers, utterly brilliant.

Jimi Hendrix at the Troutbeck Hotel Ilkley 1967.Chaos! Awsome! I believe the hotel is now a nursing home

Really lucky to be there mate

First gig for me was the NME Tour at Manchester Academy in 2001. Four bands on, being Amen, JJ72, Starsailor and Alfie. Only went for Amen and because I thought the female bassist in JJ72 was fit. Mainly was dragged along by my mate who loved everything indie.

First group was 1973, Ike and Tina Turner doing nut bush city limits at the heavy steam machine which I think was some where near Stoke but its so bloody long ago that I could have the location all mixed up.First big band was 1973,Genesis doing the selling England by the pound tour at Liverpool Empire, this was the first tour that Phil Collins was lead singer after Peter Gabriel said thanks but no thanks. I don’t think I will ever forget the special effects which by today’s standards were tame but in those days they were simply stunning.Many years later I refused to even admit to owning a Genesis album let alone queuing to see them ! ah the fickle days of youth. 42 years later I still get a thrill out of seeing good acts in smaller venues.

cinnamon_girl – Member
I’m so old that I can’t remember. It would have been around 1972 and I think it was Dr Feelgood.

I think you are out by 2 or 3 years unless you were lucky enough to drop on them right at the start. I saw them for the first time at Salford uni in 78 with Blonde headlining the gig.There was no doubt they were brilliant live, I also saw John Copper Clarke, and Wild Will Barrett and Jon Otaway there. Top venue with a capacity of circa 1200.

Simple Minds backed by Lloyd Cole, The Waterboys, BIg Audio Dynamite and Dr and the Medics 22nd June 1986 at MK Bowl.

1973,Genesis doing the selling England by the pound tour at Liverpool Empire, this was the first tour that Phil Collins was lead singer after Peter Gabriel said thanks but no thanks

Gabriel didn’t leave until 1975.

#GenesisNerd

Believe it or not (and it is hard to believe for a number of reasons) Steeleye Span 1976
The next was Thin Lizzy the following year. Perhaps I should just say that was my first “proper” gig. TBH is has all been downhill since that performance.

What, exactly, is wrong with Steeleye Span?
From an almost identical thread started by barnsleymitch three years ago:

Steeleye Span, Lacock Folk Festival, forty years ago last year. Next gig was Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Trilogy Tour, St David’s Hall, Cardiff 1972. Steeleye played Chippenham Folk Festival last year for the 40th anniversary, and I met Maddy Prior afterwards and had my copies of Below The Salt on original vinyl and CD signed. Great gig.

Saw Thin Lizzy maybe half a dozen times, including the Black Rose and Johnny The Fox Tours, and the Reading Festival, and Phil Lynott with Grand Slam at Golddiggers in Chippenham, one of his last ever gigs before he died, my ears are still ringing from standing in front of the speaker stacks; didn’t know about hearing protection back then!

808 State at Village Underground in 2012. Think I was born a couple decades too late…

monkfish – Member
The stranglers cambridge corn exchange 1979 can’t remember a single thing about it.

So wanted to go to that and my folks wouldn’t let me. Said I was too young 🙁

durhambiker – Member

Four bands on, being Amen, JJ72, Starsailor and Alfie.

Most ridiculous lineup in the thread!

Guy I know , I used to play cricket with him, his first gig at the age of 28 was Mumford and Sons. Words cannot express the pity I felt for him

Led Zeppelin at Knebworth 1979. As a 15 yo it was an eye opener. Hells Angels with a joint as big as a house and the first time I saw a naked lady that wasnt in a book!
Todd Rundgren was on the bill and various others I had never heard of but he was good. The second weeks gig had New Barbarians (Wood/Richards) would like to have seen them.

The Damned – The Sandpiper at Nottingham – 1978.

I’ve no idea, my parents took me along to all sorts of stuff in the sixties from jazz to a hippy folk festival. The first one that was my initiative was Slade in 72 with Keep on Rockin’ and Get Down Get with it in the set. Gigs after that were something of an anticlimax with the exception of Blondie in Barbarella’s.

The last gig was junior and his band, their early performances were good musically but a little timid so I got the band members watching old Slade vids with Noddy working the crowd. It made me smile when junior ordered the crowd around Noddy style, he still won’t use Nod’s best joke though.

bigblackshed – Member
1973,Genesis doing the selling England by the pound tour at Liverpool Empire, this was the first tour that Phil Collins was lead singer after Peter Gabriel said thanks but no thanks
Gabriel didn’t leave until 1975.

#GenesisNerd

I looked it up, it was Oct 23 1973.
Apologies I should have made myself more clear, I didn’t mean he wasn’t there,I meant as a Genesis newbie I was expecting to see Gabriel up front and friends who were in to Genesis suggested Gabriel didn’t want to.Hence my surprise to see Phil Collins acting as the lead singer and TBH I cannot remember much about Gabriel that night apart from him having a strange outfit on and wandering around the stage, he seemed quite peripheral.

Transvision Vamp at the Aston Villa Leisure Centre, either 89 or 90. I’d lived in various small villages before going to uni so it was my first real chance to go see a band. And, y’know, Wendy James.

Most recent was last Tuesday. Halestorm, Shinedown, Black Stone Cherry.

Next is Bowling for Soup in a week, then Thunder and Terrorvision the week after.

Big Country Oct 6th 1984 Steeltown tour supported by White China, a cracking band in their own right? Lancaster University !!

First one was either the Undertones (supported by Sham 69 I think) or the Jam (possibly supported by Secret Affair), Guildford Civic Hall, around 1980. Those were the days…

Saturday July 6th 1985
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Wembley Stadium
Me and Graham Dietz (RIP)
Not a bad inaugural gig IMHO as we were only 16
Seem to remember the tickets were £17 but can’t remember if there were any support bands, but I do remember the gig was 4 hours long, and I was wearing canvas espadrilles.
Halogen (sic) days.

Northwind – Member
durhambiker – Member
Four bands on, being Amen, JJ72, Starsailor and Alfie.

Most ridiculous lineup in the thread!

Yes, slightly odd lineup. 3 bands that fit, one that certainly didn’t.

This thread has certainly changed my perception of the average age of STW 😆

In 1993 my dad and my uncle took me to see Crowded House at the G-MEX. it was ace. I was 13.

Ozzy Osbourne 1997 osmosis tour at Newcastle city hall. Not the best gig ever but I was chuffed to see a rock legend!