Most entertaining band you've watched

Several come to mind. John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett at The Lyceum (sp?) were probably the most memorable but the music took second place to the antics. Still good though. Jethro Tull have been consistent down the years, dishing up many evenings of professionalism mixed with banter and humour. Wilko Johnson and The Solid Senders did a pretty amazing gig many years ago that I remember clearly, it was like the whole audience were part of the performance – a few ending up on stage helping with the chord arrangements – you had to be there! ELO also deserve mention. When Roy Wood was still with them, before all the mega stadium glam pomp rubbish, they tipped into a local venue in Essex on their first tour as ELO (having gone through a period of still being The Move half the time). About an hour in the PA lunched. After a time the crew got one working mike up and the band spent about anther hour doing barbershop quartets, telling jokes and doing solos on various instruments. Two hours on the system was back on line and they played for ages until the police turned up to chuck us all out in the wee small hours. Good stuff.

Cheers

Harry

Prince, circa sign 'o the times & lovesexy tours. He may be a bit wierd, but bloody hell, what a band.
Jellyfish (rip ) at the cambridge junction,IIRC. Fantastic, sang like angels, & the lead singer was the drummer, who played proper drums standing up!Quite mad, but sorely missed.
I know I'm gonna think of more later.
How about a "least entertaining band" thread?
I blagged some free tickets to see lenny kravitz in Osaka, Japan. Always liked his early stuff, but that was one crap gig. Drummer couldn't keep time, lenny walked off stage to row with the sound engineer, & in a bloomin school gymnasium!
mat

quote:

Originally posted by manicatel:
How about a "least entertaining band" thread?

The Pop Group by a mile. No further details will be supplied - the memory is too painful. Second is Fleetwood Mac at Wembly on the Tusk tour. Five planks going through the motions, obviously looking forward to the after gig party. Third sad to say is The Stones at Wembly - early 80s I think. The band were not at fault. The sound system was crap. In fact it was worse than crap. A tout offered me what I regarded as quite a lot of money for my ticket when we were queuing - I wish....

Cheers

Harry

I wish Id seen the Who back in the early days and Elton John in his Yellow Brick Road Tour, but I was a poor college student at the time. And later missed early Springsteen as I was a poor landscaper at the time, Sigh! but I did get to see Pink Floyd do the Wall here in LA. Wow, was that great, I've had numerous flash backs when I hear the music. That was some serious stage production married to the music. Or was that the effect of teh blue haze in the auditorium?

THe Kinks, '72 or '73, Sunderland Locarno Ballroom

quote:

Originally posted by BarryD:
THe Kinks, '72 or '73, Sunderland Locarno Ballroom

BarryD - you are a lucky man indeed - I would have loved to have seen Ray Davies and his men back then.

Probably A Certain Ratio circa 1985. Brilliant band with fantastic songs, but their party trick was to swop instruments about mid song without the music stopping.

Jono

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:

quote:

Originally posted by BarryD:
THe Kinks, '72 or '73, Sunderland Locarno Ballroom

BarryD - you are a lucky man indeed - I would have loved to have seen Ray Davies and his men back then.

It's one of the moments that made me love live music; they were the first truly riotous band I'd seen, effortlessly competent, and closed the show with Ray Davies strutting around on top of the grand piano spraying fans with lager from the bottle, whilst roaring out Demon Alcohol. When you're 17 it gets no better...

Denny Laine's Electric String Band, around 1967, supporting Hendrix (i think) at the Saville Theatre, beautiful and bizarre, well ahead of his time, then he goes and joins paul&linda and sinks into musical ignomy.

hmmmm... it's a toss up between John Denver and Barry Manilow circa '81. W O W ! what a fantastic show they put on! Too bad the tunes sucked.

After I got older I had my folks drop me off to good shows like Foreigner, Queen, Asia, Journey, etc.

Then came PUNK! GBH, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Butthole Surfers....

Yeah! The Butthole Surfers were the most entertaining band EVER!

Seriously, when I read your suggestions I get the feeling that all the good concerts ended some time after the 70's. Don't you think there have been NO good concerts after that? Or haven't you been to concerts in the last 20 years or so? Or can't you enjoy concerts after you turn 20?

One of my favourites is a year old; Antony & the Johnsons at Södra Teatern, Stockholm. But then again, a teenage experience was when we went to London to see Guns n Roses at Wembley, not so much for the music but for the feeling of being there.

Regards,
Jacob

Joe Ely at the Powerhaus in Islington, late 80s. Guitar string broke mid-song, without breaking stride he swings the guitar off his shoulder and exchanges for a new one with off-stage roadie to riotous applause. Don't know whether it was staged but it redefined cool for a while.