Most Disappointing Live Act?
Posted by: GraemeH on 18 May 2013
Sometimes the music is bad, sometimes the performer just does not connect - Who have you gone to see full of anticipation only to come away disappointed?
For me it was Van Morrison. No Music, No Contact, No Fun.
G
The only gig i have ever walked out of was UFO at the Cambridge Corn Exchange about 15 years or so ago.
My (then) wife and i had made a special trip to Cambridge to see them, hotel, the works.
The support band were so bad that all i can tell you about them is that they had a drummer. The sound was abysmal.
Wife asks me if UFO were going to sound that bad - don't worry i say, most support bands dont get to soundcheck.....
After 2 songs by UFO wife walked out. I stayed for another one.
On the way out i asked a steward had anyone else complained about the sound (it was just a wall of noise - couldnt even tell what songs they were playing) I was told that yes a few had complained. I asked to see the manager of the venue, but he didn't give a sh*t, so i left and found wife in the street looking very glum.
I had been to another gig at the same venue a couple of months before and the sound had been great, so it could have been fine.
I have been disappointed in so many gigs that i no longer go to them - it seems to me that the people "driving the desk" need some lessons - it isn't all about sheer volume :-(
Cheers all,
Mike. Coventry UK.
Second. Simple Minds, Leeds Uni around 83. Waterfront anthem for 20 minutes, Jim Kerr got the hump with someone in the crowd and left the stage. The rest of the band did 2 instrumentals and after 35 minutes we were booing and empty stage.
Neil Young in 1973. Stoned out of his head and apparently depressed because a few friends had recently died from drug abuse. Gram Parsons had died just a few weeks before.
He played Tonight's the Night in its entirety, as yet unreleased and a dark work at the best of times. The crowd was starting to respond negatively to this unfamiliar stuff and he said that if we gave him a few more minutes he'd play stuff we'd heard before, which calmed things down a bit. Then he started playing Tonight's the Night again. I can see the humour now but back then I was a student with extremely limited funds and it didn't seem funny in the least.
Luckily he was supported by the Eagles who were wonderful. I knew little about them at that time but it was obvious they were something special, vocally and instrumentally.
Madonna Concert Years ago in Munich - she definitely can't sing....