What was the best concert you've ever been to?

Led Zep at Knebworth was was a great gig. I think they played around three hours and did three encores. At one point everyone held up thir lighters so they swung the cameras round and there was a full moon low above the crowd. Everyone turned round to see it and gasped. It felt special.

The Pogues, Nottingham Rock City circa 1985 I think.

Insane, sweaty, sweary and inebriated-and that was just the band.

You'd surely not want to see them every night, but unforgettable.

Bruce

Elvis Costello at Cornbury in June 2012. 'The gig of his life' according to one of the mags. Just brilliant.

C.

There have been a few my parents where big music fans and by the time I was 13 I had seen The Who, The Stones and Bob dylan but the best by far me at that age was The Jam Brighton Centre 1980.  Dennis Brown Reggae Sunsplash Clapham common 1987 was pretty special. Ive  been to quite a few festivals over the years but for best line up Glastonbury 1994 wins hands down Paul Weller was fantastic.

I saw the Jam in Liverpool on their last tour, didn't want to go but we had a deal at college that you all went and took turns picking the gigs.  They were excellent, as we're Thin Lizzy at around the same time also on their last four. I would guess it was 82 or 83.    Excellent topic this Nigel by the way

dayjay posted:

I saw the Jam in Liverpool on their last tour, didn't want to go but we had a deal at college that you all went and took turns picking the gigs.  They were excellent, as we're Thin Lizzy at around the same time also on their last four. I would guess it was 82 or 83.    Excellent topic this Nigel by the way

Yes '82 I saw their very last gig at the Brighton Centre.

ewemon posted:

KRM posted:

I was working behind the bar at the Lakeside County Club in 1980 or 81 and saw Marvin Gaye. He came on very late (Princess Margaret had already left). He was amazing.

He was a brilliant performer. I saw him with Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross.

Wow!

I forgot Miles David in Istanbul.... he turn his back to audience all concert till the end... then he was very nice doing a long bis 

Looking further back in time I Was, in my pre-teens and early teens, a big fan of swing and big band music, Glen Miller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington etc. Also Ted Heath, the only British band to rank among them. When I was about 15 my older brother let me accompany him and his girlfriend to a New Year dance celebration at the local Hall, where Ted Heath was the star attraction. The local band played the early part and then the Ted Heath band came on. The difference was stunning - really tight, precision playing with great solo performances. It was like  Rolls Royce following a Ford. I was on cloud 9!

About 5 years later I had the privilege of seeing the great Duke Ellington orchestra at the Birmingham Odeon. I still have the programme. That was another unforgettable experience.

It really is great to have these memories to look back on and many thanks to HH for raising the thread and letting us wallow in nostalgia!

Mentions of charity gigs above reminds me of THE concert I really wish I'd seen: Live Aid at Wembley in 1985. That must have been some show. I watched it on TV at the time and have the DVD now, but I so wish I'd been there. Status Quo opening the show with Rockin' All Over The World and then there was that Queen set - exceptional.

Knebworth .. 1975 .. Pink Floyd .. 

This was a year I was "living life through pharmacology" and whilst most of it is still a tad hazy the evening PF played will stay with me forever.  The site was/is a natural amphitheater and PF had erected this huge tower on the top rim with a guide wire from the top of it to the stage .. no-one had any idea what it was for.  

Then after dark when they were playing a "rocket" ignited at the top of the tower (which could no longer be seen) and flew into the stage and "exploded" .. whoa .. the place went crazy .. i just wish I could remember the actual track playing at the time.  

Captain Beefheart were there too but PF stole the show .. great concert.

I saw the Cocteau Twins at City Hall, Newcastle in 82 maybe and it was a wall of sound. I also saw New Order there around the same time and remember their roadies taking on the Geordies in a fight at the end. 

The Caribbean centre 1987 Ipswich. A bill that had Napalm Death. Extreme Noise Terror. Deviated Instinct and a couple of other Grincore punk bands ( the sets didn't last that long ) got too much in the mosh pit after stage diving and was shoved propelled out. Knocking into an older gentleman, who was worried that I was ok and then went to get me a pint. After saying thank you I realised it was John Peel, and spent a little while having a chat.

What a great story. John Peel always seemed such a nice man. I asked him to play something on his show once, but of course he never took requests. Rather than ignoring a letter from a callow youth, he wrote me a charming letter talking about how he was stationed down the road from Brysiencyn (where we lived as students) during his national service, when he was Gunner Ravenscroft. 

I'm pleased people are finding this little thread enjoyable. It's the stories around the concerts that are really interesting. I was racking my brains earlier about a Fleetwood Mac concert I went to at Wembley Arena in June 1980, but other than that I went I can remember nothing - who I went with, how I got there, where I stayed afterwards, or even what they played. Whereas with the Smiths or Joy Division and Buzzcocks gigs, I can remember them almost like it was yesterday. 

Happy Mondays at the Free Trade Hall in Madchester as it was then in 1989 . It was more like going to a party !

Ennio Morricone at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010 , amazing but I am partial to a bit of Morricone .

I saw The Wedding Presnt play in a big tent in a field in Louth, Lincolnshire, once. (As everyone knows, they were The Smiths fans' second favourite band.) Not by any means a memorable gig, other than the extraordinary fact that any band would play in Louth (nice place - lovely parish church - but a bit remote). Anyway I actually met and spoke to David Gedge - I was so nervous I could barely string a sentence together. Never meet your heroes has been my motto ever since.

Hungryhalibut posted:

What a great story. John Peel always seemed such a nice man. I asked him to play something on his show once, but of course he never took requests. Rather than ignoring a letter from a callow youth, he wrote me a charming letter talking about how he was stationed down the road from Brysiencyn (where we lived as students) during his national service, when he was Gunner Ravenscroft. 

I'm pleased people are finding this little thread enjoyable. It's the stories around the concerts that are really interesting. I was racking my brains earlier about a Fleetwood Mac concert I went to at Wembley Arena in June 1980, but other than that I went I can remember nothing - who I went with, how I got there, where I stayed afterwards, or even what they played. Whereas with the Smiths or Joy Division and Buzzcocks gigs, I can remember them almost like it was yesterday. 

I was brought up in the Dee Valley (Llangollen) and remember (vaguely) going up to Bangor Uni, early 70's maybe, to see Procol Harum play .. I don't remember a great deal about it except the music was excellent and how grungy the band was .. I do remember the beer being ridiculously cheap.

Emre posted:

I forgot Miles David in Istanbul.... he turn his back to audience all concert till the end... then he was very nice doing a long bis 

Saw JJ Cale play a whole gig with his back to the audience.

I couldn't say what my favoruite gig was as to be honest there were too many but some of my favourites were Bobby Womack, Third World, Bob Marley in a recording studio, Nils Lofgren first solo tour, Tom Petty's first tour, Genesis as a support act, Pink Floyd in the 60's and Knebworth, Led Zepp in the early 70's, Deep Purple around the same time, Humble Pie, Ac/Dc, Hall and Oates, Eagles when the whole audience sung along from the first number to the last, Free ( also played one of the worst gigs I went to), Supertramp, Rory Gallagher, Rolling Stones etc etc etc.

I couldn't say what my favoruite gig was as to be honest there were too many but some of my favourites were Bobby Womack, Third World, Bob Marley in a recording studio, Nils Lofgren first solo tour, Tom Petty's first tour, Genesis as a support act, Pink Floyd in the 60's and Knebworth, Led Zepp in the early 70's, Deep Purple around the same time, Humble Pie, Ac/Dc, Hall and Oates, Doobie Bros, Little Feat, Eagles when the whole audience sung along from the first number to the last, Free ( also played one of the worst gigs I went to), Supertramp touring the COTC album, Rory Gallagher, Rolling Stones etc etc etc.

I was very lucky in so much as I basically got free tickets to any gig I wanted to see in the mid 70's to early 80's.

ewemon posted:

I couldn't say what my favoruite gig was as to be honest there were too many but some of my favourites were Bobby Womack, Third World, Bob Marley in a recording studio, Nils Lofgren first solo tour, Tom Petty's first tour, Genesis as a support act, Pink Floyd in the 60's and Knebworth, Led Zepp in the early 70's, Deep Purple around the same time, Humble Pie, Ac/Dc, Hall and Oates, Doobie Bros, Little Feat, Eagles when the whole audience sung along from the first number to the last, Free ( also played one of the worst gigs I went to), Supertramp touring the COTC album, Rory Gallagher, Rolling Stones etc etc etc.

I was very lucky in so much as I basically got free tickets to any gig I wanted to see in the mid 70's to early 80's.

C'mon, Ewe. There must have been one or two that left you with the  kind of "WTF" just happened feeling?

I  did go to one of Miles's last concerts(Hammersmith Odeon 93/94).  Bad health and back turned to the audience. The music was just mesmerising and he  could have been naked and I  could not have given a Dlying Duck! One of the best concert of my life.

Pink Floyd - Birmingham Town Hall, 1969. The Man And The Journey, complete with azimuth projector!

Caravan - (Kinetic Circus?) Birmingham, 1971. Another small venue, the band touring Land Of Grey And Pink. Nine Feet Underground in all its fresh glory.

MC5 - Barbarella's Birmingham, 1972. Small club, low stage, front row, band frighteningly powerful, Rob Tyner shoving a mike in your face  demanding you sing Ramalama Fa Fa Fa (I did, no argument). Was literally in a daze for days after. Saw them a further two times on that tour, but they didn't come close again.

Grateful Dead - Lyceum, 1972. Great setlist, you could hardly hear Donna (yay!), the place ending up completely fugged with dope smoke, towards the end they opened up the roof and you could see the stars through the fumes (I swear), ending way after the tubes had stopped running but the walk back up to Muswell Hill took minutes with feet hardly touching the ground.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Hammersmith Odeon, 1976. Halfway through the roadies wheeled on this huge fan, then the band struck up Like A Hurricane, which none of us had heard before. Cue the hairs on your neck standing to attention - the song never seemed to end and his guitar solos just got ever more ecstatic. Brought the place to a bedlam-induced standstill.

Love - Royal Festival Hall, 2006. The Forever Changes concert. The first part was brilliant, with a heap of Love "hits" (Arthur admitted he was nervous - "I feel like a dog on ice") but then they brought out the orchestra, they chimed into Alone Again Or, and when the brass came in....oh my...

Mylène Farmer - Paris Bercy, 2006.  Yes it was a vast arena but the stage show was magnificent (the finale where she walks through this giant curtain of water especially), the sound astonishingly good, with the deepest, tightest bass I've ever experienced - better even than the Ramones at the Rainbow New Years concert!

These New Puritans - Barbican, 2014. Expanded, with an orchestra and choir performing Field Of Reeds (where have you gone guys?)

Bruce Springsteen, Wembley Stadium, July 1985. Born in the USA Tour.

Stadiums are not usually the best venue, but it happened to be a totally perfect (rare in the UK!) Summer's afternoon that just seemed to suit the music so well. Lucky to have a great standing position 30 yards from the stage and pretty central. Springsteen's intensity and energy as a performer is legendary and all too true and he kept that same intensity for near on 4 hours. His performance seemed to inspire the crowd into a positive feedback cycle that meant they became a key part of the occasion. I wasn't at Live Aid a few weeks later, but I think it must have had a very similar vibe. An indelibly memorable event. 

The 1971 Leonard Cohen concert in Jerusalem was pretty special. It was a Friday afternoon affair and showing up straight from the field (being in the midst of advanced training) I had no time to go home and change. So, I found myself sitting in front of Leonard Cohen wearing my smelly fatigues and dusty paratrooper boots, balancing a rifle between the knees..

The songs were familiar, but his very measured voice, the pace on a borderlines between singing and telling, completely mesmerized the audience. We just couldn't have enough of him. And then, half way through, in a middle of song, with an incomplete syllable, he unexpectedly stopped and announced that he was not going to be able to continue. He just walked off the stage. The crowd, mostly made of young people, was well behaved, and despite the fact that no one came back to inform us, people just waited patiently, murmuring softly, speculating among themselves, giving him time. All this constant soft hum put me to sleep in no time (haven't slept in the previous 48 hours) and I woke up only 35 minutes later to the lyrics of Suzanne being sung by Leonard who had returned to the stage to complete his performance.

After the concert, first thing I did at home was play his LP on the Grundig console. I sat at the table to let the mother feed me a home cooked meal and then I crawled into bed not to emerge for another day and a half.

Tony2011 posted:

ewemon posted:

I couldn't say what my favoruite gig was as to be honest there were too many but some of my favourites were Bobby Womack, Third World, Bob Marley in a recording studio, Nils Lofgren first solo tour, Tom Petty's first tour, Genesis as a support act, Pink Floyd in the 60's and Knebworth, Led Zepp in the early 70's, Deep Purple around the same time, Humble Pie, Ac/Dc, Hall and Oates, Doobie Bros, Little Feat, Eagles when the whole audience sung along from the first number to the last, Free ( also played one of the worst gigs I went to), Supertramp touring the COTC album, Rory Gallagher, Rolling Stones etc etc etc.

I was very lucky in so much as I basically got free tickets to any gig I wanted to see in the mid 70's to early 80's.

C'mon, Ewe. There must have been one or two that left you with the  kind of "WTF" just happened feeling?

I  did go to one of Miles's last concerts(Hammersmith Odeon 93/94).  Bad health and back turned to the audience. The music was just mesmerising and he  could have been naked and I  could not have given a Dlying Duck! One of the best concert of my life.

If you had to really push me it would probably come down to either the Stones touring Goats Head Soup in 73 (same tour as Brussels Affair) still think they were the best Rock band I have ever seen or Rory Gallagher (really nice guy to talk to when I met him years afterwards). But I could have said the same thing about Neil Young and Crazy Horse touring Zuma which is still my fav Young set or Bowie touring Station or Cream in the 60's god the list is endless.

Now if you asked what the worst gigs I ever went were that's another story and would be an easier list, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis (just didn't get into him that night), Free,, INXS on the first night of a tour and the sound system was pish.

Almost totally forgot about the Santana tour when the audience were congoing up and down aisles that would have to be in my top 3.