What a great way to start the New Year, I would go back in time to see Jimi Hendrix probably at Monterey festival, my regret due to rain and shocking conditions was not wanting to walk through the lake of hideous fluids to get to Spiritualized on The Park Stage at Glastonbury 98. Our bonus was we saw Pulp instead xx
That RAH gig must have been a great show! I have seen Spz several times live, but the one that stands out as the best was John Peel's Meltdown 1998. Spiritualized, Sonic Youth and The Delgados were on the same bill, with SY and Spz receiving equal billing. Spiritualized closed the show with, if memory serves me well, a 'Cop Shoot Cop' white noise frenzy where Sonic Youth and Delgados joined them on the stage. It was fantastic to behold, but my ears have never forgiven me!
I've not been to that many gigs in my life (though I've got several booked this year - a mix of 'names' and tribute bands). I'd have to say that my favourite gigs so far have been The Bootleg Beatles, The (Beautiful) South, King Stingray, Chris Difford (solo gig), and my top gig has to be last year seeing Squeeze in Edinburgh.
Ok, I know I will come back to this and kick myself as other legendary gigs and artists will come to mind that I haven't included, but immediately off the top of my head:
1. Hendrix at Monterey, June 1967, for sure.
2. Fela Kuti between 1974 and 1976 at The Shrine in Lagos, Nigeria.
3. Parliament Funkadelic on their Mothership Connection 1976 Tour.
4. Santana in Osaka, July 3-4, 1973 (on what would later be released as 'Lotus') or anytime between 1968 and 1971 when they were a young, explosive band also comes to mind.
5. Betty Davis, either in 1974 at Loyola University near Baltimore or at the Riviera Festival Jazz-Rock in Le Castellet, France, on July 25, 1976.
Can I sneak a 6th one in, please? Fuck it, I just did...
6. Osibisa at the Royal Festival Hall on July 19, 1977 (what is recorded on their 'Black Magic Nights' double LP).
And, finally, being at any of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests before LSD was made illegal (so anytime before October 1966) would have been an amazing and mind-expansive experience. The Grateful Dead was the house band, but they sound nothing like the band they became (I have a bootleg from one of the tests). They were, unsurprisingly, much more embryonic and experimental at the tests. That said, these were also more of a party than a gig.
Sending me down a rabbit hole here. Steve. Since you've already mentioned Zep and JD I'll swerve those and instead go for...
Van Halen supporting Sabs in 1978. I bitterly regret not going to Donington in 1984, the most realistic chance I had of catching them with DLR. Seeing them as an 11 year old wasn't an option so let's go back to that tour when rock's new guard famously blew the faltering old one off stage night after night.
My beloved Rush have to be in here. Their final tour in 2015 is the obvious one. I'm haunted by my decision not to go to the States to see it, convinced it would come to Europe (it didn't). But instead we're heading to 1984 and any one of the handful of shows they did in Japan on the Grace Under Pressure tour. My favourite album played in the country I most want to visit.
Metallica's secret gig at the 100 Club in 1987. I watched footage of it on YouTube a while back. An absolute frenzy of pure ferocity.
I'm a sucker for a great multi-band line-up and it doesn't get any better than the combination of Faith No More, Voivod and Soundgarden in 1989/90, that incredibly fertile period of rock music pre-grunge. North America only sadly. Fugazi supported by The Jesus Lizard, Shudder To Think and Leatherface in Brixton in 1992 is an alternative option.
Finally, another one I really should have seen, the criminally underrated God Machine. I twice passed up chances to see them in 1993. One was at Glastonbury, the other earlier in the year in Amsterdam. So take me back there and this time I'll refuse to bow to my mates' peer pressure not to go.
Just five you say? Can I squeeze in Springsteen at Hammersmith? Hell, any Springsteen...
Brilliant stuff - spoiler alert but also planning a "Greatest Misses" post and Van Halen and Rush will both feature, the former not my fault as had a ticket for the Apollo in 84 and they cancelled, the latter all my own work!! Re FNM though did see them with Chuck and also did about 5 dates on The Real Thing tour 👍
Were you at the FNM show at the International in 1989? It was my graduation day. Went home with my folks and my brother drove us back up to Manchester for the gig. I was in no state to be behind the wheel!
I was lucky enough to see Kate Bush at Hammersmith in 2014, it was absolutely mind blowing, in my top 3 gigs of all time I’d say. My 5 would involve, Bowie and Ziggy, Japan around 1980, Talk Talk in 84 on their way to Spirit of Eden, Joy Division at any point and finally the Banshees in 1979 on the Join Hands Tour with The Human League on support duties.
July 1988, Central Tavern, Seattle: Soundgarden, The Fluid, Mudhoney. The gig that got The Fluid signed to Sub Pop, apparently. They musta been amazing.
October 1989, Arts Centre, Norwich: Tad, Nirvana. My big gig regret. Had tickets, too stoned to get the train. Lazy idiot.
Slade, Motörhead, Sex Pistols, The Cure, The Damned and Adam and the Ants: Pavilion, West Runton: The venue was just a little pub in a little village in sleepy North Norfolk, yet it hosted a multitude of great bands through the 70s and very early 80s before it was demolished in 1983. I lived three villages down the coast and it boxed my mind that I missed them all. So near, so far, too young.
Minneapolis in the early 80s; Husker Du on stage and future AmRep band members in the audience…
I’d have loved to have seen Leonard Cohen around 1970, Bauhaus supported by The Birthday Party in 1981, Alice-era Sisters, and it would have been cool to be in the crowd for Hanx!, Alive and Dangerous and Weld.
Great choices there! Have posted before about supporting Mudhoney. I also interviewed Chris Cornell (RIP) around the time of the Manchester prison riot in 1990 - I was wearing a T-shirt (It's a Riot at Strangeways) and he offered me anything from the merch stand in exchange. I politely declined!
What a great way to start the New Year, I would go back in time to see Jimi Hendrix probably at Monterey festival, my regret due to rain and shocking conditions was not wanting to walk through the lake of hideous fluids to get to Spiritualized on The Park Stage at Glastonbury 98. Our bonus was we saw Pulp instead xx
Spiritualized at the Royal Albert Hall right up there with my best ever gigs x
That RAH gig must have been a great show! I have seen Spz several times live, but the one that stands out as the best was John Peel's Meltdown 1998. Spiritualized, Sonic Youth and The Delgados were on the same bill, with SY and Spz receiving equal billing. Spiritualized closed the show with, if memory serves me well, a 'Cop Shoot Cop' white noise frenzy where Sonic Youth and Delgados joined them on the stage. It was fantastic to behold, but my ears have never forgiven me!
That sounds fantastic!
I wish I had been at the following :-
Nov 16 1971 - Led Zeppelin playing at Ipswich Swimming Bathes!
1979 Kate Bush
13 July 1985 - Live Aid, I had tickets but went to Open University week in Stirling, Scotland!
21 March 2009 - Angry vs the Bear, South by Southwest, Austin, Texas
22 October 2014 - Status Quo, acoustic, The Round House, London
I've not been to that many gigs in my life (though I've got several booked this year - a mix of 'names' and tribute bands). I'd have to say that my favourite gigs so far have been The Bootleg Beatles, The (Beautiful) South, King Stingray, Chris Difford (solo gig), and my top gig has to be last year seeing Squeeze in Edinburgh.
Ok, I know I will come back to this and kick myself as other legendary gigs and artists will come to mind that I haven't included, but immediately off the top of my head:
1. Hendrix at Monterey, June 1967, for sure.
2. Fela Kuti between 1974 and 1976 at The Shrine in Lagos, Nigeria.
3. Parliament Funkadelic on their Mothership Connection 1976 Tour.
4. Santana in Osaka, July 3-4, 1973 (on what would later be released as 'Lotus') or anytime between 1968 and 1971 when they were a young, explosive band also comes to mind.
5. Betty Davis, either in 1974 at Loyola University near Baltimore or at the Riviera Festival Jazz-Rock in Le Castellet, France, on July 25, 1976.
Can I sneak a 6th one in, please? Fuck it, I just did...
6. Osibisa at the Royal Festival Hall on July 19, 1977 (what is recorded on their 'Black Magic Nights' double LP).
And, finally, being at any of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests before LSD was made illegal (so anytime before October 1966) would have been an amazing and mind-expansive experience. The Grateful Dead was the house band, but they sound nothing like the band they became (I have a bootleg from one of the tests). They were, unsurprisingly, much more embryonic and experimental at the tests. That said, these were also more of a party than a gig.
Brilliant list, thank you!
Sending me down a rabbit hole here. Steve. Since you've already mentioned Zep and JD I'll swerve those and instead go for...
Van Halen supporting Sabs in 1978. I bitterly regret not going to Donington in 1984, the most realistic chance I had of catching them with DLR. Seeing them as an 11 year old wasn't an option so let's go back to that tour when rock's new guard famously blew the faltering old one off stage night after night.
My beloved Rush have to be in here. Their final tour in 2015 is the obvious one. I'm haunted by my decision not to go to the States to see it, convinced it would come to Europe (it didn't). But instead we're heading to 1984 and any one of the handful of shows they did in Japan on the Grace Under Pressure tour. My favourite album played in the country I most want to visit.
Metallica's secret gig at the 100 Club in 1987. I watched footage of it on YouTube a while back. An absolute frenzy of pure ferocity.
I'm a sucker for a great multi-band line-up and it doesn't get any better than the combination of Faith No More, Voivod and Soundgarden in 1989/90, that incredibly fertile period of rock music pre-grunge. North America only sadly. Fugazi supported by The Jesus Lizard, Shudder To Think and Leatherface in Brixton in 1992 is an alternative option.
Finally, another one I really should have seen, the criminally underrated God Machine. I twice passed up chances to see them in 1993. One was at Glastonbury, the other earlier in the year in Amsterdam. So take me back there and this time I'll refuse to bow to my mates' peer pressure not to go.
Just five you say? Can I squeeze in Springsteen at Hammersmith? Hell, any Springsteen...
Brilliant stuff - spoiler alert but also planning a "Greatest Misses" post and Van Halen and Rush will both feature, the former not my fault as had a ticket for the Apollo in 84 and they cancelled, the latter all my own work!! Re FNM though did see them with Chuck and also did about 5 dates on The Real Thing tour 👍
Were you at the FNM show at the International in 1989? It was my graduation day. Went home with my folks and my brother drove us back up to Manchester for the gig. I was in no state to be behind the wheel!
Good piece on Vod/Garden/FNM here
https://nysmusic.com/2021/03/17/flashback-voivod-soundgarden-and-faith-no-more-on-st-patricks-day-1990-at-lamour-in-brooklyn/
Look forward to Greatest Misses.
I was mate, great gig!
And the Royal Albert Hall June 18th 1985, just because!
I was lucky enough to see Kate Bush at Hammersmith in 2014, it was absolutely mind blowing, in my top 3 gigs of all time I’d say. My 5 would involve, Bowie and Ziggy, Japan around 1980, Talk Talk in 84 on their way to Spirit of Eden, Joy Division at any point and finally the Banshees in 1979 on the Join Hands Tour with The Human League on support duties.
Tried and failed to get into those KB gigs!
July 1988, Central Tavern, Seattle: Soundgarden, The Fluid, Mudhoney. The gig that got The Fluid signed to Sub Pop, apparently. They musta been amazing.
October 1989, Arts Centre, Norwich: Tad, Nirvana. My big gig regret. Had tickets, too stoned to get the train. Lazy idiot.
Slade, Motörhead, Sex Pistols, The Cure, The Damned and Adam and the Ants: Pavilion, West Runton: The venue was just a little pub in a little village in sleepy North Norfolk, yet it hosted a multitude of great bands through the 70s and very early 80s before it was demolished in 1983. I lived three villages down the coast and it boxed my mind that I missed them all. So near, so far, too young.
Minneapolis in the early 80s; Husker Du on stage and future AmRep band members in the audience…
I’d have loved to have seen Leonard Cohen around 1970, Bauhaus supported by The Birthday Party in 1981, Alice-era Sisters, and it would have been cool to be in the crowd for Hanx!, Alive and Dangerous and Weld.
So many more…
Great choices there! Have posted before about supporting Mudhoney. I also interviewed Chris Cornell (RIP) around the time of the Manchester prison riot in 1990 - I was wearing a T-shirt (It's a Riot at Strangeways) and he offered me anything from the merch stand in exchange. I politely declined!
I’d be with you at Kate Bush. Great idea, so many to choose…..
I know, nearly went for ten but resisted the temptation! x