Queen at Leeds Uni before they were famous with Seven Seas of Rhye. We left after about half an hour or so and there weren't many left then.
Most disappointing was Tracey Chapman at the Albert Hall. I was v excited but she barely said a word, stood back in the shadows and although the singing etc was good you could have put a record on It was so dull that myself and the man (a stranger) sat next to me dozed off on each other’s shoulders!
I can't decide between Ray LaMontagne or UB40. UB40 were doing one of those 30th anniversary things where they did a complete run through of their 'Signing Off' album - it was ace. They then took a break, and came back after the interval in their 'glorified covers band' guise, with not the merest hint of any more original material, just cover after cover after cover. So sad, as their own stuff is really good. I stayed til the end in the hope of 'One in Ten' , 'Don't let it pass you by' or any number of their own compositions, but was sadly disappointed. Ray LaMontagne walked on stage, played his songs, said 'Thank you and goodnight' and that was that. He was supported by a duo called The Secret Sisters who hailed from somewhere in Alabama, and appeared to have successfully combined 'Little House on the Prairie' with 'Deliverance'. An evening of my life I will never get back.
I dozed off at the ballet once when I woke up I had a quick shufty around to see if anyone was aware I’d nodded off and to my amazement about four other people around us were sound asleep too!
Toss up between U2 in Paris or the seating collapsing before Pink Floyd had got on stage at Earls court.
Either Red Hot Chillies in Hyde Park, all I’ll say is their record producer is a magician as they sound truly awful live, or Bob Dylan at Hop Farm in Kent. I’ll love Dylan, but it sounded like they’d picked a random old drunk from the street and got him to impersonate Bob.
I saw Faith No More supported by L7 at the NEC in the 90's. That was the gig that was promoted on 'The Word' where the lead singer of L7 pulled down her kegs on live TV. The gig itself wasn't bad, the bit we had. Problem is, everyone started pulling the seat covers off and frisbee'ing them towards the stage. It was incredible to see, sky was full of red flying upholstery, which was mostly landing on the stage. Of course, they stopped the gig and we all went home early
I’m a big Bowie fan but the Spiders from Mars gig at Wembley in the mid 80s was bad, he played the whole album which had only just been released and a few of his hits, even he looked bored
Another vote for Van Morrison , and with Ray Charles supporting it sounded unmissable. How wrong I was ... Ray Charles came on , plunked and wailed his way through a brief set then 45 minutes later shuffled off with barely an acknowledgement the audience were there. Van Morrison came on after a 10 minute interval and carried on where Ray Charles left off - miserable old git . 45 minutes later the great unwashed gave him a polite ripple of applause as he finished his contractual obligations and exited stage left ... All in all a total ripoff at about 100 quid a ticket in '98 at the newly opened Manc Gmex whose contribution to the atmosphere were bouncers stationed in every aisle to stop people dancing and stay in their seats ... Memorable for all the wrong reasons. Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
