Just watched a fab Prince concert DVD where, as is the custom, the show is stage managed right down to the encores. At just about every gig you go to these days you expect the finale to be the encore, with one or two of the big songs held back.
It wasn’t always this way though. I remember watching a very early Lilac Time gig in Sheffield when the group didn’t know what to do for the encore, so they sang Jambalaya and then did Return To Yesterday again. As ‘recent’ as 1994 I was at an Oasis gig at the Brighton Centre when they came back for an encore, possibly the first encore they ever did, when they too didn’t know what to do, so they did Rock and Roll Star again. And we’ve all been to shows where we’ve shouted for more but the band don’t come back on.
This got me thinking, has anybody been to a gig where the band were clearly holding a big number back for the encore but the audience all left after the main set and didn’t shout for an encore? I went to a show at the Scala in London, where Delta, Witness and Grand Drive were in the midst of a co-headlining tour, alternating the running order each day so they all get the chance to close the show. The first two bands didn’t do an encore, so when Grand Drive finished half the audience left, only for the band to come back out and play a slightly awkward encore to the remaining punters. It must have happened to a bigger band than them though? Anybody?
Beany says
Not that I remember old Bean. I do recall the tale of a concert at Manchester’s G-MEX Centre (before my time) where the man in charge was a stickler for Health & Safety. As the artist departed the stage he spotted a couple of audience members leaving their seats and ordered HOUSE LIGHTS NOW! By the time they came on I think the artiste, someone like Jason Donovan or Rick Astley, was halfway through their big encore song and was suddenly caught like a rabbit in the headlights of an oncoming juggernaut.
TrypF says
At Roger Hodgson’s Palladium show last year, he was amiable enough but it was obvious there were a few technical problems. There may also have been a curfew as it was a West End theatre. Plus a couple of drunk stage invaders during ‘Give a Little Bit’ meant that we didn’t get ‘It’s Raining Again’ or ‘Sister Moonshine’ which an internet check showed he’d played at every other gig on tour.
I’ve done quite a few gigs myself where on of the other bands on the bill have another ‘encore’ song and play it, regardless of audience disinterest and stage times. Promoters (and sometimes that title includes us) are never keen. And I’ve heard this a few times on the toilet circuit:
Singer: Do you want to hear one more?
Audience: No! Boo! Less, less!
ruff-diamond says
Stage invaders at a ROGER HODGSON concert?!?!? It truly is the End Times…
Moose the Mooche says
Throw them in the mosh-pit!
Mick50s says
Saw the Jam very early on at Sheffield Top Rank when they didn’t have enough material for an encore so they just repeated a couple of songs from earlier in he set (one of them was Art School) – I remember on very rare occasions bands NOT doing encores and the audience being very put out (notably Traffic and Beck, Bogert, Appice, both Sheffield City Hall, c1974) , but I particularly liked this report of a recent King Creosote gig in Bristol:
the band’s approach to encores – “refusing to leave the stage and choosing to briefly crouch down and hide behind their instruments instead – Anderson cheekily peering around from the back of his guitar until the applause grew.”
Gatz says
I always quite enjoy it when bands acknowledge that they are playing what would be an encore without the usual rigmarole. You know the sort of thing, ‘Just pretend that we’ve gone off and come back again, alright?’ I don’t think I’ve ever picked up a set list which didn’t have the encore clearly identified and find the pretence more than a bit tired.
I remember Norma Waterson on what may have been her last tour saying that she had no intention of climbing down some stairs only to climb straight back up them again because, ‘Me arthritis is bad.’ Which I think we all agreed made sense.
Mike_H says
Hank Wangford & The Lost Cowboys used to have what he called “The Modesty Moment”, where he used to ask the audience to imagine they’d gone off and come back due to popular demand.
The last time I saw them they actually did all go off and he and singer Anna Robinson came back on as an acoustic duo for one, before bassist Kevin Foster joined them for another and then the rest of the band returned for a final one.
Clive says
I don’t think Rainbow ever played encores. Not when I saw them as far as I can remember.
count jim moriarty says
Well, very difficult to get the Bungle head back on once he’d removed it after the main set. And as for getting Rod, Jane & Freddie out of the bar…
davebigpicture says
It’s not easy getting your arm into a Pink Hippo’s Arse either (TMFTL)
davebigpicture says
The first gig I ever went to was Rainbow at Wembley Arena in 1979/80 on the second of two nights. They played an encore because the previous night, when they hadn’t, the audience “rioted”* and they were told they had to do an encore on the following night.
*No idea what the extent of the damage was, probably didn’t put their Kiora cartons in the bin on the way out.
policybloke says
Dylan wouldn’t do an encore at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969. It has rankled through all the years since.
DrJ says
A few years ago I went to see eels in the Royal Albert Hall and they did a great show with typical encores. Then the next day I read how they had come out about 20 minutes after the house lights had gone up to play an extra “surprise” encore in their pyjamas for fans who were wise to the ruse and had hung around.
Following year, I go to see eels in the Astoria (RIP), great show, encores, lights up. People leave…”not yet” says I. More time passes. Some decide it’s not going to happen, and they leave, a small group remains and then BOOM. Another 10 minutes of gig for the persistent handful.
That E always puts on a great show.
TrypF says
Reminds me of one of my formative gigs – the Replacements at the Marquee. They were incredible, even doing my request (Cruella De Vil). At the end, I think they did two encores, mostly covers like ‘Route 66’ and ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’. My only regret is reading the NME review the next week that recounted a third encore, after the house lights had come up, playing each others’ instruments. It was probably a mess and not that great, but it still rankles I didn’t see it.
geedubyapee says
I have to say that encores annoy me intensely (the presence of them, not necessarily the content). Why can’t they just play the bloody thing before they all leave the stage, then that’s it? It seems to be very rare that an audience will refuse to leave the auditorium until they hear another song?
Anyway, I seem to remember going to see Department S in the week that they had a small hit record, and they played Is Vic There? at least twice before the encore, and then again for the encore. I can’t remember how long the gig lasted, but it can’t have been very long.
Moose the Mooche says
Don’t they all just go off for a wee and a toot?
Mike_H says
I think that may have been the case when I saw John Zorn’s Dreamers play at The Barbican during his 60th birthday tour. The percussionist, Cyro Baptista, came sheepishly rushing back on for the encore just after the rest started playing, to Zorn’s mild displeasure and to drummer Joey Baron’s obvious amusement.
He wasn’t hitching up his pants as he ran, but I assume he was on the can and didn’t hear, when Zorn said “OK, let’s go.”
Black Type says
Re: the OP – Prince’s shows are indeed generally rehearsed with military precision, but he had the great gift of making most of the performance look spontaneous, and often went off on tangents according to his momentary whim. The second time I saw him on the legendary O2 21 Nights residency, he’d finished his two-hour plus show after the planned encore, the lights went on and most of the audience streamed away…but some of us intuitively waited, and waited, until about fifteen minutes later when a commotion around the stage signalled that he had returned. He proceeded to do another three very rarely performed songs, all with the house lights on. A magical moment, to be followed by a transcendent Aftershow – but that’s a whole ‘nother story…
Also remember seeing New Order at the Royal Festival Hall in 1984. It was a benefit for the striking miners, and tickets cost a whopping £5(I know! Scandalous!). This was still the period when NO rarely did encores, and there was a strict curfew time imposed at the venue, so we felt doubly blessed when they returned after the cut-off time. Before launching into a wonderful rendition of ‘Decades’, the ever-lovable Hooky lifted the mood further with his cheeky quip “It’s costing us ten grand to do this – bit more expensive than a fiver, innit?”Oh, how we laughed…
fentonsteve says
I saw New Order at the NEC, and they came back on after most of the audience had left the arena and were by now in the foyer/bar, only security wouldn’t let them back in. Us hardcore types got an extra 20 mins or so of JD hits, whilst security got to deal with a large angry crowd. Although, by the time I left, I’d missed the last train home and ended up sleeping on Kenilworth station.
My goodness, the sound in that place, though – even worse when it was nearly empty. I’ve avoided arena gigs ever since.
Paul Wad says
I’ve recently got back into Prince in a big way. Bought all the popular ones in the 80s and always enjoyed listening to those, but drifted off, like most people around the time of the symbol thingy. I watched his performance at the Brits 10 years or so ago, however, and he was brill. Yet it didn’t lead me to investigate any of the albums that we were told were rubbish, nor did it convince me to go and see him at the O2 either, even though we were still down in London in 2007.
A lot of the music I have been listening to over the past year has reminded me of Prince though. Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, Frank Ocean all brought Prince to mind. So I started buying some of the earlier Prince albums I didn’t have and then started going forward from there. I think I’ve now managed to collect all of his albums apart from two and I’m really surprised at the quality of his so-called rubbish period. I’m even liking the jazz-funk albums. Still have a few to get through though and I believe Xpectation is the least-loved one, so I might yet find one I don’t like. Certainly didn’t like having to pay £9.99 to download several of them from Tidal, but the alternative was coughing up £25 for a physical bootleg version.
But of all the bands/singers I never got round to seeing and now can’t – Bowie, New Order (not really bothered about the band without Hooky, even though I think their last album was excellent), Jeff Buckley – Prince is the one I really regret, particularly as every clip I have seen of him performing live has been mesmerising.
Black Type says
Oh, I’m really sorry that you never got to see him. Not to rub it in, but I saw him around nine times, from the Lovesexy 1988 tour onwards (only missed two or three of his subsequent tours). As you’re discovering, he was a truly phenomenal live performer in every way imaginable.
I must say, I’m one of the few who did keep the faith all the way through his career, and whilst some albums were/are clearly consistently better than others, there really aren’t any that could be described as ‘rubbish’; there is always something on every album that amazes or transports me. Like you, I have been returning to the lesser-played/-acclaimed releases, and was pleased to be reminded of some fantastic work.
Paul Wad says
As with all the great hip hop music I’ve discovered over the past year I really do look back on my big gig going years in the 90s and feel I could have done a lot better. Some of the bands I used to get excited about…deary me! Having said that, from the recorded concerts I’ve seen retrospectively, hip hop doesn’t always seem to translate very well to live performance.
I was having a think about the o2 gigs though and wondering why I didn’t go, when I remembered. Getting home from the o2 was supposed to be a nightmare and I just couldn’t be done with the hassle trying to get back up to Mill Hill after the show. I turned down free hospitality tickets to see the Stones, with the Charlatans supporting, at Twickenham, again cos I couldn’t be arsed with the long traipse home. I really like the Charlatans and saw them around 10 times, the most recent being up here at Holmfirth Picturedrome, and I love the Stones, have all their albums, etc. but the journey home put me off. That, my dislike for insurer hosted hospitality evenings (I’ve turned down loads of stuff over the years) and my decision to only go and see the Stones live if someone invented a time machine that could take me back to 1971.
But to decide not to go to see Prince because I couldn’t be done with the hassle getting home, whilst it made perfect sense at the time, in restrospect is up there with other mistakes of mine like licking a hotplate (I’ll never do that again!) and my first marriage.
TrypF says
Prince is one of those weird ones for me. I discovered him in about 88, coming to the end of his Imperial period. I’ve seen him at the NEC in 1994, only playing new stuff, in a huge echoey barn. Horrible.
Two days later I was phoned by a mate who was working at a small club in Central London – be there at a certain time, you’ll be on the list. We had to wait til about 3am, but Mr Squiggle (as he was then known) and the NPG, plus Eric Leeds and Chaka Khan (oh yes) tore the roof off.
Went to the O2 ten-odd years later and had a whale of a time. Too many hits, indeed. And going back, the only chivalrous thing I’ve ever done, giving my ticket to a hysterically sobbing friend whose ticket wasn’t at the desk, and walking out of Earls Court. I’m told that wasn’t one of his better ones either, and I choose to believe that. But my ‘time machine’ gig of choice would be a Revolution gig from ’85. Oh, hang on, ’87. Or, hang on…
moseleymoles says
Not sure if they can still do it at the arena level, but when I saw the National a couple of years ago – ok maybe five years a go – they would do the final encore accapella with the house lights up, leading a sing along with the audience.
The Good Doctor says
Yep New Order, as recounted above, had a reputation for coming back to do encores to the cleaners sweeping up empty plastic glasses – First time I saw them in 1988 they went off for a good 10-15 minutes before they came back on did Fine Time – and this was in the G-Mex enormodome. No chance of that nowadays they’d have rehearsed everything to the millisecond.