Assuming that Santa brings you a time machine (single use only – its made in China) and a ticketmaster gift card for Christmas, what historical concert would you use it for…… ?
Stones at Altamont, Beatles at Shea, Sex Pistols Free Trade Hall, Woodstock….. any concert, anywhere in the world, at anytime in history – the choice is yours. And why ?
ABBA during their 1976 Australian tour*. The one that’s captured in ABBA – The Movie. I think they must have been the best live band in the world at that point. No, I’m not kidding, go and watch the movie: the concert footage is sensational.
*Not the Sydney show as it was raining cats and dogs. Maybe I could go the Melbourne show and then see if AC/DC were playing anywhere the next day.
Bit of a a stink at the time IIRC – concert tickets for anybody were pretty much a standard $9.90 at the time….those Swedes had the temerity to slug you $15 for a ticket.
Beatles rooftop concert.
Yup, me too.
You wouldn’t see (or hear) much. Beatles at the Cavern 1962 for me (one of the nearly 300 shows they played there).
If it’s only one, Prince and the Revolution at First Avenue, Minneapolis on August 3rd, 1983 – Wendy’s inaugural performance and the blueprint for the Purple Rain album.
In reserve, Ziggy and the Spiders at the Rainbow Theatre, the most fully realised show of Bowie’s conceptual ideas for the character/ ‘project’.
Allman Brothers Fillmore East, any of those 3 nights in March 1971.
Another vote for the Allmans here
In reserve Bob Seger – Cobo Hall Detroit September 4/5 1975
I regret not going to see Talking Heads for Remain In Light and Stop Making Sense tours. I wish I’d accepted tickets to The White Stripes at The Electric Ballroom, Blackpool. For reasons outside of my control, I’ve never seen Tom Waits or Steely Dan. Jimi at The Marquee sounds as though he was amazing. The Beatles in Hamburg might have been special. Later, you’d only hear screaming, an experience I suffered watching T.Rex in the early seventies. I bet being present at The Filmore for Aretha and King Curtis was amazing. Sly’s Woodstock set is perfect but involves attending a festival.
However, if I could go back, I’d go to a concert I’ve already seen, Bob Marley and The Wailers at The Birmingham Odeon 1976. I could relive my youth. I think I’d enjoy it more.
If I’m not allowed to do that, I’ll have John Coltrane at The Village Vanguard 1960, please.
My gig going started in 1972 and started to peter out in 1982. I’ve been to legendary gigs but I have to say, the sound quality and musical skill these days is so much better than back then. The Marquee was so hot, apparently, Jimi’s guitar kept going out of tune, interrupting his flow. There’s hardly a pause these days. I’ve been to two concerts this year, Chic at The Castlefield Bowl, Manchester and David Byrne at the MEN. They were both magical and are up there in my top ten with the likes of Little Feat, Bowie, Joy Division/Buzzcocks, Undertones, Kid Creole, Prince etc.
I also regret not seeing thr Remain in Light tour, I believe there were only 2 dates at Wembley Arena, don’t think the Speaking in Tongue tour made it across the pond. Lucky enough to have seen Tom Waits, albeit a short set at Neil Young’s Bridge concerts in California, was still incredible.
I think it was just the one night, a huge gig at the time being a 10,000 plus venue. I was there and have not been to a better gig since. I found some high quality footage of it today from a documentary that passed me by somehow.
Bastard!!!
Having said that, I’d say David Byrne’s recent tour is brilliant and on a par with the Talking Heads gigs I saw in 1978 and 1979.
Bastard!!! (That you saw them at all)
David Byrne at what will always be the Hammersmith Odeon to me was my gig of the year. Number two on the list would have been his gig at the O2, but it was at the O2 – a more soulless corporate venue I could not imagine. Also a few weeks before I had seen the Mingus Big Band at Ronnie Scotts Jazz Club again. You never know what you will get with them other than an extremely classy band. Over six nights, Monday to Saturday, with two shows a night, it may well be Friday before they repeat a song. I went to the first show on the Monday and they were magnificent, gig of the year any other year for sure.
Buddy Holly, 1958 (compered by Des O’Connor!); the Eddie Cochran/Gene Vincent tour, 1960; Beatles at the Cavern; Stones in Richmond; mid-60s Stax and Tamla Revues; Floyd and Jimi and Bob in 66.
But, in a nutshell … like The Beatles, Stones, Jimi and Bob … just to be 13-16 in the mid-to-late 50s would be enough.
The answer of course is the Too Late to Stop Now gigs, or Misty at CounterEurovision. I haven’t seen or heard any gigs to rival those on terms of atmos, excitement and kinetic musicianship.
Failing that, the Reg Guest Trio at Rainworth Miners Welfare in July 1988 is the stuff of legend.
Around 1987, the girl in the flat upstairs used to go and see The Pogues at The Sir George Robey in Finsbury Park. Apart from the fact that she was cute, it sounded like a great night out, if a little dangerous. Never did see The Pogues.
Saw them first time supporting Elvis Costello at Hammersmith Palais in 1984 I believe. When I moved to Switzerland a few years later, I went to see them many times. They used to play a lot in Switzerland and Germany. Probably got into double figures, always a fantastic night out even if Shane normally could hardly stand up.
I neglected to add mine in my OP…..
Either the 1988 after show Prince concert that is captured on the “Small Club” album or the Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band 1978 Roxy Club, Hollywood (or even the 1975 Roxy show that was just released the other week).
Hammersmith Odeon show?
That would also be good, but I went with the Roxy one as that’s a 500 capacity intimate gig.
I know what you mean.I’ve been to a couple 200 capacity gigs this year and enjoyed them way more than the enormodome experience (TMFTL).
My dislike of enormodome or stadium gigs has led to me not seeing quite a few bands I would have liked to have seen, but as at least half the enormodome gigs I’ve seen have been terrible, purely because of the size/’shape of the arena (I detest Leeds Arena, been twice, never going back), and very expensive I don’t think I’ve missed out. My favourite venue is Holmfirth Picturedrome. It’s like a mini Brixton Academy and it’s fab.
Winterland 78 for me Bruce-wise, but the 1981 show I saw at New Bingley Hall, Stafford was also awesome, and still my no. 1 gig to this day.
I’d agree with ‘Small Club’ – its a boot I had YEARS ago (and lost and simply cannot find on the deepest bits of the web that I can find – they seem very keen on keeping it down) But on the strength of Just My Imagination on Youtube that would be the one to choose.
I’m sure I’ve seen it recently being sold on CD on Amazon. No idea what the quality is like.
I have the CD and I can rip a copy for you and put on Dropbox (as you did actually own its not really piracy is it…. ;-)). Drop me a message if you want and what format you would like – FLAC, Apple Lossless, MP3 etc etc
The Velvet Underground (and Nico) as part of Andy Warhol’s “Exploding Plastic Inevitable” at The Dom, New York, April 1966.
Contrarian that I am, I would dearly have loved to have been present when Yes toured Tales….
Like @Tiggerlion I’d go back to one I actually attended. Back to Sheffield Top Rank, 1980. Headliners: Buzzcocks. The support band were quite good. Some mob (you guessed, didn’t you) by the name of Joy Division. No band ever held me so completely as JD did that night.
Sheffield was a great place for a music fan in my 3 years there at Uni, 1978-81. Half a dozen thriving live venues, and a huge local scene with the likes of Human League, Vice Versa (who evolved into ABC) and Cabaret Voltaire playing just round the corner any night of the week. No wonder I only got a mediocre degree…
Any Talking Heads show.
Bjorn Again at the LA2 26th March 1994. This was the year I saw them 52 times, but not this gig (which was recorded for their live album). I flew back from a skiing holiday that morning, having woken at 3am, and missed this one gig of the tour.
Swing Out Sister at the Jazz Cafe, December 1992, when they were Acid Jazzers. This was recorded and released in Japan as Live at the Jazz Cafe, and is a favourite live album of mine.
Wow. I have seen Bjorn Again once, but may double that tomorrow night (in Bristol)
I first saw the orginal Bjorn Again in a pub in Cambridge, then followed them round with an ever-growing group of pals, 9 months later I saw them support Nirvana at the Reading Festival. Never for music snobs, but always a fantastic night out.
I saw them once more after that, but they’d had a lineup change and it wasn’t the same. Mrs F saw them a fortnight ago, after a break of 23 years.
Well, they were magnificent tonight, also throwing in a couple of other covers, Jump and Merry Christmas Everybody.
Deja Vu. I think seven years ago I said ***** then Pencil mentioned ****** before Ian P added ****** and Burt finished with something about The Beach Boys. Deja vu. I think seven years ago
And mine’s a half of Worthingtons. Oh, some cheese & onion whilst you’re up
Early in 2006 Ali Farka Toure played the Barbican and I didn’t make the effort to travel down to the smoke. Big regret.
Would have loved to see Bob Marley and the Wailers in their prime, and Creedence Clearwater Revival around 1970. But if it was just one it really would have to be Van and the Caledonia Soul Orchestra.
Lesser Free Trade Hall in June and July 1976 will do me.
Failing that I could choose the Friday of Reading Festival 88 – Iggy Pop and The Ramones on stage 2 miles from where I live, and I chose not to go.
I couldn’t choose just one. The Beatles, pre-screaming, Prince 1985, Elvis any time, Pink Floyd after any of the 4 albums from Dark Side of the Moon, Buddy Holly on his British tour, Dylan on his 1966 British tour, Stones with Mick Taylor, New Order after Republic doing a greatest hits show.
I guess the two shows I’d like to have seen the most that would have been possible, are the George Harrison tribute concert (when I say possible, getting a ticket may have been tricky/expensive), or Prince at the O2 (didn’t go, as I’d heard it may have been tricky getting from the O2 up to north London, Mill Hill specifically, after the show, cos of poor transport links – knowing what I know now I’d have ruddy walked!). Actually, the last time I bemoaned not seeing Prince on here, several rubbed it in by telling me how great his shows were. Please don’t do it again…
I never saw Prince but I did see New Order after Republic and I have a bootleg of the BBC recording (which was mixed by Hooky but never came out officially as they couldn’t bear to be in the same room by then). PM me and I can {cough} box it over.
You dodged a bullet there…Prince was absolutely rubbish, particularly on the second occasion we saw him. And don’t even get me started on the Aftershow…
I concur. I drove down form Manchester (& back again afterwards) for a very very poor Prince gig. IIRC, the audience booed when the house lights came on
Er, I was actually being ‘ironic’ to spare Paul’s regret. I can’t imagine a bad Prince concert – what was wrong with it?
ha, I just assumed you were at the (slightly) infamous 3rd August gig.
Here is review of it I have just found;
‘His profile duly raised, Prince has now installed himself at London’s O2 Arena (formerly the Millennium Dome) for the next couple of months, playing a series of 21 dates to crowds of 20,000 at a time. With the opening night of the season – a marathon, hit-packed extravaganza – instantly gaining ecstatic reviews from the national press, the Purple One’s re-ascendance to the major league already seemed complete.
However, second nights can sometimes tell quite a different story – and last Friday’s showing was a classic example of the dangers of promising too much, too soon.
As measured by the time between the first and the last notes played, Friday’s set clocked in respectably, at just under two hours. During that time, Prince himself was absent from the stage for at least thirty minutes, leaving his band to serve up an eclectic but pointless array of covers. One of them, a syrupy lounge-jazz rendering of What A Wonderful World, quickly turned into a mass stampede for the bar. This was good news for the large section of the crowd who seemed more interested in getting the beers in than focusing on the music.
Although billed as a “last ever chance” to hear Prince play his greatest hits, the show was noticeably short on crowd-pleasing classics. Of the twenty songs played, only seven had ever troubled the Top 20, and the gaps between them were sometimes dangerously long.
In their place, we had unloved recent album tracks (Satisfied, Lolita, Musicology), seldom heard fan favourites (Joy In Repetition, Anotherloverholenyohead), and a lengthy trudge through Wild Cherry’sPlay That Funky Music, for which Prince forgot most of the words.
None of this was helped by the abysmal sound quality: booming, sludgy and echo-laden, with a general absence of top-end clarity. Neither was it helped by the seeming inability of the lighting crew to keep a spotlight trained on their star performer, frequently leaving him cavorting in the darkness.
Ultimately, the biggest let-down was the man himself. Although undeniably energetic, there was something essentially half-hearted about Prince’s performance, which displayed all the signs of Just Another Day At The Office Syndrome. For the second night of a two-month run, this did not bode well.’
Admittedly this is from a blog (quick google search for a review) but it is exactly how i remember it. Probably not helped by the fact it was a 7 hour drive down so a mad rush to get there in time & then an equally long drive home. I was in work the day after too.
Fab, I’ll console myself by imagining that, if I had gone, I’d have gone that night! And thanks, Black Type, for the consideration. I’d always liked Prince, but only started to get into him big time shortly before he went and ruddy died, after I’d found out that his ‘rubbish’ years, after he changed his name, were nothing of the sort.
Any of you remember the Prince shop in Camden? When I was living in Hampstead one of the student nurse’s in the nurses home I was living in asked me to go there with her to pick up a mirror in the shape of the symbol he changed his name to, as it was quite heavy. I seem to recall she paid a small fortune for it, but she was Prince mad (and George Michael – she must have had a terrible 2016). She even had the symbol tattooed on her bum. It was an odd place though, a whole shop decked out with Prince related goods. It was very…purple.
I think that must have been an exception, Sean – most of the shows on the 21 Nights were received very favourably, as I recall; I seem to remember one journalist having the onerous task of attending every performance. For me, seeing/hearing the deeper cuts being played is more interesting and exciting than the ‘hits’, particularly from an artist who I have seen several times before. I also think it keeps things interesting for the artist themselves. In 1995, I saw Prince in full ‘slave’/Warner Bros dispute mode play a set focusing on the then-unreleased Gold Experience album; he warned people in advance that he wasn’t playing the hits, and he didn’t. Not one. And it remains in my top three Prince shows (actually Paul, it was really, really awful).
Shame it was so bad, because The Gold Experience just might be my favourite of his albums. Certainly one of my most played albums of the past few years too. Sounds great turned up loud, particularly when the wife’s in, so she can say both “does it have to be this loud?” and “is he saying what I think he’s saying?” which are her two favourite phrases when she walks in the room when I have music on, you know, like what your mum would say (except she likes the shite that our actual kids play!). Her third most common phrase is “can you not play this when the kids are in the house”, but her best phrase, only uttered once, is still “turn that off, I’ve had enough of this fucking sweary rap shit”. To be fair, she realised her mistake pretty quickly and has chosen other ways to express her dislike of my music ever since.
But I digress, back to the album. Bet it would sound great played just in front of you…
Grrr! Grrr!
Yep, it was definitely the exception. I think the comment on that review of him being half-hearted really sums up my memories of it. I was not expecting any of his ‘hits’ so i thought it was a pleasant surprise to get them in the set, but unfortunately the whole thing was lacklustre.
I know people who have seen him numerous times & never had a bad word about him. Just an unlucky one for me to be at I reckon, but I did get to see him.
I have a mate who saw Bowie & didn’t have a good experience, whereas I saw him & thought it was breathtaking. Even the big uns have an off night now & then.
The Concert for George is pretry much the only concert that I wanted to see but couldn’t get tickets for. In the end I couldn’t have gone as I had to go to the Far East on a business trip.
The night after the Concert For George, I went to see Albert Lee and Hogan’s Heroes at the Rayners Hotel in Rayners Lane. November 30th 2002.
Albert remarked that the night before he’d been playing at the Royal Albert Hall and scalpers were flogging tickets outside for hundreds of pounds. Now here he was in a north-west London pub playing for 7 quid a pop.
There are a few concerts I’d like to revisit from my past but I can’t make up my mind on just one.
Robert Wyatt & Matching Mole’s first ever gig at Hydraspace (Kingham Hall) in Watford. Possibly also Phil Collins & Steve Hackett’s debuts with Genesis at the same venue.
Kevin Ayers & The Whole World at The Temple (basement beneath the Pink Elephant nightclub) in Wardour Street.
King Crimson at the Hyde Park Stones concert.
The Who and The Bonzos at the 1969 Isle Of Wight Festival.
Fela Kuti at Glastonbury.
The Rayners closed in 2006. Haven’t been past for a long time but it’s grade 2 listed so hopefully will escape demolition. I grew up 10 minutes walk from there so naturally it was a local, along with The Headstone and later, The Whittington.
It’s no longer a pub. Bought by bible bashers and turned into Christ The Redeemer College.
They should get on with the Zoroastrian church that took over the Rayners Lane Odeon.
Fela at Glastonbury is on DVD.I think it is called Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense. There are even better Fela Dad’s available.
I went to the Concert for George. On the way in a guy offered me £1,500 for my ticket. I didn’t sell.
You should have bartered. I’d have given you £1,550*.
*It wasn’t really me**
**Or was it?***
***No, it wasn’t
A lunch time Beatles Cavern show.
The Who live at Leeds.
Woodstock….Would have been a quite miserable affair I’m sure, but a pretty good gig to have on your lifetime CV.
Yes The Beatles at The Cavern at lunchtime. Just the idea of going to see a band during your office lunchtime is kind of WTF?? Maybe that’s something a “young entrepreneur” could revive??? (You heard it here first folks…)
They still do it sometimes. Saw Steve Van Zandt play a marvellous set of Beatles and Beatles ‘influencer’ songs at The Cavern on my lunch last year. He was later coming on than expected, I was quite happily ready to be sacked.
David Bowie at Glastonbury 2000, he said bitterly…
At least you can see and hear it now 😉
Deja vu. Me walking past The Lyceum and thinking “Mr Marley is in there but I’m the only white guy out here, think I’ll go get a veggie burger from Cranks”. Deja vu, me walkin
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Monterey Festival, June 1967 – and some of that nice Owsley acid.
My first thought was Led Zeppelin at their peak and then to ask for suggestions as to what might have been the best gig to experience. I would have guessed one somewhere in North America around 1975.
But there is a particular reason why Led Zeppelin came to mind. In 1975 a school friend hatched a plan for a few of us to go to one of the Earls Court gigs. If we had managed to get tickets I don’t know how I would have covered the cost of mine or the transport or how I would have swung it with my parents (we would have been traveling from Moose-land). Needless to say we didn’t get tickets. However a dig into Wikipedia indicates that these would have been as near peak Led Zeppelin live as makes no difference.
On the other hand Television came up on my car USB yesterday and another option came to mind – the Paris (I think) concert that HP Saucepot reminisced about on here. I’ve had a quick look and can’t find it – was it before the “Great Drupal Unpleasantness”?
If I am only allowed one, then I will go with my instinct & go for Otis Redding when he toured Europe. All footage I have ever seen looks incredible. Steve Cropper, Donald Dunn, Booker T! Christ that would be special.
I would loved to have seen any of the below;
Sam Cooke
Bob Dylan when he was good (ideally around Freewheelin’)
Joy Division
Oasis in 1994 (this may not be popular, but I bet this would have been something)
ABBA
The Supremes
If I could go back and watch gigs i have seen previously i would go for one of the below
The National (touring Alligator in a small venue – sublime!)
22-20s
Pet Shop Boys at Glastonbury
Depeche Mode at Royal Albert Hall
I did see Frightened Rabbit a few times but really wish I had seen them more now after this years sad news.
That Stax tour must have been fantastic. I would love to have been there. I’ve just finished reading In The Midnight Hour The Life And Soul of Wilson Pickett. Highly recommended to anyone into soul and r’n’b. It suggests that he had the best band in that era. We can thank German TV for recording it. THe quality isn’t great but this gives you a flavour of how good they were.
Also James Brown at his best (I’m not sure when that was) and Sly and the Family Stone I,m sure would be amazing.
After I left school I saw nearly every rock band that I wanted to see. I have a couple of mates who saw SAHB which makes me very jealous. I would loved to have seen them in 1975.
Oasis in 94 were ace. I saw them at the Brighton Centre. They didn’t used to do encores, but they came back out at this one. They didn’t know what to do, so they did Rock n Roll Star again. I nearly mentioned this gig anyway, cos it was a gig that I missed, apart from most of the last song, that I would love to have seen from the beginning. Not Oasis, but the support band.
I was going through the end process with a long term girlfriend, so we were sat in the bar talking things through and she decided that was more important than watching a support band we’d never have heard of anyway. The doors kept opening, but I have always found it difficult to make out what song is playing when there’s a lot of chatter in the room, so I hadn’t made out any of the songs. As someone held the door open for a group of people walking in at the end, however, I made out the unmistakable into to There She Goes. I had just sat there getting grief off someone I didn’t want to be with, when I could have just gone through the door behind me and watched The (sodding) La’s!
Another vote for Joy Division.
My gig going got going in the late 70’s/early 80’s and while not a great time to be a young person due to the bastard Tory war on the working class, recession, youth unemployment, etc, I did get to see “all the great bands* (1977 – 84) Yer class of 77 – Clash, Jam, Buzzcocks etc plus the cream of the post punk days – Birthday Party, Smiths, Pogues and a particular favourite of mine in those days – Billy Childish and the Milkshakes. There was on however that I missed that I’m still kicking myself for today.
Autumn 1979 – friends from school are going on an organised coach trip by a local coach firm to see the Buzzcocks at Oxford New Theatre. But hey, cool cat here has already been there, done that. I saw them last year with Subway Sect supporting. So I give this a miss and probably spend the night eating crisps and listening to John Peel. Joy Division were the support band, reportedly upstaging the Buzzcocks most nights of the tour and this seemed to be one of them. They all came back raving about them and got themselves copies of Unknown Pleasures.
So I missed my one opportunity to see Joy Division. I did however get to see New Order on a few occasions and and 90’s and found them very variable in quality – from tentative and tedious in 1981, through powerfully majestic in 1984 to bloated horrible stadium rock act -sometime around the millenium.
Also another miss that autumn. A few weeks later a local pub where the landlord’s son is a local punk celebrity are putting on a gig by a band called Crass. I had read a review of them in the NME which slagged them off and so decided not to go. My sister who was a few year older than me and therefore got to see all the punk bands in 77 (I didn’t get fully onto the scene til 1978 when they started playing venues under 18’s could get into) came back raving that it was the best gig she had seen since her Damascene conversation from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Peter Frampton on seeing the Stranglers in February 1977. This was confirmed when I got to see them in 1981. Much better than their records their live shows were something else.
On a similar theme, I nearly didn’t go to the gig that I always say was the best I’ve seen, Cosmic Rough Riders at ULU. I lived in Mill Hill (north London) and my wife (girlfriend at the time) down in Beckenham. We’d stayed at mine the night before and realised that the shoes she wanted to wear that night, i.e. not her work shoes, were at hers, so we had to go down there after work. Once we’d got in and had some tea we were both quite tired and, as she hadn’t heard anything by the band, she was reluctant to go back up to town, but fortunately I talked her into it. The band were brilliant that night, every song a winner. Such a shame that Daniel Wylie, the singer, split from them shortly after, as neither he nor the band kept up the momentum from Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine, which is a ‘best album you’ve never heard’ candidate, especially if you like west coast sunshine pop.
@paul-wad
I’ve got that album , probably because of the single (?) Revolution (in the summertime.) West Coast sunshine pop indeed.
My CRR gig memory is that the only time I saw them, they opened with my three favourite songs off the album. I was like, great but what are they going to do now?, whereupon the singer says “Now we’re going to play a Neil Young song”. Problem solved.
I missed most of Kirsty MacColl at The Forum the year she died, doing Tropical Brainstorm with a full band and brass section. I was stuck at Dublin airport and after a very late flight and an expensive journey across London I arrived for the encores. Meeting my wife, as arranged, by the mixing desk, she said, “She was brilliant!”
I was there, Dave, and she was.
The Last Waltz. That’s the one.