Last night I did something which I don’t think I have ever done before at a paying gig, and that is walk out before the end because I had enough and couldn’t be bothered to stay. I’ve had to leave gigs early because of transport issues before. Once or twice I’ve missed looked-forward to shows due to illness. But this was different. I couldn’t wait for the set to end and left.
It wasn’t really the act’s fault (I’ll save naming them till the end, because their identity isn’t really the issue) but for the first time I found myself becoming aware that my feet were sore enough from standing, that I was getting fed up enough of the ‘hilarious’ drunks in the corner, that I wasn’t going to hear anything better than what I was already a bit bored with, that if my phone hadn’t had a flat battery I would have checked for wifi and browsed my Facebook. So I turned to my other half and said, ‘What do you make of it?’ Barely were those words out of my mouth she said, ‘I’m ready to go whenever you are.’ And so we headed for the door.
And you? Do you persevere if you’re not really enjoying a show, or decide that you’ve seen and heard all you’re going to see and hear before heading elsewhere for a drink elsewhere or an early night?
The act in question was Scott Matthews and his band at the Electric Circus in Edinburgh. I had never heard of him before I saw that Kathryn Williams was the support, and I adore Kathryn so we got tickets for the last night of our holiday in Edinburgh. What I saw of Scott’s on YouTube didn’t really grab me, but acts can have a totally different charisma live. As it happened, after half an hour it was clear that he sees it as his role in life to fill a Jeff Buckley shaped hole, after an hour I was a bit fed up, and after about 80 minutes he showed no sign of quitting so we did. Like I say, not his fault in any way. We hadn’t actually gone to see him and his band, and there were some in the (rather sparse) crowd who were well into it.
Kathryn was very good, and lovely when signed the CDs I bought, and as a bonus she brought Ian Rankin along with her, whom the Light adores and who was kind enough to have his photo taken with her, so overall a good night out.
DogFacedBoy says
For fellow fans of Kathryn she is playing a benefit at Union Chapel, Islington this Friday with Ed Harcourt, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Charlotte Church. Carl Barat, The Magic Numbers, Tom McRae and others in aid of child refugees. Oh and the mighty Simon Munnery doing his stuff
http://store.unionchapel.org.uk/events/2-dec-16-ed-harcourt–friends-and-the-flying-seagull-project-present-a-benefit-for-child-refugees-union-chapel/
I’m trying to think of a gig I walked out on and I really can’t think of one. Roky Erickson was flipping terrible, or rather his band were a few years back at the Forum but I saw him at Meltdown and he was great. My pal left and told me which pub he’d be in but I stayed
minibreakfast says
Cor, two sets from ver Numbers! 🙂
DogFacedBoy says
Sarky get, Edith
Fiction Romantic says
She’s also playing a pub near me soon,
retropath2 says
No shame leaving a gig after a superior support act has been and done what you went for. Eminently sensible.
Junior Wells says
Pat Metheny might surprise readers. Just struck me as noodling and I was bored so my brother and I went to the bar. It was a free pass so that may have made me a bit more flippant about it. I actually regret it now as I recognise he has great talent but on the night I bored and preferred to be beered.
Peter Green and Splinter coz they were boring and it was depressing to see Peter Green being used simply as a drawcard. Dunno why I went.
Another to surprise people -The Cure. Only a few years ago . They were great but it was 4 hours and they were incredibly loud. My ears were starting to really hurt. So we before the encores.
Steve Earle and with Buddy Miller on guitar no less- El Corazon period.It was my birthday and Mrs Wells wanted to go home before the encores to give me presents. I hasten to add that this was Mrs Wells #1 not the current Mrs Wells and this event, which still rankles, didn’t help the marriage.
Kid Dynamite says
Two off the top of my head, both in Portsmouth in the late 90s. I was friendly with the Warners rep, and he gave me a pair of tickets for Tori Amos at the Guildhall. Went along, wasn’t really enjoying it, was annoyed by the sycophancy of the crowd (honestly, it was horrible), thought I’d get a drink, discovered that the bar was closed during the performance, and decided to go to the pub over the road. A few minutes later, my rep friend appeared in the same pub…The other was Finley Quaye, riding high at the time. I left as he was playing Even After All for the third time that night.
pawsforthought says
Underworld, ‘playing’ the same songs in the same order as when I’d seen them three years previously. Got to about 35 minutes in and got the early train home. Saw them again two years later at a festival, same first few songs again.
Beany says
The Verve at Manchester Apollo. I was on the guest list so did not fear about wasting good money but it was such a dull gig my mate and I decided it was not worth waiting to the end to hear the big hit song. We disappeared half way through, following Mark & Lard out the door who probably thought the same as us.
2016 is possibly the first year in 45 years when I have not been to a single gig. I have been known to go to 2 gigs in a single night in the past (Elvis Costello & Slade) but these days I seem to have lost the love. What is wrong with me? The only thing that may tempt me out is Keith Chegwin in Dick Whittington at the Macron Stadium around the corner.
Junior Wells says
You’ve got out of the habit @Beany.
It’s a bit like exercise – a matter of getting into the habit.
In my case the gig habit has been easier to maintain than the exercise.
Beany says
I saving myself for when this band play the UK.
Podicle says
Good to see Bez has found himself a gig.
Lando Cakes says
And Mark E Smith is looking better than he has for a while.
DougieJ says
Live shows in general are a hard sell for me these days, the main reason being not so much the act but the overwhelming sensation of the crowd ‘watching themselves’ rather than being in the moment of experiencing the gig.
Watch Sounds of the 70s or similar and the lack of self-consciousness among the audience is palpable. You almost want to shout “don’t you realise you’re watching Neil Young perform songs from Harvest live?! Where’s your Facebook Live Stream?!”
Audiences’ instant familiarity with material now, even with new bands, also takes away a lot. Again, it becomes ‘all about my amaaaaaazing experience at so-and-so’s gig’ rather than the focus being on admiration for the artist. Maybe this is a positive development but then again, mebbes naw.
mikethep says
Paul Weller and Peter Gabriel. Separate gigs, both at the Eden Project. I paid for the tickets (haven’t always had to at Eden Sessions), and there’s something pleasing about getting up from your desk and sauntering down into the pit to listen to copper-bottomed rock legends. Both times it absolutely chucked it down, however, and I found myself reflecting that I’d lived a moderately happy and fulfilling life without having seen either of them; I was bored; and I was soaking wet. So I went home. I happily got soaked to the skin for the Pet Shop Boys, though – go figure.
James EB says
Ooo, only gig I ever walked out on was the Pet Shop Boys at Brixton Academy when they were promoting Release. Love them to bits but the combination of the cold venue, the very harsh lighting rig and the terrible sound sent me scurrying for the pub.
John Walters says
Ryan Adams at the Manchester Academy 3.
It was a hot and sticky July evening with a fully sold out venue with no seating and everyone having to stand like a 1970’s football crowd.
A low stage and Mr. Adams finally is gracious enough to turn up 45 minutes late …………………………….. and then promptly sits on a stool for the whole of his gig !!
My good lady couldn’t see a thing and if I stood on tip toes I could just make out the top of his head.
Stuck it for half an hour and then decided that a curry in Rusholme was a much better option than listening to that tosser !!
Mike_H says
4 times so far I’ve left before the end of the show. Every one of them was a paid-for gig.
Twice for the same artist. David Ford. The first time I wasn’t in the best of moods to start with, can’t remember why; I just got bored with him, the place was tiny and packed out and the selection of beers was not good.
The second time, I persuaded myself that maybe it was just because of my bad mood, but I found that I just didn’t think he was any good (and he persists in wearing a hat indoors) so I went home early again.
Another time I arrived at a gig with a headache already brewing and the loud, rather atonal final band on of 3 was just not conducive to pleasant listening with a worsening headache so I headed back to the ranch.
The most recent was a bill of 3 rock bands. The first on were a bit rough and ready but quite enjoyable. Even good at times. I enjoyed them. The second band on were a little more polished but not too much so and were really good fun. The supposed headliners were disappointingly crap. Material was merely so-so, guitarist boring and they sounded flat, dull and unimaginative in comparison. I decided to give them 5 songs, just in case they’d got off to a bad start but half way through the 5th I decided I’d suffered enough, there was no point in prolonging it and I went home with no regrets.
Paul Wad says
20 odd years ago me and my girlfriend drove over from Liverpool to Manchester to see Gary Clark (ex-Danny Wilson) and Boo Hewerdine play at Manchester University without realising neither were the headliner. We lasted one song by Thomas Lang, declared he was rubbish and buggered off home.
Me and my mates got thoroughly cheesed off with a Bob Dylan gig at Brixton Academy 10 years ago and half the lads went back to the pub. I stayed to the bitter end before deciding I was never going to waste money going to see him again after that performance. But I did. And he was brill. Even looked at the audience once or twice.
dai says
If you do have the urge to browse facebook at a gig then you really should leave.
I have left a few early for last train home or beat the traffic, but the only one I left very early was The Buzzcocks a few years ago, their performance was fine, but the sound was so godawful that I couldn’t stand it any more and voted with my feet.
Kaisfatdad says
Kathryn Williams and Ian Rankin! After those two anything else was an optional extra.
Gatz says
The Light loves Ian Rankin’s books. Before that night we had drunk in the Oxford Bar a few minutes walk from our hotel because of the Rebus connections, walked down Arden Street when we happened to be in Marchmont because Rebus used to live there, hunted down the Natinal Museum’s mysterious dolls from Arthur’s Seat which inspired the plot of The Falls (which she was reading on holiday), and been on the official Rebustours.com guided walk. This really was a very big deal for her.
We were sitting at a table near the bar when I said, ‘I think that’s Kathryn who’s just come in now, the one talking to Ian Rankin’
‘I thought that looked like Ian Rankin’
‘That’s because that’s Ian Rankin’
‘Are you sure that’s Ian Rankin? He wears two rings on his left hand like Ian Rankin.’
‘??’
And so on for several minutes, until I finally persuaded her that he would be lovely so long as she was polite, and she would regret it if she didn’t take the chance to say how much she enjoyed his books and ask him to sign her gig ticket (The Falls being back at the hotel).
After Kathryn’s set we were waiting in the lobby to buy a CD when IR passed us on the way to and from the gents. I assured him that The Light wasn’t stalking him because it was me who was stalking Kathryn (‘But she did stalk me’ ‘Only because I insisted’) and he was kind enough to agree to a photo with her. She was beyond thrilled.
Kaisfatdad says
Nice work Gatz! You must have been extremely chuffed about that. Sometimes the shy ones need a little encouragement.
I was lucky enough to meet Ian Rankin when he came and gave a talk at Kulturhuset here in Stockholm. He was signing books afterwards so I dashed off and bought one at the Central Station for Mrs KFD and managed to get back before he packed up. He was very charming and not only signed the book but drew a little rebus.
I am a big fan too, so was extremely pleased to have met him in person.
Sitheref2409 says
My Dad – who went to the same school as Rankin – met him and finally got to find out why Rebus supports Raith Rovers instead of the actual local team(s).
The shockingly mundane answer is that apparently you get to Kirkcaldy on the bus without having to change; Dunfermline would require at least one change.
My Dad was weirdly happy to find this out.
Paul Wad says
My in-laws live in Edinburgh. My FIL was in Fopp, just after my little lad was born, and was looking at the books when he realised Ian Rankin was stood at the side of him, so he grabbed Rankin’s latest book (The Complaints) off the shelf and ask him if he’d sign it for Lucas (great bedtime reading for a 2 week old!). After he signed it he told my FIL to shove it inside his jacket. When my FIL said he couldn’t do that, Rankin said “course you can, it’s my book!”
So Ian Rankin encouraged my father-in-law to shoplift! My son’s six now and he still hasn’t read it, the ungrateful sod. When he gets older though, he has the complete works of Rankin sitting on the shelf, cos I love his books.
Kaisfatdad says
Great story! Lucky Lucas!
If Rebus gets to hear about that his creator may receive a visit from the boys in blue!
Johnny Concheroo says
No, but I’ve felt like doing so many times. This will cause anguish among the faithful gathered here, but I was reviewing a Mike Scott solo (with band) concert some years ago at The Stables in MK and while the audience were lapping it up, it dawned on me that I knew none of his songs except a couple of Waterboys hits. This night he performed all new material except for a couple of crowd pleasers for the encore.
You know how you are sometimes willing a concert to be over thinking “please let this be the last song”? Well that was me that night at the Stables around 3 songs in.
But as I said, the crowd were going apeshit, so the problem was mine, not Mike’s.
I couldn’t leave because someone was driving me.
Nice venue though.
Carl says
It was like that with Elvis Costello’s set on the Bunch Of Stiffs tour.
Not only was it new songs, off the then unreleased This Year’s Model, but a completely different sound and texture to that which he’d shown the world on My Aim Is True. He played Red Shoes and one other oldie as an encore. Hardly spoke at all. Fortunately I didn’t let this less than audience friendly attitude spoil things and I continued to buy his records and go to his gigs for many years.
Junior Wells says
Reminds me of a mate .We were at Blues Fest up at Byron and the rest of us wanted to see Steve Miller, big ol jet airliner, abracadabra you know the one- harmless polished singalong good time pop. My mate for some reason hates him but got hauled in with us. Then he got separated and a while later I saw him jammed in a crowd ,no hope of moving with a look of absolute thunder on his face. I made a point of waving regularly and sang the Joker all the way home.
Artery says
I have walked out on a few luminaries. Sometimes, it’s you not them. If you’re just not feeling it, you may as well just go.
Eric Clapton (autopilot show 1996)
Ray Charles (Orchestra with conductor and sheet music – that’s not rock and roll to me)
Steve Earle (horrible man, repeats ad libs every night)
Joe Strummer (Glasto 1999 – so disappointing after seeing the clash several times. We missed a rant I believe)
The Levellers
I used to average 50 shows a year so a mere handful ain’t bad. The single worst act I ever saw was Magic Michael but I was mesmerised by the sheer audacity of the man to masquerade as a musician so stood glued to the spot.
dai says
> Steve Earle (horrible man, repeats ad libs every night)
I met Steve Earle once. He was a very nice man. I think many or most artists repeat the same stories every night, it’s part of the show.
Carl says
Quite. I went to a Roy Harper gig once. After the first few songs he asked for requests. My call for Twelve Hours of Sunset was answered and he played it and more requests from the audience.
I thought I should get to another date on the same tour and see what else gets played. He started with the same few songs again, then asked for requests. Someone else called for THoS, which he duly played and then did exactly the same set as the earlier gig, waiting for the next song to be called for and then “spontaneously” played. His ad libs between songs were exactly the same too.
So musicians do what they can to make it seem a fresh experience for us, but for them it’s night 19 of a 30 date tour.
slotbadger says
Macca’s been prefacing his live demented uke-attack on “Something” with the same airy anecdote of “dinner round George’s” for decades now. Likewise, introducing “Sgt Pepper” with the chestnut about Hendrix playing it at the Savile theatre three days after the album came out,
dai says
He also used to forget the lyrics for You Never Give Me Your Money in the sale spot every night.
Moose the Mooche says
Ray Charles not rock’n’roll? Well, er, he wasn’t… he never was. Sorry pal, that’s bad research.
I went to see Public Enemy… it was some bloke shouting over a record. What the hell was that?
Johnny Concheroo says
@Artery – Magic Michael? I have to know more about this.
Mike_H says
I saw Magic Michael at an outdoor gig in Harrow, sometime about 1970-’71. A pleasant sunny summer day. A little gang of us came over from Watford on the train.
Brinsley Schwarz and a few others who I can’t recall were also on the bill. MM wasn’t very good but not completely awful, if I remember correctly. I think we chuckled.
I was very stoned at the time of course. As was my wont in those days.
Artery says
MM was support act for Sutherland Bros & Quiver at the Winning Post in Twickenham 1973. I only endured the horror as I was waiting to see SB&Q. I gave all artists a mark out of 10 in my diary. MM has the honour of being the only zero score. SB&Q get 7. MM could not sing, play guitar, write songs or entertain. How he merited a (presumably) paid support slot I will never understand. I have the Greasy Truckers Party LP which “features” a segment by MM. Shudder.
metal mickey says
To be fair, it’s a rare artist who has the “improv” skills to have a whole new set of intros and anecdotes every night, and they shouldn’t be overly castigated for playing to the 99% of punters who’ll only come to one show, rather than the hardcore 1%… mind you, actually seeing Dolly Parton’s “ad-libs” on a teleprompter was a tad disappointing…
Kaisfatdad says
Interesting variation there. One leaves gigs by artists that one likes and ought to be enjoying. Yet is so pole-axed, that you don’t leave a gig that is an abomination.
Leicester Bangs says
I can’t wait to leave gigs, even if I’m really enjoying them.
SteveT says
Pet Shop Boys. Fucking crap. Identical to the records to the point where they might as well have stayed at home and just got someone to put their albums on a loop.
As much stage presence as a cardboard box.
Black Type says
Are you sure it wasn’t Living In A Box? 😉
Seriously, I’ve seen PSB three times (soon to be four) and I think they’re a fantastic live act. Of course the music is going to approximate the records as it’s mostly created and pre-programmed electronically by definition, but I think Tennant’s live vocals add the requisitevulnerability and ‘human factor’. Also, they have built an image/persona on a minimalist form of ‘stage presence’, particularly Chris Lowe, but the elaborate designs and theatrics of their stage shows serve to (over)compensate and effectively parody that passivity, in my view at least.
mikethep says
Seconded – see above.
VincePacket says
Neil Young, Finsbury Park 1993.
I had a freebie access all areas pass from a promotor. I was a Pearl Jam and Teenage Fanclub fan at the time. Both were marvellous. I tried to enjoy Neil Young, I really did. I knew how important and well respected he was but had never found a way into his music. I was hoping that the accolades made sense once you saw him live. If my mind isn’t playing tricks on me, he even had some of Booker T and the MGs as his backing band so it ought to have been great.
Turgid pile of poo is what it was. I got about 4 songs in before my mate and I decided the pub would be a better experience. It had been a good day up to that point.
count jim moriarty says
All available MG’s were there – Booker T, Steve Cropper & Duck Dunn, with Jim Keltner on drums IIRC. I was at that show too. Got there just in time to catch the last song of the openers (whose name I can’t remember) and were awful. The Fannies were superb, James also excellent. Pearl Jam were just as turgid and boring as I expected, I’ve never warmed to them. Neil was magnificent, energised by the superb band he had gathered for that tour.
Carl says
Sorry Vince, I was there too and thought it was brilliant with the finest version of Like A Hurricane I’ve ever heard.
Booker T and the boys added an extra dimension with their tightness that allowed Neil to really fly.
Wayfarer says
Rickie Lee Jones at the Stables. For some reason, it wasn’t working. She started changing things around and the band got nervous and were eying her and each other as if to say “WTF” The audience were bemused and I started thinking that maybe I should leave and go to Tescos, do a bit of shopping – it was that bad. I didn’t leave and as we shuffled out at the end, the general feeling was one of what the hell was that all about. She got rave reviews in the press for other dates on the tour so it was either a very off night or the reviewers were pretentious wazzocks.
Nazareth at the Dome, Brighton in the Seventies. I went with a friend in his car so I was stuck. I thought they were bloody awful and Dan Cafferty’s voice was like fingernails on a blackboard to me.
I’ve managed to fall asleep at a few gigs, mainly from burning the candle at both ends and it catching up with me during gigs: Ralph McTell, Nils Lofgren (Both at the Dome in the Seventies), both of whom I like and have seen several times. Tannas in Edinburgh. I was in the third row in a smallish hall (They were on as part of the Festival Fringe). My head kept rolling back, mouth open and my wife kept elbowing me back into the present. The band could not miss me. I like to think that I had something to do with their subsequent break up.
Oh, Christine Brewer singing Wagner. I lasted about five minutes.
hubert rawlinson says
Was at an O’Hooley and Tidow gig with my son, speaking to an ex colleague at the interva who had taught one of them. Are you enjoying it? ‘ Well no not really’ My son then added that he wasn’t either, so we took our leave.
Again with my son we had gone to see the support Thomas Truax but stayed for the main act Bob Log 111, after four numbers my son came back to me and said ‘I’ve heard all his song’ Just no variety, though I did hear he crowd surfs in an inflatable boat so we missed that.
Another time had gone to see the support The Rails, and left after about three tunes from the main act.
At a tribute concert for Champion Jack Dupree, not just me but a vast amount of the audience took their leave to the sound of seats banging back into place. There was much escaping through the exits, I think more left than remained.
Jorrox says
John Martyn, Glasgow Pavillion. late 80s.
Me and two pals with a good spread of music between us. All three of us looked at each other after about 15 minutes and nodded.
Never seen him before or since.
Kaisfatdad says
Walking out is one option. Another is voting with one’s eyelids and having a nice cosy nap.
I am ashamed to say that at the Isle of Wight Festival I slept through the entire set by The Who, one of the loudest bands in the world at the time. I was in the Land of Nod before they’d even got on stage and was gutted to wake up and find out I’d missed the whole thing.
In more recent years there have been other artists who have induced a deep slumber too. I do like Mark Kozelek but I’m afraid the seats at Söder Theatre that evening were exceedingly comfy, it was warm and the music was so soothing …….
Locust says
Well, plenty of headline gigs at festivals. But that doesn’t feel so bad, you’ve already had a long day of mostly great gigs and gotten your money’s worth, so why stay and spoil the mood listening to something awful?
The quickest run away from one of those was Neil Young and Crazy Horse a few years ago. I knew I wasn’t a fan of his voice, but had avoided listening to his music so was all set to give it a chance to see if he could change my opinion. The opening song, him and another guitarist started with a bloody awful guitar solo/duel that went on for ever, and I just felt my will to live abandoning me…sprinted out of the festival area making my way through fans flocking in the opposite direction. That opening BTW was called a “highlight” in reviews the next day, so I’m glad I didn’t stay! Unfortunately I didn’t escape it completely, because I was dead set on seeing a jazz gig held an hour or two later in a nearby church (also part of the festival) and thought that if I walked away too far I’d be too lazy to walk back in time for it, so I stayed outside the church and read a book. And the (only slightly muffled) sound of tortured guitars and a nasal voice drifted up to the church from the festival stage…so I finally snapped and left, and – as I’d suspected – never came back to the church gig, thus missing Tonbruket…
*shakes fist at Neil Young*
Mike_H says
I’ll shake my fist along with yours, Locust.
Dan Berglund’s Tonbruket are very marvellous indeed. Neil Young is an old bore.
nickduvet says
Van Halen, Hammersmith 1978. Bombast and volume in extremis. A bass solo in the second number. It was painful in every sense. Loved the first album and my mate worked for the record company, but it’s much easier to bail when the band has already jumped the shark and you haven’t paid to get in.
Black Celebration says
Milton Keynes in 1983 – Bowie. Great show but we had to leave just before the end, missing the encores because of the last train back to London. Hundreds of us in the same predicament.
I was pissed off with British Rail and Bowie, for that matter. BR were all like “what the?.. Where did all these people come from?” . Bowie was all like “I’m gonna come on really late even though the audience has been standing around all day in a large, unshaded field. Last train? Fuck em!”
DogFacedBoy says
Can you spot yerself
Black Celebration says
I’ll have to watch that later with some sound (at work at the mo) – but you can see how hot it was – relentless sun all day. I reckon there was time for at least 5 bands until Bowie came on – we got Icehouse and The Beat though.
metal mickey says
This “had to catch the last train” story is as good a place as any to ask this question I’ve always had…
Aside from sheer “YEEEEEAAAHHH! ROCKANDROLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!” attitude, why on earth are gigs always late in the evening? All things being equal, would anyone here honestly object to a band being on stage at 7.00, no support, and finished by 9.00? Then you can either go straight home or have a couple of hours eating & drinking, perfect!
Junior Wells says
so they can sell more beer
Skirky says
Because I have a job, and I don’t get home until six.
Carl says
Alternatively the main ct could go on first and the support could play after they’d finished their set.
Black Type says
God almighty, this brings back the night terrors about my worst train ride ever, the Journey Back Oop North…about four carriages ‘catering’ for hundreds of fans, packed in like sardines (I can’t imagine how many health and safety laws were broken that night), then an inexplicable, interminable stop at Crewe in the dead of night before finally reaching Manchester and having to sleep on the platform for three hours until my connection. The horror, the horror!
The engine Driver says
I was one of the foot soldiers on that day. Me and my Ex stayed to the bitter end but wish we hadn’t. Nearly 3 fecking hours trying to get out of the field, sorry car park!!
LesterTheNightfly says
Black Crowes Sheffield City Hall 1997
Seen them a couple of times before and was really looking forward to it
Absolutely shocking first 30 mins and we’d only had 3 songs
Me and my mate went to the bar but it was closed!!
Decided to leave after making rendezvous arrangements with other 2 friends who were really enjoying it
As we left bouncer said to us “Once you leave you can’t come back in”
“Thats fine by us” was the reply as we headed off to nearest pub
Ended up going to a club which played extremely loud dance music
£1 a bottle of Heineken and 1000 times more exciting than the Crowes
TrypF says
I saw the Albert Hall gig of that tour, I think. Having last seen them on the all-conquering, Southern-Harmony-supporting High as the Moon tour in ’93, I thought I was in for a treat. They came on, heavily bearded, and played meandering ten-minute versions of their then-current ouvre. Four words to the audience all night: ‘Good evening’ after the first three tunes, and ‘good night’ at the end. Heroin is said to have been involved. I only stayed because I was with a group and we couldn’t reach a consensus.
A couple of years later I saw them at the old Wembley stadium as part of an Aerosmith all-dayer. 90% of the hair had gone, and they played their 45-minute set like their lives were hanging on it.
Gigs I’ve left: Mostly at the old Fleadhs in Finsbury Park. Neil Young and Crazy Horse (them again!) and Bob Dylan. Both lengthy and inpenetrable, and in Bob’s case, indecipherable. Also, in his case, I was told the following day by a Bobcat of some standing that it was one of his better shows. There are no words…
Gatz says
I was at both of those Fleadh’s and left NY early. I was with my sister who had driven us there, and as she also paid for the tickets I couldn’t really complain too much. The weather all that day had been absolutely filthy, and although I love old Neil I was actually perfectly happy to head off somewhere dry.
Alias says
Danish trio Phronesis at the Union Chapel. A hugely disappointing gig, I was getting extremely irritated by the guy next to me explaining to his partner why they were such amazing musicians. I felt like saying they can play, but they are tedious. I left at the interval Doubly annoying because Quantic who I always enjoy were playing in London the same night.
I have no qualms now about leaving a gig early. It is rare that a band improve enormously mid way through a set.
Mike_H says
Yep.
If they’re still crap after the first three, your wasting your ears on them.
Iggypop1 says
I was forced to walk out of a Springsteen show ( Newcastle City Hall 1981) because the girlfriend at the time only wanted to hear Born To Run, which was the only song she was familiar with …after three songs she moaned so much that i gave up and followed her out. Despite this, i married her !! Still together, and yes, she is never allowed to forget it !!
Black Type says
You should go back…he’ll still be on.
Freddy Steady says
Arf!
Bartleby says
Black Sabbath/Heaven and Hell, Wembley Arena 2007.
I arrived quite late, having taken a stupid bus/tube/walking route and got lost/gone the wrong way. On arrival, my seat seemed an eternal distance along a dark row with no apparent gaps. I just didn’t have the cojones or mental strength to force my way past a long line of well upholstered Sabbath fans in search of an empty seat that I couldn’t see in the dark and wouldn’t be able to hear myself ask for when I got there. I dodged security to stand or sit in the entrance for a few songs, then gave up and went home in tears of abject misery. The gig sounded fucking awesome.
Oversensitive Sabbath fans eh!
retropath2 says
How about not arriving? A combination of mutual shitstorms meant that both me and the current were too knackered to be up for Agnes at Brum tonight, adding to my list of virgin tickets. It’s a bugger this, was well looking forward.
Moose the Mooche says
A mate of mine went to see De La Soul at Manchester International in 1989 but was robbed of his tickets at knifepoint.
We later agreed he’d had a lucky escape. Shite live act.
The engine Driver says
This is a rich seam! Just two weeks ago I was looking forward to seeing Deacon Blue at Bristol on the 19th November. I’d bought the tickets nearly 6 months earlier and was counting down the days.
On the morning of said day I was making a cup of coffee when my phone pinged with the message from Colston Halls,
“How did you enjoy Deacon Blue last night?”
Yes it was the 18th! £60 down the drain.
Lando Cakes says
Conor Oberst. To be fair, I’d only gone because Dawes were the support band – and, indeed, his backing band. I was hoping the Dawes magic would spread to Mr Oberst’s material. It didn’t. Off home at a reasonable time we went.
Black Celebration says
Ooh – just remembered a comedy one. A middle-aged woman came on dressed in a clown costume and, terrifyingly, she thought this – and a funny sing-song voice – was enough to get laughs. She had a car horn that she honked, ostensibly at punch lines but these weren’t distinguishable from the slow stream of consciousness stuff she was saying. She kept saying “have I gone too far?” and we were meant to shout back “you’ve gone too far!”. She tried that a few times to complete silence from a room that had been up to that point been pretty good-natured.
I walked out when she simply started shouting the C word (the one that rhymes with cunt). She had got a small titter I think when she first said it and decided to simply shout the C word, honk the horn, shout the C word, honk the horn – to absolutely no laughter.
I couldn’t stand it any longer. I went to the bar downstairs and stood on my own until it was over. I’m cringing now.
Mums eh?
Lando Cakes says
Genuine LOL at the punchline. Chapeau!
Harold Holt says
Twice, both at Selena’s in Coogee Beach (eastern suburbs of Sydney), and effectively my local for a decade.
With a nod to the OP, we walked out on yer actual Jeff Buckley. He had received a somewhat lukewarm newspaper review and decided to take it out on the audience, mostly using feedback and aggressive stand-offishness. This made convincing the FPO of his brilliance a shade more difficult. She still won’t listen to Grace 20+ years later, putting it in the same basket as my AC/DC albums.
And Robert Cray, for whom I can’t recall any malice but I can’t for the life of me remember why we walked out. Maybe it was because the FPO was 8.75 months pregnant, and while she was keen too, I effectively dragged her into a stinking, smoke filled noise pit when she could have really done without it. Naaahhh, couldn’t be that, could it ?
Junior Wells says
Haha I forgot- I walked out on aJeff Buckley gig at Selina’s too. Don’t remember all the feedback – maybe it was the night of the lukewarm review.
The engine Driver says
Myself and the present Mrs Driver went to see Frank Zappa at Wembley Arena and the sound was brutal even for that barn of a place. It was totally unlistenable. We left early and went to a totally deserted Pizza Express on Wembley High Road and had a perfectly acceptable Vesuvius with extra chillies.
Carl says
My wife and I walked out of Lou Reed at The Albert Hall about 15 years ago. He was on tour to promote his album Ecstasy.
He came on with a three piece band. He stood with his back to the audience. They played a riff and kept playing it. And playing it. Then it ended. It was like being at school and hearing a mate’s band. “Hey, this is a good riff” and they keep playing it ad infinitum.
He started another riff and it was pretty much like the first. No concession to anything as vulgar as entertainment or as polite as facing the audience.
People started walking out after 30 minutes. We lasted an hour. I understand he went on for another two hours after we left.
That weekend I got everything I owned by Lou Reed and took it to a charity shop. I’ve never played anything, nor voluntarily listened to anything, by him ever since.
duco01 says
In the 28 years I’ve lived in Stockholm, Lou Reed is also the worst headline act I’ve seen live (1996, it was).
Junior Wells says
Ecstasy tour ? Open with Paranoia in key of G ?
I recall that tour with the three piece grinding riffs into the ground. No turning his back on us. One of the best gigs I’ve seen and certainly the Best Lou gig and I’ve seen a few. At gig’s end he raised both hands in triumph. He knew it was triumph, we knew too. Clearly we are on different planets @Carl
Carl says
No, just different gigs.
The Good Doctor says
I recall walking out before the end of 65DaysOfStatic because they were shite
but I don’t think I’ve otherwise left a gig early other than for transport reasons – The Fall definitely because they insist on coming on as late as possible and an encore of White Lightning is not worth £20 taxi fare- and I think Thurston Moore who came on very late on a Sunday Night with his set due to finish long after any transportation home so I skipped 10 mins of feedback on that occasion (rather than 65 Days of Static)
NigelT says
A couple in the 70s…
Van Der Graf Generator at Bristol Uni – sat through a couple of ‘numbers’ and we decided it waa complete piffle and went to the pub.
Elton John at Wembley – it had been a brilliant day with The Beach Boys, Eagles etc…Elton comes on and proceeds to apologise for the cost of his new album and play tracks from his new direction…no hits…we walked onto the Wembley pitch, practised some corners, and walked out with thousands of others.
Beany says
BUT DID YOU GET TO SEE STACKRIDGE???
Tickets £3.50. That is the equivalent of £32.94 in today’s money, using a currency inflator website.
Mohair-Sam says
Runrig – Wolverhampton Civic Hall early 90s?
Had never heard them but a mate at uni gave me a ticket as he was on a date and his girlfriend insisted in bringing her mate and hoped I could work some magic on her. They were all of the Scottish persuasion btw.
I arrived late and a band were on doing a bad Simple Minds tribute act. “What’s this shit?” I asked after they finished a song and it turned out to be the main act.
They said they were going to the front to dance and I said I was going to the bar. We all lied.
I remembered that Dr Robert (he of Blow Monkeys fame) was playing across town and had a much better time and left with a girl with a much smaller arse than the blind date
Beany says
Somebody just used the R-word.
Lando Cakes says
The Scottish Band! *looks about fearfully*
Mohair-Sam says
Didn’t realize that saying the name would unleash some dark malevolence.
However, it would explain the exhaust going on the motor yesterday..
Deviant808 says
I think I’ve mentioned on here before that I walked out of Mental As Anything as I’d really only gone along to see The Larks in support. The girl I was seeing at the time wanted to stick around for the headliners as we’d paid for it, so we compromised and left after they’d done their one hit, that thing from Crocodile Dundee that I can’t remember and I’m not going to Google.
I also left a few songs into a Steve Winwood set, who I’d only ended up seeing as he was playing in the evening at a conference in Germany that I was attending with work. I didn’t really know anything of his except “Valerie” and it soon became apparent it Wasn’t My Sort Of Thing so I went back to the hotel and watched The Incredibles on my laptop instead.
I was at another conference by the same company a couple of years later, and beat a hasty retreat into Amsterdam before The Fray even came on.
Gary says
Treat yerself to a Larks t-shirt for Xmas, Devvy!
https://www.facebook.com/maggiemaggiemaggieoutoutout/
Deviant808 says
That’s tempting thanks!
I did have the classic black one ages ago when I was a skinny student, but it long ago went to the great T-shirt Valhalla…
Skirky says
I suppose festivals where there’s the opportunity to see if there’s someone better on at an alternate stage don’t really count, so it’d have to be Ian Hunter. In mitigation, I lived about ten minutes’ walk from the venue, we’d had friends round for an extended Sunday lunch and I was very aware that I could be enjoying the port and stilton and some rare badinage rather than listen to the man who performed All The Young Dudes trot out what seemed like an endless selection from his new album (whatever that was at the time) in a style which most resembled Keith Richards performing a bunch of Bob Dylan outtakes. So that’s what I did.
Phil Pirrip says
Twice. The first was probably one of the same David Ford gigs that Mike mentions above. I think it was the first Word in Your Ear gig at The Lexington after the magazine announced its closure. Odd atmosphere.
The second was Jack White at the Alexandra Palace in 2012. I’m not the biggest fan but saw this as an opportunity for conversion. I nabbed a place fairly close to the front expecting a bit of jostling. I wasn’t expecting the carton of urine that hit the back of my leg. The sound was so bad, all I could hear were the drums, his widdly guitar and squeeky voice. The violinist and keyboardist may as well have gone home for all they were contributing. The lighting occasionally strayed from blue and white to white and blue. Eventually I moved further back where the sound improved but everyone chatted whilst waiting for ‘Seven Nation Army’. Awful. Gave up and left.
Neil Jung says
Walked out before Four Tet came on because Explosions In The Sky had thrilled me to the core, plus this was 21 South St in Reading and it was really really hot.
I’ve left Neil Young gigs before the end a few times, but keep going back for more.
Grant Lee Buffalo were very dull, so dull can’t recall if I lasted all the way through.
Black Celebration says
I went to an all day festival in Birmingham in the mid 80s. It featured The Icicle Works, Feargal Sharkey, New Model Army, Half Man Half Biscuit and The Pogues.
Headliners were band of the moment – Love and Pride Hitmakers, King! You know how cool me and my mates were? We walked out before they came on. That’s how cool we were. Saw Elvis Costello in the bar, though.
Badlands says
Walked out on Rory Gallagher at the Roundhouse in Summer ’72, because of the atmosphere. The (mainly German) audience had given the support acts a hard time (including Vinegar Joe) and went gaga for Rory, but it was not a pleasant experience.
Walked out on Martha and The Muffins in Nottingham about 1981. Went mainly to see support band Any Trouble, and adjourned to the bar after a few numbers from the turgid Martha and Co.
Went to bar during Flock Of Seagulls, supporting Robert Palmer at De Montfort Hall – just terrible.
Similarly at Leicester Uni – went to see Semisonic, and support Soulwax were so painfully loud me and mate adjourned to bar where we could still hear them.
Walked out on Paul Carrick at Digbeth Irish Centre in late 90s after best part of an hour. Perfect sound, lighting, musicians. But for all that was coming off the stage, you might as well have been listening to stereo at home. Mr Carrick in shades, band looking at instruments/shoes. Support Celtus were worth the admission though.
Little Feat at Wulfrun Hall some years ago. Awful sound upstairs, so we tried the half-empty stalls – just as bad. Shapeless jamming, bass solo in 3rd number in (!) and a female vocalist who looked like someone’s mum had joined them on stage. Unfortunately only caught the last few numbers of Ian Parker’s band supporting – more would have partially rescued the night.