I was in a YouTube rabbit hole recently and found this: The last live performance from ELO at a charity gig in Birmingham in 1986. I find these kind of things interesting. The band, although headlining, are on the other side of a commercial peak. Did they know it was the end? Although it’s not as portentous as Ziggy & the Spiders or as iconic as the Fabs on the roof, there is a foreshadowing at the end when George Harrison comes on and shows Jeff where his future lies.
Any other interesting last things? Last gigs. Last songs. Last photos, etc.
a ragged but right soundboard of the last Ziggy show was being sold by sound engineer Robin Mayhew for a while recently. Includes Barry “Diet Milkshake’ Bethal’s intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWsT-0_XI8A
This. Where Fred looks into the camera, knowing he’s not doing this again.
Johnny Cash, his final public performance.
Sad, but uplifting too.
What about this? As it turned out this didn’t end up being Springsteen and the E Street Band’s last go-round but for a while it looked like it might be. Recorded at the opening of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland in 1995, it captured the band around the midpoint of its 11 year hiatus and all involved seem less than enthusiastic about being there.
They performed a curious setlist of old covers (albeit with he help of Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis) and only 2 Bruce originals (She’s the One and Darkness on the Edge of Town – not really what you’d expect him to play at a big celebratory event like this) made for something of a damp squib. A lot of bad hair and bad fashion and, with The Ghost of Tom Joad a little more than 2 months away, it really seems like Bruce’s mind was elsewhere. And Clarence Clemons almost takes a tumble as he walks off at the end!
All in all a strange performance that, had it been their last ever appearance, would really have been an unfortunate way to go.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VP7DCXIrY2E