The leader singer of the band I saw last night was eating Salt & Vinegar crisps between songs.
That’s a first for me after decades of gigs. In addition, the bar didn’t take cash, so I stayed annoyingly almost completely sober – that’s also a first (the bar, not the sobriety)
Then there was the chap who looked like the spit of Gandalf at the front leaning on the crash barrier, playing Wordle on his phone before the band came on – never seen that before either – mind you, he was sorting a Dukla Prague away kit, so no prizes for guessing the band (they were particularly excellent, it must be said).
So, have you seen anything unprecedented at a fairly recent outing? I think we should be told.
Things I’ve never seen at a gig before.
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Peter Hooton of the Farm used to have a Thermos flask on stage so he could have a nice cup of tea between songs. Gig as picnic.
That was 1991, that’s recent isn’t it?
Stuart Murdoch was drinking a cup of tea between songs at the B&S gig I saw this week too
I hope they were short songs – there’s nothing worse than a cold cup of tea.
In my memory the Groovy Train Hitmaker had a proper old-school tartan Thermos. This probably isn’t true, but hey.
I’ve seen people being a mug of tea on stage a number of times. Nick Lowe did a few weeks back. However, on Monday night I went to see Margo Cilker* and she took the teapot on stage too!
*she was very very good. If you liked Pohorylle, catch her live if you get the chance.
Gong used to take teapots on stage, mind you they were flying ones.
Then of course there was The Singing Kettle.
John Entwistle used to have a pair of bottles normally found on bikes attached to his mike stand. I foolishly assumed they contained water
Alex Patterson famously watched Monty Python films during Orb gigs on a tv nestled amongst all his kit.
Then there was Wakeman’s curries (TMFTL)
Young people! OK, my bad for the music I choose to devour, but in, especially, folk music, the collective age of some of the new young virtuoso bands is less than the average age of the punters. Until last night! Skye Live, a festival devoted, in way, shape and form to the trad repertoire of Caledonia, was rammed to the gills with a screaming flash mob of youngsters, chanting, singing and dancing, drinking down all the fiddles, concertinas and bagpipes as if it were a rave. Faithless would be the nearest live comparison of the audience. Of course, they were drinking down a good deal more than the performances, the bar queues longer than any I have ever seen in my life. And I have been in a lot of bar queues.
I have tinnitus this morning, after Niteworks blew the big top way up into the Quairang, not having had such volume since the Alabama 3 in the basement of the O2 Institue in Brum.
Astonishing!
I tried watching the video you put on Facebook but the flashing lights were giving me a headache.
Pardon? (Sorry, I can’t hear this morning, courtesy, I hope, a fleeting visit from Mr Tinnitus……)
People wearing masks (not many), I was one of them
In the year before the lockdown I went to a few Jazz Refreshed-organised gigs in London (Kings Place & The Jazz Cafe) and at each one there was an East Asian-looking young woman with paints, canvases and an easel, front of stage to one side, making paintings of the performers as they played.
I noticed someone (not the same person as far as I could see) in that very recent BBC 4 Jazz doco was also doing this.
At the folk club and comedy club nights at the Chandos Arms in Colindale a pub regular can often be seen sitting off to the side sketching [*] the performers in an A5 notebook.
[*] Very impressionistic renditions.
I saw someone years ago – the Blue Aeroplanes, was it? – painting the stage backdrop as the gig went on. Thankfully not the “Can you guess what it is yet?” peado.
In the Don’t You Want Me video, various people are seen watching band member Adrian Wright’s slide projections. I didn’t realise at the time that was his role at live shows – slide projector operator.
I seem to remember reading that Robert did some live painting at Wire’s infamous Electric Ballroom show…might be wrong…
Of course on the Bongo Fury tour, Van Vliet spent large parts of the gig drawing unflattering caricatures of Zappa.
…then there’s Ice Cream for Crow…
https://youtu.be/6aG_BBW7uEA
At the last gig I went to, a large man stood at the front with his back to the stage and facing the audience. Before the show, I thought he was looking out for someone, keeping a place – but when the band cane on he stayed there and just sang at the crowd, like a second, lower-down lead singer. Never seen that before.
Free-form dancers.
Stacia from Hawkwind.
Wotjek from the Blue Aeroplanes.
Bez from Happy Mondays.
Cressa from the Stone Roses.
Others I can’t think of this early in the morning.
Yer man with Howard Jones throwing off his mental chains.
Beastie Boys’ frankly underdressed young woman in a cage.
Does Andy McCluskey count?
Jed.
Why do I remember this crap?
There was a chap who would ‘dance’ at gigs, which involved waving his arms around in a vaguely spacey way, no connection to any of the music being played.
At an Ivo Paposov he took off his shoes probably to get more in tune with the music and ‘ground’ himself. He then put his shoes on the stage, I would have kicked them off the stage.
@fentonsteve
Free form dancers…
The late Jesus Jellett at everything.
Never the finest figure of a man to begin with, his constant need to rip off of his clothes and begin his dervish-like whirling every time someone’s ringtone went off were what did for him in the end.
Good point. I didn’t see him often; Glasto mainly, Reading very occasionally.
He was always at the Knebworths
Got a full page picture in Freddie Bannister’ autobiography
And at Hyde Park which is where I saw him.
“Idiot dancers” seemed to have been a fixture at hippy gigs and festivals in the 60s-70s. Usually, as above, a man clearly out of his gourd, shirtless and flailing limbs in a way totally unrelated to coordination, rhythm or good old old fashioned common sense. As in so many other things Jesus was merely their leader.
It reminds me of Zappa’s description of The Staggerer, a drunk of his acquaintance who danced in front of a jukebox “As if it was the Temple of Music”
I had one of those twats doing just that right next to me at a Marillion gig in 1983. A big sweaty red faced straw haired arsehole off his two bob bits flailing at my head every now and again.
At a Marillion gig? Marillion? It was obviously a shite night for your correspondent.
You think Fish would behave himself at his own show etc
what about Barry Mooncult from Flowered Up
Absolutely not based on Bez, definitely not.
Actually if you go to a major hip-hop artist’s gig there are always at least half a dozen big lads on stage who aren’t doing anything except wearing coats that aren’t appropriate for being indoors under hot lights.
Painter, Santos de Veracruz, is a permanent member of Barcelona band, Muchachito Bombo Infierno. During the band’s set, he paints an enormous work of art on a canvas at the back of the stage.
I had no idea about this until I saw them live in Stockholm.
Here he is with Muchachito who was doIng a solo set. It works very well.
The Flaming Lips can be relied upon for surprises during their live show. You don’t see that Bob Dylan leaping into the audience in a giant inflatable ball!
He looks like a ginormous hamster who has escaped from its cage.