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Best and worst gig
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Best gig - choice between several, really:
Pink Floyd (Moscow 1991); Sex Pistols (Penzance 1977); Madness (Berlin 1984); John Lee Hooker (Berlin 1981); La Bottine Souriante (Womad 2003, I think).
Worst: Dire Straits (Berlin 1982, sound was crap and waaay too loud); Van Morrison (also Berlin 1982), music was okay but he completely ignored the audience, ie we plebs who had paid money.
Best gig - Roger Waters playing Dark Side of the Moon
worst gig - Suede Dog Man Star tour - It was vile.
Gig you regretfully missed -Dinosaur Jr at ATP last year.
Gig you were lucky to see - ATP last year.
Best gig - Martin Simpson at Glasson Music Festival, 2008, or Curtis Fuller at Wigan Jazz Festival, early 2000s.
Worst gig - none really, except for a few dodgy uni bands.
Gig you regretfully missed - Show of Hands at the Albert Hall, 2007.
Gig you were lucky to see - Humphrey Lyttleton in late 2007, a few months before his death.
Aardvark, I've seen martin Simpson twice at the local town hall, I am always shocked at the low turn out, he is a really under rated musician.
Best - Red Hot Chilli Peppers at the Excel Centre / Marilyn Manson, Brixton Academy
Worst - Buju Banton Chalk Farm and also Eminem at Milton Keynes Bowl [such a hideous venue]
Best - Toss up between the Raconteurs and QOTSA.
Worst - Bloc Party - in danger of doing a Radiohead and disappearing up their own backsides.
Missed- Nirvana
Lucky to see - Terrorvision - 15 year anniversary of 'How to make friends...' I was jumping around like I was 18 again. Therapy and Metallica at Donnington (forget the year), shortly before Donnington was no more.
Saw shamefully few gigs in my younger days, but...
best gig - Marillion, Aylesbury Civic Centre: I think they were doing big venues in those days, but did it as a return to their home town. Couldn't hear the band half the time for the entire audience singing along, brilliant atmosphere. 1st encore was pretty much a whole album, then (I think it was) Ozzy Ozborne joined them to sing we'll take the high road. Finished gone 12 at night. Hitched there and had no transport and no-where to stay: ended up walking out of town, getting about 1/2 an hours sleep in a derelict barn then walking 10 miles before we got a hitch home!
Worst gig - Nothing that really stands out, but Billy Bragg was pretty boring, and David Bowie 'Glass Spider' tour in Sunderland didn't start well when he came on and shouted 'Hello Newcastle'. Atmosphere rather killed...
Gig you regretfully missed - Pink Floyd, The Wall. Brother went (I was too young) and it sounded pretty amazing.
Gig you were lucky to see before they split - See best gig: was shortly before Fish left the band.
Best - New Order , Royal festival Hall about 1985
worst - Shakatak , filmed for TVS "off the record" , at least it was free.
Worst (paid for) - seen some real crap at Glastonbuy before now, that'll teach me to go to the folk tent.
Missed - Joy Division
Glad to have seen them - none that spring to mind
Best - Guillemots live in their studio last April. Was so lucky to win tickets to see them. Only about 50 people there in total. Amazing and a night I will never forget. Stone Roses Spike Island was pretty awesome too.
Worst - I played in a band in Leeds in the late 80s and saw loads of really awful support bands. Worst one I have been to recently though was a young lad called Little Elvis. He doesn't look or sound anything like Elvis and sings badly along to a backing track. Very very funny though. He was giving out scarves to the tiny audience and we were all singing backing vocals and banging tambourines.
Missed - Oasis at the Duchess of York before they got big.
Best gig - King Sunny Ade & His African Beats: Glastonbury 1982 - pre- Womad world music plus, with a little bit of chemical assistance, had my own private light show
. Oh to be young again.
Worst gig - The Colourfield; Sheffield Octagon 1983 - Terry Hall at his most bored.
Worst band - Dino & the Dolphins, supporting The Undertones: Ulster Hall 1979 - only a kid but even I could tell they were sh**e. So bad even the name was better than the songs.
The one that got away - Bruce Springsteen Manchester Apollo 1981. Had a ticket, but sold it as couldn't get together travel money
Guilty pleasure - Terrorvision: Cockpit, Leeds 2004. Couple of beers, then straight to the mosh pit. Bounced like a loon for the whole gig - had to or would have been trampled underfoot.
Lucky to have seen - The Clash, Sheffield 1982. They weren't at their best but it was still The Clash. Forget the name of the venue - it was near The Crucible and closed in about 1985. Cake might know?
Best - Dream Theater at London something (I can't remember the venue name) when they toured the 'Awake' album in 1995/6/7?
Worst - Janet Jackson at the NEC 199X - truely shocking!
Regret missing - All the late '70's/'80's gigs by bands like The Specials, The Beat, Bad Manners etc...
Lucky to see - Donnington when Metallica headlined (see Lawro's post above)
Best: Pick any of the Clash gigs. Same with Bowie (from Ziggy to Glastonbury). Mind you, the Specials come very close as well, in particular the recent tour. Then again Mott The Hoople with Queen supporting in 1973 was a bit tasty.
Worst: A mate persuaded a group of us to see Don Williams (country singer) at Hammersmith in about 1975. Terrible. Several of us fell asleep.
Regret missing: Sex Pistols. Joe Strummer's last London gig.
Lucky to have seen: So many gigs. And, because I've worked there for 25 years, loads of people at Glastonbury.
Best gig - Death Cab for Cutie, think it was at the Charlotte in Leicester, can't remember the year, and New Model Army have been fab the couple of times I've seen them
Worst gig - Pop Will Eat Itself at some festie in Brighton: they couldn't get their equipment to work so didn't play
Gig you regretfully missed - All About Eve, Huddersfield 1990. Decided I had too little of my student grant left to be able to afford it. Doh.
Gig you were lucky to see before they split - Curve, although they split a long time after I saw them. In fact, not really sure which bands I've seen have split and which haven't.
already posted once but you lot have jogged my memory.
Springsteen. The River. was it 1980? started with The Ties That Bind. i bought a t shirt & then discovered i'd not got enough money to get home. Had to sell my tshirt back to get the train fare home.
<Edit>
I guess the one I'm glad I did see was the Smiths at Brixton
RB - Curve, blimey I forgot about them, saw them at some dodgy place in Deptford once.
Oh Blimey, Manson at Brixton forgot about that one.
I bumped into Gary Numan in the audience. I stood behind him for a bit trying to get Mr Shimms attention
'Looks, it's Gary!!!'..
'Where??' .....
'Right in front of me! are you blind??' (points wildly at Gary's head at which point Gary turns round to see why some bloke in front of him is staring behind him)
Worst - James at NEC or Communards in Leeds!
Saw Machine Head last year supporting Slip Knot, I thought they were far better than SK.
Blimey??? whenever I've seen James they have been amazing
Best Gig. Metallica at the Brum Odeon on the '86 M.O.P. tour supported by Anthrax, a was few days before Cliff Burton was killed in a coach crash. John Marshall played rythm guitar because James Hetfield had broken his arm skateboarding, Brian Tatler joined them on stage to play Am I Evil.
Worst Gig. Rush at the NEC on the 88 Hold Your Fire tour. Damn they were boring, especially Neil Pearts drum solo.
Lucky to have seen. The original recording line up of Metallica before they got boring.
Wish I'd have seen. Queen in their pomp.