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Legendary Gigs You Were At


Vincent Vega
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Guns N Roses - Donington 1988

I was 17 and was primarily there to watch Iron Maiden and Megadeth, but G ‘N’ R became absolutely massive in the months before thanks to The Power Hour on ITV that us metal heads had to preset the VCR for as it was on at around 3am in the morning.

They were absolutely massive in metal circles by that stage and it went crazy when they came on with two people dying.

 

Stone Roses - Spike Island 1990

I live in Runcorn, the gig was in Widnes which is 5 miles away. I was a smelly and had zero interest in the Manchester bollocks that everyone else was obsessed with, but this was a huge event taking place a bus ride away. I turned up with my mates hoping to bunk in even though we didn’t really have much interest. As things turned out there was no need to bunk in as the bouncers just said “in you go” as it was all about to start. So in we walked, watched probably Clint Boon playing a load of shite for about half an hour, and then Ian Brown walks on, takes the crouching position on stage and proceeds to sing out of tune. We walk out 10 minutes later, unimpressed.

 

Roger Waters - The O2 May 2011

Roger doing The Wall which is an album I had grown to love after it was played on repeat over several lads holidays over a 10 year period from 1988. Anyway, despite gigs closer to home, me and my best mate decided we’d head to dat der London and make a big deal of it. We got a clipper from our hotel by the London Eye and missed all the crowds on the tube. The gig was boss in all ways possible as a Floyd/Waters fan, and then as the wall is built Dave Gimour appears on the top of The Wall during Comfortably Numb, with Nick Mason joining them. Probably the last time the surviving members of Pink Floyd will ever appear together.

 

 

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Yeah - not sure what qualifies as legendary. However, I too was at Spike Island. We had a great day, but it wasn’t a great gig. The sound was shite. 
 

I also saw Orbital’s famous gig at Glastonbury in 1994 and The Beastie Boys/A Tribe Called Quest at Madison Square Garden in 1998. 

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2 hours ago, Paul said:

Yeah - not sure what qualifies as legendary. However, I too was at Spike Island. We had a great day, but it wasn’t a great gig. The sound was shite. 
 

I also saw Orbital’s famous gig at Glastonbury in 1994 and The Beastie Boys/A Tribe Called Quest at Madison Square Garden in 1998. 

I was at Spike Island too, agreed on the sound but the whole thing has definitely acquired a legendary status for one reason or another.

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Not sure what counts as legendary like. 

 

Gigs I have been at include:

 

Nirvana at Newcastle Riverside (supporting Tad, first show in Europe) 

 

Mudhoney at Newcastle Riverside (supporting Sonic Youth) 

 

Future Islands, 2009, in a squatted bike shed in Leiden to, at most, 10 people and a dog. Think they were 3 euro and 1 euro a beer. Saw so many bands there equally as good though. Millions Of Dead Cops and the Membranes for a start. 

 

Oasis supporting the Boo Radleys in Preston. 

 

Frankie Goes To Hollywood at Larks In The Park, also first gig at the Royal Court when they had turned into the biggest band on the planet. 

 

Beastie Boys, Royal Court briefly 

 

And yeah Orbital at Glastonbury was boss. 

 

 

 

 

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I attended a gig in a garage up the road from where I live by the little known punk band Zero Option. When I say attended, I was pretty much forced to go by one of the band members. I was probably around ten, the band was made up of lads in their early teens. I was also forced to buy ice pops from the garage freezer that tasted like curry. 
 

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15 minutes ago, Vincent Vega said:

If I had a time machine I think I’d pick this one. Probably only Stringy on here who had the chance to go to this. 

DF9A2F55-5891-41AC-9F29-FCF0590CA517.jpeg

There is someone on here who said he saw Hendrix there, can't for the life of me remember who it was. Not Stringy though.

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Yeah, difficult one this. More notable than legendary.

 

Saw Slayer at Download 04, their flight was delayed and they were slotted in the third stage. Thousands of slayer fans (not the best bunch of lads) trying to fight into a tent three times too small for the crowd, then the band come on and tear into the best metal set I've ever seen, the place literally rocking, people climbing the poles to dive into the pit. They sent out poor Taking Back Sunday while the crowd was gathering, they didn't last long. Came out and gave a great set of their own to about 70 people once Slayer and their mob departed.

 

Arctic Monkeys at Cardiff Barfly (which was located in a basement cupboard over the road from the castle - shame the barflys didn't stick around) a week or so before their first single was released.

 

Prodigy at Reading 2002 was a legendary show. Fat of the Land heavy, ended with that L7 cover. Brilliant.

 

Green Day at Milton Keynes bowl. Definitely one of gigs trying to be legendary, and was genuinely brilliant. Jimmy Eat World supporting too. 

 

Chuck Berry's last tour of the UK (actually looks like he played some shows in 07/08 - but it was the last full tour).  Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and Co playing Pet Sounds in full at Glastonbury Abbey.

 

Otherwise been to loads of great gigs, but as they are mainly odd or smaller bands so I don't think they'd qualify. Seeing Bouncing Souls play through four of their albums over two nights was pretty close for me though, Rancid in the last months of the Astoria, Gallows in the small uni theatre in Exeter, Dropkick Murphys in the same venue, The Bronx in a pub basement in Kingston, The Pogues at christmas time, every show at Newport TJs. 

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I don't know if anybody remembers The Warehouse on Fleet St, a real Health and Safety nightmare, with electrical cables dangling out of the ceiling, a couple of feet above your head. The place was really small but attracted brilliant bands like the Dead Kennedys, Nick Cave, and also bands like A flock of Seagulls. It was actually so small, it used to drip with condensation (or more probably beer) from the ceiling. The stage was almost at ground level, so it was pretty intimate. Though not expecting much, it actually turned out to be one of the best gigs I've ever seen: Big Country. I went with a mate from school who was really into them. Stuart Adamson seemed to be having a great time, even when the waves of lager were flying around the room over him and everyone. I think the place burned down eventually, which was probably only a matter of time. Still, Big Country are still one of the best live bands I've seen to this day.

 

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My first ever conceet was Kraftwerk at the Empire in the mid 70's. From memory it was not even half full and we were asked to move to the front.

 

Saw Costello and Wire at Erics.

 

Had a friend in Sheffield Uni and ended up seeing the Police somewhere there in 1978 before they had any big hits.

 

Was quite active going to gigs mainly at the Royal Court around 1981 and saw early concerts by U2 , Duran Duran and The Pretenders.

 

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Not sure if any of these count as legendary, but I enjoyed them-

 

Blue Aeroplanes at Colston Hall in Bristol- they finished with 7 guitarists on stage and the mosh was so heavy at the front, that a trapdoor collapsed and had to be supported with packing cases. I had my watch ripped off my wrist and didn't even realise until later. Oh, and the speaker stacks nearly fell into the audience. Their Christmas shows in the early '90s in Bristol were also brilliant.

 

Blur in Bristol in '88 I think, just before they broke.

 

Porno for Pyros and the reformed Velvet Underground at Glastonbury in '92 (?). Reed spent most of the time glowering at the crowd, the miserable cunt. I took my first trip on the Saturday and freaked out during Ozric Tentacles as the crusties were turning into vampires. I spent the Orb set crashed out at the side of the field after throwing up on a hippy's tent.

 

Saw Supergrass's first gig at the Jericho in Oxford (and took my first E). My flatmate is Gaz's older brother and we played Risk with the band until 5 in the morning afterwards.

 

Pixes and Ride at the Crystal Palace bowl in '91. We had to sit through Milltown Brothers and the fucking Boo Radleys, but Ride were amazing and the Pixies blew the place apart. Weirdly, they had a lake between the bands and the crowd. I haven't watched all of this, but I vaguely remember someone hopping the fence and swimming across, much to Kim Deal's amusement.

 

 

The Pixies split up soon after, and it was nearly 30 years before I saw them again, at Glasgow Barrowlands- still brilliant.

 

Oh, and Adam Ant in Edinburgh a couple of years was one of the best gigs I've ever been to, he's still got it.

 

Jesus and Mary Chain at Newcastle a few years back. This was almost a religious experience, the description is spot on.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Vincent Vega said:

If I had a time machine I think I’d pick this one. Probably only Stringy on here who had the chance to go to this. 

DF9A2F55-5891-41AC-9F29-FCF0590CA517.jpeg

My fantasy gigs would be things like: Aretha’s second night recording Amazing Grace when The Stones turned up to watch; The Beatles either at an early Cavern/Hamburg gig or else the rooftop one; Elvis’ comeback special in ‘68; and last but by no means least, Prince’s five hour after-party at the Café de Paris when he gave 18 year old Mica Paris a microphone in the crowd to duet with him, brought Chaka Khan on for Sweet Thing and played covers/mad funk jams deep into the early hours.  
 

Edit: it was the Camden Palace actually. There’s a bit of footage here at exactly 11 minutes in. Think I’m mixing two shows up in my mind. Chaka was at the Cafe de Paris one. Either way, though: a Prince after show - fucking hell!!! Pretty much peak gig for me. 
 

 

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Was at the Donnington Guns & Roses one... my mate who was a bad smelly had a spare so I went along. We got hammered on cheap cider. Iron Maiden were boss, Guns & Roses less so

Was also at Glasto for Orbital, was off my head on acid so it was pretty good although not really music related

REM at Glasto was great as were Queen at Maine Rd

Living in Sheffield in the late 80s was fantastic for brilliant music. One week it'd be Ned's Atomic Dustbin the next Everything but the Girl then Hawkwind, Happy Mondays and Deacon Blue etc

My favourite at the time was Marillion in the City Hall

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Depends how you class legendary. 

 

I was at Reading Festival for the infamous Kings of Leon gig in 2009 when the lead singer started moaning that the crowd weren't helping them got pissed off when the place went mental for Sex On Fire (which happened to be in the charts at the time) despite the fact the place being pandemonium despite what he said. 

 

Prodigy, Isle of Wight in 06 was absolutely superb. 

 

Beady Eye not even selling out Portsmouth Guildhall when Noel had just sold out London O2. Standing yards away from Oasis without Noel watching them go through the motions considering only a couple of years previous I'd seen them at Wembley when they sold out 3 nights was just surreal. 

 

Stone Roses - Heaton Park - Superb day and night, a band I never thought I'd get to see. 

 

 

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