Concerts - First, Worst, Best, Last

[Mat]

First - De La Soul, Warehouse Union St, Plymouth 1991. Don’t remember too much about this one.
Worst - Oasis, Scotiabank Place, Ottawa, 2008. I expect Noel and Liam were fighting again, the tour didn’t finish its planned dates. Underwhelmed.
Best - Depeche Mode, Bell Centre, Montreal, 2009. Exceptional performance from Dave Gahan, I hadn’t see a frontman run the show and crowd like that before or since. 2 encores. great night out.
Last - The Killers, Rogers Arena, Vancouver, 2022. They were actually supported by Johnny Marr. Johnny’s set and then a couple of extra songs with The Killers was the highlight of the show for me.

Bonus question, band I wish i’d seen live: Queen. I saw the recent tour with Adam Lambert fronting and that was really good, but Freddie would have been exceptional.

 

[Lousy Pint]

First: Peace (a Paul Rodgers band during one of Free's many break-ups) 1970ish
Worst: any of Genesis, Queen, Golden Earring (every song sounded like Radar Love), Argent, Racing Cars. Most gigs at the Pavilions with it's appalling acoustics except *
Best: any of Mott The Hoople (71/72), Quo, Thin Lizzy (Dagenham Roundhouse 74 & Reading Fest c75) Gentle Giant, King Crimson (73 and see below), Can, *Bjork and too many others to mention.
Last: Porcupine Tree (Milano 22) and before that, King Crimson, in both Milano and L'Arena, Verona).
Wish I'd seen: Led Zep, ELP, Beethoven!

 

[Frank Butcher]

First : The Stranglers, Plymouth Polytechnic 10th Feb 1981. 15 years old to see my heroes. Walked in from Saltash due to a bus strike I think.

Worst: Discharge, Fiesta Suite (I think) c. 1982. Took in a lot of the post punk stuff - tried to convince myself it was good, it wasn’t.

Best: Would be easy for me to go with any Stranglers gig, but aside from that it had to be Donna Summer, Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, 2002 (corporate function). Feel privileged to have seen her live.

Last: Chainsmokers at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, August 2018 (Corporate function).

Band I wish I saw live - Sex Pistols.

 

[Alan Turing]

First - Duran Duran, Cornwall Coliseum
Worst - Hawkwind, The Warehouse, Plymouth
Best - The Alarm, Cardiff Arms Park (it was actually a U2 gig but The Alarm stole the show)
Last - The Cult, Portsmouth Guildhall

Wish I had seen Chic’s original line up.

 

[Bernie Bernbaum]

First - I think Steve Hillage at The Metro 1978
Worst - Rolling Stones at Ashton Gate 1981
Best - Too many to name but off the top off my head The Dandy Warhols at Lanhydrock 2007 or maybe one of the Prince gigs ive seen or the Brian JonesTown Massacre in Bristol in 2014
Last - Sleaford Mods in Exeter.

Wish I had seen The Clash in their pomp - had the chance but didn't go.

Oh must add The Smiths 1986 Cornwall Coloseum gig to the best as well.

 

[PL2 3DQ]

First I can't really remember but probably at the Cornwall Colliseum in the early 80s, someone like Status Quo.

Worst Black Sabbath headlined the 2005 Download festival and were awful, mainly because of Ozzy, he just wasn't on the same planet that night, it was such a let down.

Best The Monsters of Rock festival in 1990 - Whitesnake, Aerosmith, Poison, Quireboys and Thunder. What a line up, Thunder stole the show. The camping experience added to the whole vibe of being at a festival.

A few more would be Slipknot - brutal, Metallica - I always try to see them on tour and Linkin Park.
Also Ugly Kid Joe at the Academy in Plymouth - unexpectedly brilliant!

Last Steel Panther and Winger last Sunday in Bristol. Steel Panther always put on a good show but Winger were also very good, the original line up as well, I'd forgotten just how good their songs are.

 

[BDW]

First - Slade, Thin Lizzy, Suzi Quattro - Plymouth Guildhall

Best - Simon and Garfunkel with the Everly Brothers - Manchester Arena

Worst - Marti Pellow with Bonnie Tyler a close second

Last - Stereophonics

 

[American Pilgrim]

Good thread.

First-Metallica-Charlotte, North Carolina, 2004

Best-Iron Maiden-NYC-2008

Worst-Mumford and Sons-Washington D.C.-2018. I didn't enjoy it because I had the runs during it.

Last-Sabaton-NYC-This past October.

 

[Steamer]

First - Stackridge at the Guildhall circa 1974, second was Cockney Rebel

Worst - Siouxsie and the Banshees at the Van Dyke circa 1979 - there has been a lot of bad gigs but fortunately most of them are now just a blurr in my memory. Bob Dylan at Hyde Park a couple years back was really bad.

Best - Sex Pistols (Woods circa 1978) closely followed by The Clash (somewhere in Union Street)- Shared a bag of chips with Joe Strummer after the gig. Neil Young at Hyde Park a couple years back was really good ...

Last - Sleaford Mods (Printworks) and the Unthanks - Norwich and Bury St. Edmunds

 

[Mat]

First - Duran Duran, Cornwall Coliseum
Worst - Hawkwind, The Warehouse, Plymouth
Best - The Alarm, Cardiff Arms Park (it was actually a U2 gig but The Alarm stole the show)
Last - The Cult, Portsmouth Guildhall

Wish I had seen Chic’s original line up.

Saw Nile Rodgers supporting Duran Duran a few years ago, he was amazing.

 

[GreenThing]

First - Status Quo, Cornwall Coliseum. Brilliant, first taste of live music and I loved it.

Worst - Tricky one this as I’ve enjoyed all the gigs I’ve been to, but it’s Metallica at the NEC in ‘92. Metallica were great that night, but only managed to get bad seats too far away from the stage. Anyway, who sits at a Metallica gig???

Best - Strangers, Bristol 2018. My mate is a big Stranglers fan and I’m a bit Therapy? fan. When Stranglers toured with Therapy? as support, we had to go. Therapy? were as good a expected, an I was surprised how good The Strangers were. I knew a handful of songs and thoroughly enjoyed the songs I didn’t.

Last - Muse, Home Park, tonight. Brilliant.

 

[Bernie Bernbaum]

First - Stackridge at the Guildhall circa 1974, second was Cockney Rebel

Worst - Siouxsie and the Banshees at the Van Dyke circa 1979 - there has been a lot of bad gigs but fortunately most of them are now just a blurr in my memory. Bob Dylan at Hyde Park a couple years back was really bad.

Best - Sex Pistols (Woods circa 1978) closely followed by The Clash (somewhere in Union Street)- Shared a bag of chips with Joe Strummer after the gig. Neil Young at Hyde Park a couple years back was really good ...

Last - Sleaford Mods (Printworks) and the Unthanks - Norwich and Bury St. Edmunds

Didn't The Clash play at Fiesta? I know they played Woods.

 

[4evergreen]

First - Stackridge at the Guildhall circa 1974, second was Cockney Rebel

Worst - Siouxsie and the Banshees at the Van Dyke circa 1979 - there has been a lot of bad gigs but fortunately most of them are now just a blurr in my memory. Bob Dylan at Hyde Park a couple years back was really bad.

Best - Sex Pistols (Woods circa 1978) closely followed by The Clash (somewhere in Union Street)- Shared a bag of chips with Joe Strummer after the gig. Neil Young at Hyde Park a couple years back was really good ...

Last - Sleaford Mods (Printworks) and the Unthanks - Norwich and Bury St. Edmunds

I'm pretty sure I was at that Stackridge concert too and unless my memory is failing me (which is not unlikely) they had a supporting band called The Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra who told a joke about their Journey down to Plymouth. They said they passed through Bridgewater and the only moving thing they saw was the smoke from the crematorium chimney. I remember nothing about the music but I've never forgotten the joke.

 

[Steamer]

I'm pretty sure I was at that Stackridge concert too and unless my memory is failing me (which is not unlikely) they had a supporting band called The Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra who told a joke about their Journey down to Plymouth. They said they passed through Bridgewater and the only moving thing they saw was the smoke from the crematorium chimney. I remember nothing about the music but I've never forgotten the joke.

I saw Stackridge a couple of times, I think they were from Bristol way. First time was with James Warren as lead singer and second time was with Mutter Slater as lead singer. Apparently they disliked each other and wouldn't share a stage. Can't remember who the support was but I was only 14 or 15 so quite new to it all. Mind you I still have some Stackridge vinyl.

 

[Steamer]

Didn't The Clash play at Fiesta? I know they played Woods.

Must have missed that one. I saw them, I think in Castaways possibly before it was Castaways. I also saw Dire Straights there as support for ... can't remember. It says something about Dire Straights when they were more memorable than the main act, in fact they were bleddy good. I think I also saw the Saints there (at least I think it was the Saints) when there was such a small crowd (possible less than 20) that after the interval, the lead singer came back on stage naked saying he always wanted to play naked and twenty people watching was just about doable.