Most Memorable Gigs

The Cure, either October 8, 1985, or December 7, 1987, I can't remember now, but what a show. I can still remember the combination of the absolutely brilliant light show and Porl whirling about like a psychedelic dervish.

The Cure, July 4, 1992, another brilliant show. Sigh.

The Who, supporting act The Clash, October 23, 1982. I can still hear the opening chords of I Can't Explain echoing off the stadium walls...

The Clash, January 23, 1984. The new lineup after Mick Jones left, a white hot punk band doing Rock the Casbah as punk.

The Ramones/Social Distortion, at the Berkeley Greek Theater, October 10, 1992. I will always remember the moonrise over Berkeley as Social Distortion kicked into Cold Feelings, followed later that night by the solid wall of noise that was The Ramones.

Neil Young, the Rust Never Sleeps tour, October 22, 1978 at the Cow Palace, San Francisco. I will never forget this moment:

December 7, 10987, Hell they have been going a long time!

LED ZEPPELIN 1979 KNEBWORTH. Superb

ROCKET MICK wrote: December 7, 10987, Hell they have been going a long time!

Me too!

Orb Bangor lesiure ceentre 92.....cos I felt my hometown move 3 feet to the left.

Orb Dublin Point Depot 94... that's ALL I can say, that and the fact that I was picturing the headlines "venue collapses under excessive sound load killing hundreds"

New Order Brixton '87. Huge scramble to get away from the front as New Order start their set as many had gone to the front not expecting the place to take off. Made my way to the side for a breather only to hear the opening lines to DNE, no breather then!

Pogues March Leeds University 1985, first night of their first national tour. £1 entrance, pile of beer on stage being handed to the audience throughout, they went through every song they knew and then started repeating them, fantastic.

The Shamen, Newcastle University 1991. The Shamen at their height before they got that awful rapper joining. Tiny venue, very loud and amazing lights.

Madness (80/81?) Birmingham Top Rank Club; upstairs at the club, they had a seating platform that went around the entirity; I decided to stand on it to get a better view. Heel slipped off the back and my new 'rude girl' skirt with a split in, split further still, to meet the zip. It gave everyone behind me a good laugh, and Madness were great that night. However, I did have to stand in the shadows up a wall for the remainder of the night.......

Manic Street Preachers (Belfast Waterfront Hall) 2004 - Manics had released Lifeblood one of their best albums and that day had re released The Holy Bible so there were tons of Holy Bible numbers in the set.

Snow Patrol (Belfast Ulster Hall) 2004 - Last night of the tour.

Killing Joke (Liverpool Academy) 2005 - Met some really top people at the gig, and KJ were totally alien to anything I expected. Also the first time I went to a gig and got a memento (a drumstick)

KT Tunstall (Belfast Waterfront Hall) 2005 - Nearly got into a punchup.

The Prodigy (Belfast Odyssey Arena) 2005 - Fuck em and their law.

U2-ZOOROPA gig @ WEMBLEY STADIUM.Amazing gig,atmosphere was electric and the Zoo Tv stage set was the best I've ever seen.Memorable moment Bonio as Mr MacPhisto ringing for a pizza.

NEW ORDER at HACIENDA 1984 Manchester.1st time I saw 'em got right up to the front.One of these days I'll commandeer a scanner and get these lovely photos on the site.Got a bit crushed,1st time in a mosh assault. Highlight: within flirting distance of Gillian.

OMD at Manchester Apollo 1984 i think.JUNK CULTURE tour. One of the most enjoyably fun gigs I've ever been too. Highlight: Andy Mcluskey's rabid rag doll dance to MAID OF ORLEANS. Got to meet the lads after the gig.Asked Andy if he considered bringing out a "Shape Up And Dance" video.

LIVE 8 2005 Good line up,but by the time the Floyd and Macca came on,I was knackered and hungry and wanted it to end. Highlight: toss up between Bono letting out the doves during BEAUTIFUL DAY ,and Robbie.

FESTIVAL OF THE TENTH SUMMER Manchester G-Mex 1986 Supposed to be a celebration of punk in Manchester,what can i say,NO....SMITHS.....OMD.....PETE SHELLEY....THE FALL.A great day. HIGHLIGHT? Tossup between Mozzer brandishing his "Queen Is Dead" placard or NO and Ian Mcculloch doing CEREMONY.

MORRISSEY at Manchester MOVE festival,Lancashire Cricket Ground 2004.Supported by NEW YORK DOLLS and BETA BAND,I was rooted to the spot from teatime to the end near the front.Fantastic gig.Highlight? "I'm old enough to be your postman!" reply to a girl fan saying I LOVE YOU MOZZER.

DEPECHE MODE @ Birmingham NEC 1990 VIOLATOR tour.Amazing album,amazing gig stunning projections. HIGHLIGHT? Medley of BEHIND THE WHEEL and ROUTE 66

1.New order,Rio Nov 16 2006 2.Depeche Mode,Salt Lake City, July 23 2001 3.U2 and Keane. New York, Oct 10 2005 4.U2 and No Doubt. Austin, Nov 5 2001 5.U2 and Franz Ferdinand, Buenos Aires March 1 2006 6.Metallica, Bogotá Sept 2 1999 7.Inxs, Bogotá April 4 1994 8.Information Society, Bogotá May 24 1991 9.Moby, Bogotá September 16 2005 10.Def Leppard, Bogotá 1998

Kath wrote: Madness (80/81?) Birmingham Top Rank Club; Heel slipped off the back and my new 'rude girl' skirt with a split in, split further still, to meet the zip. It gave everyone behind me a good laugh, and Madness were great that night. However, I did have to stand in the shadows up a wall for the remainder of the night.......

"YOU'RE AN EMBARRASSMENT!"

pearl jam

astoria

nuff said

christ

Morrissey in various places. The MEN was spectacular, more akin to a spiritual gathering than a gig. Me and Shug being extremely plastered, much to the annoyance of Mrs Shug. The Apollo as well when Jesse Tobias waved my flag onstage after the gig.

The Cure doing all the really old stuff at Royal Albert Hall.

Seeing Richard Ashcroft blow Oasis off stage in 2002.

And pretty much all of the Carling 24 in 2005. Seeing The Longcut at 8am in The Roadhouse, Doves in the Ritz, Elbow in front of 250 people in their studio, The Coral and finally Ian Brown in the academy coming onstag at 1am.

Honorary festival mentions to Paul Mccartney, The Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, Madness, British Sea Power, Muse... oh loads really...

Ermm... the four most memorable gigs i can think of aside from NO ones are possibly these, but my memory is shot to pieces.

Stiff Little Fingers/Blue Aeroplanes/Stump at the Electric Ballroom in Camden late 1988 mebbe. Memorable cos Stump blew a gasket mid-set and split up, and the Blue Aeroplanes did an encore with 21 lead guitarists generally pulled out from the audience.

The Megadog at Brixton Academy in 1990 NYE. Orbital, Leftfield, Eat Static, Banco de Gaia, Black Dog to name just a few.

Orbital either in a field near Croydon or at the Royal Albert Hall ca 1996. Croydon one was cool cos they were asking a 20,000 strong crowd for requests.

Banco de Gaia/Transglobal Underground at Southampton University about 1995. Total mind-bender of a gig, altering my attitude to music. Then again might have been the e.

New Order 1989. A lot of things went wrong during the concert. Rammstein 2005. Take a look at the latest DVD. Cocteau Twins 1997 or 1998. Just because it was them. Kraftwerk 1991. Unforgettable experience. Killing Joke 1991 or 1992... In a small venue, the happy few. Young Gods 1989 or 1990. At that time, the managers of the venue used to offer a free concert per month - total frenzy. The Cure 1989. Like Rammstein, in an old Roman arena.

ok here are a few....

8/16/1992-U2 RFK Stadium Zoo TV Tour

total audio-visual overload.....they were born to blow away stadiums-would not pay to see them now

3/7/1996-Patriot Center, Fairfax,Va

Oasis!!! Noel and Liam were bickering the whole time and I swore a punch up was in the offing

9/18/1998-Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

Pearl Jam on my baby sister's birthday....proved they could be a great live show unrivaled when they were up to it.

5/27/2001-Eric Clapton MCI Center-Washington DC

just showed how to play and and not having to show off

the encore was all CREAM!! and a tip of the cap to Billy Preston (RIP) who got out from behind the keyboards to lead vocal on "Will It Go Round in Circles" Seeing him do his dance was priceless.

12/22/2002 Aerosmith MCI Center, Washington DC

last night of a world tour. Stuck to the 70s stuff. Pretty much all "Get Your Wings" Toys in The Attic" and "Rocks" plus a 15 minute blowout version of "Train Kept a Rollin"-still the ultimate Aerosmith song

8/16/2004-Prince MCI Center Washington DC

Nearly 3 hours of the man himself-no opening act. The whole band the whole time was in constant motion.

he had Candy Dulfer on Sax and maceo Parker on horns!! (part of the JBs-james Brown's backing bad in the late 60s/early 70s)

DiscoShed wrote: ... plus a 15 minute blowout version of "Train Kept a Rollin"-still the ultimate Aerosmith song...

And before them, the ultimate Yardbirds song. ;)

Violent Femmes (first album tour) Over 1,000 kids go absolutely nuts, bouncing off the walls and singing all of the words to the songs from the album in whirling dervish frenzy. Utterly fantastic night, even the Femmes themselves recalled the show very fondly years later in interviews.

The Ramones: kings of U.S. punk. with D.O.A. kings of Canadian punk. Nuff said.

Einsturzende Neubauten: Mufti and N.U. Unruh banging the hell out of whatever's near, Marc Chung rattling off bass lines that would loosen fillings, Blixa Bargeld screaming and posing, plus Alexander Hacke laying a sheen of guitar feedback over the whole thing. There was some fire in the mix as well. What's not to love about that?

The Fall: Brix E. laying on her back, in a short skirt, kicking up her heels playing guitar, while Mark E. looked rather nonplussed about the whole thing, as did Hanley, Hanley, and Scanlon.

New Order - Tower Ballroom Birmingha 83 System 7 - Bicycle Powered Stage Glastonbury 98 Steve Hillage Band - Melkweg Amsterdam 06

A couple of memorable things about gigs I've been to...

JJ72 had so many technical problems that they gave up after three songs and walked off. They came back when everything was fixed.

Someone climing the lighting rig during Neds Atomic Dustbin and it nearly toppling into the crowd.

Bloc Party's bassist discovering that his bass was out of tune just before launching into So Here We Are - leaving the other three to keep that lovely intro going for a good two minutes while it was retuned.

Snow Patrol being bullied into playing How To Be Dead by an enthusiastic punter. They hadn't rehearsed it, as Gary Lightbody tried several times to point out, but had a stab at it anyway. "Don't blame me if it's shit"...

Oh yeah, and someone grabbing Harriet Wheeler's boob at a Sundays gig.

New Order, Sheffield Roxy June 87 Kraftwerk, Birmingham Hummingbird June (July?) 91 Orbital ,Glastonbury June 94

Most memorable moment ever was probably either Hooky turning me inside out at the Apollo (for which he was UTTERLY unapologetic when I spoke to him in Belfast a coupla weeks later...good man!!). Or hearing Orbital play the Dr Who theme for the first time, I had no idea they had done a version of it, and I'm standing there in the Leeds T+C and suddenly this rolling duggadadugdaduggadadug on one note, modulated into that most wonderful of electronic basslines (I've never heard a recording of them opening it this way, and am starting to think I may have gone to another place briefly and filled in the gaps afterwards), it was a funny moment, about 60% of the audience went SPASTIC, and the remainder stared at them like they'd gone mental ( which they had).

Even before my recent bout of numptyitis, I always prefered staying fairly sober for gigs, so I could fix ever note in my memory....THEN attempt to consume my own body weight in drink and drugs afterwards.

This alsways ended the same way....me bouncing off the walls at 5am, while everyone else wants to sleep, followed by weeks of convincing them that (for example) the Orb actually played for 2.5 hours and not, as they universally believed, 20 minutes.

gmex 88 n.o. acr and the mondays pure bliss!

Cities in the park when electronic started playing free will!