Most embarrasing thing you've done at a NO gig ?

Mine is 4th Oct 1986, T & C, Kentish Town, London.

I'd queued for hours (even tho' I had a ticket and had to endure a soundcheck without seeing the guys) and there was a real sense of camaraderie in the queue. The guys in front started skinning up and, several joints and pointless conversations later, it was soon time to enter the bowels of the Town and Country Club (later renamed The Forum, I think).

Anyway, a few Stellas later, I'd grabbed the best place I could (on this occasion 'twixt Barney and Hookey at t'front : normally, I was a devout stand-in-front-of-Gillian-groupie - man, spliff and Stella was a bad mix that night :().

The thing about the T & C at that time was that the stage was quite low down - okay, it was at bollock-crushing height.

After about four songs in (Sunrise, I think) I realised that my mellow state of mind was not conducive to a mosh frenzy (normally, no problem) and thus I decided it was time to get the heck out of there.

Thing was, nowhere to move to. Well, aside from parking my ass onstage, swinging around (losing a shoe in the process) and getting up on stage in hope of finding a friendly exit.

Amazingly, I walked between Hooky and Barney without so much as a sneer (indeed, because I didn't do the usual 'I'm on stage with a famous band' thing, instead just wanting to get out, I'm sure Hooky even nodded and winked at me). I found the exit easy enough (to the tune of As It Is...) and decided that I was in need of serious first aid.

Thus, I found myself in a room with some towels and seats and a pile of food in the corner...omigod - NO's dresing room

One of the crew said something like "What are you doing here ?" and I replied that I was looking for the first aid room. In retrospect, I decided aloud, maybe what I needed to do was to get back out into the crowd to retrieve my shoe. Unbelievably, the crew member just nodded and took me (unforcibly) by the arm and led me the way.

I might have missed out on a cracking party that I'd been invited to by those guys in the queue, but I'd been onstage with New Order (for no more than 15 seconds), toured their dressing room, lived to tell the tale and enjoyed the rest of the set with my bollocks still intact (remember, they were the crushed part of my body which caused my movement in the first place !).

Oh, and I found my shoe after everyone had gone too.

Anyway, listen to the bootleg and Barney says "Let him out" - that's me that is !

So, anyone else got any embarrassing NO gig stories ?

The only embarrasing thing is that I haven't been in any NO gig..

Edit: nice story by the way!

At a manc gig in 97 i shouted "Hooky, give me your guitar" and managed to shout it just as there was a quiet lull between songs. He heard me. Needless to say i didn't go home with a guitar.

My best friend and I went to a Monaco club gig and during one of the "slow" songs (I foget which one it is on the album, sorry) we were goofing around up in the balcony and we pulled out our lighters and were doing the whole stadium sway and we looked down and Hooky was looking right at us (and he was, there wasn't anybody else standing where we were) with this "what the fuck are you doing?" look on his face. It was both and at the same time.

In conclusion--

Finsbury Park 87. You've all heard about the stories about the ferocity of that crush. My wife Dionne was heavily pregnant with our first daughter Shannon and had distanced herself from the pack like the sensible girl she is. Her younger and smaller sister Brook had other ideas~spurred on by a pre-gig binge on the old 'Thunderbirds'. If you were down the front that June Saturday night then you're considered lucky to be here to tell the tale. I managed on no less than three occassions to grab our little party girl from the mental surge only for her to reappear even further down the front! My fourth and final attempt resulted in a swift fireman's lift only for her to violently vomit the contents of the afternoon's taster down my back, inside my t-shirt and yes! right down where the sun once shone. Impressed? I was chuffed too!

KFC.........FINSBURY.No i won't bore you AGAIN with the details.The NOOL'S that know about it can bore you!:D