Concerts you remember / Concerts you wish you had attended

Music Room
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I know that for a long time (maybe still) there was a thread where posters would post music or an artist that cleverly tied into the prior post. That seemed like something the forum enjoyed.

I propose a twist: I will start by listing a concert (band, era) that I wished I had seen, but didn’t. Someone who saw that concert can reply by saying as much and then listing a concert that he or she would like to have seen, but didn’t. And so on.

This might fall flat, but my hope is that it will foster conversation about great concerts of the past.

Ready? Here goes an easy one:

I wish I had attended a Led Zeppelin concert in the mid-1970s, but wasn’t born yet!

Any takers for that one?

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Great thread. Zeppelin in the 70s is not on my Bingo card though. I do have some serious concert remorse though. But related to big acts in small clubs / pop-up concerts. Would have loved to see:

The Stones at the Double Door in Chicago in 97 (holds c500 people)
Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve in those small club shows they did in the 2000s I think (?)
Wilco at the Metro in Chicago (1k people) in 2003

Bonus: Stones at the Checkerboard Lounge with Muddy Waters in 1981.

Bonus bonus: Johnny Rivers the night he recorded Live at the Whisky a Go Go :grinning:

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U2 Joshua Tree tour Wembley 1987 and the U2 Joshua Tree tour Twickenham 2017. 30 years apart and because of this it felt a bit special

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Pink Floyd - The Wall - twice, both at Earls Court.

Once in the 1st run, once in the 2nd run.

Awesome.

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I wish I had seen live:

Brand X anywhere in the UK (1976-77)
Horowitz in Moscow (1986)
Alexander Toradze playing Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3 at the BBC Proms (2002).
Yes - one of the concerts on ‘Yessongs’ (1972).
Genesis at The Lyceum (1980).

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Led Zeppelin is the one band I really really wish I had seen, but didn’t. I saw many others, some multiple times, but somehow not them - but then I wasn’t into going to places like Knebworth, so my fault. Or theirs for not playing smaller venues! Consolation prize: I’m due to see a tribute band in a couple of weeks.

I did miss seeing Black Widow - I actually went to see them once, but they didn’t turn up, apparently due to illness. However I enjoyed the two support bands, Supertramp and Gentle Giant!

I also would have loved to have gone to Live Aid. I watched on TV Sat afternoon, drove into Lindon to see a band at the Marquee Club, where they had Live Aid on a large screen and through the PA system before the band, and continued after! I learnt a few days later that a friend’s husband had been given a pair of tickets, but wasn’t interested and binned them!!!

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I frequented the Roundhouse Dagenham in the late 60’s/70’s saw amongst many others:
Spooky Tooth
Led Zeppelin
High Tide - Brilliant
Deep Purple
Family
Jethro Tull
Man
Fairport Convention
Yes

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It’s a lovely idea for a thread, but the likelihood of a forum member having been to a particular show is probably vanishingly small. I do know John Bonham’s sister though.

Sadly I missed Blondie’s show at the Deeside Leisure Centre in January 1980. My friend Tim had two tickets and three of us wanted to go. We picked from a hat and I lost, but it was the right outcome as my other friend Frank was besotted with Debbie Harry and he enjoyed it far more than I would have done.

My two most memorable gigs were Joy Division, supporting Buzzcocks on 18 October 1979 at Bangor University, and The Smiths on 16 November 1983 at Leicester Poly.

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I was at the LED Zeppelin show at Earls Court in 1975 with group of school friends. I missed my Geography A level field trip to Wales in order to go, much to the frustration of my mother and my teachers. I still got the highest grade in the class somehow. The competition was not that great in Portsmouth grammar schools at the time! :thinking:
The concert was one of the best I have ever attended. I was of course awestruck! It was certainly worth the grief from parents and teachers. You only live once and the memory will stay with me until I die! Truly exceptional.
Oh and we were stopped and searched by the Met SPG on the way home!
Gigs I wished I had been to?
Anything by the Beatles in the Cavern Club! I would only have been about six though! :joy:

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I’m not a great fan of concerts, but when young you had to go. The Wall at Earls Court was brilliant, but Pink Floyd in Prague was awful because it rained the whole time. Hawkwind were disappointing at the Hammersmith Palais. My favourite was Dave Cousins in Holland Park.

Later in life I was able to go the island music festival in Budapest where massive attack were disappointing but the Pogues were brilliant despite SG being pissed.

Now I realise I don’t cope well with crowds so I don’t go to concerts, although I might walk around the Cheltenham jazz festival. However, when I was a student I sat outside the student union and listened to John Martin - oh I wish I had bought a ticket.

I’ve been to klezmer concerts in a few countries and they were all very emotionally charged and memorable.

PS. A few classical concerts: last night of the proms (up in the gods), Schostacovich no. 10. The former was over hyped, but the latter was amazing. Bryn Terfel in Don Giovanni at the Salzburg festival along with Andras Schiff (?) were a privilege, but concerts in Prague, Vilnius and Budapest were underwhelming.

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Many many gigs in the early 70s…one particularly memorable was Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee at Birmingham Town Hall…a wonderfull evening of the blues.

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Well you know that vanishingly small bit :slight_smile:

My parents house is barely 2 miles up the road and that was one of many gigs I went to there as a teenager. My father played squash with Keith Preston, who managed DLC at the time, so the tickets for my sister and I were freebies. We also had the privilege of meeting Debbie Harry afterwards and I still have a large poster of her signed by her which is likely larger than she is/was. Goodness she was tiny.

Sorry to say this but I rank the gig, even now somewhat unexpectedly, as the greatest gig I ever saw. I wasn’t especially even a fan. 2 great albums bit little else to say. It was a freebie and I went with few expectations.

I found myself dead centre stood about 5 rows back and was mesmerised as much by Clem Burke stage right as her. The sing selection was perfect. They were at their absolute peak as a band and they hit the ground running and simply didn’t let up. The lights were white hot and blinding although had I known then what I know now, that I have Albinism, then I’d have likely worn a peaked hat of the type which has generally accompanied me everywhere otherwise.

It’s funny how memory plays tricks. My recall for many years, and I have local reviews which back this up, was that on that tour they knew that that night was a bit special and so added but the one extra date at the end. Back at DLC. The reviews in the local papers at the time bear this out and yet…

Interesting to be reminded then in Ms. Harry’s book that she now says the reason they came back was that the sound let them down that night and they felt they owed us a fully functioning gig.

I do recall there being issues with the sound but as I was so close to the monitors we almost certainly didn’t have the worst of it. I checked in with my sister on this recently as she was much further back than me and interestingly she had no recall of sound issues at all. Her recall like mine was that they came back because band and audience were electric.

Of course the second gig was a massive let down as it was the same songs in the same order and the same between song banter. It was disillusioning to say the least. That first night though. Goodness me.

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Can I have another go, please…?

OK. This is my first ever concert…

3rd November 1974 - Coventry Theatre - Queen - on the Shear Heart Attack Tour.

Front Row of the Stalls, right in the middle.

Deafened and ‘drowned’ in Dry Ice… But… Fabulous…!!

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It’s great that you went and how lovely to meet Debbie. I did enjoy Madness there, a little while later on 28 April 1980. We bought these Madness T shirts and were banned from wearing them in Bangor University’s Arts Library. We wore them to lectures though.

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She unsurpsingly had little to say as she was clearly exhausted.

My one regret is that, because various gigs (not all) were free, I have no ticket from that specific gig.

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As for bands I have seen, and clearly recall:

Very strongly memorable for being the first: Deep Purple at the Roundhouse, Camden, 1970. Several times thereafter (Mk 2 lineup)

Next Pink Floyd, Crystal Palace garden party, with, amongst others, Faces and Mountain. Saw them several times after, up to and including The Wall tour.

Others are in random order, most several times, a few only once, a few many times. Probably others but I don’t at the moment recall:
Who, Black Sabbath, Edgar Broughton, Groundhogs, Van der Graaf Generator, Grand Funk Railroad, Humble Pie, Wishbone Ash, PFM, ELP, Yes, Ian Gillan Band / Gillan, Rolling Stones, Curved Air, Focus, Marillion, Magnum, Gentle Giant, Supertramp, Genesis, Scorpions, Ten Years After, Chelsea, Twelfth Night, Liaison, Dream Theater, It Bites, Budgie, Rush, John Otway, Wings.

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Missed - had tickets to Pink Floyd in Sydney in the late 80s and chose to head north chasing a woman. :rofl:

Most memorable- close call Bowie’s Stage Tour at the SCG or Midnight Oil under a pseudonym at a local club in Gosford (NSW). They debuted most of the Diesel and Dust album.

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Several memorable ones, including a few I wasn’t expecting to be very good.

Roxy Music, 1980(ish) at Leicester Granby Hall, stunning and blew me away. I thought they’d be good but this was another league.
Pink Floyd, London Wembley Arena. I was expecting it to be good but it was terrifically good!
OMD around late 1980 or 1981 at Leicester DeMontford Hall, absolutely blew me away - superb and I only knew a couple of songs, with Enola Gay being their “current” hit at the time. A real surprise as I had no expectations.
Be Bop Deluxe 3 times and never failed to impress me live.
The Jam were terrific twice then on a third occasion, they appeared to not be bothered/had an argument and didn’t even play an encore.
Elvis Costello around 1979 another at De Montford.
Rory Gallagher at Derby Assembly Rooms - a friend took me and although I liked Rory, I loved seeing him live.
Earth Wind & Fire several times, always with the most impressive show on earth!
Beth Hart at Nottingham Rock City was another simply amazing live performance. I really wasn’t expecting her live performance to blow me away.
Queen at Wembley. Enough said. Amazing.
I wish I’d seen the 1970’s band from Birmingham “City Boy” but sadly never did.

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Carlos Kleiber conducting the London Symphony Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall, London, on 9 June 1981. (The only time that I saw C Kleiber conduct.)

Weber’s Freischütz Overture

Schubert’s Third Symphony

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony

Kleiber’s only ever orchestral concert in London.

Music critics in following day’s papers gave stinking reviews.

Incensed, Kleiber vowed never to conduct in London again. He ordered BBC Radio 3 to wipe the tape of the concert that had been made for later broadcast.

And he never came back.

Still, at least I was lucky enough to see Jeff Buckley in concert six times.

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A mention of Ella Fitzgerald on another thread reminded me that I saw her at the Newport Jazz Festival, August 21st 1983, to be precise. On the same lineup were Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and Freddie Hubbard, all long gone now. A 22 year old Wynton Marsalis was also on the same bill.

One artist that I’d love to have seen live is Jaco Pastorius, with or without Weather Report.

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