the worst gig you ever went to?

[Happiness Stan]

Pete Townshend 'performing Lifehouse' at Sadler's Wells in the late 90s.

It was touted as the debut performance of 'the great missing Who album' (akin to Brian Wilson performing 'Smile' years later). Turned out to be a hodge podge of songs everyone had heard before but presented as a profound musical statement.

If I had wanted to watch Townshend maturbate I would have bought a telescope and rented a flat opposite his house.

 

[dellzeqq]

No one mention Van Morrison yet?

I saw Van Morrison on his 'too late to stop now' tour in about 1975 and he was brilliant. If only he'd given up at the top.

 

[BrumJim]

Alien Sex Fiend, Edwards No 8, Birmingham, probably 1992.
It was utter rubbish. And I quite liked them at the time.

Ahh, Edwards No 8. Sadly, no longer there, having burnt down.

Slowdive - B'ham Uni Guild (SU to the rest of the country). Never knew what the fuss was about.

Manic Street Preachers, Trentham Gardens - probably late '90s. They didn't get an encore, and didn't deserve one. Played like they didn't want to be there, but were just going through the motions.

Half Man Half Biscuit, Hibernian Pub, Birmingham. The crowd knew their songs better than they did. Hear they are very good normally.

 

[mossy]

Used to go to the 76 in Burton years ago in the 70s.
Some good bands and nights, most mainly totally forgetable noise .
Non of them made it big and a 9 mile walk home,as the last bus went well before the club closed.
We still wnet back week in week out to see if it had got any better.
The things we put up with then.

 

[Twenty Inch]

Maniac Squat (Angry Young Men with no Money), New Year 1999, The Oliver Twist(ed) Pub, Colchester, Essex.

A reunion gig for Colchester's finest young punks, who by now had cleaned up, dried out, and gone through uni. No speed or Tennant's Extra, no gobbing or being sick on the audience, no-one got a kicking, and it wasn't the same when you knew that one was in local government, the other was in management accounting, and the third worked for the Health and Safety Executive.

 

[ACS]

May have mentioned this before. Jimmy James and the Vagabonds at the NAAFI late '75 at RAF St Athan. In short, band came on covered Pick up the Pieces by the AWB and then 'Jimmy' arrived on stage. Normally the fighting was between various service factions but not this evening, it was all reserved for the band. Half way through the first set, hell broke loose, band had it on their toes and out of the back doors under a miltary police escort and away they sped into darkest South Wales. Utter crap. Who ever told Jimmy he could sing pulled a real flanker. Out of tune and the drummer was at least half a beat ahead of everyone else. Dire. What was left of their equipment was put in the skip by the cleaning staff.

 

[Kirstie]

Slowdive - B'ham Uni Guild (SU to the rest of the country). Never knew what the fuss was about.

I was at that gig. It was so unremarkable I'd forgotten, but yes, it was rubbish.

 

[Happiness Stan]

An act called Skafish who were supporting The Police at Milton Keynes Bowl in 1980. Instead of ska they played a kind of demented US punk a la Devo but without the humour. It prompted a barrage of bottles, cans, 2litre PET bottles of piss and rotten fruit which was quite terrifying as I was near the front and received a fair few of the short ranged missiles. Eventually Jim Skafish's eye caught a bottle which received a huge roar of approval and Jim retiring hurt.

To be fair, if you looked like this you you were begging for a bottling:

 

[matc]

Jesus and Mary Chain mid 80s. Came on two hours late and then played 30 minutes of feedback through a cloud of dry ice whilst the crowd fought amongst themselves.

Actually it was probably the best gig I've been to.

+1, to the sentiment also. Some shitpit in Aberdeen.

Worse would need to be Reading Festival, 1979. Some great moments, but then the Ramones cancelled. Partially made up for by the evil mind that put The Cure on just before Motorhead. Party Seven cans full of piss ahoy.

 

[Christopher]

Carter USM sometime in the early 90s. They were just terrible, no good songs and no talent, just noise and flashy lights.

Oh and Jesus & Mary Chain on the Lollapolooza tour at about the same time. I don't think they could be bothered. Luckily My Bloody Valentine were superb, that made up for it.

Even worse was when I was lining up to get Red Hot Chili Peppers tickets and the girl in front of me got the last two tickets. Arrgh! Okay, not a gig but it hurt.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Worse would need to be Reading Festival, 1979. Some great moments, but then the Ramones cancelled. Partially made up for by the evil mind that put The Cure on just before Motorhead. Party Seven cans full of piss ahoy.

Ah yes, I remember it well. iirc The Cure won themselves quite a few fans that day and got some pretty +ve reviews. But each to their own...

 

[Christopher]

Ozzy Osbourne. Birmingham Odeon ~1984. Not a gig at all as the useless waste of space cancelled at short notice. Twice.

 

[trj977]

Simple Minds, Hammersmith Odeon, 1984? Unfortunately, they made it to the end of their set.

+1 Utter tosh, never was a fan but somebody had a spare ticket! They were at least half way through "Dont You Foget About Me" before I knew what the hell the song was. Simply dreadfull.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

To be fair, if you looked like this you you were begging for a bottling:

Deffo due a smack around the chops!!

I think he's got a touch of the Laurence Olivier's a la Richard III

 

[Milo]

Looks like a serial killer.