Your Worst Music Concert

[Sterlo]

Okay folks, there's a thread for the best, what about your worst or at least most disappointing concert?
I'll start the ball rolling with Elbow at Leeds Arena, love Guy Garvey but it was a tedious concert, he's a great singer but not the best frontman for a gig.

 

[Chromatic]

Sting with Paul Simon somewhere in Birmingham, not my cup of tea at all. Actually I wouldn't say this was a disappointment as I knew I would find it to be crap.
Runners up: Squeeze were crap and so was Marc Almond, both at Colston Hall, Bristol. Hawkwind at Gloucester Leisure Centre many years ago weren't much kop either.

 

[ianrauk]

Bob Dylan, Wembley Stadium. Absolutely dire, tedium beyond belief.

 

[Donger]

In the very early 1980s UB40 played at Birmingham University. They had just released the single "Food For Thought", the B side of which was "King". Everyone was there because they'd heard the single and liked what they'd heard.

Unfortunately UB40 were very poor (even admitted themselves in later years that they didn't know what they were doing) and started to get booed. Cue "Food For Thought", followed by rapturous applause and "King" followed by mild applause. Every time they played anything else it was either met with silence or a chorus of boos. They ended up having to repeat their good songs about three times each to get through the gig unscathed. Just the thought of it reminds me of the "Rawhide" scene in The Blues Brothers.

I have always liked UB40 and a few years ago saw a fantastic gig of theirs in Birmingham. But that first one was bad.

 

[Paulus]

My worst gig was Donovan at the Cadogan Hall in Sloane Square.
A friend of mine who thinks he is an old hippy, but he's not, persuaded a group of us to go. This was about 5 years back.
Donovan sat on a bean bag, crosslegged and strummed his way through his hits, no atmosphere whatsoever. His voice has gone and he should of packed it in years ago. Maybe he had a tax bill to pay, who knows.
A terrible evening, only made passible by stopping at Victoria Station and going into the Wetherspoons for a few pints.

 

[Speicher]

Evelyn Glennie

Admittedly it was not my idea to go, someone wanted me to go with them. The concert started with the slow winding up, then down of an air siren. Subsequent noise was a horrible racket in my opinion.

Good manners meant that I stayed in my seat for the first half rather than disturb other people.

After the interval I did not return.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Elvis Costello at Birmingham Odeon c1980 or so. Played about 35 minutes, told us we were a rubbish audience and stomped off, never to return.

 

[PeteXXX]

At a Hyde Park concert in about 1970, give or take, the greatest American band, allegedly, Grand Funk Railroad were the main band.. (They're still gigging)
They were truly awful!
The crowds were streaming away in droves.

 

[Drago]

Clannad, Hammersmith Odeon 1989.

Not my thing at all, but the chick I was seeing at the time wanted to go. To my ear they sounded like someone farting softly through a tightly stretched sheet of bog roll.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

REM
MIlton Keynes
Probably as the 'Automatic For The People' promo-tour

 

[delb0y]

Gary Moore. Gloucester Leisure Centre. Tedious blues rock soloing and way too loud. That said, Meatloaf, Wishbone Ash, T'Pau, and X Ray Spex are all contenders, too!

 

[slowmotion]

Dire Straits at Earls Court. Their music doesn't suit big venue synthetic mass hysteria.

 

[lazybloke]

Clannad, Hammersmith Odeon 1989.

Not my thing at all, but the chick I was seeing at the time wanted to go. To my ear they sounded like someone farming softly through a tightly stretched sheet of bog roll.

<Shudder> i had the identical experience in summer 1992. Awful music. Awful date.

 

[raleighnut]

The Enid, an open air concert in DeMontfort Hall.Gardens.............Otway was supposed to be there but the MC came on stage saying they'd had a phone call and his van had broken down but "The Enid have agreed to do another half hour"

 

[steveindenmark]

Unfortunately, The Eagles in Arhus, Denmark. This was not long before Glen Frey died. I have seen them 4 times. The other 3 times they were excellent.