No game thread

Best concert you've been to?
Worst?
Red shorts/black shorts/something new next year?

 

Janet Jackson or Janet Street Porter?

 

Blur worst. Oasis at Earls Ct the best

 

Worst Bad Manners mid 80s in Dunstable whatever the place was called, it was knocked down years ago for a Supermarket. The concert was abandoned due to a riot, plod waded in when skinheads started smashing each other and Dunstable up. Those were the days....

Best is a little left field. Saw Oasis and a host of big names down the years, but I took the Mrs to see Billy Ocean the other year and boy can that old bloke still sing. Terrific live.

Black.

 

Best concert Manics at Brixton. Worst Oasis at Knebworth.

 

Yellow.

Shorts, not yawnmongers.

Edit: ha!!!

 

When I was an emotional young teen, I saw My Chemical Romance live at Brixton Academy twice, the first time supporting Taking Back Sunday and the second their first tour as headliners. The second time they had Every Time I Die supporting them, and that was for me, particularly at the time, an absolutely incredible show. More recently, I was given a ticket to the first Twickenham night of U2's Joshua Tree tour last summer. U2 are legendary, and have an incredible back catalogue, but I'd always thought of their present-day incarnation as a sort of money-for-old-rope, dragging-it-out money spinning exercise, above all else. To my surprise, it was one of the most amazing spectacles I've ever seen, and certainly the most 'spectacular' gig. They balanced what they wanted to play and what the audience wanted perfectly, and were extremely clever with the second half/extended encore of the show, where they played all the songs of you'd want to hear of theirs that weren't on Joshua Tree. I'm nowhere near old enough to be an original fan of the band, but even for my mates and I, hearing songs like 'Beautiful Day' and 'Elevation', that did come out when we were growing up, had a tangible effect.

Plus, the support act was Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds; couldn't give a **** about that, but it meant the final final encore was U2 and Noel Gallagher (and the entirety of the inside of Twickenham) singing 'Don't look back in anger'. Cheesy, perhaps, but I'm glad I was there.

 

Best: Nathan Carter at the Beck in Hayes last year, he rocked it like a wagon wheel..

Worst: Paul Weller in Hammersmith a couple of years ago. Self indulgent egotist who played one song that people knew.

Black shorts, yellow socks.

Is it me, but do we always go into an international break off the back of a sh ite result?

 

Best Nine Inch Nails

Wurst Elton John in Manchester arena, think he ha a cold

 

Did anyone else see Peter Andre play Kudos? Must have been early 90s.

Halcyon days.

 

Lindisfarne 1972

"We can swing together
We can have a wee wee
We can have a wet on the wall..."

 

Best. Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Amsterdam '79. Wanna get stoned? Just breath. Can't remember a particularly bad one tbh although I have friends who went to see Van Morrison (didn't show up) and John Martyn (so pissed he fell off his stool). Those would probably have been quite bad.

Red.

 

Best: Manic Street Preachers at the Astoria 1994 (there were still 4 of them back then)

Worst: Courteeners at the Forum a couple of years ago - self indulgent manc love in and Liam Fray addressing the audience for ages between songs like he was an international mega-star. Oasis at Knebworth was dire too.

 

I’ve seen both Van Morrison and John Martyn and both were great. Best concert was probably Kraftwerk last year, though. The Human League in the 90s (just Phil and the girls from the original line-up) were also surprisingly good.

Worst was perhaps U2 at Elland Road on the Joshua Tree tour. Not that they played badly, but all you could hear was the audience singing. As it was too late for me to get the last train to my mate’s in Durham, I had to spend the night at York station.

Red.

 

Best: Randy Newman at The Dominion 1988.
Worst: Genesis at Knebworth in 1993 ish. I only went as a few friends from Gosling were going and one of them was the Cobbold's cook! I read the Sunday Times during their set.

 

Best: Billy Bragg supported by Michelle Shocked and, the extraordinary, Beatnigs (who showed just what an expressionist art-form hip-hop could be) at Liverpool in 1988. For pure showmanship: BB King and "the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain".

Worst: REM a fantastic studio band but dull as dishwater live. Saw them twice (out of loyalty) the first was in 1984 because I bought an album that had a free ticket (my first concert at 15), the second was during the Green tour in 1988, just before "they went massive" and became stadium rockers in the small(ish) Royal Court in Liverpool - still really, really boring live. Also "Fairground Attraction" who played their "hit" (Perfect) for their opening song, their fourth song and as an encore. In my defence I only tagged along was I trying to get laid ('87 or '88).

Red. I would love us to be brave and get a really "far out" away kit.

 

Best: Echo and the Bunnymen
Worst: Shakira
Red shorts (I think there's a red bias of fans who started going in the 1980s)

 

Best..... That's a hard one, seen Alice Cooper and Meatloaf at their best. Spandeau Ballet "through the barricades" tour, was really good, Genesis and Phil Collins, Papa Roach and even Chris de Burgh, really enjoyed them all.
Most disappointing Michael Jackson at Wembley, sat too far away, so could watch the big screen or a tiny figure on a stage miles away, also had a bloke with big hair in front of me... and it rained.

Black shorts, yellow socks.
Something different.... The away shirt seems to go from red to white, to red, to white. lets have something that is really special.

 

Best: The Orb at the Albert Hall. This was a loooong time ago when the dancing baby was a thing. They played it on a screen during one of their tracks and a fat bloke n one of the boxes striped down to his y fronts and danced with it.

Worst: Not really been to a bad concert. Big Audio Dynamite were supporting the Orb above. I'm a bit of a fan but they were hugely disappointing. Beer at Somerset House when I went to see Underworld was rubbish, but the music and atmos was great and at the time my mate had a smart car, we managed to park end on between two other cars just outside. Can't do that now.

Black.

 

Black shorts,red socks a la Old Trafford League Cup.

 

I loved Michelle Shocked! Thanks for reminding me.

 

Did the first night. Drove up the night before and we slept in the car. 4 of us. By the time Oasis came out I reckon we were all a little frazzled. Manics and Prodigy were awesome.

 

Best: God, where do I start, I've tried to do a gig a month for the last 20yrs?! Has to a top 5 I'm afraid.

The Stranglers at the Roundhouse in '77 or '78, can't remember which.
Stone Roses at Lancaster Sugarhouse in '89ish just as they were breaking through.
Sugar at Brixton Academy in '93, a sonic assault on the ears, brutal yet exhilarating.
The Cure at the Royal Albert Hall in '14, and
Stevie Wonder at Hyde Park a couple of years ago, playing the whole of Songs For The Key Of Life, 4 hrs of absolute top class music topped off with an extended Superstition. Breathtaking!

Worst: The Stranglers in 97' at the Shepherds Bush Empire, touring an awful new album (Coup De Grace) and they just didn't seem bothered. Thankfully they've long since regained their mojo! And, like some others on here, Oasis at Knebworth. Miles from the stage, full of frazzled lairy Mancs and hours to get in, hours to get out.

Black shorts. And when we are all eagerly waiting with baited breath for the new kit to be 'launched' (yawn) can we ban threads where half this board pretend to be fashion experts? 'I don't like the red piping on the sleeve', 'the pop-in buttons on the collar are very 'now', dahling' etc. Just listen to yourselves and then STFU! It'll be yellow. It's a football shirt, not haute couture! Sheesh!

 

Knebworth was awful to get out of the car park and get home. Don't know how my mate who drove did it. Was 4am when we got back I think.

The stone roses at Heaton Park was worse. People were rioting to get on the shuttle buses. Nasty vibe that killed a great gig.

 

Enter Shikari are always a great live experience. When they supported The Prodigy they were the best warm up by miles.

 

Did you see Chase and Status or Pendulum? (Or did C+S try Tarantula?!)

 

I was there too - the Stevie Wonder gig was absolutely amazing. Supported by Corrine Bailey Rae and Pharell too. Wonderful stuff.

Worst - Haven't been to a bad gig really but was disappointed when I saw Snarky Puppy last year. Saw them in Bristol 2 years before and they were fab, but this time they didn't have their usual synth and didn't play any of the old favourites.

Black shorts. I like having red on the kid but red shorts make the kit look like it was designed by a child.

 

Best : Clash & sham 69, Rainbow, Finsbury Park, Dec 77.
worst: Pogues I think at the Lyceum, McGowan incoherent, band static.

Edit - Tom Petty in Hyde Park last year was fantastic.

 

The Clash. You sir are a God.

 

Used to go to The Marquee in Wardour St, Rock Garden in Covent Carden and the Music Machine and electric Ballroom in Camden two or three times a month, and later the Mean Fiddler in Harleseden. So many bands for such little money. U2 at the Marquee £2! The Jam at the Cali ballroom in Dunstable for £1.75! Ramones at the Rainbow (NYE 77, double live album recorded there) £2.50! (I was earning £80 a week for Manpower, so even in real terms it was peanuts)

In those days of course, bands gigged to promote records, rather than the arse about face way it is today.

 

Seen them at least half a dozen times. Weirdly after I got married, 16 years after the Clash split, my wife asked me 'have you heard of a guitarist called Mick Jones?' Turned out her cousin was his partner and the mother of his daughter. My wife and kids went to a few parties at their place in Holland Park - sadly I was out of the country on business . They have long split up, but Miranda is still bessie mates with Kate Moss et al, who she met when Mick was producing the Libertines.