They were the first band I saw live.
Loudest thing I've ever come across!
Like an idiot I made my way right to the front of stage and proceeded to be deafened for 2 hours.
A case of Don't Fear The Speaker?

...wish I'd seen that Genesis gig. Born too late alas! I did see that Genesis telecast of their Dusseldorf gig in a Vue cinema and Marillion last December though and both were terrific.

The first gigs I saw were free festivals, really- I saw Desmond Dekker around 1998 or so and he was very enjoyable.Then in 2001 I saw and met Nik Turner of Hawkwind who had a sort of cuban-jazz fusion band called 'Kubano Kickasso' or some such! Not a bad set, and he signed some Hawkwind CD I'd bought with the legend 'To James, Stay High' on the back! A good bloke.

The first one I ever went to which was a paying gig- but a friend had paid for me, actually- was with friends to a band called Mystery Jets around 2006 in Cardiff University. They are still going and had an album out a few months ago, actually. The support bands were Victorian English Gentleman's Club and Battle. About all I remember about the former band was the female bass player and drummer (see the relevant thread elsewhere about female bass players for more on them) and I remember nothing whatsoever about Battle apart from them being dull as ditchwater. Mystery Jets were decent though- they played one of their more prog/psych type numbers 'Zoo Time' and there was much crowd surfing and the like to the chagrin of the security/bouncers in the venue. My ears were ringing for about three days!

Had a bit of a gap then saw another free festival last summer- Richie Havens played and was really fantastic, brimming with good humour and charisma and entertained the whole crowd. Sandi Thom was infinitely less wonderful and apart from one bloke singing along to every song she played, the crowd seemed largely apathetic to her dull pub rock save that one hit she had (which I couldn't stand). I didn't even make it to the end for The Magic Numbers set as I never liked them either!

Next gig I have is Pentangle and then Spock's Beard (US prog act) the day after. That free festival is rolling into town again in the summer but I heard Glasvegas are headlining...Doesn't fill me with joy really.

Probably about 1973 or 4. Me and my chum Adam caught the bus, hoping we could get the bus back in time for none of our parents to be the wiser as to our straying so far from Lewes. Both 16 or 17, I guess, but, certainly myself, innocent, if avid imagineers, devouring Melody Maker and NME on a page to weekly page basis. Of course, we underestimated drastically, believing doors opening to equate with onstage. But what a show it was, supported by a disparate selection of fairly (OK, very) rough and ready sounding coves, a midget, a black guy on crutches and an aggressive looking fella with a wonky arm and leg himself. Yes, Kilburn and the High Roads, with Ian Dury. And then the Willis. O joy, o bliss. Everything I had dreamt of and more, long haired hippies with humour and a distinct country feel."Lets play some psychedeelic music". Yes, pronounced with the 2 e's. We mised the last bus. My father was cajoled out of bed to come and collect us, me knowing that the real punishment would be doled out by my mother, as the next day she shamed and berated me about just the same sort of thoughtlessness my kids routinely dole out to me today.
It was sooo worth it. From then on it was live music as often as I could, continuing, slightly more selectively, to this day.

At Northampton College of Further Education in 1975. I had never heard of them and was expecting three Spanish blokes in sombrero's playing acoustic guitars. What a shock when CP Lee and his band took to the stage. They were brilliant. As is their ep Snuff Rock, unfortunately unavailable on cd as far as I'm aware.

No, sadly not available. I note there is a Best of cd, currently out of print/stock, with all 4 tracks on it, £34 on amazon marketplace. I have the EP and was lucky enough to be taken to see the show at the Royal Court Theatre, funnily enough by the lead guitarrist of the Walnuts, alluded to in the adjacent thread about our own musical experiences.

December 3rd, 1994. I'm still not quite sure how I got from there to doing some 80 gigs a year and still somehow holding down a full time job.

I still remember the feeling of horror at finding out that support bands existed. I wish I knew their name, they were awful, but they were actually the first band I saw live - it sounded a bit like "Culanize" or something, but given that we were two thirds of the way back and the sound was a bit muddy, it could have been anything.

I didn't realise you could see them people out of the music magazines up close and personal, so I'd read the reviews and everything so I could be prepared. Afeared by references in the NME to the sinks in the toilets being full of vomit I made sure I went to the lavatory early and wondered why people kept barging in front of me at the front, and me in my prisitine denim jacket and all! It was brilliant, and I sagely referred to his song "Leadbelly's Out On The Western Plain", which I'd read about earlier. You'll never guess - after he'd done his set, people clapped and cheered and he came on and did some more! Who'd've thought? It was much better than my friend Steve's experience - he read the tickets which said it'd start at 7:30 and confidently asked his Mum to pick him up at nine. Good job he was prepared to make her wait, otherwise he'd have missed the whole set by The Clash.

Genesis at Ingliston around then too. I think it was the abacab tour. It was probably my 3rd or 4th gig, aged 18 or so.

You're right about the light show - it was phenomenal.

They were a great live band, but I think soon after Genesis and I parted company. Invisible Touch etc was awful. That terrible 80s production which so many bands favoured - yuck!

...within two weeks Thin Lizzy and then Elkie Brooks.

Good thing we had the non-cabaret clarification or it would have been he aforementioned "Talk of the West" nightclub houseband jazz stylist and on of hte following acts - Des O'Connor, Vince Hill, Paper Lace, The MerseyBeats, the Wurzles or Roy Castle (very very very good actually).

No, in 1981 I asked for a pair of gig tickets for a birthday present and so when AUgust came so did tickets for, first, Thin Lizzy and then two weeks later Elkie Brooks at the Cornwall Colisseum venue in St Austell.

Lizzy of course rocked. It was the pre-Renegade tour with Snow White currently walking through the revolving door which was the stage right guitar slot. I managed to get right down front betwen Phil and Scott and was blown away by my first proper gig experience. The 25 minute drive my dad had to pick me up when I calle dhim after the gig finished gave loads of time to get autographs, chat to the crew and bouncers etc...

Elkie, two weks later was very different but no less formative. Sure it was seated and sure the bouncers I'd been chatting to a couple of weeks before were now in tuxes but, once Elkie had got all the MOR hits out of hte way it was r'n'b and rock and roll all the way to the finish - including a 30 minute encore of blistering rock and roll. Geoff Whitehorn was her guitar player/MD at the tim so rocking out was not a problem. Great band all round too!!!! In fact, after Elkie my ears rang louder and for longer than after Lizzy! GO figure!

Let's not count school bands Scharnhorst and Charlotte Rouse at the church youth club I helped run or a pre Bay City Rollers band Eric Faulconer played in (we were at the same school - there's another thread about this but didn't think he was significant enough).

It's much more impressive that my first real live gig experience was watching Free in the Eldorado Ballroom in Leith, Edinburgh in 1969 or 70. The stage was about 2 foot high with the speakers stacked on the dancefloor and I made the mistake of positioning myself down the front next one of them. I couldn't hear out of my right ear for 3 days after that but it was worth it. A strange place for a gig this as it was basically a wrestling venue with "grab a granny nights" at the weekend. I don't remember anyone else playing there after this.

It does gives a whole new meaning to up close and personal compared to Genesis in a barn. The band were all within touching distance and it didn't seem a million miles from the church hall. It was on to cinemas and theatres after that all ornate design and comfy seats.

Ingleston outdoors isn't much better but I saw The Undertones, Talking Heads and Van Morrison there. If my aging memory serves me well Genesis were excellent in the Playhouse for the "Lamb" tour - but the previous bloggers would be too young for that gig.

A Polydor Records package tour, Aberdeen Music Hall, 1970. I don't have the precise date as my ticket stub is torn in half but according to the fan sites Taste's final show was at The Isle of Wight in late August. I don't know what prompted me, but I bought a ticket and went to the show on my own. I believe it cost something like seven shillings and sixpence.

The first thing that struck me was the sheer volume. Stone The Crows were loud and they had an organ sound, I now assume a B3, which was mighty impressive. Alex's brother Les Harvey was on guitar and Maggie Bell sang her heart out. I knew none of their records but the novelty and volume gripped me. I remember nothing of Jake Holmes other than that he was American or Canadian and that having only an acoustic guitar he failed to generate any enthusiasm with me or anyone else. Does anybody know what happened to him?

Rory's performance that night was what turned me into a devotee of live rock shows and confirmed my everlasting spiritual connection to the guitar solo, preferably blues-drenched. He leapt onto the stage in what I guess must have been a the green and white hoops of a Celtic strip, jeans and baseball boots and with the equivalent of "let's go to work" and a screech of feedback proceeded to play like a man possessed on his beat up Stratocaster. I didn't notice if the other two were any good, I was mesmerized by Rory. I left before the end to ensure I got my last bus but the souvenir ringing in my ears lasted for days and the addiction to the live experience continues to this day. Next stop, Deep Purple MkII.

gig was U2 at Cork City Hall, Ireland in 1982, on what I think was the "War" tour. Can't remember too much of the gig, but I do remember the energy from the band and the excitement of being at my first rock gig! Nobody knew then how big the band would become, so it was no surprise to anyone to see them out front talking to friends after the gig. It was here that I spotted Adam Clayton and decided to go up to him and ask if I could have the empty plastic cup he was holding!!! He looked at me like I was a mental case, but still gave it to me! I held onto it for a year or so before dumping it! I would probably get a fortune for it from some eejit on ebay today!

My first gig is pretty cool. At the age of 14 in 1975, my mate and I sat down as usual pre ( or was it post?) TOTP and watched Raymond Baxter on Tomorrow's World, with some odd Germans called Kraftwerk, who, according to Raymond and team were the future of music - no instruments, not even drums ! Later that week we noticed in the local paper that they ( Kraftwerk, not Tomorrow;s World) were also appearing at the Birmingham Town Hall a few weeks later. Tickets now on sale at 75p. And so we sat wide eyed as Kraftwerk did their electronic thing for about 2 hours to a bunch of hippies, students and lecturers, and 2 schoolboys. The sight, sounds, and smells were incredible, and from then on we spent every saturday either outside the Town Hall or Odeon, trying to get to see any bands that appeared - either at the gig or arriving at the venue. The next few gigs as I recall were Magna Carta ( free tickets to get us out of the box office), Be Bop Deluxe, Gentle Giant, and The Heavy Metal Kids. Despite the impressive first gig, I fear it went downhill from there due to quantity and cheap tickets being favoured over quality. Still true to this day, having been to see Def Leppard, Whitesnake and Santana this week!

At Celtic Park, Glasgow, August 1993. On the Zoo TV Tour. It was just huge. Thankful we were there early enough to be right at the front - two eager 17 year olds we had been queuing for 3 hours before the gates opened for our first gig (not strictly true my mate had went to see MC Hammer 2 years before!!). It was absolutely stunning. I pretty quickly reacclimatised to sweaty, grubby gigs particularly in the glorious Barrowlands, and I am pretty anti-stadium gigs these days but I've seen U2 on every tour since and I wouldn't miss the next one for the world. Not quite as much of a mug as I was then - I bought a t-shirt, a programme, dog tags, a baseball cap and a poster - Bono must have seen me coming!

Okay, time to confess the ugly truth... My first gig was Status Quo at the NEC in Birmingham. I was taken by my parents and even then I knew they simply weren't up to much. Quite what possessed them to take me is still beyond me 19 years later - I was brought up on Springsteen, Dylan, Ry Cooder and The Band they don't even own a "Quo" album!!!

Not something I normally admit to, I usually go for the first gig I paid to see, Echobelly at the Fleece & Firkin in Bristol a few years later. Whether they were a better band I'll leave to others, but I had a lot more fun.

... a comment made by mother to my father as they hunted through a throng of identically made-up Numan fans outside the Manchester Apollo in 1983.
Great show, still think the Mad Max look was absolute bollocks though

... but the first gig I went to was Metallica in 1988 at the Edinburgh Playhouse on the ...And Justice For All tour and it blew the mind of my 14 year old self.

The set was pure Spinal Tap (not that I knew it then of course) with the album cover recreated on stage, explosions, pyrotechnics, strobes the works. It's a seated venue so no moshing or stagediving took place to my immense regret, but I did a lot of headbanging to the extent of having near whiplash the next day at school.

What was even cooler was Danzig were the support and they were so bad beer was thrown. This impressed me; as a person too young to drink and nowhere near able to get served, the fact that someone would throw away a precious beer I felt was a major comment on the music being played.

Next gig, Anthrax, following gig Iron Maiden. Can you see a pattern developing here? My God the eighties were shite in small town Scotland...

So said Jake Burns, frontman of Stiff Little Fingers, at my first gig in 1983 at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. It was a sell-out. The Lower Common Room was a throbbing sweaty mass of washed up old punks and kids in Doc Marten's (me included). I remember thinking that Jake Burns (a hero at the time) was a miserable bastard and his refusal to play the band's anthemic 'Ulster' was just bloody mindedness. Anyway he relented and came back with the song for an encore which was accompanied by the type of fighting/moshing that you don't see at gigs anymore. My sister's boyfriend advised me to stand well clear - "it could get a bit tasty in the middle". It did. It was fantastic...and I can still remember the walk home with my ears ringing and the feeling that music was everything. Hanx!

At Rock City in '86 or '87 aged 15. Me in a fetching yellow borderline cheesecloth shirt and floppy fringe (completely un-backcombed and un-hairsprayed, setting me out from 99% of the crowd) parental transport, no booze. Nonetheless the slef conciousness lasted about 2 songs into the set. An hour and a half (or thereabouts) of fist-pumping, adrenaline soaked, sweaty teenage magnificance.

In retrospect the Alarm were rubbish of course. But at the time they were great.

Everything But The Girl at Southampton University, autumn 1984.

They turned up late, I didn't really know any of their songs, you couldn't really hear them and it was all over in about 20 minutes.

I don't think I was even drunk.

Things could only get better. And they did.

Went to the Pantomime at Bournemouth Pavilion starring Freddie and the Dreamers in the early/mid 70s. At the end they came back on and did a short set.
First proper gig - Quo at Southampton Gaumont, November 1977. Still my heroes.