The SEAAAAAAAA POOOOOWWWWWEERRR at Koko in Feb we fantastic remember it's over until teh cumbrian wrestler dances with the man in the bear suit.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/british-sea-power
then there was Blue Nile at somerset house which was just magical.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/blue-nile-somerset-house-london-ju...
Lastly Lattitude was good especially elbow and Sigor Ros

Sadly the worst gig I went to this year was julian Copes non performance at Lattitude where he wasted our time by dicking around behind a screen for 3/4 of the set played 2 songs and then just ranted for 10 mins wearing a Nazi cap dull, boring and stupid.

but Neil Young Hammersmith, Cohen at Brighton and Seasick Steve at the Astoria were bloody near perfect

And most sheer dumb fun was the Steel Cities Tour - Human league, ABC and Heaven 17. Top atmosphere and a much better show than I'd thought we'd get from all. Cheap nostalgia maybe but I had a blast!

...but Grinderman at Latitude.

“I called her honey bee, I called her LEEERRVE, but she just still didn't want to - she just never wants to... DAMN!”

Truly, joyously feral.

Seeing Todd Rundgren for the very first time
or
The Lancashire Hotpots last Friday for the secong time. Reeto!
or
Stackridge at The Cavern for the umpteenth time
but not
The Original Asia. Why does that phrase remind me of American English? It's either English or it's not.

On Friday. A-Mazing.

In his tache and seedy shirt, pretty hot and sweaty at the Birmingham Academy. And a close second - and definitely the best surprise gig - the B52's at the same venue.

The Pistols at Hammersmith - a truly historic tartan wearing tear up.

The Wolfmen at The Mother Bar - glam-pop-punk live from The Munsters spare room - fantastico

is rubbish - Nick Cave @ The Troxy last week (crazy name, crazy place) was absolutely blinding. Tupelo had all the fire and brimstone required

Prolix, prolix, nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!

was my best and worst gig of the year. The best because the band were fantastic and the worst because of the behaviour of the gig goers around me who treated the £46 a ticket show as an opportunity to continue their office discussions concerning Linda's six month appraisal and the fact that Nigel in facilities never replaces the toners in the photocopier until he has been asked at least three times. Thus bringing to an end 25 years of gig going for me. I can stand the behaviour of these people no longer.

Bluegrass outfit (Jools, Word CD passim) in the subterranean vault of The Arches, Glasgow. Select audience perfectly behaved, even for wonderful support act Jo Mango. Astonishing musicianship. Distant rumbling from Glasgow Central Station high above: "that's OK because about 75% of our songs are about trains". Too many encores to mention, surpassing previous personal best (Arcade Fire at the Barrowlands), ending with George Harrison covers performed in the middle of the audience. Memorable.

Oh, and DeVotchKa were good back in the spring at King Tut's.

Nothing bad this year, it's all been good.

the latter often leads to the former plus the PA

the bigger the venue the worse it usually is

well pleased to see a lot of names that will be heading south to australia for our summer and our summer festivals

best gigs line ball

grinderman/ nick cave at the forum, melbourne a bizarre converted cinemavenue with statues of roman senators beneath a blue sky. nick is always in form in his hometwon having spent some time with his Mum and great so see him flailing that guitar ina totally untutored instinctive fashion. fweel like some sunshine consider the nick cave curated music festival at Mt Buller out of melb in early jan

Other top gig wilco at the Palace ( Melb) in March . A show of over 23 hours. The band were tight as a fish's , played there whole catalogue superbly extra motivation of the show being broadcast live internationally via the web

biggest let down

Steve Earle at the aforementioned forum. It was 2 days after the US election and you think he would be pumped but no he seemed like he couldn't wait to get off. God knows what we would have been served up if McCain had won. Without a band the perfunctoriness of the performance was palapable. As one bloke said I wish he had split up with wife # 7 and get some misery fed inspiration.

Runner up for crap show was kings of leon - the crowd (read kids ) loved em and screamed with delight at every song they just pounded out .They werre boring , like their new album I'm over em.

It seems in Australia we often get a band rusty as it is the start of the tour and if it is the first show, jet lagged .Or it is the end of the tour and they are rooted and just wanna go home.ometimes it works in our favour and they play a blinder but often not.

Tony

I know it's obvious, but it really was Leonard Cohen at the NEC, where a barn was converted into a front room.
Worst: mark Knopfler at same, making said barn into the distribution centre for Amazon (just off the M1,on the way to Luton. Quite the largest warehouse I have ever seen. Possible better sound.)

although I have cut down on gigs at bigger venues, not because I'm getting old or anything, but mainly because of the recent trend for annoying crowd behaviour as mentioned by some others above.

I've been going to gigs since 1981 and in that time I've been stage-dived on, knocked out, been hit by a bottle of piss, battled with nazi-skinheads and chased from a venue by bikers (and that's just when I was in a band!) - but I never got so angry than when two idiots were talking all the way through Grant McLennan singing the beautiful "Finding You" at a Go-Betweens gig a few years back!

Best of the bunch...Robyn Hitchcock at the Queen Elizabeth Hall playing the album "I Often Dream of Trains", such a charasmatic performance, great songs and surreal humour (although slightly dampened by a certain Mark Ellen heckling during the show!).

The Soundtrack of Our Lives in Stockholm, back on form playing new tracks from their cracking new double album "Communion", yes there are some bands out there who still want to make double albums and release them on vinyl!

Sparks at Shepherd's Bush Empire - best venue, best live band I've ever seen and a great audience too!

the sunday gig. I'd not seen him before but Christ, he's some performer. The sound was great, the crowd was up for it, and no sign of any twunts moaning about Nigel in Facilities!

It was truly the kind of thing to gladden the heart when you see lads of the age of 15 singing along to every word of Racing in the Streets.

Other smaller gigs that i enjoyed - Crowded house *always* give a good show, and the show i saw of them in the Olympia in Dublin was wonderful. They've no 'new' record to plug, and this was still part of the 'Time on Earth' tour, but they played new songs that will be coming out at some time in the future.

Richard Hawley in Vicar St was wonderful too. I'd say that the harmonica player alone was nearly worth the price of admission alone, but to be honest, the entire show was sublime.

Paul Simon was the worst performance by a "legend" I have ever witnessed. Too many songs we didn't know, too many songs "there's not enough time for". Well turn up punctually and you could have squeezed in another 5! I can't imagine Paul Simon would tolerate somebody he was paying turning up 20 mins late so why should I?
But Half Man Half Biscuit played an entire set I was unfamiliar with and it was love at first chord. Genius.

Neil Young was good at Hop Farm, but car park was a shocker he was amazing in Hammersmith, but eye bleedingly expensive, and My Bloody Valentine were great in London, but I wish I'd gone for the ear plugs (apparently it filtered out some lower frequencies and let you enjoy it better) Why didn't they tell me that at the start,

...but the winner would be Bon Iver at the Apollo in Victoria just last Saturday. About £18 a head, lovely theatre, he came on at 8.30, did the album and new EP, buggered off at 9.50 after over an hour of being magical and we were still able to pick up the car and get home to relieve the baby sitter (missus..) by 11pm...a right old result...

(special mention for Blue nile, that was also good, but could have started earlier...!)

But I can't get this performance out of my head:

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/glen-campbell-later

I wonder if people call up Tom Waits and say "I hear you singing in The Wire"...