Entertainment For Lively Minds
Most incongruous support act
Posted by Mousey on 24 October 2009 - 7:45am.
In 1974 I went to hear PETER SKELLERN do a concert at the Golders Green Hippodrome. At the time he had a huge hit with "You're A Lady". Supporting him were a young band making what sounded to me like a lot of ghastly noise with a poncing posing front-person - this was the emerging QUEEN.
I don't think I've ever been to a gig or concert where the acts were so ill-matched, I mean usually the promoter puts vaguely compatible names together.
But I'm willing to bet there are equally incongruous experiences out there.
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01 July, 1987, Elland Rd Stadium, Leeds..
it was a beautiful summer's day, U2 were consolidating their status as globe bestriding colossi and touring the Joshua Tree. They were supported by... The Fall. I'll never forget the sight of Mark E Smith barking Bingo Master's Breakout into a megaphone at the massed ranks of baffled, bull necked Yorkshiremen. And women.
An almost identical exoerience
later that same month...
U2 at Wembley Stadium with the Pretenders(!) and Spear of Destiny(!!)
Sounds like a desperate tour all round.
No-one gave a flying cowboy hat about the supports, and SoD (was there ever a better acronym?) were wrong, wrong, wrong...
U2 were, it must be said, utterly magnificent.
Pretenders
should have been headlining.
Nothing against the Pretenders...
Wrong band, wrong place is all.
I should have mentioned..
..that The Mission were the other support act on that Halcyon day. And yes, the '2 were well worth the.. ooh, fifteen quid I think I paid for the ticket.
U2 again..
...at Sheffied arena on the Zooropa tour, I was sat next to what turned outto be a buch of Sheffield (utd or weds) players who weren't at all impressed with the support of choice, Fatima Mansions. Not exatly mis matched but a crowd waiting for Even Better Than The Real Thing wer warmed up with Ceaucescu (sp?) Blues
Sha Na Na at the Southend Kursaal...
....supported by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown - or was it the other way round? Either way, the mob of local teds, who perhaps weren't quite up to speed with the tongue-in-cheekness of Sha Na Na, greeted Arthur Brown with a hail of beer cans and bottles, shouts of 'hippie shit', etc, which actually went rather well with the flaming head.
1978, LSU Ents , Loughborough
Headline Act, Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias
Support , some white faux-reggae outfit fronted by Mr Gordon Sumner
Kept things groovin' during a stage blackout
" a lot of ghastly noise with a poncing posing front-person"
one of the best descriptions of Queen I've seen
thanks mate
was expecting furious disagreement!
(probably on its way)
On the Mott website there's a quote from Brian May
in which he says that Mott were the only act that Queen ever supported. Selective memory maybe? :-)
Definitely
My mate Ken was with me and we met up for the first time in 30 odd years the other day, and guess what we reminisced about!?
America '67. The Who backed
America '67.
The Who backed Herman Hermits.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience backed The Monkees.
Someone at Track Records must have been having a laugh.
Though I'm sure I read somewhere that Jimi and Peter Tork were quite close and certainly Keith Moon and Peter Noone tore America apart!
September 1987
Einsturzende Neubauten supported by Showaddywaddy at the Kilburn National. What do I win?
now
that's what I call a bill. Tell me that the Shows joined EN for a finale of "Under the Moon of Love" played on concrete blocks and industrial piping
No dice, Fraser.
Can you think of anyone who could support Blixa Bargeld und mates?
John Martyn
supported Yes, and was none too happy with the experience. The audience completely ignored him and talked through his set, and he hated the band on a personal level. To his mind they were arrogant, condascending and rude. Apparently, he got on ok with Alan White. He couldn't have met Rick Wakeman, surely. I would imagine that they would have got on fine, and one can only imagine the alcoholic bender that would have ensued.
Glasgow Apollo early 1980's
As he was out of town on work commitments a mate asked me to escort his then girlfriend to an Eric Clapton gig. I can't stand Eric Clapton but was only too happy to help my mate (ok his girfriend was gorgeous)so went along. Clapton was predictably crap, however I throughly enjoyed the reaction that the support act, Chas and Dave, provoked from an audience of Glasgow Claptonites.
Gertcha indeed!
Chazzendave
supported Zeppelin @ Knebworth. Possibly the record for the most people singing 'Gertcha!' ever?
Gertcha, indeed
They also supported 10cc's ill-fated gig, 1976, at the late lamented Glasgow Apollo (actually it was a hovel, but what a venue).
http://www.inthewilderness.com/apollo/index.asp
Sisters of Mercy circa 1983 and ...
... The Smiths in support.
I remember this because, as a SoM fan at the time, I was bemused to find the reviewer (Dave McCullough, in Sounds, if that rings any bells with you) spending most of the review saying how we need to watch out for the Smiths band because they're terrific and going places. And so much better than the SoM.
To be fair, in retrospect I have changed my ind and now agree with him.
Wire supporting The Tubes
Hammersmith Odeon 1976, or '77. Wire (very serious, very good, pretty unknown) went down like a lead balloon, with The Tubes' audience. But they stood their ground to an audience that was largely mystified. White dopes not on punk.
The Radiators From Space got a similar reaction supporting Thin Lizzy (Brighton Dome) at around the same time. I suppose the Radiators and Lizzy had some Irish links, but that was all.
Squeeze
I saw Squeeze support the Tubes a few years after that.
It went a bit better.
Japan supporting B.O.Cult
It did not go well.
That must have been in about 1980..
A roomful of hairy Hells Angels types and spotty youths. Coming up against a fey, winsome group with all eyeliner on and that. I'm astonished Mr Sylvian and mates got out alive.
Nope
It was definitely the 70s, probably 76 or 77 as I was still at Uni at Swansea and we went to Cardiff to see it.
Futurism in Basildon
I went to a futurist night at Raquel's Ballroom in Basildon in the 80s.
The headline act was Depeche Mode, just before they got too famous for Raquel's Ballroom. I forget the name of the support band, but they were a rockabilly band very much in the Matchbox mould.
Not bad, but in no way futuristic.
Stanley Clarke supporting Bob Marley
I was in New York in 1978 and went to the see Bob Marley & the Wailers at Madison Square Garden. The support was jazz rock bassist Stanley Clarke. Most of the audience couldn't have given tuppence for Stanley's noodlings and I remember he said 'i know this isn't what you came to hear, don't worry we'll be out of here very soon'.
Birmingham Odeon 1985
Moving Hearts supported by........
The Ruby Turner Band
Well received as it happens.
Roundhouse 1976
The Kursaal Flyers supported by
Crazy Cavan and The Rhythm Rockers
and..... The Clash.
Loughborough Uni Union 1971
Forevermore (forerunner of AWB including Onnie MacIntyre and Alan Gorrie)
Support - the Rock 'n Roll Allstars (S. London-based trad R n' R band)
Leicester De Montford Halls mid-1980s - Robert Palmer supported by A Flock of Seagulls
I think Fraser still has it by a mile but...
...if anyone can tolerate me banging on about Quintessence again (for the novice: ultra-spiritual eastern-influenced proggish London based hippie icons for whom 60 minute in-concert medleys/jams before a clapping opportunity for the punters were the norm), a couple of dates from their oft-neglected past stand out:
Feb 1971 - Lancaster University, supported by Shakin' Stevens
Nov 1971 - Colchester University, supported by Roxy Music
For some reason, promoters in 1970 often put Quintessence on a double bill with Black Sabbath, the perfect equilibrium of positive and negative vibes in one room. Until Quintessence tired of the fisticuffs and negativity and starting saying 'no'.
RT and some
avant guard American lady who played an overdriven dulcimer whilst screaming. For the last song, she started hitting it. The entire middle-class audience of straights (myself included) *defined* "polite applause" that night.
Did she have
a Scouse bloke with long hair and NHS specs with her?
No, but I was hiding behind my seat for most
of it...
Incongruous...?
...Talking Heads supporting Dire Straits at Newcastle Poly SU sometime in the '70s. And, Little Feat getting kicked off the Warner Bros promo tour because they always upstaged the Doobie Brothers - quel surprise
I always wondered
why the Feats only did one (Saturday afternoon/sell-out) date on that tour. I was one of the many disappointed who couldn't get a ticket.
I saw Dire Straits supporting Talking Heads, not vice versa...
I can't comment on the Newcastle Poly SU gig becuase I wasn't there, but for their February 1978 tour of Britain, Talking Heads were supported by Dire Straits, not the other way around.
On 3rd February 1978 they played St. Albans Civic Hall, and I was there. When Dire Straits came on, there were only about 10 men and a dog watching, as the rest of the punters were in the bar. I enjoyed their set, and of course Talking Heads were absolutely brilliant, playing all the gems from "77".
And all for £1.75. Them's were the days...