Did you contribute to the 50 gigs thread ? http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/50-gigs

I'd be delighted to relive any of these Glasgow gigs :The Fleshtones at Night Moves in 83, or The Gun Club at Strathclyde Uni in 83, or The Cramps at The Apollo in 79 (supporting The Police), or Dick Dale at The Garage.

If I had to pick one - The Fleshtones. New York garage rock played with complete abandon, joyful music for dancing to, a celebration of the primitive beat. I still think fondly of their zeal, verve and great tunes on the night.

Back in the early 80s he and my dad were pretty good mates and he owned a restaurant up in West Hampstead. One night my dad took me along to meet him and in the basement of the restaurant at the end of the night, Geno, his guitarist (I think called Doc?) and a drummer with only a snare did a set of blues tunes that absolutely blew me away.

I was 13, drinking a sneaky beer and it was my first gig.

Blue Lamp club, Hull, 19th May 1993

First time I'd seen him perform solo, save for a couple of stolen moments at Daintees gigs and a brief HMV instore earlier that afternoon. Deep into alcoholism at this point, and coming straight off the back of a split band, Stephenson's show went on and on - three-and-a-half hours and more? Felt like ten minutes. On stage, off-stage, behind-the-bar, in the pool room - he used every area of the venue and engaged everyone in attendance. He also had to be helped from the stage by his mate after falling into a Tom Waits-like barfly mumble-coma at the resident venue piano. Have seen him many times since, and though he's always entertaining, amusing, interesting, none have come close to the ramshackle freeness of this one. Absolutely, victoriously, life-affirming gig.

This was the first time I'd seen them after following them for about 8 years since Highway to Hell. Angus was very fast that night. He duckwalked, skipped backwards, headbanged and played those filthy solos for 2 hours. The sound from their Marshall stacks was deafening and I was only a few rows back from the front. There were hells bells, cannons and blow up Rosies. I was 23 and on cloud nine.

They released fairly duff albums in the mid 80s and this was on the Blow Up Your Video Tour. But during that decade there were still few rock bands that could compete with AC/DC as a live act.

Alexandra Palace, London, July 1979

If I close my eyes, I'm still there. Here was a 66-year-old man playing with more raw energy and passion than any of the punk bands I'd witnessed live. A mighty, mighty performance. I'd never seen anything like it and, 30 years later, I still haven't.

Last UK date of the Mystery White Boy tour. Wish I'd been more into Grace at the time because some of the gig was a bit boring - and of course after the gig, and especially after he died, I fell in love with the album. But even then the good bits were incredible. The lead singer of Drugstore shared his mic for a spellbinding cover of their song Alive as an unscripted, curfew-busting encore. And of course, Hallelujah caused even the burly bikers in the audience to have something in their eye. Apart from reliving those songs all over again I'd love to know how I'd respond now to the parts that washed over me at the time.

Thinking back, the boring bit came after he asked us, "ok, do you want to rock out or fall in love?" and everyone predictably shouted "rock out!" So another thing I'd do, if I could go back in time, is stand at the front and shout very loudly, "FALL IN LOVE!"

The final night with Geoff Mann in the band, second of the two farewell shows. Slept on Euston station overnight between the gigs, and I can still close my eyes and remember being there. Completely, utterly joyous and desperately sad at the same time. At least they recorded it for the "Live & Let Live" album.

@ The Metronome, Folkestone - 30/05/1992.

Three people with bass, drums, voice, a vintage guitar and an amplifier so old you could hear the dust on the valves, together making music from five years later.

At the Hacienda about 1983. The most extra-ordinary live event I've ever been to. They drilled into the walls of the venue, had a concrete mixer going (which got emptied into the front few rows), and I have a vivid memory of a backing tape (literally, just a cassette) being dropped by Blixa into a pool of vodka, fished out and put into the tape deck.
So going back as older and wiser - was it as thrilling as it seemed to my 17-year old self?

It would be one of:

Led Zeppelin: Earls Court 1975
Otway and Barrett at The Tricycle, Kilburn in 1978
Pink Floyd doing The Wall in 1980
Jeff Buckley @ The Garage
Mott The Hoople in Monmouth earlier this year

If I was pushed; I'd probably have to go for one of the Zeppelin 75 shows. Based on my collection of Earls Court 75 bootlegs, it'd the show on the 23rd over all the others - my memory isn't THAT good.

Jellyfish on the Spilt Milk tour, supported by The Lemon Trees (early Guy Chambers band)at Southsea's Wedgewood Rooms.

I was just as excited and Jellyfish were simply jaw-dropping. The best live act I've seen by a significant order of magnitude.

(Shee - it: that's 35 years ago...)

The support act was Be Bop Deluxe in early "Axe Victim" incarnation and very good they were, too. They came back and played an excellent headliner with the subsequent line-up.

Cockney Rebel came on with a line-up of drums, bass, violin and electric piano with Steve Harley on vocals and charisma. It was at the time "Judy Teen" was storming the charts so they were clearly on a high and played a magical gig. Harley, we all know, divides opinion, but the arrangements were terrific and Harley walked on water that night.

(By contrast, after the original Rebel disintegrated, I went to The Rainbow for the 1st ever gig by the next line-up. It was poor: we were kept waiting for ages before the show started and, Jim Cregan's talent notwithstanding, it was a bog standard rock band format and nowhere near as good.)

Mine would be the first Knebworth show which featured :

Jeff Buckley - raw and wonderful
Steve Miller - rocking and bluesy
Sensational Alex Harvey Band - sensationally over the top
Mahavishnu Orchestra - time to queue for beers !
Van Morrison - a varied upbeat set
Allman Brothers Band - 3 1/2 hours of brilliant musicianship

Easily my most enjoyable musical day.....

David Bowie in his Ziggy guise. support act were a new band called Roxy Music. Great night!

...with AC/DC, Whitesnake and Slade among others. The hairs on my neck stand up thinking about it.

Nothing like being in your twenties, standing in a dark perfect sized venue and letting "The Big Music" send shivers down your spine (or maybe they just hooked the floor up to a few car batteries to enhance that effect).

And stop going on about Jellyfish, right now! Top of my list of "Gigs I never got to see" (even above XTC who cancelled on the night - of course). Had tickets for Jellyfish, but my ex was ill, and out of duty, I stayed in with him instead. Just a single "No dear, you go without me" was all it would have taken and I'd have been flying out of that door. You can tell I'm not bitter...

On what was apparently an otherwise calamitous tour, ian John, mani and Reni-stand-in Robbie performed the most amazing set. When the dance outro to Resurrection kicked in the place literally exploded into frenzied dancing. I worked for an ents mag in Madrid during the 90s and when for my last feature they asked me to list the most memorable moments of my near-decade there, this was number one with a sapphire bullet.

Liverpool Stadium 1972.
It was a fantastic gig, but we'd get ourselves a much better spec because for much of the night we couldn't see Paul Kossoff due to the way they had the PA set up.

Purely to relive the "event" again.

The tangible expectation, the "buzz" (one like I'd never experienced before or since), the long walk from Wood Green up the hill to the Palace......and the realistation that Gareth Evans couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery!

Also....love to relive the Wembley date Springsteen did on the Seeger Sessions tour...what a gig!

Well, it's an impossible task of course but it gives us all the opportunity to do some more lists so what the heck!
The choice is between
Talking Heads (1979) - just after Fear of Music came out crushed up right at the stage a few feet from Tina Weymouth, XTC (1980) - the last full tour in support of Black Sea, Rockpile (1977) - very sweaty night after Get It! had been out a couple of months (all at the Hemel Hempstead Pavilion - not all on the same night!) and The Carter Family (1988?) at the old Mean Fiddler when Johnny Cash & Elvis Costello got up on stage (after politely pushing past me).

I think on balance, it has to be Talking Heads.

Now, where did I put the keys to that time machine?

As username might suggest, could have picked any of the umpteen Waterboys/Mike Scott gigs attended over the years. But this had an extra charge 'cos I'd bunked off boarding school, high-tailed it to a big field near Hamilton and pogo-ed in a big top the band had lugged around the country, and erected in places not usually included on the rock circuit (the Western Isles etc)
The Raggle Taggle band had just broken up, and electricty was in the air. Mike Scott took a violin bow to his Fender in what seemed a rather symbolic act. And the four-piece band burned. Oh, and the quite wonderful We Free Kings supported. Before they were thrown off the tour by Mike (apparently peeved at how well their sets were going down...)

It's 1968, it's the Roundhouse and the band onstage is the Byrds. I'm waiting to hear songs like Eight Miles High, Rock and Roll Star, and Why. But what is going on, they're doing country music. Later of course they play the hits and I stop sulking. It's only a few years later that I discover a band member was one Gram Parsons, and years before I can find any confirmation of the gig. Only the Royal Albert Hall was mentioned.

I'd like to revisit this concert because I didn't know, or understand the direction they'd taken, and in whose presence I was in.

The Albert Hall, 18th July 1983. My 18th birthday and Echo and The Bunnymen, just brilliant. I laid down my raincoat and grooved like never before or since. Also I would like to take there with me all the things I have learnt in the last 26 years and then do most of them differently (except the kids of course). If you type "Bunnymen at The Albert Hall" into Youtube there are most of the songs available from that night.

Ry Cooder and David Lindley at Hammersmith Odeon in 1991. Just the two of them - no band. Played a collection of stringed instruments sitting almost face-to-face. Marvellous.

JJ Cale at Hammersmith Odeon, again, in 1994. His first gigs in London since 1976. A mellow, swinging groove from start to finish.

Buddy Guy at the Festival Hall in 2003. He came on and immediatley started having a conversation with the audience, talking about Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Hendrix. Started off so many of his own and their songs simply to stop mid-way through to tell us another tale. A lovely man. Funk personified.

in a bar in East Jerusalem last year. It was a magical evening, as I talked about here.

It was so packed and hot they were pulling fainting people from the front, but I had a great view upstairs in front of Lux Interior.

The highlight was She Said, with the chorus "Oo ee ah-ah!". Midway through the song someone shinned up the upright girder in front of the stage and spread his arms. Lux pointed him and shouted: "Jesus! That feels good" Everyone cheered before Lux went into the "Oo ee ah-ah!" chorus.

Mott the Hoople & SAHB ~ Glasgow Apollo 1973 (thanks Badjin), first gig my life was never the same
Greenslade ~ Glasgow City Halls 1974 on a beautiful summer evening with the sun streaming in the stained glass windows
Hawkwind ~ Glasgow Apollo 1975, Warrior on the Edge of Time tour
Yes ~ Glasgow Apollo 1975, Relayer tour me and my mate were moist with anticipation
Uriah Heep ~ Glasgow Apollo 1975, Wetton on bass a very hot summer's night - great vibe
Zappa ~ Glasgow Apollo 1977, the 5 piece band with Eddie Jobson
UFO ~ Glasgow Apollo 1978, Schenker was still on the plank
The Clash ~ Caird Hall Dundee 1980, London Calling tour - the greatest live band ever (except for The Who in their prime, even then it's a draw)
Echo and the Bunnymen ~ a tiny hall under the Caird Hall, the lighting rig consisted of 3 angle poise lamps, well remembered because of the tension - it was the day the Suffolk was sunk in that Falkland scirmish, 90% of the crowd (self included) dressed in camo
there's so many more but I'll end with this:
Big Audio Dynamite ~ Glasgow Barrowlands, Fair Saturday 16/7/88, just dynamite and I was there on my own and it was the place to be!

The Concert Hall (Masonic Temple) Toronto, Canada 1989? just after "Fishermans"....what a ripping band...in search of a rose, raggle taggle gypos..bang on the ear..this is the sea....whole of the moon..when will i be married...fantasmo..it was a flashback to the sixties..dope was shared..dancing and heaving crowd!

Peter Gabriel supported by Echo & The Burundi Men in the Showering Pavilion - Shepton Mallet WOMAD 1982.
Rolling Stones - Still Life - Wembley on a hot summers night 1982?
Pink Floyd - The Wall - Earl's Court 1980
Genesis - Blackpool ABC Easter 1980
Alabama 3 supporting Primal Scream at the Ritz in Manchester

I would re-visit the Associates at the Dominion in 1985. Not even a heavy cold, a grumpy girlfriend, drunk shouty types in the balcony or a draughty train ride back to Portsmouth could diminish the joy of the evening. I don't think Billy toured much after this and of course we lost him in the 90's.

John Martyn, Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow, 1978 - a solo show with full effects and leaning heavily on the One World album. I enjoyed it then but, if I could revisit that show now, I'd appreciate it so much more.

Other contenders were the Wall Show at Earls Court in 1981 and Roy Harper, with band, touring Bullinamingvase, at the City Hall in Glasgow, 1977 (yes, I bought a ticket for Roy Harper during the Punk Wars)!

It was the Tour of the Hemispheres. We had front row centre seats because a friend of a friend's mother worked in the Odeon office. Bliss it was to be alive etc.

Dead Heat:
The Heartbreakers, Retford Porterhouse c. 10/77
The Clash on the White Riot tour, West Runton Pavillion 5/77
Never the same again.

A shock to the system, never repeated. He seemed, as one reviewer put it, 'threatening and absurd.' Gigs have rocked more or been more exciting or uplifting since but nothing came close in terms of weirdness. Unique.

1977 Newcastle City Hall, supported by The Vibrators, Bowie on keyboards; White Riot Tour The Clash, Newcastle University 77; Billy J Kramer, Edison Lighthouse, Screamin Lord Sutch, Bromley Churchill Theatre about 1980 I think; Blue Nile, London Palladium yonks ago; Iggy again, Electric Ballroom Camden; The Fall and Cooper Clarke at the old Town and Country Club about 3 years ago; The Cramps at I can't remember somewhere in London; Weather Report Hammersmith Odeon, Parliament roughly same time; Mick Ronson bless him, again at Newcastle City Hall promoting "Slaughter on 10th Avenue' Alex Harvey, The Mayfair N/cle. Don't bother going to them now..too noisy y'know, it can damage your hearing..i'm 80 you know..oh yes and that Echo and his Bunnymen came to my Ravensbourne College whilst i was there. But they were shite, Preferred Lol Coxhill

supported by Meal Ticket was just about perfection for me.

The best ones are those gigs you leave and feel like you're walking on air and grinning stupidly.

There are like the rest of you far too many to choose from but a few different ones that come to mind.

Tom Tom Club - Wag club Soho London. The gig was on the first floor and as they played the floor was definately moving up and down to the beat. They were awesome. Watched them with Talking heads the same week at Wembley another great gig.

Blur - Morecambe Beach the night that they beat Oasis to no1 with Country House. It was the culmination of the 'Brit pop' wars and it was the place to be.

Gill Scot Heron - Glastonbury 86/7? on the stage headline act main stage Sunday night. Great music,Lazers all around us and that view into the crowd.

Grace Jones - Two years ago at the Royal Festival Hall. I'm sure I will never see another sixty year old move like that. Amazing gig.

Ultramarine - Strawberry Fair (Late eighties/Early nineties?)A really small stage a couple of hundred people. One of the things I remember was a group of mentally handicapped people has been brought to the gig with their helpers and they made their way to the front and just really got into it. Ultramarine could see them too and they just played an amazing set completed by a superb sunset to top it all off.
Just what a Strawberry Fayre should be.

The Wedding Present touring Watusi? 1st 'proper' gig.
Teenage Fanclub, Grand Prix era, spoiled my experience of the gig with my youthful beer exuberance?
The Stone Roses, '95, blagged my way in - amazing feeling (freebies usually are), amazing gig?
The Libertines, just before 'Up The Bracket' came out when I decided to get up and sing, with their backing, at the aftershow (not my finest hour, but I still blame the Tequilla)good fun, though?
REM at Murrayfield, great stuff. Belly and Spearhead supplying damn fine support (The Cranberries not so good)?
The Delgados final tour, after years of 'too skint' or 'got something else on'?
The Waterboys, went in interested and came out utterly converted?
Dylan, (this year) finally saw him?
Springsteen, this year again. An unexpected treat, Mrs. G feeling generous due to my good exam results?
AC/DC, again this year, after a fuck-up with the Stiff Upper Lip tour got there this time?
Electric Soft Parade, never had a bad gig that I've been to?
Alabama 3, always brilliant?
Black Diamond Heavies supported by Scott H. Biram, a surprise package. Biram was phenomenal, spent most of the Heavies' set drinking wine with him, such a good night.
Half Man Half Biscuit, both times I've seen them they were phenomenal, and I finally didn't feel like a tool wearing my Tranmere Rovers shirt in Aberdeen?
The Hold Steady, just hit 30 when I saw them and it made me feel like I was 15ish and at my first gig again. So close to taking the title...

All these memories (and more that didn't squeak into my (at this point, mildly drunk) recollections) pale against the ONE live gig that I'd revisit...

The Handsome Family, The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 2006. Had heard one or two of their songs, bought Christy Moore's 'Burning Times' album the day before they played, heard his version of 'So Much Wine' and decided that the band that wrote that song were worth my Sunday evening.
The most jaw-dropping gig I've ever been to, beautiful. Mrs. G. went in asking if it was going to be another of these 'weird' bands I was dragging her to see. She left, almost in tears, grinning from ear to ear (good tears, then). There were tears and snotters on my part too, utterly amazing gig. Went in with no huge expectations and exited with bouncy steps and proof that music is truly a fucking amazing thing.

As Badlands said 'walking on air and grinning stupidly'.

Glasgow Apollo, October 1981. From the first sound of Topper hitting the metronome dub beat of Broadway to the last encore it was an evening of utter adrenaline. Best. Live. Band. Ever.

It would be great to revisit gigs where an artist played who has since become more significant in retrospect. I saw Jon Spencer Blues Explosion being supported by an old Blues guy sat in a chair and didn't give it much thought other than enjoying it at the time. Since discovering Fat Possum I've gained a new enthusiasm for the old blues guy R.L Burnside and wish I'd appreciated him more at the time.

Isn't it AMAZING the roster of historic talent Word readers have seen. Fantastic stuff. Having said that, I wish I'd never seen Bo Diddley berating his scratch band and using a stop-start first two songs as a sound check. Sad.

Hey, Elhombremalo - I SAW YOUR BAND supporting Dick Dale at the Garage in Islington and it was indeed a special night.

...my first ever proper gig. Thin Lizzy at the St Austell Colosseum in August 1981. Not a bad way to start (second proper gig was Elkie Brooks exactly one week later - and that was a rocking gig too, believe it or not!).

But my head says an open air festival two years later (August 1983) in St Ives with the most wonderfully bizzare line up, viz...

Sid's Taxi (local pub band to open proceedings)
The Opposition (dour electro goth)
Renaissance ("The northern lights are in my eyes...")
Aswad ("Hey hey, we're the Double Deckers" sadly didn't feature in the set)
Chuck Berry (for the amount of time he had been paid for and not a second more - still brill though!)
10CC (still with both Graham and Eric, but post Lol and Kevin, still who cares) and finally...
Meatloaf (a vast sweating blob of flab but a great way to finish the night)

Oh, and not forgetting some up and coming guy no-one had heard of who wandered on between each act to do a few songs to fill in time while they were resetting the stage. Went by the name of Billy Bragg as I recall. Wonder whatever happened to him.

A rollercoaster of emotions. Entering the RAH, being greeted by coloured petals everywhere and being handed a souvenir programme 'from the Harrison family; walking in to see a Ric 12 mic'd-up on the stage; Eric Clapton so emotional he fluffed his words; being surrounded by friends who had somehow miraculously been able to snaffle tickets too; Olivia embracing her son; Paul singing 'All Things Must Pass'; seeing the great and good of Beatle lore before me (some no longer with us); the joyful clapping along to Joe Brown 'See You In My Dreams' giving way to mass sobs as the petals fell from the four thousand holes...

Profoundly moving, musically wonderful and, best of all, beautifully captured on film for all to 're-visit'.

My first international blues artists gig- I was 16 and went by myself. still got the ticket stub.

i dont think I had ever seen a black person before.

They had just released play the blues featuring clapton et al -a sell out according to purists at the time but a record that still stands the test of time

Junior ,at his peak before the grog took hold, with a large side belt of harmonicas

Buddy did his trick of finding stage floor boards of different tones to tape out sunshine of yourlove which was then amplified via the guitar pickups lying face down on the stage. He was dressed up in a red velour jump suit - funky.

Arthur big boy crudup who wrote that's alright mama supported - he was ancient and gaunt

been a chicago blues man ever since

This would have been a difficult question 2 years ago, but Leonard Cohen last year put on the finest show I have EVER seen by anybody in 40 years of gig-going on three continents. That show was down here in Brisbane, but judging by many reports and a couple of recordings, the same was said or thought by many more all across the world.

As a friend who shares my passion for music said that night, if he were to die without ever going to another gig he would still die a happy man, having experienced those three hours.

Part of the specialness was thanks to the deep respect Cohen showed to every member of his band (some of who were pretty extraordinary, such as Xavier Mas on a variety of stringed instruments) and to the audience. The songs, the voice, the arrangements, the virtuosic band. Yes, I'd relive that night without a moment's hesitation, including paying for the same expensive tickets.

at UEA, Norwich, in 1979. Maybe it's the age, but 30 years on I don't remember much about it at all and would love to revisit it.
Also, at the same venue, Propaganda in 1985. A very early kick-off for a concert, due to extracts being shown live (?) on Whistle Test, but would like to hear more, other than the very small amount on YouTube, to confirm they could actually cut it live. I do remember, though, that the support, Then Jericho, were quite appalling...

I didn't get to see Dexys Mk1 but the 1981 line-up was my favourite incarnation.

Clouds (I think) ballroom, Edinburgh, can't remember the date. 8-piece, booted, hoodies, pony-tails, god it was just the best thing I had ever seen. Kevin Rowland just owned the stage. I had never seen such a committed front man. And what a band. Tight as fuck with Big Jimmy blowing soul/jazz/punk solos on his 'bone.

Many gigs have come in and out of my top five since, but that one has never moved.

I now work at the best gig that I could ever have. I'm musical director for Dexys Bootleg Runners, we are 12 strong and in 2010 we'll be taking our Searching For The Young Soul Rebels show around the UK, playing the entire album as it reaches its 30th birthday.

And in 2011? We'll be doing the same with Projected Passions.

So, to the title thread; I would love to re-visit that night in 1981. But I can't. But what I'm getting to do is just a couple of steps down on my EEK Ohmygod ladder. Dexy fans look out for us. I'm at least as big a Dexy buff as you and I would not be doing this unless it was right.