Entertainment For Lively Minds
The best gig I never saw...
was maybe David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust days....Bowie had just started to become known again (by me anyway) but I hadn't heard Ziggy yet....so when tickets went on sale my reaction was "David Bowie 80p a ticket! I'm not paying that; he hasn't done anything since "Space Oddity" Mind you I wasn't the only one it would seem; as a mate who did "invest" told me that only a couple of hundred turned up anyway! Another similar experience happened a few years later when at university in Manchester;the Rag Ball headliners were announced and tickets were outrageously priced at £1.00....no chance of me paying that to see "Queen"...in my defense they weren't that big yet and had only had one single out.A few years later I opted to stay for pint rather than go and see U2 at my local 800 seater venue; same place me and my mates turned up too late to get into the Stiff tour with Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and all.Oh well; never mind -none of them ever amounted to much anyway --unless you know different.
- More from stevegell.
- Login or register to post comments
-
I had the chance to see..
...Nirvana in Belfast in 1991 (?) I think.
"I'll give it a miss guys, I'm a bit skint"
Why did I not use the credit card? Why?
yes; this kind of thing
yes; this kind of thing haunts you doesn't it...
Microdisney
played Liverpool Polytechnic Students Union in the mid eighties when I was there. About 2 weeks before I realised that the song on the jukebox that I really loved was one of theirs.. ah that's that band who played a couple of weeks back that I didn't go and see..
Subsequently got retrospectively into their music in a biig way.
Radiohead
Radiohead played at an indie night at my local community centre soon after 'Pablo Honey' came out.It's all of a quarter of a mile from my front door, but it was raining, and the week before I'd played midfield on it's dog crap strewn football pitch, and had a cold shower afterwards, so I didn't exactly have warm feelings towards the venue. Needless to say I've regretted it ever since.
The week after that, Weller played at our City Hall, didn't go to that either.
Had a chance
to see The Jam as a 16 year old on their last tour but turned it down. I don't remember why but I so wish I had.
A couple of years later me and some mates were off to see Joboxers at the Hammersmith Palais we even dressed in our DM boots, wooly hats and denim but the gig was called of on the way because the drummer was sick, it's always bugged me I'm sure it would have been a great night.
many too many
Aerosmith being no.1 (yes el hombre malo, ah ken)
the 4 piece classic Sisters, not once but 3 times pre 85 break up, Glasgow (shuttit Mr. D. Green)
Genesis pre Lamb
King Crimson 5 piece mid 70s bulldozer version
Television & Blondie, can't really mind why I didn't go apart from it being a Sunday back in't 70s
there will be more... but nothing as gutting as Dave (above) missing JoBoxers ;D
Pistols
In the mid seventies, when I was a schoolboy habitué of BJ's Records down by the library in Macclesfield, the bloke I assumed to be BJ had noticed my assiduous attention to his sparsely populated 'punk' singles box. He had acres of Northern Soul boxes, one or two heavy rock boxes and, probably, a 60's/Glam Rock discotheque-pleasing box.
One day, he handed me a stapled collection of xeroxed press reports about a group called The Sex Pistols and told me that they would be playing at the Lesser Free Trade Hall the following week. Having only been to gigs through the offices of my father's cheque book and the postal service, I rang the box office to enquire about ticket availability. The lass at the other end denied all knowledge, and thus was a band not formed.
(That came later, after seeing AC/DC at the full-on Free Trade Hall. Now, it seems, a hotel. Ho hum.)
A Macc Lad!
Me too, I used to visit BJs every Saturday. Barry was a bass player too - ex pro I think. Funnily enough I was there at the weekend looking up some old mates, and did a turn around the town. BJs long gone of course, and I was saddened to see that the Chicken Spit has just gone the way of all independent cafes too.
most recently -just last year
elbow in a rock pub in melbourne
had a clean up and (must have) thrown out the gen adm ticket -was not a good night sitting at home knowing what I was missing
The Clash
Liverpool Royal Court Theatre, Oct 81. My mate wouldn't go and I didn;t want to go on my home. I'll see them next time ...
U2
My mates at Uni had had enough of me dragging them off to see no-hope Irish bands and point blank refused to go and see another one. I thought they may have had a point and didn't go myself. Thankfully the album they were promoting sunk without a trace and they were never heard of again, were they?
and another couple I've remembered.....
My mates who I had shared a flat with in my college days invited me back to Manchester for a weekend but I put it off for a week; when I arrived the next weekend they told me I should have come last week cause a great band with a really smart female singer had been on...so I never did see Blondie. Also while in Bristol a band were playing a Friday night gig a few minutes walk from my place...so of course I walk there late...and can't get in to see a group I'd never heard of...The Jam. But maybe the best one of all; is when Paul McCartney first started off with Wings he decided to just turn up at Universities and ask to play; we used to always be in the University bar in those days and imagine my horror when I read in NME that he had turned up at Manchester, asked to play, was told No...so went off to Leeds where he got a warmer welcome!!
Pulp
Pulp at Glastonbury in 1995 surpassed even the Beach Boys at Wembley in 1975 which took some doing.