At the NEC this year did an apparently off-the-cuff version of 'What'd I Say' which was delightful, probably because they seemed to have as much fun playing it as we did listening to it.

"What's so funny about peace love and understanding".

Edinburgh Usher Hall 2005.

and that Marvin Gaye’s a sacred cow, but ...

(this is off Later but he played it live a lot at the time)

Tom Petty did a great version of Eddie Cochran's "Something else" back in the day.

in Dublin supporting Page & Plant on their (complete with Egyptian orchestra) 'Unledded Tour'. Big Country managed one song before their drummer threw up onto his kit and ran from the stage. Pausing only to pick up acoustic guitars the remaining three then played a 30 minute covers set the highlight of which was 'Don't Fear The Reaper'. The harmonies would have been the envy of Teenage Fanclub. They got a rapturous response - far more so than their standard set would have received I suspect.

A mention also for REM - "Teenage Kicks", Belfast 2005 - an outrageous crowd pleasing move initiated by Mike Mills, apparently spontaneously, as Stipe only knew the chorus.

has done some quite splendid cover songs over the years, including Bad Moon Rising and Ever Fallen In Love
Here she is as part of the Reel & Soul Association on ToTP2 doing Warm & Tender Love

Jenny Owen Youngs' version of Hot In Herre is also very enjoyable

Bragg playing Ronnie Lane's Debris with Mac on keyboards was genuinely touching.

on the Bends tour, encoring with Carly Simon's 'Nobody Does It Better'. Jason Falkner doing a solo 'Moonage Daydream', and the aforementioned Crowded House stumbling through 'I'm Only Sleeping'. Oh, and the Wondermints opening their Borderline gig with the Monkees' 'Porpoise Song'. All tip-top.

....Long Black Veil was given quite a good bash by David Gray.
More historically I have always enjoyed the Oysterband performing such songs as Love will Tear Us Apart and Love Vigilantes/Joy Division and Road to Nowhere/Talking Heads.
(Now when are we going to have a spot for weird and arcane covers on record? They seem way more ubiquitous than in bygone years, suggesting perhaps that the covers album is a wee bit more than just the contract filler)

... doing a country version of Champagne Supernova. Blissful.

And Lord VoldeMos doing Moon River.

At Vicar St, Dublin, July 2004 doing Springsteen's 'Racing in the Street' - superb, but never been able to find any bootleg version of it anywhere.

Fight The Power! Yes, the Public Enemy one, not the Isley Brothers. It was acoustic. It was bloody good.

Manchester last year. Strangers in the night, magnificently transformed into a Blue Nile song. I know they've played it elsewhere. Can anyone give me a source to obtain a copy?

doing Slade's 'Merry Christmas Everybody' at Wembley Arena in 1987. Robert Smith was wearing a Santa Claus outfit at the time.

Doing I Started a Joke by the Bee Gees about ten years ago at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.

Went to see Oasis a few years ago at Lancashire Cricket Ground and they played an entire set of Beatles covers.

Elvis Costello covered I still miss someone in his Costello/Naive gigs. He took the piano duties himself and sang with undoubted fondness and reverence - very moving.
recent Eels tour strangely threw up Led Zeppelins good times bad times with E playing the drums and very good it was too.

was Van Morrison (December 1990) singing 'Send In The Clowns'/'Buena Sera Senorita' as an encore. The band all wore Santa hats. Sadly Van passed on the festive millenary, which was a shame because you imagine he would really look the part dressed as Santa.

Did a crowdpleasing version of 'Still Ill' in Manchester last year, which was nice in a ramshackle sort of way.

Elvis Costello always gives good cover, often 'mashed up' with his own stuff - King Horse/Backstabbers and Watching the Detectives/Masterblaster (Jammin') for instance.

Oh, and overheard at Glastonbury last year - someone expressing surprise at John Fogerty covering an old Status Quo tune....

for Teenage Kicks, this time by the Long Ryders. They also did So You Want To Be A Rock n Roll Star.

Robyn Hitchcock frequently does Bells of Rhymney and it's always great.

Los Lobos doing Sunshine of Your Love at the T&C.

The Waterboys doing Dylan's Everything is Broken and The Beatles' Why Don't We do it in the Road? on Highbury Fields in '91.

The Divine Comedy doing Touch Me by The Doors at The Roundhouse last year, simply because The Doors played there.

Morrisey doing That's Entertainment at Wembley circa 1991.

'London Calling' at Brixton Academy.

Always played top cover versions. I remember a cracking version of Emmaline (?) by Hot Chocolate turned into a thing of genuine menace, Dancing Queen, Smoke on The Water... all turned impeccably goth. Best ever gig moment with the Sisters was at Manchester Uni when there was so much dry ice Wayne Hussey fell off the front of the stage into the crowd.

Played quite a decent version of Next To You by the Police at Birmingham Academy last Friday.

That Richard Thompson is mentioned in every thread - though I detect a backlash building - but when he did "Whoops i did it again" I could hardly believe my ears!

Surely the Bonzos did a cover version? Gilbert? Supertramp?

An oddity for sure but not completely nauseating.

was born to sing this....

used to do I Should Be So Lucky in concert? I'm sure I remember him doing it around 1989 at the Astoria, or is my mind playing tricks?

Isn't there a great Word CD in here somewhere?

I know we are nearly operating a self imposed amnesty on Richard Thompson mentions, to avoid saturation, but rather than to focus on his cover of Oops (or indeed to comment at all upon the fact that 1000 years of music is, effectively, all covers), he always used to finish his electric set encores with a sterling version of Sugar Bee, an ear worm of a tune if I have ever heard one. Better even than the Willy and the Poorboys cover of it, an excellent Bill Wyman organised medical fundraising LP for Ronnie Lane, featuring all his chums, when they were considerably more lively than, often the same crew, when appearing with the Rhythm Kings. Memorable also for a Paul Rodgers sung These Arms of Mine, which still further begs the question as to what the feck he is doing playing dross with the detritus of Queen.

They recorded it live and can be found on The Essential Heart 2CD Best Of compilation.

It's an interesting song to hear her do as I get the sense she struggles with it while Robert Plant sounds effortless. I always thought Robert Plant was the weak link in Led Zeppelin (sorry, but I usually ignore Plant and just listen to the instruments which is rare for me as I'm all about the lyrics). If anything, she sounds better performing it as the sound of her straining at the end of her vocal range makes it sound more exciting.

I collect strange musical cover versions for example Nouvelle Vague's cover versions of old punk/new wave into Brazilian sambas etc.

Senior Coconut doing Kraftwerk numbers in a latino style are just brilliant.

Some of my favourite cover versions "live" are the Oysterband doing "Love Vigilantes" (New Order) or "Road To Nowhere" (Talking Heads).

I love the Ukulele Orchestra of GB doing great folk tunes i.e. "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Silver Machine", "Life On Mars" etc.

Hayseed Dixie too when they do blue grass versions of rock tunes.

One that sticks in the mind is John Otway doing The Osmonds' 'Crazy Horses'. I suspect he has made a few ex-teenyboppers feel their age.
As for the best I remember Graham Parker and the Rumour doing a terrific version of 'I Want You Back' at Hammersmith in 1979.
Is there a disturbing pattern here?

When he toured recently (ish) he did The Special's "(Your Girlfriend is)What I Like Most About You". As he was backed by a couple of live horn players, it sounded pretty magical to these ears..
I've seen Jellyfish do a wicked version of "I can hear the grass grow" live and Dodgy a wonderful "The Kids are alright" at Middlesbrough Town Hall in 92(?)Half Man Half Biscuit also throw a goody into their sets as I've seen them do "I think we're alone now" and "Container Drivers" at different gigs.

Aztec Camera did a brilliant acoustic cover of Jump by Van Halen. One of those songs that you're familiar with the verse, but can't place it cos it's out of context. When it gets to the chorus, you can't help smiling

Went to see these a good few years back at Manchester. They had on Gail Ann Dorsey (the bass playing skinhead - anyone remember her?) as a special guest and together they performed 'Midnight Train To Georgia'. Bloody hell, talk about hairs on the nape of your neck standing up! It didn't hurt that they had some absolutely first class musicians in the band either. Best live cover i've ever heard by a mile!

Telstar and Venus in Furs ! You vaguely recognise the tune but it takes a while to kick in because the instruments being played are so different.

Ian McNabb - so many, hard to pick one, but Man of Constant Sorrow, complete with he and band wearing beards (a la soggy bottom boys) was great.

always kicks off live versions of Motown Junk with a corking cover....Go Your Own Way and Sweet Child o Mine to name but a couple.

Jesse Malin turns out a crowd pleasing version of Helpless at his live shows and gets everyone sitting on the floor. Made a mistake in doing this at the Camden Electric Ballroom where 35 years of beer blood, record fairs and sweat lent a nice velcro quality to the floor.

It wasn't at a gig per se, but I once saw Aussie comedy group The Doug Anthony All-Stars cover I Heard It Through The Grapevine a capella on a TV show, and it was absolutely beautiful. The audience were spellbound throughout, as was I.

I may be the only person in the world to think this, and few people have ever heard of TDAAS, but I say it beat the original. *Goes away quietly to hide before the men in white coats come*

This wasn't the lovely, slow version I remember, but here's a bit from the boys:

Took a little while to recognise it what with various noodling at the start, but Cyndie Lauper's Time After Time - I think it's appeared on record since.

did a great cover of Sunny with Mark Ronson.
I also saw Neil Diamond doin a cover of Golden Slumbers.It shouldn't work, but it did.

1. Scottish rockers Gun ending their set with Prince's Let's Go Crazy in the Astoria back in 1989

2. Manic Street Preachers (alright just James Dean Bradfield) playing BJ Thomas' Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head when touring the Holy Bible back in 1994

3. Queen playing Big Spender as the opening part of their live medley between 1973 and 1977.

4. NIN playing Joy Division's Submission at the Reading Festival last year.

Yes - someone else remembers them ! Fantastic - never got to see them live but have a couople fo hard to find videos and some performances from things like Friday night Live etc. On one of the videoed shows they do a cover of a Hunters and Collectors song called 'throw your arms around me' and the audience are silent. They had really fantastic voices and could obviously do the comedy and straight stuff. Just found it !
http://uk.

Yes they did as far as i know, one brilliant album, a mix of comedy, punk and some georgian monk stuff. Cant remember the name of it but have seen it on mininova, if youre into that kinda thing...err..

I'm not sure it was the best, but certainly the funniest thing I've ever seen at a gig.