Whenever I hear the George Michael version of Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, it still sends a tingle down my spine when he says, "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Elton John!" I'm not mad keen on either artist but it's a fair bet that many of those who'd come to see the WMUBYGGH were also fans of the IGTWTCITBH. It must have been an incredible moment.

I saw Reg myself, guesting at one of Prince's O2 gigs. They did The Long and Winding Road and he looked a little lost without a piano in front of him.

I saw Chris Martin sing on Man on the Moon with R.E.M. during an Oxfam charity gig at Hammersmith Apollo. It was predictable somehow - from the moment the roadie placed an additional mic stand on the stage.

Other than that, the only other famous guest I can muster from my gig-going history is James from EMF (long after the hits had dried up) playing guitar on a couple of numbers with Carter USM (also long after the hits had dried up) at Portsmouth Guildhall.

But my favourite guest appearance was the guy who did Jarvis on Stars in Their Eyes singing with Pulp. He came on at the start of the gig and the lights were low enough for people to think they were watching Jarvis himself. Then the real Jarv came on and danced alongside him. A magical moment.

Apparently the impersonator had originally applied to be Freddie Mercury on Stars in Their Eyes before being given Jarvis to do instead - so as it was the final gig on the tour, the band backed him on Crazy Little Thing Called Love in the encore.

Come to think of it, that line-up of Pulp also featured a certain guitarist out of the Longpigs...

He brought on Eric Clapton, Chrissie Hynde and Van Morrison. Oh, and Carlos Santana.

Datarock at the Garage about 18 months ago ...

I just got goosebumps listening to the crowd's reaction to Kate Bush's appearance. In an era when excitement is often as manufactured as processed cheese (OMG! It's a special guest appearance by Florence Welch!) it's wonderful to hear the sound of people who are freaking out because something rare and special is taking place.

I saw Peter Gabriel at Earls Court the day before. I'd been revising hard for my A Levels and was in dire need of a break and some fun. The Biko hitmaker delivered a fantastic show, and I raved about it to my friend Simon who had tickets for the following night. I remember well the moment he rang me up and shouted down the phone "KATE BUSH WAS THERE!" I think I might well have uttered the word "bastard" at that point.

Sandie Shaw joining The Smiths to sing I Don't Owe You Anything. Morrissey left the stage so it was a brief glimpse of how good they might have been with a decent singer.

The only other one I can recall is Lenny Henry in a gorilla suit joining Elvis Costello for the Pump It Up encore in 83 or 84.

The Borderline... maybe 12 years back? This guy hits the stage and about two songs in Mark Knopfler joins him. All prejudice disappears as the SOSHM gives it more welly than you could ever wish for. Clapton was lurking at the back of te venue - no doubt thinking "I can do that. I can do that".

Robert Plant joined them about half way through then, for the encore, Jimmy Page shambled out of the audience. They then proceeded to lay waste to 50s rock and roll classics for a good hour.

Mind you, there was a time when it was notable when Plant didn't appear at pub gigs in Stourport/Kiddy...

Steve Earle, getting Emmylou Harris to join him onstage and Lucinda Williams bringing out Bruce Springsteen. Crowd went wild at both events.

My mate Steve was there too and, oh boy, does he like to remind me about it. I've heard about it so often it feels like I was there. Which would have been nice.

David Gilmour announced a special guest to sing the 'Roger' part in Comfortably Numb at the Festival Hall in 2002. On came Kate Bush, looking petrified and clutching a sheet of lyrics. The reaction was odd - disbelief, I think, that it was really her. As far as I know it's her only stage appearance in 25 years.

.. when I saw Gang of Four a couple of years ago, they had a female backing singer join them for a fair number of the songs. I thought she was striking looking, and at the end she said a few words into the microphone by way of thanks to the band, but I couldn't really make it out.

The next day I discovered it was Eddi Reader, and that the GO4 had been her first sojourn into professional music back in the early 80s, for the Songs Of The Free tour according to the band:

http://www.gangoffour.co.uk/2009/09/21/eddi-reader-has-an-adventure-with...

It's Texas, playing at Glastonbury. I'm not a huge fan, but I like the fact that they took their slot seriously. There's a lot of folks there who aren't there to see them, and it's the bands job to entertain them. How better, than with a nice cover version. As you can hear from the first chorus, the crowd gets into it nicely...and then, at 2 minutes, Phil Oakey shows up. I'm guessing a lot of folk wouldn't necessarily know what he looks like, and so it takes a few seconds for the ripple of recognition to filter through the crowd, and you can hear the cheers as they realise 'Christ, that's yer man, innit...'

*EDIT* pasted wrong clip first time

in my "Holy Buggering Hell" gig experience.
Just a "Blimey, I've never heard anything -remotely- like that before".

King Crimson were a bona fide sensation at the Stones in Hyde Park free concert back in 1969.

I have racked my brains for other examples but am forced to conclude that this is, in fact, the single most exciting thing that has ever happened to me at a gig.*

Alas my enthusiasm was not shared by the now Mrs Cakes, who spent the remainder of the night going "Huh - she's put on a bit of weight, hasn't she?"

* mind you Van Morrison did once bring on Lonnie Donegan.

Neil Young finishes a great set at Hyde Park in 2009 with this and look who drops in

The Hothouse Flowers, joined on stage by Tinker out of Lovejoy. Although that now sounds so weird I suspect this didn't actually happen and it's a weird false memory.

I went to see BB King and Bono and The Edge joined him for a couple of songs.

Put a bit of a dampener on the evening, truth be told.

About 4 years back I saw Robyn Hitchcock with Peter Buck on guitar at the Zodiac, Oxford. A great set was knocked out to an appreciative crowd in a smallish hall. For the encore Hitchcock is joined by Michael Stipe and Mike Mills. Yes that’s REM in a wee venue on a Sunday evening in Oxford. They play Electrolite and a couple of others. The show ends, the lights go up and we realise that this audience is predominantly male, with lots of grey or thinning hair, and barely half-filled the venue. And they’ve all got this stupid, can’t-quite-believe-it grin on their faces. Were any of the massive there?

I cannot recall an evening when some passing superstar launched him/herself on stage in front of an unsuspecting audience. Time to consult the old diaries. I did watch Wet Wet Wet from the side of stage next to Robbie Williams, but he stayed stood standing. I would have loved to have seen the Iggy tour of Unis in the dim and distant past when Bowie played keyboards in his band, but did not.

I shall have to be content with my memory of watching the 4 members of Fairport perform in Leeds in the late 1970's (when they dropped the Convention word) from the dressing room through a very large window into the hall. As the set closed the band rushed into the dressing room, dropped their trousers and a roadie set about their, er, buttocks with a marker pen. They then pressed their behinds up against the glass, shone a spotlight onto the mooning, er, cheeks (get on with it - Ed.) spelling out...

(F)(A) (I)(R) (P)(O) (R)(T)

before returning back on stage for the encore. Follow that Bangles.

seeing Aimee Mann and being very excited when she introduced the guitarist next to her as "Someone you may know...Dave Gregory from XTC".
"Whoop!" went I.
"Who?" said the couple next to me.
(Weren't Dave and Aimee an item?)

A few years ago, I went to see Dr John at the Blue Note in Tokyo which holds about 300 or so people. In the middle of the show, Eric Clapton walked through the audience and on to the stage, played one song and went to sit back down at his table. He was not touring Japan at the time so it was completely unexpected.

Not mainstream for Word, but in palmy days of youth at Cov Garden, manager appears in front of curtain before kick-off for Giselle to barely-suppressed groans (it's seldom a good sign) to announce Anthony Dowell 'indisposed' -- groans become overt -- and would be replaced by Rudolf Nureyev. What a trouper. Nothing good you ever heard about that guy was exaggerated, BTW.

Played their only UK gig in a huge field in Oxford in 2001. Played mostly stuff from the recently released Amnesiac and Kid A. Thom Yorke came on for an encore of Motion Picture Soundtrack but his keyboard "failed". The rest of the band walked on and they ended the night with this:

http://hypem.com/#!/item/192jd/Radiohead+-+Creep+Live+at+South+Park+Oxford+2001+

The ROAR of the crowd when they started playing it was like nothing I've heard. I don't even like the song but I was weeping with glee.