Biggest Gig Regret

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, bielesibub said:

Biggest regret definitely going to see Siouxsie and the Banshees at the Portsmouth Guildhall, '95. From what I remember the crowd kept calling for some golden oldie tunes, Siouxsie got stroppy stopped mid tune, yelled at the crowd "this is our new music, you best get used to it or leave'. Most of the crowd either left or moved to the back of the venue.

Oh, I quite like gigs like that. Genesis (and their fans) still talk about when they got booed off at Leeds University in 1972. Peter Gabriel was in his long dress and fox's head, and drew such a level of pisstaking he flounced off in tears. clearing in the woods. 

[theboyangel]

Just now, mjmooney said:

Oh, I quite like gigs like that. Genesis (and their fans) still talk about when they got booed off at Leeds University in 1972. Peter Gabriel was in his long dress and fox's head, and drew such a level of pisstaking he flounced off in tears. clearing in the woods. 

But if that never happened, Phil Collins could’ve remained behind the drums and prevented much musical misery

[maqroll]

The Kinks 

Van Halen (Roth era)

Prince

David Bowie

The Cars

[Pongo's Socks]

Waited all day to see Oasis headline at V Festival (not really my cup of tea, I'm more into heavy stuff, but would love to say I've seen em). Got absolutely trollied and passed out just as they were coming on. Mates woke me up when they'd finished

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, maqroll said:

The Kinks

Seen 'em, they were great. 

Welcome back, btw! 

[il_serpente]

43 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Seen 'em, they were great. 

Welcome back, btw! 

Me, too.   1980, I think.   General Admission and I made it up front and got one of Ray's guitar picks at the end.    Great show.

[il_serpente]

Elliott Smith at the Warfield in SF in 2000, touring on Figure 8, when I'd just stumbled onto his music.   Tried to convince a friend to go and he didn't want to and I though, "OK, I'll see him next time he comes around."  Never made it back to SF that I'm aware of, as he kind of went off the rails shortly after.

[chrisp65]

Early 1990’s I regret agreeing to go to a Beverly Craven concert.

Didn’t like the music, but had to go. It was a seated gig which is never a good sign of a lively night ahead.

Ms Craven walked on stage, sat the other side of a grand piano so 50% of the audience, including us, got to pay money to look at a piano lid for an hour.

Every seat had a goody bag. The bag contained some panty liner samples and a leaflet on toxic shock syndrome.

 

If I hadn’t gone to see Brian May, Beverly Craven would have been my biggest regret of having been to a gig.

[sidcow]

4 hours ago, bielesibub said:

Biggest regret definitely going to see Siouxsie and the Banshees at the Portsmouth Guildhall, '95. From what I remember the crowd kept calling for some golden oldie tunes, Siouxsie got stroppy stopped mid tune, yelled at the crowd "this is our new music, you best get used to it or leave'. Most of the crowd either left or moved to the back of the venue.

I went to see Debbie Harry and she got really angry when the crowd started calling for Blondie songs. Said it was clearly advertised as a Debbie Harry concert.  In the end she did a couple. 

I have sympathy for that, she's trying to make her own way and not hang onto the coat tails of Blondie, and it was indeed advertised as a Debbie Harry gig.

I'd feel less sympathy for an existing act refusing to play their classics.  If the people hadn't invested their interest and money in your music you would still be playing a local pub, if at all.  Need to respect your fans who got you where you are I think. 

Then I'm not at all artistic so my brain probably thinks differently to creative musician types.  Just seem up their arse and ungrateful to me.  Hey ho. 

I once got criticised on here for suggesting George R R Martin should get on with finishing A Song Of Ice and Fire.  I think the response was "He's nobody's bitch.". I disagree, it's fans who have enormous personal investment in those books and have spent large sums on money in buying them which have made him an extremely wealthy man.   He would just be another wannabe writer without them and I my mind has an absolute duty to finish the series. 

A bit off topic but it's a similar thing to me. 

Edited February 22, 2022 by sidcow

[Risso]

On 21/02/2022 at 12:10, OutByEaster? said:

Left a gig at the Barrel Organ in Digbeth before the main act came on because I'd wanted to see the support. I can't remember if it was The Sultans of Ping or The Frank and Walters I'd gone for. My mates band had played during the day so we'd had a bit of  a long one in fairness - turns out the main act were Radiohead

Also missed seeing Oasis in a pub in Derby because I'd fallen out with my girlfriend at the time.

 

 

 

It was the Frank and Walters. I was there for that one too, and also left before the main act. I'd do the same tomorrow to be honest!

[Only2McInallys]

8 hours ago, bickster said:

My biggest Bowie regret

Having to endure the entire set and encore of Tin Machine at the Royal Court in Liverpool. What complete and utter turgid bollocks

Bowie announcing a song and then going 1-2-3-4. You really expect us to believe your band needs counting in?

A special mention for Bowie absolutely murdering Debaser by The Pixies

I was doing security on the mixing desk, the one security position where you can't hide behind a door or move out of the auditorium for a bit of respite

God it was awful

I have seen Bowie many times through the years but  Tin Machine was a test of loyalty I think. I saw Tin Machine in 1989 at National Kilburn which although the music was a bit crap was a brilliant concert.When Tin Machine toured again in 1991 at Brixton and that certainly rates as one of the worst gigs I have been to.

My main gig regret was missing out on seeing the Stones when they played Brixton Academy in 1992ish.I have never been tempted to see them at the huge venues they normally play.

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

I'd feel less sympathy for an existing act refusing to play their classics.  If the people hadn't invested their interest and money in your music you would still be playing a local pub, if at all.  Need to respect your fans who got you where you are I think. 

Topically, on the day that Gary Brooker died, I once saw Procol Harum, and they point blank refused to play 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'. And not long after that, Mungo Jerry - didn't play 'In the Summertime'. Although Ray Dorset did keep teasing the audience by playing the first few notes of the intro, getting a cheer, and then going "Nah...". 

(Having said that, both of those gigs were actually really good). 

Edited February 22, 2022 by mjmooney

[bickster]

1 hour ago, Only2McInallys said:

I have seen Bowie many times through the years but  Tin Machine was a test of loyalty I think. I saw Tin Machine in 1989 at National Kilburn which although the music was a bit crap was a brilliant concert.When Tin Machine toured again in 1991 at Brixton and that certainly rates as one of the worst gigs I have been to.

My main gig regret was missing out on seeing the Stones when they played Brixton Academy in 1992ish.I have never been tempted to see them at the huge venues they normally play.

Not seen him many times and I only really like the classic period pre-Scary Monsters but I was still keen to see it whilst working. Utterly awful, it really was

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Mark Lanegan played Aberdeen a few times over recent years...wished I'd gone now. My friend who is a massive fan met him on a few occasions and said he was an utterly super-sound human being.

I'd never been a massive fan but always liked what I'd heard since the Screaming Trees, his solo work and QOTSA.

R.I.P man had some demons.

[bickster]

2 hours ago, sidcow said:

I'd feel less sympathy for an existing act refusing to play their classics.  If the people hadn't invested their interest and money in your music you would still be playing a local pub, if at all.  Need to respect your fans who got you where you are I think. 

Nope, this is quite wrong

Most tours are advertised as something, people know what they are going to see.

It's like complaining that your favourite artists next painting isn't like the last one and he should paint the last one again

I have no idea why people go to gigs and shout out the names of songs they want to hear. The set list is written in advance, even the encores usually. People shouting for a song isn't going to change that

Take that Debbie Harry example, she'll have been playing with a band of session musicians, they'll have rehearsed a set number of songs, they won't know anything else. The lighting engineer will need to have researsed the light routines for each song, the two sound engineers will need to know the songs too so they can balance the sound. The backline guys will need to know the songs to make sure the right instruments are ready if changes or spares are needed. The band don't just turn up and play and it all happens like magic.

It's very rare bands will be able to do justice to songs called out on the fly like that

The closest I ever saw to stuff like that was Elvis Costello doing his big wheel tour, after every song a member of the audience would be invited on stage to spin the wheel and they'd play the song it landed on next but even then it was a set pool of songs to choose from. Bowie did a tour once where the fans chose the songs by voting before the tour started and NME attempted to hijack it by getting readers to vote for the Laughing Gnome, it worked, the song had the most votes, they still didn't play it but again, it was still all rehearsed before the tour

[Only2McInallys]

53 minutes ago, bickster said:

Not seen him many times and I only really like the classic period pre-Scary Monsters but I was still keen to see it whilst working. Utterly awful, it really was

Yes artistically most stuff after Scary Monsters was poor.

The atrocious Tin Machine concert I saw was one of few timeswhen I felt the audience didn’t want to be there,the people working at the venue didn’t want to be there and the artist felt the same

But as a performer he could be brilliant.The best concert I saw of his was when he played the whole of Low at Royal Festival Hall,I couldn’t get tickets normally but saw a competition in a magazine and managed to win them.

[cyrusr]

1 hour ago, bickster said:

Nope, this is quite wrong

Most tours are advertised as something, people know what they are going to see.

It's like complaining that your favourite artists next painting isn't like the last one and he should paint the last one again

I have no idea why people go to gigs and shout out the names of songs they want to hear. The set list is written in advance, even the encores usually. People shouting for a song isn't going to change that

Take that Debbie Harry example, she'll have been playing with a band of session musicians, they'll have rehearsed a set number of songs, they won't know anything else. The lighting engineer will need to have researsed the light routines for each song, the two sound engineers will need to know the songs too so they can balance the sound. The backline guys will need to know the songs to make sure the right instruments are ready if changes or spares are needed. The band don't just turn up and play and it all happens like magic.

It's very rare bands will be able to do justice to songs called out on the fly like that

The closest I ever saw to stuff like that was Elvis Costello doing his big wheel tour, after every song a member of the audience would be invited on stage to spin the wheel and they'd play the song it landed on next but even then it was a set pool of songs to choose from. Bowie did a tour once where the fans chose the songs by voting before the tour started and NME attempted to hijack it by getting readers to vote for the Laughing Gnome, it worked, the song had the most votes, they still didn't play it but again, it was still all rehearsed before the tour

The closest I think you get to “no set list” is probably bands like Clutch or Metallica who generally have a set rotation of songs of like 20 songs for the tour and pick from them like 14/15 or whatever to play. 

I remember seeing Sabaton do a “request” show but then they would give the audience a choice of 2 songs. Always pre determined sets. 

[mjmooney]

Springsteen does requests. But his band has a huge repertoire of rehearsed material, and he obviously selects the ones they know. 

The nearest you'll get to true unrehearsed spontaneity is from a solo acoustic performer. 

[mjmooney]

When we saw Neil Young at Leeds Arena, my missus shouted out a request for 'Like a Hurricane'. But it was in the part of the set where he was using the Gretsch guitar, rather than the 'Old Black' Les Paul. He said "Oh, I can't do Like a Hurricane on this guitar" (I could have told her that). "Maybe later". 

He never did play it. 

Edited February 23, 2022 by mjmooney

[chrisp65]

Went to see Gruf in a one man show and part of that was ‘improv’ with loops and multiple instruments.

He asked the audience to shout out some words he could use as lyrics, someone quite drunk clearly shouted ‘stop **** about and play some proper songs’.

 

Sure enough, on the hoof, he made up a really good catchy tune, entitled, Stop **** About And Play Some Proper Songs.