Odd/unusual support acts you have seen

scrumhalf

I saw The Photos supported by some weird bunch called U2. Whatever became of them?

HAL9000

ICBM said:

Reverend said:

HAL9000 said:

Jonathangus said:

Chicks on Speed supporting RHCP at Hyde Park.  Dear Lord...

Probably the worst act I’ve ever had the misfortune to see.

Chicks on speed or RHCP?

Having once owned the RHCP Live In Hyde Park album, quite possibly both.

Good grief - they actually released an album of that? Certainly wasn't one of the best performances I've ever seen.

ICBM

HAL9000 said:

Good grief - they actually released an album of that? Certainly wasn't one of the best performances I've ever seen.

Yes. Even with the live atmosphere probably making up for some of the shortcomings of the actual performance and sound on the recording, I don't doubt you.

yorkio

scrumhalf said:

Back in the early 80s I saw The Fall at the Marquee. The support band were what seemed like a bar band fronted by someone so camp he made Julian Clary look like Schwazenegger. I'm sue I saw him in a Mike Leigh play on telly a short while later.

I think he referred to the band as Alan & The Choirboys, but the intervening years and the night's beer may prove that to be unreliable.

I’d wager that was I Scream Pleasures, fronted by genderfluid singer/actor/artist Lanah P (Eat the Rich/loads of other Comic Strip stuff), who I think was going by Alan Pellay at that time. 

bloodandtears

Kool and the gang supporting Van Halen.. it worked bizarrely.

Also remember some upstart in a leotard shredding and screeching vocals supporting Def Leppard... The darkness before they were famous. 

scrumhalf

yorkio said:

scrumhalf said:

Back in the early 80s I saw The Fall at the Marquee. The support band were what seemed like a bar band fronted by someone so camp he made Julian Clary look like Schwazenegger. I'm sue I saw him in a Mike Leigh play on telly a short while later.

I think he referred to the band as Alan & The Choirboys, but the intervening years and the night's beer may prove that to be unreliable.

I’d wager that was I Scream Pleasures, fronted by genderfluid singer/actor/artist Lanah P (Eat the Rich/loads of other Comic Strip stuff), who I think was going by Alan Pellay at that time. 

I definitely remember the name "Alan".

Have a wis for your undoubted wisdom.

exocet

1983, Crystal Palace, Thompson Twins, The Undertones (last ever performance on mainland).....supporting Peter Gabriel.

olafgarten

When I went to see Jack White in London, the opener was 'Shirt' the new rapper signed to his label.

I'm not a huge fan of rap but appreciate it when it's good, this wasnt... 

He actually got booed by the audience but continued his set. 

racefaceec90

maybe not strange as such but i saw public service broadcasting supporting the manics. had never heard of them before (psb not the manics) they were awesome psb as well as the manics

NickL

The Streets supporting Muse at Wembley was a bit of an odd choice, and didn't do much to convince me that rap works in a half-empty stadium in the afternoon, particularly when the crowd is more into fuzz guitar solos.

shoodurs

Saw Genesis playing at Hampden Park in Glasgow. For some reason someone thought it a good idea to book Paul Young as support, man he was booed to bits big time!! Great gig though.

pintspiller

The support act to Supersuckers when I saw them were Nashville Pussy. I still have no idea if they were taking themselves seriously or whether it was tongue in cheek escapism.

ICBM

pintspiller said:

The support act to Supersuckers when I saw them were Nashville Pussy. I still have no idea if they were taking themselves seriously or whether it was tongue in cheek escapism.

I’ve seen them too, and I think it’s a bit of both. 

dogload

I saw Frank Sidebottom supporting Here & Now in Manchester one time in the 1980s. Brilliant!
Must have been the perfect headfuck for those tripping in the audience.

stickyfiddle

Philly_Q said:

thecolourbox said:

I saw a band called Do Me Bad Things supporting the Datsuns back in the mid 00s, which if I recall correctly resembled three kind of bags you'd form from a doctor's waiting room, fronted by a Hitler/Charlie Chaplin lookalike.

In fact, a quick Google search has found me loads of videos, including this




Google describes them as a  nine-piece blues/rock/soul/metal band 

They were ace! But mad as a box of frogs

A friend of mine went to see them and told me they were amazing, so I bought their album.

It must have worked better live than on record.

If it helps, I aso saw them, supporting The Darkness at the NEC. They were bloody awful then too.

stickyfiddle

I once saw Razorlight in Alexandra Palace (godawful if beautiful venue, that..) - the supports were John Spencer Blues Explosion (ok enough), the bassist from the Libertines' solo thing (rubbish but mates with Razorlight or whatever) but also Noel Fielding in full Mighty Boosh "The Hitcher" character, green paint, massive thumb and all.

Quite entertaining. VERY strange.

earwighoney

I can't remember the name of the performer but it was a support act to Gang Gang Dance at a venue in Kilburn, which is now long gone.  The performer in question had a microphone and a looping pedal and made sounds like he was either shitting himself or crying for 20 minutes.  There was also a support act who's performance involved playing 80's pop 45 records at 33 speed, including a very slow Wake Me Up by Wham. 

A close second was Haswell & Hacker who supported Sunn O))) at a venue in Leicester Square, which is normally a nightclub for tourists, a few tourists had randomly strayed in and were perplexed by the music. 

jdgm

Blurt; a band who supported the reformed King Crimson in 1980.  Utter sh*te.

This century I saw the Master Musicians of Joujouka, supporting Ornette Coleman at one of his South Bank concerts.

Snags

Sona Fariq supporting The Sisters of Mercy at the forum around 2000-ish. I can only assume they were booked by someone who was hanging on to what seemed like the normal practice from my youth, when the support act should ideally be as wildly inappropriate for the main act as possible. Certainly a lot of very befuddled goths wondering WTF the Asian  punk-rap thing was that was happening in front of them.

The Subways supporting AC/DC at Wembley. I really wanted to like them (they're local, and I quite like a couple of their songs) but the frontman just came across as an enormous cock, alienated the audience, and lost most of the momentum that the previous support (no idea what they were called, but classic throwback 80s metal with a frontman who could really work the crowd) has created. Mr Subways seemed to think people had actually come to see him, not AC/DC ...

Arguably the most amusing in a nice way was a bill a few years ago, where Theory of a Deadman and Shinedown were supporting Black Stone Cherry. Brent Smith did such a good job of his charismatic tent revival crowd management thing that by the time BSC came on it felt like they were the come-down band, not the headliners. Good night, that one.

freakboy1610

I saw Asian politico rappers Fun Da Mental supporting The Cult in the 90s. I suspect Ian Astbury was the only one who was into them. I saw Deacon Blue supporting The Long Ryders before they were famous. The most unusual support band I saw was The Cardiacs who were.........err....disturbing!