Famous Artists You Have Played With Or Supported

monkey42

A few down the years

Wurzels
Marmalade
Justin Heywood (Moody Blues)
The Commitments
Sam brown
Mike D’abo (Manfred Mann)
Shane Richie

All great experiences but Justin H was the consummate professional out off all of them

good times..i miss gigging

Jason

designerseye88 said:

I had a one to one guitar lesson with Steve Howe from YES back at the NEC Guitar show in 2003. It was pretty quiet that year as i think the rugby world cup final was the same day. He was a really nice guy and got a few things signed. I was only 15 at the time and didn't really know much about him but my dad was pleased.  

Yes, the Friday and Saturday were packed and I had to hire in a massive screen at a ridiculous cost. 

Steve was bought in by Roland and was great all weekend 

mudslide73

Jason said:

designerseye88 said:

I had a one to one guitar lesson with Steve Howe from YES back at the NEC Guitar show in 2003. It was pretty quiet that year as i think the rugby world cup final was the same day. He was a really nice guy and got a few things signed. I was only 15 at the time and didn't really know much about him but my dad was pleased.  

Yes, the Friday and Saturday were packed and I had to hire in a massive screen at a ridiculous cost. 

Steve was bought in by Roland and was great all weekend 

I was there that year also.. bumped into Steve in between the booths when he arrived with his carrier bags. @designerseye88 you mustn't have been that far away from us. 

mike257

Back in my "wannabe rockstar" days, I supported Sikth, Bring Me The Horizon, Enter Shikari, Architects and a few others of questionable renown. 

Techy/tour manager now so it's a big chunk of my working year (or would be normally, at least - cheers for nothing, COVID!) so I have to pretend not to be excited about it all these days. I did have a brief fanboy moment when I bumped in to James Dean Bradfield of the Manics though, had to tell him that Design For Life was one of the first three songs 14 year old me ever played to an audience, when the music teacher let us play before the school Christmas show

p90fool

ICBM said:

Stuckfast said:

My band once got accidentally booked to support Thom Yorke's brother's band. They were a bit up themselves.

That may be a characteristic of bands one degree removed from real stars.

Some time ago we supported Isa And The Filthy Tongues, composed of three ex-Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie members and a new singer who isn't Shirley Manson... they were massively up themselves too.

That was my experience too, when supporting Chris Jagger. His band were ace, he was an absolute arse.

It can be true of has-beens too, like when I supported Wishbone Ash as half of an acoustic originals duo, they were miserable snobs who even stole our food.

We had the last laugh though, we played to a full-size Wishbone Ash audience who were very appreciative, but when they came on the crowd started drifting away because they were so boring. It was half empty by the end. 

west

skaguitar said:

I sometimes get asked to step in for the rhythm guitarist in a band called The Dualers... supported UB40 ( the Robin and Duncan version ) a couple of years ago at Garon Park in Southend..biggest crowd I’ve played for..think there was around 6000 people there...ska band I was in also supported Neville Staples from The Specials ..  

Recorded a single ( vinyl ) in ub40s dep studio , we were upstairs and downstairs was terry hall and rankin roger recording funboy 3 stuff ... i think they were signed to virgin anyway i was sitting in the day room with a curled up sarnie and the table was groaning with their rider which was extensive and they never even offered me a sausage the stingy barstards ...

lustycourtier

delorean said:

My band were managed by spoon-interferer Uri Geller, and in 2002 we were personally invited by Geller and his best chum Michael Jackson to open an event at Exeter Stadium (St James Park) for Jacko himself.

Playing onstage to a capacity stadium audience was an experience in itself,  let alone doing so for probably one of the most well-known entertainers on the planet.  Mind blowing stuff for a (fairly) mild-mannered 22 year old lad!

It was a very cool day, and a *very* interesting night! 

That's all I have to say about that.

He probably heard ‘20 2 year olds’ 

ESBlonde

monkey42 said:

A few down the years

Wurzels
Marmalade
Justin Heywood (Moody Blues)
The Commitments
Sam brown
Mike D’abo (Manfred Mann)
Shane Richie

All great experiences but Justin H was the consummate professional out off all of them

good times..i miss gigging

I saw Justin Hayward at the end of 2019 iirc, I agree his performance was slick and performed as a consumate professional. Very enjoyable too.

lasermonkey

My band supported The Cranberries when they played Bedford Esquires, just after Linger came out.

ManWithoutSkin

I played in a signed band for ten years throughout my twenties.  Not including festivals, here's some of the bands we were lucky enough to support

Funeral For A Friend
Billy Tallent
Avenged Sevenfold
Lostprophets
My Chemical Romance
Linkin Park
Limp Bizkit
Paramore
Blink 182
You Me at Six

There's loads more, those are just some of the bigger names.  

Alexlotl

I did about two rehearsals as the singer for Editors frontman Tom Smith's first band, back in sixth form, with him on lead guitar and my friend Sam on bass. Then he booted me out because he wanted to do the vocals himself, which in retrospect is fair enough, although I was a bit bitter about it at the time.

I was (and remain) too much of a dilettante to have got anywhere, while he was laser focused on making it big from about the age of 17.

Clarky

touring and recording in the same band as:
David Cross [played for King Crimson / David Cross Band]
David Jackson [played for Van Der Graaf Generator / DC Band]
Craig Blundell [played for DC Band / Stephen Wilson / Frost / Steve Hackett / Pendragon]
Joe Crabtree [played for DC Band / Wishbone Ash]
Steve Tilling [TC&I / EXTC / Circu5]

recorded with / on the same album as
Robert Fripp [King Crimson]
John Wetton [King Crimson / Asia]
Matt Bissionette [Elton John / Satch / too many to name really cos he's an awesome session player]
Peter Hammill [Van Der Graff Generator]

we supported or on the same day / stage at a festival
Yes [Wakeman, Anderson, Rabbin]
Steve Hackett
Pendragon
Mike Portnoy's band
Focus
Omega
Ray Wilson Band [the former Genesis singer]
Flower Kings [they supported us in Germany]
Uriah Heep
Hawkwind
PFM
Frost
Spock's Beard
Haken
Neil Morse Band

I'm sure there are a few others but my brain is refusing to cooperate right now.. lol

sticker

delorean said:

My band were managed by spoon-interferer Uri Geller, and in 2002 we were personally invited by Geller and his best chum Michael Jackson to open an event at Exeter Stadium (St James Park) for Jacko himself.

Playing onstage to a capacity stadium audience was an experience in itself,  let alone doing so for probably one of the most well-known entertainers on the planet.  Mind blowing stuff for a (fairly) mild-mannered 22 year old lad!

It was a very cool day, and a *very* interesting night! 

That's all I have to say about that.

That was a fantastic weekend mate , well from what I remember of it ! 

Stuckfast

hollywoodrox said:I was once in a mental asylum in 1981  I was eating a packet of sweets  when a guy who looked like billy currie sidled up to me and said can I have one of them”  I said “sure mate “ and let him have a sweet . We lived a bit up the road from there in a newsagents and used to go there when my dad went to flog papers and sweets to staff and patients, it was a really cool place .

it was called Fairfield hospital in Arlesey off the A1 in herts/beds . It’s all been turned into private flats and housing estate now ,very sad as some of the people who would have been in such a facility nowadays will be living on the streets 

Blimey, @hollywoodrox ;  I think I've been there... a big Victorian gaff? If so I once played a cricket match right in front of it. At the time it was disused and derelict and looked really bloody creepy, even on a hot summer's day.

CMW335

Enjoying these replies, some impressive names in here thought there might have been some more juicy content in terms of behaviour.... might need to make shit up!! 

hollywoodrox

Stuckfast said:

hollywoodrox said:I was once in a mental asylum in 1981  I was eating a packet of sweets  when a guy who looked like billy currie sidled up to me and said can I have one of them”  I said “sure mate “ and let him have a sweet . We lived a bit up the road from there in a newsagents and used to go there when my dad went to flog papers and sweets to staff and patients, it was a really cool place .

it was called Fairfield hospital in Arlesey off the A1 in herts/beds . It’s all been turned into private flats and housing estate now ,very sad as some of the people who would have been in such a facility nowadays will be living on the streets 

Blimey, @hollywoodrox ;  I think I've been there... a big Victorian gaff? If so I once played a cricket match right in front of it. At the time it was disused and derelict and looked really bloody creepy, even on a hot summer's day.

Yes it was quite gothic architecture , was nice when it was open , had the black squirrels in the grounds,first time I had seen them , there is a colony in letchworth too and various places .

used to be a cool place to hang out instead of going to school lol 

Trude

I took this from the wings of the Victorious festival main stage last year, as my support act Ziggy Marley got the crowd warmed up!



Yeah, I know - I found it weird too.  Quite often they'll drop a big name quite early on to pull the crowds in, and we as a tribute act ended up going on after him.  

We've played that stage a few times now.  Quite funny setting your gear up next to the likes of Stereophonics, New Order etc. 

EricTheWeary

Trude said:

I took this from the wings of the Victorious festival main stage last year, as my support act Ziggy Marley got the crowd warmed up!



Yeah, I know - I found it weird too.  Quite often they'll drop a big name quite early on to pull the crowds in, and we as a tribute act ended up going on after him.  

We've played that stage a few times now.  Quite funny setting your gear up next to the likes of Stereophonics, New Order etc. 

I’ve gotten in to Ziggy a bit lately. Of course his classic tune is ...

https://youtu.be/b53WaK71sMM

Trude

I've supported a few luminaries of the folk world like Nick Harper, Seth Lakeman, Karine Polwart etc.

I remember coming off stage at a folk festival and almost bumping into Martin Carthy - he was just walking about with his guitar behind the curtain getting ready for his set.  Nice chap.

BintyTwanger77

The ska/2Tone covers band I'm in was on the same festival bill as The Selector...

and an ELO tribute band...

...which sounds way more glamorous than it was, but had a huge amount of fun.