Which gig do you wish you could have attended by a band around in your lifetime?

Schmo

Mr Mister & John Waite at the old Wardour Street Marquee, any Jellyfish UK show, Steve Perry FTLOSM Tour, DLR Eat 'Em Tour, any Van Halen 78-84 show, Jack Bruce with Saraceno, Donington 84...

the_jaffa

The Stone Roses at the Blackpool Empress Ballroom in August 89. That was pretty much their pinnacle for me. I've "seen" the gig (well most of it) hundreds of times as it is the one that was released on VHS and DVD but to have been there would have been ace. I did go and see the Clone Roses play their tribute at the same venue on the 30th anniversary in 2019 but it wasn't quite the same.

ICBM

rlw said:

Rolling Stones in Hyde Park - I couldn't be arsed...................

A chap I used to work with was there. Couldn't see or hear a thing, apparently.

scrumhalf

rlw said:

Rolling Stones in Hyde Park - I couldn't be arsed...................

You must have seen the video, it looks like they weren't overly bothered ether. Didn't Mick Taylor say he was shocked at how poor they were playing live?

Haych

Would have to be Dire Straits for me, on either the Love Over Gold or Brothers In Arms tour. 

Almost got the chance to see them at the Sheffield Arena on the OES tour.  We were staying with relatives who lived in the Sheffield area who did go to the show but mum wouldn't let me as the show was on Sunday September 1st and we had to drive back to South Wales so I could attend first day of the new school term the next day.

As it happened, school didn't start until the Tuesday so I could have gone to the show after all!

It's not something I could never forgive my mother for doing but it's definitely one of those what-if moments in life.

Whitecat

I was too young to go but when I was a kid The Police played a show in my hometown with XTC as the support band. Would love to have seen that.

Grangousier

Robert Fripp's League of Gentlemen is one band I'd love to have seen - there's only that one clip of them playing (at Futurama in Leeds) - and the only gig they played near me was too far out of the way. 

It would have been nice to see Bowie at least once. 

And I'd like to have seen Cardiacs in their eighties, totally mad, incarnation with make-up, and confetti and the Consultant and his secretary. 

DiscoStu

Queen, anywhere in the 80s. I was obsessed with them when I was growing up and watched the Live Aid and Wembley gigs repeatedly on video.

And... Rage Against The Machine at the Barrowlands '93. Supported by Tool!

Reverend

MagicPigDetective said:

Nirvana, Reading 92. I just missed out on this, I was at all the Reading fests between 93 and 96. I also had a ticket to see Nirvana at B’ham, one of the never happened final tour gigs. Seeing them would have been massive for me. 

I was there but we left after a song or two. By all accounts from Nirvana fans I know it was an off night for them. A lot of the main stage bill was killer though. Melvins, Beastie Boys, Nick Cave, L7, Mudhoney and of course, Bjorn Again

Reverend

Philly_Q said:

Reverend said:

Philly_Q said:

Reverend said:

Re: Nirvana in 1991. They played Kilburn Ballroom, but all the cool kids were at The Marquee that night instead. 

Who was playing the Marquee that night?

It was Carcass and Cathedral 

I definitely wasn't at that one!  I thought it might have been Corrosion of Conformity, I definitely saw them at the Marquee in 1991.

I was there for that as well. Still got a sticker from that gig

Jalapeno

not_the_dj said:

Tom Petty. 

Thought about going to the Hyde Park gig in 2017 but decided it’d be too much hassle to go ;-)

Boy do I regret that. 

Yep, I had tickets, for the Golden Circle no less !!!!!!  I'd put a band together for a Birthday party gig that clashed, thought I'd got out of it, but the missus insisted <sigh>

Just glad I saw them at the Royal Albert Hall a year or so before - they were stunning !

Also where missus is concerned, had to go a watch a really insipid set by Bryan Ferry (only did a couple of Roxy Music numbers, and they were ballads )  rather than bounce along to Metallica at Glastonbury

Too young to have seen The Beatles, seen The Stones a couple of times, and Gabriel/Hackett era Genesis.

One that I feel really hacked off by is that I never saw Led Zeppelin   (I have seen Planty a couple of times though)

PhilKing

I've seem most of the ones people are putting down here, including the League of Gentlemen at Studio 57 in Manhattan.  I walked into Debbie Harry and knocked her over, as I wasn't really looking where I was going.  I went to help her up and was stopped by a couple of her bouncers!   I saw Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Dire Straits at Bradford Uni before they did their first UK tour (we also turned down the opening band slot that night, never having heard of them and being offered top slot on the Saturday night).  The one show that I am still sorry that I missed was the Isle Of Wight festival with Jimi Hendrix.  I was supposed to go with a friend and when he dropped out, I didn't go, thinking that I would catch Hendrix on his next tour.  Of course that never happened.  The shows that I wish I could have seen were some that my old girlfriend's father saw when he was at LSE, it was Rory Gallagher playing a residency at the Marquee and lots of great musicians would step up after hours.  It helped that his wife was Donal Gallagher's wife's best friend, I guess.

joneve

Off the top of my head;

Alice in Chains at their peak. 

So fortunate to have got to see Rush at the Gorge in Washington State when I lived over in the US. Absolutely incredible experience 

Neill

Whitecat said:

I was too young to go but when I was a kid The Police played a show in my hometown with XTC as the support band. Would love to have seen that.

I saw XTC back in the 70's and they were awful.  Some years later I read an interview with Andy Partridge during which he explained how they hated playing live.   

Haych

Roxette were another band I would like to have seen live too.

Despite their radio friendly sound they were a pretty good band and live footage I've seen and heard usually has them playing heavier versions of their songs, and always works really well.  

I reckon it would have been a really good gig.

Stuckfast

I'd love to have seen the Faces. John Peel said they were the best live band he ever saw.

Also the original Big Star line-up. 

Nitefly

rlw said:

Rolling Stones in Hyde Park - I couldn't be arsed...................

LOL, I tried to get to that.  I lived in Leicester at the time and hitched down to London (remember hitch-hiking?). 

Unfortunately I got a lift in the slowest, noisiest lorry in the universe.  By the time we got to London I was physically sick from the noise of it. 

Faced with the prospect of getting to Hyde Park, I bottled it, and just went back to Hendon and hitched back to Leicester - it took me 14 hours to get back, including walking what seemed like half the distance from Northampton to Leicester.  Long day for nothing! 

Grunfeld

Two gig regrets, both from Factory acts.

First was Joy Division.  Just checked and discovered it was 8 Feb 1980, University of London.  Simply couldn't get in as the place was rammed.  There were only 13 gigs after that one.

The other was never getting off my arse to see The Durutti Column.  Countless opportunities missed because there would always be another time.  Just over ten years ago Vini Reilly had a CVA and that was the end of that.  I really hope he's okay.  His music was the soundtrack to my life and I'll never work out why I didn't make the effort to see him live.

fretmeister

Queen.

Didn't get to see them.

rlw

ICBM said:

rlw said:

Rolling Stones in Hyde Park - I couldn't be arsed...................

A chap I used to work with was there. Couldn't see or hear a thing, apparently.

It was the only one of all the free Hyde Park gigs I missed.  For good sound all you had to do was get there early and have plenty of provisions.......