Your worst concert.

[1234andcounting]

Bad Company were indescribably bad at the Conference Centre in the late 1970s. cba could have been invented for their performance that night. One of only two gigs I have ever walked out of, the other was the Pogues at Brixton Academy a couple of years ago, although that was more due to appalling sound than their performance, so I forgive them (up to a point).

 

[Phat Baz 68]

Duran Duran, Simon Le Bon cant sing and is a nasty litle C**T
Had backstage passes from a friend high up in music business,
he is the most self image concious egotistical **** stain I've ever had the misfortune to meet in my life so far.
So rude and up his own backside its incredible.
He also cannot sing a feckin note, as he proved at the original Live Aid Gig anyway what a nob.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Duran Duran, Simon Le Bon cant sing and is a nasty litle C**T
Had backstage passes from a friend high up in music business,
he is the most self image concious egotistical **** stain I've ever had the misfortune to meet in my life so far.
So rude and up his own backside its incredible.
He also cannot sing a feckin note, as he proved at the original Live Aid Gig anyway what a nob.

So, to be clear, do you like Simon Le Bon?

 

[black & white seagull]

The Sugar Hill Gang at The Event some years ago. An utterly cynical, passionless performance in which they simply plugged the merchandise and CDs for sale between each track.

 

[Phat Baz 68]

So, to be clear, do you like Simon Le Bon?

Yeah hes ok ha ha

 

[Miximate]

Easily the worst was Lighthouse Family, closely followed by Sade, both at The Brighton Centre

 

[BUTTERBALL]

Wasn't keen on a band called 'Versus You' at the Great Escape this year, not my thing at all. Left half way through.

 

[southstandandy]

Amy Winehouse was another disaster / train crash affair waiting to happen a few years back at the Brighton Centre. When she came on she did actually perform quite well, for the few hundred who actually stayed until gone 10pm when she finally came on. Due to her f**king about backstage she came on 90 mins later than planned and the atmosphere was horrible. Even the stewards and the centre itself daren't pull the plug early for the 11pm curfew otherwise there would have been a riot.

I've never seen so many people leave before the main artist came on due to having to get trains etc - truly a car crash of a gig if ever there was one - then 5 months later.......

 

[Pembury]

Bis at the old concord. Truly dreadful. Not sure why we ended up there watching them.. must of been the booze or something!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Misfits. I turned up a day late.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Focus at the Oxford Poly early 1970s. One of their speaker stacks caught fire, which actually made it all more interesting.

Roy Buchanan, same venue. Totally sterile.

Interestingly, every time I have seen Van Morrison (about 4) he has been superb!

 

[JJ McClure]

Louise at the Brighton Centre.
(Nice poster of her wearing an Albion shirt though...)

I went to that. My girlfriend bought me a ticket as she knew I fancied Louise.

 

[Trufflehound]

It's tough there have been so many:

- Jefferson Starship's shambolic set at Knebworth in 78

I was there and have to agree it was utter tripe.

J. Geils Band supporting the Stones at Wembley Stadium in 1982 were awful, but to be fair I hadn't paid to see them, so was just ignoring them. I've seen hundreds of nameless support bands who were worse, but I also didn't pay to see them, so I don't count them.

Headline acts-wise, I nominate Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow at the Wembley Arena, 1980. Pretty much 5 minutes of music at the beginning and end bookending an interminably long and dull drum solo by Cozy Powell. Blackmore was in a huff and refused an encore, resulting in a mini "riot" in the crowd and much luzzing of chairs at the stage (causing thousand of pounds worth of improvements to the Wembley Arena).

I notice I'm not alone in nominating an event at the Wembley Arena. Probably because it was a venue totally unsuited to music events with crap acousitcs. I noted during Rainbow that the sound was actually better in the Gents. Even Springsteen struggled with the sound when I saw him there in '81.

 

[Prince Monolulu]

Agree about Wembley Arena. Saw The Style Council there in '85. Acoustics were abysmal and whole experience too sanitised.

 

[Buzzer]

Most gigs at the Brighton Centre are awful. I've only seen one or two that aren't (the old East Wing concerts weren't too bad though, saying that). Bands that have let me down at the Brighton Centre: Massive Attack (about '97 I think). Even Horace Andy's presence couldn't lift it from everyone, band and audience included, from boredom. Paul Weller in about 2005 was boring, The Specials in about 2009 or 10 - not even 1% as good as their Brixton Academy concerts the year before, Black Grape in 1997 - no Bez, no party. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - yawn.

But for me the very worst was Tricky about 3 years back when he played a 20 year anniversary one-off of the Maxinequaye album at the Indigo room at the O2. He'd even got Martina Topley-Bird to appear with him to give it a very authentic flavour. Maxinquaye is one of the three Bristol trip-hop albums that make up the holy trinity alongside Massive Attack's Blue Lines and Portishead's Dummy. Those albums changed everything for me and I hold them all very dear so I was particularly looking forward to seeing Tricky's masterpiece. The venue didn't help - it's basically a provincial nightclub writ large tacked alongside the O2 behemoth. It's a Worthing nightclub on steroids.

You'd think they would have played each track in order, but the band started in the middle, Ms Topley-Bird had to go and get Tricky from backstage (no prizes for guessing why) whereupon he mumbled through one track and disappeared again, this happened a couple of times and then the whole band left and Tricky introduced his kid brother who did a few raps with his own band. The band came back on whereupon Tricky decided to get as many audience members onstage as he could for a sing-song. Utter shambles.

 

[daveinprague]

Saw Chronixx here last year, and he was abysmal. Brilliant studio artist, but live, no presence whatsoever.

 

[Rogero]

Captain Beefheart. Good but only lasted 40 minutes at the Dome.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Deacon Blue - at Portsmouth Poly Students Union. Gappy toothed tw@t.

 

[greengull]

Lindisfarne at Loughborough Student union in the 80s, dont know why I bothered to go, ok if you are from the north east and into folk I suppose

 

[BigBod]

Motorhead!!! Now I don't mind loud but this was taking the piss....so distorted it was total crap...