I think I saw Rush around that time too. My mate told me to listen to a song called "Closer to The Heart". I thought it was a girl singing, so imagine my shock when I saw Geddy Lee!
Fantastic band to see live. Saw them again a few years ago and they still have the amazing ability to make a band of 3 sound like so much more!
1971, Kevin Ayers and the Whole World at Ewell Tech, but interestingly Queen played their first gig with the classic line up as the third act on a tiny stage at the back of the hall. They were good, too.
Therapy in the ulster hall in 96 I think.
Monsters of rock at Donnigton in August of 1990.
Thunder, The Quireboys. Poison, Aerosmith and Whitesnake.
A good time was had by all!
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David Bowie-Fairfield Halls Croydon June 1973.
1990, Tangerine Dream, Melrose tour, Nottingham
Tangerine Dream, Fairfield Halls Croydon (I think) 1974. Played Rubycon.
Memory is sketchy, I was very young!
These all seem to be ‘proper’ gigs. My first “concert” was a teenage metal band called Vicious Circle who, quite randomly, played to about 30 kids in our school hall one weekend. Enjoyed it!
The Levellers - Poole Arts Centre
New Order in 1983 at the Hacienda. Me and my best mate were only 14 and managed to get in without anyone really giving a toss.
They used to be quite hairy gigs in those days, Barney was a fractious git and the audience appeared to made up old punk types, cool kids and football hooligans. Was never boring.
My first gig was in Dublin's Dalymount Park in the summer of 1993. Faith No More with Sonic Youth, Sugar and Belly. The gig was called Sunstroke, and I swear my mate may have actually got sunstroke at it. My mam still talks about his red face glowing in the back seat when she picked us up after.
Depeche mode - Black Celebration Tour - Brighton Centre - 31st March 1986.
It should have been The Cult on the Love tour in 1985 but I had glandular fever, I tried to go but bottled it 400 yards from the venue as I felt I'd get flattened in 5 minutes, probably a great first gig with mates, but not on your own with glandular fever aged 16.
Garden Party, MK Bowl. Gary Moore blew me away.
Sometime in the early 70's I saw Nana Mouskouri and Demis Roussos. I ended up going to see them 4 or 5 times over the years.
My father worked in a hotel so knew most of the concert promoters. If he got free tickets the deal was you never refused because you wouldn't get the offer when the next free tickets came along. It was a win some lose some situation.
The Darkness - Birmingham NIA - 2004.
It's still up there as one of the best I've been to!
Right there - classic. Artist on the way to superstardom with a great band playing the material which would define that artist/era. Did he do the oral sex bit on Ronsons Les Paul? these sort of gigs became mythical because there was v.little documentation, only word of mouth. That Ziggy/Aladdinsane tour played everywhere - there weren't any arenas apart from London. Also no booking fees/secondary ticketing/pre-salesetc. But there were touts.
Julian Cope Cambridge Corn Exchange 1986
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If I discount all local bands in my youth, first real concert was BB King in 1994.
Discounting the likes of Ultimate Buzz and QFX playing "live" in clubs, it was Snow Patrol in Meadowbank stadium in Edinburgh.
UK Subs - Fisher Hall, Cambridge. I think early '84.
In the old days you could buy a ticket on the door for pretty famous bands at a very reasonable price.
Nowadays you would have to try and get a ticket online that are sold out almost immediately to touts who then resell them on.
Add on booking prices and the huge cost of tickets in the first place etc and I'm glad I saw all the shows I wanted to in the past.
Cheers,
Neil.
Sad Cafe in Southend Civic Centre, probably 1977 or 1978.
20 August 1983, Loreley arena Germany: Steve Miller Band, Joe Cocker, U2, Stray Cats, Dave Edmunds
It was the concert where most of U2's Under A Blood Red Sky (including the famous "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day" versions) album was recorded.
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
The Vetch Field, Swansea.
The Who and "friends" 12th June 1976
£4 a tkt and friends included The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Street Walkers, Little Feat and the Outlaws. WidowMaker were supposed to be there also but I can't remember that bit.
Alex Harvey was superb and with some of the classic Who antics, brilliant!
Be Bop Deluxe , 1976 at Birmingham town hall support band were Doctors of Madness.
Hawkwind.
Early 90s at a bikers festival run by hells angels.
On a hot June evening in a field in Derbyshire.... Awesome.
First single Gig, The Arctic Monkeys in Bournemouth on the first album.
First festival was the Reading Festival a few years earlier, Prodigy, Beastie Boys, Page & plant, I was 15/16 I think that was a hell of a weekend.
First gig, 13 years old, something gentle to start off with........not
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Last edited by NIGE UK; 15th February 2018 at 23:35.
The Cult, November 1985, Hanley Victoria Hall..
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November 1982...The Jam at Poole Arts Centre on the Beat Surrender tour. I was 13, and couldn't afford a t-shirt...but I still have the badge I bought.
Bhundhu boys hull uni 1986, support by Terry and Gerry, Jerry Dammers dj’ing and Stephen Berkoff play “east” all on one ticket!
ktmog6uk
marchingontogether!
First one that I can remember is seeing is Dr Feelgood in the Students Bar on my 22nd birthday (1979). I can still see Wilko prancing about that small stage.
Before that I would've seen bands like the Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers in a local bar all for the princely sum of £1. During the bands' interval we were heartily entertained by 'exotic' dancers :)
Due to what was going on at that time big name bands touring NI were few and far between but I'll always remember going each year to Rory Gallagher's New Years concerts in the Ulster Hall - absolutely mega 3 piece group - and Horslips with their Celtic Rock fusion.
Where have the years gone :(
Jake
Ultravox, NEC in November 1986 for the U-VOX tour.
The U-VOX album was meh (I didn't ever buy it), Warren Cann had already left, and soon after the tour the band split. Still, the concert itself was pretty good and they played more old stuff than the new album.
A classical music concert in a Birmingham park when I was about seven or so, I think. I can't remember the exact year, and therefore my exact age at the time, but it was definitely in the late 1990s, so certainly before the millennium and well before my tenth birthday. My aunt took me, (first of many trips like that to concerts and theatres) and I remember staying up long past my then bedtime, but I started to fall asleep before the end of it.
Vinegar Joe at Warford sometime in the early 70's
The Cranberries at Aston Villa Leisure Centre, 1995
More costume changes than I thought possible and a developed a little thing for Delores O'Riordan