Following On From Andy's Elp Thread - Best Concert/Best Concert Outside/Worst Concert

[DTCwordfan]

Best Concert - surprising perhaps as the venue was the Royal Festival Hall. Crusaders and they proved their reputation as the world's best backing band after the interval when BB King came on to solo.... Yes/Genesis/P-Floyd just behind - always wanted to see Dire Straits and held tickets 3 times(!) but work always intervened.

Best outside - hard to say - Supertramp in Belgium versus Bruce Springsteen outside Paris.

Worst - no question about that, Deep Purple in Norwich - minus Jon Lord. Truly awful.

[drmorgans]

I saw Queen when they supported Mott the Hoople (74?), then at the top of their game. It was obvious that Queen were confident, charismatic and going places.

[EdmundD]

I well remember The Place and The Placemate from student days in Stoke.

Best outdoor concert - Rolling Stones + Black Crowes July 1995 Wembley.

Best indoor concert - Van Morrison + Lonnie Donegan Nov 1990 - mainly for Lonnie's set which got everybody on their feet. Georgie Fame was pretty good too.

Worst concert - The Who at Wembley Arena - can't remember the year - Daltrey walked off halfway through and Townshend smashed a guitar to show the audience something typical of The Who (he said). Dreadful.

Other memorably good ones - Dylan, ZZ Top, Grateful Dead, Billy Idol, McCartney, Pink Floyd. There's probably more lost in the mists of time.

[mushroom25]

//I saw Queen when they supported Mott the Hoople (74?)//

I saw them on that tour too, at the Hammersmith Odeon - the infamous December 14th 1973 "Battle of Hammersmith" gig where the venue attempted to impose their curfew and Mott played on in defiance. Queen were excellent in support.

Then in the summer of 1974 I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the Who-headlined event at Charlton Football Club - the one where Keith Moon debuted his ridiculously huge drum kit. It was said there was a "drunken atmosphere" when the Who came on, but I don't recall any trouble - except when some idiot climbed a floodlight tower to get a better look. The concert was stopped and Nicky Horne (remember him?) did his best to charm him down.

[DTCwordfan]

Barclay James Harvest.....they were a good band...

Andy, funny you mention Montreal - I was on a post grad international exchange at McGill and saw Bob Dylan there when he was on his religious kick....900 people and it was a good concert. Then, just a few weeks later, I saw him play the same set at Earls Court and he was completely 'lost' in the size of the place....no multi-screen technology to help compensate back in 1980.....

Outside, The 3 Tenors at Wembley was very enjoyable too, seats about 8 rows back and just off centre and close to the mixing desk, so great sound....

[mushroom25]

// no multi-screen technology to help compensate back in 1980..... //

not by today's standard maybe - but video screens were used at the Slade/Alex Harvey gig in July 1973, an innovation following something of a riot earlier in the year (can't remember whose concert) where a large part of the crowd saw nothing of the show.

Alex Harvey was, well, sensational. Slade were at the top of their game....

[Captain2]

I saw Slade whilst at Trent Poly circa 1972, absolutely fantastic set, great musicians - their version of Born to Be Wild was far superior to Steppenwolfs!

[Togo]

Seen most of the bands that have been mentioned including Queen before they released Killer Queen. That was in Jenk's Bar(Jenkinsons I think and there was a gay club upstairs which was pretty revolutionary in 1973) in Blackpool just down from Yates Wine Lodge. They only played 3 or 4 numbers one of them being Killer Queen and they were the "tightest" combo I had ever heard up until then. One of the absolutely stand out bands that should have been massive but somehow never got there were family. Regulars at the Torch and always so, so, good. Roger Chapman the front man had a voice like nothing ever heard before or since. He was like Sinatra on acid. They were possibly the first "prog" rock band and very active in the mod clubs during 1966/67. I think I saw them in 3 different Cities.