moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at...

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bunnyben
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moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at...

Post by bunnyben »

i'm reading desolation angels by kerouac and (if you know the book) he, peter and ginsberg have just gone to a cafe to meet dali and they talk about wanting to meet brando and dali tells them jack's better looking. how wonderfully sureal! all these frozen moments in time you'd love to be at...
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
jadams501
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by jadams501 »

I wish I'd been around to see Elvis on Ed Sullivan when nothing like it had ever been seen before. It's still powerful today but we're so desensitized that we can't feel what it felt like at the time -- somebody described it as feeling like a leaf being blown around the room.

In general, although I'd argue that the legacy of the 60s has been an utter disaster in terms of cultural disintegration brought on by hedonistic selfishness masquerading as communitarian bohemianism, it must have been exciting to be alive at that time. Today, we've got recordings of the music and a massive societal hangover from which we'll never recover, but at the time it must have felt like the whole world was being reborn. Sometimes I feel a certain sense of resentment at my parents' generation for enjoying all of the good parts, and then leaving my generation holding the bag and paying the bills -- but, hey, I would probably have done the same thing in their place.

And also, I'd love to have seen Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven in their primes. More recently, it would have been cool to catch Dreamweapon, a 1995 Verve show, and a Jeff Buckley concert before he died.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by niamhm »

Thats hard,if you`d kept it to music I`d struggle to keep it down ,but opening it up to history ,I could go on for ever ,gonna restrict it to music myself just so I can say something ,Spacemen 3 , Town and Country Club 2nd last show would make my week .
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by BzaInSpace »

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain..."
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redcloud
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by redcloud »

A few that immediately come to mind:

1. Cleveland Indians winning the World Series (1948). Yes, it has been a long time. We're well due another championship. The Browns have never been to the Super Bowl. My sports dream is to witness them play in the Bowl and hopefully win it all.

2. Haight-Ashbury 1965-1967. '65 was when it all started to come together, '66 was its fun, innocent year and '67 was when it peaked. By '68 it had lost its romance.

3. Human Be-In Festival-Golden Gate Park:January 1967. Ginsberg, Leary, the Dead and just about everybody else who was in the scene in SF were there. 20,000 people proved to the older generation that they were a voice to be heard.

4. Monterey Pop Festival, June 1967. Janis, Jimi, Ravi, Hugh and all the other wonderful bands that came together in those three glorious days.

5. On the Merry Pranksters bus ('Further') with Neal Cassady and Ken Kesey. God, that would have been fun!

There are more but these seem very, very fun times. Reading this sounds like I am a hippie at heart. :D
runcible
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by runcible »

Quite a few of Redcloud's selections would be mine too.

Also:
Hawkwind on the Space Ritual tour in 1972.

Hendrix/Pink Floyd/The Move tour in 1967.

Any of the great Stones gigs featuring Mick Taylor around Sticky Fingers or Exile.

Crass at their peak - about 1979.

Sex Pistols/Clash at the 100 Club in July 1976 followed by The Damned the next night.

The Deviants at one of the free concerts in Hyde Park.

That's off the top of my head on a Saturday morning.
jack white
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by jack white »

BzaInSpace wrote:"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain..."
best thing
was thinking about it recently actually
then i was reminded of Dean Stockwells character in Battlestar Galactica, Cavil. & one scene where he angrily bemoans the limitations of his form & announces his hatred of his creators for not being able to make him stand on top of his spaceship & feel the explosion of a supernova breeze cross his face, or something to that effect. which kinda chimes in with this thread.


i'd have liked to have seen the psychedelic stooges
& GnR pre-donnington '88
& dr john in n'awlins in the early 70s
& the stones of course in swinging london
& nirvana when they played SLTS for the first time
& loadsa other stuff like the brazil/italy game from the '82 world cup
gonna burn brightly
for a while
angelsighs
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by angelsighs »

any of the great rock bands at their peak, with the emphasis on GREAT and ROCK

Clash in late 70's
MC5 in 68
Springsteen in 78
Hendrix (with Soft Machine in support would be pretty nice- '68?)
or maybe to be actually be on The Rolling Thunder tour in 75 :)

or maybe to bring redclouds Haigh Ashbury idea closer to home, it would be cool to be in swinging London at a similar time, when everything was moving so fast and before the innocence went.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by throb »

Jerry Lee Lewis at the Star Club, Hamburg in 1964. Deranged genius.
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"Like Tears In The Rain"

Post by BzaInSpace »

throb wrote:Jerry Lee Lewis at the Star Club, Hamburg in 1964. Deranged genius.
Now yer talkin' - following on from that I'd pick -
Sam Cooke & King Curtis at Miami's Harlem Square in 1963,
Little Richard on his comeback shows in 1967,
Any night Hendrix was just on it - Fillmore New Year 1970 shows would be cool!,
and any of the great Nirvana gigs. (good call JW)

Once you start thinking about this...

Can't miss out on the Bootsy Collins-era JBs band with JB himself live in concert... Miles Davis with quintet/sextuplet/octet/whatever anytime from 1970-1975 - maybe the boiling, critical-mass stuff from '74 in particular...Prince on the '86 Parade tour (or any really).

I would like to see Spector and Co. directing the Wall of Sound live in session during the recording of one of the classics.

And I'd have to see the version of Sugababes that'll be touring in 2897... :wink:
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redcloud
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by redcloud »

angelsighs wrote: MC5 in 68
Right on!
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by spzretent »

A fly on the wall at Big Pink either for the recording of Music From Big Pink or The Basement Tapes.
The 1971 Baseball All Star Game in Detroit.
Rolling Stones 1969 tour any date.
Spacemen 3 any date.
At the Berlin Wall as it came crumbling down.
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Minky
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by Minky »

spzretent wrote:Rolling Stones 1969 tour any date.
Hands down...#1 on my list.
redcloud
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by redcloud »

Minky wrote:
spzretent wrote:Rolling Stones 1969 tour any date.
Hands down...#1 on my list.
Ummm...perhaps not Altamont, gentlemen!

:wink:
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by Laz69 »

Far too many to list for me personally, but MC5 shows, Led Zeppelin @ Maddison Square Gardens, Pink Floyd early shows, Sabbath shows, and many many more...

Sportswise, Italy Vs Brasil @ the '82 World Cup would have been simply amazing to see. Still probably the best WC match i've ever seen. Also, Hamilton Accies Vs Rangers in '88 (i think) when we put them out the cup...

On a similar note, i found a website last week which has pictures of famous people kicking back together, and i thought the following two pictures would have been good nights to be at...

Image

Image


:lol:
Last edited by Laz69 on Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
runcible
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by runcible »

I'm gradually ticking off things people mention here that I actually was present at! Not many I must admit, but...

Nirvana - first tour with Dave Grohl. I certainly saw them around the time of SLTS.

Clash - well, 1981.

Spacemen 3 - 5 shows including one with Rosco and Pete Bain (Pete B's last ever show I believe).

Zeppelin at their peak must have been pretty cool - that would be high on my list. I just saw that 'Lemmy' documentary (highly recommended by the way) and that guy saw SO many great bands at crucial times. Beatles at the Cavern must have been pretty cool.

Sportswise - I wouldn't have minded the Champions League final we just had - to be present when football of that quality was played would have been special. My elder brothers were at the 1966 World Cup final - that would have been good too!
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by olan »

Sporting:

1. To be at Goodison Park when Andy King scored that goal... :D
2. see 1...

Musical:
1. New Order, Beach Club, Manchester July 29th (or 30th - nobody's too sure) 1980.
2. Any of the Floyd shows when they played DSOTM before release
3. Buzzcoks/Clash/Sex Pistols at The Screen on the Green (I think) [Never saw the Pistols, saw the Clash 81 and 82, Buzzcocks (91 - crap sadly)

As for other members wishes. I saw The Spacemen 3 and Nirvana (both Reading shows). Led Zepplin just don't do it for me though....
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by BzaInSpace »

Laz69 wrote:
On a similar note, i found a website last week which has pictures of famous people kicking back together, and i thought the following two pictures would have been good nights to be at...

Image
I love this picture. Marc Bolan even made it! I think the photographer captured those guys personas perfectly.

Leading on from Mark's bit about actually being there, I think that I've been to a few 'events' where for whatever reason they maybe won't go down in history as epoch-shaking, culturally defining gigs or whatever*... but nevertheless you felt you were witnessing something special, something amazing, you were at absolutely the right place at the right time and you were briefly at the centre of your own universe, and possibly things were never quite the same afterwards...

I definitely encountered this magickal feeling several times down the years - a few club nights around 1999 with Andrew Weatherall, esq, Aphrodite, Dave Clarke etc spring to mind. Beautiful, golden events... loads of love and of course the kind of brutally amazing sound systems they simply didn't have 'back in the day'.

What about the first time I seen Spiritualized, at Aberdeen's Music Hall a day or so before the RAH gig in 1997, which in all honesty meant Things'll Never Be The Same... I would gladly exchange the chance to experience almost everything listed here so far in order to relive that one. :shock:

* I think a lot of this retrospective relies on a fair bit of journalistic propaganda as well as simple bouts of nostalgia - Spike Island was meant to be an awful show and there was a lot of crap (and crap bands) played at Woodstock, plus a massive surplus of hippies... :lol: ... it's maybe more about peoples personal experiences I'm interested in than the accepted canon of "Twenty Shows You Shoulda Seen!!!" style journo fodder.

In saying that though, I'd love to be able to go back and hang around exactly 40 years ago in a certain basement below Villa Nellcôte in Southern France... :wink:
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by purespace »

I was born Friday, September 13th, 1968 during the witching hour. At age 4, I informed my biological parents they were not, in fact, my real parents - - I was on temporary loan to them.

I was alive during the summer of love. I died somewhere between 1967 and my current rebirth date. The music from that time lives in my bones -- familiar in ways I cannot articulate.

Great thread.

{passes the pipe}
I think I feel it coming on
Cheapster
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by Cheapster »

purespace wrote:At age 4, I informed my biological parents they were not, in fact, my real parents - - I was on temporary loan to them.
I've heard of other young children saying that. Creepy.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by spzretent »

BzaInSpace wrote: In saying that though, I'd love to be able to go back and hang around exactly 40 years ago in a certain basement below Villa Nellcôte in Southern France... :wink:
With all the shit that happened there I am sure I would have been arrested or dead if I were there.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by toomilk »

Spiritualized playing their first "Don't Look Back" show of Ladies in Gentlemen We are Floating in Space.


Oh wait....
bunnyben
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by bunnyben »

i have my fantasy of learning french and travelling back in time to marry a young francoise hardy and then having my own nightingale to sing everyday. only trouble is i'm too ugly, o and don't have enough power to spin a black hole and conduct time travel, other than that...
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
spunder
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by spunder »

maybe Pink Floyd playing the UFO late '66 early '67
John Coltrane anytime around '65
MC5 ....erm '68 /'69 somewhere in Detroit
Fleetwood Mac...Boston Tea Party
Can... Damo era
Stone Roses...Blackpool '89!!
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by MODLAB »

No particular order.

—Led Zeppelin’s Three Nights at Madison Square Garden (July 27, 28 and 29, 1973)
—Pink Floyd with The Wall shows & anything between 68-72.
—X Japan 1997.
—Any Rocksteady gigs in Jamaica circa 67.
—The Stone Roses
—Rolling Stones Anytime until 75 or so.
—RIDE 1990
—and many many more. Like New Order, Clash, S3, Coltrane, Monk, Miles...

B,

M
Design.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by angelsighs »

bunnyben wrote:i have my fantasy of learning french and travelling back in time to marry a young francoise hardy and then having my own nightingale to sing everyday. only trouble is i'm too ugly, o and don't have enough power to spin a black hole and conduct time travel, other than that...
hope springs eternal Ben, keep working on that combined time travel/plastic surgery machine :)
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by johnnyboy »

Came to post Villa Nellcote too but beaten to it. Too many other Stones moments to pick just one.....maybe the 69 or 72 tours. Under the sheet with Anita Pallenberg during Performance, or being that fur rug at Redlands. :D

VU at the Factory or an Exploding Plastic Inevitable gigs. Filming Apocalypse Now. Monterey Pop Festival. VE Day. The first TV or cinema moving picture moment. Hitler being born (then smothering him). Acid Tests and bombing around with Neal Cassady. Early acid house clubbing before it was known. James Brown at the Apollo. Elevators at the Jade Room. Any Funkadelic gig around the first few albums. Any walk on the moon and looking back at earth. MC5 at the Grande Ballroom...........and on it goes.

Spike Island was lame. Nice day out but a lame gig/PA.

Pretty glad to have seen some of those early gigs by Nirvana, Ride, Mudhoney, Oasis, Dust Brothers (now Chemicals), Underworld, the original Screamadelica tour, Sabresonic clubbing, way up to now and gigs by Moon Duo, Wooden Shjips, Sun Araw etc etc. Hopefully in years to come people will look back at these as great moments to have witnessed.
Last edited by johnnyboy on Wed Jun 15, 2011 9:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
runcible
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by runcible »

MODLAB wrote: —RIDE 1990
Ding! Another one for me!
MODLAB wrote: —and many many more. Like New Order, Clash, S3,
Ding ding ding! Oh wait - I already ding'd for the Spacemen and The Clash. Mind you New Order at Glastonbury on mushrooms with a full lazer show in 1987 totally blew my mind!
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by MODLAB »

runcible wrote:
MODLAB wrote: —RIDE 1990
Ding! Another one for me!
MODLAB wrote: —and many many more. Like New Order, Clash, S3,
Ding ding ding! Oh wait - I already ding'd for the Spacemen and The Clash. Mind you New Order at Glastonbury on mushrooms with a full lazer show in 1987 totally blew my mind!

Yep, you were at right place at the right time I must say. Those stories kinda made me feel I was there.


B,

M
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bunnyben
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by bunnyben »

angelsighs wrote:
bunnyben wrote:i have my fantasy of learning french and travelling back in time to marry a young francoise hardy and then having my own nightingale to sing everyday. only trouble is i'm too ugly, o and don't have enough power to spin a black hole and conduct time travel, other than that...
hope springs eternal Ben, keep working on that combined time travel/plastic surgery machine :)
i don't know which one will be harder to make! :lol: :lol: :lol:
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by Shaun »

Mai 20 Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30th 1974 when The Louisville Lip put out the lights for Big 'Bad' George.

And I wish I had got the chance to walk along the yellow brick road.
What more can the heart of a man desire?
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by sunray »

Lots of stuff here already mentioned that i'd have gone for too as well as these:

When ancient man first discovers psychedelics. Must've been some experience with no reference points whatsoever. :shock:

Witnessing the Winter Solstice sunrise light up Newgrange burial chamber for the first time.

Seeing the final block going on top of the Pyramids.

Stonehenge festivals of late 70s early 80s.

Castlemorton 1992.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by angelsighs »

I think runcible is a lucky man, I would love to have been around from about 85-95 when a lot of the music this board loves was at its peak.

was thinking of when the best time to see Led Zep would have been- the early gigs would have been in smaller venues, and were apparantly more wild and improvisational. later shows would have been much more of a spectacle and such exciting events.

it's true that maybe a lot of these are only 'legendary' in hindsight? I knew someone who saw Nirvana at Reading and he said it wasn't all that at all.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by Guessed »

Simple. The birth of my youngest child.
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Post by spzretent »

I'd tick things off too but it just makes me feel that much older.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by burningwheel »

early verve gigs

my birth
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by runcible »

angelsighs wrote:it's true that maybe a lot of these are only 'legendary' in hindsight? I knew someone who saw Nirvana at Reading and he said it wasn't all that at all.
Probably right. The 'legendary' Primal Scream gig at Brixton in 1994 with George Clinton is regarded as one of the all-time greats but goes down as the worst headline performance I have ever seen and forms the basis of my dislike of that band.

I saw Nirvana at Reading in 1991 which was before Nevermind and they played at 3 p.m. They were superb. They headlined a year (or two?) after that when Kurt appeared in a dress - I'm guessing that was the time you refer to.

Anyone anywhere who has seen a great gig is lucky in my opinion. Half of the great ones I saw had a handful of people present. At the time you just take the experience, no matter how great, for the way you perceive it - it's impossible to see how those nights will be viewed in years to come. CAVE last November are the best band I've seen in getting on for 20 years but hardly anyone knows who they are and they seem unlikely candidates for success. The Heads remain an extraordinary phenomenon and at every gig I pinch myself at how awesome they are, yet hardly anyone goes to those shows. Maybe in 10 years people will look back in awe. I know I've been fortunate to have seen some great bands but that was purely down to circumstance - maybe the next gig you or anyone you know sees will be one people will discuss on message boards of the future...
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by spzretent »

burningwheel wrote:
my birth
Surely you made it to this no?
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olan
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by olan »

runcible wrote:
angelsighs wrote: I saw Nirvana at Reading in 1991 which was before Nevermind and they played at 3 p.m. They were superb. They headlined
a year (or two?) after that when Kurt appeared in a dress - I'm guessing that was the time you refer to.
I was at that show. I thought Nirvana were very good, but I seem to recall Public Enemy playing that year and being simply awesome (probably means they played two years apart given my memory). It is all about opinion though isn't it? I've lost track of the number of times I've come out of a gig thinking "that was a bit iffy" only to hear someone else chuntering on about how stunning the show was. The last time this happened was the Friday night LAGWAFIS show in Sydney - however the Saturday night was sensational.....I suppose it is all relative too, I've never not enjoyed a Spiritualized show, but some have been vastly better than others.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by TheWarmth »

I think a combination of our "mixed arms" and booze may have been partly to blame for me declaring Spiritualized's Pitchfork set (2008, I think ... for A&E) "one of the best shows I have ever scene," but who cares? It was so emotional for me. I was so unbelievably elated. Man, I still remember standing there just being overwhelmed with joy.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by angelsighs »

yeah it was the second Nirvana Reading set my friend saw.

I'm also a firm believer in the subjectivity of music, especially when it comes to gigs. I can go to a show and my mate who is standing right next to me, in the same place and usually with a similar predisposition to the band, can come out with a totally different experience. it's not logical but that's part of the magic of music I think.

I also agree that amazing, mindblowing shows can happen at big or small gigs. nothing wrong with it being 'legendary' just in our own minds but there's also something cool about saying 'I was there' at a gig which has some sort of aura or cultural cachet

I'm really happy that the two acoustic mainlines shows I saw (Edinburgh Queens Hall & Union Chapel) are considered pretty special, at least by us circle of fans here. they certainly felt special when I was there.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by bunnyben »

runcible wrote:
angelsighs wrote:it's true that maybe a lot of these are only 'legendary' in hindsight? I knew someone who saw Nirvana at Reading and he said it wasn't all that at all.
Probably right. The 'legendary' Primal Scream gig at Brixton in 1994 with George Clinton is regarded as one of the all-time greats but goes down as the worst headline performance I have ever seen and forms the basis of my dislike of that band.

I saw Nirvana at Reading in 1991 which was before Nevermind and they played at 3 p.m. They were superb. They headlined a year (or two?) after that when Kurt appeared in a dress - I'm guessing that was the time you refer to.

Anyone anywhere who has seen a great gig is lucky in my opinion. Half of the great ones I saw had a handful of people present. At the time you just take the experience, no matter how great, for the way you perceive it - it's impossible to see how those nights will be viewed in years to come. CAVE last November are the best band I've seen in getting on for 20 years but hardly anyone knows who they are and they seem unlikely candidates for success. The Heads remain an extraordinary phenomenon and at every gig I pinch myself at how awesome they are, yet hardly anyone goes to those shows. Maybe in 10 years people will look back in awe. I know I've been fortunate to have seen some great bands but that was purely down to circumstance - maybe the next gig you or anyone you know sees will be one people will discuss on message boards of the future...
there's a great story told by oasis where they played a gig to an empty pub (except for the barman). the next time they played the pub it was full and laim said 'this is for all of you who *insert lots of pointless swearing* were here last time' and half the room started cheering
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
olan
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by olan »

bunnyben wrote:there's a great story told by oasis where they played a gig to an empty pub (except for the barman). the next time they played the pub it was full and laim said 'this is for all of you who *insert lots of pointless swearing* were here last time' and half the room started cheering
Its the Barmen I feel sorry for....Bet you won't catch them posting in this thread with a "I caught Oasis twice but I wish I'd seen..."
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by spunder »

burningwheel wrote:early verve gigs

my birth
take it from me, early verve shows were 'the best'.

how did you miss your birth?
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by bunnyben »

olan wrote:
bunnyben wrote:there's a great story told by oasis where they played a gig to an empty pub (except for the barman). the next time they played the pub it was full and laim said 'this is for all of you who *insert lots of pointless swearing* were here last time' and half the room started cheering
Its the Barmen I feel sorry for....Bet you won't catch them posting in this thread with a "I caught Oasis twice but I wish I'd seen..."
i would have loved to see them then. they were the first band i loved (aged 9). i got to see them during the don't believe the truth tour and the gig was subsequently released on cd and dvd and was regarded by the band as one of the best ever gigs they had played. i was so bored. it was nice to see the songs i loved but the crowed was topless drunk men who wanted to fight and the band lacked that punch that you see on early dvds like live by the sea and there and then.
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by bunnyben »

spunder wrote:
burningwheel wrote:early verve gigs

my birth
take it from me, early verve shows were 'the best'.

how did you miss your birth?
i missed my funeral
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
runcible
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by runcible »

spunder wrote:take it from me, early verve shows were 'the best'.
I'm not sure about that. I saw them pretty early on and they were good, but when I saw them on the first reunion tour in 1997 they absolutely blew me apart. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing at the Hammersmith Palais that night and nothing I saw in the years before comes close. Having said that I saw them 6 months later and they were poor.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by jadams501 »

runcible wrote:
spunder wrote:take it from me, early verve shows were 'the best'.
I'm not sure about that. I saw them pretty early on and they were good, but when I saw them on the first reunion tour in 1997 they absolutely blew me apart. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing at the Hammersmith Palais that night and nothing I saw in the years before comes close. Having said that I saw them 6 months later and they were poor.
I only got to see the Verve on the reunion tour in 2008, and they were fantastic. Particularly the 2nd night, the grooves and sounds were as good as pretty much anything I've heard on (many) bootlegs. Runcible, I'm not surprised to read that you were blown away by the 1997 gigs -- I love the boots from that period when the Urban Hymns material hadn't completely conquered the setlists and they were still playing Slide Away and Man Called Sun.

Any number of great Verve gigs would definitely make my list for this thread, but I personally don't listen much to my boots from around the Storm In Heaven period. As irritating as singer-songwriter Richard Ashcroft can sometimes be, he has a sense of taste and restraint when he sings -- whereas stoned shaman Ashcroft of the early years could often ruin delicate tracks like Make It Till Monday or Virtual World with embarrassing moaning and so forth.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by bunnyben »

i think context has a lot to do with it. i'm rewatching 2001. when i first saw it it did nothing for me. i didn't get it at all except for the music which i already loved. then i watched a documentry about stanley and did you know when it was made the earth had never been seen from space? which changes the perspective of everything and makes you understand qbricks genius vision. it's the same with elvis or the beatles or beethoven's 3rd or dylan at newport 65. unless you are there in that time it's implausable to try to understand. how could they walk out of 66 tour before the electric? it's unthinkable now!
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by spunder »

runcible wrote:
spunder wrote:take it from me, early verve shows were 'the best'.
I'm not sure about that. I saw them pretty early on and they were good, but when I saw them on the first reunion tour in 1997 they absolutely blew me apart. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing at the Hammersmith Palais that night and nothing I saw in the years before comes close. Having said that I saw them 6 months later and they were poor.
here we go.... i saw them 3 times in 1992 and 3 times in 1993. they were magical in those days...getting more structured by '93 when they were on the ASIH tour, but in '92 they were laval like, an absolute force of nature....i was crammed in this tiny room in sheffield with all these hippy chicks clambering over the stage ...

i was at the '97 reunion 1st gig at the leadmill in sheffield and ...yup it was fucking ace but , for me nothing beats the earlier shows.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by angelsighs »

runcible, just checked my verve bootlegs and i've got some tracks from that Hammersmith Palais show. sounds pretty intense.

I would have loved to have seen the Verve at any time of their original lifespan, to be honest.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by natty »

That goal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsBCEmKle_c by Sharpy against the redshite in 1984. Was lucky enough to be there to see us win the title at Carrow Road in '87. Didn't think then that I still wouldn't have seen such a thing again until now and still be waiting.... :(

Never got to see the Spacemen.

Would have loved to have seen Joy Division, Stooges, MC5, VU. The Stonehenge free festivals sound like they were something else, too.

Was lucky enough to see early-ish Ride, Mercury Rev's first shows over here, one of the first Verve tours, Spiritualized's first tour, which was kinda interesting although didn't impress me massively at the time, a couple of bits aside.

But whoever mentioned the Merry Pranksters tops all. To have been on "Furthur" with Cassady, Kesey etc... wow...
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by nickh »

Agree with the VU, MC5, Stooges posts. An early Kraftwerk show would have been good and to have seen someone like John Coltrane in a bar blowing the doors off the place would have been amazing I imagine. There is a guy who lives near me who has John Coltrane tattooed on one arm and Miles Davis on the other. He was in the merchant navy in the 60’s and has seen a lot of jazz legendss and is lucky that he has now found someone with an interest in his stories.

I have a few friends, originally from Yorkshire and 3 or 4 years older than me who all got to see Joy Division. It seemed they were pretty easy to go and see and were almost constantly playing in the north. I had an old photo of JD playing in Bury or Wigan or Oldham or somewhere and the audience all look about 12 years old.

I have been pretty lucky though…Spacemen 3 I managed to see 4 times, My Bloody Valentine playing in pubs to about 150 people, early Mercury Rev tours, Dinosaur Jr and Sonic Youth on the same bill on the Daydream Nation tour, the Jesus & Mary Chain at ULU, Happy Mondays at ULU, Galaxie 500 on several occasions, Loop at the National Ballroom, Nirvana before Dave Grohl joined…

I saw Ride half a dozen times between 89 and 91 as support acts and could never see what the fuss was about, still can’t. Sorry! :wink:
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by niamhm »

it's true that maybe a lot of these are only 'legendary' in hindsight? I knew someone who saw Nirvana at Reading and he said it wasn't all that at all.
I saw them when they headlined and thought it was a brilliant headline set,haven`t seen the recent DVD release yet not sure I want to ,keep the memory as it is,
and Runcible, Crass played my local town hall in `79 and as a young punk I so wanted to go but mother wouldn`t hear off it ,still a regret , some punk eh? she pulled the same crap when the Dead Kennedys played Glasgow around the same time and that really bummed my teenage self out especially as a few class mates went :cry:
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by angelsighs »

another tangent on the "only legendary in hindsight?" thing. watched a good doc the other night on history of festivals (had some interesting stuff about when they actually used to represent a major clash between the establishment and whatever passed for a counterculture), and after it they showed the 'legendary' 1997 set from Radiohead at Glasto. now I'm no Radiohead hater (they definitely have their moments, I like Kid A and The Bends a lot), so i've got no particular axe to grind. but it seemed rather ordinary to me. Thoms voice was really good, but pretty ordinary guitar tones, no great sonic onslaught in particular, quite flat really. ive actually seen the band myself more recently and it was much better.
(I know that seeing a band on TV is never the same, but even with that in mind..)

not sure what point i'm trying to make here.. is it just good timing that makes a bands gig 'the one' in the eyes of the media? when they have decided its 'their moment' and they just have to play a gig thats passable but the event makes it into so much more? emperors new clothes?
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by bunnyben »

angelsighs wrote:another tangent on the "only legendary in hindsight?" thing. watched a good doc the other night on history of festivals (had some interesting stuff about when they actually used to represent a major clash between the establishment and whatever passed for a counterculture), and after it they showed the 'legendary' 1997 set from Radiohead at Glasto. now I'm no Radiohead hater (they definitely have their moments, I like Kid A and The Bends a lot), so i've got no particular axe to grind. but it seemed rather ordinary to me. Thoms voice was really good, but pretty ordinary guitar tones, no great sonic onslaught in particular, quite flat really. ive actually seen the band myself more recently and it was much better.
(I know that seeing a band on TV is never the same, but even with that in mind..)

not sure what point i'm trying to make here.. is it just good timing that makes a bands gig 'the one' in the eyes of the media? when they have decided its 'their moment' and they just have to play a gig thats passable but the event makes it into so much more? emperors new clothes?
maybe it's considered so good because of the stage (glasto) it was on? i'm sure they've had better gigs tho the bootleg (i used to have it but lost it- anyone able to upload it please?) is excellent. i'm not really a fan- as you said they have their moments (paranoid android, no surprises, everything in its right place etc) but i'm sure they did better gigs othertimes, maybe even to 5 men and a poodle
'raging and weeping are left on the early road
now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are alomst done
then let us compare mythologies
i have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisened thorns'
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by toomilk »

Sex Pistols' infamous show in Manchester.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by angelsighs »

toomilk wrote:Sex Pistols' infamous show in Manchester.
which more people claim to have been at than were feasibly there :)
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by spzretent »

spunder wrote: here we go.... i saw them 3 times in 1992 and 3 times in 1993. they were magical in those days...getting more structured by '93 when they were on the ASIH tour, but in '92 they were laval like, an absolute force of nature....i was crammed in this tiny room in sheffield with all these hippy chicks clambering over the stage ...

i was at the '97 reunion 1st gig at the leadmill in sheffield and ...yup it was fucking ace but , for me nothing beats the earlier shows.
I saw Verve every time they played around here and they were simply the best band I had ever seen. I must have seen them 5 or 6 times on the first two tours.
Things started going downhill on the reunion tour.
The last time, sans McCabe, I saw them they were horrendous.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by TheWarmth »

I saw The Verve at Metro (the venue my band is playing tomorrow night!) for Northern Soul and that gig was mind-blowing. Super awesome stuff. I think I saw them twice after that, once with McCabe for U.H. at the Vic (slightly bigger than Metro) and once without McCabe at Aragon Ballroom. Aragon is a much, much larger venue than the Vic and I recall enjoying it, but not being blown away. They had B.J. Cole on pedal steel and that was pretty cool.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by spzretent »

I was at the Metro and Vic shows. Both good. Metro way better.
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by burningwheel »

my birth..yeah..i wasn't "present" for it as in conscious it was happening and actually experience it :)
[url=http://www.loveisforever.org]Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, Chapterhouse, The Telescopes, Loop, Verve and more![/url]
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Re: moments (musical and otherwise) you wish you'd been at..

Post by spzretent »

Yes you were.
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