O/T Best gig you've been to

I used to work in the music biz, so have seen a lot of bands, but although I can't remember the dates, the following stand out as memorable:

Thin Lizzy - Sophia Gardens

Psychadelic Furs - Cardiff Students Union

The Cure - Bristol Colston Hall

The Church - Munich, Leeds & London [Gold Afternon Fix Tour]

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - Cardiff Top Rank. My first ever "proper" gig and was blown away.

The Tourists -London Marquee

The Ramones - Paris

Mostly disappointed by some big names at Millenium stadium such as U2, Bowie, REM.

So many to choose from but if I had to pick my top 5 gigs over the last 50 years I would plump for and in no particular order:

The Moody Blues - every gig
Paul McCartney (1990's Olympia)
John Miles (1980's Colston Hall)
Jethro Tull (late 70's Capitol)
Wishbone Ash (late 70's Capitol)

Letdowns:
Clapton (Albert Hall mid 90's)
Queen (Castle and Capitol Cinema)

Stereophonics at Cardiff City stadium were great

Some great Gigs over the years:

Bay city rollers (capitol theatre Cardiff 1975 ish)
Hot chocolate (Capital theatre Cardiff mid 1970's)
Toyah Willcox (Top Rank Club Cardiff mid 1970's)
Adam and the ants (Top Rank club Cardiff 70'80's ?)
Kate Bush (lionheart Tour, London Palladium late 1970's/80's ?)
Mike Oldfield (Wembley areana 1980's)
Vangelis (Drury lane, London 1980's)
The Fall (Cardiff University 1980's)
Cliff Richard (Cardiff castle 1980's)

Gigs I wish I had seen live:

Eagles, ELO,Fleetwood Mack.

Queen at Wembley in 86. Got a ticket from Spillers records that cost about 25 quid including coach travel there & back. A bargain compared to today.
Deep Purple @ Knebworth around the same time, memorable because it started pissing down with rain as we crossed the Severn Bridge on our motorbikes & it didn't stop until half way through Meatloaf's set, which was awful due to his broken leg and no doubt pain meds.

Other notables were The Clash at the Glasgow Apollo and Sham69 with half of Sex Pistols also at the Glasgow Apollo, next to the stage after getting on the guest list & back at the hotel with them afterwards. There was chaos after between the crowd & the police and they couldn't get to the tour bus so a couple of us got them away from the chaos out front & led them to the hotel through the back streets & alleys. The Apollo was due to close down & the crowd started tearing the place apart and it degenerated from there.

Jock might remember the original Apollo if he's old enough, it was a dump.

Nirvana
Judas Priest
Iron Maiden
Scorpions

I lived in Camden Town for 15 years and been to Glastonbury over 20 times so have seen a lot a gigs but if I could only choose one it would be Pink Floyd at Earls Court and I was lucky enough to go twice. Just incredible.

I lived in Camden Town for 15 years and been to Glastonbury over 20 times so have seen a lot a gigs but if I could only choose one it would be Pink Floyd at Earls Court and I was lucky enough to go twice. Just incredible.

I've spoken to a few people who saw Pink Floyd at Earls Court and every single one of them have said the same as you. It must have been out of this world for everyone to say the same thing.

Oasis on opening night a couple of weeks ago was probably the best concert I’ve been to.
Bon Jovi on the bandstand outside Virgin Megastore was pretty good too!
First gig was Shakin Stevens in St David’s hall back in 82/83 I think - great memories!!

The Clash at Brixton Academy. Opened with London Calling. Nothing has ever come close to that for me

Oasis on opening night a couple of weeks ago was probably the best concert I’ve been to.
Bon Jovi on the bandstand outside Virgin Megastore was pretty good too!
First gig was Shakin Stevens in St David’s hall back in 82/83 I think - great memories!!

I was amazed at how good Oasis were after such a long break. Always been more of a Noel fan but Liam's voice was incredible.

I lived in Camden Town for 15 years and been to Glastonbury over 20 times so have seen a lot a gigs but if I could only choose one it would be Pink Floyd at Earls Court and I was lucky enough to go twice. Just incredible.

I've spoken to a few people who saw Pink Floyd at Earls Court and every single one of them have said the same as you. It must have been out of this world for everyone to say the same thing.

That's interesting to hear as it's always resonated with me as the best I've ever seen if I had to pick only one. They released the "Pulse" album of those shows too if you ever want to listen, it really was something else and on another level to anything else I've seen.

If you ever get chance, do see Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets as they do all the early stuff and they do it very well, next best thing to seeing the original line up doing it in the 60s

Last edited by GrangeEndStar on Sat Jul 19, 2025 6:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My first was Led Zeppelin, Greens Playhouse Glasgow about 1971/72. Was hard to top that.

My first was Led Zeppelin, Greens Playhouse Glasgow about 1971/72. Was hard to top that.

That must have been amazing, I'd love to see them. Tried to get tickets for their reunion gig a while back but a snowballs chance in hell of getting them.

I was at first night for Oasis last week, Knebworth for Queen, The Boss never fails to deliver. But 1979 Top Rank Madness Specials and The Selector. Best by far.

Difficult one as my music taste is as eclectic as my sock draw!

A few highlights for me were:

The Smiths Newport Centre
The Meteors at Neros
The Cult NEC
Depeche Mode Bristol Hippodrome
Spear of Destiny St Savids Hall
Billy Joel Millennium Stadium
Oasis Millennium Stadium

AC/DC (2009 & 2010)
Rammstein
Alice Cooper (What a show he puts on!)
Black Sabbath (2005)
Aerosmith (2010)
Eagles
Taylor Swift (Reputation and Era’s tours. I’m dead serious, surprisingly entertaining concerts)
Rage Against the Machine (2010)

Madness - Madstock, Finsbury Park 1992
Baking hot weather, thousands there caused an earth tremor.

More recently, Depeche Mode’s Memento Mori Tour was unbelievably good.

I was at that Slade gig, superb. Noddy dressed as Santa throwing stuff into the crowd

The Oasis gig at CIA with Manics as support was amazing, just after Morning Glory came out. Around the same time and same venue I saw Prodigy supported by Foo Fighters

Has to be Springsteen and the E Street Band, was lucky enough to see them at Wembley back in 85 and recently at the Principality, absolutely awesome, The Boss!

Top 3
Rory Gallager Cardiff Top Rank Sept 1980
Thin Lizzy Cardiff Capital Dec 1977
The Alarm Portsmouth Guildhall Apr 1985

Well seen some great bands,,,top ones all been mentioned....But Morty from Maerdy ..what a voice...we became big friends,,and The top guitarist Graham Williams....nobody better....They played all over Wales untill sadly Morty passed on...I still miss him....Racing Cars the name of band.....and another great live band.....The Saw Docters from Galway..brilliant

Bath festival of blues and progressive music 1970.
Performing over the weekend were..
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Santana
Steppenwolf
Canned Heat
Jefferson Airplane
Moody Blues
Byrds
John Mayall
Johnny Winter
Hawkwind
Colosseum
Flock
Plus a few lesser known bands that warmed the crowd up.

I am going to have a guess that you were never a New Romantic then Just a hunch

Status Quo Hammersmith Odeon 1984 (last night of 7 at the venue) 3 hours of rock heaven
Pearl Jam London O2 July 2018 over 3 hours of a band at the top of their powers, crowd was mental
Ozzy Osbourne Blizzard of Ozz first solo tour at Sophia Gardens 1980: God like !!

My first was Led Zeppelin, Greens Playhouse Glasgow about 1971/72. Was hard to top that.

That must have been amazing, I'd love to see them. Tried to get tickets for their reunion gig a while back but a snowballs chance in hell of getting them.

I think I was too young to appreciate what a big deal it was.

My first was Led Zeppelin, Greens Playhouse Glasgow about 1971/72. Was hard to top that.

That must have been amazing, I'd love to see them. Tried to get tickets for their reunion gig a while back but a snowballs chance in hell of getting them.

I think I was too young to appreciate what a big deal it was.

Well the main thing is that you were there, I've never seen LZ and would have loved to have done so.

My first "proper" gig at 13 was Motorhead on the Ave Up Your Sleeve tour, my ears rang in school all week, superb. Second was Sabbath on the H&H tour, amazing gigs and not a bad start I suppose.

My first was Led Zeppelin, Greens Playhouse Glasgow about 1971/72. Was hard to top that.

I know what you mean. I saw them on the same tour at the Capital in Cardiff. No support they just played for nearly 4 hours including the break. Incredible.

As a young lad I was in complete awe of Robert Plant and wanted to be like him. As a lifelong Barry Town fan I would have been astounded to know that many years later my child hood hero would be down Jenner Park watching Barry Town play ! (Think his lad was playing for the opposition)

Kendrick Lamar and Sza put on a great show at the MillStad last night! Great optics, a full show, if not a bit too much bass, and the crowd were brilliant!

Deaf Havana at the town hall islington.

Been a huge fan for years but it was the first time I got to see James and Matt live. Didn’t disappoint.

Sang along to every single song and left hoarse.

Massively underrated band imho. No fussed on their first album but everything else is brilliant.