Gig Behaviour

What's the worst gig you have been to for the behaviour of audience. I want to call the audience fans, but what I've seen recently dismays me.

Reverend and the Makers were supporting Kasabian recently and at the gig I went to in Sheffield, the amount of drinks thrown onto stage whilst Rev were on was unbelievable and Sheffield is their home town. One nearly full pint of beer must have hit the drummer. The amount of body surfing going on was on and off throughout the night.

I so enjoyed the recent MUSE gig there and their fans really brilliant. As were the crowd I've seen at ELBOW gigs.

Whats the best / worst you've been to?

I saw Elvis Costello back in the late 80's. Apparently, the only songs that many of the audience were familiar with were earlier hits that had been on MTV, so they kept yelling out for those songs during every other song he played. Elvis was up there, trying to get through newer material from King of America and Spike, but all you could hear were drunken dipsticks yelling, "PLAY PUMP IT UP, DUDE!" Elvis was not amused, though he did a good job of performing anyway.

Well I remember that ruthless short haired teenage boys pushing and shove to the first row at the Bon Jovi concert in Hamburg in 1989. Those kids even were'nt even from the eastern block like me but acted like they have a special right for the first row
But still it was a great concert for me and if it was only because it was my first concert in the golden west...
And the audience at Mumiy Troll were a bit strange and not very nice to the opening act. But mostly I had no problems with anti-fans. Even at New Model Army-concerts it is possible by now to stand at least near the first row without getting pogoed down because the folks get older
Best concert from Audience side must have been that Peter Gabriel-concert Berlin 2003 where the "aahyee" shant from "Animal Nation" even made it to the encore part.

WOBLEwoble wrote:

What's the worst gig you have been to for the behaviour of audience. I want to call the audience fans, but what I've seen recently dismays me.

Reverend and the Makers were supporting Kasabian recently and at the gig I went to in Sheffield, the amount of drinks thrown onto stage whilst Rev were on was unbelievable and Sheffield is their home town.

Probably not Reverend and the Makers fans. The behaviour you describe seems to be an unfortuate trait amongst Kasabian fans.
Take this recent review in The Guardian, for example.

A lot of the problems at gigs seems to involve people who have drunk too much. There is some talk at the moment about restricting the sale of alcohol at some venues. There was a piece about this on Northwest Tonight a couple of weeks ago, in the aftermath of Morrissey getting hit by a bottle at the Liverpool Arena. There is a fear that artistes won't want to play at certain venues in case they get struck. I think they had a valid point.

The worst gig for behaviour I've been to HAS to be the Elbow MEN Arena gig, where my enjoyment of the evening was RUINED by all these daft so-and-so's in Mexican hats who obscured the view. Shame on them all.

Mr Woman wrote:

WOBLEwoble wrote:

What's the worst gig you have been to for the behaviour of audience. I want to call the audience fans, but what I've seen recently dismays me.

Reverend and the Makers were supporting Kasabian recently and at the gig I went to in Sheffield, the amount of drinks thrown onto stage whilst Rev were on was unbelievable and Sheffield is their home town.

Probably not Reverend and the Makers fans. The behaviour you describe seems to be an unfortuate trait amongst Kasabian fans.
Take this recent review in The Guardian, for example.

A lot of the problems at gigs seems to involve people who have drunk too much. There is some talk at the moment about restricting the sale of alcohol at some venues. There was a piece about this on Northwest Tonight a couple of weeks ago, in the aftermath of Morrissey getting hit by a bottle at the Liverpool Arena. There is a fear that artistes won't want to play at certain venues in case they get struck. I think they had a valid point.

I was hoping the thread would open up general comment about gigs we have been to - not means to comment about the gig I went to.

BUT to back up my opener - The throwing stopped when Kasabian came on. My daughter has attended two other Kasabian gigs on the recent tour and behaviour e.g. drinks/objects thrown did not happen whilst Kas were on.

Stuart Maconie in his RT article about the Morrissey incident, believes that "behaviour at gigs has got worse over recent years. ' He quotes an example: A woman should be able to sit in the front row of London Wainwright concert in Birmingham symphony hall without being punched in the face by a drunk man, as happened a couple of years back.

Perhaps Stuart has a point in his article - it is not so much the artist - more the organisers of the venues and mainly the male audience having more money to spend on gigs because there is so much illegal downloading of music.

I've gone off thread ... a bit ...


BACK TO MY ORIGINAL OPENER: What is the best/worst gig audience you have been in?

Rolling Stones - Nice (i.e. in France - not pleasant!) - mid 80's. I had a bag of urine dropped over my back. It had been making the rounds of the gentlemen (!) at the front of the crowd and I was unlucky enough to have it deposited all over me. Fortunately there were water cannons at the front of the stage as it was so hot, so I got hosed down.

I've been to a few punk gigs in the early 80s which were a bit nasty - but you knew what to expect.

To be honest I have never had a really bad experience at a gig, thankfully. I have to say that the Super Furries gig this summer in London had a brilliant chilled out crowd though, definately the nicest audience I have experienced in many a year.

I've not really experienced anything untoward but we did go to a Simply Red gig back in the early 90's where Mick Hucknall stopped half way through a song and said to two idiots having a fist fit, to stop or get out. He didn't put it quite in those terms, but it did the trick.
There was a lot of jostling at the Franz gig at the Brixton Academy, but I held my own. One girl was trying to push her way through to the front but we were so packed in, I had no where to go. Takes alot to shift me, anyway.
Hubby was at a Police gig in the early 80's that had to be abandonned because a load of skin heads invaded the stage.

I think it must depend on where you stand. I aim for the side/front where there have never been any probs. Even at the Kasabian gig I had a brilliant time.

Hear of many gigs where the middle front gets very squashy but that prob has always been there. I remember a gig (Walker Brothers - way way back when!) where I was at the front in front of Scott - no barrier then so you were right up against the stage. Now that was tight ! Loved every minute of it.

Basement Jaxx at Birmingham 02 Acad back in the summer. Again there were a few pints thrown on the stage and bottles and a couple of younger lads almost broke out into a fist fight with all the pushing and shoving. Apart from that the atmosphere was such a great party one, we just danced ourselves stupid all night long completely squashed trying to ignore it. Very entertaining!