First Gig ?

I'll get the ball rolling with......

Motorhead.....

...no kidding, the No Sleep til Hammersmith tour back in 1980ish. My uncle took me when i was about nine or ten.

Still having trouble hearing today...

My first gig was Manfred Mann's Earth Band in about 1978. No particular reason, I didn't know them at the time (except for a couple of singles, Davy's on the Road again and Blinded by the Light) but they happened to be playing locally (Bradford) when i started going to gigs. I really wanted to see Peter Gabriel but didn't achieve that ambition till last year.

Never saw Motorhead, but (potentially embarrassing but I still love 'em anyway) I saw Hawkwind loads in the early 80s...

I can see this could be quite cathartic. Confession anyone ? (mind you that could be a whole new thread !)

Hehe.
My second gig waas Bill Nelson's Red Noise (for the simliar reasons to the first but seem to remember it was quite good). Now whatever happened to Bill Nelson's Red Noise I wonder?

Depeche Mode (Black Celebration tour)

Manchester Apollo

12th April 1986

Stalls PP15

I still have the ticket

Lowgold at the Edinburgh Venue in March 2001 I was 15

Had recently started my obsession with music and was going to anything I could! Supported by BraveCaptain and ballboy - who became the first band I saw live. An odd one, that!

Ahh, those were the days. I remember going with a mate who was much 'cooler' that me and he bought us some Bacardi Breezers... hmm...

My first proper gig was some lairy ska thing in my hometown, Yeovil.
It was in 2001, and I was 13.
I skanked all night to some horrendous Specials covers, and drank a lot of beer.

I think it was Ralph McTell. Yes, Ralph McTell, of "Streets of London" fame. Or it may have been Fred Wedlock. Ask yer (gran)dad.

My dad used to run a folk club in the early '80s, so the first 100 or so gigs I saw were bearded blokes (and women) with their fingers in their ears singing about how the harvest failed in 1873 and Mary Malone ran off with a sailor.

Other than the usual local bands, the first big gigs I went to were either Radiohead or the Manics at Cambridge Junction in 1992. I used to go and see bands all the time when I was 18 or 19, but I honestly can't remember the last live band I saw ... I think it was The Who Boys (google them) last year - but I know them, so that doesn't really count. I'm determined to see Elbow one of these days though!

MrsMagicalTrevor wrote:

Depeche Mode (Black Celebration tour)

would've liked to have seen that!

I know my sad Adam Ant story inspired you to start this thread, ChrissyBoy...glad I could help!

The Ants weren't my first gig though...it was actually the Who, on one of their many "farewell" tours, in 1982.

Mine was Journey. I know, I know.

I was probably 13 or 14 and went with my first real boyfriend. We were madly in love and it was very romantic. *snicker*

Mine was Judie Tzuke (!) at the Manchester Apollo in about 1984 I think

Topaz wrote:

Mine was Journey. I know, I know.

I was probably 13 or 14 and went with my first real boyfriend. We were madly in love and it was very romantic. *snicker*

Journey? Heh! Top THIS embarrassing admission...

oh...GROAN...Rush. Yes, I admitted it - Rush!
BLECCH! I'd been sort of into them for about 6 months, and was mad for a boy that I knew loved them, so we went. And it was actually the show itself that turned me off them forever. Just so...dull, and manufactured, and pompous, and bloated. And so, it turned out, was the boy.
To this day, I cannot listen to a single song of theirs. Probably because they suck. (hope I'm not offending anyone...)

But my next show? Springsteen, baby! 1980, The River tour. I was so amazed at the realization of what it's really supposed to feel like, and sound like - such a polar opposite of my Rush experience.
Saw Bruce just about a week and a half ago, and though he's a lot older (as am I...) and can't slide across the stage as he used to, he is no less capable of whipping an audience into a joyous frenzy that lasts nearly 3 hours. Love him!

Red Hot Chili Peppers at London Hyde Park - STUNNING to a 15 year old gig-virgin!

And WOW, RUSH! That must've rocked... shame it wasn't for you

My first gig - Hawkwind, Manchester Apollo, 1979.
Saw them there loads of times in the few years following that (I was a big fan)

Quote :

oh...GROAN...Rush. Yes, I admitted it - Rush!
BLECCH! I'd been sort of into them for about 6 months, and was mad for a boy that I knew loved them, so we went. And it was actually the show itself that turned me off them forever. Just so...dull, and manufactured, and pompous, and bloated. And so, it turned out, was the boy.
To this day, I cannot listen to a single song of theirs. Probably because they suck. (hope I'm not offending anyone...)

I saw Rush (Permanent Waves Tour) at the Manchester Apollo. Excellent gig, but then I'm a prog fan so 2112, Xanadu etc all went down very well with me . Horses for courses as they say.

Saw Alice Cooper at about the same time (early 80's) again at the Manchester Apollo.I went there quite a lot as a kid.

Best early gig I went to was Pink Floyd The Wall at Earls Court in London.......


....but now I'm just showing off

:O well your showing off is sure working on me

Quote :

My first gig - Hawkwind, Manchester Apollo, 1979.
Saw them there loads of times in the few years following that (I was a big fan)

I probably saw you at some stage in the early 80s then.

Aw, Rush was another guilty pleasure of mine.

Coldplay at Crystal Palace Athletics Stadium 27th June 2005

Support from Morning Runner and Supergrass.

I was 16...quite late I guess in the scheme of things but I have made up for it since then!

Ted wrote:

Coldplay at Crystal Palace Athletics Stadium 27th June 2005

I was at that gig and it was my first, and possibly last stadium gig. Think I only managed to see the band once!

First gig was The Stranglers on April 4th 1980 at The Rainbow (had to look up the date). Support was from Joy Division with Ian Curtis suffering an epileptic seizure during the final song. The Stranglers were without frontman Hugh Cornwall who was in Pentonville prison for drug possession. Singing duties were taken up by Ian Dury, Hazel O'Conner, Toyah Wilcox and various other top punk stars of the day.

Athlete - Bristol Academy

*shudder*

I saw Joseph Arthur at the Oxford zodiac, I was absolutely blown away - the friend I went with later told me she was so bored she nearly fell asleep standing up. Well, I tried!

Damnit al, you too hip for me!

I still like Athlete though!

Gosh, first concert...can't remember for sure, maybe it was that concert of a funkrockband back in the mid eighties. I even met the singer after the concert (because my brother in law knew him). Second concert might have been that folkrock coverband who translated some tracks into German.
If I wasn't from East Germany I might have seen Led Zeppelin on their last tour through Germany in 1980...(at least if they would have let in a 12 year old...)
But my first HUGE concert must have been that east german rock festival 1988 with Marillion (still with Fish!), Fisher Z, Bryan Adams and other quite known bands...
My first concert in the "golden West" was Bon Jovi...

huh wrote:

Athlete - Bristol Academy

*shudder*

Mine was Therapy? in the Ulster Hall in Belfast on their "Teethgrinder" tour, still one of my best memories ever - i was also deaf for three days after!!