Big gig regrets

This is for all non-EC or peripheral-EC topics. We all know how much we love talking about 'The Man' but sometimes we have other interests.
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DeathWearsABigHat
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Big gig regrets

Post by DeathWearsABigHat »

Hello.
I run a music podcast / blog with a couple of friends. It is called Trust the Wizards and recently on there we have been discussing The One That Got Away / The One That Keeps You Awake At Night. We mean the gig that you could / should have gone to but didn't.
See this article for more.
So what are your big regrets, the gigs you nearly went to.
Reply to this post or go to any of the links below.
Thanks.
Deathwearsabighat

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Who Shot Sam?
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

1986 - The Smiths are playing at the Universal Amphitheater in LA. I get in a fight with my sister over something stupid (can't remember anymore). In any case she ends up going with a friend, I stay home and never get to see Morrissey & Co. again.
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Jack of All Parades
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Same band-same year- same regret- your post has jarred a memory I have always tried to repress. Summer of 1986- rounding the corner from Fifth Ave with my wife- headed to Radio City Music Hall for my only chance to see this Band live. Begin to notice grumbling people walking the opposite way back from the area I am going- get to the box office and fully understand why they are grumbling. Morrissey has thrown a snit and cancelled the performance that evening due to supposed illness. Sans concert, sans makeup date, sans ever seeing them perform live!!!!!!
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by invisible Pole »

Ooh la la, guys, that really is something.
Just listened to "Strangeways, Here We Come" this morning and thought, "Oh my God, this is one of the greatest bands ever!"
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Truly, and guess who my biggest regret is? I've written it here many times over the years, but for me it was different. September '83, after a summer of seeing interviews with this bequiffed bigmouth telling us 'music is dead, literature is dead, films are dead, the only thing alive is The Smiths', I decided that when everyone else ran along to see them play (free of charge, I think) at the Birmingham University Guild of Students in Freshers week as I was about to embark on year two that I was going to a) avoid the annoying freshers who I had a whole year on and b) I was happily going to miss bigmouth (and sulk in my room, ironically). Their first national tour, by all accounts they were on fire throughout it, and within months I loved them. I'm sure I could have seen them in Birmingham after that, but never did. Seen Moz x 3 since and Marr just recently.

I could have seen Jeff Buckley at the 850 capacity venue The Junction here in Cambridge. Apparently that was a bit special.

I don't know if I really regret keeping away from Bowie on the Serious Moonlight tour. May or June '83, Birmingham NEC. I'd been pretty well fanatical about Bowie for most of the previous 10 years, with no chance to see him, so by rights should have been dying to see him, but a) everyone was going, he'd become Mr Mass Entertainment, and all these fools who knew nothing past the hits of all his classic 70s work were all signing up without a second thought and b) Let's Dance was overcooked commercial pap sung by an unthinkably wankerish looking Bowie with an awful peroxide cut and a godawful suit. Was this really the man who three years previous had stunned the world with the genius of Ashes to Ashes? I suppose I should have, but at least I've seen him twice since. First time was with Moz in notorious support slot before he left the tour.

Tom Waits, Bjork, tail end of Talking Heads. If only I'd seen Joy Division, but the Channel Islands weren't on the itinerary.

There must be tons of others who I could have seen as a student, or if I'd really tried in the 90s or whatever. As a student you're generally too broke to see much, and in the 90s as a new dad struggling to make ends meet a fair bit, it wasn't easy. I really got back into gig going in the 2000s. I now try and get to anything I know I would really regret not seeing, which often means travelling to London or Birmingham, e.g. to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse. I can't justify going to more than one Elvis show per tour, though, which is sad given how little he played here between 2005 and 2012.
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by sheeptotheslaughter »

I suppose the band that really springs to mind is Nirvana. Although I'm not a massive fan. A couple of friends of mine often used to go and see them when they toured with Mudhoney and Tad. Sadly there was always something I was doing at the time and I could never make it. This was a while before they became the massive band they turned out to be.


Talking of Bowie I have seen him three times The Serious Moonlight tour at Milton Keynes, which was pretty good although I understand the reservations about him being Mr mass entertainment at the time. The Glass Spider tour at Wembley stadium which was very ordinary and at the London Arena when he played the Sound and Vision tour. Just him, guitar, bass and drums and that was in my top three gigs of all time.


I cant think of many other of my favourite bands I have missed and would like to see. I was lucky enough to see The Smiths on at least three occasions.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

One for every one of the three regrets above! Could you indulge me/us and tells us where and when they were and how they compared?

Back to Bowie, Glass Spider wasn't even in my consciousness as something I might attend, but I think Sound + Vision was. I was in Madrid at the time, but I think if he played there, I was travelling. Were there no keyboards even?

Two other Cambridge gigs I wish I'd seen: Radiohead touring The Bends. A friend saw them a year previously with Pablo Honey, said they were OK but nothing special. When they came back and unveiled their new sound, prowess and album, they nearly blew the roof off. He said it was an incredible transformation. I didn't see them till In Rainbows, which was a brilliant show. and Ron Sexsmith's first UK tour, he played a tiny venue, The Boat Race, I know two people who went and raved about it. Wish I'd been an early adopter. Still, I've seen him c. 8 times since.
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Who Shot Sam?
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Back to Bowie, Glass Spider wasn't even in my consciousness as something I might attend
I attended, and it almost put me off Bowie permanently. Then I saw him at Queens College after Heathen was released and it blew my socks off.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Brill. Where is Queens College? How big?
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by pophead2k »

I've never seen Springsteen and passed on three opportunities: solo on The Ghost of Tom Joad tour in a relatively small theater (same place I caught Bowie on his final, brilliant tour) and twice in Greensboro, NC. Missed my chance to see him with Clarence and Danny. Sigh....
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Who Shot Sam?
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Brill. Where is Queens College? How big?
In Queens, NY. Tiny - basically a college auditorium.


http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/david-bow ... c4482.html
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sheeptotheslaughter
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by sheeptotheslaughter »

Back to Bowie, Glass Spider wasn't even in my consciousness as something I might attend, but I think Sound + Vision was. I was in Madrid at the time, but I think if he played there, I was travelling. Were there no keyboards even?

There may have been but I cant remember them. Perhaps one of the band or Bowie himself played them at times. But it just seemed to be four of them. 1990 was along time ago. I think Adrian Belew was on guitar.
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DeathWearsABigHat
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Re: Big gig regrets

Post by DeathWearsABigHat »

hey folks, thanks for all your comments. We gave you a shout out in our most recent podcast. (podcast number 8 )
you can download it at http://trustthewizards.wordpress.com
"trust the wizards, here we go" http://www.trustthewizards.com
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