1) Radiohead Glastonbury 1997 - the best gig of all time and rightly so. I was by the left hand side of main sound tent and had enough space to actually dance and see the stage. Perfect. When they turned the lights out the darkness was absolute, and then they turned the stage lights on and it seemed as if we were all just floating in space as the music drifted over. Awesome experience. A truly mystical experience.
2) Blind Melon Reading Festival 1995 - a week later the lead singer Shannon Hoon died of a heroin overdose. You could tell he was high on stage as he kept throwing the microphones into the ceiling rigging then snapping them, but what a show. A real classic performance.
3)Primal Scream Glastonbury 1991 - the album Screamadelica had come out and me and me mates were fans. So I went to see Primal Scream and what a gig. A moment of history.
4) Soundgarden Reading Festival 1995 - what a show ! When they did Waiting for the Sun by The Doors and followed it with Black Hole Sun and I was blown away. As a major Doors fan this was a true moment.
5) Rage Against The Machine - Reading 1995 - what performance - raw power and passion. superb. We rocked out.
6) Aerosmith and Jimmy Page - Donnington 1990 - superb show. The moment that Concorde flew over the stage as Aerosmith began to play was timed to perfection.
7) The Stone Roses and Manic Street Preachers at Wembley Arena 29th December 1995 - the last gig Roses with Squires in the band and the first Manics gig since Richey vanished. What a night - pure history.
8) Pink Floyed - Knebworth - 1990 - lasers, lights and floyd. Yep, it was a great show.
9) REM with Blur - Milton JKenyes Bowl - 1995 - Blur and then REM - the heat and the sun, a torrid day with a perfect summer evening gig.
10) U2 - Numb Tour - Wembley - the ultimate rock gig and spectacle - The Nuremberg Rally of rock complete with searchlights reaching into the sky.
11) Manic Street Preachers Brockwell Park -1994 - The first time they played songs from the Holy Bible album which I reckon is the greatest rock album of all time. As soon as I heard them I knew I was hearing history - I think they played Faster, Motorcycle Emptiness, P.C.P and You Love Us amongst others. Great day taking the piss out of the lefties and the SWP whilst seeing one of the best British rock bands of all time, though now not so great without Richey Edwards.
12) The Levellers - Glastonbury 1991 - baking hot festival then followed by riots with police. Great show. Watched Excalibur on an outdoor screen as dawn rising - great night.
13) James - Glastonbury 1990 - what a set and a show. Also at same gig I saw The Cure and Happy Mondays and real Glastonbury moment when during the Hothouse Flowers gig they were singing 'I can see clearly now the rain has gone' and the first ray of sun for the entire festival (which had been a mud bath) broke through the clouds and illuminated the day.
14) White Zombie - Reading Rock Festival 1995 - awesome performance from a band that rocked so hard that the mosh sent a dust clod up that drifted above the stage - it was like the soundtrack to the apocalypse.
15) Smashing Pumpkins - Glastonbury 1997 - superb gig from one of the greatest bands of all time.
16) Arab Strap - Brighton Festival in either 1997 0r 1996 I think - walked into a tent and saw them live - what a great performance - real power.
17) Green Day - Reading Festival - 1995 - superb show.
18) Bjork - Reading Festival - 1995 - what a performance - real magical stage effects and illusions - superb performer live.
19) Beck - Glastonbury 1997 - superb show from the true artist Beck.
20) Beth Orton - Glstonbury 1997 - great acoustic performance.
21) Other great bands seen live are nationalist bands such as Eye Of Odin, Celtic Warrior, Sleipnir (German band) and especially the bands at the Mersea Island gig when the old Medway lot camped out for the weekend.
22) Plant and Page - Knebworth 1990 - covered Led Zepplin tracks 'Rock and Roll' and others - brilliant.
24) Hole - Reading - two years before Kurt and Nirvanha had played on the same stage, the Kurt killed himself. Then Hole played the same stage a year later. Intense.
25) Foo Fighters - Reading festival 1995 - almost killed in tent by crush of crowd.
26) Paw - Reading festival 1995 - great gig in tent.
Lee, I normally agree with much of what you write but Radiohead?
ReplyDeletePompous, tedious, morose, whiny, teenager sulking in bedroom guitar dirge.
I saw RATM at Reading a few years later. it was one of their last gigs before they split. It was incredible. Other highlights include Lost Prophets at Reading the next year, GNR at Leeds and Slayer and Ozzy at Ozzfest.
ReplyDeleteinteresting tastes lee, got me thinking about my fav gigs which brought back some good memories. Alice Cooper in 1986, The Dammned in 1978. Generation terrorists is he best MSP album though.
ReplyDeleteinteresting tastes lee, got me thinking about my fav gigs which brought back some good memories. Alice Cooper in 1986, The Dammned in 1978. Generation terrorists is he best MSP album though.
ReplyDeleteI dont know what it was about the Glastonbury Radiohead gig, but it was just superb.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I got back to the tent I was raving about how good it was. Two of the lads went to see The Chemical Brothers in the dance tent instead of seeing the Radiohead gig and I was ripping it out of them.
If you have the pull out poster from Loaded magazine I think it was of the aerial shot of the gig, you can see our tents in top right hand corner around a bonfire.
Radiohead have done 2 superb albums and then a load of crap. But that night when they played the best tracks from The Bends and Ok Computer, well it was awesome. A band at the peak of their game with the best albums of their career.
I was there. Believe the hype, the gig that night was really that good.
It deserved to be voted 'The best gig of all time' by Q magazine.
I would love to have seen the Damned play - New Rose, what a great song.
Also I would love to have seen Black Flag - what a band they were.
My mates ex-missus was at Donnington 1988 when 2 people died at the Guns and Roses gig - they were a great live band.
The Prodigy and Albannach are two bands that do it for me. Never been to a live gig before. I hate crowds..
ReplyDeleteVery interesting Lee. Much better reading about the real Lee Barnes behind the politics, instead of you slagging off good nationalists at the behest of Gri££in.
ReplyDeleteMore like this please.
I too thought I was gonna die in that tent at Reading '95 whilst watching the Foo Fighters, just kept having thoughts of the Hillsborough disaster. It was a near run thing, insane not to put them on the main stage.
ReplyDelete