Most disappointing gig you've been to

I've been to a lot of gigs in my time.

I've been to the last 9 Glastonbury Festivals - 2002-05, 07-11 and have been lucky enough to see some of my musical heroes on a grand, magical stage, sometimes several times.

I digress. The most disappointing artist I've ever seen live is Bob Dylan at the Don Valley in Sheffield, about 8-9 years ago.

In my student days my friends and I idolised Bob. The number of times we sat around in our rocking chairs, getting monged and singing along to early Bob albums, I couldn't even come close to recounting.

Anyway when I saw him in Sheffield, he played 2 acoustic tracks all night, he played a load of obscure album tracks with heavy arrangements and his voice was absolutely awful. He sounded ill. Having had such joy with his recorded work, I was crestfallen. I remember getting the last train back across the Pennines sometimes after midnight with an empty feeling, wishing I hadn't bothered. I lost my reverence for Bob that night.

Have you ever been to a concert with high expectations, only to see them shat on from a great height?

I haven't had that experience - even when overseas-based acts perform in Jamaica, they are usually advised as to the songs they should do so as to not "flop". Kenny Rogers came here with his songsheets and had to scrap them halfway through when the audience started telling him what he should sing. He had no previous idea that his song "Write Your Name" was a huge hit here and his band had not even rehearsed the song with him. Celine Dion was here a few weeks ago and was a resounding success and Air Supply doesn't need to sing anymore when they come here. They just tell the audience what song is next - or play the opening bars and the audience takes over from there. A good time is had by all!

Bob Dylan is/was a brilliant songwriter but did not have the best singing voice and his live performances were often a disappointment to his fans.

There was a discussion on Key103 the other day and Dylan was rated as the worst live performer and Blur as the worst band.

Anyone remember a group called 'Whale'. They were one hit wonders from Sweden back in the mid-nineties.

Their big hit was 'Hobo Humpin Hobo Babe' which seemed to be on MTV 24 hours a day.

Anyway, my friends and I were convinced they were going to be the next Beatles and this gig at Manchester Boardwalk was going to be a defining moment in pop history.

It was absolute shite. The lead singer couldn't sing and actually gave up halfway through a couple of the songs to play a childs toy flute.

Words cannot describe how bad it was.

Reebok Trotter wrote:
There was a discussion on Key103 the other day and Dylan was rated as the worst live performer and Blur as the worst band.

A friend of mine saw Blur at the G-Mex about 10 years ago and says they were terrible.

I saw Blur headline Glastonbury 2009. My mate and I were knackered, so we decided to try to calculate how far down the hill we could be in our camping chairs. The main stage at Glastonbury is on a natural amphitheatre, a flat bit at the front followed by a gradually sloping hill.

Anyway we got there during Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, found a really sparse bit about a third of the way up, had something to eat, and sat and enjoyed the sun set with a few alternative cigarettes.

Nick Cave finished, it went dark, and during the half an hour between his set and Blur, the area around us got more and more busy and there were people stood all around us. I was stubborn and monged and didn't want to get up. Eventually we realised we had no choice, but I was in the middle of constructing a rather large herbal cigarette.

All of a sudden, Blue came on and started performing "Girls and Boys". Everyone around us went nuts, jumping up and down, and we were 3 feet below it all, laughing our asses off at our stupidity. Needless to say, we got the cigarette built, jumped up quickly, collapsed our chairs, and watched the little extra space that created quickly fill with jumping bodies.

As for the gig.... they were terrific! The highlight was Phil Daniels from EastEnders charging on to the stage during Parklife to do his 'Confidence is a preference' spoken bit. It was totally unexpected, manic, energetic and brilliant! Some fat middle aged bloke having the time of his life granddad dancing.

Girls and Boys -
https://www.youtube.com/watchv=RjIgTCxYSIc&feature=fvst

Parklife -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mouFZd0mkl8

Maybye the 'alternative cigarettes' had something to do with it?

When i was like 13/14 i was well into "punk" i.e crap Pop Punk and i saw the band "A" a total of 7 times.

i went to see craig david at the m.e.n. arena and it was pants.

I saw Meatloaf at the Apollo in the early eighties before the days when he needed oxygen between songs. Also saw Chris Rea at G-Mex in Manchester. He performed non stop for an hour and a half and sounded just like he does in the recording studio.

Jon Bon Jovi at Old Trafford was a great concert.

I had the opportunity to go and watch Pink at the Reebok a couple of years ago but couldn't make it. I do regret it because my mates told me she was brilliant.

I've been to a lot of gigs in my time though not so much recently. I always hated the big open air festivals. The sound and everything else was usually awful, the weather could be bad and even travel was often a nightmare. Why did I go? To see a lot of bands and/or to see acts that weren't playing anywhere else. Plus sometimes the atmosphere and the music did compensate. After a while I stopped going to open air gigs. I can remember some good ones like the Isle of Wight in 1970 and the Beach Boys at Wembley Stadium in 1975 but the bad ones are a bit of a blur (no pun intended).

Elbow, got the tickets as a present, saw the first few songs at the MEN.Decided it wasn't for me and went on the beer round Downtown Manchester with my Daughter. Had a great night.

Good for you, Banks of the Croal. Elbow ate very talented and fairly original but completely naff. I can't understand the mass appeal.

Went watching Feeder at the Leadmill in Sheffield, the tickets said it was Feeder a but they had reformed as a new band called Renegade, and they just played songs all night that no one knew or had even heard before. It was shit.

Best gig was the Manics at the Millennium Stadium and at the o2 arena a couple of month's ago (The day we played Fulham away).

Paul Weller at Utrecht.

It didn't go on long enough.



But annoying the stoned Geordies that we were with made up for it.

I got them trying to say... "a canny bag o' tudor" with a joint in their gob.

Quite entertaining.

What is the difference between a Kangaroo and a Kangaroo?









A Kangaroo of course is an animal,

A Kangaroot is what a Geordie says when he gets stuck in a lift!