My top twenty gigs – The best gigs I’ve been to in fifty years of gigging!

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I thought it would be interesting to reflect back over the years and look at the best gigs I’ve ever been to. I also thought I’d limit myself to one per artist.

I’m not putting these in any particular order – just as they come to mind. I’ll try and remember the year but that’s from memory.

  1. Roy Harper – St Pancras Town Hall circa 1969
  2. Captain Beefheart – The Rainbow – circa 1972
  3. Jimi Hendrix Experience – Woburn Abbey – circa 1970
  4. Doors – Roundhouse – circa 1969
  5. Nick Harper – Leeds – circa 2004
  6. Son House – Hammersmith Odeon – circa 1968
  7. Cream – Windsor Jazz And Blues Festival – circa 1967
  8. Pink Floyd – Fismongers Arms – circa 1969
  9. Ian Dury – Bridlington Spa – circa 1978
  10. Bo Diddley – Hull – circa 1981
  11. Jackson C Frank – The Angel Ilford – circa1970
  12. White Stripes – Bridlington Spa – circa 2000
  13. Incredible String Band – Roundhouse U performance – circa 1973
  14. Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac – The Toby Jug – circa 1969
  15. Crosby Stills Nash – Sheffield – circa 2008
  16. Rolling Stones – Sheffield Arena – circa 2000
  17. Family – Mecca Ilford – circa 1971
  18. Jimmy Reed – London club – circa 1970
  19. The Birds (British) – Walton Palais – circa 1964
  20. Elvis Costello – York – circa 1990
  21. North Mississippi Allstars – York – circa 2013
  22. The Fall – Hull Well Club – circa 2009
  23. Billy Bragg – Hull Trades and Labour club – 1979
  24. Them (with Van Morrison) – Walton Palais – circa 1964
  25. Taste – some festival – circa 1969

Those dates are approximate. There were hundreds of other memorable gigs but today those are the ones that jumped out at me. Ho hum. I’m bound to remember a few great ones I missed out!

17 thoughts on “My top twenty gigs – The best gigs I’ve been to in fifty years of gigging!”

  1. I admire and appreciate your love of intelligent music! Do you play any instruments yourself sunshine superman?

    1. Thanks Andrew – I wish. I’ve got ten fingers that resemble sausages, two ears that operate like those two tins connected with string, and a brain that thinks in words. I tried the guitar. You practice and your brain rewires – except mine didn’t. I know when to call it a day. But I play guitar in my mind! How about you?

  2. Andi’s probably too modest to say so, but he is, in my estimation a fine 6 and 12-string guitarist, though he has the reputation of singing along with Roy at his gigs, which a number of fellow-Stormcockers have been less than impressed with 🙂

    Here’s mine: All Knebworth dates between 1970-74. Other dates approximate, if known at all. No particular order after the top Ten

    1. Roy and Vinegar Joe/Elkie Brooks supporting Free at Stevenage College, June 1970. Free were of course magnificent, but to mind Roy blew everyone off the stage with ‘White Man’ and ‘Me and my Woman’
    2. Double Header of Nick at a small club off Old Street, London, the night before Roy’s 70th birthday gig at Royal Festival Hall
    3. Roy’s ‘Man and Myth’ tour gig at Colston Hall, Bristol
    4. Roy’s gig at Metropolis Studios, Chiswick, filmed for the Sky Arts series ‘Legends’
    5. Roy’s 4 residencies over 2 weeks at De Barras, Clonakilty
    6. Roy’s 4 residencies over 2 weeks at 100 Club, London. He repeated the format the next year with each gig highlighting a major work – McGoohan’s Blues, Me and My Woman, Same Old Rock and the complete ‘One of those Days in England’
    7. Pink Floyd at the Royal Albert Hall, using a 3-D sound system with Roger Waters on Azimuth Co-ordinator and premiering ‘Dark Side’
    8. Jethro Tull at the Rainbow Theatre
    9. Led Zeppelin at Knebworth Festival
    10. Rolling Stones at Knebworth Festival
    11. Genesis at Knebworth Festival
    12. Carlos Santana at Camden, New Jersey, 2000
    13. Incredible String Band at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London for ‘U’ (SNAP!!!)
    14. Leonard Cohen – 40th birthday gig at Royal Albert Hall
    15. Pink Floyd at Earls Court – Wish you were Here tour
    16. Peter Gabriel, Earls Court 1997 and again at O2 London 2014
    16. Richard Thompson solo at An Griannon Theatre, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal 2001
    17. Richard and Linda Thompson, UEA Norwich, 1973
    18. Captain Beefheart, UEA Norwich, 1973
    19. Joni Mitchell+CSNY at Wembley Stadium
    20. Robert Plant and the Incredible Space-Shifters, Cambridge, 2014
    21. Nick Harper at Hertford Corn Exchange (several)
    22. David Bowie, Earls Court 1996. So effin loud that we retired to the concession stands area for a better listening experience 🙂
    23. Paul Simon, Birmingham NEC 1990-ish. Rhythm of the Saints tour
    24. Nick in a small backroom of a bar in Ballybofey, Co. Donegal 2003. 10 people in the audience and I got to buy him a pint and had a nice chat with him afterwards
    25. Roy with Daevid Allen, 2000 at the North Star Bar, Philadelphia
    26. Counting Crows, the Roundhouse London, 2014

    1. I was there with Joni, the Band and Neil Young!! I was there with Nick in that bar before the Festival Hall too!! You must be following me around.

      1. You lucky bugger – you got to the Metropolis. I wanted to go to that! I saw Leonard Cohen in Birmingham and he was brilliant. I missed out Traffic and the Nice they were both brilliant – and Edgar Broughton!

  3. I knew I’d missed at least one more:

    Johnny Winter somewhere in London, 1970

    Hawkwind, Bowes Lyon Youth Centre, Stevenage 1970 A seemingly endless set. 2 songs, one 10 minutes long. The second song just went on…..and on……and on. Illicit substances may have been involved 😉

    The Pretenders, Cambridge Corn Exchange, 1996-ish

    Roy’s Metropolis gig was courtesy of Andi W who managed to get hold of a couple of tickets. My name is included on the DVD. Andi’s wasn’t, lol

    I repaid the favour by driving us both over to Clon for the De Barras gigs, and nearly got us stranded there but for a magical Irish car mechanic who obviously had a PhD in Macrame as applied to engine plumbing 🙂

    1. Oh it’s endless – where do you draw the line. The Beefheart gig in 1967 at Middle Earth was another – I might tell the story of that! Then there was Roy at Ewell Tech – that’s another story! Fleetwood Mac and Tull at the Toby Jug. The Floyd and Blossom Toes on Eel-pie Island – Edgar Broughton in Hyde Park …………………………………………………………………………….

  4. Ian Dury at Bridlington – what a great concert.
    Just listened to New boots and panties on vinyl.

    Cheers
    John

    1. Yep – I loved them all plus a load more. I’ve spent a lot of time at gigs. Hope you are enjoying being home!

    1. Hi Paul – There’s no Dylan there only because I was never there at the really good ones. I’ve seen him five times and he has ranged from dismal to very good. The Sheffield one about thirteen years ago was the best I’ve seen but even that wouldn’t rate in my top thirty. Bob is right up there as the very best singer/songwriter and performer – if only I’d caught him back in 63, 64, 65 or 66 he’d have been top of my list. I think even Rolling Thunder would have done it!

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