Okay, well, I'll count gigs I went to plus live performances on TV, but I only include live performances on TV so I can include the Boomtown Rats and James Taylor.
Rolf Harris; I saw this guy (an Australian whose lived in the UK for years and has presented kid's TV and other programmes) reduce a circus tent with 3,000 people in in, and the crowd of about 10,000 round the tent, to sheer hysteria; the emotion coming of the audience was making everyones' eyes run behind the stage. Don't ask me why. He's a nice old guy people remember from growing up, and it sure as hell is nothing to do with his music. Weird. It was at Glastonbury though, so go figure.
Patti Smith; I want her to be my Ma. She's devine. Never seen anyone walk on stage and OWN the audience. She then scowled into the press pit, slagged us off for being between her and the people (cue deafening roar of approval from the audience), taps the chief security man on the shoulder, and gets all the security guards to sit down in the pit and turn around to watch the band. Gloria was effulgent.
Tori Amos; yummy and talented... Blood Rose's live strips paint.
Nine Inch Nail; I've never seen so many slave collars at one time...
REM; I liked REM, but thought Michael was a bit, well. Was I wrong? Saw them at Bumbershoot, wow, he's an arrogant little fuck on stage and I like that.
Jeff Buckley; an angel, and a nice bloke, he came out and chatted with people who'd stayed behind and was just so nice and ordinary. And little. He seemed so big on stage with that voice.
Radiohead; seen them a good number of times, fave band, about as English as Rock'n'roll gets and all the better for it. How many bands play really good sets and then apologise, sincerely, for not being that good?
Oasis; only joking...
Boomtown Rats; Live Aid, the bit when Geldof paused the band after the words "And the lesson today is how to die". Wow. I want to do that. Billions of people in the palm of his hand.
James Taylor; saw him live on the BBC a few years ago. He'd somehow slipped through the cracks of my musical education, and one playing of 'Fire and Rain' converted me.
Neil Young; At Pheonix festival. Class, and clever. Took 'Like a Hurricane', ripped it into pieces so you just had this incohate roar of noise, and then managed to resolve it all again. Never seen anything like it.
Def Leppard; They played a small venue (700 capacity) at my University. I got to sit the entire set in the pit, shaking hands distance. They were there as a result of a marketing promotion by Pepsi who were sponsoring the tour, the Catering Manager at the University was a big fan, and he ordered a years supply in one go to win the contest. After a few songs they threw the set list out the window and started having what looked like more fun than they'd had in ages, as they could see the audience.
The Church; My first gig, really. Three hours of jumoing up and down. Yay!
Dodgy; Small club, 200 people, original line up, a pocket full of spliffs. Nice.
Bjork; My first Glastonbury. The crowd went bereserk, these big horizontal Mexican waves opening up gaps five yards wide in between rows of people before slamming them shut again. Never been in a mosh pit like it, and it was Bjork. Go figure.
Ocean Colour Scene; I think they are shite, but it was in a small venue a few weeks before their first number one, and they played their skins inside out. Full credit.
The Prodigy; WO-HO. Just like lots of speed, more emotion than music. Great live, although I think they suck quite majorly in other areas. That was indoors. At a festival they were vile and up their own ass.
Ben Elton; English comedian, makes you laugh so much your sides hurt afterwards.
Billy Connely; Scottish comedian, a true comic genius
I could go on...
Keep on rocking in the free world...
