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Bjork was there too - she stepped on my foot...

I'll never forget looking round at the end and seeing so many grown men with tears in their eyes, so moving. And the parade through the crowd at the end, almost religious experience.

http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4359502#r6892218

First proper gig I ever went to and I think one of the only truly legendary shows I can stake claim to. 15 year old self went nuts and couldn't talk for about a week after having sung along with every song he did and didn't know. Still in top five best/most important days ever.

Oh, I was at the Jesus Lizard show where Yow lost his wedding ring and threatened never to play the UK again. But someone found it and all was ok and the show was superb.

they had hounded their manager to get them on the bill so that they could meet Eminem. Eminem pulled out of his appearance[1] and when Daphne and Celeste tried to do the same, the organisers refused to let them.

LEGENDARY.

I wasn't expecting him to only play for 20 minutes, so initial reaction was "WTF Is that it?". I also remember there was a massive wait between the support act (Bradford) and Morrissey. All in all, it was a bit of a rip-off for fans that had queued overnight in a miserable Wolverhampton December night. And I lost my coat in the rush to get in.

But I was 16 so I loved it.

Prince. On an acoustic! 5 songs.

Jaw droppingly unexpected.

...is that legendary? I thought I saw it referred to as such once.

Either way, it was fucking astonishing.

Where they broke up on stage.

Good enough?

The NME would like us to think it's legendary, at least...

Was brilliant. Supported by Beck, Supergrass and Sigur Ros. Not sure it's gone down as completely legendary but it was the first time they played Creep for a number of years and seemed pretty special.

That was special. Again, not sure if it can be considered legendary. The setlist is amazing in retrospect.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/radiohead/1997/astoria-theatre-london-england-73d6ee79.html

at the Camden Monarch. We already had tickets when they were announced as Life WIthout Buildings also played and we had tickets for that as a mate was a massive fan of them. He went and stood at the back for The Strokes in complete disinterest. I'd only heard Last night/Modern Age as only the rough trade 7" had been released at that time. soneone offered us 2 tickets for grandaddy at Kentish town downstairs in a swap, it was also the same night U2 played the Astoria as i recall seeing a girl i really fancied at the time wandering around camden as she (understandably) couldnt get into the Astoria.

supporting ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead at Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms. Were completely blown off stage by Trail of Dead, who were absolutely at the top of their game at that point (Jan 2001). I'm pretty sure I saw both bands about 3 days later on London too.

Every inch as good as everyone said it was.

Would that count?

Unbeatably mediocre support line-up of Cardiacs (they got booed), Sparks (under-appreciated), Boo Radleys (out of tune), Dodgy (surprisingly great) John Shuttleworth and a fuck-load of rain. All of these were overshadowed by the excitement of Jarvis Cocker walking around the crowd in a velvet suit.

with At The Drive-In playing there the night before. Both were part of those NME nights. I never saw The Strokes as I was in a pub at the time. I kicked myself when I heard them afterwards.

first gig I went to. Pretty pretty pretty good.

And the Roses a few weeks back

In the Carling tent at Reading, everyone i was with went to watch Gomez (i think) so i went over on my own5-10 minutes before they were due on, managed to get in and quite near the front and it really was as good as people say it was.. actually, maybe gomez were on the main stage and Coxon was on the second stage, i remember leaving coxon early to get to the tent. i think

I think that was the first time they played Patrick Bateman live too.

I helped to load their van afterwards.

Also saw Ween downstairs at the White Horse in Belsize Park. It was Gene and Dean Ween and three people watching them. Bought and had signed a copy of God Ween Satan.

into loads of shit gigs that no one cares about did it !

And no, I have no legendary gig to add. Although I did a little LOL to the Radiohead Southpark mention up there ^ I was there. It was ok.

who saw JAMC at North London Poly. That was legendary and would make me happy.

it better be, anyway

the quarrymen at wooton village fete.

I opened the stage door to let elvis leave the building.

I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.

Mudhoney/Nirvana/Tad - Astoria 89 - went alone but joyous, one of my fav gigs ever. Kurt stage dived and landed right next to me, honest he really did, moshed for a bit then he was off elsewhere.

The Rollercoaster gig at Brixton
Oasis at Water Rats
I've seen plenty me........I'm old.

Pulp 1995 - Amazing, filled in for Stone Roses and was wondering how they were going to do it with the couple of hits they had but was completely joyous and Jarvis completely won the entire crowd over

Radiohead 1997 - I'm led to believe it was amazing by subsequent articles/accounts etc but my experience at the time was that I was struggling to enjoy it. Really muddy and miserable year, and Radiohead had a lot of technical difficulties and could really tell they weren't enjoying themselves. They did pull it off but I couldn'e shake the feeling that the whole thing could have been better. Oh and OK Computer is their most overrated record imo which also may have coloured things.

Run DMC / Whodini / LL Cool J / Beastie Boys - Hammersmith Odeon Sep '85 (I was 15, it was ace)

Public Enemy / Stetasonic / EPMD - Camden Electric Ballroom June '88.

Stone Roses @ ICA May '89 (to about 60-70 people, there was a tube strike that day).

Mudhoney / Tad / Nirvana - Astoria Dec 2 or 3 '89

Stone Roses - Spike Island May '90

Smashing Pumpkins - Underworld June (I think) '90 supporting one of Kramer's bands........

Rocket From The Crypt - Totem Record Store, January 4th '96 as well as the Garage gig that same evening with Super Furry Animals supporting......

I have more, but that would just be showing off, the above are the best ones.....

The Marquee in Charing X Road (now The Montague Pyke)

07/07/1989, 20/10/1989, 21/10/1989

Soundgarden @ Camden Underworld 12/03/1992 on the Badmotorfinger Tour
Alice In Chains @ Camden Underworld 27/01/1993 on the Dirt Tour

5 incredible shows.

Do any of these count?

Atom Seed supporting?

Bloody fantastic show.

I saw:

The Radiohead South Park gig mentioned above
The Strokes on their first UK tour in a 400 capacity venue
The White Stripes in a room above a pub, capacity about 150

Nottingham Rock City , Sept 2000.

Nearly ran Mike Patton over whilst parking the car.

Also, i saw the last ever Cardiacs show at a working men's club in Leeds. Amazing.

well I thought it was a bit legendary anyway

If I was them i'd have ended every subsequent set with Greg pushing Stephen OfMalley into the amps and knocking them over. But afaik it only happened once.

I managed to get tickets in the third round ballot after Jimmy Page broke his finger and the gig was postponed by a couple of weeks. Unbelievable. I bought tickets with a combination of incredible excitement and immense trepidation that there was no way it could live up to my expectations and that they'd be a shadow of their former selves.

They were absolutely phenomenal, and the atmosphere in the place was nothing like I've experienced in any gig before or since. I was on a high for weeks afterwards. They were so tight and on it I was absolutely certain it was going to be the first gig of a major reunion tour, but Plant simply isn't interested it seems. Respect to him for standing by his principles, although they were so damn good they really should play more shows...

..but I'll always remember seeing Adele before all the fame at Cardiff Barfly along with Late Of The Pier and Jack Penate, talk about a random line-up!

... both Nirvana Reading Shows (the 2nd gig was poor), Nirvana (Goldwyns) Sliver Tour, erm, there's loads on my blog but I wont tire everyone with another link. The best gig ever was The Hard Ons at the Fulham Greyhound, would be great to hear from others that attended that show - the venue blew apart...

That felt pretty special.

Legendary stuff. Apart from that mammoth, unforgettable night of pure rock history (at The Barfly with Chris McCormack's Grand Theft Audio headlining), I'm not really sure...

........who claimed to have been at the legendary New York show where Mark E Smith kept twatting/getting twatted by the band and ended up sacking 'em all, except his missus.

...I got smuggled into a filmed-for-TV gig for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in around 2002 (time of "No more shall we part"),by a mate who was a cameraman. Capacity was only 200 and I was pretty close at the front to Nick. It was the best gig I've ever been too, and the hairs still stand on the back of my neck when I think back to Nick losing it during Mercy Seat...

But i was there...in the crowd....liking it a lot!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZYbAJQbZA0&feature=em-subs_digest

The one that they recorded. That's about the closest I get, and I don't think I'd call that legendary.

Tried to get into the first Strokes gig in Camden after reading NME's rave about them when they supported Trail of Dead (both gigs mentioned above), but it was sold out.

The Prodigy at Reading when Beastie Boys asked them not to play Smack My Bitch Up, and they did, got quite a lot of attention at the time but I don't know if it's legendary either.

I'd wager Stevie Wonder at Glastonbury 2010 must be a record for highest outdoor festival attendance in the UK. It was pretty wicked.

New Orders reformation gig at Alexandra Palace in 98-99. Helps that the support was so good too (Underworld, Laurent Garnier, Chem Bros djing, Death in Vegas)

Not sure if these count so much: Oasis doing last gig at old Wembley Stadium. Coldplay and Jay Z at the new one. Arcade Fire at the Astoria. The National at RAHall.

Does that count? only lasted 15 minutes.

...fourth of a pre-xmas residency at The Astoria. After the band had performed the most comprehensive destruction of their equipment I've seen, Richey stayed on stage after the rest of them had departed smashing his forehead into a microphone. Happy days.

As part of a clause in his contract.

There were moshers with a piss catapult, i'll never forget him being relentlessly pelted with piss bottles and swearing he never got hit by a drop even tho he took every layer off that he had on his top half because he was so yellow and wet.

The one where people were leaving to be sick outside and they got turned off prematurely with two thirds of the audience having already legged it (I toughed it out until the end). I think that is "legendary". I was also at a Birthday Party & Virgin Prunes gig in Brixton that got a bit of bad press for the Prunes' two transvestite lead singers simulating naughtiness on stage. Ah, where are the transvestite-fronted art rock outfits these days?

titus bramble attended
1 dog died
2 beers were drunk

£20 never changed hands

He reckons it was half full, it was more like three quarters. He was right about cobblestone streets and people with no teeth though.

I'm quite disappointed. Not everyone is young on DIS, I was expecting at least one person to have been to Woodstock.

then others can tick off the ones they went to. A lot seem to be small gigs by bands who are now quite big, that is more luck than anything. I went to a smallish Coldplay gig years ago and left before they even came on. I don't regret it.

I can only put up Sigur Ros at the Union Chapel (which ended up in Time Out's 100 greatest) and the Roses at Spike Island...

What is a truly legendary gig after all? Has to be some sort of one-off, never-to-be-repeated nature to it or the fact that it became a game-changer for music in some way. Precious little of any of the above fits that description, they're mostly gigs we just really, really enjoyed!

I certainly can't think of one that I've attended that has gone down as legendary

a few years ago. most intimate gig they'll probably ever play... played "in rainbows" from start to finish. plus it was free! :)

also saw arcade fire's first uk show.
sigur ros at shepherds bush empire in 2001 was pretty special too.

Stomp?

Was quite similar to that.

(yes yes, I have said this before, yes, sort of trolling I guess, but seriously, blah blah blah....BUT THEY HAD 27 DRUMMERS!)

While it in no way resembled Altamont. There was that tribute to The Stooges thing at Shepherds Bush when Bobby Gillespie set to someone with a mic stand. That was a bit out of hand.
Even slightly less legendary unless you were there was Swans at the Madi Gras, a tiny club in Liverpool in 1987. The bar staff were hiding in the toilets wearing industrial ear defenders. It was so fucking loud and so fucking wonderful.

Something strange and wonderful was in the air that night. My heart has never been the same since...

but I saw Mogwai at Stereo in Glasgow a couple years ago which is a tiny (and lovely) venue for them. It was certainly special to say the least.

The Kayas
Arsequake
Exit the Wizard

at the old dog and handbag was an experience one can only describe as ledge and dairy. The roof was so blown off it's still orbiting.

My Bloody Valentine's first rehearsal show at the ICA. I call it a gig.

Audioslave's first UK show at the Astoria. Touts were offering £300 to buy spares, should have sold. Even Lemmy left early.

at some dump in Westbourne Grove the day that fucking smack-owl got out of chokey.

it was good fun to be fair.

would be The Libertines at the Tap n Tin the day Pete came out of prison i reckon. I dont think theres been anything sicne then that has really gone down in general history.

At the electric picnic 2005 was a jaw dropping experience.

(last ever show prior to the recent 'help Bob pay his gambling debts' reunion that is)

Lemon Jelly's first ever live show where the ticket was a t-shirt (they had never performed live until that point).
Test Icicles last ever show (a shambles a lot of people were booing).
Fatboy Slim's Big Beach Boutique II where 250,000 people turned up.
Fugazi's last ever show at The Forum.
Insane Clown Posse's only ever UK show (I jest not).
That Audioslave one at The Astoria mentioned above (tenuous).
Smashing Pumpkins first reformation show (not knowing till stage time that there was no Iha or D'arcy).
One of Prince's 30-odd shows at the O2 which were to be the last ever airing of his hits (liar).
Aereogramme's last ever show.
Shawn Smith's only ever show in the UK.
Metallica's free show at the o2 to launch Death Magnetic.

Jesus christ that list is underwhelming.

I reckon I've attended hundreds of legendary gigs. Here are the best three:

Seahorses, V Festival 1998
Shut Up and Dance, 1 song PA (I'm Raving I'm Raving), Mr B's Southend 1992
Nedry, The Boathouse Cambridge 2011 where they played *that* cover of The Way It Is

Genuinely cried my eyes out afterwards.

Sure there's a handful of first-ever/last-ever gigs but y'know... that was a moment.

94 or 95, can't remember off the top of my head. The one when they played the NME stage whilst Oasis were on the main stage.
I never use phrases like this but .... Christ, that shit was dope !
A truly insane performance.

I never really liked them before this but they were immense. I've never seen fans so ecstatic.

I think it was '87. In the afternoon. Incredibly under rated outfit.

Circa '89?
The gig where they previewed "Blueprint" to an astonished and near silent gobsmacked packed room. When they played the following song the venue ripped apart. It was like a freakin" earthquake.

Yes. The Style Council. Not a huge fan of the band but the gig was crazy. Constant stage invasions (you could climb onto the main stage in them days). It was like band and fans mix together in a moment of musical and life celebration.

Not many gigs genuinely count as legendary do they? Something untoward or exceptional needs to happen to qualify I'd say, rather than it just being a cool gig. One that I went to is the Julian Cope gig at Hammersmith Palais in '84 when he had taken acid and freaked out breaking his mike stand and slashing his stomach with it for a finale

This thread is over.

Nah, only joking

They released it as the Alive 1997 album. I went to most of the early to mid nineties Reading and Glastonburys mentioned here but I'd rate Reading 89 above all of them, the Friday in particular. The rebirth of Reading for our generation with New Order headlining. The 88 festival had Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler.

but saw suicide supporting iggy pop at the hammersmith apollo. in my mind that was legendary.

... http://midnightpunk.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/my-gig-history/

NME put both in a list a year or so back.