I seem to be in my own lonely groove here

BUT the very first gig I ever went to was The Jam at the Hammersmith Odeon c.Sept. 1977 - The 'In the City' tour. What a gig! Not as good as the Clash supported by Xtc at the Finsbury Park Odeon.

Best free gig? Rock Against Racism - 30 years ago this summer. The Clash, Elvis Costello, Polly Styrene, The Ruts, Aswad, Misty in Roots. That's who I think was there...might be wrong on a few.

EDIT: checked on Wiki, but I think they're wrong and yes, Tom Robinson Band did play but I never liked their music, though I'd defend to the death their right to play it (while covering my ears).

The best gig EVER though was Clint Eastwood & General Saint at Dingwalls in Camden Town - probably 1981. These were a couple of reggae DJs with a shit hot band and some great tunes/lyrics, but what made the gig was possibly the fact that the small amount of air available inside the place was roughly 75% 'smoke'. The audience was about 50:50 white punks and black rastas and the atmosphere was...totally mellow. If you've never been in the middle of a throbbing, grooving, sweating, smoking, bobbing reggae crowd with that reggae bass line making every cell of your body vibrate IN TIME TO THE MUSIC, well...I can only recommend it - highly.

I saw them a second time. At the town hall in Bournemouth, performing to a bunch of disinterested white students and stiffs swilling beer in a brighly lit huge cavern of a room. It was embarassing and after just a couple of songs they announced that they were doing one more song. A few people reluctantly got up, moved to the front and started dancing a bit. I was right there at the front. They went on to play for another half hour at least, with virtually all the crowd up and swaying about. They created shine from shinola - another great gig.

Finally - Bowie at the Milton Keynes Bowl in 1983 or 4 - the Serious Moonlight tour. Never seen charisma like it - he had a massive crowd eating out of his hand and was superb.

Oh, and Herr Doktor: I saw Frank Zappa in bleedin' Austria - Vat a gig!! True, true genius. He had his son come on for a guitar solo at one point.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Wed 20 Aug 2008, 14:51, Reply)