Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Disappointingly short gigs


Paul S

Recommended Posts

Quite the opposite. I find gigs that go on too long are annoying. Years ago we went to see the Georgia Sattelites playing at the Glasgow Barras. It went on for about three hours. Great value but even for a mid twenties aged Self it was hard going to stand for that long  I enjoyed the start but eventually was thinking just get off, we’ve had enough. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, BigRedX said:

I don't think so. 

IMO most gigs are too long. IMO as a band you've got to have released a handful of successful albums before you can consider playing for over an hour and TBH most bands could do with trimming their sets down to around 30 - 45 minutes with a single song as an encore provided that it has been earned by both the band and the audience.

Couldn’t agree more that most band play for too long, although I think 45 mins is a bit too short for a band with a legitimate back catalogue. There are some bands that can play longer (particularly Prog bands where the tracks are long anyway; I can manage 2 hrs of Yes quite happily, although I’m a huge fan of them so that isn’t too surprising) but they’re in the minority. The couple of times I’ve seen Babymetal they played for an hour, and that was perfect. The thought of watching a 3hr Springsteen gig just fills me with despair. 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

One that left everybody confused....

Almost 30 years ago Hawkwind did an all nighter at the Brixton Academy.  It was scheduled from 6.00 pm to 6.00 am, and this was before everybody had internet and the ubiquity of mobile phones, certainly no smart phones, and with few details on the poster it was guesswork as to when any of the bands would play.  But Hawkwind will be on late, right? If they take the right drugs they might play through the night, right?

I arrived at about 7.30/8.00, and am standing in the lobby trying to spot a mate, not sure when he is arriving.  At some point it occurs to me that they are playing Hawkwind on the PA in the lobby - weird.  I then go into the auditorium to see if my mate got there earlier, and am a little surprised to see a band on stage playing Hawkwind songs.  Why would they put a Hawkwind covers band on...oh, hang on, that's Hawkwind isn't it?  So I missed about half of the set, and in total they played for about an hour - not what the crowd was expecting when they paid for an all nighter.  A big chunk of the crowd left at that point, including the mate I was supposed to be meeting, disgruntled that they'd only got an hour of the headliners, and with no great interest in the rest of the bands who would be playing for the next nine hours

A girl that I didn't know at the time but who later became my girlfriend briefly attended, having gone to another gig with some friends first, and knowing that they could go to that and also see Hawkwind.  She told me that they arrived at 11.30 to be told that Hawkwind had already played, so they went home.

There was therefore only a very slim crowd left at about 2.00 am when Hawkwind returned to the stage and treated us to another 45 minutes of their set.  There were only a couple of bands left to play at that point, and I always wondered if they might have played for longer if more of the crowd had stuck around to see the second set.  I saw it through to about 5.00, and only living down the road at Clapham Junction I walked home.  Brixton at 5.30 on a sunny Summer morning is a lovely place

I was at one of their all nighters at Brixton. Don’t think it was that long ago though. Lemmy played, and Samantha Fox sang! A very mixed bag. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, 4000 said:

The thought of watching a 3hr Springsteen gig just fills me with despair. 

3 hours can be a short Bruce gig! Seen him a few times and was amazed how quickly it went TBH, but if it's not your thing then of course I can understand why. Same for me if faced with 2 hours of a Yes concert.....😴

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, casapete said:

Saw The Ramones c1977 at Hull University. All songs were 3 mins maximum, no gaps in between them (or any audience interaction unsurprisingly) and after maybe 10 or 12 of them they were gone. If they did 40mins I’d have been amazed, but TBH that was more than enough for me. Fortunately I’d blagged tickets from the record company so didn’t feel shortchanged.

3 mins maximum? I didn't know the Ramones did extended improvisations😁!

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got the cover of Gimme Shelter that she recorded with them for charity.  It's not great.  I think that was the Rock version of the single for the charity release.   I've got the Indie one too, with Tom Jones doing the same song with New Model Army and it is one of my all time favourite recordings

She wasn't there when I went to the all nighter at Brixton, but my confusion at the time was the female lead singer that they did have - it was the Palace Springs era and, not having paid any attention, I couldn't work out why they had a female doing lead vocals...I know that Hawkwind have a tradition of having female band members on stage, but usually they are dancing and naked.

Maybe Sam Fox was some sort of compromise...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

I've got the cover of Gimme Shelter...  I've got the Indie one too, with Tom Jones doing the same song with New Model Army and it is one of my all time favourite recordings

 

I thought I was the only person who remembered that... one of my all time favourites too, despite having otherwise little interest in either artist.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In October '78 Slade were in the doldrums after being usurped by punk, and were playing any dive that would have them. They were booked to do a week's residency of the Cavendish Club in Blackburn, Lancs. It started on the Monday night, with almost zero publicity. A few fans travelled but were turned away due to a strict dress code, so in the end the crowd in this 1000 seat night club numbered 19, a bouncer told me. When they came on Nod said "Jeeeesus, did you all come on the same bus? Because there's so few of you we'll just do a quick golden oldies set, OK?" Which is what they did.

I knew a small number of the fans there already, and have since met four others. So it's the only gig by a name band I've been to where I could actually name half of the crowd.

I was chatting with Jim Lea last year and reminded him of the gig, which he remembered. When I told him the low turnout was partly due to dress code rejections he was surprised and said "I thought it was cos we were crap!"

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 13/10/2020 at 18:58, Lozz196 said:

I hate it when bands beg an audience, if people like them they’ll go forward, dance etc.

Not quite begging, but that sort of thing can backfire spectacularly; we played an RAF gig once for a contingent of the RAF Regiment's Welcome Home from Afghanistan - these lads had only been off the plane that morning, so they were...giddy... We were playing on a stage in a huuuuge hangar with a big bar (tins, free, squaddies for the use of), BBQ, and a few other kinda stalls set up; for the encore, our singist said 'Let's get everyone down the front of the stage'.

Ten seconds later we had at least 40 hammered squaddies ON the stage...   To be fair, nowt got broken, but pretty much everything got a decent coat of lager... 😕🙂

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...