Gigs you left early.

[stewblack]

The Police at Reading Festival, I think 1979. A large group of us were taken to the local nick for smoking a spliff. 

Oh the irony. 

My choice to leave early was the Pogues in Shepherds Bush on 17th March  around the time of the opening overs of the Gulf War. 

The sad drunken shambles of a lead singer arrived shockingly late to the stage, and proceeded to mumble through a set. 

I, only marginally more pssed than he was, staggered out into the London night, and thence into the back of a van which had happened to be stopped at a nearby traffic light. The two youngsters driving eventually let me out, lord knows where, and I somehow managed to get a taxi back to my hotel. 

Edited February 21, 2021 by stewblack

[gjones]

Hothouse flowers are a great band and one of my favourites but I saw them a few years ago, at the Barrowland in Glasgow,  and they were excellent but just didn't know when to call it a day. The gig had hit the 2 and a half hour mark and they were starting to make songs up, improvising over gospel like grooves, in a very self indulgent way.

I had to leave.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were still there, grooving away  

Edited February 21, 2021 by gjones

[davepb24]

Tried to walk out of Tank supporting Motorhead at New St Odeon, last night of the Iron Fist tour... Tank staggered out on stage clearly completely p!ssed already, were awful, my mate and I got up and headed for the bar (along with about 99.2% of the rest of the audience). Unfortunately we were both 16 at the time - he was over 6ft tall even then (I wasn't far off), he got in, I got stopped and had to go back and listen to the rest of the racket...

[rushbo]

Kings of Leon on their first headlining UK tour. It was four blokes sleepwalking through their album. Dull as ditchwater.

Black Crowes at the Phoenix Festival. Three minute songs stretched to beyond breaking point. Mr Tune went home a long time before we did. I was given a ticket to see them in Wolverhampton a few years later and I was expecting the worst. Instead they were brilliant - only a couple of noodly  guitar twangathons and plenty of tight, focussed performances. 

[WinterMute]

Journey at the NEC a couple of years back, supported by Foreigner who were surprisingly decent and Styx, who were definitely present. 

Left after 3 songs of the journey set, sound was abysmal, Schonn wouldn't stop bloody widdling even between songs and they completely ignored the poor Phillapino guy they'd drafted in after Perry fell to pieces. To be fair, he was working his derrière off to make it work, but they just looked like the wished Perry was still with them.

Extremely poor, went home.

Left Karnivool's roundhouse gig about halfway through cos the sound was so bad and I fell asleep in the balcony.

Left Alter Bridge's Albert Hall gig about half-way through too, the engineer couldn't reconcile a full orchestra with a rock band and victorian acoustic, couldn't hear anything until the solo number with the orchestra and Kennedy, by then I was bored.

Generally it's bad sound that does it for me.

[Spewy]

The only gig I’ve ever walked away from is Nine Inch Nails at Sonisphere 2009, literally killed the atmosphere with a self indulgent,  boring set , really disappointed.

[pineweasel]

1 hour ago, Roger2611 said:

Sisters of Mercy Rock City early 2000's ish, having seen them there on their first tour they were brilliant, this time they were dull and boring so we left!

Heh, first band I ever walked out on, Imperial College, 1982. 

[Stu-khag]

Some guitarist named Andy McKee. Nice enough acoustic stuff but all very samey and no real oomph. It was a sit down gig and I was pretty near the front so for fear of offence I stayed until the interval.

 

Nme tour when the datsuns headlined.  Very underwhelming  as polyphonic spree played just before them.

corrosion of conformity with clutch as support. Bought the tickets to see clutch and had Never heard the headliners before so was willing to given them a chance,  2 songs was enough.

 

 

 

[steantval]

December 2002 Nottingham Arena

INXS (with new singer) and Blondie

INXS on first, very good.

Blondie, appalling, vocals totally flat, walked out after three songs.

The only live gig I have ever left early.

[Rich]

I must have been a lucky sod over the years, I’ve only ever left two gigs early and neither was because the band was bad, far from it. First one was Radio One’s “Summer Of 84” all-dayer at Wembley Stadium, when we left halfway through Elton’s encore song (Crocodile Rock I think) to beat the rush**. Second was Vow Wow at the Majestic in Reading, 87ish I think, because I had a stupidly early start next morning. 
 

** my mate was also there and stayed to the end, another 5 minutes or so. At about the same time I was dropping my girlfriend off at her house in Reading, he was just about getting out of the car park at Wembley.

Edited February 22, 2021 by Rich

[Bobthedog]

Prince, Wembley Stadium. Mrs BtD and I were invited by one of her clients, Private Box etc. Unfortunately it was right at the other end of the stadium to the stage so not only could we not see the small man but there were no apparent speakers in the box and along with a non opening thick pane of glass, we could barely hear him. Luckily hosts and all agreed to leave pretty early on. 1993?

[BassTractor]

6th of November, 1975
St Martin's School of Arts
Charing Cross Rd.
I mean: thousands upon thousands of people attending the Pistols' first gig in a venue that could hold a few hundred.
Too demn crowded.
I was out of there.
😉

Edited February 22, 2021 by BassTractor

[police squad]

good thread this

I was at Reading in 83. Sabbath with Gillan and Bev Bevan filling in on drums. I was back t the camp site when I heard smoke on the water. I'll leave it there

Van Halen, Wembley about 1992 ish. Sammy Hagar on vocals. Terrible sound where we were, so we left

Ozzy at Folkestone Leas Cliffe Hall about 10 years ago, Gus G on guitar. Dull

Joe Bonamssa, Folkestone. Dull

Dr and the medics, Folkestone. Number 1 at the time. Dreadful

Iron Maiden, Brixton academy, maybe 15-20 years ago. Loved Maiden growing up, just found it boring

 

 

 

[Soledad]

Here's a weird one and showing my age. Leeds University, around '68... Love with Arthur Lee. They ended the set with a very long improv and I had to get a last train home. I still think Love were even cooler than the Doors back then. Still are.👍

Edited February 22, 2021 by Soledad

[Elfrasho]

Alot of big names in this list! 

 

For me, delamitri at Glasgow Hydro, 2014ish. I like there 90s albums but not exactly a fan. Only went cis my mate had a spare ticket. It was a wee bit like watching a wedding band, very dull. 

 

Tommy emmanuel, Glasgow concert Hall 2015ish. I only really oat attention to his gypsy jazz stuff online but this gig was his solo acoustic stuff. Very boring. So we ended up just leaving and going to the pub! 

[Cuzzie]

11 hours ago, casapete said:

I’ve seen VT twice Paul, and thought they were pretty darned good. Can understand why you thought it a bit over the top, but for me it was just good to see a band playing that sort of stuff really well and being entertaining too. We met them after the gig and all top blokes. Mrs CP was not the only female audience member who wanted to chat with the singer too...😉

If it goes ahead i am seeing them in July - will let you know if th dancing has gotten more in time

[Steve Browning]

Can I add one I want to leave early?

I foolishly bought tickets for Michael Buble for last year and the show was rescheduled to 12th July at Hove cricket ground. My partner thinks he's great. I don't.

[OliverBlackman]

Bob Reynolds at Band on the wall twice. First time my parents were visiting as they were going to a show at Manchester arena. I misjudged the time it would take to walk from the arena to BOTW so despite walking so fast my girlfriend got blisters we arrived at the end of the first set. 15 mins into the second set my parents rang to say they’re show had finished and they were waiting for us. 🤬

Second time, had to leave halfway through the second set to catch last train back from Manchester Piccadilly. At that moment though Janek Gwizdala was doing his pedal thing and I just don’t find it musical, so wasn’t as bothered as before.

[christhammer666]

walked out twice

went to see cradle of filth at the LA2 in London, they was supported by extreme noise terror who tore the place apart. COF came on and all you could hear was the vocals,cue much glancing around at each other in the audience. After the first song the vocalist asked for his vocals to be turned up NIGHT NIGHT

went to see yngwie malmsteen at the same venue.noodled for 15 minutes before even starting a song, so left was so boring 

[Steve Browning]

8 minutes ago, christhammer666 said:

walked out twice

went to see cradle of filth at the LA2 in London, they was supported by extreme noise terror who tore the place apart. COF came on and all you could hear was the vocals,cue much glancing around at each other in the audience. After the first song the vocalist asked for his vocals to be turned up NIGHT NIGHT

went to see yngwie malmsteen at the same venue.noodled for 15 minutes before even starting a song, so left was so boring 

I have to ask. Does anyone stay to the end of a Malmsteen gig?

[steve-bbb]

very close to walking out of rainbow at the rainbow - only so much of mr blackmore's onanistic noodling that can be humanly tolerated in fact id 'almost' rather go watch yngwie ... but then maybe not

that was the tour he did with JLT on vox  - saw him also with GB on vox and was much better imho ymmv mcton...

Edited February 22, 2021 by steve-bbb
because i can

[steve-bbb]

stretching the definition of a gig (because frankly they were stretching the definition of wholesome entertainment)...

Cats at some west end theatre i cant even remember

what a crock of shite

walked out before half time

[casapete]

12 minutes ago, steve-bbb said:

stretching the definition of a gig (because frankly they were stretching the definition of wholesome entertainment)...

Cats at some west end theatre i cant even remember

what a crock of shite

walked out before half time

Ha ha, I very nearly did the same thing! My 11 year old daughter wanted to go so duly obliged and got tickets to see the show in Manchester. Have to say that musicals were never my thing, and this only went to confirm my thoughts. At one point one of the ‘cats’ came and sang right in the face of my wife sitting next to me - if it had been me I probably would have walked there and then. As I didn’t want to spoil things for my daughter I felt obliged to stay for all the performance, there’s a couple hours of my life I’ll never get back. Needless to say, my daughter and wife loved it.....

[uk_lefty]

15 hours ago, joeystrange said:

The other one was Black Sabbath when they headlined Download on their final tour in 2016. It was hammering down and fairly chilly by the time they came on. They were so incredibly boring that I left after about 8 songs

Me too!!! I was very excited about seeing them and the day before I'd fallen asleep with a huge hangover and from being out in the torrential rain without a jacket (thanks security for moving people out from under any shelter on the rationale "I have to stand in it so you do too!") and missed nearly all of Rammstein. My mates and I didn't stay for much of Sabbath, musically it was fine but Ozzy just seemed completely disconnected from the band and almost incoherent. 

I also left Red Hot Chilli's early at Knebworth in 2012. Similar situation, shitty weather, singer not connected with the band, Josh on guitar just wasn't right (sorry Josh) and Flea trying to gee the crowd up just came across a bit sad in the context. I bought the Mp3 album of the gig and the vocals were fine on that, so what I thought was Anthony maybe being ill may have just been a bad day in the office for the sound man. Overall just a really disappointing experience for seeing a band I loved. Still, Dizzee Rascal as support really knows how to handle a rock crowd. 

[Dankology]

1 hour ago, Soledad said:

Here's a weird one and showing my age. Leeds University, around '68... Love with Arthur Lee. They ended the set with a very long improv and I had to get a last train home. I still think Love were even cooler than the Doors back then. Still are.👍

I wasn't aware that the original Love had toured internationally - must have been fantastic to catch them during that era.

I think I've only left one gig early for anything other than travel reasons: Plan B at the Manchester Academy 3 - somehow we caught him in between his initial gritty acoustic rap phase and the majesty of the Strickland Banks album. Boiling hot small venue, songs that sounded like a dodgy boyband and the sort of audience I've never since come across at gigs. 

As we walked out the doormen seemed to approve "yeah, he's only got one good song". I do sort of wish I'd held out though - he was clearly in some sort of transitional phase, would have been fascinating to look back on it properly.