Odd/unusual support acts you have seen

Hootsmon

The one that springs to mind for me is the support for the John McLaughlin original Shakti band in Glasgow, a character by the name of Kevin coyne    mental he was

scrumhalf

Gary Moore at the Marquee, just before he was at Reading in 1982.

The support was a "poet" called Eddie Steady Go who thought it would be a good idea to insult the audience with his "poetry". He was beered offstage.

Hootsmon

He heh...beered off stage 

prowla

Chas 'n' Dave supporting Led Zeppelin

strumjoughlamps

Jay Foreman was well liked and surprising seeing as he was opening act on a ska/soul/reggae stage.

Caffeine_Vampire

Space, the ‘Female of the Species’ band. I don’t recall who they were supporting as I left after their set a happy punter. They were astoundingly good. 

strumjoughlamps

Caffeine_Vampire said:

Space, the ‘Female of the Species’ band. I don’t recall who they were supporting as I left after their set a happy punter. They were astoundingly good. 

Space are chuffing awsome live must have seen them 10+ times, 3 times in the last 18 months and still brilliant now.

Jonathangus

Chicks on Speed supporting RHCP at Hyde Park.  Dear Lord...

Caffeine_Vampire

strumjoughlamps said:

Caffeine_Vampire said:

Space, the ‘Female of the Species’ band. I don’t recall who they were supporting as I left after their set a happy punter. They were astoundingly good. 

Space are chuffing awsome live must have seen them 10+ times, 3 times in the last 18 months and still brilliant now.

I had no idea they were still together. ‘Scuse me while I check them out again. 

Wazmeister

Minnie Driver as support for Weller (I think)

octatonic

Saw The Cramps in Sydney in 1995.
Support act was Tiny Tim and he was booed off stage.
He died the following year.
It was probably unrelated.

thecolourbox

I saw a band called Do Me Bad Things supporting the Datsuns back in the mid 00s, which if I recall correctly resembled three kind of bags you'd form from a doctor's waiting room, fronted by a Hitler/Charlie Chaplin lookalike.

In fact, a quick Google search has found me loads of videos, including this




Google describes them as a  nine-piece blues/rock/soul/metal band 

They were ace! But mad as a box of frogs

prowla

Otway & Barrett

(Oh, they were the main act!)

Kebabkid

The Police at Tooting Bec Common (December 1980)

They were supported by Jools Holland and The Millionaires, which is fine, and also.............................................................











Tommy Cooper - https://www.sting.com/tour/index/date/id/1729

trolley

 Baby Metal supporting RHCP at Manchester Arena. The musicians were really good, but it was a contrast from the Chilis!

And Judas Priest supporting someone in 1974 in Plymouth. I thought they were a really good support band, but that was their limit

lasermonkey

I think it would have to be Misty's Big Adventure. I can't for the life of me remember who they were supporting, but definitely in the box of frogs category. 

Jalapeno

Can remember who for in both cases, but bare stage. solo artist - no idea who they are, pleasant enough tunes.

a) When he played Stop The Cavalry for his last number worked it out - Jonah Lewie

b) When she played Going Down To Liverpool for her last number - kerching !  The drummer from the Bangles - Debbi Peterson

axisus

I saw IQ live in the mid 80s as some biggish venue in London. The support act - I don't recall his name but he was a percussionist. He stood behind this great big 'frame' with tons of stuff hanging off it and basically just ht things for half an hour or so. It was ..... weird

EricTheWeary

Quite a lot of odd acts at festivals. I remember seeing Ian Campbell mumble his way tunelessly through several traditional folk songs sung acapella for half an hour. The revered father of the Birmingham folk scene, very old man and father of two of UB40 but still embarrassingly awful. RIP Ian.  

Jalapeno said:

Can remember who for in both cases, but bare stage. solo artist - no idea who they are, pleasant enough tunes.

a) When he played Stop The Cavalry for his last number worked it out - Jonah Lewie

b) When she played Going Down To Liverpool for her last number - kerching !  The drummer from the Bangles - Debbi Peterson

Although I think Liverpool was a Katrina Leskanich song. As in Katrina and The Waves. Katrina was actually great live but perhaps comes into the odd category here by having her dog on stage for part of the set.  

The solo artist support thing seems quite common now. A few years ago I went to see Mary Chapin Carpenter and the support was some young guy with a guitar. For the last song in his set he said something like I'd like some help with this one and a short, fat woman in sweatpants came on stage to share the vocal. No particular audience reaction, about half way through the song the penny dropped for 500 people that this was Mary Chapin Carpenter...  

axisus said:

I saw IQ live in the mid 80s as some biggish venue in London. The support act - I don't recall his name but he was a percussionist. He stood behind this great big 'frame' with tons of stuff hanging off it and basically just ht things for half an hour or so. It was ..... weird

I went to see Swiss metal band Krokus and quite a large chunk of their set was the bassist doing an extended percussion solo on a surprisingly large amount of equipment. To this day I still wonder what the hell they were thinking.  

Jalapeno

EricTheWeary said:

Although I think Liverpool was a Katrina Leskanich song. As in Katrina and The Waves. Katrina was actually great live but perhaps comes into the odd category here by having her dog on stage for part of the set.  

Ahem ....

Though it WAS written by a Katrina & The Waves band member, not Katrina herself.

EricTheWeary

Jalapeno said:

EricTheWeary said:

Although I think Liverpool was a Katrina Leskanich song. As in Katrina and The Waves. Katrina was actually great live but perhaps comes into the odd category here by having her dog on stage for part of the set.  

Ahem ....

 I appreciate the Bangles covered it and it's famous because of them. Just making the passing observation that they didn't write it. Or record the original version. I thought Katrina had written it although turns out to be Kimberly Rew the guitarist in the Waves .
Obviously a thought I should have kept for Songs You Didn't Realise Were Covers