Odd/unusual support acts you have seen

bbill335

The Baseballs supporting Jeff Beck. They were like a dumb wedding/party band with vaguely homophobic stage banter (even their attitudes were from the 50s!). 

Reverend

The final Acid Reign gig at the marquee in the early 90s.

The support was Les from Vic Reeve's Big Night Out. 

People were stage diving to a confused bald man in a lab coat holding a plank of wood with a birds nest nailed to it. 

RobDavies

I remember a proper hairspray glam band in white leather, supporting Candlemass at The Marquee.

They were getting some proper abuse and the singer was becoming increasingly more agitated.... before announcing that he’d ‘take on anyone in the toilet after the gig’.   Oh dear. 

Jalapeno

TalkTalk as support to a Genesis reunion @ Milton Keynes Bowl. They came onstage, said "Now you'll hear some real music", in a very sneery manner (they followed John Martin, preceded Genesis) - needless to say the soggy, wet crowd (as it pissed down all day) weren't that enamoured, they didn't make it through one number before being bottled off.

Blueingreen

prowla said:

Otway & Barrett

(Oh, they were the main act!)

Beat me to it.

Philly_Q

thecolourbox said:

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

A friend of mine went to see them and told me they were amazing, so I bought their album.

It must have worked better live than on record.

ICBM

Some crap hair metal band I have no idea of the name of supporting Status Quo on the first Frantic Four reunion tour. Just why? Surely they could have found an aging 70s pub-rock band or something more appropriate...

boogieman

prowla said:

Chas 'n' Dave supporting Led Zeppelin

When Led Zep played Wembley in 1971 they had circus acts in between support bands, including performing pigs.

I think the oddest one though was the Pink Fairies supporting The Faces. ISTR they were a last minute shoe-in, presumably because the scheduled band had dropped out. Now I happened to like the Fairies and had a couple of their albums so I was well happy, but they didn’t go down too well with the average Rod Stewart fans. 

Schmo

Kemani Marley, support to Van Halen, NJ, 2007,
reggae not a great compliment to the mighty VH!

proggy

RobDavies said:

I remember a proper hairspray glam band in white leather, supporting Candlemass at The Marquee.

They were getting some proper abuse and the singer was becoming increasingly more agitated.... before announcing that he’d ‘take on anyone in the toilet after the gig’.   Oh dear. 

Very promiscuous.

scrumhalf

RobDavies said:.... before announcing that he’d ‘take on anyone in the toilet after the gig’.  

Anythng you can shit I can shit better?

Nitefly

"Champion" Jack Dupree (blues singer/pianist) supporting Caravan (English prog band) at a gig in a disused church in Norwich in, as I recall, 1969.

Jack sang and played the piano, and drank most of a bottle of bourbon.  Near the end of the bottle he gave up with the piano and just sang.

All the while, the light-show was projecting pink bubbles against the organ pipes, so it looked like the bubbles were coming out of the holes at the base of the pipes.

Phil_aka_Pip

thecolourbox said:

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

sound like fun! Like the vocal arrangements

Reverend

This guy suppprted Andrew O'Neill at the Underworld last December. 

HAL9000

Jonathangus said:

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

Probably the worst act I’ve ever had the misfortune to see.

Grangousier

Saw Ivor Cutler as a support a couple of times - to The Divine Comedy on one occasion and to Elvis Costello on the other. At the first, he commented to and about latecomers all the way from the door to their seat (like the primary school teacher he once was), and at the second he asked the audience to applaud quietly (as he didn't like loud noises). This was very hard for the sold-out Royal Festival Hall audience. Saw a very odd band supporting The Chap last year, but I can't remember what they were called, and The Chap are pretty odd themselves. Saw Blurt supporting King Crimson in 1981. That was odd. Blurt, not Blur. 

Reverend

HAL9000 said:

Jonathangus said:

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

Probably the worst act I’ve ever had the misfortune to see.

Chicks on speed or RHCP?

ICBM

Reverend said:

HAL9000 said:

Jonathangus said:

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

Probably the worst act I’ve ever had the misfortune to see.

Chicks on speed or RHCP?

Having once owned the RHCP Live In Hyde Park album, quite possibly both.

scrumhalf

Back in the early 80s I saw The Fall at the Marquee. The support band were what seemed like a bar band fronted by someone so camp he made Julian Clary look like Schwazenegger. I'm sue I saw him in a Mike Leigh play on telly a short while later.

I think he referred to the band as Alan & The Choirboys, but the intervening years and the night's beer may prove that to be unreliable.

cpcompany

Seen a pretty surreal comedian supporting Alabama 3 in the Astoria many moons ago. Can’t remember too much except he got a pretty poor reception. 

Mindfunk supporting Slayer at Newcastle city hall when I was a bairn . They were absolutely rubbish and I think everyone sat down and ignored their set bar about 3 people.