Your best gig...

Rabs

Well if we are allowed more than one then I must add..
James Brown at the Royal Albert Hall (about 2003)
Guns n Roses at Wembley Stadium 1991 (last Izzy Gig)
Pink Floyd 1994 (Earls Court I think)

paulnb57

Dire Straits Wembley Arena and Ipswich football ground, the On Every Street Tour

Muse IOW Festival 

Sex Pistols IOW Festival

Bon Jovi Milton Keynes Bowl

Eric_C

Rory Gallagher- Ulster Hall 1984
David Gilmour - Royal Albert Hall Rattle That Lock tour 

CHRISB50

Metallica at the Ministry of Sound 1997.

I don't think you'd get to hear them through a better sound system and being in such a small room with them was amazing.

Here's the gig...

kennedydream1980

Top 3 in no particular order:

Toto at Hammersmith Apollo (Falling In Between Tour)
The Police at Twickenham (Greatest hits reunion tour)
It Bites at the Carnegie Theatre Workington (The Tall Ships Tour)

pigface

Bob Marley and the Wailers at Dalymount Park, Dublin in 1980. Oh, yes :-)

joetele

Fugazi in Bristol Academy just before they split in 2002 (?). Absolutely brilliant 'set list' (they didn't use them, but the eventual list of songs was immense), stunning production/sound tech, two drummers, some great telling-off of an idiot in the crowd, and the shape of the venue meaning we were about five meters away from them. And they packed up their own stuff afterwards! 

PJ Harvey on her 'Uh Huh Her' tour in the same venue was pretty special too, as was seeing And So I Watch You From Afar for the first time, touring their 2nd album 'Gangs', at a tiny venue. Like being hit in the face with music. 

Unfortunately Radiohead in 1997 was hindered by them playing at Gloucester Leisure Centre, effectively the badminton courts, which destroyed any chance of hearing them properly. 

axisus

Seen some great gigs! My most memorable two though were both very small and intimate.

Marillion at the Luton Tech college Student Union bar in 82, before they even had a record deal. Fish was selling tickets at a desk by the door. I asked him to sign one of the A4 posters and he jumped up and said 'come with me, I'll get all the band to sign it'. Still have it of course! There was no stage and I stood literally 2m from Steve Rothery watching him play all night.

Also, My fave ever band, old neo proggers Pendragon did a charity gig in a pub, around new years eve a few years ago. It was a tiny place, packed to the rafters, and once again I was right at the very front just watching guitarist/singer Nick Barrett reeling off the soundtrack to my life. Awesome!

Dopesick

Godflesh @ Kentish Town Forum 2011 - Such a colossal experience seeing them for the first time. Very excited as I am seeing them again in a few weeks at the same venue (with Neurosis and YOB as well - gig of the year potential).

Seeing Strapping Young Lad with Devin Townsend himself as main support along with Zimmers Hole at the London Mean Fiddler back in 2003 was one of the best nights of my life. When the whole crowd sang along to 'Earth Day' it was a euphoric moment.

mikeyrob73

DiscoStu said:

Muse, TITP 2004. Just spectacular, and still to this day the best show I've ever seen.
Portishead in the Edinburgh Corn Exchange 2008, first gig to bring a tear to my eye.
Metallica, Glasgow Barrowlands 1996. The Barrowlands FFS!
Frightened Rabbit, The Loft, Kinloss 2012. An absolute dream of a gig with just a hundred or so fans in a barn. RIP Scott.

i was also at this gig :-) 

mikeyrob73

ICBM said:

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Glasgow SECC 2013. Epic. An almost transcendental experience where I totally lost track of time and the world outside. 

Honourable mentions to Roger Waters at the Hydro last year, and like tone1 also a solo Lloyd Cole acoustic gig at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh.

And this one 

fretmeister

Prince - O2
Pantera - 1st UK Ozzfest
Metallica - couple of dates on the 1991 tour. Were superb on all.
Life of Agony - on the 2nd Stage at Ozzfest. They really gave it everything that day to try and win over a crowd that hadn't really heard of them.

and....

Hugh Laurie and the Copper Bottom Band - New Theatre, Oxford. The tightest, swingiest band I've ever seen or heard.
Blew me away!

camf

DarnWeight said:

There's a few that I can't separate.

REM, Newport Centre, Green tour, May '89...my first ever gig, blew my mind, utterly changed my life.

Nirvana, Norwich Waterfront, Oct '90...this was about a year before they released Nevermind, I had Bleach on heavy rotation, and they were utterly free of all the baggage and bullshit that brought them down.  Crazy crazy mosh pit, crowd surfers, the works, amazing amazing gig.  I got utterly flattened by a stage-diving member of L7.  Happy days!

I think that might have been the Nirvana tour I was on. Or maybe it was the one before. We did a few gigs with Nirvana and Tad. I can't remember if that was one of them. I think we did four but can't remember which ones. I do remember the Riverside in Newcastle and the infamous SOAS gig in London but even they are a bit of a blur. 

Anyway, my gigs...

Probably every time I saw The Clash.
First time I saw Sonic Youth
Neil Young
Velvet Underground on their return
Nick Cave is usually pretty memorable
and Radiohead!
 

photek

Interestingly not many recent gigs on the lists so far...

Mine is either Manics in 1994 at the Cambridge Corn Exchange or S*M*A*S*H at Bedford Esquires probably the same year.

DarnWeight

camf said:

DarnWeight said:

There's a few that I can't separate.

REM, Newport Centre, Green tour, May '89...my first ever gig, blew my mind, utterly changed my life.

Nirvana, Norwich Waterfront, Oct '90...this was about a year before they released Nevermind, I had Bleach on heavy rotation, and they were utterly free of all the baggage and bullshit that brought them down.  Crazy crazy mosh pit, crowd surfers, the works, amazing amazing gig.  I got utterly flattened by a stage-diving member of L7.  Happy days!

I think that might have been the Nirvana tour I was on. Or maybe it was the one before. We did a few gigs with Nirvana and Tad. I can't remember if that was one of them. I think we did four but can't remember which ones. I do remember the Riverside in Newcastle and the infamous SOAS gig in London but even they are a bit of a blur. 
...

The tour with Tad was in '89, and it was a Wilde Club gig at the Norwich Arts Centre.  I came to study at UEA in Sept/Oct '90 and this was maybe the second or third gig I went to here.  The Waterfront had only recently opened, and they had a golden few years...many many fantastic gigs, before they had a financial wobble and ended up getting taken over by UEA Ents.  Still an OK venue, but a few too may tribute acts and club nights for my liking now.

Supports for the '90 Nirvana gig were L7 and Jacob's Mouse.

ewal

Impossible to decide... A top 10 might be more doable with a bit of time and would feature well known bands like Sonic Youth, Low, The Bunnymen, Bad Seeds etc A few wee bands too - Versus, at the original 13th Note, A Silver Mt Zion at  to the Art School come to mind.

 Then there's the gigs I remember for personal reasons - start of a relationship at The Bhundu Boys, my future wife sealing the deal by buying me 20 B&H at one of our gigs at Strathclyde Uni.

Efterklang at Oran Mor, Glasgow 2009 were superb. Brilliant musicians, lovely engagement with the audience which was reciprocated. Would love to re-visit that night.

So many  I've forgotten. Wish I'd kept a diary...

musteatbrain

Brian May. Liverpool Royal Court. 1993 I think
The only gig I’ve ever been to where nobody could hear the first guitar solo. The audience erupted in to cheering and applause and actually drowned his wall of AC30s out.

rustneversleeps

Neil Young &crazy horse,Hammersmith odeon
Riche Havens ,Jazz cafe,Camden.
Wishbone ash ,Hammersmith Odeon.
Pink Floyd,Earls Court.
Santana,BBC studios regent
Ten years after,Hampstead.
Can’t remember dates (senior moments)

CountryDave

Avett Brothers, Manchester Ritz 2013
Last minute decision to take my daughter out as she was feeling a bit rubbish. Only really knew a couple of their songs.
What a phenomenal gig, so much energy. Everything from full band, up tempo numbers, to one man and his acoustic.
We both came away fans.

So many others, Eric Church at the Ritz, on the same tour he was selling out stadiums in the US.

Dave Lee Roth with Vai in the late 80’s at the NEC (coincidentally my worst gig is probably the tour where he had John 5 playing guitar. It was painfully loud, just a wall of noise)

A top ten might be easier than just one.

lasermonkey

A few stand out.

 The first two times I saw Aphex Twin live were intense. The first was at the Clink Prison (it's a museum now) and he played the set from one of the cells. I think that was the first time Come To Daddy was unleashed on the public. The second was at the Junction, Cambridge and was equal parts ambient and ferocious. 

Teenage Fanclub playing Bandwagonesque as part of the Don't Look Back series of gigs was truly magical. They had Brendan back on drums and Don Fleming introduced them and played on some of the songs.

The most recent gig that is a contender was The Besnard Lakes at The Portland Arms, Cambridge, a couple of years ago. I thought they absolutely smashed it. I got the feeling that they were having a great time and it showed. Every time I think back on that gig i get the warm and fuzzies.