[Closed] Worst live band

Phoenix Festival mid-90s, Van Morrison followed by Bob Dylan, how could you not be excited? As it turns out, if they forget everything they are known for and mumble in front of a massive brass band, then excitement is long gone.
Saw John Martyn in Glasgow on his last tour as a birthday surprise my wife organised when our kids were toddlers (in short, it took some work on her part). He was clearly ill/morbidly obese and also relying on brass band backing to help out. However, I just don't care. I'll always remember hearing May You Never sung for probably the last time as my live stand out moment (and I saw Queen's Kind of Magic tour at the old Wembley).

It probably wasn’t helped by the fact that 2 nights earlier we’d watched the Prodigy in the same venue (Manchester Apollo) and they absolutely took the ****ing roof off!

The Prodigy could pretty much blow anyone off the stage. They were the first live band I ever saw at the peak of the Firestarter hysteria. It took 20 years but I saw them again and they were even better. So many massive bangers.

Oh heavens, I've just looked up what Sigue Sigue Sputnik look like now. Respect for still being out there but now need a bottle of eye bleach.

Actually, sod it, just be who you are Sigue Sigue, keep on keeping on.

A yes John Martyn - his drinking must have affected my memory....I saw him piss himself on stage, have a fight with a sound engineer, and sit and slur lyrics while pretending to play his guitar (not all the same gig) He could be brilliant or embarrassing.

Oasis, Berkeley, 2000. Immobile Noel hiding behind his effin' sunglasses. We only went to see Travis who were supporting. And who were rather good.

Honourable mention to Tangerine Dream, Picture House, Edinburgh a few years ago. Walked out after 4 songs. Was not like I remember when I saw them in 1986 at the Edinburgh Playhouse. You can never go back.

Mrs. Zigzag agrees with RHCP comments.

Jamiroqui at Birmingham NEC - their first ever stadium gig and they were lost. JK was like a small child on stage - terrified and without any of his perceived’cool’

Second was Keizer Chiefs at Elland Road in 2008? Leeds fans (named after a Leeds player) at the ground at the weekend Leeds were in a playoff final. They played like the team did at the time unfortunately.

Cypress Hill, Reading 94, so so so bad!

Hold on, that guy from the Lemonheads.

Glastonbury, 93/94/94 no idea which. So bad I’d have been better.

Edit, Evan Dando. That was the most I’d seen anyone heckled. He stormed of after a couple of, ill be generous, things attempting to be songs.

95. I hope you stayed in the tent for Portishead afterwards!

Kings of Leon for me. Birmingham arena circa 2008. First time seeing a band I really enjoyed looking utterly bored whilst playing. Zero charisma and zero stage presence.
Gig was made worse by topless, gilet wearing proud boys talking incessantly before suddenly recognising ‘sex is on fire’. Jumping, dancing, hugging, proclaiming it to be the best gig ever...
Not listened to another note since.

Second was Keizer Chiefs at Elland Road in 2008? Leeds fans (named after a Leeds player)

The band were named after a South African football club from whom Lucas Radebe (and Philomen Masinga) was recruited. Club legend and all round nice guy.
Masinga disappeared after about 10 games, Radebe was an afterthought but played for the club for a long time, including club captain

SOmeone said Flaming Lips- I've seen them I think 5 times now. 2 of those were absolutely glorious- totally joyous, ridiculous events, you'd have thought everyone in the crowd was on pills. And one was alright. And the last time, I just walked out, it was bad in its own right but compared to those amazing ones it was almost an insult.

IdleJon
Full Member

Brown supporting the Manic, 2003ish. Came on, argued with the audience, got booed off. It was probably for the best, considering the little music we heard from him.

Yeah, I'm not even counting the one I saw (same tour) as a live band/performance, it was just king monkey shouting vowels and trying not to fall over. Did include the worst cover ever though, a quick runthrough of Clint Eastwood.

has anyone said Milli Vanilli?

sharkattack
Free Member

Lost Prophets. Calculated nu-metal, cash-in designed to be big on Kerrrang TV.

Which was insightful of them, since they formed in 1997, put out their first album in 2000, and I first saw them live in early 2001, all before Kerrang TV existed. With prescience like that, it's surprising they ever caught Ian Watkins really.

I hate too say it but I saw the prodigy just before they were big. I think it was at a nightclub type thing and it was bad.left the crowd waiting for 30mins before coming on bad sound boring performance cut short after about 25 minutes. I think they were were all to drink and off their faces to care.at least they would have had fun.They then went on to be the one of the best live bands there were and are.still glad I can say I saw them at this stage of there careers though and I still love all of their music.still loved them after this gig.

Finlay Quaye, sadly gone off the rails. The audience left, and his band looked embarrassed. He ended up babbling on stage, sans band, to the last few remaining drinkers.

Contrast between the RHCP in the early 90's to the early 2010's:see also ACDC. REM at T in 2003, if I hadn't been there cos I built the tents I would be pissed off to have paid.Saw them a few times and they had been fantastic but crap that night.

Imelda May, 2 years ago. Seen the band 7 or so times, excellent every time. Then she divorced her husband, the guitarist, and a new guy came in, he was decent, then she sacked the whole band as they were too old, and not suitable for the image she wanted.
The new band were competent, but nowhere near as good or relaxed as the old band, and she had changed too, it was now the 'look at me, the singer', not the band. It was awful. We nearly walked out, it was just dull. Stayed until the end as we'd paid £35 each. Her T-shirts were thrown out the next day.
Subsequent chats with musicians have shown she is a real shit.

Alt J at Cambridge corn exchange, the mrs wanted to go, I remember thinking the ticket ws expensive but hey, lets have a look. Walked out after 10 minutes and spent the rest of the night in the bar. They had no interest in the audience, it wouldnt have been quite so bad if they were actually good, but their annoying plinky plonk music style combined with their complete indifference was a no from me.

A. Some time in the early 2000s at the Coventry Colosseum. Went to see the support (Fenix Tx, who were great) which made them look even worse. Their tour bus had bricks thrown at it when they were leaving. I'd like to think it was from gig goers as opposed to a random local scally.
Kaiser Chiefs. Again, went to see the support (Black Kids, again, brilliant), stayed for main act out of morbid curiosity. Left after a few songs. Genuinely awful.
Also has the misfortune of seeing Biffy at the Tunbridge Wells Forum in the late 90s. So, so bad. Mumbling drivel.

Saw Kings of Leon at Doncaster Dome when they were still bearded greasy vest-wearing rockers, and it was a great gig.

Fast-forward an album and they became a shaven, suit wearing hipster bore-fest by the next time I saw them. I guess it sells more records though.

A couple of people have mentioned the Chilli's tour around 1999. The support was James Brown and Chicks on Speed. I was at the Hyde Park gig, and Chicks on Speed got bottled off stage.

My recent most underwhelming gigs have been Noel G's High flying birds (even he seemed bored by how middle-class it was) and Royal Blood (might as well have just put the record on at home).

Nick Caveat Manchester GMex or whatever it is now. Seats didn’t face the stage, charisma of a brick, totally unsuitable venue, lazy git do more shows in better venues rather than cashing in on one big gig.
It was very sad to see the bomb damage though so not a great start.

Kings Of Leon - Reading ~2009? Like karaoke with 50,000 people. Good for a sing-a-long but not very exciting.

Soulwax/2 many DJs ~2005 at the Leadmill in Sheffield. Turns out when you actually have to stand there and listen to it for 5 hours it's just tiring.

The Prodigy, my brother broke his knee in the mosh pit the inconsiderate b******* so I had to go find him in the medical tent. Apart from that, they were great.

It was like watching a mildly angry boyband. Not sure whatever happened to them.

Hate to be the one to break it to you, but it turned out he made Rolf Harris look like a gent.

Re; Lost Prophets -

Which was insightful of them, since they formed in 1997, put out their first album in
2000, and I first saw them live in early 2001, all before Kerrang TV existed.

Well, he may've got his influences mixed up but they were still derivative shit when I saw them on an NME tour and they certainly didn't exist before Faith No More.

I've also remembered Mars Volta at Glastonbury... 2004?

I'm sure they were very very good, but 20 minutes in they were still going on the first song and I, along with about half the audience, got a bit of a headache trying to make sense of something in 27/8 and every conceivable key.

Unexpected highlights that year were Iggy Pop inviting the audience to join him on stage before realising, 100 people later, that that was a terrible idea, and The Automatic, who were entertainingly energetic and excellent.

[i]RHCP are the only band I have regretted seeing.[/i]

[smug] having seen the RHCP in 1988, I thought they were rather brilliant [/smug]

Ben Howard. Loved his song the wolves(on a danny mcaskil film) and a couple others. His gig was an experimental mess with minutes of random sounds and what looked like him making it up on the spot.

Some folk left. I drank.

69er_Gav Free Member
Ash – Murrayfield Stadium supporting RHCP 2004

I was at that gig. I don't remember it being great and neither support act (N.E.R.D. was the other one I think) interested me much, but my judgement was clouded by having a headache for most of its duration, being high up on the west stand so very far from the stage, and having a group of teenage girls who squealed with headache-enhancing volume at regular intervals next to me. I do remember finding the RHCP cover of I Feel Love pretty interesting, at least.

Northwind Full Member
SOmeone said Flaming Lips- I’ve seen them I think 5 times now. 2 of those were absolutely glorious- totally joyous, ridiculous events, you’d have thought everyone in the crowd was on pills. And one was alright. And the last time, I just walked out, it was bad in its own right but compared to those amazing ones it was almost an insult.

That was the one at the Usher Hall that a whole bunch of us went to, wasn't it? I think they were touring The Terror for that gig, that album's sound was really not a good match for what people expect from a Flaming Lips gig. Some of the other songs they played had become overindulgent too.

Hmm, looking at the setlist.fm entry for that gig they only played a couple of tracks off The Terror, the dirgelike qualities of that album must has infected the other songs more than I recall.

On the other hand, I first saw Sparklehorse at the Fleece and Firkin in Bristol in 1998. Mark Linkous broke his weird noise making tape machine, got shitfaced, nearly fell off the stage, gave up playing Hundreds of Sparrows halfway through the song, apologised profusely to the audience for doing so and then played Pig (and the rest of the set) without any obvious trouble. And it was great!

There's a few contenders. I saw some incarnation of Dr Feelgood ( no wilko) at the Coatham Bowl in Redcar the band looked bored or maybe pissed off. The coatham bowl was a roller skating rink so the sound was dreadful. Left after a few songs. A few months later I went to see the Solid Senders and they were equally crap. Then there was The Fall Mark E Smith being disinterested and scornful to his small audience who returned the compliment, ended up with him trying to pick a fight with someone in the crowd and being restrained by other band members. Booed off stage and invited to come outside by his intended victim. At least we could enjoy a quiet pint at the late bar.

I saw Ian Brown at glasto many years ago

Yeah... I saw that live too, it was awful. A few weeks later my mates and I spent £5 to see a Stone Roses tribute band in the coal exchange in Cardiff and they were amazing, I saw Ocean Colour Scene there too, it was a free gig when they were trying out some new material, or perhaps rehearsing for a tour, anyway they were great too.

In fairness, all the worst performances I've seen have been at festivals. Glastonbury especially, it's pretty much midsummer so its's only the headliners who get to perform in the dark with lighting etc, the acts going on at 5pm have got a tough time. Worst from a musical and crowd point of view was The Happy Mondays, it was a sad old shell of Sean Ryder mumbling incoherently into the mic at thousands of people tried to drag themselves around in the Mud. It was supposedly to be better down the front, but Ryder got pissed off and left leaving Bez to gurn about to a backing track. Saying that, I'm sure that was the year Van Morrison 'played' he just sort of sat there as the band performed around him.

I saw the RHCP live once, they're okay, musically they're good, there's no showmanship at all, they come on, perform, say thank you and leave.

I noticed some people said Foo Fighters, the first time I saw them they were a warm-up act for the Prodigy, back then they were in their "isn't that the guy from Nirvana?" era, they were amazing, they weren't a natural fit for a Prodigy crowd but the place was on fire.

I've never seen G n' R, but I did see Velvet Revolver once, they were good, but it wasn't a great show, it was only about a quarter full in a small venue, it seemed like the band and crew outnumbered the audience.

Say Roxy Music sometime in the mid '70s. Brian Ferry was shockingly bad.

Pet Shop Boys at the NEC sometime in the 90's - so, so, so, sooooooooo boring.

And conversely to funkmaster - The Black Crowes at Sheffield City Hall when they were touring Southern Harmony still goes down as my No.1 gig. They were enthralling and musically brilliant. I must have caught them on a good night! 🙂

Nick Caveat

Excellent name for a tribute act.

Hole, supporting Mudhoney at the International 2 in Manchester.
Appalling,tuneless toss.
Mudhoney were amazing 🙂

Time to mention the Stone Roses. Certainly not the worst band live - but possibly the worst singer. When you have one job to do, and you take 20 years to perfect the songs, the least you can do is sing in tune...
Unless you are Ian Brown

Wouldn't have been the Stone Roses without him though.

Another spectacularly shit live band - The Killers. Dreadful.

Another spectacularly shit live band – The Killers. Dreadful.

I've seen them and they've been SHITE and I have seen them when I'd had a skin full. They were great on that occasion.

Primal scream, just in it for the cash.

95. I hope you stayed in the tent for Portishead afterwards!

I think it was why I was there. I’ve a memory of expecting it to be rammed and not able to get in.

Kings of Leon not coming out of this very well. And another vote from me. Utterly boring - might aswell have listened to a CD while staring a a poster of them.

More memorable was Badly Drawn Boy at Newcastle Student Union in 2006 (ish). Generally on his way down and utterly miserable. Having a go at the crowd for talking at the bar while he was playing (bar right at the back of the room) and threatened to walk off several times.
Saw him a few years earlier in York at Fibbers (mumch smaller venue) and it was brilliant. Sad to see the change in a few short years as he was slowly forgotten and just became a more miserable old man.

THese 2 2 were equally band for me

Bruce and the E sTreet band born in the USA tour - 3 hours I'll never get back
Guns and Roses 88 just terrible, but they were on stage on time which is a bonus I suppose, If they are worse than that now I'd be amazed

Megadeth, bloody awful. technically very good, all the charm and warmth of a dead fish. It didn't help that the support act was some little known bunch of noisy gits called Pantera who were getting ready to launch their "Cowboys from hell" album. They went mental giving it everything, Then megadeth just sort of stood their and trundled their greatest hits.

Macc Ladds, so bad that mutley got bottled.

Dogs D'amour- usually a good live act, Tyla was so pissed he fell over lots and forgot who, where and what he was.

Imelda May, 2 years ago. Seen the band 7 or so times, excellent every time. Then she divorced her husband, the guitarist, and a new guy came in, he was decent, then she sacked the whole band as they were too old, and not suitable for the image she wanted.
The new band were competent, but nowhere near as good or relaxed as the old band, and she had changed too, it was now the ‘look at me, the singer’, not the band. It was awful. We nearly walked out, it was just dull. Stayed until the end as we’d paid £35 each. Her T-shirts were thrown out the next day.
Subsequent chats with musicians have shown she is a real shit.

Saw Imelda May several times in the late 90's when she was singer with the Mike Sanchez Band. It was obvious then she was destined for greater things, a terrific performer. Saw her again once she had made it and did not disappoint.

Sad to read that she'd changed though.

95. I hope you stayed in the tent for Portishead afterwards!

I think it was why I was there. I’ve a memory of expecting it to be rammed and not able to get in.

You made me dig through my old photos - spark any memories?

Evan Dando;

Portishead;

Kings of Leon not coming out of this very well. And another vote from me. Utterly boring – might aswell have listened to a CD while staring a a poster of them.

missed this thread until now. But +1 for KOL. Took the wife to NEC to see them about 7 years ago and your comment sums it up perfectly.

Saw Imelda May several times in the late 90’s when she was singer with the Mike Sanchez Band. It was obvious then she was destined for greater things, a terrific performer. Saw her again once she had made it and did not disappoint.
Sad to read that she’d changed though.

Mike Sanchez is great, saw him do a (mainly) solo show at a small pub in Leicester, he looked like he'd got out the shower when he'd finished, he was so wet with sweat.
Yes, Imelda seems to have lost the plot. Her career is , apparently, going the way she wants it to, but she has upset a lot of people. Someone told me around 10 years ago that she was very demanding and wants everything her own way. It turned out to be true.
We know a percussionist local to us who does recording sessions, he told us all about it, her band were some of the top musicians in the UK, but as they were all around 50yo, she wanted rid of them. It wasnt musical style, as they were all in-demand session musicians.

I went to see Biffy Clyro last summer, a mate wanted to go so I went with even though I'm not a fan of Biffy.

One of the support acts was Ghost Poet and they were absolute shite. Just a complete mess on stage and clearly couldn't be arsed. Lead singer/rapper spent most of his time mumbling into the mic. After the first song most of the audience stopped listening and went to queue for more beer or started chatting among themselves.

Saw the Kaiser Chiefs in some small venue and they were wasted. A lot of ranting at the crowd. I'd have left but my mate bought me the ticket.

Misty's big adventure (same mate) were not my bag.

On my tour of older acts who may not be around much longer. I saw Meat Loaf.... Bit disappointing when he was prompted more than once for the lyrics.

The good

Fleetwood Mac
Jenna G, someone kept the tracks going for hours and she sang non stop.
Pretty much every Idlewild gig I've been to was good.
Andy C, John B and Goldie were good
Oh and Garbage, but in my youth I'd eat burning coals for Shirley Manson.

Red Hot Chili Peppers in Birmingham Hummingbird, years ago cos I was still in school. They flat out couldn't be arsed, put no effort into the performance at all, putting more effort into their "cool", in jokes and trying to be kooky.
Didn't help that Henry Rollins at his peak was the warm -up act (doing music not spoken word at this point in time). Bloke made a fan me that night even though I cant listen to his albums.

If folk were at Reading 99, then you may have seen Blur. I hope they were better in Reading than they were at the Leeds end of that weekend.

Creg
Free Member

One of the support acts was Ghost Poet and they were absolute shite. Just a complete mess on stage and clearly couldn’t be arsed. Lead singer/rapper spent most of his time mumbling into the mic.

Was that at Scarborough OAT? I kinda like Ghostpoet but that was a rotten performance. Probably didn't help that it was bloody cold and the sound was shit

igm
Full Member

If folk were at Reading 99, then you may have seen Blur. I hope they were better in Reading than they were at the Leeds end of that weekend.

I think I spent that entire day in the evening session stage, except for Atari Teenage Riot. My first Readng

More memorable was Badly Drawn Boy at Newcastle Student Union in 2006 (ish). Generally on his way down and utterly miserable. Having a go at the crowd for talking at the bar while he was playing (bar right at the back of the room) and threatened to walk off several times.

I saw him in Manchester maybe 2003 and he was the same. He seemed to want adulation, forgetting that he was just the warmup for REM.

Best & worst probably rolled into one night...

Ian Brown, absolutely dreadful, kept gobbing on the audience & offering to 'take it outside' for anyone that was laughing & taking the piss out of how dire it was.
Didn't hit a note all night.

He was the support for the Manic's Carling homecoming gig in Cardiff. Odd choice I know.
Quite possibly the best gig I've ever seen. They were flawless & playing to a home crowd on the last night of the tour just made it even more special. You could really see how much it meant to them.

I think I spent that entire day in the evening session stage, except for Atari Teenage Riot.Readng

Atari teenage riot were the best band on that year

In 98 prodigy stopped their set to tell us that beastie boys had called them the night before & told them not to play Smack My Bitch Up

Obviously they did, obviously the crowd went was bonkers

When beastie boys came on after & then stopped their set to explain why, obviously they got a lot of abuse, 2nd half of their set was flat after that

Aqua. Barbie girl was awful live 😉

I saw At the Drive In and Refused back to back on Réunion tours. Very disappointed.

Sometimes best not to see your heroes!

Re Deftones and Manson, bands with drugs problems can be pretty hit/miss. I remember Deftones at Reading 2000 and Manson 2001 being amazing, but when Chino is high as a kite, you are on to a loser.

Also, agree Atari Teenage Riot in 99. Great show!

Charlatans late 90's Poole. Completely soulless. Imagine Madame Tussauds with cd on in the background.

PWEI - always seemed to miss them back in the day, saw them more recently (2014 ish) wish I hadn't.

Was that at Scarborough OAT? I kinda like Ghostpoet but that was a rotten performance.

Yessir.

I saw The Fall about 15 years ago – Mark E Smith was wasted and the songs were barely recognisable, he lurched around for a bit and then mumbled ‘bleeearrrrgggh **** off’ at the end..

The same, only at Reading 99 (I think). He spent more time offstage than he did on it.

Saw them about 2 years later and they were perfectly reasonable. I was working backstage too, and his backing band were basically a bunch of students, sitting in awe as he held court and lectured them all about his Views On Life. It was a bit sad.

I saw Fiddy Cent once...

Bjork - Gmex 96, height of her powers, it was cold, thin crowd, no atmosphere, crap sound, gave it 30 mins, went to the pub

The Orb - Last year at Band on the Wall, couple of blokes on laptops, tedious

Reading Festival 2002, I was about 16. Turned up nice and early on the Sunday and wandered over to the main stage to see what was going on and who were playing. Had no idea who the Dillinger Escape Plan were but after a short while I turned to my mate and said "is that bloke taking a shit on stage?" Sure enough, there he was, their lead singer curling one out at about midday. He then threw it into the crowd, who threw it back, and he then wiped it on himself. We headed off promptly after that.

Oasis at the aberdeen exibition centre - utter shit

Weirdly both Blur and Oasis were both shit when I saw them . Oasis did an additional gig in Embra on the standing on the shoulders of Giants tour. They just couldnt be arsed . Similiary Blur played mile end Stadium around 95 so at their prime really. It pished down all day and i got hammeered on cider which probably played a part.
I've seen the Chili Peppers a few times and they have been good but at Hampden they had zero chat and just ploughed through tracks. But the actual worst artist Ive ever seen is Pete Doherty , what a mumbling boring **** though he did take his dug on stage.

Rolling Stones - Millennium Stadium Cardiff @2006

Just felt like a band going through the motions and money making exercise - Kooks were supporting and were way better!

Psychedelic Furs at Leeds Uni 1983 - an era where production costs obviously dipped so that bands with floppy haircuts could churn out relatively coherent singles without the ability to perform them live. Compare with punk where production costs meant anyone could record anything ... Provided you nailed it in 30 minutes.

Easily forgotten, but something just reminded me of an NME Tour gig where The Thrills (of Santa Cruz, You're Not That Far one-hit wonder fame) were on the bill. The most weedy, insipid, joyless sound I've ever suffered.

I saw FL supporting the Chili Peppers

Oh lord, a twofer! RHCP are the only band I have regretted seeing. No crowd interaction at all

Seen RHCP loads of times and Anthony was shit every single time - turn up do the set with no crowd interaction then bugger off.

Pwei at the Manchester Academy when they reformed minus Clint, they were probably okay but it was the realisation that when we'd seen them the first time we were all tripping/whizzing our tits off teenagers smashing each other up in the mosh pit, fast forward to the reformed gig full of balding/grey haired middle aged professionals talking pensions/share prices in the toilets and stood politely nodding to the music. Worst gig ever due to crushing reality

On the other hand, I first saw Sparklehorse at the Fleece and Firkin in Bristol in 1998. Mark Linkous broke his weird noise making tape machine, got shitfaced, nearly fell off the stage, gave up playing Hundreds of Sparrows halfway through the song, apologised profusely to the audience for doing so and then played Pig (and the rest of the set) without any obvious trouble. And it was great!

Ha! I was at that gig! Standing right in front of Mark, tried to swipe his bottle of Jack Daniels that was by the side of his mic stand after the main set, but had to hand it back to the roadie. It was exactly as you say, and one of the best gigs I’ve been to. Mark did apologise profusely in a later interview about that specific gig, he was really embarrassed about it, but I was astounded that he was able to function as well as he did while that pissed! Of course, the fact that as soon as he came on he took an already open bottle of JD out of his jacket pocket and swigged at it should have been a clue. 🤣
What was funny about Hundreds Of Sparrows was the other guys in the band were showing him the chords and everything, but he just couldn’t grasp it. 😁
Still got the tee shirt too, one of my favourite designs.