Tuesday, July 26, 2005

THE BEST GIG EVER

At least the winner of the latest Best Gig Ever poll is one that most of the people voting for it could at least claim to have seen it - apparently, it's Queen at Live Aid (actually, they weren't even the best band at Live Aid, were they?); Queen polled 79% of the popular vote, trashing The Beatles on the roof of the Apple building into second place.

The poll also found the Stones at Altamont to be the most controversial gig ever (although, to be honest, we're not sure there's much controversey about it - "notorious", surely?); oddly, Jarvis crashing Jackson's Brit awards number and Sinead O'Connor ripping up the pope also came in quite high, despite, erm, neither of them actually being gigs. Dylan going electric was best solo gig; Radiohead at Glastonbury 97 best festival and the dance and hip-hop category went to Run DMC and the Beasties at Brixton. It's all a bit of a rum do...

...which is a pity, as the hoopla is to promote a rather good exhibition: Living The Moment, a collection of live pictures from down the years. Says more about live music than any number of stupid polls.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So who were the best band at Live Aid then?

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

Throwing my mind back twenty years, the only two performances I could recall (before they started turning up on clips shows) were U2 and Adam Ant.

Having said which, though, my favourite bit was Andy Kershaw introducing Frank Partridge's 3pm news summary -"now, thrill to the visuals"

Anonymous said...

God, I have no memory whatsoever of Adam Ant being on.

Elvis Costello and Howard Jones are both clear as the day they played though...

Actually, thinking about it, Live 8 could have done with a bit more "person runs on and does one song" variety show style to it - it all seemed way too pre-planned, rather than the "let's do the show right here" insanity that Live Aid projected.

Still, this is old shit now, isn't it. Live 8 will forever go down in history as "One of the only gigs that Pete Doherty could be arsed to turn up for".

Although to be honest, if I got more publicity for a "no show" than a "show", I'd stop turning up too...

nuff. back to work.

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