Seen loads of bad gigs over the years, some from brilliant artists. Such as Bowie's retirement (again) of performing all previous songs in the late 80's early 90's(?) where he stood in front of a curtain and sang poor renditions of his past hits. A massive letdown after seeing previous shows such as Glass Spider etc. And Roger Waters (and friends) Berlin production of The Wall. The area between Brandenberg Gate and Potsdamerplatz was full of land mines prior to the concert, consequently the fences had to remain erected after the finale and the crush to get out led to hospitalisations. Madness. The show was pretty poor for a live performance too as it was just too big a project. The polystyrene "bricks" that made up the wall were as big as a small car. Saw the Video years later which wasn't much better than being there. Nowhere near the Pink Floyd version at Earls Court which was jaw droppingly good.

Systematically dragged down by the lawmakers

Van Morrison at the Dome in Brighton somewhere around mid-80s. He didn't appear interested, barely acknowledged the audience, declined to do an encore, and the whole show was over by 9pm. I made a note never to ever buy another record of his nor attend another gig of his.

Another event where the audience was treated with disdain was that of hippy-hero Roy Harper. I saw a gig of his at the Fairfield Halls ( must have been 69 or 70).
He was about four or five numbers into his set when he started mumbling about never performing well at venues south of the Thames (I kid you not), and after one more song, he garbled some nonsense along the lines of "sorry man I can't go on" and left the stage never to return.

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Edited by Chubskip (16 Dec 2020 2.45pm)

He has got a rep for that, hasn't he ! I've seen him loads of times but although he's been typically grumpy in most of them, he actually cracked jokes the last couple of times.

And the gig he did at the Brighton Centre in ( I think ) 2003 was one of the best gigs I've seen by anyone.

Old, Ungifted and White

Two very different gigs come to mind. Bob Dylan Wembley Arena October 1987 night of the hurricane. He was awful. He started a song and his band had to work out what it was an join in. Played odd incomprehensible versions of the classics and not a word between songs. Utter s***e.

Then the was Ziggy Ziggy Stardust aka Sigue Sigue Sputnick at the underground in Croydon. All posing with the odd real instrument to backing tracks. As a mate said at the time - up their own arses!

I always remember a tale told by Neil Finn of Crowded House. A number of years back the band found themselves staying in the same hotel as Sting. When their paths crossed, Sting, recognising the members of Crowded House, broke into song singing the first couple of bars of one of Crowded House's more famous numbers. Neil Finn instantly responded with a chorus "De do do do de da da da .. "

For some reason Sting thought they were taking the piss and hurrumphed off in high dudgeon. Neil Finn insists that no offence was meant and had just sang the first Police song that came into his head.