...of Nick's it would have to be October 2005, Marrs Bar, Worcester. Can't tell you why (bit private!), but the memory of it will always be with me. Of Roy's, I guess the first time I ever saw him, back in the late 70s at the Victoria Astoria( Apollo?). Just blew me away and so different to what I had been listening to up to that point.
Well, it was the only gig.. but Roy, with Nick in Tel Aviv, I think it was in December of 1992. Roy was top form - Nick was laying pretty low at the time and wasn't interacting with the audience. Fine guitar playing from the both of them, particularly on "Same Old Rock".
This could be the worst thread EVER for me - do you know how many gigs I have to go through in my head now... :blushing: :rofl: But for just this second I'm gonna go for the first one that popped in my head - first gig I saw on Arran in April 2002, candlelit hall, no PA, my homegirl Philippa in tow, wee Trev, not so wee Dan, and Nick singing (if I remember correctly) Funkytown while squiffy on the homebrew of DOOM :rofl: Pure dead brilliant it was! I think Arran gigs are always the most magical-est :thumbup:
My most memorable gig was a Roy/Nick one at the Town Hall, High Wycombe a few years ago. I am a bit loathe to go into too much detail for fear of incriminating myself... but... A friend I was there with had made some nice little cakes before the gig. They were bite sized, chocolate, very tasty, but had an interesting added ingredient. I was a bit hungry. During the first half the effect started and I thought "hmm, this is interesting! Oh.. there are two more to come in about ten minutes...". Ten minutes later I was glued to my chair, with this sort of tunnel vision onto the stage with both Roy and Nick staring at me while playing (did I mention I was in the front row) and with a very weird kind of swirly echo feedback to the sound. Thankfully this settled down for the second half but for a while there I wanted to sink into a hole in the ground... I'm not sure this is the sort of "memorable" you were after but this was the first one that came to mind...
Utterly shocked! I would never have believed of you! I can see there is a whole other side to you - hadeha!
Right, this should be fun. 'My first proper Roy gig'. It wasn't so much memerable. But I do remember, that there was a definate air of magic about the place. It was in Leeds in about '84 at the Astoria Ballroom. (sadly, no longer there). There was a rumour going round that Jimmy Page was going to be there too.(good ol' Jimmy, I've still yet to see him). At the time, Leeds had a fantastic gig culture, (as did most of the country) and I had the privelidge to see many top bands, big and small. I also knew a lot of people around that time. We were Rockers! (I also wnted to be a punk, but my mum wouldn't let me!). Anyway, back to the main point. The Astoria, I guess, had a capacity of approx 2-3 hundred people. On this one night, it seemed everybody I ever knew had turned up. And I reckon there must have been at least 500+?! There was no way thru for Roy to even get to the stage. Talk about religious events: 'parting of the waves' comes to mind. The rest of the gig was probably more of a stand up comedy show than anything else. Unfortunately, the details escape me, but that warm fuzzy feeling it left me with tells me it was a special event! I do remember one song that he did though. It was about football hooligans. He donned a Rod Stewart type wig and a scarf and sang about 'Millwall' and the 'Constabulary'. Can anybody fill in the blanks for me and elaborate? I keep going back to see Roy (and Nick) because of that something special? that I cannot put into words. Every gig is different! Cheers Tony.
Have you got a picture then of the occasion (s?) Roy recited The Game, accompanied by mime? I can't remember whether that was the first time I saw him or one of the later ones, but it left an indelible impression with me. So much so that I learnt the whole thing off by heart.
Can't say I have. I do have the Rockpalast German TV thing he did somewhere or other though, and he recited the game on that too. That was from January 1978... maybe around the same time?
The Game The Game, a very underrated piece, both musically and lyrically. Although I prefer him acoustic this is one song I would love to see Roy perform with a full band....along with Too Many Movies. Come on Mr Lane tell us what it was like back in the day?
I agree with you there, Barry. Didn't he ever do it with Trigger (is the 'Admiral' still around?)? I would have heard it if so. Sadly, with Roy I never kept setlists.
It's good to hear peoples recollections of memorable gigs, I used to travel up and down the country following Roy in the 80's and 90's and have been to several in the noughties. Cambridge folk festival 84 is probably my most memorable because jimmy page was present, however it was a completely different atmosphere to the theatre type of gigs, a festival type of atmosphere and sound as opposed to the unique pure acoustic sound and more refined surroundings. Roy used to accept a lot of exotic branded cigarettes then, he also had his fair share of pint glasses filled with smoke too, which was a quicker solution, that's one of the things that stick out for me, not just the sound of them gigs, but the smells! Another all time favorite was the Bloomsbury Theatre London in 1990 Roy wore an all white outfit on the first night, and performed a set of his "lighter" songs as it were and the second night he wore all black and had a set of deeper darker songs, the acoustic sound and incredible volume he built up towards the end was mindblowing, something that will always stick with me.. Shaun I
I have had quite a few memorable gigs this year - trouble is, they have largely passed into one big hazy blur!:biggrin: I must have clocked up approaching 100 all told. :w00t: But probably The Twang's are the ones that I really enjoyed the most and that got me through the year. The energy, the atmosphere; their swagger and Brummie accents, the great tunes. There wasn't one gig that I wasn't thoroughly exhausted at by the end of the evening, or that I didn't have a soppy grin on my face all the while (and I weren't on nuthin' neither!).
Torquay last xmas.. though it never appeared on the tour list.. technically a mike last gig, but a wonderful duet of fairytale of new york featuring nick as kirsty mccoll.... sadly the bulk of the song was spent with one singer singing all the words as the other tried to plug in his guitar, tune his guitar, trip over leads before finally coming in for the last choruis... shame the pogues never saw it... nick could spend every december cameoing at there gigs...
