UKC

I have been lucky enough to see some great music performances from my hero(ine)s over the years - Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia, Dave Gilmour, Robert Wyatt, Neil Young, Sandy Denny, Lucinda Williams but I never saw Miles Davis. I had a chance but it wasn't to be.
What are your missed chances?

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

The Libertines when they were good.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

A second hand story, but quite a good one. A friend of a friend told the story of how he was fortunate enough to be at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970, but was so knackered by the end of the long weekend that he fell asleep and missed the main event - one of the last live performances of one Jimi Hendrix. In less than a month Hendrix would be dead.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

I'm sure that night Lorna and me had together just as friends being close, could have went somewhere else if I'd not been a gentleman. At the least could've been horny fun, at best could've been more.

In reply to planetmarshall:
As a counter to this - I was offered a ticket to see Jimi at Manchester Uni without knowing anything about him - I took it and went along - everything after that is a blur.................. until now!

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

An American friend c.1991 introduced me to Miles Davis' music. Miles was playing in Glasgow so we got tickets but work got in the way of me going. I wasn't too bothered at the time especially as my mate said that Miles toured all the time so I'd easily get another chance before too long. In the meantime, I got deeply into the music of Miles Davis. Then he died.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

Had chance to see The Jam when a student in Glasgow along with a few headlining punk bands, but money was the issue. I could not see everything-I just could not afford it. Nor could I afford the time.(I did have a crazy time in 2nd term of 2nd year when I went out for 21 nights on the trot, and then spent the rest of the term skint and catching up and studying all the time.)
Also missed a couple of chances to see Queen later on.
Otherwise saw a good number of bands when I was younger.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:
I have seen almost every band I've ever wanted to see (helped by the fact that I don't really like seeing bands in huge venues so it's easy for me to "not want to" see Leonard Cohen etc).
In terms of stuff that I could and should have gone to, there are only two specific gigs that I regret skipping.

Life Without Buildings, some time in 1999 or 2000 (me being tight with money)
HangedUp, in 2004 (me forgetting to go to the gig as I'd just got back from a festival)

I can probably still get to see some form of HangedUp or other music from the members of that band.
For a long time I regretted never having seen The Triffids although given that I was 14 when they split up and never heard of them until I was 18, this was fair enough. Fell in love with their music, then Dave McComb died and I thought "well I'll NEVER get to see them NOW" but then they did do some gigs, tastefully with a roster of vocalists tackling different songs, and I saw them at The Barbican in 2010 and it was wonderful. Saw them again last year with a rather trimmed down roster of "guest stars" (mostly Rob Snarski, a lifetime associate of the band), still very good.

Aussie jangly indie band Even As We Speak are one that with a lot of effort I might have been able to see when I was 17. Happily they are now gigging again so I'll keep an eye out to see if they come to the UK.

Otherwise no real regrets

In reply to bouldery bits:


That must have been a very small window of opportunity...

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

Good thread

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings last year
Nirvana back in the day due to having no cash.
Reading '92 for the same reason.
Soundgarden for the same reason as Nirvana except I was supposed to see them at Reading festival in 1993/4 but 5 mins before they were due on the announcement said "Sorry, they're not playing today now." No further info provided
Larkin Poe a year or so ago. I passed on it cos I didn't like their recorded output. Then I saw them on Instagram and Facebook and realised that they are the real deal. I won't make that mistake again.
QOTSA in a small venue. Struggling to see them in a large one now!

I try to see everyone I can these days

In reply to Ridge:


I'd recommend giving up the bracket a listen.
I liked it anyway.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:
Wish I'd gone to see Mark Knopfler with Emmylou Harris at Sheffield City Hall.

JW

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

I was hanging about at Sydney Opera House waiting to go in to see Dead Can Dance, when they pulled up in their minivan.

Lisa Gerrard opened the door, and I approached her and she consented to have her photo taken with me. ( I also included Brendan in it, just out of politeness.)

I was cock a hoop until I got back into teh Opera house bar, and realise that the soft git I'd given my phone to hadn't actually managed to take a photo.

Now she'll never have a record of her meeting with me. She must be heartbroken.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

I saw Miles Davis in about 1986 at the North Sea Jazz Festival. The outstanding thing about this performance was that Miles, in a kind of red leather jacket, spent the entire concert with his back to the audience and never once turned round to acknowledge that the audience was even there, let alone speak to them. This got it the way to the music: it made it seem sterile, though technically more than passable.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:
In 1976 I was a youthful ski bum in Breckenridge and was invited by a daughter of the neighbours to join her and her friends to see Lynyrd Skynyrd in Denver. I chose to go skiiing instead. In 1977 most of the band were killed in an air crash.

And I've always suspected that she was offering more than Lynyrd Skynyrd. I'll never know........

In reply to Phil West:

Another Nirvana one, as a student at Glasgow College of B & P a mate announced he was getting tickets for Nirvana at the QMU and did I want one in November 1991, just after Nevermind release when they were on fire. "Nah it's alright, I've not heard the album" I says. I wasn't even aware of their first release so much was my finger on the pulse! Also had a friend who had a ticket for their cancelled gig at the SECC in 1994.

A second hand one from Sound City 1994? A couple of mates waiting to see the Boo Radleys at the Tramway. "Who's that we can hear in the other hall". "Some band from Manchester - Oasis". "Never heard of them".

My wife had a ticket for The Killers in King Tuts in the early noughties but it was cancelled because Brandon had a sore throat.

In reply to John Stainforth:
My interest in Miles started in 1969 and it was 'Silent Way' that I first heard. My favourite Miles era is the 60's culminating in 'Kind of Blue'. I stayed with him through 'Voodoo' but got lost by his later stuff. I couldn't get to the Isle of Wight and had I been able to see him after then I think I may have been disappointed. Thank goodness for the legacy of his recordings.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

Sonic Youth - on at least 2 occasions. One of them was at a festival where I went to see someone a bit more 'now' on another stage, even though I wanted to see them. Can't even remember who I went to see instead - still kicking myself!

Same applies to Mogwai (missed them at a couple of festivals I was at, and when they played Inverness). At least they are still around though.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

Kate Bush, two tours in 39 years does not present much of an opportunity, especially as one of the so called 'tours' was 22 days at the same venue in London. Bugger ! (Still hanging onto the thread of future dates but I might not be around in another 35 years )

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

Daft Punk at Glastonbury in 1997. We watched Ocean Colour Scene (I think).

In reply to malky_c:

Smug points for me, Glastonbury 2003 I eschewed the questionable delights of Radiohead (and possibly Sigur Ros) in favour of seeing John Cale. I didn't know 90% of his set but it didn't matter because he did Venus in Furs and it was amazing


Also I saw Sonic Youth at Glastonbury 1998. Sorry!

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

Biggest miss was Nirvana's first UK gig at the Riverside in Newcastle, because the weather was bad and I'd had a hard week at work. Those who made it said it was just unbelievably good, as in on a completely different scale to anything else, ever. For years after I went to see loads of gigs "just in case they are the next Nirvana", and as a result have seen some terrible bands......
Missed seeing Queen late 80's but I was climbing in the alps so its all good really...........

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

I have seen Motorhead several times, but then Lemmy had the cheek to die just when I was going to see them with my daughters.

CB

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

I had a chance to see Led Zep at the O2 in 2007. Twenty million others did as well, so it wasn't much of a chance.

Lucky for me then that I'd seen them 28 years earlier with their proper drummer, although seeing might be a stretch as they were half a mile away.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

One of Joe Strummer's last gigs was a firefighter's benefit in Edinburgh. I had planned to go, but it was in a venue I really didn't like, the weather was a bit crap so I'd have got wet walking there, I was a bit tired and I couldn't be arsed, so I didn't go. Not long after, he died. I had seen him before, with The Clash and with the Mescaleros, but somehow missing that gig seemed to take on more importance when he died.