Bad Gigs?

[Chris Bates]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new around here, or at least my virtual self is new to this mailing
list but I
thought I'd get involved right away.

> I was talking to one of my mate's flat mates whose a veteran of quite a
> number of HW gigs, both punter and support, and he was saying how he
felt
> that HW tended to be rather hit or miss and that in his experiance it
tended
> towards the miss side more oftern then not.  I could think of only one
bad
> gig that I have seen (Hemmel Hempstead in 92ish) and that wasn't the
bands
> fault.  Just wondered if anyone else had any views on this.

Haven't seen a bad gig for years. When gigs are bad I've found that it's
not
usually the fault of the bad - they play well enough most of the time but
sometimes the whole experience doesn't quite work. I think that's often
because
they're playing inappropriate (i.e. too big and half empty) venues, the
crowd
is too *passive* (some of the best gigs have been when everyone really
freaks out),
there are too many crusties trying to blag the price of a ticket/some
diesel/a
new piece of string for their dog on the way in, or (worst of all) you
get stuck
next to some nutter who's not recovered from a bad trip he started out on
in
1973 and who insists on *singing* the wrong lyrics and shouting for
Brainstorm
- I mean does he want us to join in HIS personal mental nightmare or
what?

Worst HW gig ever had most of these - it was one of those Acid Daze
things in Leeds
a few years ago. Massive cold venue (although pretty full), hoards of
crustie
beggars and endless hours of atrocious support acts including a typically
off-form Pink Faires. Yuck :-(


Chris Bates
****************************************************
Research Assistant,
Computing Research Centre,
Sheffield Hallam University,
Phone (+44) 0114 253 3101,
Email c.d.bates at shu.ac.uk
****************************************************