Bands You Saw Before They Were Really Famous

[Johnny Crumplin Football]

REM backing up U2 (or was it the Simple Minds) yonks ago at Milton Keynes Bowl.

They were kack then and still are!

 

[sully]

UB40 supporting the Pretenders (I think) at the Top Rank a week before their first single hit the charts.

Talk Talk (if you consider they were ever "really" famous) at Milton Keynes bowl supporting Six of the Best (Genesis).

Keane supporting Zero 7 at the Brighton Centre.

 

[tinx]

Radiohead at the Richmond springs to mind.

Keane first on the bill behind Starsailor and Electric Soft Parade at the dome.

Blur first on the bill before Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur JR at Brixton Academy.

I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

 

[bhafc99]

Radiohead supporting Belly.

And, though I later became ashamed to admit it, The Cranberries playing to about 5 people, having just released their debut single. Dolores O'Irishboird, who went onto become one of the most unpleasant popstars ever, was so shy she stood sideways onto the 'audience' the whole time.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Saw U2 at the old Marquee in Wardour Street when they were just off the boat. They were only famous in the eyes of Paul Morley (NME) and Dave McCullough (Sounds) at the time.

Saw New Order's third or fourth ever gig, at the Art College Basement in Grand Parade. Although Joy Division were sort of famous in a low-key music press kind of way, the name of the post-Curtis band wasn't widely known.

 

[RM-Taylor]

Scouting for Girls - £5 to get in, now they're charging £20

 

[Eric Potts]

The Frantic Elevators , supporting Joy Division , The Fall , and others in a small club in Manchester , summer of '79.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.


Oh , the lead singer of the Frantic Elevators was Mick Hucknall

 

[Lord Large]

Scouting for Girls - £5 to get in, now they're charging £20

Do they count?

For me, Oasis probably the most famous.

The Verve as well maybe.

Not huge but I remember seeing Kasabian infront of about 50 people then a year later at a sold out Brixtain.

 

[RM-Taylor]

Do they count?

For me, Oasis probably the most famous.

The Verve as well maybe.

Not huge but I remember seeing Kasabian infront of about 50 people then a year later at a sold out Brixtain.

Well nobody knew who they were at the time, but about 4 months after I went, they had a number 1 album and singles in the top 20

 

[Hiney]

In 1977 I saw Curved Air at Chichester Festival Theatre

The support band was Squeeze

I thought they were f***ing SHIT

 

[pasty]

Not exactly before they were famous, but when I was in the RAF we used to book bands to play in the NAAFI club. We booked Katrina and the Waves about 2 months before Walking On Sunshine was a mahoosive hit, but to their credit, they still turned up and did the gig.

I believe it actually appeared in Melody Maker or some such thing that the first date on their UK Tour was The White Cranes Club, RAF Cranwell NAAFI.

 

[Peteinblack]

In the early 1980s, Jenkinsons Nightclub on the seafront, briefly devoted Sunday nights to live music featuring new or up-and-coming national bands.

As a result, I saw early gigs by U2, and UB40 (who soon became absolute bland shite, good only for curing insomnia), each playing to about 50 people.

Also saw New Order in Brighton on their first tour after the end of Joy Division (1981, I think), long before they went mega with 'Blue Monday'. I wasn't very impressed with them at the time, although they eventually went on to become one of my favourite bands of the 1980s

Oh, and my second ever gig was the brilliant Cockney Rebel at Brighton Dome in the 1970s, supported by a then unknown singer-songwriter by the
name of Chris de Burgh

I also saw the very early Human League (long before the two women vocalists joined) get canned off stage when they were supporting Siouxsie and the Banshees at Leeds University.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I hired a comedian for my 30th birthday party. £100.

Paul Merton.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

David Bowie supporting The Groundhogs at the Dome 1971 - Post "Laughing Gnome" & "Space Oddity" but before his Glam rock incarnations.:safeway2:

 

[backson]

At the Comedy Store in London, very early 90s, we caught a show with a compere and 4 acts. Two of the acts were far, far funnier than the other 2 and the compere.

Those two were Phill Jupitus and Alan Davies

 

[Hiney]

In the early 1980s, Jenkinsons Nightclub on the seafront, briefly devoted Sunday nights to live music featuring new or up-and-coming national bands.

As a result, I saw early gigs by U2, and UB40 (who soon became absolute bland shite, good only for curing insomnia), each playing to about 50 people.

Also saw New Order in Brighton on their first tour after the end of Joy Division (1981, I think), long before they went mega with 'Blue Monday'. I wasn't very impressed with them at the time, although they eventually went on to become one of my favourite bands of the 1980s

Blimey - I remember those nights.

I'm sure I saw The Thompson Twins and Teardrop Explodes there.

*memoryabithazy*

 

[Tenngull]

Skynyrd supporting Golding Earring at the Dome sometime in 1974. They had been on Whistle Test shortly beforehand and at least half the audience went only to see them and left at the break.

 

[Alonso Moseley]

Peteinblack, was that New Order gig at the Basement? I was there but couldn't see them.

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

East 17 performing House of Love, "Live from the Wish Tower slope, Eastbourne", at the Radio One Roadshow.

 

[Peteinblack]

Peteinblack, was that New Order gig at the Basement? I was there but couldn't see them.

I don't think so, Alonso, I think it was at Jenkinsons too.

I do recall a few good 'Indie/Alternative' discos at The Basement in the early 1980s, though, and some decent gigs at the Art College (Gang of Four, Mekons, Au Pairs, etc).