Yes: the Shaun Ryder connection probably explained Donovan's presence on the bill. He is no fit at all for that audience but being the old pro he is/was, I doubt if he was bothered.
Hah, that would make sense why this thread was 8 pages last night and 43 when I opened it up this morning!
I feel honored. They reopened a thread from years ago to merge it with my lack of creativity. Of course, I just posted it to mention the fact that we booed a band off stage, then cheered for them to come back out, just to boo them off again.
I saw them open for Bow Wow Wow and The English Beat. People just talked while they played. Of course, this was back in 1983.
I'm having an easier time thinking of the worst headliner, which would likely be Sebadoh in Burlington, Vt, 1994. They either dropped acid or took shrooms and Lou Barlow spent at least half of the set tuning his guitar. The opening act (name since forgotten) killed it though.
Without question, a guy called Magic Michael. Supposedly a singer songwriter but he had no songs, just shouted and had never bothered to learn a single guitar chord, preferring to just whack the strings for percussion effects. I very much doubt the guitar was even in tune. Oh, and he couldn't hold a beat. He was supporting Sutherland Brothers and Quiver in Twickenham in 1973. He has the singular honour of being the only artiste to score zero out of ten in my gig diary. The next lowest was 3 out of 10. So polite were UK audiences at the time that he wasn't even bottled off. If you doubt my assessment, there are a couple of Magic Michael performances on the Hawkwind Greasy Truckers' Party album. I played MM's songs for my son recently and he was creased up with mirth.
What?!! The only thing the Blues Brothers did wrong was make the Grateful Dead sound dull as ditchwater. I was there.
Their recent resurrection reminded me of the time that Jet opened for -of course- The Stones. Bloody awful.
The first time I saw the Stones, it was Third Eye Blind. There's no way Jet could've been as bad as them.
I was remember being on break at my job next to where the Horde Tour was going on. I made myself a sandwich and went to where I could very clearly hear the concert and see a bit too. I planned to be there when Lenny Kravitz played. I sat down, he came out, played all the songs I loved all in a row, crushed it, I enjoyed my sandwich and went back to work. It was probably one of the better lunch breaks I've ever had.
I've seen a bunch of opening acts that I didn't enjoy, but other people did, so I guess it's my problem if I don't like them very much. UK Slade audiences traditionally gave their support acts a hard time in the early 70's (Status Quo and SAHB suffered that fate, but won over audiences). In 1980 and in 1981, Saxon and Vardis were booed off at Slade gigs. I thought Saxon were ridiculous - no wonder Spinal Tap stole their look entirely. They died an ignoble death onstage at Birkenhead's Hamilton Club. Vardis went off quite early at Manchester Apollo to an overwhelming crowd chant of "F*** off, Vardis". I can't tell you exactly which wit started that..
It's funny that two that spring to my mind were mentioned here by others: Jackyl opening for Aerosmith in '94 and Candlebox opening for Rush in '94. My first two concerts. The guy from Jackyl chainsawing his stool in half definitely left an impression on my young mind. And I will never forget Candlebox playing the riff to Workin' Man to get everyone all riled up.
The Kinks had some terrible opening acts throughout the 1980s, including the former lead singer of a redneck band after he'd gone solo.
I don't think I ever saw TEB open for the Stones, but I saw them with U2 in Toronto circa 1997 - not the worst live band I've ever heard, but wholly unimpressive. Didn't help the singer clearly thought they were awesome - he seemed really full of himself, and that wasn't a good vibe to send out for an opening act...
In January 1982, we got a then essentially unknown Bryan Adams. He probably wasn't bad, but due to terrible winter weather, we were a small-ish crowd and we weren't in the mood for anyone other than the Kinks, so we booed him! In June 1983, we got Greg Kihn at his all-time popular peak - "Jeopardy" peaked at #2 just a few weeks earlier. I think he got a decent reaction. I saw the Kinks another 6 or 7 times between 1985 and 1995, but I can't remember any of the other openers...
Not all of them... Saw a band called Riot open for them in 1981, touring on the Fire Down Under album. They did their job as I went and bought the album, highly impressed. Guy Speranza was a good front man and they knew what they were doing. Saw them open for Rush a few months later. But 1980, Louisiana LeRoux and they were not good. Don't remember the 85 tour opener, but The Kinks were not good, and played less than 1/2 the time they had in 80-81
