Funniest stage banter

Mark Hollis of Talk Talk (not known for much banter) introduced Such A Shame 1984 with;

"I believe this next song we're gonna play is also a single.
Absolutely Right. It's Such A Shame."


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Elton John always cracks me up with band introductions, and there are some recorded examples (there is a lot of goofy stuff on the expanded Here and There CD) but when I saw him in 2010 he was exceptionally crass and hilarious with his introductions. John Mahon, percussionist was "collector of porcupine penises", Davey Johnstone hailed from the town "Octomahpussy" in Scotland and was "formerly of a folk band called Flatulence"... I remember a lot of moments where most of the audience would burst out in laughter, though there were definitely also a few remarks that completely passed them by.

If you want some really off-the-wall Elton stage banter/band intros/madness find any bootleg recording on YouTube between 1980 and 1986. And fasten your seatbelts, total cocaine motormouth at this stage, as he himself would freely admit. Lol.

 

mark and tom from blink-182 always thought that--they--were super funny but their stuff was barely middle school humor.

 

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco can be very funny, especially at his solo shows.

 

Recommend all Tom Lehrer's live albums - Tom Lehrer Revisited, An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer and That Was the Year That Was.

Ditto the live Michael Flanders and Donald Swann albums (including the posthumous Tried By the Centre Court).

 

Two immediately spring to mind ::

that lugubrious intro to Bodhisattva (1974) ... Jerome Aniton, Steely's driver...

Peter Wolf on Geils' "Blow Your Face Out", especially the story before Musta Got Lost.

 

The inevitable classic... the insane inanities of Venom!

 

Fish, formerly of Marillion, was and still is a master on on stage banter and anecdotes. The only ones I can remember cannot be re posted here, though…

 

Weezer's Rivers Cuomo. This is not safe for work.

 

Phil Collins was also a powerhouse MC with Genesis in the 80's, at least judging by the clips I have seen on YouTube. Definitely got the crowd going, cracked some pretty good jokes... Very vivid.

 

'Is there anybody here with any Irish in them? Is there any of the girls who'd like a little more Irish in them?'

 

Lou Reed on Take No Prisoners -- the Christgau rant and Walk On the Wild Side in particular --"Little Joe...little Joe is an idiot, I don't know if any of you know that..."

 

Peter Gabriel was pretty funny when he was with Genesis. Not sure the rest of the band agreed though.

 

John Martyn, every time he performed.

Danny Thompson was often on the receiving end.

"Are you alright, Baldy? Oh no, someone's given him a microphone"

"Put down that silly ******* violin"

His interaction with the audience was incredible.



The first three minutes of this clip is hilarious where he breaks a guitar string, then goes into a wonderful live performance.

I was privileged to see the great man several time, always an experience.

 

In live concerts I’ve seen, both Loudon Wainwright and Richard Thompson has been incredibly quick witted and hilarious when it comes to both stage banter and dealing with requests, hecklers, etc.

 

DLR's rap before Ice Cream Man at the 83 US Festival...

"Ladies and Gentlemen I have to apologize for the sound of the guitar, the sound crew is on heavy narcotics this evening right here... Is anybody else on heavy narcotics here tonight?
That's what I f***ing thought!"

"I began to realize it was a rock n roll night when I had to make bail for half of my road crew"

"I began to realize it was a rock n roll night when the San Bernardino Sherriff came (slurred) to me back stage and said "Dave... these mother-f***ers are out of line tonight!""

Although he blew the feedback punchline.

 

Frank and Count Basie buying a pumpkin farm then they canceled Halloween

 

So many Frank moments! Funniest on stage banterer of them all in my opinion.

 

Zappa, introducing "Cheepnis" (Roxy and Elsewhere)

 

In 1991 I saw Jethro Tull in Albany NY.
Ian Anderson said he wanted to invite each and everyone in the audience out for a fully paid dinner! “All you got to do is meet me at the Paris (France) Hilton. If you can’t make it you’ll have to take a rain check!”

 

and, of course, the Rat Pack. Hard to top their stage banter.

 

I've seen Prince be very funny on stage on many an occasion. One of my favourites was during the One Nite Alone shows in 2002, when he allowed a small number of people into the venue early to watch the soundcheck (and in some instances to sing with the band!) and engaged in lots of conversation with the lucky few.

Some of the best lines from the London soundchecks included:

'what do y'all call this' (pointing to his sweater and giggling) - here in the UK we call it a jumper of course, which he found very amusing and proceeded to crease up on stage, jumping around

There was unallocated seating and some guy was causing a fuss about his seat 10 rows back and trying to push down to the front row. Prince jumps off the stage, walks over to him, takes the seat in the 10th row and asks him what the problem is - telling him that he (Prince) is 'a pretty short guy' and he can still see perfectly and that the sound is better a few rows back !!!

He got one girl on stage to sing Manic Monday - the band started, she missed the cue, and then he said 'wasn't that a hit over here...?'

So many good memories!

 

Rick Nielsen
Juliana Hatfield

 

The Dillards' Mitch Jayne on Live!!! Almost!!!
The intros are easily as entertaining as the songs - Old Blue's intro is actually probably longer than the song itself.