Morning Supercat. Lovely sunny morning over this neck of the woods. How's it down there?

Best gigs:
T.REX: Birmingham Town Hall Feb. 1976
Led Zeppelin: Knebworth 1979
The Wonder Stuff: Sheffield City Hall, 1994

There's loads more I could have added and which I'll no doubt wish I'd mentioned instead of the above three as soon as hit the 'send message' button...

Julian Cope / Mighty Lemon Drops - Boston Arms 1986

Joy Division / Teardrops / Bunnymen / YMCA London 1979

Echo and the bUNNYMEN - Albert Hall 1983

mine are (probably....)

Led Zeppelin Knebworth 1979
Roy Harper & Jimmy Page Cambridge Folk Festival 1984
Julian Cope The Lowry, Salford 2002 (an audience with...)

Kid Calamity, we're getting some clues to your age y'know. Careful. T.Rex 1976?!! wow!!

Young Gods/Meat Beat Manifesto/Sheep on Drugs - Kilburn (national ?!)
Sonic Youth/Decension - That place near the mean fiddler.
Violent Femmes - Royal Albert Hall

Damned if I can remember the years though.

Throwing Muses, Portsmouth Poly '89 ... my girlfriend at the time was Ents officer, we prepared the rider and interviewed the band backstage pre-gig for her fanzine ...

Two Pale Boys, The Spitz (Old Spittlefields Market) '99 ... lovely small, intimate café-style venue

Invincible, The Met Bar, Manc '98 ... first time I got to see Mark Burgess play live with any line up, the best thing he did since the Chameleons split, and in the venue where the Chams played their first ever gig!

1. T.REX / THE DAMNED (MANCHESTER APOLLO 1977)

2. TEARDROP EXPLODES / ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN (CHESTER ART CENTRE 1979)

3. Today, Matthew, it wil be...

BRIAN WILSON (LONDON ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL 2002)

Brian Wison - Smile at the Royal Festival Hall

Good vibrations don't even begin to cover it. The warmth and love pouring from the audience to this damaged man on stage were just awesome, not a dry eye in the house. And the music was unbelievable

Pink Floyd - The Division Bell at Earls Court

Despite having to make the trip twice due to a seating collapse on the Friday, the ultimate audio-visual spectacle, quite unforgettable.

Nothing else stands out quite the way these two do.

Patti Smith twice in Buffalo and Costes at the Bug Jar. Both last year though...

The first time I saw Arab On Radar is fourth.

Julian Cope - Cardiff Uni 1995
Man or Astroman? - TJ's Newport,Circa early to mid '90's. Can't quite remember when, but it was a xmas show.
Gary Numan - St davids Hall, Cardiff 1997. It was my first "proper" concert

far far too many to really narrow it down, but some of favourites, and have excluded all Cope and Festivals!:

Frank Sidebottom
3rd May 89 at the Marquee
One of the funniest nights of my life! Pissed, stoned, got to kiss Little Frank, and ended up on the wrong side of London

Nitzer Ebb
20th March 90 ULU
Sweaty, groovy, hard beats, and really great sex at the end of the evening!

Happy Mondays
7th April 90 Wembley Arena
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Ian McNabb
23rd October 91 Camden Underworld
Made loads of new mates (was abandoned just before gig, so gave tickets away) and got to sing some old Neil Young numbers backstage with McNabb

Kraftwerk
20th July 91 Brixton Academy
It's Kraftwerk!

Ash
19th May 96 Sheffield Uni
Spent the weekend stoned with my little brother, and was the last time I saw him before his breakdown

Space
20th January 97 Astoria
Live, they were just so much fun

My Life Story
1st May 97 Astoria
Election special gig, with a wheel of fortune for the songs they played, and glammed up ladies everywhere

Madness
7th June 98 Finsbury Park
Had forgotten just how bloody good they were! Danced my pants off, and got to see Finlay Quaye bottled to fuck!

Glide
26th April 92 Spitz Club
Spaced out night ;-)

Kraftwerk
18th March 04 Royal Festival Hall
Took my son, who made up little dances for songs, wore his Orbital-like glasses, and had a great time

Kraftwerk
20th March 04 Brixton Academy
It's bloody Kraftwerk!

Ian Hunter
27th May 05 Astoria
Good time rock'n'roll, plenty of beer, a boogie, and a lady friend to keep my company :-)

Ennio Morricone - Barbican 1991

Crime & City Solution - Berlin The Loft 1985

Pandoras Box Festival, Rotterdam 1985 (Crime again, Bad Seeds, Sonic Youth, Neubauten, Bunnymen, Nico, what a line-up....)

Screaming Jay Hawkins - Zurich1988

Young Gods / Butthole Surfers - London Clarendon 1987?

The Jam - Birmingham Bingley Hall, 1983
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - NEC, 2001
Kings Of Leon - Carling Academy, 2005

rag 'n' bones - john stripe theatre 1988
trash can junkies - highbury garage 2004
erik klapton - eastwickbury 2005

hands f**king down, no messin'.

David Bowie - Music Hall - June 1973
Peter Gabriel - Reading Festival - August 1979
Acid Mothers Temple - Stirling - September 2000

1. Orbital - Manchester Academy summer 1994
2. Soundgarden - Manchester Academy April 1994
3. Primal Scream and The Orb - Sheffield Arena Miners Benefit late 1992

Difficult to pick just three but todays choice is......

HERE & NOW BAND / MISTY IN ROOTS - Carey Place Youth Centre,Watford 1978
First gig I ever went to and still the most memorable. ( Probably 'cos I was young and sober)

THE FALL - St Albans Civic Hall, 1984 or 85
Seen the Fall more times than I can or care to remember ( first time in '81 ) but this was easily the best.

FOETUS - Town and Country Club, Kentish Town, 1990?
I'd waited years to see good 'ol Uncle Jim live and was blown away by him and his bludgeoning band of ex-Swans.

Other contenders would be Pixies ( always brilliant),
Spiritualized- Albert Hall 97, Bunnymen - Albert Hall '83 / Glasto '86.

A friend recently said to me do ya remember when we went to see Joy Division at the Lyceum ? TBH I don't !!!! Aaargh, was I there or was it a figment of her imagination ? She swears blind that I went.
( I went to the Reading Festival in 79 but don't remember anything about that either and that was for 4 days so guess an evening lost is a possibility).

Gary Numan, Southampton Gaumant 1981, I think it was. First concert I had ever been to - thought I had died and arrived in heaven!

Any Bad Manners gig in Blandford in the 90's.
What a mosh!

Page and Plant, Glastonbury 1996. Have a photo of me v v wasted with the biggest smile you ever did see - was the happiest bunny in the world that day!
:DDDDD

Forgot Tina Turner (twice) and Toto oh! and Bon Jovi hee hee xx ;)

I've been to so many..

1) Hawkwind: 1973 Space Ritial Tour w/Stacia the topless dancer (MY first Concert...)

2) Rory Gallagher / Status Quo : 1976 Irish Tour, they were both at their peaks!

3) Duran Duran: 1982/3 Their first Tour of the USA

4) Honorable Mention: Far East Family Band: Nipponjin Tour

Nearly twelve years later, maybe we should see how our lists have changed?

Wow,
I was looking at this thread thinking how long it is since I've seen some of the names in thread (Bear, St.Thomas, etc) and how I really should get in touch with cHArrlie/Yali. But then I'm not in many threads these days either.
"Top 3" gigs is a tough one - I think a lot of it comes down to more than the performance - it's stuff like how old you were, who you were with, what you were on, and maybe the wider significance of the gig in it's historical or cultural context (and that sometimes does not kick in until years later).
So today, I'm going to say that Julian Cope at Glasto in 1987 was very important to me and my mates.
I reckon Nick Cave at The Electric Ballroom in Camden, 1984, was really important to a 17 year old who had missed seeing The Birthday Party - I think this was Cave's first live outing since the split. He had had a track out as Nick and The Cavemen on an NME compilation tape (covering "I put a spell on you") but I think they used "Bad Seeds" as their namer on the night.
I remember being blown away by The Triffids at the LSE circa 1985.
Seeing Arthur Lee (with Shack standing in as Love) at the Town and Country 2 in 1991/2 (?) was really special too.
And, I know this is more than 3, but Nirvana at Bristol Bierkeller in 1990 was great at the time, but even better now as loads of young people I work with (by which I mean anyone under 40!) are really jealous! =;0)
My choices will be totally different tomorrow I'm sure!
Nice to be back anyway.

Cardiacs, Leeds Duchess of York 1995. With a quiz and water pistols.

Disco Inferno, Leeds Uni Harvey Milk Bar 1994. The equipment all broke down.

PJ Harvey, Leeds T&CC 1995, supported by Tricky. Best sound of any gig I've been too.

Lots of honourable mentions for Wedding Present and Durutti Column gigs too.

Right now my three are

Sly and Robbie Dec 1986 The Channel Boston Mass. USA
The Fall March 1984 Ayr Pavilion, Ayrshire, Scotland
Edwyn Collins, Nectarine No 9, Jock Scot (Feb 1995?) Queen's Hall Edinburgh

(this may change later)