I remember seeing Tex and The Beasts of Bourbon at the very first "Rock against work gig "at The Hopetoun in Surry Hills back in the 80's. Wasn't rocking against work though - more like jigging school. Tex was an awesome showman with a real stage presence back then, still is very much so now. Aargh that's the first one that sprung to mind after watching the clip. No doubt there will be many epic entrants - I'm going to try and chime in later with some debauched stories about specific gigs if/when time permits. Hmmm just thinking aloud cause its fun reminiscing. Lets see Thug at Max's... pretty funny, The DK's at The Sydney Trade Union pure punk rock, The Butthole Surfers at Selinas ....mindbending, The Ramones and Rifles at The Hordern - blitzkrieg bop, The Damned at The Trade (dark ... I swear there were bats flying around,) Nirvana at 1st BDO, Iggy at BDO... you could go on forever..too bloody hard to single out one show! Maybe The Oils at The Capitol back in the day.... woulda been epic to catch Birdman at The Oxford or Lifesaver in their late 70's prime?

Wow such a tough choice to narrow it down to the best gig ever... I've been to So many awesome gigs over the years! One that springs to mind though is seeing my all time favourite band Skunkhour play at the hotel Great Northern in Byron after the band hadn't played for 9 years... The place was absolutely pumping and everyone was frothing!!! As soon as I heard they were playing, I made it my mission to get there so we did a road trip surfing our way up the coast from Sydney and staying upstairs at the same Pub the night of the gig. We had great waves at Wategos during the day, afternoon beers then danced to Skunkhour playing a flawless set. Fun times! yewwww

The gig I remember most definitely was the night that Midnight Oil played the Narrabeen Antler, back in the early eighties. We had been surfing Car parks at Narrabeen and then decided to go and surf Dunnies down the road, the swell was quite sizey and all who knows this region will agree it gets get quite round and shore dump soreness. We gathered all our gear and walked down the road via the local café at Northy car park. It wasn't until we walked for awhile we noticed posters on poles advertising this great event. Our local domain was between Collaroy and the fire station where we could go and chill and get ready for any beach events that were on even the Old Curl Curl dances and the silver screen days of Manly. OH what a time it was back then. Bower used to break quite frequently and Deadmans was called "U can ride it", Bobby Mills was still alive as well as Snow Mc Calister. Anywhoo, the show that night pumped with sweat and aggressive Garret look a likes doing the swirling tango like he only does and beer pouring out everywhere. Peter Gifford was still playing bass with them back then and Hirsty was rocking hard, The Antler car park was full with pot smoke and cops and the girls of the northern beaches were second to none. Surfing with a Spoon / Bird noises rocked out. Curfews were not a problem and all the beach bums got their monies worth. Cheap scooners, cheap tickets and sore dancing muscles and sweaty beautiful women. After parties were nearby if were in the know BUT mostly locals only. Early morning wakeups for a dawn surf were met with hangovers and not being able to find car keys or not enough wax!

My first ever concert, Ratcat at the Hordern in the very early nineties. I was about 16 and it was my first time i was really allowed out with my mates. We each got a six pack of beer and walked from central station. The beer was warm so I couldn't finish the six pack so i dumped the last couple of cans in the bushes. We were all on a high and pumped for the gig as any 16 year old off the leash for the first time would be.
Once Ratcat started, a girl came and stood right in front of me so I put my hand on her bum and gave it a squeeze. She immediately turned around and started kissing me and for the next two hours we kept at it, hands like octopuses.
When Ratcat finished she just smiled at me and said goodbye and wandered off. I instantly fell in love, found my mates and was never to see her again. Ratcat remain engrained in my head for both their music and that one girl, and it remains to this day my best gig.

Its a Saturday in November 1995, typical Brisbane heat whilst being sticky as hell. Spiderbait have recently released "the unfinished galleon of finley lake" & are playing tonight at the Zoo. I'm 17 at the time & in the final throws of year 12 (must have been an all ages gig) however a mate & I drinking a tallie in the line & thus giving me a urgent need to relieve myself. Popping down the adjacent lane seemed appropriate given the circumstance until a local constabulary member happened to tap me on the shoulder. Getting a warning for urinating in public whilst drinking a beer & being underage just would not happen these days & I am still flabergasted this night diddn't end differently. Lucky for me because you wouldn't want to have missed this....... Spiderbait were unbeleivable rolling through their set from the new album. Never since have I been at a show where the floor is moving a foot up & down, about 800 punters are all jumping & the music is so loud you feel your heart beating out of your chest. Days later whilst regaining my hearing we hear that the floor at the Zoo cracked that night & the venue was being slapped with a reduced capacity. Certianly a night I will never forget & I'M sure anyone else who was there won't either.

I never win anything so I'm not going to even try but I'll list some of the best concerts I've seen .... Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, BB King and Ravi Shankar.

Led Zeppelin at Kooyong was my first ever concert (!!) thanks to my big brother; Lou Reed at Melbourne's Festival Hall was just an amazing night, what a great band of musicans as were BB King and his band 2 rows back from the front at the Dallas Brooks Hall (also saw Ravi Shankar there) and the night I was front row at the Myer Music Bowl to see Neil Young & Crazy Horse with the Greendale Tour, well that was just amazing.

For all that my mate saw Pink Floyd perform the Wish You Were Here album at a festival in the UK and the band started playing just after a group of Spitfires flew low over the crowd and barrel rolled into the distance! Now that I would have loved to have seen ....

In the late 90's I arrived home late from football training to my dining room table full of empties, eaten dinner and my dads friends from his high school days carrying on. At the head of the table was Paul Kelly. He had been invited to dinner while he was in town for a couple of shows.

As their reunion became more lively, he grabbed an acoustic guitar (that was conveniently lying around) and belted out pretty much anything we requested as well as some other songs that were a little more obscure. Dad and his mates did backing vocals (I still cant decide whether it added to the gig, but it was funny).

That was the best gig I've been to.

Jebediah at the Dunsborough pub. Must of been early 90's I think. On dusk me & a group of mates walked from the Dunsborough Lakes estate (which was still in its infancy back then) through what was still a cow paddock, hell, we were already pretty pissed & stoned & it was a shortcut, in theory. Dodging cow pats, cows & the odd bull we eventually made it to the pub already having had a few laughs.

A few more drinks and laughs were had, we then assumed our positions near the front of the stage and never shifted till the end. Jebediah were going hard all night as only they knew how and we were in the thick of it, sweating our "tits" off.

About half way through their set I lost one of my Doc Martin's in the thick of this heaving pit & realised that there was no chance of retrieving it, so promptly kicked off the other one to balance things up & carried on regardless.

When the gig finished & the lights came on, the sweaty mosh pit cleared & there in all their glory was both Doc's, suitably trashed but of course were retrieved. I've still got those Doc's today & every time I wear them it takes me back to that gig and all the goings on. Jebediah were friggen awesome, what a great night!!!

I threw the bottle that clocked Ben Lee at the Margies Pro contest all those years ago. Got him to leave the stage, winning a board for it would be even better.

We've got a winner, folks! Ballsy and much-welcomed effort, buddy!

Hard to pick one but The Cramps at The Old Melbourne Hotel on 30th October 1990. I remember the date because it was my new girlfriend's 18th birthday and I had to politely tell her I couldn't make it to the family dinner because I had a prior commitment....although she is now my wife so no damage done! The Cramps were in sensational form. The pub was packed to the rafters and the whole crowd was pounding...you could feel the floor moving. Lux got down to a gold spandex G-string and performed fellatio on the microphone and had the crowd rocking. Poison Ivy keeping the beat with the great guitar riffs. It was a sweatbox and one of my mates got turfed out for throwing a can but snuck back in with the assistance of a friend who was working the door. The jeans I wore that night were chucked in the bin as they were destroyed...covered in dirt and sweat and beer...it must've been an inch deep in beer in spots. Honourable mentions to Motorhead at the White Sands Tavern in late 1984 and Sex Pistols at the Perth Entertainment Centre around 1996. And plenty of nights with Painters & Dockers at The Shents and The Old Melbourne too....wow...excuse me while I wander off and reminisce some more.

Tied first for Stu and Mickeyfanny.

Most of my gigs were standard debauchery.

But there was this one time at band camp...

God there is so many gigs, I've been to literally hundreds through the 90s to the early 2000 era, i have a few memorable ones for other reasons though.

BDO 95 I was young and moshing in the front at Magic Dirt (when they were still a good band "life was better…had just come out"),being young in the mosh pit I was boosting guys up and crowd surfing, one other guy was right into it doing the same and we were basically taking turns, he kept giving me a boost and i kept giving him a boast up, we both had band T-shirts on and had the long hair happening so i guess when your young you sometimes connect with someone you judge as being similar.

Anyway band finished I drank more and saw more bands then latter i thought id check this new band out that everyone was talking about Silverchair, frog stomp was yet to come out but Tomorrow was being played on JJJ….anyway the organisers put them on a small stage kind of between all these buildings but everyone wanted to see them the crowd was crazy so everyone was finding a spot wherever they could, i ended up on a roof with lots of others, once i got up there i could see the lead singer going crazy…and i recognised him, yes it was the dude that had been boasting me up in the mosh pit a few hours earlier, ha ha o yeah me and Daniel Johns moshed together to Magic dirt and a few years latter he dated Adalita from Magic Dirt that makes it kinda cool and weird, anyway at the Silverchair gig the crowd went crazy jumping off roofs etc into the mosh also.

Another memorial gig was from a similar era Collingwood Town hall, You am I, were the headliners with Custard supports and i think Sidewinder….anyway was a good gig, but it was after the gig that was more memorable, i don't know how but in those days me and a mate often went backstage and partied on, You am I, had had their first Album out "sound as ever" and i had been into them since there early EP,s i was backstage drinking a beer sitting on some steps when Tim Rodgers, sits next to me with a bottle of red wine which he was about to open….we had some small chit chat and then i asked him how the hell or why he was drinking that crap..he then tried to convince me how good it was and opened the bottle and poured me the first glass, it tasted like shit but i was kinda polite as you are when someone shares their alcohol with you, i didn't think much of it, and partied on with the bands at another pub…..it wasn't until a few months latter that i read an interview in Juice magazine about how it was Tim's ritual to have a bottle of red wine after each gig and how he was so particular about who opened it etc..the article also mentioned that their new album "Hi fi Way" had some crazy amount of references to red wine….so it was only then i realised how cool it was that Tim gave me the first glass of red wine from his bottle and that i was part of this little ritual.

Countless other gigs like Meanies gigs in Melbourne in the 90,s were out of control, Link had the full dreads happening and going crazy and back then their was o real security so we use to take running jumps from the stage into the crowd, i remember even doing backflips.

Livid 94 was an insane line up and the Tumbleweed gig was insane I think it was the peak of Tumbleweeds popularity and the crowd went crazy guys climbing the big tent poles and sliding down the tent roof, first time i saw Superchunk and they were insane.

Not a gig but i broke my arm trying to get Dinosaur Jr tickets…because the first gig tickets had sold out, i was listening to RRR when i heard they had put on a second gig, so in a mad panic i got on the bus for three hour trip back then from Phillip Island just to get to the city to buy tickets from Ago go records, i tripped on my shoe laces running down little burke street and put my hands out in front of me smack bang onto concrete, both hands and arms hurt like hell and everyone look at me, but i just got up and ran again, only to fall 50 meters further, i got to the shop and got my tickets but one of my arms was going crazy like twitching spasms and both arms hurt like hell…so i found a doctors surgery and got an X-ray and one arm was broken, i still saw Dinosaur Jr though with a plaster cast and i actually went with the guys from Incursion who were at their peak at the time with the afterglow single and they had played the previous night as one of the support acts..

God there is so many more memorial gigs i could write a book, i was pretty crazy in those days id go to Melbourne from Phillip Island often by myself often with no place to stay and id alway end up backstage and sleeping on some strangers floor or worst case scenario id sleep in a garden or park.

Queens of the Stone age at the Prince of wales in St kilda 2001 was also pretty cool mostly played stuff from their first album as Rated R had only just come out, no way you could see them at such a small venue these days.

Surf Music In Paradise sounds unreal.
And for the purpose of this competition i doubt that I could compete with the calibre mentioned above like,
Led Zeppelin. Lou Reed. The Buttonhole Surfers. Nirvana. even The Cramps and the Australian iconic band Midnight OIl. My friends and I spent way too many nights over way too many years at The Hoptoun Hotel, The Sandringham Hotel and The Landsdowne Hotel watching and chilling with bands such as The Cosmic Psychos, The Celibate Rifles, The Hellmen, The Hard-Ons and The Psychotic Turnbuckles. (to name a few)
This era exists as one long memory and not one gig can be differentiated from another.
It was all sick. Bring back live music and fuck the pokies off......

This "best gig" malarkey is a wide remit, ain't it? What qualifies? The famous/infamous? For whatever reasons? When shit came together onstage, musically, or not? Crowd action? Personal journey bollocks? Big guys in secret small venues? Big guys now who weren't then?

Out of all those criteria mentioned, I reckon I can dredge up heaps of gigs out of the memory banks that fit each bill. So could we all, I'm guessing.

Let the wank begin.

Actually, before I start, and talking wank, any dudes out there (Sydney types) at that infamous metal gig (Slayer or Sepultura or something) where a spidery pro brother nuded up, did a shit on stage, maybe even had a quick one off the wrist? GG Allin eat your shit out!

OK, I digress. Though I myself did throw a carefully wrapped turd at a band at my local pub once. They were literal Clowns and shit to boot. Plastic punks. Funny, they didn't really notice till the stink started to waft. Cleared the Decadent punters too from the front of the stage. Oh, how we laughed.

I went to Glastonbury once. I only mention this 'cos it kills a lot of seagulls in one stone throw as it were.

I saw a pre-tatted and supersonic Amy Winehouse on a smaller stage with a coupla hundred punters, even less so when it started pissing down. She was fucken good. How good? I got absolutely soaked watching and listening. And I wasn't on drugs. Which is ironic in a way. I think.

Also, snuck into a tent late one night amid murky rumours of a special guest. Fuck all crew in there. It turned out to be Fatboy Slim. I mentioned to him that I liked his Housemartins stuff. Well, better than the gear he was doing now. It's all relative. And I'm a cunt.

Highlight of the whole thing for me was staggering around one morning, drinking a bottle of wine as you do for breakfast there, looking for a band called The Subways and a bog without a ridiculous line-up, and stumbling into this old bird-watcher looking guy standing on his lonesome in the corner of a field. It was John Peel. If you don't know who John Peel is, well, I can't help you. That's what Google is for. Suffice to say, in my eyes, he was a living legend and national treasure. The first time I ever went to the old cuntry, I remember him playing The Hellmenn on his show on BBC 1. You don't expect that. Fuck, you'd have been hard-pressed to hear them on Oz community radio back then. Anyway, I relayed that story to him and chewed his ear off and bowed down at his feet and he was super cool. He was also off to check The Subways. Not wanting to further encroach, and also dying for a shit, which I think I told him as well, I asked for directions to the gig and made my way. A good egg. Then he died too early a few months later.

James Brown was a laugh too. Especially on acid.

Make mine a kneeboard.

Best gig ever for me was Radio Birdman at the Palace in St KIlda in the mid 90's, they hadn't played for 20 years and they sounded better than any cd I had ever heard of them. The whole place was going ballistic and they must have played for 2 hrs non stop. We all left soaking in sweat and buzzing for the next few hours. Best part was a mate snuck us in the back door and gave us all a drink card, YYEEEEEWWWW, the gold old days.

The most messed up gig i can recall is when I supported the funkoars at towradgi beach hotel. Got too fucked up on the oars rider, went out on stage, couldnt hear shit thru the fold backs. out of time, forgot words and spewed on the speakers. good times. Funkoars haven't come back to the gong since. ha.

Best Tex related Gig where Tex wasn't there.
1992 Billy Bragg supported by the Cruel Sea at the State Theatre, one of the band members noted that Tex was in Europe on 'another project' and they would take turns in singing. Awesome job too.

Best non-Tex related gig.
Fly Cop, Subversion, Unclean, Toe-to-Toe, Throw-down harbour cruise. If you've been you understand.

When midnight oil released their 2000 watt RSL album Gdog, Fiona, Alison and myself bought tickets for the 18+ show despite being 16 or 17. All good though because G got his mum to draw a nice shadow on his chin with mascara and she was a hairdresser so it turned out nice.

We got in and biggest Wednesday was being promo'd on the screens - the one where T Ray and RCJ got murdered at outside Logs - sweet.

The show was great, singin along, Peter Garret in all his munted, spastic praying mantis madness.

Gdog's mum picked us up afterwards and Fiona, sat in the middle rear seat, puked into her hands without anyone noticing until she got out of the car and politely asked where she should tip it out "wouldn't want the dogs to eat it". She always had lovely manners.

Looking through other posts I see that I forgot to mention an 'Oh I saw them before they were massive' thingy-ma-jig

Maybe 93 maybe 94.
The Vulcan, Nitocris lead act, Silverchair supporting.
I was walking in and out of the room during the early bands with not a great deal of interest but when they came on it blew my mind. I knew straight away they were going to be HUGE!!!!!!!!!!

I was wrong, turns out Silverchair became popular and Nitocris slipped into obscurity.
I still don't understand that.

Best gig for me would of been seeing Cog (fav band) play at New Years at Pyramid rock at Phillip Island.
The sun was setting, thousands of people there, and they were just so heavy and so much bass and just fucking sick. All my mates were there going nuts, we had some good kinda mellow drugs that just made it even better and heaps of chicks around.
I saw them about 6 times before they broke up, even now I love playing The New Normal album as loud as it goes!

Rock n roll gigs are supposed to be full of the threat of danger, sex and violence. No other band has summed that mix up better than the Cramps. Saw them so many times both in Australia and O/S but the pick of the gigs was at the London Astoria in 2003. Lux was 57 at the time and destroyed the place. Took on the persona of a teenage werewolf and climbed speaker stacks, ripped his pants off after smashing a wine bottle, even spat in my face at one point during a classic rendition of Dope Fiend Boogie. Poison Ivy on guitar oozed sex appeal that defied the odds of being drop dead gorgeous in her 50's too. I may have been high on a cocktail of drugs too with some of my closest buddies which never goes astray at a rock n roll show. It was the last time I got to see them live before Lux's sad passing and it remains lodged in my memory as the best gig I ever saw.

Violent Femmes, summer of 85/86, the old Glider Room at the Dee Why Hotel (when the stage was in the north, before it morphed into The Venue (then Jet Club) with the stage in the east).

Hot Saturday night, $12 to get in (that'd be like $200 today), I was 17 (ID was not a big deal in those days, but I had a fakey just in case) with two female friends (both 18), bouncers were counting the numbers lined up to get in. "12 more" they said. The three of us were 10th, 11th and 12th in the line. Just made it. No ID required.

Inside was a furnace, sweaty mass of bodies, perspiration was raising from sweaty foreheads and bodies, resting on the circular air conditioning pipes above for a short time, and falling down again upon the increasingly sweaty punters.

Getting to the bar, almost impossible, 5 deep, went once, grabbed 9 can of Swan Black for $30 (Bondy's Brewery owned the pub back then, only Swan cans in that part of the pub). Better than nothing.

Slid between the crowd, found the girls (about 5 metres from the centre stage), handed round the beers, looked out the eastern window which was pretty high up and the big old tree between the pub and the old liquor barn had about 50 punters in it looking in on the show. (I also heard later that some guys were trying to put up some old scaffolding, but security and the cops told them to move on).

All of a sudden, Brian Ritchie walks on stage in a full overcoat, and just starts punching out the bass lines for "Country Death Song", Gano and DeLorenzo join him and the next two hours or so was a combination sing-a-long / sweaty mosh pit. Brilliant.

Other highlights was the crew were consistently throwing out buckets of ice from the stage to keep the crowd cool. The crowd was yelling, "beers" and later in the night two cases of Swan Light were chucked off the stage. Joints were being passed around, little chance of the bouncers pushing through the crowd to get the partakers.

Towards the end, they played "Gone Daddy Gone" and two girls jumped on the stage dancing go-go style. As the crew came to drag them off, the band members were shaking their head (and licking their lips). Girls stayed dancing and were escorted backstage post song. Hmmmm.

Finished about 11:30pm. Next door beer garden / disco full (I was drenched, shirt had buttons missing with rips, so I had no chance anyway), walked the girls up the hill to one of their houses, we were all just in disbelieve on what we just witnessed, the girls old man was a really cool guy, chucked us a beer from the fridge for the 10 minute walk home to my place. Didn't sleep, still too much adrenaline running through the body, ringing in the ears.

Epic.

Only other close gigs to that would be the Hoodoo Gurus at St George Sailing Club in about 87/88 with uni friends mid-week. I thought the place was going to fall apart (it's over water, all timber). The stage rigging and lights were bouncing up and down. Big night on the Coopers Red as well. Also TISM a few times were brilliant and Big Pig at the Old Sydney Cove Tavern supported by SPK. Great memories.

Look at all you scheming fucken wankers rockin up here with ya bullshit stories now there's something to score for free. Never seen half of youse around but now ya just wanna scab off the place.

My most memorable gig? Was livin in Brisbane in the 90s. Worked the late shift til 1.30 one night, home and asleep by 2 and then got up at 4 to drive north for the early. Surfed two decent sessions over the day and headed back to catch some local grunge bands at the Zoo. This was back when they had a restaurant license so they could serve booze. $7 got you in the door, a plate of food and a slice of watermelon and the bar was open to ya. I was so knackered from the day that I ate me chick pea curry and fell asleep against one of the speakers, missed the whole thing.

best gig ever! from the inside looking out, sat arvo, no surf ,time to get pissed @take acid, late arvo get a call to do last minute support for the cruel sea (unknown at that time),we some how get to the pub in Geelong ,set up in slow motion, we play grind/hardcore noise shit ,both our guitarist are M.I.A. so it,s bass/drums and a 6'10 singer who doesn't know our songs,just screem and yell we tell him,we start playing our first song and seem unable to find an ending with our l.s.d. affected" brains "(or lack there off),so we just keep rippin on,we played non stop for about 40 mins ,but half way through the singer tripping and screeming so hard ,passed out and fell from the stage onto the tiled dance floor spitting his head open and knocking himself out completely,we finally shut down,rescued our singer ,sitting in a pool of blood and start packing up , up comes the guitarist (ex lime spiders) from the cruel sea and admits "i'm not sure if that was the greatest or the worst gig i've ever seen",.and i know right there that was a good gig!...

Anyone out there that went to this in 1971??

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~safpfhg/html/mypongafestival_files/

Ozzy & Bon Scott on the same bill!? On Myponga Shroooooooooms!?

Step right up...now that's gotta be a winner!

to compete with the overall weirdness of having Black Sabbath playing in Myponga (wonder if it was howling SW?), the new millennium gave us...

Xzibit in Middleton!

I shit you not!

He did have a pimp ride...A stretch Hummer.

The Bay was crankin'.

This one might be a bit lame compared to others however one that springs to mind was staying in Jalan Jaksa Jakarta where i met a few different musicians, one group being "Steven and the coconut trees". A reggae style band with locals around Jakarta.
I didnt have much money as i was on a tight budget but they offered me to be in one of their film clips for Ramadan.
We went way out into a desert kind of place that suited setting up the scene where they wanted a white fella to be carrying a cart full of coconuts and band members. (White slavery)
We filmed the clip, everyone was very cool, some radical mad bastards.A couple of the girls were very flirty so we had a good time. We later went to a gig of theirs where the people in the film crew were all on stage at different times and we had free drinks and got treated like vip's.
Good bunch of people those guys and im still friends with most of them today.
heres the clip they filmed which featured on Indonesia version of MTV during ramadan.

Yes Tex you were amazing but the if it was a good Gig you barely remembered it!!! This is Not the way home! Lets try Cosmic Psychos! best surfin muse Eva! cause sometimes you gotta get REAL! Don't forget the Bearded Clams!!! All that shit was going off A LONG TIME A GOO!! Most of it we don't want to remember anyhow! Roll around in your own SPEW!!!

The Vermen at the Piednipple Hall, circa July 95. Ceilings were stoved, young hearts were broken, and the buckety on the back seat of the HQ never got spilt.
TalkingTurk, can recall you slinking outta the crown dunnies with a crude smirk and a specially prepared airmail package. Oh we did laugh!
And yes my vote goes to Totem.

Although there are a few great gigs that come to mind like The Screaming Jets at The Lady Bay Hotel in Warrnambool, The Black Crowes at Bluesfest or any AC/DC show, the one that has left the best memories (for all the wrong reasons) and makes the best story is Guns'n'Roses at Calder Raceway in February 1993.

After driving there the day before, we attempted to sleep in the car park but with a few hundred other cars blaring music and all sorts of other antics going on sleeping became impossible. At about 6 in the morning we all lined up at the entrance gate, or so we thought. From memory this turned out to be the wrong gate but with hundreds of people already lined up this gate was used to let the crowd in. I remember security not letting anyone move so on my knees i pissed through the wire fence.

Still lined up at 10 o'clock the temp was fast approaching the high 30's and there was no water, no toilets and no shade. Security was not letting anyone move and it was a very hostile place to be. When finally let in we all made the bolt to the front of the stage. Later in the day, from at the front, to turn around and see 80,000 people behind you was an amazing experience.

The first band on that day was Pearls and Swine. They were good. The next was Rose Tattoo. Angry and the boys put on one hell of a great rock show. By this stage it was hot and starting to get really windy. At one stage some guy came out on stage and said the venue may need to be evacuated because it was so windy. Light aircraft were rumoured to have been turned over at Tullamarine and the stage was at risk of collapsing.

Have I mentioned the heat. The venue had run out of water. Dehydrated and sunburnt people everywhere. And to make it worse, by 2 in the afternoon I had run out of smokes. Newspapers reported people drinking from the limited toilet facilities. I remember some guy had driven in a water tanker and was standing on top of it hosing people down. The conditions were horrendous. A mate and I picked up used paper cups from the ground and held them in the air trying to get as much water in them as possible.

The next band on was Skid Row. Check out on YouTube some of their early '90s perfomances. Let's not forget how good this band was. That was awesome. Seeing Sebastion Bach dacked in front of an enormous crowd and not giving a shit his junk was out for all to see was hilarious. And then it rained. F***ing Victoria! Everything turned to mud. There were a lot of sorry looking people around. TIred, sunburnt, dehydrated, hungry, out of smokes and now covered in mud. This had been, up to that point, one of the most horrible days I have ever experienced.

But, as can happen in Victoria, by 9 o'clock that evening, with the sun nearly down, the temperature pleasant in the mid 20's, the clouds had disappeared and the wind gone, it was a magnificent summer night. Then in the dark, the silhouette of Axl Rose came to the front of the stage and screamed "Do you know where the f*** you are Melbourne? You're in the jungle. Wake up, it's time to die!"

And it was on. The crowd was so loud you could barely hear the band and for the next few hours we were treated to one of the best rock shows you will ever see. Me and thousands of other people had been through hell that day. But I tell you what, I would do it all again. I think I have seen better bands since but with what occured that day and how it ended I doubt I have had a better experience. All the shit was worth it in the end and like I said at the start, I and many others, have a really good story to tell.

Mudbake (the first homebake) Belongil Fields, Byron, 1996.
Walked through the gate, no one collected my ticket In the chaos of the torrential rain. Walked back out the gate, arm stamp on the way out, and sold my ticket... back in the gate $50 richer... Upgraded to bourbons for the entire day.
I lost my shoes and shirt in the Silverchair mosh pit, covered in mud, so I head to the back of the big top, showered under the rain pouring off the side of the tent and then sought shelter.
Found refuge back stage, next to the drum riser and warm lights.... and in walks a lady called Janet, starts talking to me like I'm a roadie and asks me if I can work a camera and film the next set..... Sure can.
I get hassled by security, no pass, but Janet defends my intent as filming the next set for Spiderbait!
Filmed the entire set, on stage, mates wondering what the hell am I doing filming.
Never saw the footage for that gig, maybe It was crap and never surfaced, but it was one of their best gigs I think, certainly of the era of their best 2 albums.
Top day of amazing Australian Music....Not a bad year for waves on the NC either.

Seymour Scagnetti, you crazy old wog bastard you. Yes, shit happens/happened.

Actually, well I remember a certain Boardriders road-trip (emphasis on the word trip) to Melbourne/Vicco, and a certain boardrider, who, not particularly pleased with the night's accommodation, and tripping balls, decided to placate and vacate himself on the floor of his room the next morning before leaving (as you do). Lucky the curtains were the same rusty brown colour as the carpet as I recall.
Anyone remember that surfwear mob Beachcrew, and their best-selling t-shirt POO-SHOOTER? Say no more. Actually, they were Victorian too.

That 'accommodation' was/is quite infamous. They've even made a doco about it.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/documentary-shines-a-light-on-st-kilda...

To relate things back to music, we did see the Powder Monkeys play a blistering set round the corner in the Espy front-bar.

Talking about the Monkeys (RIP Tim), @Insane, that 'gig' sounds like a special vision/version of utter hell, with a suitably screeching soundtrack. Shudder.

talkingturkey wrote:

Actually, before I start, and talking wank, any dudes out there (Sydney types) at that infamous metal gig (Slayer or Sepultura or something) where a spidery pro brother nuded up, did a shit on stage, maybe even had a quick one off the wrist? GG Allin eat your shit out!

This rings a bell of some sort. Could it have been MINDCRACK playing? Hey Stu, you've been talking to Webber the elder lately, maybe he can shed some light on this? Enquiring minds...and all that.

Southport Spit. Oils. smokin' joints in the mosh pit, I was only 14 .

Yeah, and "I still wanna be the one."

coupla' years later ... but same ...

That and Pearl Jam @ Bris. Ent. Cent. , about '95 , can't quite remember 'cos I took too much acid . I mean I remember the concert, alltime, but not the date . Hey man .

And the Painters & Dockers at I think the JET Club ?

and your goin' home in the back of a divvy van ...

ahhhhh.

On the 11th Feburary 1988, an oppressively hot and windless summer night in Adelaide, Pink Floyd performed their 'Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour' at the historic Thebarton Oval.

While the band played through their old school psychedelic classics mixed with a new age more radio friendly sound we watched transfixed as a technologically cutting edge laser light show projected never before seen images and patterns across the smoke hazed stadium.

Seeing the incredulous crowd reaching out attempting to touch the holographic images of flying pigs racing overhead the was a euphoric experience.
Pink Floyd's unique mesmerising sound had transcended through the decades to a new generation.

It was like the future had arrived in an instant and those present had been transported into the cusp of a new era. Everything about that concert was a mind altering experience.......

Micro-dots?

Hells Bells

"There's some cracking footage going around of GG, the laxatives kicking in, and a line of punters making for the back door before the shit hits the fan - so to speak."

If you've seen the doco HATED: GG ALLIN & THE MURDER JUNKIES, you'll have seen GGs special birthday present he got one year. A female fan urinating in his mouth. I don't think that'll be on YouTube. I don't know if that'd be on Red/Porn Tube?! (I'm not looking... a tad NSFW).

Hold the phones, I stand corrected! (33 minute mark)

Jeez, as part of my 21st festivities, the Painters n Dockers got me onstage and sang Happy Birthday.

Gypped?!

July 1982. I had just returned to my home town of Manly after an afternoon and early evening of partying in the city with a couple of friends. Walking past the Hotel Manly to get a bus, I heard the sounds of heavy rock coming from the side bar in Gilbert street, a place that was not renowned for having anything but the most amateurish live music and frequented by those more interested in mass alcohol consumption that music appreciation.
I called my associates to accompany me to investigate said raucous tunes, and they grudgingly trailed my quickened pace towards the bar entrance. As I approached, I saw a chalk board with various information, but what attracted me most were the words "MOTORHEAD" . I laughed at the idea that some local yokels had adopted the name of a band from the UK.. which I had been a fan of since their inception a few years earlier, and largely unknown to most in Australia, especially my friends who just thought me uncouth for liking "that kind of music". I recall realizing that indeed they were covering a Motorhead song, and it was not too bad at that. But when I stepped into the bar, (no cover charge, mind you), I just about dropped to the floor. No way! They even looked like Motorhead! I pretty much made my way straight to the front of the extremely small bar and the edge of the stage. There.. right in front of me, was Lemmy Kilmister, thumping away at maximum decibels, a song that Id be lying if I said I could remember. So surreal was the scene. Here I was, in front of a band that no one but me, knew of. My friends were nonplussed and offended that we had stooped to drinking at the place - but I was like freaked out and could not stop grinning ear to ear.
The place was certainly its usual - attended by drunks, four of which were staggering and swaying in front of the stage - probably no idea that the band they were being deafened by, were to become legendary in the history of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. Of course.. they were already legends in my mind - having released the seminal Ace Of Spades album, and more recently, Iron Fist.
As the gig proceeded - Lemmy threw in a few words here and there between tracks, which were pretty much directed at me. I tried not to act like a titulated school girl, and nodded and clapped appropriately. Pretty sure I pinched myself and rubbed my eyes to look again - several times during the remainder of the set.
After all clientel were pretty much deafened, Lemmy, Phil and Eddy grabbed, a quick post gig drink - and I hung around like a bad smell, until Lemmy relieved my uncomfortable situation, and came over to where I was being pestered by my friends to leave.
He approached like he knew me for years, and I exercised the same degree of cool - and managed to have a quick chat with him. I confessed my amazement to seeing them there - and he laughed and said something to the effect that he could tell that my mind was slightly blown. I learned that they had been in the habit of doing inpromptu gigs to fill in a tour schedule - and having just done a tour in Japan, decided to have a look around Australia for a few days before heading back to the UK. Of course, back then.. not a big name band, and certainly a "pub band", which to me, they always remained. Never could bring myself to go and see them at a stadium gig.
Although I did see Motorhead at a Leagues club gig a few years later - it was not until around 98 that I spoke to Lemmy again. This time it was when I did an radio interview with him - being the presenter on a community radio program, Metal Head, on the south coast. It was a phone interview - and he was calling from somewhere overseas. I thought Id stay clear of mentioning the first time I saw them during the interview - however, afterwards, off air, I said something that made Lemmy ask if Id seen them before. I told him. and he confessed to remembering, despite being an artist, that would have done thousands of pub gigs by then... all around the globe.
I dont remember the songs they played - only they were freaking loud. I have always loved Motorhead for being simplistic yet creative, and Lemmy was never in the "rock star" mold - something quintessential to the hard rock and metal ethos.
And so, THIS will always be the most memorable gig Ive ever been to!

Who won this?

*crickets*

No idea mate, that was over three years ago. Jon at Chaos or the blokes at TPW may recall.

Sepultura at the Thebarton theatre on their Chaos AD tour. Never seen a room more alive than that. Copped a foot to the face, split my cheek open, couldn't have been happier!

Minutes away from Tool in Melbourne. It’s been a long wait.