AIBU to ask who is the worst performer/group you've seen live?

[Weston14]

Following on from a (very late-to-the-party) discussion about this year's Glasto with some friends over dinner tonight, where we all decided Lauryn Hill was an absolute let down, who is the worst performer or group you've ever seen live? Especially thinking of people you really liked who let you down here, not just "was dragged to see Take That with DSis and they were shite"

If you're not much of a music fan I suppose this stretches to comedians, actors, poets...anyone who gets up on stage and does a turn.

Human League. Was 14,had saved up for the ticket for ages and was a massive fan. they were awful, half the audience walked out. The two female singers couldnt hold a note and the band had zero stage presence.

Drivemecrazy

Martin Daniels you say? I don't believe you! There's absolutely no chance his show could be crap...

m.youtube.com/watch?v=E3P9tSYy4EY

Van Morrison, was really looking forward to seeing him (quite a few years now) but he was terrible, looked bored out of his mind, very dull show, his band played more than he did and he kept leaving the stage, first and last concert I have ever walked out on.

Last time I saw Rush, Geddys voice was terrible so will never watch them live again.

Another vote for Reginald D Hunter, got tickets to see his stand up after seeing him on several panel shows where he was quite funny but it was awful.

But by far the absolute worst was Harry Hill, he was the headliner and last on at a charity comedy gig, came on drunk and could barely talk, kept repeating the same thing over and over again, people were leaving in droves it was so embarrassing.

Jodie Prenger. Awful singing and no personality. She always came across as okay on the telly and radio so it was a real let-down.

This one doesn't quite fit the spec but I'll say it anyway. Someone called Michael Auger from Collabro, playing Aladdin in panto. He had a solo singing Rule the World while riding a flying carpet that turned upside down and the look of terror on his face every time it moved was priceless! His singing was more like 'You and me we can light up the if you stay with me girl we can rule the AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!'. I saw someone else from reality TV called Sean Smith with essentially the same songs and special-effects role in another theatre the year before I think it was, and he was actually brilliant (so was his co-star Natasha Hamilton tbh) so the contrast was hilarious.

Another vote for RHCP - seen them a few times and the last time it was like they just couldn't be arsed to be there.

Madonna at Live Earth at Wembley in 2007. She was late, flat and spent most of her time dancing awfully and humping a speaker (I think it was marketed as a family show.....).

My brother saw Guns N Roses at Leeds in 2010 and said Axl Rose did about 5000 costume changes and ranted through the whole thing after showing up late. Didn't expect much when I saw them in 2017 but was pleasantly surprised at how good they were!

Spice Girls at Wembley in June.. would have been surprised if they had been good so not a shock. The supporting act wasn’t an awful lot better. Forget her name but all her songs sounded identical.

Little Britain live...loved it on tv at the time but the live show was truly awful - and they were v late starting so we had to queue outside for a stupidly long time!

Madonna at Eurovision this year. Appalling. She’s done and needs to realise it

I saw Madonna at Wembley in the 80s when she was young, massively popular and the top 40 was filled with her tracks. She was shit then too.
Other shit concerts: Rush - so dull.
And Bob Dylan (and I'm a massive fan) seen him a few times and am always disappointed.

Amazed someone said Status Quo. I went to see them towards the end of their careers, at an open air thing. They were the main band and they absolutely rocked the place. The weather was dire and everyone was up on their feet, they really engaged with everyone.

Worst was at a similar venue. Bryan Ferry with a few of Roxy Music. They announced in advance he had a cold which didn't bode well. He was as miserable as sin, song a few songs and just walked off.

Britney is woeful I actually couldn't tell where she was on stage half the time cos her voice and body never connected and she was hiding behind backing dancers.
Dillon Moran god bless him seemed to have terrible stage fright the crowd stayed with him but he was obviously drinking heavily at the interval to try and get over it and it didn't help. It was the first night of his tour tho and I heard it got better.
The streets at a festival a million years ago, the main singer was off his face and was barely standing, the second guy sang it all and was actually decent.

The Cure in about 1992. They were so fed up and just dialling it in. I enjoyed watching their Glasto set this summer - they seem to have got the love back!

Frankie Boyle was appalling. I went with a mate who’d bought me the ticket - I warned her beforehand that what she saw on panel shows was probably heavily edited, but she insisted.

God he was vile. My mate’s face was a picture.

Lou Reed, Apollo 2004. Just not great at all and a bit sad making. Eddie Izzard as a compere at either an Oxfam or Stop the War coalition gig, random and not very funny off the cuff. Loads of Indie bands in the 90’s - The Soup Dragons at the Zap in Brighton sounding like a six form band in a talent competition

Yet another vote for Van morrison - utterly rude, nasty to his crew and just ignored the audience. No energy. I went right off him after seeing him live.

The Beach Boys (or whatever was left of them in around 2013) were awful too. Just a bunch of creepy old men behaving like frat boys from 1965 - they kept asking really young girls onto the stage and were all over them uuurgh. I was so disappointed.

Never been to a gig so have to look at theatre.

Anthony Head. Hands down worst performer I have ever seen in the West End. Atrocious. I know amateur actors who would have given a far better, more professional performance. And I wasn't the only person who thought so. He's obviously OK with TV work - short sharp bits of filming - but totally unprepared for a continual performance.

Peter Doherty. I've seen him 4 times but after the last I wouldn't bother again. He was over two hours late coming on, then forgot half the words to his songs and was incoherent.

Elvis Costello at The Colston Hall in Bristol. To be fair I suspect the issue was the sound system but I was out of there after 20 minutes.

Prince, at Wembley, about 25 years ago. It was around the time he was going through his 'symbol' phase. I was so looking forward to it and paid a shed load for the tickets, but he barely played any of his hits and kept doing very long, poncey guitar solos. One was about 20 minutes long! Might have been even longer except we decided to call it a night and get a head start to the car park. Still love his music generally, but what a disappointment that was.

Also made the mistake of going to see David Bowie in his Tin Drum phase. Again, none of his hits, just weird stuff from his Tin Drum project at the time. It was billed as that, so maybe should have known better and saved the cash. (His Glass Spider tour was amazing.)

Another vote for the appalling Meatloaf, saw Rod Stewart at Sheffield Arena early 2000, he was shit.

However, Bruce Springsteen's 1988 concert at Sheffield United Football ground was legendary, he was just in a relationship with Patti and the sex appeal between them was palpable

I saw David Bowie in Dublin in 1995. It was extremely boring. Dh is a huge fan and we'd spent half a weeks wages on the tickets.
Very disappointed.
The only consolation was the Morrissey was the support act and he was very entertaining.

Arcade Fire just after releasing Neon Bible. Technically great but it felt like they were doing us a massive favour being there - no energy. I loved the first album and was really disappointed.

Easily Red Hot Chilli Peppers - seen them twice at various festivals, endless shit riffing so that they never actually play a whole song, massively superior attitude, like the crowd are completely beneath them. Just bizzare.

As a contrast, best gigs were Elbow (about 13ish years ago at Leeds Met Uni and also at Glasto) and every time I've seen Orbital.

I’m another who has seen Reginald d hunter live and he was awful- I know he’s cutting edge and all that but his rape jokes were aweful (and I think he took a swipe at Katie Prices son in there as well) I was so disgusted I walked out. And I never do that at comedy!

Also red hot chilli peppers I. Manchester circa 2004 - they were dire and clearly didn’t want to be there

Dodgy back in the 90s terrible live voices.
James Arthur last year. Boring.
Both were just 1 of the acts playing there was loads more that were really good .