Famous Bands Playing To Tiny Audiences

[Voley]

I always like these. Either before they were famous / playing a mate's wedding / secret gigs or whatever.

Here's some slightly subdued Beatlemania. Aldershot, 1961. 18 people turned up.

 

[Voley]

And here's Blur playing a wedding in Ireland:

 

[petee]

hans reichel wasn't all that famous, but when he came to NYC the first time he played to an audience of two. i was one of those two.

 

[Voley]

The Doors at The Whisky A Go Go.

 

[Voley]

hans reichel wasn't all that famous, but when he cae to NYC the first time he played to an audience of two. i was one of those two.

That's cool. In Peter Hook's biography there's a tale of Joy Division playing to one bloke who walked out halfway through.

 

[WouldBe]

I went to see Slade at the shoulder of mutton pub in Hardstoft in their hayday, part of an audience of ~200.

The tour t-shirt was quite funny as the SoM pub was stuck in the middle of arena venues.

 

[Voley]

My best one was Suede supported by PJ Harvey at Thames Poly in front of about 20 people. Very early on in both of their careers but they'd both generated a lot of hype already and I was surprised that no-one could be arsed to travel to Woolwich to see them. PJ Harvey was already fucking ace.

 

[ddraig]

My best one was Suede supported by PJ Harvey at Thames Poly in front of about 20 people. Very early on in both of their careers but they'd both generated a lot of hype already and I was surprised that no-one could be arsed to travel to Woolwich to see them. PJ Harvey was already fucking ace.

I was at that! worked on the ents crew! mad one, lots of industry bods
PJ and Suede were great

 

[ddraig]

This is one of my favourites (wasn't there)

 

[Steel Icarus]

Teenage Fanclub supporting Paul Quinn and the Independent Group at an RAF club in Glasgow in 1992, audience of 100, mostly journos. For the last song they all swapped instruments and covered Venus In Furs. I was there, god knows how my mate got tickets

 

[Voley]

I was at that! worked on the ents crew! mad one, lots of industry bods
PJ and Suede were great

You know Alan then, the Ents guy? Nice bloke. He was well pissed off that night because of the few people that were there, hardly anyone had paid. I think it was only three quid and still everyone got their mates in for nothing.

 

[RevolutionSound]

Had guest list to see Surgeon (famous techno DJ) at The Concorde (that was a weird venue - fish and chip shop by day, nightclub at night) in Brighton back in 96. There was only about 10 people there.

 

[planetgeli]

Mainly, as I'm sure I've bored you with before, was a Verve fanboy in about 1992, before 'The Verve', before Ashcroft disappeared up his own backside, when they were AMAZING live...to me, my mate, and about 10 other people in various stupid places across the UK. Also Spiritualized once. Loop and Spacemen 3 in Northampton.

But...David Bowie to six people at Phoenix. Played drum and bass experimentally (secret gig) and was shite. But I can say I stood right in front of David Bowie.

 

[han]

I saw the Stone Roses in around 89/90 at Stratford upon Avon Civic Hall, I was 16 or 17. There were about 30 people in the audience....

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Not a tiny audience, but a tiny venue…

I was on monitor world for UB40 when they played the Hare & Hounds (capacity 250) as the opening show of the “Signing Off” 30th anniversary tour. It was mental, we had to cram a full arena sized shows worth of gear onto a stage that was about a quarter of the absolute minimum size we needed. We couldn’t even have the monitor desk at the side of stage as usual, it was at the back of the room with the FOH console.

As for 250… I’d say probably another 50-100 more at least. You literally couldn’t move, if anything had gone wrong on stage there was zero chance any of us could have got up there to fix it.

Ace gig

 

[Orang Utan]

I saw Nirvana, in support of Tad, at a pub in Leeds, shortly after Bleach came out

 

[Voley]

I saw Nirvana, in support of Tad, at a pub in Leeds, shortly after Bleach came out

I wonder what Tad's up to these days? Good live. Saw him with Mudhoney once. I'm sort of scared to Google- he was a big old boy back then.

ETA: Still going. Sang for Soundgarden once. I never knew that.

 

[ska invita]

I saw Nirvana, in support of Tad, at a pub in Leeds, shortly after Bleach came out

didnt you see nirvana at goldmsiths union IIRC?

 

[Silas Loom]

I’m pretty sure that I was on the bar in the 100-capacity upstairs room of the Jug of Ale in 1994 when Oasis played, but I never really paid any attention to the bands. They were just there to distract the punters for enough time to collect and wash the glasses before the next flurry of demand.

 

[Orang Utan]

didnt you see nirvana at goldmsiths union IIRC?

Nope. Didn’t move there until 94

 

[ska invita]

Nope. Didn’t move there until 94

blur?

 

[Orang Utan]

blur?

Eh? Band or ‘it was all a…’?

 

[ska invita]

hmmm im going to have to update my files
@spycops could you check your files too please

 

[story]

That's cool. In Peter Hook's biography there's a tale of Joy Division playing to one bloke who walked out halfway through.

I know about 40 people who say they were at that gig.

 

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[wemakeyousoundb]

I played a headline set with the levellers at the old queens head on stockwell road with hardly any (could have been none) attendance in the late 80s, me and the singer of my band strong armed a pint to share from the promoter at the end of the gig by which time they probably were back in brighton on the level
not no attendance but did live sound for an artist in a 75 cap venue a few weeks ago and he has 1.75 million monthly listenres on spotify???
weird