NFR Concerts in odd places

[Ludlow Richard]

So I live in Ludlow, a small market town on the Welsh border, population about 12,000. It has a Norman castle and last night, in pouring rain, I saw Nile Rodgers and Chic playing a 90 minute set in the Castle's outer Bailey in front of 5000 people.

Completely surreal to see one of the world's music superstars strutting his stuff in a small town's castle. So any other experiences of music superstars playing in odd places??

[SuffolkWhite]

Not a weird place but I was at a fair (in Cornwall I think) in the 80s and witnessed the strange combination of Chase and Dave supporting Susie and the Bandshies 

[Willham]

Not so obscure but the war on drugs at piece Hall in Halifax was an awesome place for such concert, outside on a lovely sunny day.

[Aaron]

Let's see.. I'm sure I've got a few.

Kraftwerk in King John's Castle, Limerick. Weird juxtaposition if ever there was one.

Pearl Jam in a small village (East Troy, Wisconsin) that looked like the town in My Cousin Vinny.

The Strokes (wasn't a fan then and never really have been) in a bar in Belfast with about 100 people in it pretty much the day before they somehow exploded and were everywhere. Saw them a couple of weeks (months?) later at Reading where they'd be bumped to co-headliners or something daft. Took me a while to realise it was the same band.

Pixies in a garage in Shoreditch last year with about 70 people in it the night before they played to 50,000 at Hyde Park. I was literally standing on the stage and having to move around Paz's mic stand.

Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol doing an impromptu solo acoustic set of about half a song (don't know what it was) on a movie set until he got ssssh'd by an AD.

Not sure if it counts (it doesn't) but I also once sang some of Cosmic Girl to Jay Kay of Jamiroquai in the toilets of the Phoenix Arts Club while sliding around like in the Virtual Insanity video because the floor was so slippy and was surprised that he joined in. Perry Fenwick randomly walked in looked utterly unimpressed with events.

Lots of other cool gigs over the years, but none that immediately spring to mind as odd.

[rogerpbackinMidEastUS]

In the mid/late 90's I was managing a popular Irish Dance Show.
The Hay-on-wye festival had a big 'cast'
But the night of our show we supported Van Morrison.
Some of the European Festival were epic.
But the highlights were 2 years performances at the St Patrick's
Day Concerts in Hyde Park.

[Snibbo]

Eel Pie Island was pretty weird

Saw Black Sabbath, Osibisa and a few others there

[Thailand Mick]

Saw the police in a tent on Tooting Bec common 1980,Tommy Cooper was part of the support act and was booed off.

[Dr Know]

Saw Simply Red . In 2009 , in the grounds of Osborne House , Isle of Wight!

[f bloke]

in c 1979 on different occasions saw both Slade and Human League (original line up) play in the dining hall of my university halls of residence.

[bog]

I am sure that when the Beach Boys were not going so well they once performed in an old folk's home. No it wasn't mine.

[H4usuallysitting]

Saw the Zombies in the green room..... audience of around 200 people....Colin Blunstone what a voice - sat around with Rod Argent & a few others

[Somerset Fulham]

My uncle and I were in a hotel bar in Bournemouth one night, taking it easy whilst the younger lads carried on into day three of a stag weekend.

Anyway, a few beers down and this reasonably large group came in. Of that group 5 middle aged incredibly well dressed black guys sat on the sofas next to us and my uncle instantly whispered in my ear 'thats the Temptations'.  I knew who the Temptations were but had no idea what they looked like so I said nothing more about it as my uncle got more and more agitated (in a good way!) by their presence.

Anyway, after two or three drinks these guys suddenly burst out into the most amazing harmony that I have ever heard and at which point my uncle gave me the 'told you so'speech, promptly jumped up on a table and started to belt out King of the Road to the hotel bar.  And he had the most incredible backing group I have ever heard to help him out. 

The singing and the drinking continued and the entourage (the roadies, technicians etc) all relaxed and helped out with more harmonies background tunes and incredible tales. This was all in a hotel bar in bloody Bournemouth!

Things were going amazingly, the whole bar was being led in calssic song after classic song by these legends and then four middle aged black women walked in. My Uncle nearly had a heart attack there and then. 

It was the Supremes! Minus Diana Ross of course but they got right into it along with everybody else whilst having a few drinks too. My uncle got his picture with them all giving him a massive kiss at the same time and they were the most brilliant people. It was that good that when some of the younger lads came back to the hotel to get changed to go back out clubbing they ended up staying for this amazing sight and evening.

It turned out that they were both touring the country together and had played in Bournemouth that night but fancied a few jars after the show and we got very, very lucky.

An absolutely incredible night that ended at about  three o'clock in the morning so that quiet beer didn't happen, but it was worth 100% of the pain the following day and then some.

[Burt]

The weirdest one for me was seeing GMT (Robin Guy, John McCoy and Bernie Torme) in a pub in Harrogate. Far too small a venue for such a massive noise! Not complaining though - they were brilliant.

[Motspur Park]

My uncle and I were in a hotel bar in Bournemouth one night, taking it easy whilst the younger lads carried on into day three of a stag weekend.

Anyway, a few beers down and this reasonably large group came in. Of that group 5 middle aged incredibly well dressed black guys sat on the sofas next to us and my uncle instantly whispered in my ear 'thats the Temptations'.  I knew who the Temptations were but had no idea what they looked like so I said nothing more about it as my uncle got more and more agitated (in a good way!) by their presence.

Anyway, after two or three drinks these guys suddenly burst out into the most amazing harmony that I have ever heard and at which point my uncle gave me the 'told you so'speech, promptly jumped up on a table and started to belt out King of the Road to the hotel bar.  And he had the most incredible backing group I have ever heard to help him out. 

The singing and the drinking continued and the entourage (the roadies, technicians etc) all relaxed and helped out with more harmonies background tunes and incredible tales. This was all in a hotel bar in bloody Bournemouth!

Things were going amazingly, the whole bar was being led in calssic song after classic song by these legends and then four middle aged black women walked in. My Uncle nearly had a heart attack there and then. 

It was the Supremes! Minus Diana Ross of course but they got right into it along with everybody else whilst having a few drinks too. My uncle got his picture with them all giving him a massive kiss at the same time and they were the most brilliant people. It was that good that when some of the younger lads came back to the hotel to get changed to go back out clubbing they ended up staying for this amazing sight and evening.

It turned out that they were both touring the country together and had played in Bournemouth that night but fancied a few jars after the show and we got very, very lucky.

An absolutely incredible night that ended at about  three o'clock in the morning so that quiet beer didn't happen, but it was worth 100% of the pain the following day and then some.

That is an incredible story.