10.21.2011 01:49 PM

Top Ten list of bands I never got to see and likely never will

1. Minor Threat
2. Burning Spear
3. Marley
4. Magazine
5. Joy Division
6. Pere Ubu
7. Soundgarden
8. The Jam
9. The Slits
10. Young Marble Giants

…such are the lists I make on ten-hour bus rides back to Canada.

What’s your Top Ten list?

58 Comments

  1. RITFW says:

    1. Teenage Head
    2. Pearl Jam
    3. Dylan
    4. Queen
    5. The Clash
    6. Johnny Cash
    7. Split Enz
    8. Red Hot Chili Peppers
    9. Iggy Pop
    10.Dead Kennedys

  2. kre8tv says:

    Joy Division
    Portishead (yeah I know, I KNOW…they *just* played Montreal)
    Eva Cassidy
    Soundgarden
    Stevie Ray Vaughan
    John Lee Hooker (although I did meet the man in person once, so that counts for something)
    Sisters of Mercy
    Gary Numan (still hoping)
    The Stranglers
    Cocteau Twins

    • Disgruntled Frmr Con, now Happy Lib says:

      Eva Cassidy should have been on my list too……such a talent taken far, far too young……

  3. Disgruntled Frmr Con, now Happy Lib says:

    OK….its a rainy afternoon…..Bands I never got to see but wish I had….A rather pedestrian assortment, I admit…..and Ive included a solo artist….but I had a crush on Linda in high school…go figure….

    1) Queen
    2) Bob Marley….bought tickets, but show was cancelled due to his poor health…
    3) AC/DC with Bon Scott
    4) ABBA….was given tickets but gave em away cuz ABBA just wasnt cool…
    5) Lindisfarne
    6) Talking Heads
    7) Guess Who
    8) DOA
    9) Andre Riu…..jes kidding…
    10) Linda Ronstadt when she still sang rock and roll
    11) Faces, Small and otherwise….

  4. John says:

    Not in any particular order…

    The Pixies
    Bauhaus
    Be Bop Deluxe
    Stone Roses
    Teardrop Explodes
    The Clash
    Cracker
    The Fall
    Guadalcanal Diary
    Herman Brood & His Wild Romance

    I actually missed a lot of good concerts… I could probably pick another 10 pretty quick.

    • The Other Jim says:

      The Stone Roses announced they were reforming this week. Three concerts initially slated for Manchester in June, possible new album and world tour after that.

    • Philip says:

      Guadalcanal Diary! Never thought I would hear someone else mention them. Amazing band, saw them a number of times. Including opening for REM back in ’86 at UBC’s War Memorial Gym.

  5. Ian McCartney says:

    1. The Clash
    2. The Velvet Underground
    3. Young David Bowie
    4. Ramones
    5. Black Flag (with Keith Morris)
    6. The Misfits (With Glen Danzig)
    7. My Bloody Valentine
    8. Elevator to Hell
    9. Black Sabbath
    10. Stephen Harper

    This list is pretty preliminary. As a young person there I have seen or still can see many of my favourite bands, so this is basically a list of my favourite bands from before I would have been old enough to see concerts, based on who I would expect to give the best performances. Makes it a little bit lame, but I’m a sucker for a top 10 list.

    • The Doctor says:

      Young David Bowie circa Ziggy Stardust is a great pick. Also THE classic Black Sabbath lineup with Ozzy circa Paranoid.

      • Ian McCartney says:

        Stardust era would be great. Anything with Mick Ronson still in the band really… And yeah Paranoid era for Sabbath for sure. Or maybe a little later just to hear some stuff from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

  6. Rick Thomson says:

    The Rolling Stones
    AC/DC
    BTO
    The Guess Who
    Led Zeppelin
    The Band
    Stevie Ray Vaughn
    ZZ Top
    CCR
    Neil Young & Crazy Horse

  7. Jon Powers says:

    The Pogues (with Shane MacGowan as front man)
    The Ramones
    Pink Floyd (with Roger Waters)
    Velvet Underground
    Iggy and the Stooges
    The Clash
    Butt Hole Surfers
    Guns N’ Roses (the original group, befor Axl went nuts and they all left)
    Metallica (circa 1986 – not the present day sucky Metallica)
    Johnny Cash (not a band, but that’s the way I roll)

  8. bigcitylib says:

    Nirvana (could have, shortly before Kurt kicked, but didn’t want to rent a car and drive over the mountains into Calif.)
    AC/DC (backing up early Van Halen, who sucked, but unfortunately Bon Scott died a couple weeks in advance and the actual band that replaced them featured some guy with big hair in a pink spandex body suit)
    The Who (could have gone to Seattle for the tour after Moon died, backed up by Clash, didn’t. Will always regret.)
    Captain Beefheart, San Fran. Another one I will regret.

    The Last Couple Drive By Truckers Shows.
    Titus Andronicus.
    Please let me see tuneyards before I die. That chick is Jesus.
    Jandek. I`ve heard he`s appeared in T.O. once or twice.

  9. some guy says:

    1. Dead Kennedys
    2. Nirvana
    3. Fugazi
    4. The Clash
    5. The Misfits
    6. The Modern Lovers
    7. The Unicorns
    8. The Exploding Hearts
    9. T.Rex
    10. Television

  10. Tim says:

    Magazine is playing some dates in England next month with the classic lineup in place. (except for John McGeoch) Who knows, maybe they’ll make it across the pond.

  11. The Doctor says:

    Probably not going to do an 11 here.

    1. The Who, when they still had Keith Moon.
    2. The Doors
    3. Janis Joplin with the Full Tilt Boogie Band
    4. Jimi Hendrix
    5. Led Zeppelin, with Bonzo of course
    6. Nirvana
    7. The Beatles, post-1966 (after they quit touring)
    8. Paul Butterfield Blues Band, when they had Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield & Elvin Bishop

    • Iris Mclean says:

      Oh man, I saw The Paul Butterfield band with Elvin Bishop at the New Penelope in Montreal back in 67 or 68. What a treat that was!

      • The Doctor says:

        They were a major force in the so-called Blues Revival that took place in the 1960s. And Butterfield, though a white boy, was one of the best blues harmonica players ever. Same goes for Magic Dick who used to play with J. Geils Band.

        Plus, having Bloomfield and Bishop in the same band was one of the greatest guitar duos ever in a band. That band was a bit like the early Animals, though: loaded with talent all through the lineup, but also mega-destructive personalities and epic substance abuse. Not surprisingly, they died young.

    • The Doctor says:

      Because I never did #9 or 10,

      9. Deep Purple’s lineup for the Machine Head album: Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Roger Glover and Ian Paice. In their prime, of course. A very short time at the top, but that album was a masterpiece. And like so many albums, the best known song (Smoke on the Water) was actually the weakest one.

  12. W the K - No, not Warren says:

    The Dead:
    Ray Charles
    Johnny Cash
    John Lee Hooker
    Handsome Ned
    Marvin Gaye
    Peter Tosh
    Jim Croce
    Badfinger
    The Band
    Solomon Burke

    The Living:
    Bob Dylan
    Boz Scaggs
    Buckwheat Zydeco
    Etta James
    Gene Pitney
    The Rolling Stones
    Pretenders
    The Pogues
    Toots & The Maytals
    The Waterboys

    I know I broke the ten limit rule but this was almost impossible… And I think I’m showing my age.

  13. Margreta Carr says:

    the only one that still matters

    Paul Weller (with or without Style Council)

    Actually I have more fun writing up lists like,

    Books I Pretend I Have Read.

    Now I even have that list subdivided into lists depending on the reasons for pretending to read them, and reasons why I haven’t. Challenge?

  14. dave says:

    Django and the Hot Club of France
    Oscar Peterson Trio with Ed Thigpen
    Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
    MJQ (Modern Jazz Quartet – for you 21st Century types)
    Oscar Peterson Trio with Barney Kessel
    T Monk and G Mulligan
    Any Charlie Mingus band – any of them
    Django Rheinhart and the Hot Club of France ( I would go to see them twice)
    Davis – Parker quintets
    Blind Blake and The Lemon Drops
    Danny Carter and his group doing ‘Indian Red’

    Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians

    • The Doctor says:

      Those are all great picks. I didn’t realize jazz was allowed.

      I would add:

      Count Basie’s classic swing band — with or without Sinatra singing. Especially on Atomic Basie. Most rockin’ swing album ever.
      Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue lineup.
      Dave Brubeck’s lineup for Take 5.
      Benny Goodman’s swing band circa 1938.
      Coltrane’s lineup for Blue Train.
      Ella & Louis and their lineup for their first 2 albums together (which included Oscar Peterson on piano).
      Lee Morgan’s lineup for The Sidewinder.
      Cannonball Adderly’s lineup for Somethin’ Else (which included Miles Davis on trumpet).

      • dave says:

        I think it was summer of 1958, Newport jazz Fest was brought to the CNE. I bullied a couple of older guys (they were 18 or 19) into letting me travel to TO to take in the concert.
        We sat in the grandstand ( I wore my new fake snakeskin tie – thinner than rope – jeez I looked sharp) and the announcer told us that because of the weather the previous night, the previous night’s concert would happen after the regular concert. So, till early hours, we got two concerts.
        Brubeck and his quartet premiered some of their time/rhythm experiments. They played Blue Rond a la Turk. They finished, they looked at us, the entire audience seemed stunned into silence for several seconds, then slowly the applause and cheering rolled throught the stands.

        (Maybe jazz isn’t allowed…I thought that the rule was that WK starts the ball rolling, and then we chip in to try to make sense of the thread.)

        • The Doctor says:

          That’s a great story. I’ve seen Dave Brubeck twice now in the last 10 yrs or so, both times at the Vancouver Jazz Fest. Of course, now the guy is ancient (when he walks across the stage he looks like Montgomery Burns from the Simpsons), but there’s a thing with those old musicians sometimes where, once they start playing they might as well be 35. He’s still impressive and a unique virtuoso jazz pianist, but I envy you for being able to see him in his prime, when he was playing with Paul Desmond etc.

  15. james Smith says:

    – The Beatles (my dad had tickets & asked if I wanted to go, I replied ” no, I like em but you won’t hear the music for the screaming Girls” -OKAY I was 9)
    – Frank Zapa & the Mothers of invention (I was in conviction hall, but they never played, & I did not get my what was it? $18 back)
    – Clash ( the year I spent in Europe I kept missing them & Plastic Bertrand seemed to be EVERYWHERE)
    – DEVO (we drove to Cleveland to see ’em & missed em saw Per Ubu instead)
    – Bob Dylan with the Band (Everybody must get stoned)
    – The Electric Storm ( I don’t know if they ever toured)
    – Procol Harum ( How cool would that have been to be in the club they debuted in with the Stones, Beatles, Donavan, Marianne Faithful, & Twiggy in the audience ? Holy Austin Powers!)
    – Nirvana ( apparently they were playing in clubs not far from where my brother lived & we were too old & too un-cool to know)
    – INXS (they are Australian after all)
    – Run DMC

    Honourable mention:
    – Robert Charlebois
    – Beau Dimanche
    – Mocedades
    – Serge Gainsbourg
    – King Crimson
    – They Might Be Giants
    – The Mouldy Peaches
    – Primus
    – Genisus (with Peter Gabriel)
    – Gnarles Barkely

  16. Winston Higgs says:

    I’m gonna use both halves of my brain for this one…wish me luck:

    Hank Williams and the Drifting Cowboys
    The Plasmatics
    Mother Love Bone
    AC/DC with Bon Scott as lead singer
    Roy Orbison
    Dead Kennedys
    The Carpenters
    Uncle Tupelo
    The Runaways (hubba, hubba!)
    and finally…The Replacements (sigh).

    Off to Youtube now with my rye and coke to see if I can’t rustle up an epic concert with all of the above!
    Thanx for the inspiration, Warren!

  17. MCBellecourt says:

    Jethro Tull (had to pick between them and Led Zeppelin, Zep won out, in ’73)
    Saga
    Stones
    Depeche Mode
    Yes (90210 era)
    Deep Purple (Machine Head time)
    Alice Cooper
    Doobie Brothers
    Fleetwood Mac
    Jefferson Starship

    …and a whole bunch more…but that Zep concert, in the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, July ’73, was just awesome! Robert Plant and the guys played for 2 and a half hours solid, and I got a decent seat for $7.50. Of course, that wasn’t the only concert I’ve been to, but that one was the most memorable.

    Any of you guys ever get a chance to see George Thorogood?

    • james Smith says:

      Jethro Tull! I lived to see that band for a while in the 70’s we saw them in TeaHo several times, & drove somewhere (Pittsburgh?) to see them once. Back in the High Boots & Geoffrey Hammond-Hammond days. Almost went to see them at Casino WIndsor last year but it was Casino WIndsor.

    • The Doctor says:

      I’ve seen Thorogood at least 3 times. He’s a good showman and a real crowd pleaser. He also attracts a very male, notably substance abusing crowd (very drunk and it smells like the inside of a bong the whole time). To me, it only adds to his rakish charm . . .

  18. mark james says:

    The Fall (not impossible, but distance makes it very unlikely)
    Robert Wyatt
    John Cunningham
    Can
    The Delgados
    Smog/Bill Callahan
    The High Llamas
    Scott Walker
    The Feelies
    The Go-Betweens

  19. Pete says:

    Tommy Dorsey
    Bill Haley and the Comets
    ABBA
    Billy Joel
    Benny Goodman quartet
    Chet Baker
    Dave Brubeck
    John Coltrane
    The Manhatten Transfer
    Bill Evans
    Little Richard
    BO Diddely
    Duke Ellington
    Jerry Lee Lewis

    • dave says:

      Around 1954-55 on a NATO gunnery and bombing school at RCAF Macdonald, jsut a few miles north of Portage La Prairie! We kids playing some sport or other on the school ground when the big bus rolled by! On its side “Duke Ellington and his Band of Renown!’ (“hey, I heard of them!”) Rolling in to play for all those young pilot trainees from Europe and Canada!
      They played in the rec hall, a huge renovated-into-a-gym hangar.
      Next morning, Mother handed me a bunch of drink napkins, each with the autograph of one of the band members.
      In the 1960’s I got to see Ellington and band of renown a few times.
      I sometimes wonder how time will treat his compositions and his overall contribution to 20th Century music.

      (I wonder what happened to those napkins.)

      Bill Evans…nifty pick.

  20. Steve Gallagher says:

    James Brown and His Band of Renown!
    Ray Charles
    The Kinks
    Sly and The Family Stone
    The Boxtops
    Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels
    The Holy Modal Rounders
    Little Feat
    The Duke Ellington Orchestra
    Tom Waits

  21. The Other Jim says:

    I’ll go with 5 living and 5 dead.

    Five I’ll Never See

    1 – The Beatles (yeah, I know, cliche)
    2 – Manic Street Preachers (with Richey)
    3 – Joy Division
    4 – Nirvana (I know, another cliche)
    5 – Big Star

    Five Still Possible in Theory

    1 – The Kinks
    2 – The La’s
    3 – The Jam
    4 – The Smiths
    5 – Galaxie 500

  22. Roberta Gallagher says:

    The Rat Pack
    Elvis
    The Committements
    Nazareth
    The Monkees
    The Partrige Family
    Leonard Cohen
    Bob Seger
    The Smothers Brothers
    The Knack

  23. gray says:

    In no particular order;

    The Rolling Stones
    The Who
    REM
    AC/DC
    Madness
    The Specials
    Jimmy Buffett
    Weddings, Parties Anything
    HooDoo Gurus
    Stompin Tom Connor

    and five I’m really glad I did get out to see;

    BoDeans
    Pogues – the tour with Joe Strummer
    Alice Cooper – at an oldies festival in Madawaska
    Forgotten Rebels – in a parking lot in Chalk River
    Johnny Cash – three times

  24. Steve T says:

    1. Led Zeppelin (#1 on my list by a LONG shot)
    2. Soundgarden
    3. Alice In Chains (when Layne Staley was still coherent)
    4. Simon and Garfunkel (they were supposed to tour last year, and I had tix, but they cancelled)
    5. Journey (sorry, I know it’s corny 80s stuff, but Steve Perry sure could sing)
    6. Johnny Cash
    7. Jimi Hendrix
    8. Bob Marley
    9. Pretenders
    10. Dire Straits

  25. Finn says:

    No top 10 for but a band I love who I would have loved to have seen……..XTC

  26. MCBellecourt says:

    There’s another band I forgot to mention–in fact, I’ve never heard of them until last week, but they sound like a real hoot.

    The WhatCheer Brigade.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/watch-joey-quit/article2204808/

  27. K says:

    Original Guns N’ Roses
    Original Allman Brothers
    Nirvana
    Clash
    Little Feat
    The Band
    Talking Heads
    Crosby Stills Nash & Young *did see Young though
    Bob Marley
    Janis Joplin
    I would add to this that I went last night to an AMAZING concert in Rochester last night with the Fiance and Papa (who did see Peter Tosh but not Marley c.1972 at Camp Fortune) It was Tedeschi Trucks band. Derek Trucks is current Allman Brothers guitarist, and likely the greatest living side guitar player along with his also uber-talented wife Susan Tedeschi who is the closest thing to Janis Joplin I have ever seen. Truly. Amazing. Download their live stuff from you tube. Their band is rounded out by a bunch of very talented musicians.
    Finally – to those who said they’d like to see original Black Sabbath with Ozzy….my Mom did. The opening act? Alice Cooper. Oh, yeah, she was 13. It’s embarassing when your parents “outcool” you.

    • The Doctor says:

      Original Allman Bros. — cool pick. There was only a brief time that that lineup was together before members started dying. That Live at Fillmore East album is definitely among the top live albums ever. I owe my older brother a debt for introducing me to it when I was a kid.

  28. K says:

    Oh and Tedeschi Trucks Band plays Toronto this TUES at Danforth Music Hall
    https://www.tedeschitrucksband.com/event/2011/10/25/toronto-on

  29. Lee Hill says:

    Too late in the day for a full top ten, but here are some night thoughts:

    The Rolling Stones, Roxy Music in 83 (no money at time, but did see Bryan Ferry play solo twice later in the decade), Magazine (but did interview Devoto by phone), The Ramones (plenty of opportunities, but alas other priorities at the time), The Pixies, Prince, Burt Bacharach/Elvis Costello (almost bought a ticket from a scalper while walking past gig on the South Bank. c 1998)….ah the memories, did have a date of sorts with an ex-girlfriend of Eric Clapton once…a different list, some other time, some other place.

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