I got to a lot of gigs – but here are a few I should have been at, but wasn’t.

I have written here before about many of the gigs I have attended over the past 51 years.

Hundreds and hundreds.

I don’t even remember them all!
Well, there were a few not worth remembering and a few which, er, don’t remember because we might have had a few jars. Or something.

Anyway, when it’s all added up and you take supports into consideration, I must have seen 500 acts or more.

But I didn’t see everyone I wanted to see.

So here are twenty or so I missed out on not including the eleven gigs I have recently missed due to either my own illness or Covid-19 – they’re in no particular order.

1. Band of Horses Olympia 2012 (Missed because of illness)
2. Blur IMMA 2013 (Ditto)
3. Cat Stevens Point 2009 (This was the one where he had other musicians sing his most famous songs and caused the audience to become, at the very least, restless. I remember reading about one fan who clearly not understanding what the song was about , got fed up listening to new material and shouted: “SING PEACE TRAIN YA F**KIN’ B****X.)
4. Clifford T Ward Castlebar 1982 (I was a huge fan and it wasn’t at all fashionable. He was a kind of James Blunt of his day. He hated doing interviews and hated performing. But he did in Castlebar and I can’t remember why I didn’t go.)
5. Harry Chapin Stadium 1981 (Couldn’t afford it.)
6. Joe Cocker Stadium 1980 (Ditto)
7. John Cale Vicar Street 1998 (Only heard about it when it was over.)
8. Rory Gallagher Olympia 1988 (Serious omission. I saw Stud, which was Taste without Rory, at the RDS in 1971. Taste without Rory? Like a 99 without the flake. Pointless.)

9. The Killers RDS 2018 (Didn’t have tickets but I know it was a great gig because, for some reason to do with the wind, we could hear them from the back garden of our home in Harold’s Cross.)
10. The Monkees Point 1997 (I admit I was and still am a fan but couldn’t get a ticket.)
11. Tom Petty Point 1992 (I was working and it was expensive!)
12. Prince RDS 1993 (Wasn’t interested at the time.)
13. Procul Harum Stadium 1977 (Couldn’t afford it)
14. R.E.M SFX 1984  (Didn’t know about it)
15. Roy Wood Olympia 1997 (Ditto)
16. Led Zeppelin The Stadium 1971 (To this day, I can’t figure out why I didn’t go when a lot of my friends did.)

17. The Undertones Dalymount 1979 (Couldn’t afford it)
18. Tom Waits Phoenix Park 2008 (I almost bought a ticket. They were expensive. But that’s no excuse not to go and sea a master at work.)
19. The Yardbirds Adelphi 1964 (I think I missed this one because I was 11!)
20. Sufjan Stevens The Village 2005 (I have no explanation why I didn’t go and see a singer/songwriter I have always liked.)

And of course the Beatles. Well, I was only 10.