Remember seeing Róisín Murphy about six years ago at the Leeds O2 Academy and there was about 85 people in attendance. Cosy.
No they were British. It’s really annoying me. They were pretty average but had a couple of good bass lines. Maybe it wasn’t guns I don’t know. Pretty terrible memory. Was 6 or 7 years ago to be fair and at that time I went to 2/3 gigs a week. Used to get discounts at the door. £5 a night. No chance of that happening now.
Saw the Appleseed Cast with Listener supporting a few months back. 10 in a 200 capacity venue. They were stunning but the show was a bit embarrassing.
The rifles?
They were pretty poor
A great story but I need to make it clear I’m definitely not endorsing Feeder by saying that.
Obits at The Thekla
Not massively well known but on Sub Pop and led by former Hot Snakes and Drive Like Jehu’s Rick Froberg. Massive lack of promotion certainly didn’t help.
Counted less than 10 paying customers plus supports taking it to around 18.
I heard only like 6 wankers turned up to Jake Bugg’s set at Glastonbury this year, even though he’s the unmistakable artist of his generation. Apparently he walked up to the microphone, with that bad mood face he’s always got, and the monotone voice he always speaks in, and said the only reason he was at a Jake Bugg set is because he is Jake Bugg and it’s his job to put up with that shit. And then he played those Jake Bugg songs that made him beloved the millions.
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I remember Super Furry Animals headlining the other stage at the same time as Radiohead headlined the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury 2003. I wouldn’t say it was that sparsely attended considering the massive overlap in fanbases (particularly in 2003), but you could walk up to four-or-five from the front with virtually no effort and you could tell the band were not enjoying themselves.
At one point Gruff shouted something to the crowd like “Who’s here because they hate Radiohead?” which got a pretty big cheer. He then followed it up with something like “We don’t. We love them. Don’t bother watching us if it’s just because you don’t like Radiohead.”.
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Young Gods at Morecambe Winter Gardens in 1989
No idea who booked them into what was a cheesy seafront nightclub and only about a dozen people turned up, but they gave it the usual 110%. Interviewed Franz for our student paper after the gig and he shared his fish & chips with us. Lovely bloke.
Trail of Dead in Bangkok in 2012
One of them was living in Cambodia at the time - think he still does - so they did a bit of a tour of SE Asia. About 50 people turned up to a venue that can hold well over a thousand. Wasn’t familiar with their work but it was a bloody brilliant gig.
I was at both the sparsely attended Titus Andronicus gig and the Morrissey one too. TA put on a great show despite the small turnout and Patrick had plenty of time for everybody after the show and was signing stuff and having his photo taken etc. The Morrissey one was pretty sparse for the Odyssey/SSE particularly when you bear in mind that they already shifted the stage up to the half way line of the stadium which really means that it was a sparsely attended half stadium gig. Like Icarus I ‘won’ my tickets too. They just really struggle to put on actual bands there rather than X Factor shite.
The sparsest attended gig I’ve ever been at was The Birthday Suit (Rod Jones of Idlewild’s other band) at the Black Box. There were about ten people in the crowd but it turned out everyone except me and my Mrs were in the support band/friends of support band.
Other gigs that seemed pretty empty despite acts being great/well-known:
Final Fantasy w/ Villagers at The Empire - less than 20 people I reckon.
Daniel Johnston - Empire - 50/60 people maybe.
Get your act together Belfast!
Went to a few very empty gigs in Reading:
Caribou at South Street, about 2008? Just before he was about to get huge but I’d have thought there’d be more than 20 people there.
Nils Frahm did a gig in a church in Reading in about 2011 (?) and again there were about 15 people there.
Probably others?
Was it Sound of Guns?
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Frigthened Rabbit at the Norwich Arts Centre. On the Winter of Mixed Drinks tour. can’t have been more than 30-40 people there. Still a really good gig
Saw Aereogramme at the Liquid Room in Edinburgh around the time of My Heart Has A Wish. Must have been less than 20 people there. They were outstanding.
Saw The Dub Pistols in Reading (can’t remember the venue, it was maybe 15 years ago) and not many there. And this is when they were still relatively well known.
I saw Joy Formidable at the Oakford Social and there were loads of people. But that doesn’t really count as it’s a pub of course and a Thursday, so most people were there anyway whereas myself and a friend possibly in a minority for the band.
not sure how we’re definining ‘name’ bands,
but:
about 80 to see Mastodon in Peterborough
about 50 watching Napalm Death in Bradford
<10 watching the Icarus Line in Cambridge
<5 watching Electric Eel Shock in Peterborough
Electric Eel Shock!
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name band*
*they have a name
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They played a free festival in Wakefield once. They were the only band I’d heard of cause I remember reading about them in Kerrang, did their drummer used to drum naked?
Still didnt go
LCD soundsystem at this years glasto, don’t think i’ve ever seen the other stage so quiet, i mean it was still busy but for fuck sakes, why chosse coldplay over LCD.