famous musicians youve seen in the audience at live shows

E-40 at Camera Obscura gig

tell me when to get out of this country

philip glass, leonard cohen @ leonard cohen's girlfriend's cd release show
tony conrad @ mouthus

david byrne @ about 399 shows

John Lurie heckling Zorn at Naked City

"philip glass, leonard cohen @ leonard cohen's girlfriend's cd release show "

the opposite also happend (cohen at glass show), as ive heard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUhFLiw6h6s

bowie at secret machines show. he was surrounded by babes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUhFLiw6h6s

-- some dude, Saturday, June 21, 2008 8:21 PM

It's just really cliched anyway, they're both probably ripping off some old Andy Williams tune or something.

Bootleg Mark Chapman at a Bootleg Beatles gig.

Lemmy at The Ramones.

London Lyceum circa 1985

bowie at secret machines show. he was surrounded by babes.

-- Creeztophair, Saturday, 21 June 2008 20:21 (8 minutes ago) Link

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/2531664055_fee7a46c94_o.jpg

Not a musician, but David Duchovney used o be a fixture at Elliot Smith, PJ Harvey and Sleater Kinney gigs. Dude was totally indie. Handsome in person too

"bowie at secret machines show. he was surrounded by babes"

matt sweeney and steve shelley were also with good looking babes (one for each though...)

most miserable show i was ever at was one where secret machines opened

bcuz secret machines opened i should add

thin white douche

Roy Orbison at the 24-Hour Technicolour Dream

i saw Chris Martin at a Creaky Boards show

Yamataka Eye at Konono No 1
Thurston Moore a million shows
Tony Conrad @ Mouthus & a few others.
some dude from QOTSA at High on Fire

Michael Stipe at Gang of Four

Angelo Moore@Pfunk.

But Fishbone opened up, so there's that, too.

Stewart Braithwaite at a bajillion gigs, his wife or whatever is a promoter so that probably partially explains it, most recently Battles.

Do bands looking at other bands on the side of the stage at festivals count? If so: loads!

I saw Scissor Sisters coming out of the front stage and into the crowd to take a look at Ministry (didn't stay long, lol)

Lindy Morrison at a Givegoods acoustic show
Beastie Boys seeing Gerling at a festival
Liam Howlett and Keith Flint at a Quasar/JSBX show
Evan Dando at a Godge show (members of Sneeze playing Smudge and Godstar covers)
The yellow Wiggle at a secret Midnight Oil reunion gig
The Make-Up at something upstairs at The Globe, Newtown - could have been a Gerling/Avalanches gig c. 1998
Craig McLachlan at Smudge's farewell show when they sorta split up
Rhys Ifans (non-famous musician) at a pub gig by some girl who used to be on Home & Away and is now on Play School
half the Electric Six at a multi-band Ween covers night
Simon Day out of Ratcat at 1179 different shows

Will Oldham at an Animal Collective show in Louisville, makin' out with a youngish woman, sitting on a stool in the middle of a standing crowd.

Britt Daniel/Jim Eno both of Spoon, at a million Austin TX shows over the years. Trail of Dead, Octopus Project, Okkervil River, Explosions in the Sky among other bands (those are the better known ones).

Dave Faulkner of the Hoodoo Gurus right at the front with his feet up at The Magnetic Fields in 2001.

Aphex Twin at a Squarepusher and a Sun-O))) gig.

I've seen Beth Gibbons at gigs in Exeter occasionally; can't remember who.

roger ebert @ tortoise

All of Quicksand, standing together, at a Fugazi show, NYC.

Scott Ian from Anthrax, with that obese racist guy from that band with the initials, at the Beastie Boys, NYC.

I'd heard that Nick Cave, Elvis Costello and Joe Strummer were all at an early 00's Tom Waits show in NYC. Or all those guys at a Strummer show, or something...

Guy Picciotto dancing to an electronica DJ's set at a house party, late 90s DC.

Best for last: Drummer from Whitesnake at a Red Hot Chili Peppers show, New Haven, CT, late 80s. Staff escorted his wrinkly, afro'd self right to the front row, in the middle of the set, like royalty!

Julian Cope dancing to Aphex Twin.
Gary Numan at Dead Can Dance.
Natalie Portman at the Pixies in Brixton.

Kevin Shields at a J Mascis + The Fog gig in Dublin a few years ago (not unusual, as he's mates with J, and his brother Jimi was playing support, with J on drums. How incestuous!).

Actually, it may have been a J Mascis solo show. I can't remember exactly, I just know it was at Whelans. Somebody else must have been there!

More likely solo if Shields didn't get onstage, since he was in the Fog on record.

Scott Ian at a Fear reunion gig (all original members except the bassist) in NYC.

Standing next to Jim O'Rourke at the urinals at a Kraftwerk show circa 1998.

That is all.

lol roger ebert

Ian Svevonius rolling up five minutes before the end of damn near every D.C. show.

James McNew at Mission of Burma in NYC.

Man, that creaky boards thing is some self-deluded bullshit.

Thomas Pynchon at a Lotion show

Lena Zavaroni at a Tad gig

Tony Kanal (and Nicolas Cage) at Rush at the Hollywood Bowl
Boredoms at Health

I'm a longtime lurker, but I've got some good ones:
Ornette Coleman, Eddie Vedder, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon @ Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Town Hall NYC
Cecil Taylor @ Phillip Glass solo piano Knitting Factory (he hated it and told me so)

Not that famous, but the guitarist from Skunk Anansie was at practically every gig I went to in the late 90s.

My wife has quite a few of these - Kurt & Courtney at Beat Happening, Joey Ramone at Sky Saxon/Seeds etc.

Some of mine are only FSVO "famous" -
Amelia Fletcher (and various other Heavenly/TG/Marine Research) at Magnetic Fields, Frenchmen, Calvin Johnson, Aislers Set gigs
Charlie Harper at Varukers/Systematic Death/Sick On The Bus
Graham Coxon at Buff Medways
Jarvis Cocker at Raveonettes. Well, also Jarvis Cocker at J&MC and Devo, but he was "curating" those so I don't think that counts!

My most memorable one was sitting on the opposite aisle seat to Brian Eno at a Bowie curated Meltdown gig where he performed Low fromn end to end for the first time. It was rather odd.

Kate Moss & Bobby Gillespie @ The Strokes, London Barfly 2001
Andrew Eldritch @ Tindersticks, Leicester Princess Charlotte 1994
Bernard Burler, Jarvis Cocker & Chris Morris @ Arcade Fire, London ULU 2005

oh, and Tjinder Singh @ Teenage Fanclub (I think), Leicester SU, 1993

More wee BobbY:

Bobby Gillespie @ Cecil Taylor, Jazz Cafe, early nineties

Lou Reed @ Talking Heads/Television GBGB's, Summer 1976 (surprise).
Every hipster guitar player in Chicago @ every Shadowy Men gig in Chicago in the 90s (standing in front of Brian Connelly)

Captain Sensible @ Blood Stereo, Brighton '06

brian molko at mogwai
mogwai at every semi-decent glasgow gig ever
kieran hebden at boredoms
kevin shields at a backroom pub gig by my old band (not that I realised at the time)
gael garcia bernal at ATP (not a musician, but never mind...)

i stood in the upstairs balcony/VIP section next to Trent Reznor at House of Blues in New Orleans (95/96?) for an Orb show.

stood next to the heavier of the Hartnoll brothers while Spring Heel Jack opened for them, also HOB in New Orleans.

brian eno @ jon hassell last year. i only noticed because i accidentally stood on someone's toe on the way out and turned round to apologise and it was mr. eno.

J Mascis and Mike Watt at a Glands show. I'm not sure they were there on purpose, more like somewhere to drink after their gig was over.

Greg Ginn at a Dragoon (Stan & Tripp from the Grifters) show.

probably more I can't think of right now.

tupac at love is all

pretty sure i saw jack white at cinematic titanic over the weekend.

Scott Weiland @ a Dylan show in Atlantic City

Wayne Coyne at Super Furry Animals + Grandaddy in Dallas in 2003.

Robert Plant at a Sunny Murray/Sonny Simmons show, Chicago, late 90s.

No shit.

(1999) Mike Mills and Stipey at the 40 Watt Club twice in one week while I was visiting Athens, GA (shows: Elliott Smith and goddam Cracker). This is par for the course down there, from what I hear.

(1998) Another J Mascis sighting at at a tiny joint on St. Mark's in NYC. He was incognito in a hat watching my friends' band, The Feud, who totally flipped out when they found out he'd come to see them on a tip from another hot-shit indie dude.

(1997) Best one: I showed up early to a Spectrum gig at a small venue in Detroit for a few pre-show drinks, only to witness Richie Hawtin drop in on Sonic to swap some records with Sonic and receive a demonstration on how to manipulate a Speak and Spell for maximum bleepage.

(2002) Observing prominent members of Detroit rock/indie/whatever bands at each other's shows and pretty much every other show too is inevitable if you live in the area and go to shows. So I was not surprised to see Jack and Meg, separately, at a Beck/Flaming Lips gig. What is worth noting is that this was allegedly the event at which Jack White gave Wayne Coyne the gift of a "fiberoptic Jesus," which inspired Coyne to pen the obliquely titled "Thank You Jack White (For the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me)."

One for the famous non-musicians pile: Roddy Doyle at a Yo La Tengo show at the Olympia in Dublin in 2001.

^^^ Didn't notice Roddy Doyle, but I alse attended that very show.

He was somewhere in the middle of the floor seats, I only saw him when my friends and I got up to leave after the show. Incidentally, Yo La Tengo weren't as good that night as they were the two times they played the year before (at Vicar St and Witnness respectively). Maybe it being a seated gig changed the atmosphere or something, I dunno.

if lori barbero from babes in toyland and grant hart from husker du count as "famous"...then like dozens of shows

They're more famous than the tall dude with the Afro from Zen Guerrilla, who watched Man Or Astro-Man? from the audience after their support slot in Dublin years ago (both were excellent, by the way).

I've seen Jeff Tweedy at Animal Collective and Sonic Youth shows. Also most of the Tortoise guys are out and about quite a bit, especially Doug McCombs.

Vicar St.

Actually, the Olympia and Vicar St. were my favorite Dublin venues by miles, and for much different reasons. Obviously the Olympia just one of those classic old theatres (great acoustics as well). But Vicar St. was a total anomaly insofar as it was a very intimate space, yet always seemed to have notable acts coming through who you'd think would be playing a much larger venue. The sound there was also very good, not nearly as muddy as it is most places that size (btw I'm referring to the main floor, not the basement portion).

Oh yeah Jack White at Asteroid #4 last year

Chris Morris at the Pulp organised festival at the Magna centre near Sheffield. Got his autograph and he was surprisingly friendly about it, fully expected him to tell me to fuck off, but no.

Brian Eno watching The Locust, the Garage, London. 2000ish

Bradford Cox (Deerhunter/Atlas Sound) blogs lots, and wrote a funny blog post about just seeing MBV in London

Delightful!

my old roommate smoked a j with macauley culkin at a strokes gig.

Saw Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange at a Dylan show in Minneapolis, just walking through the crowd.

Jaymc, what was the show we were at at the Empty Bottle where we saw Jeffrey Eugenedies?

Sat next to Laurie Anderson at a talk that Philip Glass gave at The Kitchen once.

J Mascis is everywhere. I saw him at a Shins show in 2004.

Bono at Dublin Stadium Pixies show.
Guys singing harmony behind me at Glenn Tilbrook turned out to be the Posies. That was great.

I bet it was!

Ray Davies at Neko Case at Shepherd's Bush Empire, 2006

J Mascis is everywhere. - This is great b/c to look at him you'd suspect he's the sort that never goes anywhere.

Robert Wyatt at George Clinton/Parliament/Funkadelic at the Royal Festival Hall on Saturday.

Wow, that's a good one

I know, it was my highlight of the evening, if not the year.

Bobby Gillespie @ Cecil Taylor, Jazz Cafe, early nineties

Aye, but they had to chuck him out after he kept yelling for Cecil to play "The Sheik Of Araby."

Funny, I heard that Cec, as Bobby calls him, got Bob up on stage to do a version of "Angie"

Cecil proposed a duet version of "Borsalino" before he realised he'd mixed him up with Bobby Crush.

And Bobby was, crushed

by several fallen girders from Tony Oxley's kit.

stood next to the heavier of the Hartnoll brothers while Spring Heel Jack opened for them, also HOB in New Orleans.

So wait, you saw one of Orbital, at an Orbital show??? Amazing.

Just remembered i saw two of Oasis (Gem and, er, some other chap), and Mani, and Ed Chemical hanging about at Richard Fearless's new band's gig t'other week.

Nomi from Hercules & Love Affair at Public Enemy.

Brian May & Roger Taylor at Robbie Williams.

Can't think of any others as I'm crap at spotting famous people, but I was at an Incognito gig at Nottingham Trent Uni circa 1992, where Stevie Wonder turned up. Due to a mix-up with the guest list, he was initially refused admission. ("Yeah, and I'm the bloody Queen of Sheba mate.")

haha when working on the door at Excellent NW6 Venue a few months ago I came very close to refusing entry to a clearly shitfaced-on-god-knows-what tall black woman in (I thought) her early 50s. it turned out she was a. on the band's personal guest list and b. er, grace jones...

long time ago, New Order at a J&MC gig. brief chat, nice people. (barney wasn't there)

Bjork at Arto Lindsay @ Tonic, 2001

I saw Hootie at a DMB show.

Jaymc, what was the show we were at at the Empty Bottle where we saw Jeffrey Eugenedies?

Azita. I forget who was opening -- he didn't stick around for her.

A couple years ago, saw Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes at a Jayhawks concert at the Bowery Ballroom. He was still with Kate Hudson; they were grumpy and kept leaving and returning.

And I saw Benny from ABBA at the opening matinee in SF of Mamma Mia, if we can count that. I stepped on his foot en route to the bathroom.