For no real reason, I decide to list all the gigs I can remember attending, all confirmed in one way or another.
I haven’t listed repeat gigs, unless noted. I’ve also excluded any gigs I played at, with one exception.
The gigs took place while I lived in Claremont (1966-77), Hobart (1978-81), Sydney (1982-84), Newcastle (1985-87), Sydney (1988-2005) and Corrimal (2006-2023).
Happening ’71 at Hobart City Hall. Went with my sister, who was clobbered by Jeff Philips’s platform shoe. We watched from the St Johns station, which was perfect. 1971
Johnny & the Hurricanes at TCAE. 2JJ Nude Radio concert, Aunty Jack, rude jokes, loud music. Great fun. 1976
Midnight Revival at the Mt Nelson Motor Inn. All covers, latest hits. Every Friday night we’d dance to chat up girls. 1977
Billy T at the Red Lion. Ross Hannaford broke a string and replaced it while continuing to play. 1977
Fern Chutney at The Franklin Tavern. My first band had a new name. Got up and played a couple of country folk tunes with them. 1978.
Gordon Blue Band at the Dog & Partridge. Cary Lewincamp’s acoustic band, great arrangements, superb harmonies. 1978.
Johnny & the Hurricanes at the Beach House Hotel. Rock ‘n’ roll classics. Adrian Bryan slipped the Skippy theme into a lead break, funniest thing ever. Met a girlfriend. 1979
DC Tenz at the Red Lion. Punk thrash fun. 1979
Rory Gallagher at the Granada Tavern. The most guitars I’ve ever seen for one player. 1980
George Thorogood at the Granada Tavern, jumping off the stage and wandering through the crowd blessing punters with his guitar, while still playing, followed by a gaggle of roadies trying to keep his vey long lead untangled. 1981
Sweet Poison at the Wheatsheaf. As a two-piece, guitar and drums. The first of many time I saw them. 1981
Serious Young Insects at Sergeant Peppers. Punchy pop at what was the Kardomah. I believe I managed to fall up the stairs. 1982
Divinyls at the Gaelic Club. Huge. Loud. Theatrical. Amphlett and McEntee were sensational. 1982
Mondo Rock at Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club. All the hits up to Chemistry. What I’d call their best lineup: Wilson, Christie, McCusker, Black and Hackett. 1982
Tactics at French’s. Among many gigs at my favourite venue, this one stands out for the band being so good that everyone actually paid attention. 1982
The Lighthouse Keepers at Glengarry Castle Hotel. Just before Ian and I took over their Sunday afternoon slot. You mean we have to follow them? 1983
The Vulgar Boatmen at the Hopetoun Hotel. Just over from NZ. Big band with Tony Backhouse lead vocals, Jenny Morris on backup vocal, Jonathan Zwartz on bass. They rocked. 1983
The Wet Taxis at the Trade Union Club. Louis Tillett in total control. 1983.
John Cooper Clarke at the Trade Union Club. Had the rock punters transfixed with his poetry. 1983
The Scientists at the Trade Union Club. All thrash and hair. Kim Salmon outstanding. 1983
Sweet Poison at French’s. Now with added bass. Suited the room. 1983
Mr X at French’s. Tasmanian punk rock band featuring Wendy Moles. 1983.
Celibate Rifles at the Trade Union Club. Damien Lovelock was on fire, a great front man. 1983
The Benders at the Rose, Shamrock & Thistle. Chris Abrahams, Lloyd Swanton & Louis Burdett. Before they became The Necks. 1983
Beasts of Bourbon at the Hopetoun Hotel. Tex Perkins all over the tiny stage. Kim Salmon was very drunk. 1984
Matt Finish at the Chevron Hotel. Great show, very smooth. Rick Grossman on bass. 1984
The Johnnys at the Hopetoun Hotel. Bonkers daytime gig. “I Think You’re Cute”. 1984
Pel Mel at the Grand Hotel. Just before they broke up, with my new girlfriend Hazel. Really impressed by band and room. 1985.
Laurie Anderson at the Sydney Opera House. Hazel felt ill and we watched most of it on monitors in the foyer. 1986
Jimmy Buffett at the State Theatre. We went backstage with Cherry Ripe. I chatted with Russ Kunkel. 1987
INXS at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. At the time of “Kick”. Huge show. 1988
The Hippos at the Bridge Hotel. A truly excellent bar band. All drinking, dancing, singing along. 1988.
Chris Bailey at the Harold Park Hotel. Solo acoustic. He kept having to tell our friend Iain to “shut up, tiger”. 1989
Joe Jackson at the State Theatre. Transitioning from punk pop to more melodic “Real Men” piano mode. Didn’t say much. 1991
Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Goossens Hall. A cutdown SSO still absolutely filled the hall. 1991
Yvonne Kenny with the ACO at the Sydney Opera House. What a voice. 1991
Prince at Sydney Cricket Ground. We were miles form the action, sound was not great. Still … 1992
Yothu Yindi at the State Theatre. Powerful, political, funky, and moving. 1992
Blues Brothers Show at the Metro Theatre. Russell Crowe and Simon Westaway. I chatted to Crowe afterwards at the bar. 1993
Spin Doctors at the Hordern Pavilion. Made much of their Oz connection. Really tight. 1993
Chain of Hearts at Kinselas. Mary-Lou and Kathy Bluff in country mode. Record launch. 1994
Lenny Kravitz at The Palladium. Secret media only show in Kings Cross. Spectacular guitar, much tossing of hair. 1994
Jeff Buckley at the Metro. Just him, bass and drums. Mostly in spotlight only. Absolutely stunning. 1995
Chris Isaak at the Enmore Theatre. He talked mostly to his guitarist. Bit of a weird show. 1995
Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Pumped and pumping. Flea couldn’t stay in one place. 1996
Sandra Bernhard at the State Theatre. Mostly standup talk but she could sing and her band sure could play. 1996
Ben Folds Five at Sydney University. Hazel’s pre-show interview didn’t go so well. In performance, they seemed a bit bored. 1997
Laurie Anderson at the State Theatre. Second go. Outstanding. 1997
k.d. lang at Star City. In country swing mode. Totally winning. 1997
The Offspring, The Prodigy, Shonen Knife, Patti Smith, Supergrass at Big Day Out. What was supposed to be the last BDO. Tons of bands, we def saw these, all impressive. 1997
Ben Harper at Bondi Beach Pavilion. Loose, jamming, in party mode on the beach. 1998
U2 at the Sydney Football Stadium. The giant lemon was broken. Drizzling rain but the big crowd went nuts for the band members running out onto long platforms, and Bono mocking Fred Nile. 1998
Beck at the Enmore Theatre. Devil’s Playground time. Superb, although he seemed nervous. 1998
Oasis at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Liam was in great voice. Noel did Wonderwall solo on acoustic. 1998
Radiohead at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. The roof nearly lifted when Jonny hit those crunching chords in Creep. 1998
Kylie Minogue at the Capitol Theatre. Carried around the stage by a gang of scantily clad boys. Glam and fun. 1998
Pulp at the Enmore Theatre. Two UK girls wailing “Jarvis, Jarvis” nonstop. He ignored them and gave a great show. 1998
Smashing Pumpkins at Sydney Harbour. They were loud but hardly there. 1998
Ben Folds Five at the Enmore Theatre. Much tighter show this time around. Realised what “Brick” was about. 1998
Portishead at the Hordern Pavilion. Strangely compelling despite being ultra gloomy and Beth hardly speaking. 1998
Michelle Shocked at the Metro. She won the crowd over, “Anchored Down in Anchorage” a highlight. 1998
You Am I at the Annandale Hotel. The Rule brothers sponsored our soccer club, I built their website. This gig stood out, Tim Rogers blew a packed room away. 1999
The Wiggles, Sydney Entertainment Centre. With the kids. Very slick show. 2004
C.W. Stoneking at the Heritage Hotel. Very theatrical, showman style. Half the crowd didn’t know what to make of him, the rest of us loved it. 2008
Paul Kelly at the Regent Theatre. Played most of “God Told Me To” album. Good show but crowd wanted hits. 2009
The Waifs at the Regent Theatre. The front three plus extended band. Lots of banter and great harmonies. 2009
Matt Corby at Otis Wine Bar. Solo acoustic, double tracked self backing. Working hard to shed his young pop star image. Won me over. 2010
Dan Kelly at Otis Wine Bar. Solo acoustic and electric, with pedals. Like a musical poetry reading. 2010
Vince Jones at IPAC. Wow. Corrimal boy’s hometown triumph. Brilliant backing from piano, guitar and Simon Barker’s drums. Equally good on vocals and trumpet. 2012
Lior at the Heritage Hotel. With a string quintet. Songs by request. Lots of banter. “Living on a Prayer” as a kids song. 2013
Paul Kelly at Anita’s Theatre. We got all the hits this time. Dan Kelly on guitar. Lots of chat between songs. Very tight band. 2013
Bob Evans & Josh Pyke at the Unibar. Apart from two fine singer/songwriters singing their fine songs, memorable for Pyke forgetting his lyrics, swearing and asking to start again. 2013
Diesel at IPAC. Front row theatre seats for a solo show. He was in great singing and playing form. Went through a lot of plectrums, one of which I caught and still have. 2013
Baba Brinkman at IPAC. Articulate, informed rap. Good show. 2014
Missy Higgins at Anita’s Theatre. Gorgeous. A lot of other people’s songs (including Perry Keyes’ “NYE”) plus hits. Sigh. 2014
Dan Sultan at Anita’s Theatre. Worked hard to connect with a less than full audience that didn’t really know him. Stuck to it. 2015
The Badloves at Waves, Towradgi Beach Hotel. Weird, poorly attended, sit-down dinner show, yet they totally rocked. Spiby sang like a damaged angel, Featherstone rocked his Hammond and Housden’s guitar was superb. 2015
Perry Keyes at The Aurora. Spiegeltent style venue. Good show but he sure didn’t cheer anyone up. 2015
Richard Clapton at Anita’s Theatre. Top show, party style, all the hits, lots of banter. Rowdy crowd. 2016
Steve Poltz at the Heritage Hotel. As many anecdotes as songs. Supreme story teller on both fronts. 2016
Ed Kuepper at the Heritage Hotel. Solo acoustic. Surprisingly cheerful. We had to leave our front row seats halfway to a home emergency. Sorry, Ed, it wasn’t you. 2016
Brian Cadd & Glen Shorrock at Anita’s Theatre. Tow old cats having a lot of fun on stage. The band was almost a full Axiom reunion. Lots of hits. 2017
Australian Chamber Orchestra at Wollongong Town Hall. Tognetti is amazing and recruits superbly. 2017
Gregory Page at the Heritage Hotel. Rambling acoustic show with lots of chat, quirky and romantic songs. 2017
Marcia Hines at the Spiegeltent Wollongong. Amazing how powerful her voice still is, a truly great singer. 2017
Don Was at Venue 505 in Surry Hills. Very engaging chat about Blue Note performers and music history. Signed Hazel’s CD. 2019
Icehouse, The Church, Sunny Boys, Mental as Anything, and Do Re Mi at Stuart Park. We chatted with Iva Davies backstage (Hazel was supposed to do a book on him). Clearly an Icehouse show, with supports. 2019
Daniel Champagne at Wollongong Town Hall. Acoustic guitarist who uses his guitar as a percussion instrument. Impressive version of “Come As You Are”. 2021