Your Top 3 most seen live acts

[Cold Ethyl]

Obviously seen BSP the most of any band, which actually I find a bit sad given there are bands I like a whole lot more and have seen so much less. Wish I'd made the effort when I was younger but I guess more money and access to forums like this explain some of the discrepancy.
Second would be ILT somewhere in the late forties or eariy fifties followed by The Waterboys with a ha of 15 years between seeing them in 1991 and then again in 2006 - no wish to see them too frequently these days as his voice has become so f*ucking ridiculous and the lyrics more twee than the twee-est primary school poem. Then it's The Moody Blues, The Veils and The Cult.
Sadiy I have also seen Lindisfarne twice ( blame mr ethyl).

[TheAlex]

25 Mostly Autumn
23 British Sea Power
16 Feeder

I've just realised mine wasn't up to date and should be:

25 British Sea Power
25 Mostly Autumn
16 Feeder

Which makes BSP top on alphabetical order!

But, British Sea Power have ruined my spreadsheet. When they played at Krankenhaus I counted 2 performances in 1 night as 1 gig, but on the tour earlier this year I counted them as separate gigs on the 2 nights I saw them play twice. What did everyone else do for this dilemma?

I'd guess my biggest gap was David Mead in 2004 and again in 2011 - 7 years and 9 months. Both times he was supporting Fountains of Wayne. If I go and see Alfa 9 next month they'll beat that, I last saw them in 2005. Actually, Giant Drag will beat it next month - last saw in 2005.

[Rake]

followed by The Waterboys with a ha of 15 years between seeing them in 1991 and then again in 2006 - no wish to see them too frequently these days as his voice has become so f*ucking ridiculous and the lyrics more twee than the twee-est primary school poem.

They're touring with the Fisherman's Blues line up later this year Eth to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Got tickets for Bexhill, should be good. Agree that Mike Scott's voice has detracted in recent years, but it didn't sound as bad on the An Appointment with Mr.Yeats show I saw.

[Cold Ethyl]

Saw them last year in Spiddal where FB was recorded and he didn't do the daft voice so it was great. Got tickets for York and Oxford in December. Looking forward. Though he does look a bit like Jagger sucking a lemon these days.

[Rake]

Ha, he does that, needs a good burger.

[Dr_Dupree]

BSP, then Richard Thompson (in various combinations), then probably Elvis Costello (also in various combinations). Wilko Johnson, in Dr Feelgood and then solo, would be very close to Costello, so I am not sure about third place.

I haven't gone to gigs as often as I'd have liked, or as often as many people on this discussion.

I guess that I have seen BSP about 15 times, most recently at Shepherds Bush.

Regarding consecutive decades, I never saw Richard Thompson with Fairport Convention, but did see Richard & Linda in 1975, and RT each decade since. I most recently saw him and band at Shepherds Bush in March this year, so that's 38 years.

[Blackout]

British Sea Power (lots)

This many. http://blackout300.tumblr.com/

[Wendelin of Trier]

British Sea Power (lots)

This many. http://blackout300.tumblr.com/

Thats brilliant Cath. Made me feel very emotional.

I know its hardly loaded with emotional imagery in any obvious way but seeing this poster http://blackout300.tumblr.com/post/54546173290/036-birmingham-carling-academy-2-23-04-04 gave me one of those stomach jolts, a flood of memory.

In all honesty I can't say any of the albums from DYLRM on have moved me much, but from 2003-2007 British Sea Power filled my head almost constantly, inspired many trips, many book purchases, lots of conversation, many silly ideas and lots of fun. I still remember queueing outside the Concorde 2 waiting to see the Bunnymen and somebody handing us a flyer with the bird silhouettes on it. Ah - i'm going to stop now.

300! Thats incredible. Good stuff.

[Blackout]

A couple of people had mentioned the band name to me in 2002, but likewise it was a flyer handed to me while queuing for a gig in Brighton (or Hove, actually, as "they" allegedly say) - Interpol at the Old Market - that made me want to go and see them as soon as possible. It was fortuitous that their next Manchester gig - and possibly their first headline here - was just three days later.

Half the point of slipping that link on here was because giving it its own thread would have been a bit "oooh look at me" and I'm not really like that, but someone else has now... so let's get this one back on topic because it was interesting and nobody's come up with a complete curveball entry yet. None of you have a secret life as a 1-Direction stalker, or a dirty past chasing down Meat Loaf?

It's also interesting as Ethyl has said, it's not even necessarily your favourite bands who are on the list. Mate of mine who's a longtime hardcore fan of (the band) James with over 200 to his name told me there was one other band he'd seen over 100 times and I couldn't guess it - turned out it was The Bluetones, a band I've never really heard him mention and he admits aren't in his all time canon of greats at all, they've just been going a long time and he likes them enough to string together a few dates if he can when they tour. Meanwhile I would always cite 65daysofstatic alongside (not below) BSP if asked for my favourite contemporary bands - I've seen them just 25 times (leaving them way down in 20th place in my list) but they probably fill about a quarter of my total recorded music listening time. Though they remain the only band I have ever seen in an old animal feed factory in rural Switzerland. Apart from their support band, obviously.

[Wendelin of Trier]

Well i've never been a voracious gig goer in the same sense, but I am the type to get a bit obsessed by a band and see them lots of times, rather than casting the net wide and seeing lots just once or twice. Probably half the reason for that is that i've not really lived in places where there is a decent music venue nearby that I can just pop down to, its always been a drive or train journey.

I'm really not certain of numbers but mine are :

1. British Sea Power
2. Echo & the Bunnymen

Not totally sure of 3, but its either Ultrasound, Bert Jansch, The Jesus Lizard or John Shuttleworth. Oofph.

[TheAlex]

It's also interesting as Ethyl has said, it's not even necessarily your favourite bands who are on the list.

The bottom end of my top 10 starts to look a bit dodgy. (I'm so sad) I thought about coming up with a rough average of how many miles I'd travelled to see each band, so bands that were just 'there' along with the act I wanted to see, or who'd played locally and I'd just trundled along, would presumably have a much lower mileage than some of my favourite bands I'd seen less often. BSP would definitely be at the top as the other band I've seen as often used to play in Crewe (a 20-minute drive away, if I didn't get lost finding the Limelight) once or twice a year. BSP haven't played locally since the first time I saw them in 2003! Please come back for the Decline tour boys and girl...

[Blackout]

I don't think Crewe even has a venue these days does it? Supposed to be going to a sort of reunion there soon (25 years since starting at Danebank 6th form college) and entertainment options of any sort are looking very fucking bleak indeed.

[Rake]

British Sea Power (lots)

This many. http://blackout300.tumblr.com/

In all honesty I can't say any of the albums from DYLRM on have moved me much

Still a bit surprised you don't rate Machineries more, I find it very moving.

[Wendelin of Trier]

Still a bit surprised you don't rate Machineries more, I find it very moving.

I do like it tbh. IMO it pisses all over DYLRM, Valhalla Dancehall, although both of those albums have some great individual tracks. I really like Man of Aran too.
Its strange, I actually put Machineries on in the car this morning, for the first time since it came out, and I was surprised just how much I was enjoying it. I think my 'review' back then was typically on the harsh side because it didn't conform to some of my more ridiculously strict requirements, but they are just bollocks really, irrelevant with the passage of time. They cant keep producing Decline over and over again.

Its a decent album. My fave list would go Decline/OS/Machineries/MOA/Valhalla Dancehall/DYLRM.

[Rake]

That's good to hear. Mine would go

Decline/MOJ/Open Season/MOA/DYLRM/Valhalla