What's the best gig you've ever seen? Tell us for $5!

I'm not typically one for live music events, preferring soundtracks and that kind of thing. You're more likely to find me in an opera or a concert hall than at a rock festival or rave party. However, my occasional forays into live concerts are always memorable, especially one spontaneous experience I had while abroad.

Out of the blue, my PR manager called with an intriguing offer: "Hey, want to go to a concert? We need coverage there." Curious, I asked who was playing. When she said The Offspring, I didn't hesitate, immediately gearing up with my cameras.

Alone and needing to be in multiple places at once, I set up one camera for automatic shots on top of a light tower, while I positioned myself in the photo pit near the stage.

The concert was a throwback to my teenage years – the music of The Offspring resonating with familiar energy. But what truly stood out was the sheer force of the crowd's enthusiasm. Even though I wasn't the intended recipient of this wave of emotion, it nearly engulfed me in the best way.

Standing there, amidst the throng of fans, I felt part of something larger than myself, something truly magnificent. The experience was not just about capturing images, but also about capturing a feeling – an indelible part of that night's collective energy.

I have so many good nominations for this one, but if we are after the absolute best, I have to go big.

Queen + Adam Lambert 4th November 2017, Budapest.

I'm sure you have all seen the '86 Queen concert recording from Budapest. My dad worked for the Hungarian Film Studio at the time, so he was at the concert for work and he came home with a cassette tape recording. He died a year after Freddie, and I was listening to that cassette until the tape tore...

I've seen Q+AL in Wembley before, but I had to see them in Budapest, because Budapest gets a special song, to quote Freddie 'From Queen, to you'. So for the next tour I paid a fortune to get VIP tickets and queued since morning to be front row. It was the first concert where I didn't take a picture or recorded anything, because I wanted to live in that moment.

Adam understands the crowd and plays them like a fine instrument, no matter where you are, you have the feeling he is singing for you only Best showman I've ever seen. Down to Earth and humble, not trying to replace Freddie. Brian and Roger has so much energy still, I would have easily paid that money just for Brian's guitar solo.

Support band? Queen doesn't need a support band. You pay to see them, and that's exactly what you get with a 2,5 hrs setlist.

Instead of picking one particular song, here is a great compilation of the setlist:

Brian's guitar solo:

And our special song:

This is tough! I spent far too much time and money whilst I was at Uni going to gigs and travelling to see bands in my yoof. Things havent changed now that i've "grown up"! - recently travelling across Europe following (not stalking) metallica around was a highlight - this was 2019, and pre-COVID - little did I know what was going to happen in less than 6 months later!

Here are some highlights...

1. Metallica Night 1 & 2 in San Francisco for the 40th Anniversary 2021 - up in the rafters, but what a setlist and show - deepcuts, mates, happy dayz!

2. Machine Head at Brighton Concorde 2 - sweat rolling from the ceilings, insane pit. met the band afterwards and chatted for hours with beerz until 4am!

3. Metallica Mannheim 2019 - end of the Euro stint, a dozen shows under my belt that tour, countless memories, plus the black ticket roamers wore Hawaiian shirts!

4. Dadi Freyr at Cambridge Corn Exchange -saw DF at EVE Online Fanfest - he blew me away!

5. Esoterica at La Scala 2023 - if ever there was a band that deserved to make it - it is esoterica. go check them out, fantastic songs, amazing production. Nice people as well.

6. Trivium at Brixton Academy, Black Crusade tour - they crushed it!

7. Muse, Teignmouth Seaside Rendezvous 2009 - homecoming show, first time in 15 years playing Teignmouth!

8. Ghost - Nottingham, 2021 - so nice to see Ghost on a headline tour

9. Clint Mansell, Royal festival hall - 2016 - uneasy listening - i cried. LOTS. such an emotive and soul searching chat and confessional

10. Tool, Brixton Academy, Lateralus tour cycle - just perfect

This list changes...!

Mine would be the Eurovision Song Contest final 2023 in Liverpool and I'm going to count this as being a music festival. Apologies in advance but this is a long story.

I was so looking forward to getting tickets for the final hosted in the UK and probably my one and only opportunity to go, but they sold out in seconds. I checked every day for more tickets or people refunding them to be relisted with no joy.

So on the eve of the final id just finished playing fortnite with a few people and it was gone 11pm. I thought, right let's just have one last check just incase people have had friends drop out at the last minute or something. Amazingly for the first time ever when refreshing, a single ticket would appear, but be instantly unavailable a split second later. Somehow I managed to be the fastest person to click on one of the few tickets that appeared (1 ticket allowed only)! I paid my money, found a hotel in the city centre and booked it (at a horrendous price), then went to sleep.

Next morning I got up, explained to my wife (who fortunately was supportive) I was off to Liverpool for 2 days on my own with no notice, quickly had breakfast, jumped in the car and off I went down the motorway! There was a train strike that day of course so the roads were very busy and it took what felt like forever to get into the city centre and check in. Fortunately I did get a few hours before the doors opened to take in the city atmosphere, everywhere was absolutely packed in the outdoor festival zone and the whole docks area. You could barely move.

The show itself was so impressive, everything from the set design, the lighting, the amazing friendly party atmosphere. My favourite act was Australia's voyager and Finland's Käärijā.

It turned out my seat was a block of 4 and all 4 tickets had been put up for sale that night at the same time, I was sat next to 3 women from across the country who had all come on there own with 1 ticket like I had and bought them at the same time that night. They were great company, whoever they were! We all chatted all night through the performance and had a great time together.

I can honestly say the whole thing was the most amazing music festival experience I have ever been to and the whole experience will never be topped for me I am sure. Not just the amazing show with amazing people and atmosphere, but also how it was such lucky timing to get one of those 4 tickets. The spur of the moment independent thing to just buy the tickets that night without consultation with anyone and then leave the next morning straight away on my own to a city I'd never been to before to a show on my own!

Bonus pictures for evidence! I barely took any as I’m one to enjoy the experience rather than constantly take photos and video, so phone was away all night other than pre show and a couple during the interval prep while the tv had cut to various promo vids.It looked like they had a lot of problems and panic getting that liver bird setup that went up to the ceiling (and on tv you only saw coming down with someone on it).

Due to some fairly extreme social anxiety around crowds, I haven’t been to many, but in 2009 Disturbed (my favorite band at the time) was touring Indestructible and I saw them at the Arco Arena. That concert introduced me to Skindred who I really dug for a long time to follow and, naturally, Disturbed was sick.

I had a decent phone at the time and during Ten Thousand Fists I got an epic shot of David Draiman with his foot on a stage amp, microphone held up in salute, backlit by a perfectly timed flare of the lights, standing before a sea of raised fists. That image could have been a poster, man. Could have been a poster.