Whom do you regret never seeing perform live?

I had tickets to see Bob Marley in concert. It was cancelled and later the news came out that he had died of melanoma.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet. I would have loved to see them perform live at their peak in the early 1960s.

Nina Simone, even though I believe she never came back to America.

Though I've had the excellent experience of seeing Sheila E. live (with her lightening fast hands, beating the shit out of her accompanying Timbales, high-kicking her accompanying cymbals' asses), I regret I've never seen Prince perform live.

The re-formed Germs. I passed by it even, but was busy doing other stuff and was "boycotting" due to them thinking they could replace Darby. Afterwards, I thought next time they come I'm going to get a "Germs burn" from either Pat Smear or Lorna Doom. Now lornas gone.

Leonard Cohen, on his never-ending "after the embezzlement, prior to death" tour. It was supposed to have been breathtaking.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Judy

R7 wins.

When I was in college in the late 60's/early 70's The Stooges were playing everywhere, but I was really broke most of the time, and never got to see them, though they were one of my favorite bands. I did get to see the MC5 though, where my friend Andrea was groped by Rob Tyner as he pulled her to him as he was singing I Want You Right Now.

Ella.

Prince Madonna when she could still dance and kind of sing

[quote]Nina Simone, even though I believe she never came back to America.

I saw her perform in Ann Arbor sometime in the late ‘90s or early ‘00s.

Tina turner, Prince, the eagles, Fleetwood Mac w/Lindsey buckingham, America,

Sinatra, but I see four of singers already mentioned

Just Garland of course. Billie Holiday. Louis Armstrong. Patsy Cline. None of this new Hollywood trash.

Dolores as the White Peacock in the Midnight Frolic of 1917.

David Bowie

In 1975 I had the chance to see Elvis Presley in concert but turned it down because I didn't want to spend four hours on the road.

Amy

Marilyn Monroe inserting objects into her vagina while singing Over the Rainbow at the Bottoms Up Club in lower Manhattan in the late 1950s

[quote]Leonard Cohen, on his never-ending "after the embezzlement, prior to death" tour. It was supposed to have been breathtaking.

I can vouch for this. It truly was transcendent.

Young Elvis.

Callas, Nilsson. I got a balcony seat for Tebaldi's farewell New York performance in a Carnegie Hall recital. I was running temperature of a 104, but dragged myself out of bed (yes, I did) and uptown. After 5 numbers, I couldn't take it any longer and left, giving my ticket stub to a fan outside who was still begging for a ticket.

After six numbers, Tebaldi retired and Sir Rudolf Bing entered and told the audience that Mme. Tebaldi was too ill to continue but to hang on to their ticket stubs because the concert would be rescheduled and the ticket stubs honored. That's exactly what happened.

Well, at least I did get to hear Tebaldi live, if only for five songs when she was as sick as I was.

Michael Jackson

Hell, R25, why don't you just go attend a NAMBLA convention, instead?

'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,' preferably with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn.

I regret not ever seen Follies

Queen, when Freddie was in his prime.

Laura Keene in Our American Cousin

ABBA

Judy Garland

Regret not seeing Bowie and Joni Mitchell. Will go see Madonna on her next tour no matter what. The resurgence of 80s bands touring has been great for ticking some favourites off the list.

Leonard Cohen - had possibly the best band I’ve ever seen. Prince - genius and funny as hell. Stevie Ray Vaughn - fantastic even for those not familiar with his music. Really happy to have seen Beastie Boys, never imagined one of them would die so young.

I will never get over not seeing Prince live. He passed through my and adjacent cities several times but I was suffering from a chronic illness and kept putting it off till I could really enjoy it. And now I never will. I have to force myself to not cry thinking about it.

Journey with Steve Perry

Queen with Freddie

George Michael

The Three Tenors - Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras with Mehta conducting - in Rome 7 July 1990. I was visiting Israel, heard about the concert, hopped a plane to Milan, took the train to Rome. And there wasn't a ticket to be had at any price. I tried sneaking in, and was angrily tossed out by the carabinieri.

Peter, Paul, and Mary - I lived in MD for a long time and they would come to Wolf Trap in VA almost every year but I never went. And then Mary died.

Led Zeppelin, Queen, John Coltrane.

Rolling Stones. Not a fan, so I passed. I Should have seen them just to say that I saw them.

Sylvia Syms, Blossom Dearie, and Keeley Smith....

"Je n'ai Pas Regret." For all that is sublime and the beauty of sorrow- Piaf & Joni Mitchell. For the ridiculous- Francis Fay & Tallulah Bankhead in Las Vegas.

John Denver

I've seen everyone I wanted to see at least once. I'd like to have seen Linda Ronstadt and Bruce Springsteen more times, though.

Blondie

Sinead O’Connor

Tammy Wynette

I would also say Linda Ronstadt.

David Bowie

Whitney

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Whitney, Prince and George Michael. I have no regret not seeing mj live. I did not want to see that freak up close.

Totie Fields.

Verdon

Barbra, before her voice and mind were shot.

I saw Whitney in concert in 1986 and 1987. Your regret is justified. Her encore performance of Greatest Love of All alone was worth the price of the ticket.

Lush.

Stereolab.

Miranda Sex Garden.

I don’t like crowds much so I only go see “living legends.” I thought I had more time to see Prince.

Kate Bush

Marilyn Miller in Sunny

Ethel Merman

Jesus.

No one, concerts suck, you pay huge dollars to hear the people next to you sing the songs badly.

R62 forget to add "Almost as bad as kids on my lawn!"

Vanessa Redgrave's one-woman show in the 80s.

Maggie Smith 15 years ago doing 'Bed Among the Lentils'.

Donna Summer

[quote]Maggie Smith 15 years ago doing 'Bed Among the Lentils'.

I saw Maggie Smith in Lettice and Lovage and it remains one of my favorite evenings of theater.

I'm with you R50. A friend and I were in Vegas and Bill Cosby and Sammy were playing at Caesar's Palace. We bought tickets. It was the last night of their engagement but Sammy had to leave a day early because of prior commitments, so we just saw Cosby. Within a year, Sammy was gone. So close.

Tina Turner and Bea Arthur when she was touring her one-woman show.

Those are the ones I realistically could have seen. Joni Mitchell hardly toured after the early ‘80s, and favorites like Billie Holiday died before I was even born.

I have seen Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks (solo), Lindsey Buckingham (solo), the Rumours lineup of Fleetwood Mac, and Rufus Wainwright, who are among my favorites ever.

There are more that I still may be able to see in the future.

Donny & Marie

Laura Nyro, Eleanora Duse, Franco Corelli, Maria Callas

Hendrix.

La Merman in Gypsy. But I wasn't born yet. She played her final Broadway performance in Dolly six months after I was born. : (

La LuPone in Evita. I was only 9 at the time, but the Evita commercial played endlessly. I must've seen it a thousand times. When I got older, I realized Patti gave a near supernatural performance in the show. I have a fantasy that I'm in my 9 year old body, and I try to sneak off to New York (we were in the Jersey suburbs) to see Evita. I could get on the bus, but back then would they sell a single ticket to a ni e year old? Maybe one day I'll find out.

Nirvana--the last week of 1993, Nirvana played the Olympic Velodrome. KROQ was relentlessly promoting tickets. I think they were having trouble. "I should go. But downtown? Fuck it. I'll see them next time" There was no next time as four months later, Saint Kurt was no longer with us.

[quote]Sammy Davis, Jr.

I fucking HATED Sammy Davis, Jr.

But my parents gave me tickets to see him live with Frank Sinatra and Liza Minnelli.

And he was, by far, the best entertainer. Frank was the worst. He seem old and bored.

I was 16 years old and in line to get Nirvana tickets to their LA Forum show. I was there with a buddy and we were a bit disgusted that we were surrounded by kids. Granted, they were only a few years younger than us, but we felt very above it all. I remember saying, we'll see Nirvana when they're on the way down. Who wants to see Kurt with a bunch of pre-teens?

I was such an idiot as he died a few months later.

Howlin Wolf, Jimi Hendrix, Velvet Underground, CSNY

These guys

The Beatles, duh.

R24 Some time in the early '90s, I was telemarketing subscriptions to The Met. More then one person said "After what they did to Tebaldi? Nevah!" One time this woman with a smokers voice like Elaine Stritch really let me have it. "What they did to Tebaldi, I wouldn't do to a dog!" Jesus, me and my friend cracked up over that.

There should be another thread boasting about who we DID see.

Ok, it is a Mary List Billie Holiday, Frances Faye, JUDY at the Palace, Piaf, Patsy Cline, Callas, Pavarotti, Josephine Baker, The Supremes with Flo, saw them with Cindy

Minnie Maddern Fiske

You missed nothing with Donna Summer. Maybe it was a bad night.

Johnny Mathis, with Ike and Tina opening was unbelievable even though I was a kid. Well 12, but I looked 2.

Laurette Taylor

I saw Benjamin Britten but missed Michael Redgrave.

: (

Madonna. She was awful. This was maybe 2009 or so.

Sorry, I thought OP wrote ever, not never.

I walked out, btw. It was also the company.

I passed on a Stevie Ray Vaughn concert because he was playing a lousy venue. Damn.

Friends went to hear the Talking Heads, but I already had plans. When I heard the description of how they came onstage for "Psychokiller" I really regretted not going.

I'm glad I went to see Ray Charles, even if he was old and cranky. He had some dedicated fans in the audience. It was a treat to hear him sing some of his classics.

Sarah Vaughan used to sing yearly at Wolf Trap near DC. Tickets on the lawn were about $10. Every year, I’d consider it but then think, “next year definitely”

Then she died

Anna Pavlova

Birgit Nilsson

Karen Carpenter, Patsy Cline, Cass Elliot, ABBA

Cass was beyond divine. Funny as hell, charming and what a voice. Those were the days when anyone could wander backstage after a show.

Donna Summer

Fleetwood Mac in their heyday. I was too caught up in middle school to really notice.

Taylor Dayne at Traxx back in 1993. Three songs. This heifer sang three songs to pre-recorded music and barely interacted with the audience.

Bowie

I wish I'd been around to be in the audience back when Grace Slick was still just a local act.

Nirvana.

I was in college when they came to the Detroit area in late 1993. I was "too busy" studying for mid-terms and passed on seeing them. I figured I would just catch them NEXT time.

About five months later, Kurt killed himself.

Aretha Franklin, Phyllis Hyman, and Prince.

The Sex Pistols at Randy's Rodeo in San Antonio, TX -- I didn't want to lie to my folks about why I needed a car that night, so I couldn't bring myself to ask them; it never occurred to me that they would have actually been okay with the truth.

Kathleen Ferrier, Tanaquil LeClercq, Mathilda Kschessinska, Anna Pavlova, Nijinsky, Callas, Judy and Martha Raye in "Hello Dolly"

So many that died or broke up before I was born, like Garland, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Bob Marley, etc... And, others that i missed in my life time either because I was too young, or they died too young, like Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Whitney, etc... But, one performance I hated missing was seeing Reba's Annie Get Your Gun. I was and remain a huge Reba fan, but my family just couldn't make it to NYC that year. It was the only time I really wanted to see something but couldn't, and it still hurts knowing I'll never get the chance.

The Pretenders

Thespis

Blondie Simon and Garfunkel

Boy George

Frank Zappa, with or without the Mothers.

"You will do as you're told until the rights to you are sold"

R87 I never saw Ray Charles but in the very early 1960s my older sister went and saw Ray perform at the Circle Theater in Indianapolis and she brought me back a program that she said he signed when they went backstage and met him. Then I got to thinking....wait a minute!! Ray Charles SIGNED your program? He's BLIND! I thought how stupid was I for believing my sister that she got Ray Charles' autograph. I was so mad at her for tricking me that I tore it up and threw it away. Then, jump ahead several years and I read somewhere that Ray actually could and did occasionally give autographs as he had learned how to sign his name! Was I ever surprised. That autographed program would now be worth several hundred dollars.

Chris Cornell unplugged

Blonde still perform. Saw them a year or two ago, when Pollinator came out.

Also, I just found several newly released live CDs of older shows (one from around the time of Plastic Letters).

^Blondie

I am so glad i saw George michaels last tour..even tho it was a bit stilted and boring..with an orchestra. He sang well but gave us very little of him. I wish id seen Wham! tho. When Chandler says he rushed the stage at a Wham concert, i cannot get over the fact we were not brought to see them as me and my sister were their buggest fans.

R102, great choice! I saw the Pretenders at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium right before they made it big with their debut album. Among hundreds of shows I've seen, including other now-legendary shows, they were among the very best. For a music lover, few things are more satisfying than seeing a performance right before major stardom. So sad that the original lineup imploded so quickly.

I somewhat regret not seeing Streisand until this century, but I was a purple-haired punker way back then and still in the closet (not sexually, just Babs-ually). Plus, since her concerts were rare events even back then, they were usually out of my budget.

I wish I would have seen Prince and Amy Winehouse, but wouldn't go so far as to call it "regret." My only real music-related regret was forfeiting the chance to be in Cher's iconic "Turn Back Time" video. I got the offer and declined because of my childish punk rock pretensions. It would have been a fun memory to share in the eldergay care facility.

Amy & Nirvana were the two shows I should have gone to but didn't - Dusty, The Beatles, The Supremes, ABBA, & The Mamas & Papas if I had been old enough to go I would have. Cass Eliot at Mr Kelly's in Chicago would be the time-space-continuum-bend show of my dreams.

Liza in her prime.

Ella. Linda Ronstadt. Queen (not the Adam Lambert version). Joe Cocker. B.B. King.

Bernstein conducting Mahler.

My best friend saw Eric Clapton and afterwards she said, in her typical idiotic way, "He really IS God!"

r116 Cream played at my HS in 1968. Eric Clapton was not God, then or ever. And oh, how I hate extended drum solos.

I wish I could have seen Jill Clayburgh in a play (except Pippin, but I didn't know who she was yet).

Had tickets to see Johnny Cash at the Town and Country Club, a small'ish London 'rock' venue, in the late 80s/early 90s. It got cancelled due to his ill health and was never rescheduled. I had seen him a few years earlier but that was in a stadium whereas the T and C would have been a very different experience.

Also, saw acts such as REM, Linda Ronstadt, Fleetwood Mac in big stadium venues in Australia when somewhere smaller would have been much much better.

Joan Sutherland in concert.

Tickets in the way up up balcony were $10, instead of the usual $5 for recitals. As a poor student, I decided I couldn't afford it.

Stupid decision

Pink Floyd

Madonna. 1985, 1987. No soul.

Bob Dylan in his prime. I wasn't born yet.

Talking Heads Stop Making Sense tour. I don't remember why I didn't go but they never toured again.

Patti Smith - had tickets but I came down with horrible strep and didn't go. I should have sucked it up and just gone.

Stevie Ray Vaughn - had tickets to see him at a Blues Festival and he died 2 weeks before it happened. I still went but everyone was saying he should have been there. Very sad.

Zeppelin - had tickets for them too but then Bonzo died.

Very happy to say I was able to see Bowie, Johnny Cash, Miles Davis, Etta James and Nirvana. Also saw Oasis's last performance but didn't know it at the time.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Prince. Had several chances to see both and didn’t go and will be forever sad to have missed seeing them live. RIP guys.