10 Greatest Music Gigs You Wish You Could Have Been At

There are some live events that stand out as truly iconic events in the annals of rock and roll. Those shows that have become mythologised and romanticised endlessly, and often rightly so, as they were pivotal in the band's career.

What makes a particular gig something that stands out in the annals of history could be a number of things: a final performance, a unique location, the inclusion of a certain song - some of which feature in every entry here. It is highly unlikely that there is someone in the world who has been to every one of these gigs, or even more than two or three. One thing that is certain, however, is that when they finally get around to inventing time travel, there's gonna be some mightily over-crowded shows!

The Hammermith Odeon gig from 1973 saw Bowie announce to the crowd - to the surprise and dismay of the rest of the band - that this was to be his last gig with The Spiders From Mars. Bowie had enjoyed huge success with his Ziggy Stardust album and it seemed inconceivable that he could throw all of that away at the very height of his powers. That, however, was the conventional line of thought - nothing Bowie ever did was conventional.

History demonstrates that Bowie knew exactly what he was doing, as he went on to reinvent himself and his music numerous times over the decades. In truth though, Bowie never recaptured the raw rock'n'roll abandon of the Ronson era, where glam rock guitar god Mick Ronson channelled Bowie's imagination into the purest expression of the power of rock that Bowie ever delivered.

As with many of the entries on this list, there is footage available to show us what we missed and curse the fact that we weren't there. What that footage shows is Bowie fully embracing the stardom that he'd craved and playing out his every rock'n'roll fantasy, with the backing of one of the greatest live bands of all time.