08-30-2023 02:52 PM - edited 10-18-2023 02:51 PM
You, your bestie and 90's icon Natalie Imbruglia at a show money can't buy... sounds pretty incredible, right? There’re 10 pairs of tickets up for grabs and every SMARTY customer has the chance to enter. Try your luck below.
Tell me more
This money-can’t-buy experience will take place at Virgin Radio's Sunset Sessions with SMARTY on Friday 29th September.
Hosted by drivetime legend Ricky Wilson, Natalie Imbruglia will perform an honest, intimate and stripped back set of her biggest and best hits. This exclusive performance will be set at the top of the NewsUK tower in London as the sun sets across the city – what an experience, right?
But hurry, the competition closing date is just around the corner…
Fancy it?
To enter you’ll need to respond below, telling us “What has been your favourite live gig and why?” We can’t wait to read your answers.
UPDATE - COMPETITION CLOSED
The competition is now closed, and we will make the draw for the winners from all the eligible entries and contact them in the next 24 hours.
So, keep your fingers crossed and an eye on your email inbox. Make sure you check your spam folders too, just in case.
Thanks to everyone who contributed some brilliant entries. We had over 560 posts and have had an amazingly diverse range of response, from Christian festivals to back-room-of-a-pub gigs, from massive stadium concerts to someone’s wedding. It’s been brilliant reading them all. Thank you.
And it’s never too late to see live music; go to a big venue, visit a festival, or just see what your local arts’ centre has on. You never know what you’re going to find.
Keep up the great work everyone; the SMARTY Community belongs to us all and succeeds because of your great contributions.
We were delighted to welcome SMARTY competition winners to watch this intimate performance with Drivetime host Ricky Wilson hosting the event.
09-04-2023 05:40 PM
Best gig this year was Mike and the Mechanics refuelled in Portsmouth. There are few opportunities to see ‘Supergroups’ these days and they delivered a superb , polished, professional performance. A real , rare treat!
09-04-2023 05:42 PM
We went to see The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, July 23. Enough said. Absolutely amazing Buzz, they brought back some old memories, danced our socks off and we got to see the sites of London whilst we was down there.
09-04-2023 05:50 PM
The best live gig was my very first. There is nothing quite like your first live gig. I was 15 with my two best friends and we saw Bon Jovi at The Bowl in Milton Keynes. I'll never forget singing along with all the songs as the sun was setting
09-04-2023 05:54 PM
Calum Scott at the Union Chapel in London. Such a fantastic show in an unusual but brilliant venue. A really personal performance, as it was a one-off show and he had all of his family there in the front row. His performance of 'No Matter What' was so emotionally beautiful that Calum and the majority of the audience had tears in their eyes. Just amazing!
09-04-2023 05:55 PM
Uriah Heep with Peter Frampton at the Hammersmith Odeon October 1974, first ever gig I went to, such an amazing time!
09-04-2023 06:03 PM
R.E.M. at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Concert on Trafalgar Square in April 2001. I have always been a huge R.E.M. fan but had to wait many years to see them live, for a number of reasons: they didn't use to tour all the time, I used to live in Brazil (and they only went there for the first time many years after I left) and when I had a ticket for one of their concerts in the Monster tour in 1995 in the Netherlands, Mike Mills had emergency surgery to remove a tumour and a few shows, including the Utrecht one I had a ticket for, were cancelled. So, being able to see them live in an iconic location, headlining a special concert is something I'll never forget. I thought I was going to cry when they got to the stage and started playing The Great Beyond. I didn't - I was ecstatically singing (or shouting) along to Michael Stipe. After that, I was lucky enough to see them live again - almost reaching double digits. The curse had been lifted.
09-04-2023 06:17 PM
Fleetwood Mac london when christine mcvie played songbird on her return after taking a break from the band.
Absolutely goosebumps moment xxx
RiP Christine Mcvie
09-04-2023 06:27 PM
Come on
09-04-2023 06:42 PM
Watching U2 in Cardiff, with the Killers as the support act. The atmosphere was electric! An amazing experience
09-04-2023 06:55 PM
Garth Brooks at Croake Park in Dublin, September 2022. This was a surprise trip from my husband for my 40th Birthday! I couldnt beleive it when he gave me the tickets on my birthday the week before. A dream come true. He sand all his greatest hits and finished the night with a tribute to Freddie Murcury who happens to be my husbands favourite artist! What a coincidence!
09-04-2023 07:01 PM
My favourite live gig was watching Madonna (supported by Technotronic) on her Blonde Ambition World Tour in Washington DC, back in 1990!! I was on the beginning of a World Tour myself and had just flown into the US.
I was staying in a youth hostel and a few of us managed to get tickets last minute. There were 4 or 5 of us from different parts of the world and we just partied like there was no tomorrow! Great memories. I can’t believe it’s been 33 years though!!?
09-04-2023 07:04 PM
I'd love to win ❤️
09-04-2023 07:10 PM
Radio two in the park- Leicester- under two weeks to go 🐝💤
09-04-2023 07:13 PM
!st Bruce Springsteen concert at Wembley, what a performer & band!
09-04-2023 07:16 PM
Bruce Springsteen (& the E-Street band), what a perfomer and gig!
09-04-2023 07:20 PM
Has to be when Elbow played the Eden Project. The venue was perfect and intimate, the weather was warm, the beer was cold, the crowd were friendly and in fine voice. It was an evening I will never forget, pure heaven! 🥰
09-04-2023 08:08 PM
Natalie Imbruglia at Doncaster Dome with my childhood friend Chad, watching Natalie perform a live set was awesome, an experience I’ll never forget
09-04-2023 08:08 PM
BLUR I saw them last month! Waited 25 years to see them, they were AMAZING!
09-04-2023 09:02 PM
Madonna's "Who's That Girl" Tour concert at Wembley Stadium in London in 1987. It was the original Wembley stadium an amazing venue performed by Madonna who was equally original and amazing in her early years!
09-04-2023 09:54 PM
My favourite live gig has got to be the live gig of Cinematic Orchestra where was held under those train arches bar at Shoreditch back in 20 years ago. Their live music set with the amazing set of drum and saxophone was ear-blowing together with amazing cinematic projection
09-04-2023 10:25 PM
Everytime I get to see Third Eye Blind play live, they remind me why they are simply the best band in the world for me!
09-04-2023 10:29 PM
Tupac and Deacon Blue in California 91! An unbelievable gig in a small venue where the two collabed the night away.
2Pac rapping Dignity was out of this world.
09-04-2023 11:47 PM
1969 Jimi Hendrix live on stage at Isle of Wight festival it was great.
09-06-2023 02:19 AM - edited 09-06-2023 02:20 AM
Wow, you got to see Hendrix? I'm envious.
09-05-2023 12:06 AM
UB40 with my mum and sister because we really needed to escape from things at the time.
09-05-2023 12:13 AM
Coldplay in Manchester. 1st ever concert. Effects during the show were amazing and the music/vocals out of this world. Brilliant idea for producing green energy for shows how mad riding bikes!
09-05-2023 01:57 AM
It would have to be London Grammar at Alexandra Palace. Sublime music in a sublime location. 😎
09-05-2023 06:23 AM
My all time favourite concert was seeing The Carpenters in London in the late 70s at the London palladium as those memories are priceless due to going with my brothers and the early loss a couple of years later of Karen Carpenter. She was and is my soundtrack of so many memories and brings alot of emotion back when I listen to her songs. I have been fortunate to see many fantastic bands (too many to mention) but this one is a very special moment in time.
09-05-2023 06:42 AM
Queen at Knebworth in '86. With my girlfriend, now wife. Best concert ever and could get out the carpark at the end. Spent a sordid night (my girlfriend's mum's words) together in my car 😀
09-05-2023 07:10 AM
Bruce Springsteen in London many years ago, he would talk about how the song he was about to sing came about, absolutely electrifying performance.
09-05-2023 07:18 AM
I went to see Echobelly in the late 90s with my eldest brother. I was tiny in a crowd of older people. The music had me, and I was hooked. I forgot everything. It was such a great night.
09-05-2023 08:15 AM
Seeing Blink 182 at Reading in 2014 - childhood dream complete!
09-05-2023 09:00 AM
Robbie Williams at Knebworth (Also Moby and many others that same weekend) brilliant festival.
09-05-2023 10:01 AM
Never been to a LIVE event ever. No experience to share but a win on this event will change everything. It will be a FIRST experience.
09-05-2023 10:20 AM
I can't pick between two... Maximo Park at the City Hall in Newcastle. It was their 'singles tour' and the roof was lifting! utterly *brilliant* concert. And then Seafret at the Cluny in Newcastle was phenomenal! I had never seen them live before and it defintely won't be the last time I see them - just outstanding!
09-05-2023 11:41 AM
Prom 56 at the Royal Albert Hall on 27 August - Simon Rattle's final UK performance as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra - very emotional, I lost count of how many times the audience called him back to "take a bow".
09-05-2023 11:55 AM
McFly as in lovely Hove! ✌🏼❤️X
09-05-2023 01:28 PM
Jive Aces Jazz festival Watford Casiobury park June 2023 great band! Every one up for dancing even in the rain with their umbrellas! Great vibe.
09-05-2023 02:58 PM
My favourite live gig was when I was travelling in Lithuania and we with friends end up in the park where was performing Modern Talking and Bad Boys Blue. This is the best concert that I visited. The atmosphere, the vibe, the sound, company. We where dancing, singing and had the best time of our lives.
09-05-2023 03:52 PM
As an Aussie (yay, Natalie!) one of my favourite gigs ever was the Ethiopia Aid Tonight (E.A.T.) concert at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in 1988. It was basically Live Aid for Australia, and featured an incredible line-up, including INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Crowded House, Hoodoo Gurus, Big Pig, and more. I never got to see all of those acts again (R.I.P. Michael) so it was a genuinely precious experience.