1. One big disadvantage
2. Allowed the second time
3. Bigger than expected
4. Possibly the best of all time
5. A record is established
6. On the move
7. It never happened again
8. A trick that worked

THE MOST UNUSUAL POP AND ROCK PERFORMANCES

A. 12345678 Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, 1968
Johnny Cash had been playing in prisons in as early as 1957 and he often sang about people who lived outside the law. By the late 1960s, his career was not doing well, and his record company suggested actually recording an album at Folsom Prison, near Sacramento, California, which had been the subject of one of his greatest songs, Folsom Prison Blues. The result was perhaps the greatest live album ever. It was full of tension as Cash joked about the warders who were in charge of the 2,000 prisoners.

B. 12345678 The Beatles on a London rooftop, 1969
Since 1966, the Beatles had been avoiding touring and the screaming of their teenage fans. After several years of being together in recording studios, Lennon and McCartney could hardly stand each other's company. Following a meeting in the offices of their company Apple in London's Savile Row, it was decided that they would play their last few songs live a few days later on the roof upstairs. The 42-minute early morning 'concert', which amazed commuters below and was later featured in the film Let It Be, was the Beatles' last live performance.

C. 12345678 Pink Floyd at Pompeii, 1972
The rock scene of the early 1970s specialised in finding peculiar places to perform in. Pink Floyd were masters of that art, but they came up with something different when they held a concert in the recently excavated Pompeii (the Italian city that had been buried for nearly 2,000 years after the volcano Vesuvius erupted). But there was a major drawback - there was no audience. The resulting lack of a real concert atmosphere meant that, in the movie that they made of the event, half the songs were actually filmed later in Paris. This explains why keyboard player Rick Wright has a beard in some songs but not in others.

D. 12345678 Spanduu Ballel on a battleship, 1980
The fashion called 'New Romantics' was the big thing in Britain and London's Spandau Ballet were the scene's hottest band. Their manager thought of an idea that he hoped would get his group a contract with a major record company. He hired a former battleship moored on the river Thames by Tower Bridge, saying that it was for a group of students and that a jazz band would be playing. Instead, the boat filled with Spandau Ballet's fans, the band put on a great performance and soon afterwards they were offered a contract by a major record company.

E. 12345678 U2 on a hotel rooftop, 2000
U2 first made a rooftop appearance in 1987 at the Million Dollar Hotel in Los Angeles, where they tried to play a live concert while shooting the video for the song Where the Streets Have No Name. But police came along and stopped them. In 2000 in Dublin, with 4,000 gathered on the road below, they performed several songs on the roof of the Clarence Hotel, which they owned. There were no problems with the law there.

F. 12345678 The Others on a London Underground train, 2004
Inspired by the fact that new technology meant that a band's fans could be contacted by text message, a fashion for suddenly-arranged performances grew quickly. The strangest was one by The Others, who assembled a crowd on the London Underground, took them all on to a Circle Line train, and performed as the train made its circuit around London.

G. 12345678 Various British musicians on Mount Everest, 2005
Over Christmas 2004, there were rumours that Coldplay were going to play at Nepal's Kathmandu National Stadium. 1,372 metres above sea level. This proved to be untrue, but, inspired by the idea, a lesser-known bunch of British musicians did a charity performance for Nepalese orphans at Kalar Pattar, above Mount Everest's base camp. at a huge 5,545 metres above sea level. The 40-minute concert in front of 100 fellow mountaineers is officially the 'highest gig on earth".