Popular music concerts often turn into real artistic performances. There are some performances that gathered hundreds of thousands or even millions of spectators and made music history for good. Here are 6 concerts that the music world will never forget.

1. Led Zeppelin – Royal Albert Hall (1970)

Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham celebrated Jimmy Page’s 26th birthday at the time. The birthday boy himself described the concert at the Royal Albert Hall as the greatest concert of its time. It was a legendary two-and-a-half-hour rock show that definitely went down in music history as iconic. John Bonham then presented a fifteen-minute performance of the song Moby Dick, fans caused £170 worth of damage (today it would be equivalent to £3,000), and as a result the Royal Albert Hall issued a decision to ban rock and pop concerts – a truly legendary event!

2. Queen – Wembley (1986)

The year before there was a famous Live Aid concert, but the performance at London’s Wembley definitely surpassed it and went down in music history as the greatest concert by a British group. In Poland, the recordings from the “Live At Wembley ’86” album, a recording of the July 12 concert, achieved platinum status. Who would have thought at the time that the “A Night of Summer Magic” concert at Knebworth House, held just a month later, would be the last performance of the Queen group.

3. Oasis – Knebworth Festival (1996)

There are some concerts that took musicians to the pinnacle of fame. One of them was the concert of the group Oasis at the Knebworth Festival in 1996. It was after these two-day performances that the band became a true rock star of the 1990s. Their concert attracted a then-record number of spectators, which totaled 250,000 over two days. This concert became such a cult event that a year ago a film was made about it, which shows the entire concert through the eyes of the audience, and in the background you can hear the greatest hits of the group Oasis.

4. Hologram of 2Pac – Coachella Festival (2012)

During the famous Coachella Valley Festival in 2012, viewers had the opportunity to see 2Pac Shakur performing on stage. For this one concert, the tragically deceased rap star was brought to life by a hologram, which depicted the rapper entering the stage, raising his arms in a gesture of greeting, then after performing the song “Hail Mary” 2Pac disappeared. Next to him, Snoop Dogg appeared on stage, joining 2Pac’s performance. It took 4 months to prepare the hologram, and the realization of this 5-minute show could cost from $100,000 to as much as $400,000, according to US media reports.

5. Jay-Z and Kanye West – Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy (2012)

The entire “Watch the Throne Tour” was an amazing event, but the concert in Paris marked a special place in music history, setting a record for encores. Jay-Z and Kanye West thrilled the audience, turning the concert into a real big party. At the request of fans, the stars repeated the hit “N*ggas in Paris” 11 times, playing it for almost 50 minutes. 

6. The Rolling Stones – Copacabana Beach (2006)

The famous beach in Rio de Janeiro on February 18, 2006 became the stage for one of the biggest rock concerts in history. The iconic The Rolling Stones performed for an audience of 1.5 million. The concert took place during the famous Brazilian Carnival, so people ready to party were not lacking in Rio at the time! 

main photo: unsplash.com/Matthew Kalapuch