This was the same year as Knebworth; same line up and similar set. I was pleased cos I’d managed to persuade 23 friends to come, and we were sitting together in 2 rows near the front.
During the interval I caught sight of Beefheart walking behind the curtain at the back of the stage. I jumped up and shouted out. He stopped, turned, looked right at me, smiled, and gave a very slow deliberate wave. This made my night.
The music was absolutely brilliant; similar to Knebworth but tighter, although Beefheart seemed preoccupied and worried about something. Several times during the set he threw the mike down on the stage and walked off, leaving the band to soldier on to the end of the song. Also there was a strange guy with manic eyes who had wandered down to the front of the stage and just stood there, staring intently at Beefheart for the entire set. Half way through Beatle Bones, Beefheart, pointing to a clock which faces the stage, said “that clock bugs me man” and went into a tirade about it before continuing the song.
I was there too. Ivor Cutler played the opening set and The Captain stuck his head through the curtains a few times during his set
I was in that audience, amazed at getting a ticket due to Beefheart’s popularity in Brighton, it was a full house and a tight set only marred by, as Benjamin ( above report) say’s, Beefheart’s increasing anoyance with something / someone then the circle clock and walking on and off, the audience was getting a bit pissed off towards the end. I remember moving down to the front at the end to stand with a bank of others in front of stage. There were a couple of hecklers and suddenly out of nowhere an small white ice cream tub was pitched upwards and in slow motion landed on the side of Beefheart’s black hat. He stormed off to a big cheer. The song continued without vocals. The band finished and thanked the audience and exited stage right. There was a baying chorus for a encore and amazing, and good on them, the band came back on for an instrumental 10 min encore. No Beefheart, probably writing ‘ Ice Cream for Crow ‘ in his dressing room. He was not in a good head space for that gig, shame, still I got to see him live. A gig never forgotten.