Some observations

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Badly mismatching bands on a bill seldom works - all of the examples given so far were bound to have ended in disaster so should have come as no surprise to anyone.

The path to hell is paved with good intentions - it is well known that Fish is a big fan of Peter Hammill so having him open for them was a gesture of good intent - I suspect that part of it was an attempt to publicly say: forget Gabriel, this is who inspires my singing, but it was a mismatch of musical styles that probably wouldn't work today, let alone back then.

I've mentioned a couple in the past that have amused me - most notable being The Enid supported by 90 Degrees Inclusive at The Rainbow in 1978. Keen to shake-off the right-wing tag that the anti-Prog music press had lumbered The Enid with due to their then regular rendition of The Dambusters March/Land of Hope and Glory during their encore, they went all PC and booked a Jamaican roots-reggae band to open for them. I'm sure that on paper this seemed like a good idea, Bob Marley's Exodus and bands like Aswad and Steel Pulse were firm favourites with UK students at that time, but alas no one had ever heard of 90 Degrees Inclusive so the audience stood in polite bemusement as this brave band struggled on. No one booed - Enid fans were above that kind of uncouth behaviour and I'm sure that RJG would have given us a telling-off if we had - but it wasn't quite the PR exercise that everyone had hoped. Later The Enid would include a straight punk version of The Pistol's God Save The Queen into their encore set but by then it was all too late.