me too - and I was there as well - I was so pleased the DVD of that gig came out.

The Spice Girls reunion tour intro is absolutely fantastic, would get anyone squealing with excitement

May not be a popular choice but I loved how Mark Ronson opened the Electric Proms with the bbc Orchestra doing Apply Some Pressure

Another Guns N' Roses one, they had a few different openings.

Another was Axl backstage talking to the crowd saying "You wanted the best... well they couldn't f*ckin' make it! So here's what you get... from Hollywood... Guns N' Roses!" A trains whistle toots twice and then the intro to Night Train kicks in.

Or of course, Axl just walking out emotionless and just stands there for a minute or two, then screams at the top of his voice "Do you know where the f*ck you arrrrrrrrrrre?" to which the crowd goes mental and Welcome To The Jungle kicks in. Class.

Paddy

For me is has to be power metallers, Rhapsody. Their intro to the Live in Canada is fantastic and befits the music.

Christopher Lee (whose a fan) with a speech about "5 valient warriers" battling against the dark forces.

MSG, or Michael Schenker Group to use the long name

Always used the Ride of The Valkyries/Deer Hunter as the intro and that segued perfectly with the opening track as well as getting the audience well and truly up for it.

probably on the live album - ?Live at the Budokan?

I saw them at De Montfort Hall in about 83.

I remember one act where instead of the whole band, the guitarist wandered on stage playing something acoustically under a spot and not looking at the audience then after a couple of minutes he soemhow swapped guitar to an electric and the band joined in very loud, having sneaked on stage. it may even have been an encore re-entrance.

I once saw Peter Gabriel at the the Glasgow Apollo who "paraded" from the back, through the stalls with his band accompanied by the legendary Apollo bouncers before ascending to the Apollos 9ft high stage.

I also like the idea of Talking Heads in Stop Making Sense where David Byrne appears on a bare stage himself with a ghetto blaster, performs Psycho Killer and is then gradually joined by the band song by song as the roadies build up the stage set / PA around them- worth getting on DVD.

Yeah another vote for Zoo TV from me too.
A fantastic opener to the show, really great for building up suspense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5omeaIIcbc

Thanks to the other folk who have posted video links, some great suggestions here.