what is your gig from hell ?

koneguitarist

we have all had bad ones, but some stick in the memory for years, whats yours ?

viz

When a guy pulled a gun on us and told us to shut the feck up.

monquixote

Hmm... 

The one where the drugged up heckler responded to the singer taking the piss, by pulling the PA down on himself.... 

...or the one where the we were booked for a wedding where a massive fight broke out between the two families...

...or the one where we did a charity gig and were forced to end our set early so some children could do an interpretative dance about Jesus...

... or the time a drugged up rasta started ranting and raving about "fucking white mans music" or very similar situation with pissed metalhead screaming "play Slayer you fucking queers" for the whole set...

... or the time I played a gig with food poisoning where my jangly indie band had accidentally been booked at a metal night, got a load of my gear stolen and had to be up for a flight at 5am the next day....

... or the one where they inexplicably booked my hard rock band to play at a party in a tiny room where most of the guests were about 70 and wearing cumerbunds and bow ties (they paid us to go away)... 

... or the gig I played last week where the keyboard player turned up three hours late and played most of the songs in a key of his own invention (which resulted in my flouncing) ...

... Take your pick

GIJoe

2 stick in my mind...

1. In a tiny pub, Pretty much a corridor.  Really squashed and about 5 people present!

2. In another pub!  I was so close to the pool table I could have pretty much played with the guitar neck, and the singer had to use the house pa, which was for karaoke and was terrible!

Edit - pretty good compared to most others!

koneguitarist

viz said:

When a guy pulled a gun on us and told us to shut the feck up.

Must admit never had that one !

bluechargeboy

Last week's little festival gig: our bass player had food poisoning, couldn't keep water down, being sick every 20 minutes. On the way to the gig (late, because of the food poisoning) we pulled off the road for him to hurl. As we pull back onto the road one of the tyres blows so now we are late and can only do 50mph on the space saver.

Get there, he goes to be sick again, then we go on and they tell us we can have a double-length set because the guy playing after us didn't show up.

But yeah, I think monquixote wins the prize for resilience in the face of adversity...

viz

koneguitarist said:

viz said:

When a guy pulled a gun on us and told us to shut the feck up.

Must admit never had that one !

I wouldn't really recommend it.

EricTheWeary

viz;242693" said:

When a guy pulled a gun on us and told us to shut the feck up.

I just had a knife pulled and told to shut up. At a soundcheck in a pub, we did get to play the gig ( minus soundcheck).

The one where at the end of the night they said they would only pay half. Shitty little venue, although gig had gone well. Our singer/ mild mannered school teacher was pissed ( in both senses) and threatened to start smashing the place up. Amazingly they paid up.

Then there was, IIRC, The Swan.I'll have to come back to that one but...shudders...

bluechargeboy

At our gig this Thursday the skinny barman had to get between two punters and a homeless man that they wanted to beat up for some slight against their drunken pride.

That legal substance which makes us uninhibited and dance a lot also makes us into violent knobbers. Such is our lot.

Lixarto

EricTheWeary said:

The Swan

Billingham?

Cirrus

Mine's not too bad, was the back of a pub in digbeth where we played to 4 anarchists/communists (they seemed confused). There was another band playing inside the pub so when our friends turned up they thought they were in the wrong place and left. 

The sound guy was genuinely deaf, there were two angry guard dogs and we had to load in/out down a pitch black alley filled with dogshit. It started raining and the old canvass held over us as we played was scant protection from electrocution.

mudslide73

We did a free festival gig in our first year (when we weren't so choosy). It rained horizontally onto the stage and I was playing an amp I'd built myself. The only time I've been more frightened was when someone literally swung an axe over my head - I was playing the guitar but it wasn't at a gig so it doesn't count.

In my first gigging band we had an alcoholic drummer who got to the venue 3 hours early. One time he thought it would be a good idea to stand on the tables and do a "tambourine solo". I was stood in front of the door with a -5 wind blowing through every time someone walked in. We played so fast that our normal first 45 was done in 30ish.. we didn't have enough material. This was the first time my missus (now Mrs Mudslide) came to see us...

EricTheWeary

Cirrus;242820" said:

Mine's not too bad, was the back of a pub in digbeth where we played to 4 anarchists/communists (they seemed confused). There was another band playing inside the pub so when our friends turned up they thought they were in the wrong place and left. 

The sound guy was genuinely deaf, there were two angry guard dogs and we had to load in/out down a pitch black alley filled with dogshit. It started raining and the old canvass held over us as we played was scant protection from electrocution.

that sounds a lot like the Wagon and Horses.

EricTheWeary

Lixarto;242816" said:

EricTheWeary said:The Swan







Billingham?

In Birmingham.

Big pub, really,really busy. No where to park ( the pub had no car park, it had a loading bay but that was blocked and it was by a main road so no on street parking)we had to circle around waiting for spaces on the pay and display outside the Co op next door.
Had to carry everything about 100 yards and then through the pub. Two electrical sockets to power everything. They hadn't advertised the gig so no one very interested in us, although lots of punters.
Gents loo was equal numbers people going to the loo and people snorting cocaine off the surfaces around the sinks. Our female band member refused to go in the Ladies.
There was a bloke going round the pub most of the evening stealing to order from the Co op.
Various falling over drunk old men and a few times we had to physically remove them as they fell over the monitors.
Lots of arguments and minor scuffles around the place. At one point someone got glassed in the face and an ambulance came. Whilst we were concerned the locals hardly seem to notice.
Halfway through the gig the PA went out. Quickly traced back to a young woman unplugging it to use the socket for her phone charger.
At the end of the gig having to carry everything back through a packed and rather scarey pub and the 100 yards back to the cars.
We did get paid and we didn't get hurt but we didn't accept the invitation to go play there again.

viz

EricTheWeary said:

Lixarto;242816" said:

EricTheWeary said:The Swan







Billingham?

Gents loo was equal numbers people going to the loo and people snorting cocaine off the surfaces around the sinks. Our female band member refused to go in the Ladies.

takes coke does she?

mudslide73

^^ Which district is that Eric?  incredible stuff... my co guitarist would love to play there.. he calls it "proper gigging". 

We played The Royal Oak in Cheadle (Staffs not Manc) - the landlord said "When it kicks off, just keep playing"... not "if" but "when" and he was right.. glasses aots. Not as bad as yours though..

EricTheWeary

I have such a crap memory so I'm mot 100% sure of the pub name and location. Anything North side of the city is foreign territory to me. I speak to our old singer occasionally, he'll remember the specifics.

bluechargeboy

EricTheWeary said:

Halfway through the gig the PA went out. Quickly traced back to a young woman unplugging it to use the socket for her phone charger.

Haha, love it! thoroughly modern showstopper.

EricTheWeary

mudslide73;242863" said:

^^ Which district is that Eric?  incredible stuff... my co guitarist would love to play there.. he calls it "proper gigging". We played The Royal Oak in Cheadle (Staffs not Manc) - the landlord said "When it kicks off, just keep playing"... not "if" but "when" and he was right.. glasses aots. Not as bad as yours though..

went back through the band facebook. It was the Yewtree in Yardley. My memory said The Swan, which is also a pub in Yardley but not the one we played! Doh.
Google says it was refurbished 18 months ago. Wether the people of Yardley have also had a lick of paint I don't know... :-S

Fez

Charity gig for Sussex air ambulance on the car park at Crawley Conservative club under canvas marquee in the rain to two kids kicking a ball about and the bloke on the barbeque. We had dep bass player and my footswitch died.

Lixarto

EricTheWeary said:

Halfway through the gig the PA went out. Quickly traced back to a young woman unplugging it to use the socket for her phone charger.

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