what is your gig from hell ?

Cirrus

EricTheWeary;242848" said:

that sounds a lot like the Wagon and Horses.
[/quote]

And with good reason!

EricTheWeary

Cirrus;243070" said:

EricTheWeary;242848" said:that sounds a lot like the Wagon and Horses.

And with good reason![/quote]

terrible,terrible on stage sound but people who saw us there said it was good out front and the other bands sounded fine.
How they haven't been fined for breaking the anti smoking laws was a mystery.

Danny1969

My second pro gig was in a home of mentally disabled patients  .... some faced the wrong way, some screamed random dialog throughout the gig and some vomited, I was 15 at the time

Doing a biker pub at aged 17 playing our own material ..... that hated us and threatened to anally probe our lead singer with a poole cue if we carried on. Barman through our fee on the floor at the end of the gig and was through our stuff in the cars as quick as we could before we got beat up

A new years eve party in Midhurst in the nineties .... promoter got advertising wrong, namely the address. We were set up in a large hall with food prepared for 500 guest and 3 people turned up .... two of which started fighting with each other

Cirrus

EricTheWeary said:

Cirrus;243070" said:

EricTheWeary;242848" said:that sounds a lot like the Wagon and Horses.

And with good reason![/quote]

terrible,terrible on stage sound but people who saw us there said it was good out front and the other bands sounded fine.
How they haven't been fined for breaking the anti smoking laws was a mystery.

You must not have had the sound guy who seemed to be playing an experimental song out of bassy feedback!

mudslide73

EricTheWeary said:

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

I'm not that familiar with the pubs that side of town. We've done gigs in Small Heath and King's Heath but never Yardley. Played loads on the north though (Gt Barr, Kingstanding etc.).

mike_l

viz said:

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

Sorry, won't happen again..........

viz

haha

PVO_Dave

monquixote said:

... 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)... 

Had similar to this, I knew the organiser of the gig, he knew the music we played etc.. he didn't mention the people we'd be playing to, we assumed they'd be around his age.

Turned up to the gig, average age was 65+, we changed the setlist on the fly the best we could, but it was all rock stuff, after the first song they asked us to turn it down, which we couldn't as we were just loud enough to be heard over the drums lol

In the end though, they got into it, the weirdest thing I've seen to date is old people ball room dancing to Hashpipe by Weezer

Most of the other crappy experiences were in the originals band I was in, basically playing to no one, the worst time was at a 'popular' pub / venue in Welwyn where we were booked to play in the music club part of the pub (where you had to pay to get in), but they had a covers band downstairs that was free for punters! Great but of planning that, we just ended up playing to our friends and the other bands :S - To top it off, the covers band downstairs had blocked us in, so we then had to wait for them to finish their set before we could even leave.

RocknRollDave

Recent dep slot at a wedding gig, arrival time was 7pm but they overran with speeches etc by TWO HOURS.

Gone 9:05 by the time we could even load into the room, then came the inevitable "How long are you guys going to be? The bride's keen to get her first dance done..." from what appeared to be the chief bridesmaid. We explained how quickly we could get it all ready to go, but nooo, that wasn't good enough and despite our polite reminder that we weren't able to access the room until 2 hours after the agreed time, we were treated like lazy plumbers who have let the house flood whilst we sit in the van reading the paper.

So impatient were they that we had to play the first dance in the scruffs we had set up  in and only then could we go and change into smart gear and do our first set.

Then of course, everybody is an expert music programmer and they were pulling our setlists up off the floor, moaning about the songs, demanding some modern music, etc shouting MR BRIGHTSIDE repeatedly (like a wedding band would leave that off their setlist anyway!)

In short, we arrived on time, set up as efficiently as possible, did everything that had been asked of us but were treated like rank amateurs that had put no thought into the night.

Hard, really, to get across what a frustrating night it was, as it all sounds a bit petty written down, but the shitty attitude that came our way all night was just soul-destroying.

ESBlonde

I gave up the the pub scene about 25 years ago and concentrated of weddings/corporate stuff so that I didn't have too much crap on my weekends for my hobby.

But I have done a few weddings where fights have featured, and corporate bashes where free booze are part of it often result in violence. I've often wondered how the tent companies get the blood stains out! Did one corporate gig where it seemed the whole of the counties late night mobile police force attended as we packed away the gear.

RocknRollDave

Talking of gigs where there's a mismatch between the audience demographic and the type of band, we were booked once to play a "living wake"...

If you're not familiar with the concept, it's basically a party someone throws to gather all their mates together...before they die, when they know they're on their way out.

Right, already not a good start, is it?

Anyway, we get there, with our usual wedding set ready to go, smart clothes etc...It's a rugby club venue, so we are expecting the usual type of room, hired out for events etc..


Nope, it's a motorbike club's HQ.

"Do you do any Blues...? Or Rock....?"


Erm.....not really. Not actually. Not...at all...



Fortunately, they were your typical bikers - namely very friendly and accomodating and more open-minded then the band that turned up and judged them on first sight were. Lesson learned for us, and a good night after all.

koneguitarist

I played a wedding once where bridegroom was being strangled on stage by brides father. Someone eventually hit him with a chair. We just kept playing.

MikkiMcMurderer

Incident #1: Posh Swedish wedding near East Grinsted which involved a tradition of 25 toasts during the speeches with Schnapps. The British guests were fucked by 7pm. One was so bad he decided to punch me in the face while in the toilet before we'd even played a note. The wedding organisers promised to have him removed, he resisted by trying to fight anyone and everyone. Police called, he resisted arrest and eventually had to be hauled off in a police van. I pressed charges and he now has a criminal record. Incident #2: Grooms pikey family all on drugs. In the break one attacked our singer from behind throwing him to the floor. We threaten to leave if there is any more trouble. At the next break some other twat starts on me for chatting up their sister (she spoke to me!) I go off at him and haul the groom back to tell this guy to fuck himself or we're outta there - horrible bunch of wankers