Rough gigs

thomasross20

Jesus, things almost kicked off big time tonight... Was pretty unnerving... Will update tomorrow but let's hear your stories.....

viz

Might have mentioned before, but had a gun waggled in our faces once in South Africa and asked to stop playing Van Halen, so switched to UB40 and it quietened down. Glad you're ok.

Fuzzdog

Had a gig once at a rather posh yacht club once which turned into an enormous free for all riot after loud drunken accusations were thrown about one member boinking someone else's wife.  We just kept on playing, providing a rather surreal soundtrack to the whole thing as we were pretty sure if we stopped we'd be dragged into it.

Thought I had got splashed in the face with beer during one number, then the singer looked at me and squealed - I was splattered with blood and apparently looked like I had just murdered someone.  Lovely gig! :P

viz

Used to play in a lesbian pick-up joint in Durban and often saw seedy antics taking place on the bar top, other women cheering them on.

EricTheWeary

The last gig we played there was a fight outside which we watched as we played as we were by the windows, so everyone else in the pub oblivious to it. I kid you not that two police cars arrived as we started playing Police and Thieves. The most memorably rough gig was a place in Yardley in Birmingham were there was so much drug taking I've never seen anything like it and when there was a very nasty fight - ambulance, police, blood,etc- nobody in the pub seemed at all bothered. Various other rough aspects to it and just a horrible, horrible place ( now knocked down). 

BGG

Only had it kick off once at a gig, someone threw an ice cube for a joke and it hit some lass and her partner kicked off. Whole table went up and there was about ten folk of both men and women braying the shite out of each other.

MY band had a great view LOL.

stickyfiddle

I was once playing a pub in Erith - never a dull gig but this one was special - at 11pm sharp 3 blokes got into a brawl outside and literally 60 or the maybe-100 punters rushed outside to watch/chant/help. 5 minutes later one bloke had definitely lost so they all came back in and got back to drinking/dancing. 

thomasross20

Wow, some stories, jesus!! I think if a fight broke out I'd be inclined to stop! 

OK so.... the gig was 10:30pm - 2am. Same name as a Patrick Swayze film and I joked there'd better be no "trouble" lol...

We set up basically on the pub floor in the corner, right where the punters would be. 

It was quite up until about 12:30am when some people started to roll in from bowling clubs... about 1am some drunk yoofs came in. It was one girl's birthday and during the break, this girl asked if we could sing happy birthday for her friend.. she then ended up taking the mic and took it upon herself to do so! Afterward she kept chatting to me (the sexual attraction was only flowing one way, let me assure you...) and kept asking if she could sing a song.... did we know Kings of Leon etc.... she ended up grabbing a mic again and singing along to the music playing on the iPod. Landlady had to come over and take her away from the gear. 

Last set and this guy literally came 1cm away from the singers' faces and sung along loudly, in their faces, with somewhat of a mad glare. Bassist's girlfriend (who did sound - and thankfully turned out ok) asked him to move away as it was uncomfortable for them - should really have been security for that sort of thing. This happened 3-4 times. Third time the girl who was chatting to me poked the bassist's girlfriend in the chest, started swearing at her and told her to get outside for a fight... then when she didn't, that she'd be waiting for her after the gig! After more threats and seeing her whole table get rowdy, we decided we'd stop 15 mins early and get going. The girl who's birthday it was did eventually kick off at somebody else at the bar and got thrown out. The whole atmosphere was pretty tense - I'm sitting there with £4k worth of gear as well! 

We packed and got going, half of us watching the gear, half of us going to get the cars and do the loading. Mad-stare-man hung around so I made sure to keep a good eye on gear. We stored all our cases etc in an unoccupied hall - to be honest I always like to keep my case just behind me next to my amp (but no room) so wasn't pleased with that. Ended up ok in the end and we were gone by about 2:30am. All for £180! Very likely wont grace that place again and will be more selective in future. 

It was an ok gig - go through most of the songs, playing was about 80% from me (sometimes you just don't "hit it" which is frustrating) - I really listened to how the whole thing was sounding and tried to please the crowd - they did enjoy the tunes. It did take us a fair while to set up, so will have to work on that (limited sockets and in a pokey corner). Would definitely prefer a more professional affair, with a stage! TBH the shine was taken off it all at the end of the night and I was thinking "all this for all these hours I put into it?" - felt like jacking it in after the album is done. But you've got to take the good with the bad. Some of your stories are pretty extreme!! I can definitely see the benefit in having a banger guitar for gigs like that. 

-> I was standing behind the guitar and bass amps, and right next to the drums... even with earplugs in I had a very slight ringing in my ears afterward!

Moe_Zambeek

Im thinking either Loanhead or Penicuik from that

Welcome to the world of cover gigs in 'the provinces'...

Always best to be finishing around midnight in these places. Having said that it's also true that often times you have a more appreciative crowd once you get out of the city a bit.

thomasross20

Penicuik! 

John_P

Welcome to pub gigs ;-)

Sounds fairly typical for a lot of gigs - you'll develop ways to manage the drunken behaviour and either avoid certain gigs or get ready to step back and watch it all kick off.

thomasross20

We have to come up with some way of fobbing off song suggestions, too - too many come in and it's like "sorry but we don't know that one". Also... if gear WAS damaged due to a bar brawl... does instrument insurance cover that??

John_P

Fobbing off annoying punters is one of the reasons we have singers ;-)

I once had a gig where a fight on the other side of the room escalated and moved across the room onto the stage and out the side door and carried on.     My rack was knocked off the cab and took a chuck out the guitar neck and broke a switch on the amp.    I wasn't happy.  but I'm more savvy these days and watch the gear more closely,  set up more of a wall of monitors  and push people back if they  step over the line.     

It's pretty rare I play really rough places now and if I know it's really likely to be a problem I take minimal cheaper gear.

EricTheWeary

Requests are weird. My favourite was in the Damnbusters we played an hour of ska - Madness, The Specials, etc- dressed in the suits and all that and this chap was dancing throughout about two foot away from me. When we broke he spoke to me and said " do you play My Sharona?" In the blues band we had to improvise ( ie completely make up ) a version of Stuck in the Middle With You at the insistence of some very large bikers, I think this was before they took our gear off us and played a terrible 12 bar. Gear returned unharmed. Same show where one of the women from the headline act flashed her boobs at me from side stage. So, all balances out...

thomasross20

Jesus, would never let a punter touch my gear!
Oh nan, I just hate violence in any form.... Makes me really anxious

ICBM

For gigs like this everyone needs something like an old Squier Strat and a Peavey Bandit. Unlikely to get broken, no great loss if it does, and can possibly be used to protect yourself if the worst happens.

Although oddly the last place I played where there was trouble was a posh club in Edinburgh… quickly dealt with by security though.

Danny1969

I've seen people glassed in front of us, seen fights cause people to crash over the monitors, women tearing each others hair out. Recently one of our gigs was cancelled cos a guy attacked another punter in the doorway of the pub with a baseball bat . Once while trying to load the van we had to walk around 2 guys fighting on the floor in the car park. So I go tell the barmaid to get the landlord there's a fight in the carpark, she says that's the landlord that's fighting and the other guy is the bar manager, they're Irish !

Nothings ever got damaged though that I can remember. Touch wood :0)

vasselmeyer

ICBM;804061" said:

For gigs like this everyone needs something like an old Squier Strat and a Peavey Bandit. Unlikely to get broken, no great loss if it does, and can possibly be used to protect yourself if the worst happens.

This is why I didn't give my old Johnson JT50 modelling amp away. There's a place we play where the punters are right on top of us and when I used my lovingly assembled pedal board and my lovely Egnater amp with my PRS I just didn't enjoy the gig because I was worried about my stuff getting trampled.

Next gig there, I pulled the old amp out and used my well used Telecaster and I was way happier. Of course it didn't sound of feel the same to me but the audience didn't notice and we still got paid.

thomasross20

Update... 

Sound didn't really need to be manned.... but despite that bassist's girlfriend got the same cut as the rest of us, despite us doing all the hard work practising every week. Going to hit the nail on the head this Wednesday about that.

Also, rhythm guitarist bought the PA and bassist put us on the spot last night to pay for some of it. I already spent £8k on gear! It wasn't a band decision to buy but it's a band decision to pay? Also, do we all now own a bit of it or is that a lifetime rental cost? I'm going to hit the nail on the head there, too.

thomasross20

Have also proposed fortnightly practices to free up some time now we have the setlist

Moe_Zambeek

Ask if they're willing to chip in for your guitars...

Is the rhythm guitar player also the singer?

In the past, either the singer has bought the PA or the band has hired one - from a PA company or from a member of the band that owns one. In the better bands, the owner of the PA supplied it free, the guy who owned a van provided that free (bar fuel costs), I did all the website / social meeja and so on.

Group ownership never works unless you all agree and write it all down, including what happens when someone leaves - do they get fully paid out? Depreciated at x% a year?

As for the 'sound person' - I think they should get paid if they are there specifically for the job; if it's the spouse of a band member I'd be a little cynical.