Live gigs - do you accept requests for audience members to sing or play?

Dominic

A band plays locally from time to time ,the leader being somebody from a famous 70s band . Nice guy, well known in music industry just having a bit of fun with his 2 sons and their mates ......all very competant.
 There will always be somebody in the audience who gets up and plays guitar with them appearing to be an audience member..... ,everybody expects them to be inferior and of course they are spectacular session musician mates .

midiman1962

I always entertain someone who thinks they can sing ( they never can as getting over a very loud drummer is hard physical graft] but I never let anyone play my guitar - well not yet after 30 plus years 

TeleMaster

I wouldn’t let anyone touch my gear in a bar/pub gig. Previous posters saying they were threatened blows my mind. Who do people think they are??? I’d pack up and leave there and then. 

I was discussing this with someone else who plays in a lot of wedding bands and he said it makes you seem quite fun if you allow the groom to join you for a song. In that case, I think it’s fine. They’re paying you and it’s them that’ll look silly, not you. In a pub gig where some drunk comes up to the band and asks to play Elvis? Fuck no. 

rockmonster

No

Tannin

No. Just no. You are being paid to entertain a crowd because you are good at it. (Hopefully!) If you want to invite another musician up for a couple of numbers, fine.

But it is one of the immutable truths of nature that the keener an audience member is to invite himself to get up and play or sing, the more appallingly bad he will be at doing it. 

Tannin

Roland said:

Lestratcaster said:

No. I don't want anyone touching my gear!

“Can I have a go on your guitar?”
”Yes, if I can have a go on your girlfriend”

And if the punter says "Sure, we have a deal"?

lustycourtier

No, same as I don’t try to help a plumber or electrician  and use his tools. 

Stratavarious

Tannin said:

Roland said:

Lestratcaster said:

No. I don't want anyone touching my gear!

“Can I have a go on your guitar?”
”Yes, if I can have a go on your girlfriend”

And if the punter says "Sure, we have a deal"?

Depends.. is she good looking?

Nitefly

Stratavarious said:

Tannin said:

Roland said:

Lestratcaster said:

No. I don't want anyone touching my gear!

“Can I have a go on your guitar?”
”Yes, if I can have a go on your girlfriend”

And if the punter says "Sure, we have a deal"?

Depends.. is she good looking?

Ooh, picky!

DefaultM

We once played the wedding of a band friend, and he got a deal out of us saying he couldn't afford much.
Turned up and no wonder he couldn't afford, because it looked like he'd spent tens of thousands on everything else. No expense spared apart from on us. 
Halfway through the set he said he wanted to sing Mustang Sally, which we don't play so we cobbled it together. Then he  took the singer's guitar and said he wanted to do All Right Now. Gets to the solo and he's apparently taking that, extended it forever and then he wouldn't fuck off. 
In the end the only reason he left was cos the power to the stage cut out, which on reflection I'm not sure was an accident...