A funny thing happened on the way to the gig last night...
More odd things...
Our Most Improvised Gig:
We often get people coming up during the set wanting to know what we are going to play and asking if we do particular songs. One night in 2006 at The Cock in Hadleigh this got out of hand with almost everyone in the pub asking for something different. Someone asked for “Sweet Home Alabamha” so for a laugh we played the first few bars of the intro and then stopped, telling the audience that’s all we knew. Then someone asked for “Paranoid”, so again we played the first few bars and stopped with the same excuse. Then someone shouted out “Smoke on the Water” and we did the same thing. This became a bit of a game with the audience shouting more and more bizarre song titles out in the breaks between the real songs in the set - which we’d then try to jam... We wound up jamming right through “Get Back” by the Beatles for the sheer hell of it... Great night, great fun!
We often get people coming up during the set wanting to know what we are going to play and asking if we do particular songs. One night in 2006 at The Cock in Hadleigh this got out of hand with almost everyone in the pub asking for something different. Someone asked for “Sweet Home Alabamha” so for a laugh we played the first few bars of the intro and then stopped, telling the audience that’s all we knew. Then someone asked for “Paranoid”, so again we played the first few bars and stopped with the same excuse. Then someone shouted out “Smoke on the Water” and we did the same thing. This became a bit of a game with the audience shouting more and more bizarre song titles out in the breaks between the real songs in the set -
Spot The Audience Gig:
We always play better when there is a good crowd in the venue and the more they get into it, the more we do. So, we were recently at the Cork Inn in Felixstowe and having set up and soundchecked we saw that there were three bar staff and two members of the public in the audience - we know because we counted them. Twice. “Oh no...” we thought. “We are gonna die on our arses tonight with no audience...” But by the time we had played the first two numbers the pub was filling up and by the end of the third number the place was crowded and people were starting to bounce around and enjoy themselves... We think the audience had been hiding next door waiting for us to start or something!
We always play better when there is a good crowd in the venue and the more they get into it, the more we do. So, we were recently at the Cork Inn in Felixstowe and having set up and soundchecked we saw that there were three bar staff and two members of the public in the audience -
The Great Disappearing Gig:
This is more of a general moan really. We’ve noticed over the years that when we book gigs, venues expect us to provide posters, advertise by word of mouth and by the website, turn up, play and entertain their audience and then take our money and disappear as quickly as possible afterwards so they can get some well-earned sleep... All of which is fine and dandy - no problems at all. But every so often - very sadly we think, particularly these days what with the smoking ban and the credit crunch and all - people decide to give up the pub trade and go and do something else instead. Which is also fine and dandy (but a little sad). But what would be wrong with a quick phone call to us to say they are leaving and the new owners probably won’t do bands so we are going to have to cancel your gigs? We would much prefer this than just finding out through the scuttlebutt that the gigs have been cancelled. Honest, we won’t get upset - these things happen and we understand. Just let us know so that we can have a chance at finding work elsewhere.
This is more of a general moan really. We’ve noticed over the years that when we book gigs, venues expect us to provide posters, advertise by word of mouth and by the website, turn up, play and entertain their audience and then take our money and disappear as quickly as possible afterwards so they can get some well-