Peculiar gig venues.

Teetonetal

Turned up to today's gig and I appear to be busking in a toy shop car park. With 1 guy also here selling sculptures made out of copper wire. Way out of town and dead. Hoping spots 2 and 3 are more lively.

Stevepage

funniest place for me was in a beer garden at the front of the pub in the middle of busy Harpenden. Playing death metal at 2 in the afternoon with middle class mum's and old people walking by seemed just odd.

Guitarse

One of the oddest was the 12 Bar club in Denmark St. Very small stage and provided Laney amp, half buried in an old fireplace. 

ICBM

I've played an acoustic gig in the French Institute in Edinburgh. I'm not quite sure why since none of our songs were in French…

Danny1969

I think the smallest gig I ever did was this .... booked to play Victorious festival last year ... twice in one day, this was the 2nd gig in a tiny tent with just enough room to stand next to each other. House PA was a Fender Passport They pulled back the curtain and there we were like a puppet show!

stratman3142

I once did a gig at Madame Tussauds surrounded by dummies. I'm referring to the wax ones, not the rest of the band.

stratman3142

Many, many years ago I did a gig on the set of Noel's House Party for the BBC Xmas party. But I've only got a very grainy photo to show for it.

https://i.imgur.com/3cXdTrg.jpg

bbill335

We played on a skateboard quarter pipe ramp in the middle of a field.

Roland

Back of a lorry, while it was moving - difficult to play cleanly.
Salford cathedral - appalling reverberation. They left the hearing aid loop on, so I could only use piezos.
The worst was a pub in Chesterfield where the power kept dropping out.

drwiddly

The singer in a band I was in some years back, worked for a funeral director. He got us a gig at a fete in the grounds of an old folks home. There were audience members in wheelchairs with oxygen tanks attached! I'm sure they booked us in the hope we'd induce a few premature deaths!!

bluechargeboy

A funny one for us was "Liverpool Rock and Roll Marathon". We were on a stage at the side of the road, and played to our biggest ever audience of 10,000 people, albeit one-at-a-time as they ran past.

Stuckfast

The 12 Bar was a weird place wasn't it? The stage was halfway between the level of the ground floor and the balcony, so people in the front row got a great view of your knees.

EricTheWeary

Roland said:

Back of a lorry, while it was moving - difficult to play cleanly.
Salford cathedral - appalling reverberation. They left the hearing aid loop on, so I could only use piezos.
The worst was a pub in Chesterfield where the power kept dropping out.

We played the medieval guildhall in Coventry, at the back of the stage was a tapestry which was then covered in glass. So much reverb it was hard to tell what you were playing. 

vasselmeyer

I once gigged at the secure unit in my local authority's mental health facility. All the stuff came in with our cars and was thoroughly inspected and catalogued on the way in. Any tools (screwdrivers, pliers, penknives etc) were taken away and stored to be collected on the way out. All we were allowed to load in to the room we were gigging in were guitars, amps, effects, leads plus the PA and associated paraphernalia.

There was a double gate on the way in and out of the unit and we were accompanied by a warder all the time.

It was a bloody great gig too. A few of the patients got down and BOOGIED. Bonus was one of the patients was an amazing looking woman; I mean really really beautiful with a body to die for. That's actually quite appropriate because weren't allowed to talk to her or even look directly at her. Apparently her problem was getting fixated on random blokes and she was a complete bunny boiler.

We got searched and checked on the way out as well.

10/10 would do that again. What a unique experience.

Dopesick

Stevepage said:

funniest place for me was in a beer garden at the front of the pub in the middle of busy Harpenden. Playing death metal at 2 in the afternoon with middle class mum's and old people walking by seemed just odd.

Would this be Inn At The Green (or whatever it was called)? My old band played the same thing back in 2004 or thereabouts. We were one of the heaviest bands on the bill and our vocalist was told to stop screaming like a loony. So then we broke into a horrible cover of 'Bridge Over Troubled Waters'.

Trude

I once played in an asylum seekers holding facility. A slightly intimidating ambience to say the least, but all the detainees were nice as pie, and quite appreciative of our alt rock offerings... 

p90fool

http://i67.tinypic.com/m75l68.jpg

Wedding gig on top of Pen-y-Garreg dam in mid-Wales in May, with my singer Jess. It was purely acoustic, but a still day and the pic was taken by a friend of mine who happened to be out walking.
She said she could hear music from half a mile way and took ages to figure out where it was coming from!

The pic was us warming up before the guests arrived, this is a stock photo of the whole dam;

http://i66.tinypic.com/2qn2v08.jpg

bloodandtears

We played a wedding function at San Rocco in Ashton-u-Lyne. The venue is a converted old school house, featuring an Italian restaurant downstairs and a function room upstairs with beams, wooden floors and arched windows.

After a short while the manager from the restaurant approach us asking up to turn down our acoustic drum kit because we were causing glassware and cutlery to rattle..  we are a Metallica tribute band...

mudslide73

Ours is probably Hangar 1 at RAF Cosford Museum. Very enjoyable but at least 5 seconds of echo after you finish each song. We didn't use any wireless equipment so avoided any Tap moments. I'll have a dig for a photo of us in there.

aord43

stratman3142 said:

Many, many years ago I did a gig on the set of Noel's House Party for the BBC Xmas party. But I've only got a very grainy photo to show for it.

https://i.imgur.com/3cXdTrg.jpg

You are Mr. Blobby and I claim my £5 !

StageStruck

I played a birthday gig at a drop-in centre for armed forces verterans in a converted shop unit. It was akin to playing in a large living room. Had to move the TV & bookshelf to set up our gear. In fairness it was pretty enjoyable gig though!

In the stands of an ice-rink doing a couple of sets between an ice hockey match. It was freezing so I had a jacket on, unfortunately during the first song, the metal button on the cuff caught itself in between two of my strings!