Best, Worst, Largest, Smallest, Weirdest......

bbill335

The two worst gigs that stick out in my mind are the two gigs where we *had* to take the whole rig - PA and all - up to the venue in a lift. 

The first was at the Exeter rugby ground, up in one of the bars that was full of Welsh away fans. Big room, but we had a tiny allocated "stage" (a small platform a few inches off the ground) that we could only fit the drums and amps on. We were a blues covers band and all we had were the welsh fans coming up, flicking through the singer's music book, "don't you know any Killers?", "can so-and-so come up and sing, he does a brilliant Tom Jones". Someone switched my amp off mid song.
We were coming to the end and boss man comes up, asks us to play longer and rubs his fingers together. Little did we know, that meant a paltry £10 each for an extra half hour playing to people who honestly weren't interested. It wasn't a good payer to begin with, one of those "maybe we'll get some good gigs from playing it". I don't know if the welsh team had won or lost that day. 

The other was a wedding do in a big country house. We had a *tiny* lift that took 3 trips to get everything up to the floor we were playing on. Then, we had to cart it through the same narrow landing/corridor that venue staff were using to set the room up, take food, everything. We'd had no warning about this logistical nightmare. The gig was fine otherwise - we played fine but it was the kind of wedding where nobody was really bothered about us, just the bride & groom (and possibly only half of them) liking us - but simply how long it took us to get in and out, how knackered and fed up we were afterwards... we were DONE.

BintyTwanger77

Best: Petts Woodstock. Mini-festival for charity in South London. Played in the hall last year, but played a set outdoors this year and had a blast, great venue.
Worst: A function room above a pub near Baker Street tube. Couldn't park the van outside the venue, because Central London, so had to park it 150 yards down the street, and drag our PA, etc. past drinkers on closely packed tables outside and up a narrow staircase. The function room area was small, had a low ceiling, and only had a single available plug for all our gear.
Biggest: Blackheath Halls
Smallest: The Neptune in Hove. A tiny stage accommodating six musicians and our instruments, and a narrow corridor between the bar and the wall to take our gear to and from the stage.
Weirdest: Nothing weird enough to report....yet.

merlin

I just remembered a weird gig at Kew Steam Museum. Huge water and steam pumps running as we played, enormous metal wheels and sloshing water everywhere. It was a bat-mitzvah BTW..... 

EricTheWeary

Vibetronic said:

Best - would have to be Download, because it was Download. Also liked the Robin 2 in Wolverhampton and the Musician pub in Leicester, two great venues. Worst...probably a small pub somewhere, although at the Robin we did have the most obnoxious soundman I've ever encountered, which was a shame. Weirdest was a gig up at a pub in Aberystwyth where we had the power to the stage cut off as we were too loud, and we just had to pack up and go...very odd.

I liked the original Robin better although it was probably a bit grotty. Nice to see the Robin 2 get a mention though. I suspect it's hey day has been and gone but between the original Robin and there they did put on some surprisingly big acts for local folk. 

The Robin gave me possibly one of my best ever gigs ( I don't think I've mentioned this already) where we were booked as unpaid support to a local band who had been given a lot of publicity, appearances on local TV for example. On the night it turned out they only had a 45 minute set so they supported us. They were also pretty terrible but the place was packed and the audience stayed ( well, in my memory of it) and watched us. Although we were still unpaid. 

ESBlonde

Can I just have 5 goes at worst...? All of these are decades ago, youthful exuberance has given way to the ability to say no to crap gigs.

A club that was 3 or 4 terrace houses knocked into one accross the top floor. Access up a very narros stairway or the exterior cast iron fire escape (in the dark and usually wet). They had the first of those noise limiters with a (probably realistic or similar) cheap mic suspeneded from the ceiling. Someone had gaffa taped the head in an attempt tpo get it to work. The slightest tough on a cymbal and BANG off went the power.

A drill hall at the Shotley naval school. A long narrow brick buildidng with a concrete floor and nothing to absorb any sound. We were at one end literally firing the sound down and getting a solid rebound a second or two later.

A barn with a minstrals gallery, a real timber barn and the 'gallery' was so narrow that with my speaker cab in place I couldn't stand in front without turning my feet sideways. Oh and the 'banister was knee high, not to mention the ladder ( I can't call it stairs) to get the amp and cab up. This was years ago so a valve amp and 2x12 was used. Only other interesting fact about the gig is that the hotel was one of the locations the Kray brothers used as a bolt hole back in the day.

On a cross chanel ferry in rough weather. The stage movement without reference to a fixed horizon was very disturbing!

On a dissused light ship. For all out awkward access with narrow doors that have a step knee high (think submarine type doors). Plenty of bruised shins, dodgy unregulated 240(ish)v power. All this after carrying the gear on board while walking the plank (no handrails)!!! Getting off was more fun because the outside lighting was negligable around the gang plank.

Vibetronic

EricTheWeary said:

Vibetronic said:

Best - would have to be Download, because it was Download. Also liked the Robin 2 in Wolverhampton and the Musician pub in Leicester, two great venues. Worst...probably a small pub somewhere, although at the Robin we did have the most obnoxious soundman I've ever encountered, which was a shame. Weirdest was a gig up at a pub in Aberystwyth where we had the power to the stage cut off as we were too loud, and we just had to pack up and go...very odd.

I liked the original Robin better although it was probably a bit grotty. Nice to see the Robin 2 get a mention though. I suspect it's hey day has been and gone but between the original Robin and there they did put on some surprisingly big acts for local folk. 

The Robin gave me possibly one of my best ever gigs ( I don't think I've mentioned this already) where we were booked as unpaid support to a local band who had been given a lot of publicity, appearances on local TV for example. On the night it turned out they only had a 45 minute set so they supported us. They were also pretty terrible but the place was packed and the audience stayed ( well, in my memory of it) and watched us. Although we were still unpaid. 

Apparently they've redone the Robin 2 since we played last year - as in all the old posters/memorabilia gone/painted over, which is a bit sad. They were still getting some fairly big(ish) acts too last time I looked. 

EricTheWeary

Vibetronic said:

EricTheWeary said:

Vibetronic said:

Best - would have to be Download, because it was Download. Also liked the Robin 2 in Wolverhampton and the Musician pub in Leicester, two great venues. Worst...probably a small pub somewhere, although at the Robin we did have the most obnoxious soundman I've ever encountered, which was a shame. Weirdest was a gig up at a pub in Aberystwyth where we had the power to the stage cut off as we were too loud, and we just had to pack up and go...very odd.

I liked the original Robin better although it was probably a bit grotty. Nice to see the Robin 2 get a mention though. I suspect it's hey day has been and gone but between the original Robin and there they did put on some surprisingly big acts for local folk. 

The Robin gave me possibly one of my best ever gigs ( I don't think I've mentioned this already) where we were booked as unpaid support to a local band who had been given a lot of publicity, appearances on local TV for example. On the night it turned out they only had a 45 minute set so they supported us. They were also pretty terrible but the place was packed and the audience stayed ( well, in my memory of it) and watched us. Although we were still unpaid. 

Apparently they've redone the Robin 2 since we played last year - as in all the old posters/memorabilia gone/painted over, which is a bit sad. They were still getting some fairly big(ish) acts too last time I looked. 

Got very tribute acts at weekends, the more interesting acts were mid week ( filling in their itineraries between bigger weekend dates) and venturing to Bilston on a wet Tuesday evening isn't very enticing. 
They have done it up a few times. I did speak to them a couple of years ago about getting unpaid support slots but they wanted us to pay to play and that wasn't happening. 
I should probably put aside my minor grudge and go see someone although now my son is at Uni I've lost my little gig buddy.