worst/ best/ oddest load in?

EricTheWeary · August 2015

I was speaking earlier to the chap organising this charity gig we are playing and asking about how we were to load in and trying to get across that the public car park two streets away was quite a way to have to bring stuff and was there somewhere we could offload our gear any nearer...

Anyway, reminded me of the gig where bringing our stuff in meant parking at the back of an Indian restaurant, going through the ( in use) kitchen, up in a small service elevator and across the venue floor. Took many, many sweaty trips.

Anything longer or weirder ?

randomhandclaps · August 2015

Had a similar experience in Southwark once, in what from the front looked like a pretty posh venue. We had to go through an Italian café and out through their kitchen/toilet corridor then down a steep loading bay and up three floors in a service lift which was so small you had to stand on an amp one it was in there - plus the lift kept getting stuck. It had a crappy old gate that barely made contact and would keep cutting out. Because we were doing it one at a time to watch the van and unload the stuff at the top there would be spells where we had no idea where eachother was.

Danny1969 · August 2015

Hilton Hotel in Mayfair : Drive into loading bay and use service elevator to 2nd floor. Then a a hike to the kitchen. Then load through the kitchen which is about as long as my road, then about 70 metres across the ballroom before you can set up. Then you gotta move van or they will blow it up (seriously)

Carlton club in Farlington a few weeks ago : pull up outside, have to load through the club, then across the yard, then up some steps, then across 2 tennis courts. Drummer had a heart attack a week later (seriously)

Rowlands Castle Golf course :" No you can't use the lift that's for club members only ... you must take all the equipment up the outside fire escape " Thanks a bunch !! I took a picture of that one !

Always have as much stuff on wheels as poss ... that's my moto .. like this

MatthewShreddery · August 2015

I sometimes gig on HMS Warrior in Portsmouth - that's a serious ball ache to load in/out.

digitalscream · August 2015

Danny1969 said:

Rowlands Castle Golf course :" No you can't use the lift that's for club members only ... you must take all the equipment up the outside fire escape " Thanks a bunch !! I took a picture of that one !

The obvious response to that is, "OK - can I see your insurance documentation? I want to make sure that you're still covered in the eventuality that one of us is injured while illegally using the fire escape for an unsuitable purpose."

I'd bet that you'd be allowed to use the lift after that. If not, turn around and go home.

slacker · August 2015

I did a prison gig once. Load in was drive to the entrance in convoy. Wait for our contact. Drive to the prison Chaplain. Load in. Get locked in and wait for the inmates to arrive and be seated.

Cirrus · August 2015

MatthewShreddery said:

I sometimes gig on HMS Warrior in Portsmouth - that's a serious ball ache to load in/out.

That is so cool, how'd you get that gig?!

vasselmeyer · August 2015

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.

MatthewShreddery · August 2015

Cirrus said:

MatthewShreddery said:

I sometimes gig on HMS Warrior in Portsmouth - that's a serious ball ache to load in/out.

That is so cool, how'd you get that gig?!

Just a function band I play in

It's a cool venue, but horrible from an acoustic standpoint.

maltingsaudio · August 2015

Echo danny about as much on wheels as possible

Here's one from last year fortunately just a car full

One of the worst gig in the houses of Parliament 20 minute walk from security and had to be escorted everywhere

Danny1969 · August 2015

MatthewShreddery said:

Cirrus said:

MatthewShreddery said:

I sometimes gig on HMS Warrior in Portsmouth - that's a serious ball ache to load in/out.

That is so cool, how'd you get that gig?!

Just a function band I play in
It's a cool venue, but horrible from an acoustic standpoint.

I did a PA dry hire for a band a few months ago for a band playing on HMS Warrior, I'm in Portsmouth myself. They said the load was a ball ache

Danny1969 · August 2015

digitalscream said:

Danny1969 said:

Rowlands Castle Golf course :" No you can't use the lift that's for club members only ... you must take all the equipment up the outside fire escape " Thanks a bunch !! I took a picture of that one !

The obvious response to that is, "OK - can I see your insurance documentation? I want to make sure that you're still covered in the eventuality that one of us is injured while illegally using the fire escape for an unsuitable purpose."

I'd bet that you'd be allowed to use the lift after that. If not, turn around and go home.

It was a wedding dude, plenty of dough in it for us and we didn't want to make too much of a fuss, we sucked it up and got on with it but yeah in normal circumstances your response would be the right one

koneguitarist · August 2015

Two spring to mind for me, Llanbradach social club, up steep outside fire escape. And Twerton liberal club Bath. Across wide pavement, through foyer, across bar, down some steps,across corridor to function room, then set up at far end of function room.

chrispy108 · August 2015

There was more than one occasion I had to lug gear through a busy pub/club to a not-so-busy back room/upstairs

ICBM · August 2015

digitalscream said:

Danny1969 said:
Rowlands Castle Golf course :" No you can't use the lift that's for club members only ... you must take all the equipment up the outside fire escape " Thanks a bunch !! I took a picture of that one !

The obvious response to that is, "OK - can I see your insurance documentation? I want to make sure that you're still covered in the eventuality that one of us is injured while illegally using the fire escape for an unsuitable purpose."

I'd bet that you'd be allowed to use the lift after that. If not, turn around and go home.

Wisdom. A band I was in did a gig at a posh hotel, and after some argument along those lines were allowed to use the lift. We didn't even have massive flightcases like that either.

Moe_Zambeek · August 2015

The voodoo rooms in Edinburgh is a bit of a pain to load out, involving person-wide service corridors and spiral staircases. Fun with a Hammond and Leslie, and a lifting-phobic keys player.

I

EricTheWeary · August 2015

Moe_Zambeek said:

The voodoo rooms in Edinburgh is a bit of a pain to load out, involving person-wide service corridors and spiral staircases. Fun with a Hammond and Leslie, and a lifting-phobic keys player.

I

I've seen photos of the early days of The Selecter ( late 70's) when they didn't have any proper transport and any gigs within Coventry City centre they would push their Hammond on it's wheels along the streets to the gigs.

The last gig I played was a reasonably tough load in because of the stairs but the worst bit was being delayed by an hour once we got there because they were still painting the walls. So, had to carry gear up three flights of concrete steps whilst having to avoid any contact with the walls as they were freshly covered in white emulsion.

ESBlonde · August 2015

Far too many to mention so just a few that spring to mind.

RoRo ferry, drive on and load all the stuff into the small barmans lift up to the saloon, then drive off the boat and park up about a mile away and then reboard the ferry this time through customs and set up the gear. Unload being similarly interesting.

Lighthouse ship. fekin narrow gangplank and narrow doors in the bulkheads with shin high stepovers.

Too many cast iron fire escapes in the wet/ice/dark (perm all of them).

Getting onto a US army air base a few weeks after 9/11. I was doing a PA hire so 4x4 and a 4 wheel trailer fully loaded. I sat for 1.5 hours or so in the gate house waiting for the 'sponsor' (someone on the base expecting you) to nod me through. just got in the truck and drove 50 yards to the gate of the car park and a spotty youth points a gun in my face and says where you going? What you doing? Whats in the trailer? Empty it?
Look I'm nearly two hours late because of you guys, heres the keys, you want it empty you do it!
I got waved through by another nice young lady with a gun.
Plenty of Military installations have the mess halls upstairs, sometimes two flights! No lifts.
Angle hotel Bury St Edmunds. One function hall is in the middle of the large sprawling old building. Narrow staircases and corridors No lift (it comes up behind the bar but you cant get from the beer celler to the FOH).
Again sound hire at a garden centre but in the private grounds of the owners immaculate garden. Absolutely no vehicles or castors or marks on the lawn! I used a large sack barrow with 10" pneumatic tyres for everything but it took a long time.

Like @Danny1969 says "wheels on everything". I used to advance every gig and ensure there were no stairs. Or I would hire muscle specifically for the load in/out and charge accordingly. I used to carry a big piece of ply with reinforcing strips on the back as a ramp for those 3 steps they didn't tell you about! The aforementioned big wheeled sack barrow has saved my ass a number of times, strap a load on and bounce it up/down stairs, marginally easier than carrying it.

stickyfiddle · August 2015

Jericho Tavern in Oxford is a through-the-pub and up the back stairs job or up the fire escape. Option 2 is far easier, but still a massive ballache, especially the time we did it in the snow.

rich75 · August 2015

I did a gig with a former band on HMS Belfast in London years ago.

Had to park at the far end of the nearest road, wheel the gear along the road, over the gangway to the ship and then get it to almost the opposite end of the ship through a series of low and narrow doors and corridors - total nightmare but would have been so much worse if we hadn't taken a sack barrow!

JohnPerry · August 2015

stickyfiddle said:

Jericho Tavern in Oxford is a through-the-pub and up the back stairs job or up the fire escape. Option 2 is far easier, but still a massive ballache, especially the time we did it in the snow.

how funny. was about to type the same thing. Fire escape, Jericho Tavern, Oxford, 1982, with a 50w Marshall combo, huge Peavey bass rig of some sort and drum kit.

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worst/ best/ oddest load in?

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