Horrible gigging experiences

Beer is Life

I've been playing in a regular gigging band for over a year now, and I'd just like to ask the more experienced musicians, will I just have to get used to being screwed over by everyone and anyone?

As recently as last Sunday we were completely screwed over by a well known Dublin venue and its really left a bad taste in my mouth for gigging. This, by the way, was the second time this venue/"promotor" had screwed us over, so I guess we were fools for thinking we'd get away with it this time. This promotor actually stood there and lied to my face on Sunday. Im still shocked by it all. I was talking to two other guys from two other bands that night saying they also had alot of trouble with this crowd.

Maybe I should just get over it but we all travelled over 3 hours to get to Dublin, booked time off work and were well out of pocket over it all. Sorry about the rant but I had to get it off my chest.

Anyone else got any horror stories?

jimmypage100

i played a gig in town for a well know promoter of gigs. this guy is a very large man and is name after our national saint if thats gives ya any hint. anyways, we all travelled for ages, and like you booked time off work. we had previously won a battle of the bands for this guy. just before we went on stage, he introduced us and then said---" and by the way folks, theres an excellent band playing next door" and he basically sang their praises. we were left with a crowd of less than ten. what a dick! keep the faith man, its all part of the learning process. you will certainly be sharper next time. everyone learns how to deal with arseholes like that. we never giged for that guy again.

JimmyJazz

I've been playing with a tribute around Ireland for the past 2 yrs - we've played in every gap in the hedge and have had too many sh*te experiences!!

Promoters... Don't get me started. These guys are the lowest of the low - they hammer you on price and then get you gigs in really inappropriate venues. I remember on in a nightclub in Longford where we had to crank our PA right up to cover the sound of the Bass from the nightclub PA in the main nightclub room. Afterwards the owner screwed us for €s - telling us that he booked under false pretenses. Its so hard to keep motivated...

Have been ripped off by a very well know Dublin venue - can't publish the name right?

joeygl

Jimmypage is right man, it is a learning curve.. and especially in Ireland where the music industry is dominated by peolple who don't really care for music. it's all about making money off decent peolp and artists. I personally have been screwed over so many times and it does get extremely demoralising, but if you have a particular goal, keep your eyes set on it. Don't ever let anyone tell you you can never get there, you have as good a chance as any once you keep focused. Hope this helps, and it's good to see peolple express their anger at such a "Bureaucratic" industry that is dominated by complete a*seholes.

joey

henessjon

can you not adopt a pay before I play policy.....

say after you have setup your gear.....


and name the venues avoid them so will everyone else

and if your not professional surely you are doing it for the buzz you love...
and would do it for nothing!!!

thats why they take advantage of us

ShriekingSheet

This is kind of a different gig experience but a pretty unforgettable one!

Our band are guitars/drums/bass but when we go out ourselves, tend to go to the electro nights in Dublin like Pogo in the Pod on Saturdays. After doing alright with a few gigs last year, we were ecstatic to be offered a headline slot at Pogo one Saturday, despite the fact that we're not electronic at all, they just said go for it. So we did.

My uncle even lent me his Gibson Les Paul '82 (year I was born) Custom (about 4k worth I'm told). So we go on at 1am and everything goes brilliantly. Crowd, sound, everything. Come off and pat ourselves on the back. 10 mins later, the stage is being cleared and the Les Paul is missing. Shock stalls me for a few mins but then we put the word out and all staff are searching. Panic is not the word. All I can think of is what am I going to say to my uncle. It's 2.30am, a lot of people are leaving and things don't look good.

Just then my phone rings. It's my dad. My Grandad died suddenly while we were playing. This is my uncles dad. ....I've just lost his GLP on the same night his dad has died.

Come 3am, no sign of the guitar. Dad coming to take me to the hospital with the family soon, I'm sat backstage, head in hands. I'll never forget how awkward people were around me. No one knew what to say. I was like "it's alright" to them haha.

This photographer guy is inappropriately showing me pics of the gig which I'm not interested in until he shows me one saying "Is that the guitar??" - the guy has a picture of a man holding the les paul in the crowd... clear as day, bald guy, red shirt...

I grab the camera and run up to the front gate to show the bouncers - "this is him, don't let him out if he's not already..." In that split second I look up towards the Luas stop outside Odeon and there is this guy with the guitar up his coat about to get inthe taxi....

I swear to God, Sean Wright-Phillips could not have outpaced me and Paul O'Connell would have been proud of the tackle I put in as all 6ft 4 and 14 stone of me flew through the air. Holding that bastard down in the middle of the road and two bouncers and me dragging him back to the pod - the guitar safely in some helpful (/confused) strangers hand... it was quite surreal.

A crowd of our mates had gathered at the gate to abuse the guy as we called the gards and they picked up up in a squad car. Then it was off to the hospital to meet up with the family....

We played the same slot last night. It was our best gig ever. People I don't know who go to those nights still come up to me and go "mind your guitar tonight now..." and "jesus, remember that night, that was MENTAL".

Trials and Tribulations!

WetDaddy

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

This is kind of a different gig experience but a pretty unforgettable one!...

Best Gig Story Ever

JimiTime

Folex wrote: »

Best Gig Story Ever

Indeed. I'll never complain about a bad gig again. You just raised the bar!

DrumSteve

jimmypage100 wrote: »

i played a gig in town for a well know promoter of gigs. this guy is a very large man and is name after our national saint if thats gives ya any hint. anyways, we all travelled for ages, and like you booked time off work. we had previously won a battle of the bands for this guy. just before we went on stage, he introduced us and then said---" and by the way folks, theres an excellent band playing next door" and he basically sang their praises. we were left with a crowd of less than ten. what a dick! keep the faith man, its all part of the learning process. you will certainly be sharper next time. everyone learns how to deal with arseholes like that. we never giged for that guy again.

haha i think ive played for that guy too. never again lol

ShriekingSheet

JimiTime wrote: »

Indeed. I'll never complain about a bad gig again. You just raised the bar!

Haha, cheers guys.

But to be honest, I don't look back on it as a bad experience. It was certainly very sad but also like someone up there just went "na, we can't have all this sh*t happen to one guy in one night - let's give him his guitar back"

I mean, how lucky I was to A) see the photo just in time and spot the guy seconds before he got in a taxi.... that's what stays with me.

Setun

Fantastic story, jeez I could only imagine the panic.

NeMiSiS

I would have replaced the guitar stealing bastards eyes with his balls.

Great/Terrible story ShriekingSheet.

TK

Doctor J

Ahh the bad gigs are the ones you remember, the ones you get the most fun out of (years) after. Bad gigs I've been involved in include - an aforementioned "promoter" where one punter showed up, both bands just played to each other and the barman - singer walks off halfway through set - singer and singer of headline band get into fist fight on stage during set, band are removed by security - crazy ****er in dressing room, wet from head to toe saying he had been in the Liffey, smashing an iron bar off the dressing room wall - guitarist so stoned he couldn't feel his hands or stand up and had to slouch in a chair for the gig - slipping on water from the previous band on the stage and falling into the bass amp, almost bringing the whole thing down on top of me and knocking a live mic into the puddle - punter in the old Baggot Inn standing inches away from the singer, eye to eye, and hand signing "dickhead" to him - gong solos - and much, much more. They're horrible at the time but comedy gold when you get old

froosh69

heres one...ever tried to play "God Save the Queen" (Sex Pistols,obviously) in monaghan to a crowd who dont understand irony?

Frankiestylee

Beer is Life wrote: »

I've been playing in a regular gigging band for over a year now, and I'd just like to ask the more experienced musicians, will I just have to get used to being screwed over by everyone and anyone?

As recently as last Sunday we were completely screwed over by a well known Dublin venue and its really left a bad taste in my mouth for gigging. This, by the way, was the second time this venue/"promotor" had screwed us over, so I guess we were fools for thinking we'd get away with it this time. This promotor actually stood there and lied to my face on Sunday. Im still shocked by it all. I was talking to two other guys from two other bands that night saying they also had alot of trouble with this crowd.

Maybe I should just get over it but we all travelled over 3 hours to get to Dublin, booked time off work and were well out of pocket over it all. Sorry about the rant but I had to get it off my chest.

Anyone else got any horror stories?

Did the venue screw you over or was it the promoter?

markw999

DrumSteve wrote: »

haha i think ive played for that guy too. never again lol

I think I have too. I hate him in millions upon millions of ways.

Frankiestylee

I anybody who has had bad experiences with promoters and wants to go on the record, PM me. I'm doing an article on the topic and would appreciate the input.

nsonline

Frankiestylee wrote: »

I anybody who has had bad experiences with promoters and wants to go on the record, PM me. I'm doing an article on the topic and would appreciate the input.

Where will the article be published?

Duff_Man

hah theres no way you could top the les paul story! at least you got it back though! the only bad exp i had was a few weeks ago when the band before us cleared the whole venue out and when we went on there was only a handful of people left and they were in no mood for the ole rock and roll:P seems so trivial compared to the others! haha

Frankiestylee

nsonline wrote: »

Where will the article be published?

DIT News

False_God

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

I swear to God, Sean Wright-Phillips could not have outpaced me and Paul O'Connell would have been proud of the tackle I put in as all 6ft 4 and 14 stone of me flew through the air.

haha! that made me laugh so much!
Glad it turned out ok at the end of things!

Pat D. Almighty

Here's the thing. The majority of these promoters don't work full time, or else they're on the dole, so these type of gigs run by 'Paddy F' etc are simply to make money, regardless of the quality of the bands. Which is a joke.
Play these gigs once, if you want to learn something. What will you learn? NOT TO PLAY THESE GIGS!
If you're in a band, and want to play a gig and not get ripped off, then book out a venue yourself, cut out the middle-man/promoter.
Eamonn Doran's on a weeknight is only 150 to rent. Charge 5 euro in. Have 2/3 support bands. As long as you get 30 people through the door, then you're sorted. You won't have made a loss.

moby1

worst experience for me, 2 bass bins goin up in flames at the same time! had to be doused with cider, had to pay for 2 new bins outa the money, good pyro though!

kilboy

this is kinda funny in retrospect to everyone who was there but isnt me,

right, melophobia's first headliner (whelans, think delorentos supported!)

scott the drummer drops his stick, yours truly gets summoned to pick up the stick cuz he couldnt reach, the band couldnt hear him and he had no spares (wanker)...........so our hero begins to manouvre around the equipment and manages to reinstate scott as a fully functioning drummer. In the heat of my victory, I begin to walk backwards off the stage....bear in mind this is during a particularly epic song, and the solo is about to begin.

In what seemed like a fortnights time, I tripped over backwards on the mic for the guitar amp, i spun and realised the consequences instantly............I looked like a ****ing mess... EMBARRASSMENT

hereby banned from going anywhere near the stage when this band play.