School boy errors at gigs - my worst was last night

[Cat Burrito]

Can't believe in 23yrs of gigging I did this; arrived at the venue to soundcheck and started unpacking. I took the cab out of it's flight case and put my Orange Terror head on top. It then dawned on me I'd forgotten my leads bag! The head takes Speakon too so I was stuffed. The soundman didn't have one & the guys in my band hadn't even heard of Speakon. The support was an acoustic solo act. Of course I didn't even have a jack to jack or kettle lead either. D'oh! We're done so many kit shares and acoustic sets recently I don't think I'd taken my own rig since last November. I wound up going through the PA via a borrowed lead and fashioned a passable sound but genuinely can't believe it didn't occur. Has anyone bettered that? Forgotten your bass?

[gilmour]

I've forgotten my bass... on more than one occasion

[Old Horse Murphy]

Our drummer once picked up a camping table in a bag from my garage instead of the mixing desk

[RockfordStone]

ive stuck the mute button on my amp before going on stage then forgotton to turn it off when i play.. schoolboy

[gjones]

[quote name='BurritoBass' timestamp='1333449746' post='1601746']
Can't believe in 23yrs of gigging I did this; arrived at the venue to soundcheck and started unpacking. I took the cab out of it's flight case and put my Orange Terror head on top. It then dawned on me I'd forgotten my leads bag! The head takes Speakon too so I was stuffed. The soundman didn't have one & the guys in my band hadn't even heard of Speakon. The support was an acoustic solo act. Of course I didn't even have a jack to jack or kettle lead either. D'oh! We're done so many kit shares and acoustic sets recently I don't think I'd taken my own rig since last November. I wound up going through the PA via a borrowed lead and fashioned a passable sound but genuinely can't believe it didn't occur. Has anyone bettered that? Forgotten your bass?
[/quote]

I forgot my bass for an open air gig in the centre of Edinburgh in front of hundreds of people. Ran back to the rehearsal room picked up the bass just got back in time for us to start then realised I'd forgotten my lead! Ended up having to use one of the keyboard players patch leads which was about 6 inches long.

Did I feel like a plonker? Possibly

Edited April 3, 2012 by gjones

[bigjohn]

I'm usually quite good. But did turn up to a gig a while back with no lead, both of mine had been "tidied" and where lost in the places where only Miss Big John knows but refuses to believe in.

I'd asked both of the others to bring me a lead. Neither did. Which was helpful, nor were either of them carrying a spare... Bananas considering both picked up stuff from the studio en route which has bags and bags of leads...

Luckily the support, which we knew nothing of before we showed up, lent me a lead and hung around to the end of our set. Very lucky.

Edited April 3, 2012 by bigjohn

[discreet]

Played the Ashton Court Festival near Bristol years ago, switched on my amp and... nothing. Had to scrabble about and borrow a screwdriver to check the plug fuse, luckily that was the problem and I just managed sort it seconds before I was meant to come in... a right shag-nasty situation. Prior Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance, is the lesson (The Six 'Ps').

[Simon.]

A couple of times I've been tuning up between songs using a TU-2 stomp-box and forgotten to un-mute it when going for the opening note of the next song... Worst one was with a pervious band when I let the guys pack the gear into the van and just met them at the gig, and yup - no bass! First and last time I wasn't there to load up the van.

[DirkThrust]

While loading my gear in the back of the drummer's van I left my amp standing on it's end on the pavement, got in the van and drove off. i only realised I didn't have it when we got to our practise space.

It was only an old Carlsboro B150 but all I could afford at the time so losing it would've been a disaster. Luckily one of my neighbours had seen it and taken it inside and when we arrived back she brought it out.

[Muzz]

Two 'schoolboys' on the trot the other night: first song I use the drop-D, then forget that the second song needs it back to E...so after an embarrassing start to that one, when the song finishes, I stomp the mute to check tuning, the guitarist asks me something...and I forget to unmute for the start of song three. Rrrrrrrgggghhhh...doh.

[Lozz196]

It`s bound to happen to me at some point, but as I`m usually in bands with people that already make the errors, it`s a good reminder to not join in.

The telling time will be when I join a band without people making the errors.......................

[ras52]

Wayyy back in the 80's Teesside/Darlo band Verba Verba's van pulled up outside my house on the way to a gig... the bass player had forgotten his bass and cadged one of mine!

[jezzaboy]

At one time to share the pa gear about, the drummer had the 3 mike stands to transport. First gig with this arrangement he forgets to bring the mike stands. Have you ever tried gaffer taping a microphone to a brush handle and a cymbol stand. I have!

That was the last time he was trusted with any pa gear.

Jez

[Norris]

I've forgotten my bass before now. The worst one was probably the time I forgot we even had a gig - my mobile rang just as our food arrived...

[BigRedX]

In the late 90s I was playing in a band using lots of samples and sequenced synths. We'd just upgraded the samplers to include Flash ROM to store the OS and samples which meant that all the sounds were available on power on didn't have to be loaded from optical disc(s). However the sequence data still had to be loaded in from a Floppy Disc. Got half way to a gig in Coventry (from Nottingham) before I realised that I'd not packed either the main or backup sequencer discs.

The whole gig was a nightmare. Because of this we were late setting up and didn't get a proper sound check. Took two songs to get the on-stage sound to a point where I could hear if we were in time to the backing. Not that it mattered most of the audience regarded us as an inconvenient break in the disco and ignored us (they did the same to the reasonably well known headlining band too) and afterwards we left without one of the cases of leads and the backdrop which we'd been unable to put up due to arriving late.

[Doddy]

I was on the way to a local gig once when my then-girlfriend asked.....
"Where's your Bass?"
"It's on the backseat"
"No it's not"
"sh*t!"
Luckily it was only about 10 miles or so from home,so it wasn't a big deal to turn around and
go get it.

[tangodown87]

[quote name='Old Horse Murphy' timestamp='1333449973' post='1601752']
Our drummer once picked up a camping table in a bag from my garage instead of the mixing desk
[/quote]

now that my friend, is brilliant!!

[LiamPodmore]

Snapping a string whilst tuning, on stage, infront of about 300 people, just before we started our set.... Thankfully, i didn't actually NEED that bass, i just used it to make my life a little easier, and could just throw it in a corner and grab my 5 string and singers capo.

Liam

[dave_bass5]

After getting my nice new Squier CV P i couldn't wait to show the band. when i got the gig i opened the gig bag to find my CV Jazz....in pieces. I had put the stock pups back in a week or so before, but hadn't wired them in as i wasn't going to keep them in there. For some reason i had put that bass back in my usual gig bag rather than the spare.
I also only had a strap with strap locks and no pins in the bass so i ended up fixing the pups with gaffa tape, wired them in with gaffa tape and used nails to hold the strap on.

[MarkG3]

I handily left my amp at home then I didn't realise until after the 30-45 min drive and set up that I had forgotten it, so I managed to get home pick it up drive back right in time for sound check. Felt like a right twat that I remembered the two 4x10s but not the amp..........

[yorks5stringer]

We used a dep drummer who on 3 different occasions forgot

a his drum stool
b his high hats
c his snare

He still advertises on his website as a "professional drummer"......!

[originalfunkbrother]

I once forgot the amp head but packed the bass, cables, cab and stand.

[JTUK]

[quote name='BurritoBass' timestamp='1333449746' post='1601746']
Can't believe in 23yrs of gigging I did this; arrived at the venue to soundcheck and started unpacking. I took the cab out of it's flight case and put my Orange Terror head on top. It then dawned on me I'd forgotten my leads bag! The head takes Speakon too so I was stuffed. The soundman didn't have one & the guys in my band hadn't even heard of Speakon. The support was an acoustic solo act. Of course I didn't even have a jack to jack or kettle lead either. D'oh! We're done so many kit shares and acoustic sets recently I don't think I'd taken my own rig since last November. I wound up going through the PA via a borrowed lead and fashioned a passable sound but genuinely can't believe it didn't occur. Has anyone bettered that? Forgotten your bass?
[/quote]

Sax layer turned up on the gig with me once. when asked where Iw as, his jaw dropped and said he plain forgot.. Gtr player had to drive home and get his bass.

[Deep Thought]

I'm a bugger for forgetting which way round the input/output jacks go on tuners and pedals (on the rare occasions when I use them), even after all these years, resulting in a 'why isn't this working?' moment.

[mep]

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1333451524' post='1601775']
Two 'schoolboys' on the trot the other night: first song I use the drop-D, then forget that the second song needs it back to E...so after an embarrassing start to that one, when the song finishes, I stomp the mute to check tuning, the guitarist asks me something...and I forget to unmute for the start of song three. Rrrrrrrgggghhhh...doh.
[/quote]

Time to consider a Hipshot D Tunder?

My worst Schoolboy errors;
Forgot my strap for a TV appearance and had to use my belt.
Forgot PA amp for a gig and had to drive back home to get it - 24 mile rond trip.
Let a guitarist tune my bass, which was well out. We had to stop the first song, retune and start again.