bartelby Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 [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...[/quote] I've done that. I'd even planned ahead and written in the set list in large red letters "TUNE BACK TO E". First song starts, red spotlight above me comes on right on to the set list. Learned that day to always used black! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brensabre79 Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Doing the PA for the covers band a couple of months ago, did the soundcheck, was having trouble getting the vocals through in the mix. Sorted it with a bit of EQ and setting everyone's onstage levels quite low... Just as we're about to start the set, the singer said to me, "Shall I plug this speaker in now?" I'd only plugged in one side! D'oh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete1967 Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 15 - 20 years ago I used to do loads of pit work... mostly semi pro theatre stuff. I'd had a bad day at work and turned up at the theatre in Coventry with my customary 15 mins to go... only to find it closed and realise that it was the venue from the week before and I should be in Lichfield... Lichfield CIvic Hall doesn't (or didn't then) have a pit so I had to walk in through the audience about half way into the first half... Doh.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobpalt Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 (edited) Turned up to play in a golf competition at a posh golf course in Northern Ireland after a heavy night before and forgot my golf clubs................. I got interviewed by the local paper after I returned from playing with borrowed clubs, all different, and came next to last, and the tag line was "and they think we Irish are thick"!!! Didnt have anything to say in my defence. I know a guy who went beach fishing for Thornback Ray in the Bristol Channel, and after hiking a mile around Sand Point got tackled up, only to find that instead of the frozen mackerel bait he should have had, he had brought a bag of frozen sprouts. Edited April 3, 2012 by bobpalt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seashell Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 [quote name='discreet' timestamp='1333457893' post='1601943'] Phil, you should steal Seashell's avatar pic - just to make the confusion complete. [/quote] The way to tell the difference is: if the post is about actually being able to play a bass properly and being in a band and stuff - it's Phil. If the post is some infantile nonsense in Off Topic - it's me!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassace Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I constantly have dreams/nightmares about many of the misdemeanors posted here, especially regarding forgotten leads/instruments/equipment. Fortunately I haven't suffered any of them for a long time. Before I played bass I was a jazz trombonist. I had been cleaning the slide at home and somehow when I arrived for the gig I had only half a trombone in the case. You can't do much with half a trombone now, can you? I can also remember on four occasions when musicians have turned up at the wrong gig and once the drummer set up his kit with the wrong band until the 'right' drummer turned up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throwoff Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Soundchecked a song in drop D, went on stage, hadn't retuned bass. First song on setlist has a huge open E with some overdrive and the guitar comes in underneith. Only it was a D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismuzz Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Nothing too disastrous for me thankfully (yet!) A few times during soundcheck I've panicked at the lack of output no matter how hard I turn up the master volume on my amp... Only to discover that my lead is on the floor instead of plugged into my bass.... Stupid stupid stupid! I once brought everything to a gig as usual... Bass, pedalboard, amp, cab, leads... Well... All leads except the speakon. Pretty odd considering my rig is always set up at home so I must had unplugged it then just thrown it on the floor :S thankfully the bassist from Collision Process offered to go and fetch his... And even let me borrow his Barefaced S12T! So that worked out pretty well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ras52 Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 [quote name='discreet' timestamp='1333456984' post='1601920'] . . . SPARE PANTS > TISSUES > DENTAL FLOSS > MOIST WIPES . . . [/quote] That probably needs a separate thread... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goblin Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 My old band have turned up at a gig in the past, sort of open air (was part of a big event but in a tent thing), where we rehearse was about 4 miles away, and given the event was in the centre of town, traffic was terrible. Got to Littleborough, loaded the cars up and headed into town, whilst setting up "errrr guys... where're my cymbals?" We were the only band too! That day I learnt some fairly interesting back roads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doddy Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 [quote name='throwoff' timestamp='1333461339' post='1602009'] Soundchecked a song in drop D, went on stage, hadn't retuned bass. First song on setlist has a huge open E with some overdrive and the guitar comes in underneith. Only it was a D. [/quote] The big question as to if it was a real schoolboy error is how did you recover? Panic and retune or simply go to the 2nd fret? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Vader Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 My favourite is back when i was in a band which used to smash up all our stuff at the end, i was a guitar player still back then, and had a yellow strat that i used to rebuild the day after every gig. After a monstrous crescendo ending and me whirling the thing round and bouncing it off the stage townsend style, the singer turned to me and reminded me that we had changed the set list that night, and i still had one more song to do. I had not brought a spare... I managed to shove enough bits back in with gaffa to get some sound out of it, and retuned it, and hobbled through the last song, with a little less gusto, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottomE Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I have mangaged to forget bass and kit bag before - not on the same night. Always happens when i am distracted either by not following my normal loading routine or if someone has rendez-vous'd at my place. Such a creature of habit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gust0o Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Guilty as charged, sah! I should be banged to rights for the following: [list] [*]Forgeting my leads [*]Not taking my bass off mute [/list] The sad part of the mute, was it came about on a track which has a bass intro... total f*** puppet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
risingson Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I made a massive, hugely foolish error a 5 months back! I was set to play in front of 10,000 people in an arena in Gothenburg Sweden, an important gig for us and a rare opportunity. Before I'd got to Sweden, I'd bought some D'Addario strings online, and decided a few hours before the gig started to restring and play them in a bit before I went on. So there I was in our changing room, happily cutting the strings off of my old bass behind the nut of my Lakland, only to pull out the strings and notice something odd about them... I'd accidentally bought short scales. I could have kicked myself for being so incredibly stupid, in fact I think I tried a few times. Luckily for me I managed to borrow the in-house bass player's Stingray 5 and everything was okay! Here's a pic of the Ray I ended up playing... lovely bass [sharedmedia=core:attachments:93700] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Playing the Xmas gig on Friday 23rd December at my local (George IV in Chiswick) we were going to record the gig plus I was bringing even more kit than usual because I had both guitarists' amps. I took the afternoon off work, spent the afternoon meticulously checking every single lead and cable for the PA, testing both basses I was taking plus my pedal board, and very carefully loading my car to make sure that everything fitted in and was stable. Had a shave & a shower, dresed carefully, went down to the car ... and the battery was completely flat. It was the one thing I hadn't tested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Burrito Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 I'm pleased I started this thread as I don't feel such a muppet now - I'm in good (bad) company it would seem! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Just remebered one, I do occasional dep work for a covers band and hadn't done a gig with them for a couple of months, went through the set-list a few days before but didn't bother practicing Buck Roges by Feeder thinking 'piece of piss, no need to rehearse that'. Come the gig I then play the verse in G minor rather than major and it's not until the second chorus that I clock why it didn't sound right........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Worst I do, and I do it every time, is mixing up the input and output up on my Zoom pedal. Obviously this results in no sound Thankfully the 'problem' is fully resolved by the time I've actually got to play. And for some reason I like to put the lead from my bass into the headphone socket on my amp...not once has this worked Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protium Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Schoolboy error: Playing a surface unsigned gig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musophilr Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 [quote name='discreet' timestamp='1333457893' post='1601943'] Phil, you should steal Seashell's avatar pic - just to make the confusion complete. [/quote] We don't think the cats are related Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 (edited) [quote name='Johnston' timestamp='1333468665' post='1602178'] You know the rules Pics or it never happened [/quote] Heh, pics from 20 years ago... some of them may possibly be in a shoebox hidden somewhere in my Mum and Dad's flat in Florence! In short, no pics of that at hand. However, I still have the leather miniskirt, the skimpy tops and a decent pair of stilettos, all of which I can still very comfortably fit in without a hint of shame (or, thanking luck and the gym, cellulite ), so I sort of could take a photo of myself wearing them now - although it'd be myself 20 years older... On second thoughts, for Discreet's sake, better not! Edited April 3, 2012 by bluejay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seashell Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 (edited) [quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1333470947' post='1602236'] On second thoughts, for Discreet's sake, better not! [/quote] Good grief no, he's having an episode right now!! Edit: I was going to say 'having a stroke' or 'having a seizure' but either of those phrases would just have made it worse! Edited April 3, 2012 by seashell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeystrange Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I once played the entire intro and first verse of a song completely wrong but still in the right key. The weird thing was our guitarist was also playing it wrong but playing exactly the same thing as me! It worked with the drums too so we somehow got away with it! Fell over the drum kit once too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin_lindsay Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 David Coulthard invited me to his 21st birthday bash. The band were great, and for sone strange reason he decided to get me up to play with them. I used the bassist's gorgeous vintage P-bass in Olympic White. Now, it was fancy dress and I was there - as a surfer - wearing a full wetsuit!!! I was pretty drunk, and was boiling, my head looked like a beetroot!! Anyhow, I strap the bass on and pluck a few notes - nothing! The guitarist checks my lead, still nothing. The amp is checked - nothing. The lead is changed - nothing! At that point the original bassist walks back on to the stage, leans down and turns up the volume knob on the bass!!! Aaaaagh!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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