Do the big name acts make cock-ups like us mortals?

[leschirons]

The last clanger I dropped at a gig was not just an odd bum note. Albeit on guitar, I've no excuse, I thought I could do something I was not capable of.

There are gigs where I'm spot on all night and gigs where I'm not. I assume the majority on BC are not pro musicians so we all probably have gigs from time to time that don't go too well due to a mistake.

However, when I pay a lot of money to go and see a "name", I have, only on one occasion heard an almighty cock-up on stage. You may say that that's why they are name acts but we all know that lots of success doesn't always require lots of talent. I know they are usually quality players with years of experience and I expect them to be perfect but I guess anybody can in theory, have an off night[size=4]. [/size]

[size=4]Anybody here heard a massive cock-up from a serious pro band or artiste? I don't just mean a vocalist who can't quite hit a note but a real mistake as we understand it. [/size]

Edited October 5, 2014 by leschirons

[thisnameistaken]

I'd rather hear a band make mistakes because at least you know they're working hard, not relying on a DAW to ensure that everything is flawless.

Although if you tour something for long enough it's going to become pretty routine, no matter how difficult it is.

[icastle]

Never...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzKRcA8hCns

[discreet]

http://youtu.be/ewTJWKeGLAY

[stingrayPete1977]

Both Ampeg rigs failed at the Birmingham Soundgarden gig just as they were kicking in with their medley of hits and best tracks, ok so the tech and crew dropped the ball rather than the band but a simple DI box fail safe should have been in place or within moments imo, even as a pub bassist I would have been happier to have a less than ideal bass sound than nothing for 4 songs whilst having a strop and giving one bass away to an audience member and throwing the other on the floor, below average performance really imo, strangely it was still a good gig!

Edited October 4, 2014 by stingrayPete1977

[SteveK]

Nothing wrong with mistakes! In fact, I long for the "good ol' days" when you could hear a guitarist [i]not quite[/i] making the phrase, or a vocalist [i]not quite[/i] hitting the note, the odd dodgy drum fill... that's what made music exciting - the feeling that you were getting a performance... something unique!

Played with The Eagles earlier this year - I was looking forward to seeing and hearing the legends. They came on stage and sounded awesome, guitars, voices, the whole thing sounded perfect... in fact, a little too perfect! Later in the evening I was told by "someone in the know" virtually all the show was "playback"!.. very sad!
Just to carry on with the name dropping: We played on the bill with The Who in Vienna a few years ago... they totally cocked up My Generation

[RhysP]

Saw Chris squire fall flat on his face during his solo spot on a Yes tour in Cardiff a while ago.

[leschirons]

Blimey, some big names there. So they are all human.

[BassTractor]

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1412466424' post='2569187']
they totally cocked up my generation
[/quote]

NOW you understand? I've known this since '68.
My parents taught me so...

[wateroftyne]

One of my favourites...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_ZZI0ZX82M

[Bolo]

Metallica is well known for forgetting lyrics, skipping a verse or chorus here and there, and of course being complete w***ers.

[leschirons]

Ha, and it always appears to be the most well known number. The one I heard was a couple of years ago at Larry Carlton's gig at the end of the guitar festival. He'd hired some Euro musicians for the gigs over here and the drummer had a car crash at the end of Room 335. Red faces all round and quite a few dirty looks on stage, especially in front of what was probably a 99% audience of players.

[Bobthedog]

I have been to a couple of gigs and concerts where mistakes have been made including the front line starting a different song to the back line and a singer on another occasion doing just that too. My father's band (semi-pro) used to play a song where they just repeated the same lyrics all the way through as a result of their previously full time pro singer forgetting the lyrics and doing the same; it became their standard method of performing the song,

[Phil Adams]

This'll explain everything:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=FroICbwvJII

[Lynottfan]

In answer to the question YES and big time. I think that a name player is just that, a name. If you were signed and touring you to would be a name player, it doesn't mean they are actually any good, as we all know some are great, but if you look back through history even at some of the all time greats and the "states" that some of them may have been in and their playing is appalling. I look at it as a great leveller, that at the end of the day we are all just playing our instruments and I agree that skills levels will vary but we all mess in the end at some point.

[jgmh315]

I heard Satriani play a bum note once!

[bobbytodd]

don't know if you can class it as a mistake but iron maidens dave murry never seems to play the same solo twice.and kirk hammet is a whole bag of bum notes

[MacDaddy]

due to illicit substances, at the MTV awards in 1990, Poison guitarist CC Deville starts to play the wrong song.

[Lozz196]

Couple of years ago I saw Motley Crue and Mick Mars just stopped playing in one song. No idea why, but the rest of the band carried on, he sorted his guitar out then started up again.

[essexbasscat]

Not only did the singer come in early for the second verse in the recording studio, they left it in the finished version, which is still class
[url="http://youtu.be/D2zWXpdZo8g"]http://youtu.be/D2zWXpdZo8g[/url]

[White Cloud]

I saw Rush fall flat following a complete Alex Lifeson howler in Glasgow.

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='essexbasscat' timestamp='1412505561' post='2569370']
Not only did the singer come in early for the second verse in the recording studio, they left it in the finished version, which is still class
[media]http://youtu.be/D2zWXpdZo8g[/media]
[/quote]
works thought doesn't it? I've always thought he meant to do it,
In the band I play in we had a similar thing on a track we did, we did a long outro with the intention on fading it out, so we didn't know when to stop, after about 2 minutes the drummer decided to finish it by doing a out of time roll and crashes on the cymbals, sounded like a drum kit falling down the stairs it sound so good we left it in!

[TheGreek]

I saw Victor Wooten at a Hartke seminar in Essex..he made plenty.

[BassTractor]

In the seventies, Daniel Wayenberg, famous Dutch pianist, made a major cock-up when performing Johns Cage's piece 4'33" in a tiny French village.

Wayenberg and his team drove this large truck/van/lorry into the village centre, unloaded a concert grand and tuned it meticulously before Wayenberg sat down and performed the piece for the villagers, who of course had had ample time to come and see this marvel - seeing as the tuning took some time.

However, the egg timer used by mr. Wayenberg was not that dependable, and it rang too early, and so the piece only lasted 3'57" before the concert grand was loaded into the truck again and the musician and his team made a hasty retreat, leaving a bunch of flabbergasted villagers who, as can be imagined, had never heard so short a version before.

...and as you can imagine, mr. Wayenberg's hat after this cock-up contained the royal sum of 0'00".


(Edited slightly as Ganymede whispered some stuff into my ear.)

Edited October 5, 2014 by BassTractor

[MacDaddy]

as this is a bass forum, i'm suprised no-one has mentioned Trevor Boulder and the bass line to Jean Genie.