Bizarre song requests

[Bassmonkey]

My band play typical indie/punk/guitar anthemic band covers. 2 guitars, bass and drums. At gigs we often get people asking if we can play X, Y or Z usually similar genres. At last nights gig however, a girl comes up and asks....could you play Never too much by Luther Vandross!!!
Now that's a great song but given Luther had one of the best ever soul voices, and the arrangement etc, that was never happening.

What the weirdest request you've had?

[Harryburke14]

I remember a bloke asking us if we could do any Lionel Ritchie after hearing an hour of indie and punk rock.

[spencer.b]

Jazz gig someone requested £1 fish !!

[Harryburke14]

[quote name='spencer.b' timestamp='1485702583' post='3225922']
Jazz gig someone requested £1 fish !!
[/quote]

come on ladies

[JapanAxe]

(1) Playing with an indie/rock/punk covers trio, got a request for the Spongebob Squarepants theme: 'He lives in a pineapple under the sea' etc.

(2) With a 50s /R'n'R all-male 4-piece, at a social club in the Welsh valleys (quite literally in the shadow of a mahoosive spoil heap), a lady of a certain age totters up to the stage and intones in a banshee-like voice: 'Play Tina Turner!'

[Lozz196]

In my old punk covers band people - usually drunk 20 something ladies - regularly used to ask for Kings of Leon. The singer regularly used to tell them to eff off.

[Roger2611]

We played a gig in a notorious Corby pub called the Phoenix, it had apparently just been refurbished, which seemed to equal the pool table had been recovered to remove the bloodstains and the walls had been painted in am attempt to hold them together slightly better!

We set up surrounded by the locals who made us feel most welcome with comments like "if you get in the way of the telly we'll kill you etc.!"

We set up and sound checked with Stereophonics "Local Boy" when this very large, very drunk, very tattoo'd Scotsman staggered offer and yelled you had better play some F*%king Coldplay......then is a high pitched angel like voice sung the words "Fix You"...turned and staggered out of the pub never to return!

We actually ended up having quite a good night and got out with all limbs and gear intact

[StephenYork]

Had a very drunk woman and equally offensive partner shouting "play some f***ing Rod Stuart!" in the singers face last night between every song in the second set.
If you want a jukebox just go to a pub with one rather than a live band!

[TrevorR]

Band line up... drums, bass, sax, acoustic/electric guitar. All male. First set covering Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, Fratellis, David Gray, Kinks, Oasis, Beatles etc... "Do you do anything by the Human League."

[Mykesbass]

[quote name='Harryburke14' timestamp='1485701803' post='3225912']
I remember a bloke asking us if we could do any Lionel Ritchie after hearing an hour of indie and punk rock.
[/quote]
Could have done Faith N More's version of Easy.

[BrunoBass]

We played at a wedding in deepest rural Wales last year and someone kept shouting out for a song by Super Furry Animals, which turned out to be an obscure album track. He found it utterly incomprehensible that we didn't know it.

[12stringbassist]

If I had a pound for every time some fool asks us for a Meatloaf song, I could stay at home.

I occasionally get asked for a song by The Arctic Monkeys and I just can't keep the politeness going. I just tell the person asking that I am not going to play music that I detest.

Last night someone cheerfully asked us to play [i]Shangalang[/i] by The Bay City Rollers and we hammered it out (seeing as it's in our set anyway). That shut him up.

Edited January 30, 2017 by 12stringbassist

[LewisK1975]

In our covers band we have a girl singer and do pretty much exclusively modern pop tunes, with a couple of older songs thrown in here and there. Relatively well known in the area for being one of the only bands who have a set like this, amongst a sea of dad rock bands.

We still get asked regularly if we do any AC/DC. My usual response is - 'Next week's band'll do that mate'.

[phil.c60]

On the other hand the Blues/Rock trio I was in a couple of years ago did play AC/DC, Hendrix, Gallagher etc. One very inebriated lady at a pub gig asked the singer if "We do any Dolly Parton". Unsurprisingly, the answer was no.

Edited January 30, 2017 by phil.c60

[Low End Bee]

Noisy punk/power pop originals band. Drunk woman stood right at the front shouted 'play something by the Eagles. Don't you know any Eagles' all gig. Boyfriend standing behind her who liked like Ronnie Kray just stared at us menacingly all gig. Very unnerving.
South African bloke shouted 'Stop playing this *** and '*** my mind with some Guns n Roses' for ages. Introduced all songs for the second part of the gig as Guns n Roses B sides and unreleased tracks. He changed his opinion of the band and loved all the GnR stuff!

[Huge Hands]

We, as a 1950's/60's blues group, whilst recently playing in a blues branded bar, got asked "do you do any ELO?" I thought that was hilarious!

Seriously though, I like it when bands totally flip tracks around and do them in a totally different style. I would have loved to hear an indie/punk interpretation of a Luther Vandross track!

[Bassmonkey]

We also got asked for Warpigs by Sabbath by an old boy at a gig. Please grandad !

[spectoremg]

[quote name='Bassmonkey' timestamp='1485700281' post='3225893']
...play X, Y or Z ...
[/quote]You might get a Rush fan asking you for YYZ one night.

Coat deployed.

[spectoremg]

Do punters think that pro bands can instantly play any idea that comes into their heads and that pub bands can therefore do the same?
I blame those TyPhoo chimps for all this; 'You hum it son and I'll play it'.

[Maude]

We always just tell them, "We'll do it at the end".
It keeps them there all night and we then just apologise and say the Landlord says we have to finish.

[T-Bay]

Tamworth Battle of the bands rules require all the bands to perform a track which has been in the charts. I remember a superb punk band (but sadly can't remember the name) play hit me baby one more time and blew EVERYONE away with it. I was talking with the singer afterwards and he said they first did it after being asked if they could do some Britney by a drunk lass at a gig. They practiced it for a laugh but found it worked really well and I have to agree with them.

[TrevorR]

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1485803696' post='3226862']
We always just tell them, "We'll do it at the end".
It keeps them there all night and we then just apologise and say the Landlord says we have to finish.
[/quote]

Our singer used to say, "We'll learn that one for next time..." which at a wedding gig is a funny thing to say. No one ever spotted the irony.

Speaking of irony, I was always astounded at the number of times we got asked for Easy by th e Commodores as a first dance considering the lyrics are (paraphrase) "I've grown to hate your guts and I can't stand you. Still, one more shag and by the time you wake up tomorrow I'll have cleared the house out and you'll never see me again, you witch."

[Bassmonkey]

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1485803696' post='3226862']
We always just tell them, "We'll do it at the end".
It keeps them there all night and we then just apologise and say the Landlord says we have to finish.
[/quote]

I like that one. Shall use it from now on in

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

My stock answer for daft daft song requests was "we don't do that one, but the next song contains some of the same notes".

Also if someone looked like they were about to make a request, the singer would announce on the mic "All song requests must be submitted on a fifty pound note."

[Mykesbass]

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1485807501' post='3226905']

Speaking of irony, I was always astounded at the number of times we got asked for Easy by th e Commodores as a first dance considering the lyrics are (paraphrase) "I've grown to hate your guts and I can't stand you. Still, one more shag and by the time you wake up tomorrow I'll have cleared the house out and you'll never see me again, you witch."
[/quote]

Do it in a medley with Band of Gold and Young Hearts Run Free then!!