Hottest and coldest gigs

[Dom in Dorset]

the recent weather has got me thinking about the extremes of temperature I've played in.
My hottest gig has to be Glastonbury 2010, in a big top , mid day on the hottest day of the year, it was like an oven. The tent was full....of people lying down trying to find some shade and slowly cooking. I remember little of the gig it'self other than going on stage, playing the notes and singing the words. I could hardly see due to sweat filling my eyes. As soon as we were off stage the fiddle player and myself went straight to the nearest bar and ordered two pint of lager each, we drank the first while the second was being poured.
My coldest was probably last November in an old barn with holes in the wall, I was depping for a country band who wear black western shirts on stage so no keeping your coat on.
Once the crowd started dancing the temperature did rise a little but my fingers only just coped with it.

[matski]

Don't know about the hottest, but the coldest was definitely when I played an outdoor gig in Poland in January a few years back. The outside temperature was -10. My fingers were bloody cold at the start of the gig, then warmed up a bit and then got really cold again. The only brief respite was when I found the sweet spot in front of one of those rocket engine type space heaters - typically about 5 minutes before our set ended. Doh!

Edited May 7, 2018 by matski

[CHW]

When playing in a ceilidh band you end up doing a fair few gigs in a barn. It was a New Year’s Eve gig, somewhere on the Yorkshire Moors, stage was a trailer, seats were straw bales, unheated barn venue, beer from a barrel in the corner.

Top night if bloody cold. 

Credit to Fender Mexico, everything stayed in tune very well. 

[Staggering on]

Like many of you I've played so many hot gigs none really stands out but I remember the coldest one.

I was playing(depping) tenor banjo(!) in a Dixieland/trad band called Professor Futz and His Band Of Nutz who played gigs wearing clown costumes.It was a strange band and the costumes were part of the "schtick" but the players were legit musicians, many of them played in the Toronto Symphony.This gig was an outdoor strolling gig at the Toronto zoo in February in the mid 1970's and the temp was -21or -22(I can't remember but it was COLD).We were all wildly out of tune and the valves, slides and keys of the wind instruments would freeze so the trombone player might be stuck in first position and that sort of thing.We would play a few songs and then go inside to warm up and return to the cold for another few songs.It was crazy but we got paid.I played the intro to the first song on banjo in the key we had agreed on(C) and when the band came in I thought they were fumbling around a bit.At the end of the song the trumpet player asked why I had played it in C#.The cold had shrunk the strings so they were a half tone higher, it made the rest of the gig pretty interesting and one I won't forget.

[Maude]

Spent a whole day underground supplying background music for some terrible Christmas fair. It was at Carnglaze Caverns which was an underground slate mine and an amazing place. One of the caverns (used by the Navy a long time ago as a rum store) is used as a music venue but is at a constant low temperature and very damp. Outside was below freezing so slowly throughout the day your body temperature just got lower and lower. It was only the beginnings of our acoustic band so wasn't a full on set up but still a good experience. No pictures of us but this is 'The Rum Store' with the stage right down at the far end. Then another picture from Google to show the stage area closer. 

There are further caverns the deeper you go including on with an underground lake where Echo and the Bunnymen took the shot for their Ocean Rain album cover. The boat is still down there but they wouldn't let us recreate the shot for our first album. 

Anyway, it took about the same amount of time as we were down there to warm up again

[T-Bay]

Carnglaze caverns are amazing as a venue, we try to get down there at least once a year.

[chris_b]

A few years ago I did an outdoor gig at the Blues On The Bay Festival, Warrenpoint, NI. It was a bright but cloudy day, bitter wind and the only gig I've got sunburn and frost bite at the same time. 5 layers including a fleece and overcoat couldn't keep out the cold.

[Maude]

1 hour ago, T-Bay said:

Carnglaze caverns are amazing as a venue, we try to get down there at least once a year.

Playing or viewing? 

[T-Bay]

3 minutes ago, Maude said:

Playing or viewing? 

Sadly only viewing so far, been six times in the last five years, I love caves and mines, and I love music so it seems a good combination! Next one should be the Pink Floyd tribute in June, just waiting on friends to confirm.

[casapete]

Whilst nothing like some of the horror stories of minus temperatures above, we used to play at a venue in Hull called Jazzbo Browns, every Thursday night. It was a big place, with a well stocked bar and some wacky decor. Towards the end of it’s life the place was starting to get very sad, and one of their cost cutting measures was to do away with heating. Being situated near the banks of the river Humber it used to blow a gale right into the pub, where the double doors didn’t close properly. This made playing there in winter really cold, so the band gradually started wearing more clothes each week. We got on to fingerless gloves, then coats, then woolly hats, and it culminated with me bringing a convector heater which I placed near my mic stand.

Can’t understand why we lost the gig....

[TheRev]

The hottest was an outdoor gig at the Bridport- West Bay carnival torchlight procession. We were set up on a flatbed trailer, a small distance away from the bonfire. Turns out it wasn't far enough away when the bonfire was lit. our guitarist couldn't actually play because the bridge on his guitar got too hot to touch. We had to stop and take cover from the heat until the fire had died down to mere 15ft flames before we could get back on stage.

The coldest was on the patio of a house of one of the contestants on 'Come dine with Me'. It was April and below freezing. The producer had us in in position for about 30 minutes before the filming even started and then we had to do three run-throughs for camera angles etc. so that by the time came for the final take everyone's fingers were pretty much useless. The only person who was even close to warm was our mate in the furry badger suit.

[bassbiscuits]

Hottest - a small duo gig at a country pub where they'd put us directly in front of a big roaring log fire. Half my face got completely grilled and red and shiny, and I felt physically ill. The whole experience was hideous.

Coldest? Probably the gig i did last Christmas for a local street fayre on the back of a lorry. Utterly perishing, frozen fingers etc. Nice.

[Frank Blank]

Hottest - Phoenix Festival 1996, Guardian Tent, phew.

Edited May 8, 2018 by Frank Blank

[Cato]

Kings of Leon at the old Birmingham Academy  on what ever tour it was before 'Sex on Fire' propelled them to arena and stadium status.

The old academy was a smallish, partially underground venue, either it didn't have air con or it wasn't able to cope.

Every packed gig i went to there was usually a pretty sweaty affair but that Kings of Leon gig, on what turned out to be the hottest day of that year, was ridiculous. The atmosphere was so humid that the walls were wet and the staff were handing out water, not just to those at the front but to everyone they could reach.

When I came out of that gig my clothes were so drenched that they were stuck to me.

[Bilbo]

Switching on Christmas Lights somewhere one year. Bloody freezing. 

[lurksalot]

On 5/7/2018 at 14:23, T-Bay said:

Carnglaze caverns are amazing as a venue, we try to get down there at least once a year.

Not gig related , but the family still finds immense fun recalling about our visit there. The guide was hilarious , it was not that he was a comedian , he was a lovely local lad but his mannerisms, descriptions and presentation were awful to the degree of being pant wettingly awesome. 

[goblin]

Playing at the Etihad Statium back in December - definitely the coldest I've been on stage.

The hottest? There're several, recently was probably on Saturday at a theatre in Royal Leamington Spa, it was bloody hot that day. Even just getting gear from the car to the loading dock was hard enough. Just after sound check, we piled into the pub for some cold soft drinks, before the gig, me and the drummer sat in our dressing room in our underwear... After the gig, I had to peel my jeans off. Was bloody boiling.

Edited May 8, 2018 by goblin

[rogerstodge]

5 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

Hottest - Phoenix Festival 1996, Guardian Tent, phew.

Which band Frank? I played the Phoenix festival '96

[Frank Blank]

I wasn’t performing, I was driving and tech for Collapsed Lung.