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Gig Diary - Wish I’d Kept One


Lozz196
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I’ve just read (Sir) Horace (Gentleman) Panters book, Ska’d For Life, and one of the things that impressed me was his recollection of gigs.

Like many of us on here I’ve done stacks of gigs, however due to me liking a drop or two when I was younger I’ve little recollection of many of them. This extends to gigs I’ve done after I quit, I reckon I’ve just ruined my memory. I’ve even met up with past band mates at times who have reminisced about certain gigs we did and I can’t remember them at all.

So upshot is, I really wish I’d kept a gig diary of where/when/which band/gear used/what went well/what didn’t go well. Hindsight eh?

 

 

 

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Incidentally, one of the greatest gigs I ever attended was at the Hammersmith Odeon, with The Pretenders and The Specials supporting The Who.

When I read Ska'd For Life I was particularly looking forward to Horace's recollections of that gig.

He absolutely panned it, said it was the most boring thing he'd ever attended.

Ah well ... maybe best just forget the diary then. 😂😂😂

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25 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I made a note of mine over the last 5 or so years, and it is interesting to note. Just simple notes on it, not settings etc, just how it went, what out of the usual happens etc. Normally a couple of lines

 

 

That’s it, just what I wish I’d done, for me it would be something like:

Knock Off - Sat 02 June 2018

Rebellion Festival, The Melkweg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 

Fender US Precision/Tech21 Para Driver/Provided Ampeg SVT 810 Stack

Good - Band played well/no mistakes, great audience reaction

 Not Good - landing in Schipol at 23:30 to a message from our hotel saying “thanks for your cancellation” then having to sort out another hotel. Aaarrgh!

 

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My last gig was Cheltenham races. The diary would be something like this...

Friday March 13th Race week day four. 
Arrive at 5:30,  bring guitar down from upstairs.

Quick set up, with people screaming in my face to play wonderwall. Someone shouts ‘3-4’ when I check mic. Funniest thing I’ve ever heard. honest .

Something about a virus, probably nothing. 
Horde arrives at 6, frantic text from the boss, ‘get started’. 
Half hour rotations begins with the other two acts. People scream ‘Oasis’ and ‘Wonderwall’ every 2-3 seconds for four hours. Smell is overwhelming.

Everyone laughs at a passing taxi driver for wearing a face mask.  Something about a virus. People still screaming for oasis and wonderwall. 

At some point in evening unknowingly catch said virus. 

 11:30. Collect pay and trudge home, safe in the knowledge that I’ve sworn that this this will be my last race week gig. 
 


 

Very tired wash when I get home, Wife is worried about some virus going around ...

 

Still, next year I reckon I’ll go back to bass, so silver lining an all. 

 


 

Edited by gafbass02
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Robert Fripp being the anal-retentive kept and keeps meticulous journals to this day. To the point of who he's shagged when and where. I think that part was because of his early competitions with Greg Lake. And then Tony Levin likes to take photos so you got one heckuva diary of Crimson '81on.

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I kept one years ago when I was playing in a free-form jazz-metal band. Strange things happened frequently and I'm glad I documented much of it. Those gigs, where we did not have any actual songs to play when we went onstage, were far more interesting than later years when I was in bands who wrote songs and rehearsed and such. For example:


"22 January 1994 w/ The Glam Tarts

We arrived fairly early in the Rock Garden for the Glam Tarts show. We were understandably shaken up, having just met Aidan Walsh for the first time, so we sought refuge in the sanctuary of the Rock Garden's compact dressing room. There, we met this guy who was unusual in the sense that he was damp from head to toe. We didn't really have much of a choice but to engage in conversation with him. It transpired he was a harmonica player or, at least, he had a harmonica. He was excited to hear Wassie was something of a harmonica maestro himself. They had a brief harmonica jam and the lads discovered the reason this bloke was wet was because he had jumped into the river Liffey earlier on. He asked if he could play with us later. The bloke then said "Anybody messes with me and they get this…" and pulled an iron bar from his coat and proceeded to whack it off the wall of the dressing room.

At this stage Security were summoned and the fruit was ejected from the venue. It made everybody edgy, but seemed to effect Wassie more than most. Perhaps this is why he lunged at the Glam Tarts singer when the guy strolled onstage later in the evening. He was dressed up as his Las Vegas-esque character Tony St. James and appeared to have come on to get us off stage. It was during Alan Ryan's gong solo. Wassie had shared a spliff with their roadie shortly before we went onstage and was clearly feeling it. He didn't know the Glam Tarts dressed up at all and, as far as he was concerned, this was just another psycho attacking him. Wassie decided to get his shot in first and lunged at him as he tried to usurp the mic. A brief struggle resulted in Wassie jamming his elbow in to Glam Tart's throat, screaming "You're mad! You're mad!" all the while. Needless to say, the bouncers didn't like this at all and made their way onstage to dislodge Wassie's elbow. The rest of us, taking the hint, left peacefully.

Set List:
Traffic Jam
What's Your Name?
Manifestation Of Intelligent Extra-Terrestrial Lifeforms (Incorporating gong solo)

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I’ve got my last 20 years worth of gigs covered by spreadsheets. Not as comprehensive as a diary of course but each line triggers quite detailed memories of each gig. Before that a bit hazy but still some good details. And I’ve got every musician I’ve ever played with on lists. For instance in excess of 100 different sax players. Phew.

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