Playing whilst Sick (Tales/regrets when the show went on..)

[MacDaddy]

Does mental illness count?

 

Did a gig where the vocalist's mother had him sectioned during the break. She dragged him off stage and drove him straight to a mental health institution.

 

The rest of the band discussed what songs we could play without the vocalist. When the guitarist said 'well, that's a cosy 10 minutes ', I suggested 'Jazz Odyssey ' .

 

True story.

[gafbass02]

I just got home. Survived. Slept most of the day and arrived just before start. Sat down for a few songs and didn’t sing. So glad that’s over!! 

[Phil Starr]

18 hours ago, PaulThePlug said:

Which Thumb... Left?

At least it stopped you putting over the fretboard!..

Right Thumb. On the plus side I don't use a pick but I wished that day I had worked on a floating thumb. Fortunately it was a good gig and the adrenaline kicked in, best pain killer there is but driving home was no fun.

[Phil Starr]

14 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

Did a gig where the vocalist's mother had him sectioned during the break.

If they start sectioning vocalists there won't be too many bands left

[Mykesbass]

19 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

Our singer collapsed at our last gig so that was probably one step too far.

 

Was rehearsing (rhythm guitar) with a big band many years ago when the pianist, immediately behind me, fell off his stool. After the initial laugh at a bit of clumsiness I realised the poor man wasn't messing and had sadly died from a heart attack. 

[gafbass02]

Funnily enough, my keys player had a heart attack on stage once too. He survived thank goodness. 

Edited December 29, 2022 by gafbass02

[knirirr]

21 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

After one gig where I had a few extra breaks I routinely carry Imodium in the car..

 

 

Always a good idea to have that on hand. I also have a stash of these in the car as well in case of surprise migraine.
During the gig mentioned here I was somewhat off-balance but at least the initial effects of the illness earlier in the week (collapsing on the floor and vomiting) didn't manifest themselves.

Edited December 29, 2022 by knirirr

[Mudpup]

11 hours ago, Mykesbass said:

Was rehearsing (rhythm guitar) with a big band many years ago when the pianist, immediately behind me, fell off his stool. After the initial laugh at a bit of clumsiness I realised the poor man wasn't messing and had sadly died from a heart attack. 

Well, that's this thread owned then.....

[DGBass]

I played a gig years ago (1999) where i'd badly hurt my right ankle to the point of not being able to stand. We had a gig booked to support swedish metal band Psycore ( who went on to become Swedens Finest ) at a well known Glagow rock / indie venue. Rather than cancel and/or miss the chance to meet them and get our copies of I'm not one of Us signed, my band mates collected me, lifted me into a car and drove me to the gig. Just before positioning me on stage they filled me up with pain killers, anti inflamatory's and fixed a splint to my right leg. I played an hour set rooted to the spot while swaying dangerously to the left on occasion and don't remember a great deal about it at all. I did meet Hansi Baumgartner in the backstage dressing rooms as ours and Psycore's were next door to each other. He let me use his rig which consisted of two Marshall DBS heads through a DBS 4x12 and a DBS 2x15. This the only photo I have of the gig that night and I don't look deleriously in pain or about to fall over, but I was.

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by DGBass

[casapete]

A few years back I broke my shoulder quite badly, and couldn’t play bass guitar for a while.

(A worrying time for me as I play for a living and my partner was struggling with her job too.)

My band at the time allowed me to play our gigs for about a 3 month period using a Roland

keyboard (which I purchased on here) for bass duties and could manage with my good arm/hand.

As I also couldn’t drive it was quite a nice change, being able to enjoy the hospitality on gigs

and all without a bass round my neck, strangely liberating. Then gradually moved on to a light

short scale bass for a while before getting back to my Stingray, and being sober again!

[Leonard Smalls]

7 hours ago, DGBass said:

Psycore

Always liked "The Zoo". Very funky for metal!

 

 

[Trueno]

I’ve had Crohns Disease forever, so I’ve felt bad for most of my gigs. I found that when you start from a low point the shot of adrenalin is more profound. Being in a band long term runs down my reserves of physical and (particularly) mental energy, so two years at a time is about my limit. I’ve given up gigging completely now… next time the phone rings with an enticing prospect it will be “thanks but no thanks”.

 

PS… a full year without a band and I’m feeling great.

[Maude]

On 29/12/2022 at 07:44, Phil Starr said:

If they start sectioning vocalists there won't be too many bands left

If they start sectioning vocalists there'll be a lot of nervous looking drummers hiding behind their kits. 😁

[dmccombe7]

We played a gig with Glam band and our singer had food poisoning that day. Vomiting and other things before we went on, at the break and as soon as they came off stage. During the gig you couldn't tell they were unwell apart from not moving about as much. The gig was that good we were asked to do the Xmas gig this year and booked for next years too all based on that one gig with a very sick singer.

Same venue Xmas gig the other singer had a bad cold / sore throat but luckily our other singers in the band were able to step up and take over the higher parts and the more difficult songs. Think we dropped one song on the night because the singer was struggling at that point.

In the mid 80's i broke my leg playing football and the band decided to take 2 weeks off work in summer and we did a mini tour around England. I had a roadie do all the lifting and set up of my then heavy gear so that was good.

Dave

Edited December 30, 2022 by dmccombe7