How old were you when you did your first gig?

[Islander]

I was 13 or 14, playing trumpet and at the Royal Festival Hall (I played Mozart's Alleluia as soloist).  This was a Newham Academy of Music thing and one of a series of annual concerts called "Newham Goes to Town".  I remember being very nervous before the solo, but as soon as I started playing I was fine and the music took over.  What an experience!

 

[Maude]

Little bit of a late starter. 21, in a band called The Bobblehats at The Buccaneer in Gunnislake, Cornwall. 

A fantastic, distorted, ear shattering riot that saw us banned from ever playing there again. 😂

[lurksalot]

8 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Was it Mr Quigley's doing?

He was attempting to sway our budding new-wavism towards 70s cheese!

😂 I was trying to remember the name , good one, he didn’t mind the folk so much, even tried joining in , he was never too far from his guitar as I recall 😁.

 

[MichaelDean]

I played the Queen Vic in Stroud when I was 15. It was a band with my brother on guitar and vocals and his mate on drums and we were Team Catharsis. There were some originals and covers in the set. Went down reasonably well and afterwards one of the guys sat at the bar complimented my playing on Walk on the Wild Side, which was nice!

[miles'tone]

11 hours ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Now that I'd like to see pics / footage of... 

Me too. Unfortunately it was 1993 so no smart phones and everyone was too poor to own a camera. 

Also it was in the roughest pub in Rhyl that was full of all the types that were barred from everywhere else. I remember thinking at the time that we could actually die tonight!

We opened with a fast cocktail jazz rendition of the Star Wars theme and everyone rushed towards the stage. I was actually shocked that they didn't attack us but instead, everyone stated cheering and freaky dancing with huge grins and laughter. They got it.

It was right there that the power of music and spectacle was revealed to me.

We quickly followed with our turbo flamenco number,

El Gringo - Master Of The Bingo.

 

I also realise that some things are best remembered simply in our memories! 😂

[Jackroadkill]

10 hours ago, Maude said:

A fantastic, distorted, ear shattering riot that saw us banned from ever playing there again. 😂

 

Now that's a result!

[nilorius]

I had 19. Iwas ok because i knew what exactly must i play. It happened at local club, not much listeners, as i remember they where changing all the time, some went for new drinks or toilet but everything was fine. It went for 1 hour.

[Waddo Soqable]

26 minutes ago, nilorius said:

I had 19. Iwas ok because i knew what exactly must i play. It happened at local club, not much listeners, as i remember they where changing all the time, some went for new drinks or toilet but everything was fine. It went for 1 hour.

Assuming it was "back in the day" .. Did you have to play a load of communist party stuff in there as well ? 

[Hellzero]

It was after my studies, at 22 years old, in 1987, and the small audience at the pub was as drunk as we were. The ephemere band was called Loss Ethyloss... It says a lot.

 

I really started something interesting in my 30th and it went on until my mid 40th, playing almost every week.

 

And I decided to stop, because I was totally fed up.

 

Now, I'm 57 years old and record and play for my computer. 😂

[nilorius]

54 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Assuming it was "back in the day" .. Did you have to play a load of communist party stuff in there as well ? 

No, just for simple people, funk covers.

[musicbassman]

1970, and this is embarrassing.

I’ve possibly done a couple of thousand gigs by now, and pretty well all are forgotten, but you always remember the first, don’t you ?

This was in Exeter, and my first proper gig at 18. I was playing a Danelectro Longhorn bass through a Linear Concord amp and an old Selmer 2x15 cabinet.

The band had rehearsed in the local church hall since forever, but I don’t think the songs were getting any better. I can remember playing Taste’s ‘What’s Going On’, Hendrix’s ‘Cross Town Traffic’ and Cream’s ‘White Room’ amongst others.

We got a gig in a local youth club about a mile from the church hall where we’d been rehearsing and also kept our gear, but as we had no means of transport we were seriously planning on CARRYING the gear the mile long walk to the club. Then realised at the last minute this was a completely daft idea, so managed to persuade a reluctant builder neighbour to take us there in his van.

The club was full of bovver boys/skinheads and their girls, who were all wearing identical short coats which I seem to think were called Crombies or something like that.  They scowled at us as we set up and things didn’t get any better.

We’d only played four or five numbers (which had been completely ignored by the audience) when the doors burst open and a rival gang of skinheads from another club turned up and a full scale brawl quickly ensued, chairs and tables flying everywhere. To try and continue playing would have been pointless.

After a short while the local police turned up and cleared the place.

We were paid £8. £5 went to the builder for the van, and as this was pre-decimal times we were left with 15 shillings each. 

[BlueMoon]

I just did a gig that was one of the most fulfilling of any that I’ve done in a long while. It was a freebie that our singer arranged at a care-home, which is local to his place. These folks, I tell you, they were spontaneous, involved and we just belted out a range of “oldies for oldies”. The cherry on the cake was when one of the administrators said they’d seen several folks who have dementia and were singing along with seemingly no issues. That touched me and reminded me that whether it be my first gig or my last gig………it’s all about bringing a positive feeling to all the participants.

[Beedster]

17. Terrified 😕

[TimR]

Probably 17 on Bass but Id played in the Albert Hall and football stadiums in a marching band before then.

 

We played a couple of birthday parties in houses and a couple of pubs (half the band wern't old enough to drink).

 

We progressed to hiring a school hall and then a community hall with a big stage and a couple of hundred tickets sold for a multi band line up. Hired a PA and operator. The guitarist and I had to sign the waiver as we were the only 2 over 18. No security, a couple of mates taking cash on the door. 

 

Back in the days before health and safety and the requirement to insure everything to the hilt wasn't as rigid. 

Edited April 30, 2023 by TimR

[diskwave]

25 minutes ago, TimR said:

Back in the days before health and safety and the requirement to insure everything to the hilt was as rigid. 

And wasn't it great huh. Everything was just loose and free back then....I really miss it in todays overregulated risk averse environment. People took chances back then...sometimes a cab would fall on you and you were hurt, you might get electrocuted  but your first thought wasn't to sue the dude who set it up or sold it to ya....no one cared..life was kinda free and real.  I could rant for hrs about this, anyway thks for pointing it out. 

[Crusoe]

16 or 17. I played bass and sang, but couldn't do both on some of the songs we covered eg "All Day and All of The Night". We also covered Peggy Sue and Sheena is a Punk Rocker. The next gig we did was a memorial concert for a guy in another band in the area, who has died in a car crash. By this point we were covering Joy Division's "Transmission" and "Isolation" (well, Therapy's cover of Isolation). That was the last gig I ever played and I loved every minute of both. 

[snorkie635]

8 hours ago, Crusoe said:

16 or 17. I played bass and sang, but couldn't do both on some of the songs we covered eg "All Day and All of The Night". We also covered Peggy Sue and Sheena is a Punk Rocker. The next gig we did was a memorial concert for a guy in another band in the area, who has died in a car crash. By this point we were covering Joy Division's "Transmission" and "Isolation" (well, Therapy's cover of Isolation). That was the last gig I ever played and I loved every minute of both. 

Why only two gigs if, as you say, you "loved every minute of both"?

[Franticsmurf]

I was 25, it was 1989 in a well known pub venue and as I recall I was obsessed with getting my guitar tuned correctly and spent far too long with the tuner. Only to have the sound guy (who introduced us) knock the headstock and tuners just as the drummer was counting in the first number. 😃

[Waddo Soqable]

1 hour ago, snorkie635 said:

Why only two gigs if, as you say, you "loved every minute of both"?

Duude... Maybe he got all his fingers sliced off in a horrific accident the next day or something..

[gjones]

Aged 18, for a proper ticketed gig. It was at a local nightclub supporting some art school band or other. We were called Peach Melba.

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by gjones

[Crusoe]

1 hour ago, snorkie635 said:

Why only two gigs if, as you say, you "loved every minute of both"?

Things just never worked out. The singer and guitarist went to university. Other stuff happened.

[snorkie635]

Just now, Crusoe said:

Things just never worked out. The singer and guitarist went to university. Other stuff happened.

Fair comment - just wondered.

[Waddo Soqable]

29 minutes ago, snorkie635 said:

Fair comment - just wondered.

There you go, all digits intact..

[BigRedX]

My first public performance in front of a paying audience was in 1976 aged 15. It was held in the local old-people's community centre and organised by various music teachers in Loughborough one of whom was the woman who taught the folk guitar evening class that myself and two friends went to. We played 3 semi-improvised instrumentals that we had written ourselves, much to the bemusement of the audience as the rest of the evening was full of earnest teenagers playing well-known classical music. The line-up of our ensemble was me on guitar and piano, and my friends playing guitar and percussion (bongos and chime bars).

 

My first proper gig in a more conventional venue was in 1981 at the Ad-Lib Club (later the be better know as The Garage) in Nottingham. It was the only time the full line-up of my first band The Midnight Circus played live, but as we weren't sure exactly who from the band was going to be able to do the gig we played under the pseudonym of The Sickle Clowns (if you know your Pretty Things songs you'll get it). I played half the gig on guitar and the other half on bass.

[Waddo Soqable]

This would've been a little bit after the first gig described as I seem to be on the Sattelite (or whatever it was) bass that I borrowed for a while, replacing the crappy woolworths thing. 

Can't remember where this was at all, surprised I still had the pic. Looks to be attempting vocals too, bad idea.