assault?

[gjones]

I've played some rough places that sound a bit like that venue. The good thing is that the locals tended to beat the shit out of one another rather than the band.

[Downunderwonder]

10 hours ago, gjones said:

I've played some rough places that sound a bit like that venue. The good thing is that the locals tended to beat the shit out of one another rather than the band.

How do they go on tonsil tongue massages?

[Bassfinger]

On 03/03/2024 at 16:27, skidder652003 said:

Gig last night, rough old dive, bruiser landlord ( nice bloke mind), dodgy clientele etc. p1issed up girl decides to invade the stage several times screeching into the mic. Tops off the evening by jumping on stage and grabbing our singers head and sticking her tongue down our straight female singers throat ( not impressed) and to end a lovely evening, scouser crack head screaming at everyone to f@@k off for 10 minutes straight.

Venue loves the band, wants to rebook in October… opinions?

Happened really fast, our singers a tough old cookie and pushed her away calling her a dirty b1tch.

In an ideal world I guess you would call the fuzz but it was 1am and she just wanted to get home.

Dont think we will be returning to this particular Torbay establishment.

Just asked Mrs Bassfinger, ex defective [sic] inspector. She says sexual assault. Fair chance would get charged with something different, but that's what she would arrest for under the circumstances described.

[40hz]

Not to sound like I'm criticizing anyone's personal choices of venues, or where their bands play, but this is precisely why I stopped doing pub gigs. Functions/weddings still have twits, but IME, you don't really get that menacing 'anything could happen' vibe with them.

[chris_b]

Back in the 70's John Wayne bar room brawls were pretty common. The advice we always got was, keep playing and they'll ignore you. . . . we did, and they ignored us. The only punch up I've seen on a gig in the last 20 years was a fight in a pub in Dove and that was pretty tame in comparison.

[Rich]

Before I joined the ska band in late 2017, they played at a pub one night when a fight broke out, and they only stopped playing when a chair was thrown out of a window (in a Wild West stylee) and broken glass went everywhere. We've not been back there since...  In answer to the OP, I wouldn't go back to that venue if they paid me 200 quid and a steak dinner. There is never an excuse for stage invasion or assaulting the band. 

[Huge Hands]

Just before Christmas I played a gig with a highly intoxicated middle aged lady in the audience who spent the whole night trying to make it all about her, trampling through the "stage" area during breaks and tripping over/pulling up cables etc whilst trying to "have a shot" on our instruments ("Go on, giz a go....")

 

We begrudgingly just about put up with her trying to sing and cuddle us all until, as we were packing away she started trying to lift my shirt.  From what she was mumbling I think she wanted to blow raspberries on my bare stomach (I am the most portly member of the band, so there is plenty of surface area).

 

I made it clear she had gone too far and she thankfully grumbled some sort of abuse and walked off.  Imagine trying to explain that one to the Police if it had kicked off!

 

I do wonder though, if I refused to play at a venue because one punter had been a bit annoying, would I have any venues to play in?  I wouldn't be surprised if we went back there and the same lady, with a lot less demon drink in her would probably be fine?

 

I am not excusing the behaviour of the OP's experience, just thinking out loud....

[Newfoundfreedom]

Nah. Life's too short. 

 

I was a bouncer for a good few years back in the day and well and truly had my fill of this kind of sh@t. 

 

It's one of the reasons I don't enjoy gigging, or even socialising in a strange place. I've seen so much shit happen in pubs and bars that I just can't relax around drunks. Unless I'm one of them, which is not conducive to gigging. 

 

Thankfully it's not as much of an issue where I live now because there's just not the same drinking mentality. But I still struggle with anxiety and find it very difficult to relax on gigs. 

[TimR]

The only fight I've seen at a gig was when we were packing up after a wedding. 

 

Someone was accused of "Nicking the cancer money." It was a second wedding for an older couple and the guests had been donating money instead of gifts.

 

"Why does everyone always accuse me?", swiftly followed by loads of screaming, shouting and hair pulling between to fairly drunk middle aged women.

 

During which another woman appears from a back room with the charity box asing what all the fuss was about.

 

She'd put it away for safe keeping.

 

 

That and the drummer who was going to punch the entertainments manager at an RBL gig if he didn't stop asking us to stop playing party music (that everyone was dancing to), and play some rock'n'roll.

 

At the end when packing up, people kept coming over and telling us how much better we were than all the usual bands who just played rock'n'roll. 

 

Dealing with the public is a thankless task but when the dust settles usually provides some hilarious anecdotes as long as no one is seriously hurt physically or mentally.