Your Bands Best Spinal Tap Moment

[Bluewine]

Share any moments, the sad and humorous. 

[mep]

Well, we've had 4 drummers depart too (none of which had died luckily) and one has returned for a second stint.

[Bluewine]

I'll start. We were playing a " so called" high end blues festival in Baraboo.  A 2 hour drive. They told us we would have a pro stage, lighting and a pro sound crew.

 

We get there and it's pouring raining, The tent had several leaks, the stage looked like it was made from stacked up milk crates. The 2 sound guys appeared to be in their early 80s. I asked them if they would xrl  my amp to the sound, neither one moved. They .merely pointed to and xrl lead laying in the grass, as if I was supposed to do it myself.

 

Daryl

[Doctor J]

Had a singer storm off stage and leave the band halfway through a gig. We carried on, sadly, despite the cold hand of severe acid-tinged paranoia grabbing hard. Had a guitarist too heavily sedated to feel his hands or his feet, play a gig limply slumped over on a stool. Same guitarist, frustrated by his guitar cutting in and out, once flung his guitar hard onto the stage in frustration, then fired it into the crowd. He then realised it was one of only two guitars he owned so dived into the crowd to try to retrieve it. As support, had a singer elbow the singer from the headline band hard in the throat when the guy came on to try and bail us out after an ill-concieved gong solo wasn't the crowd pleaser we hoped it might be. Security were very clear the show was over very quickly that time. We once learned the hard way that mixing accordion and disco doesn't make for a happy crowd. I once slipped in water on the stage and crashed into the amp, a hefty Trace 4x10 combo perched atop a tea chest, and lay sprawled underneath as it teetered back and forth deciding whether or not to fall forward and crush me. Never had a drummer perish but did know one who hid in his shed for two weeks while pretending to be away on holiday.

Edited 17 hours ago by Doctor J

[Steve Browning]

Playing the Royal Hall at Harrogate. Dressing rooms were downstairs. Come showtime and we were wandering around without any idea how to get to the stage. We didn't pass anyone painting scenery but everything else was the same. 

[chris_b]

We were supporting Status Quo at the Western-super-Mare Winter Gardens Pavilion, when after several hours consuming god knows what, Rick Parfitt staggered into our dressing room to say hello.

 

He took a turn for the worse and had a massive chunder in the sink, which wasn't connected to any pipework! The carpet was soaked and the room stank and apparently he blamed us when the promoter discovered the mess!!

[MacDaddy]

Load in at one particular venue was via the back entrance, through the kitchen and down various corridors. Cue many random shouts of "Hello Cleveland!".

 

 

[MacDaddy]

The one when the vocalists mother dragged him off stage, drove him straight to a mental health facility and had him sectioned.

[Norris]

1 hour ago, Doctor J said:

ill-concieved gong solo

Winner!

[12stringbassist]

A gig with a cabaret band at Chester Town Hall, many years ago, amused me greatly, as the raised stage sloped downward and forward and anything on wheels threatened to roll in to the audience from above.

We were going round the building before showtime borrowing doorstops and gaffa taping them in front of our gear.

(Not my photos, but they show that stage).
 

 

 

Edited 15 hours ago by 12stringbassist

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Guitarist managed to smack his telecaster into his nose when putting it on causing it to continue bleeding onto his shirt throughout the set.

 

Then there was the charity gig to raise money for a young chap to go towards a new electric wheelchair. We didn't have a setlist so the singer was calling the songs. For some reason he started the set with 'Up on cripple creek' not making the connection that it might not be the most appropriate song in our repetoire.

[Dom in Dorset]

We had to delay our set at a village fete  because the puppet show overran. 

"I told them a thousand times- it's Spinal Tapp first , puppet show last " 

 

 

[Mykesbass]

8 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

Playing the Royal Hall at Harrogate. Dressing rooms were downstairs. Come showtime and we were wandering around without any idea how to get to the stage. We didn't pass anyone painting scenery but everything else was the same. 

Had this at a large venue in Hackney where I was meeting the band before they went on (record company days). We went around in circles for ages until we finally got to where they were, but we're still blocked by a bi-folding door. We all managed to somehow squeeze through a very tight gap - not the best entrance when you're hoping to impress a band you want to sign 😎

[Leonard Smalls]

35 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

We went around in circles for ages

We had this as well!

IIRC it was Gloucester (or perhaps Exeter?) town hall, we were supporting Carter USM and had a proper dressing room that wasn't just a dirty basement lined with pint glasses full of piddle. There were sandwiches and beers!

Either we bumbled about for quite some time sniggering about how next Guy's guitar would pick up signals from the local taxi firm...

[bassbiscuits]

The festival we did some years ago where it was the soundman was just a mate of the organisers who had a PA but didn’t have a clue what he was doing.

The band before us sounded dreadful - it was just the monitor mix coming thru front of house. 

Our onstage sound was awful, everyone had the wrong mix anyway or none at all.  

 

Once it was obvious it was gonna be a mess we just spent the rest of the set laughing.

 

We wondered how much worse it could get (a question which was answered when the next band started up and all the audience could hear was their click track coming out thru the front of house). 

 

Absolute shambles.

[bassbiscuits]

Also a gig I did at the Tamworth Assembly Rooms back in 2021. First gig with that band. Went for a wee a couple of minutes before due onstage and there was some really good music playing in the toilet. Turned out to be our intro tape. 

Panicked and rushed back to the wings ready to go onstage and then played whole first half with my fly open. Nice. 

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

My first gig with the blues band . Everything was arranged for 3 bands to play the Coach and Horses in Kingston . The guitarist/ founder of the band had it all arranged.

So much so  that we ended up headlining . Apparently we didn't care who headlined ,and just wanted to play , The other bands were supposedly all as laidback as us.

 

When we arrived , there were no posters / promotion of us playing . Then there was a relief manager who seemed to be miserable and oblivious to what what going on.

 

We watched the first band . All seemed well. Our turn to go on stage ..Relef manager " can you turn it down!?"  We eventually managed to complete the set .

Apparentky the headline band were getting narky for some reason . This annoyed our Guitarist / Founding member/ Ex European ju jitsu champion.

When we were packing up to leave, the Founding member's car was blocked in from leaving . 
So, obviously angry he asked the singer of the band " can you move your car ?!?" This was just after the headline band started their first song , sunshine of your love. 
The band had to stop , and car was moved .
 

The Grey Horse was always a bit of an odd place to play with the various bands Iwas in for some reason. Nice pub for a drink , but the rest never impressed me . 
overrated imho .

[upside downer]

We had to pause our Halloween gig at a Working Men's Club when one of the committee jumped up on stage and asked the singer if he wouldn't mind judging the children's apple bobbing contest.

[chris_b]

42 minutes ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

The Grey Horse was always a bit of an odd place to play with the various bands Iwas in for some reason. Nice pub for a drink , but the rest never impressed me . 
overrated imho .

 

The Grey Horse was run by pub landlords who only wanted to sell beer and didn't care about the live music that was in the back room 7 nights a week. Then Richard Fletcher, musician, well. . . . drummer and great bloke, took over and sorted out all the problems. When Richard moved on the brewery turned it into a gastro pub!!

 

We also had to move our cars in the middle of the first set because the landlord's wife's car was blocked in, and she wanted to go out for a drive!!

[knirirr]

1 hour ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

This annoyed our Guitarist / Founding member/ Ex European ju jitsu champion.

 

A long time ago we had a drummer who was very much into Taekwondo. Once, he took the singer's microphone so he could inform some of the audience that if they didn't STFU he'd come down there and fill them in.

 

Another one from that era involved a different singer. During a charity event with multiple bands she disappeared off to a pub without telling anyone (no-one had a mobile phone at that time) and we missed our slot. Upon returning to find another band playing instead of everyone waiting for her a massive strop and storming out was the result.

[bassbiscuits]

Went onstage straight after a male stripper once at a social club gig.
 

The stage was covered in slippery baby oil and an abandoned chair, and it’s fair to say many of the women in the audience would have preferred to see more of the stripper (though they had already seen all of him..) rather than a band of 40-something lads launching into Mustang Sally. 

 

Probably more Phoenix Nights than Spinal Tap tho. 

[paul_5]

10 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said:

Probably more Phoenix Nights than Spinal Tap tho. 

It’s a fine line between Phoenix and Spinäl.

[Mudpup]

That night when the abominable snowman emerged from the back of our giant van whilst we were unloading the gear. 

 

The drummist had been in there moving flightcases with the back door shut. He knocked the powder fire extinguisher that lived in there and it went off right in his face in a very confined area. It looked like a scene from Scarface when we got the back door open to see what all the fuss was about. 

Edited 5 hours ago by Mudpup

[BigAlonBass]

Drove from the North-East to the South Coast, for a Gig at Butlins in Bognor Regis. Set up, quick soundcheck, then the curtains opened. We launched into our one and only Hit* and the Hall emptied...

We had been booked as a Rock Band, but Butlitz had neglected to tell our Agent that it was a 70s Rock Night. Glittery wigs in abundance, along with outrageous outer wear, so we were neither expected nor welcome...

(*FIST - Name, Rank and Serial Number*)

[itu]

We had a wedding gig on an island. Long story short - this was before mobile phones - band mates figured out what had happened and called all islands with restaurants nearby. A boat came to catch me, and I just managed to be in time on stage.