Your Bands Best Spinal Tap Moment

[Steve Browning]

54 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said:

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. 

I played a biker festival in Germany, and the support act was a female stripper. Rather awkward when she walked offstage and past us. "Great set" didn't really seem right (or maybe it was).

 

Worst part (for a shy retiring type) was, when we finished. The audience were howling for an encore (from her) and we had to pack up as she gyrated around us.

[12stringbassist]

Years ago, supporting Dave Hill's version of Slade, we settled into the backstage dressing room area at The Queen's Hall, Widnes. We took up a very small corner of the room, but when Dave Hill appeared, it was all a case of a "no no no, this won't do..." tantrum and the rest of his band giggled at him as he struggled, huffing and puffing, trying to pull a mobile partition across to divide the room into two halves. I think when we had stopped laughing, we did the gentlemanly thing and put our stuff in our cars and got out of his way. He was absolutely insufferable that day and when the rest of the band tried to headhunt me because their bassist was leaving, I politely declined.

[grapefruitmoon]

Last year, last band, the venues dry ice/smoke machine went haywire halfway through the set and engulfed us all in a a thick fog. Singer coughing, one guitarist trampled his pedalboard, drummer no clue what was happening and me and the other guitarist nearly wiped out by the sound guy running on stage past us to try and fix it. Audience couldn't see us for a few mins. There's a video of it somewhere.

[Franticsmurf]

We ended the first half of a very quiet and sober pub gig (a last minute booking through an agent) with 'Knocking on Heaven's Door', only to be informed by the landlord that we were playing a wake.

 

At the end of a decent gig in West Wales, we were asked to play a further 30 minutes for extra money. At the time I was playing rhythm guitar in that 4 piece line up, but the bassist was using all my gear as I played bass in the trio version. He decided he didn't want to do the extra set and sat in the dressing room while we emerged as a trio with me on bass. As he was having a lift home with me, he didn't get to leave early. We played for more than 30 minutes and, of course, he didn't get any of the extra cash. The journey home was very quiet. The following day he was encouraged to leave.

 

We went on stage at a holiday park immediately after the children's entertainer, and for about 20 minutes played rock classics to an audience of hyperactive 5-8 year olds who were wondering where 'Bradley Bear' was. One of the best audience reactions we've every had from a noise point of view, but the dancing was a bit dodgy. 😀

 

We opened to a club audience only to see a woman dancing with a short, bald headed guy. No problems, except she was wearing a pink PVC/shiny skin tight outfit (and she was a large lady) and he was barely as tall as her shoulders. I couldn't look as I was in danger of dissolving into laughter so I looked to my band mates for help. Alas, they had already succumbed to the hysterics. There was a long intro to the first song as the singer couldn't sing.

[Franticsmurf]

14 minutes ago, 12stringbassist said:

Years ago, supporting Dave Hill's version of Slade, we settled into the backstage dressing room area at The Queen's Hall, Widnes. We took up a very small corner of the room, but when Dave Hill appeared, it was all a case of a "no no no, this won't do..." tantrum and the rest of his band giggled at him as he struggled, huffing and puffing, trying to pull a mobile partition across to divide the room into two halves. I think when we had stopped laughing, we did the gentlemanly thing and put our stuff in our cars and got out of his way. He was absolutely insufferable that day and when the rest of the band tried to headhunt me because their bassist was leaving, I politely declined.

We supported an ex 'Stars in Their Eyes' Roy Orbison act at a holiday camp. His band were great - we got on really well and they allowed us to use their gear rather than set up two set of kit on the stage. But 'Roy' was a bit of a drama queen. Fortunately we'd met the band before him and they warned us. Basically, his voice was gone and he couldn't hit the highs. The guitarist was covering for him but 'Roy' had run out of bookings. They told us that he was telling everyone he was off to America, but in fact he was off back to his day job. They hated him. Sure enough, when he turned up he explained to us that this was his last gig and he was touring the states. Then he proceeded to slag off his band with them in the dressing room with us. It was rather embarrassing but to their great credit the band put on a good show. They even allowed us to take the headline slot to end the night after persuading 'Roy' that they could make a night of it as they had accommodation booked at the camp.

Edited 4 hours ago by Franticsmurf

[GoodShowSir]

My favourite wasnt mine but my brothers.

 

Played a festival somewhere in europe and the drummer is really late for their soundcheck and no where to be seen. They head to the hotel where he was staying and they hear music or a tv inside but theres no answer, they are geniuely worried now so get the staff to open up the room. Heading inside they find the drummer in massive bubble bath with two women, painting nails, doing hair (they were very glam!) and drinking champagne. The rest of the band are like, what the hell are you doing we needed to sound check like an hour ago. Perfectly serious looks at them all and says, "Just having a bath..."

Edited 3 hours ago by GoodShowSir

[chris_b]

I play with a guitarist who uses a wireless set up. He runs about in the audience, stands on tables etc. He also walks around outside the pub, still playing. In Camberley, one night, he decided  to run across the road (the A30) and play from the other side. The audience laps it up. He just made it back to the pub as a Police car pulled up.

 

Also, at a festival, he jumped off the stage and walked through the audience, still soloing. Then discovers there’s no way back. He had to climb over a fence to get back stage and forgot to turn the guitar down, so we were rocking away with a shrieking cacophony of noises coming from the guitar amp until he got over the fence.

[Steve Browning]

7 minutes ago, chris_b said:

I play with a guitarist who uses a wireless set up. He runs about in the audience, stands on tables etc. He also walks around outside the pub, still playing. In Camberley, one night, he decided  to run across the road (the A30) and play from the other side. The audience laps it up. He just made it back to the pub as a Police car pulled up.

 

Also, at a festival, he jumped off the stage and walked through the audience, still soloing. Then discovers there’s no way back. He had to climb over a fence to get back stage and forgot to turn the guitar down, so we were rocking away with a shrieking cacophony of noises coming from the guitar amp until he got over the fence.

Wasn't Robin Bibi by any chance?

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

2 hours ago, knirirr said:

 

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.

 

I was friends with the guitarist at the time . He took me over to his house one afternoon ..and introduced me to his 2 alsations!

He told me not to move a muscle as they came up to me one ny one ,while I was sitting in a chair . They came right up to my face . To say  was frozen was an understatement 😬

 

[Bluewine]

4 hours ago, upside downer said:

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.

 

Hilarious!

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

2 hours ago, grapefruitmoon said:

Last year, last band, the venues dry ice/smoke machine went haywire halfway through the set and engulfed us all in a a thick fog. Singer coughing, one guitarist trampled his pedalboard, drummer no clue what was happening and me and the other guitarist nearly wiped out by the sound guy running on stage past us to try and fix it. Audience couldn't see us for a few mins. There's a video of it somewhere.

 

I love smoke machine mishap stories.

 

Hilarious 😂 

 

Daryl

[ead]

Loving this thread and chuckling away at some of the tales.  Disappointingly I have nothing like this to contribute 

[chriswareham]

3 hours ago, GoodShowSir said:

My favourite wasnt mine but my brothers.

 

Played a festival somewhere in europe and the drummer is really late for their soundcheck and no where to be seen. They head to the hotel where he was staying and they hear music or a tv inside but theres no answer, they are geniuely worried now so get the staff to open up the room. Heading inside they find the drummer in massive bubble bath with two women, painting nails, doing hair (they were very glam!) and drinking champagne. The rest of the band are like, what the hell are you doing we needed to sound check like an hour ago. Perfectly serious looks at them all and says, "Just having a bath..."

 

That sounds familiar. The drummer wasn't known by the name "Belle" was he? A legend on the London alternative music scene who unexpectedly passed away in 2023.