Your Bands Best Spinal Tap Moment

[EMG456]

I've had a good laugh at this thread!

 

On thinking back over an up and down music career spanning about 50 years, there are many Spinal Tap moments. Oddly enough the first three that came into my mind were all drummer related so these are the ones I will tell.

 

First, back to the summer of 75 or 76. Band formed whilst still at school are playing an open air gig.

The stage is about six feet off the ground and is set up in a field. There are a couple of bands and a DJ on. We are the first band.

Our very cool drummer with the blue octagonal shades and the permed hair is set up at the back of the stage and it turns out his main drum stool foot is perilously "close to the edge".

He counts us in with a vocal count and stick clicks - One, Two, Three, Arghh...

And just like that, he's not there - nowhere to be seen. Found him slightly dazed and confused lying flat on his back in the grass with his stool on top of him.

 

Number two - different band - different drummer. Social club gig. Second set.

Playing away maybe two songs in, drummer is undoing the wing nut at the top of one of his cymbals in the middle of the song. He gets it off and throws it to the ground. Crash, indeed.

We finish the song. 

"Bill, what are you doing? We've got half an hour still."

"I don't like these"

Counts the next song in and does the same thing with another cymbal. Crash again, not to mention the erratic parts and timing necessitated by this apparently urgent disassembly.

"I hate cymbals" Starts muttering. Counts in the next song.

Any further enquiries were met with "I can't hear you, I've got a fish in my ear"

Last to go were the hi hats. did about the last four or five songs with just the drums and then packed out and left without exchanging a word with any of us.

The next night's gig he didn't turn up at all and that was the last we saw of him. His wife contacted us and told us he was having issues and we shouldn't expect him back. I heard he worked his way through it all so I don't mind telling the tale.

 

Number three same band but different drummer. Band has morphed into a seven piece cabaret/ dance band playing all the hits of the day and the day before. We're in a town hall type gig - big stage, slightly sloping forward, four foot drop onto the crowded dance floor.

Flashy drummer has a big kit, roto toms, loads of cymbals and just to his right a massive gong hanging on a big tubular chrome stand.

Now he's not daft - he doesn't use it all the time- no, no ,no - just for effect, you understand...

Anyway towards the end of the night and at the end of some overblown song or another- can't remember which - he gives this thing an almighty wallop. It swings backwards with such gusto that something happens to sever it's connection with it's stand and it crashes literally onto the ground. But somehow it's not done yet. It has managed to land on it's edge and due to the slope is now making it's way forward. It comes off the drum riser in the gap between the kit and my big Acoustic 371 rig, knocks my spare bass off it's stand and keeps going, gaining speed all the time. It was one of those moments when time seems to have slowed down but you seem to be unable to do anything but watch it all unfold.

When it reaches the front of the stage, it does a kind of ski jump off the foot of a mic stand and launches itself onto the floor and into the crowd who are now scattering in all directions from it's path which ends with the first table it hits, spilling all the drinks and generally ruining everyone's night. But the sound it made was amazing.

[Norris]

There was the time I was playing in a cabaret band doing a season at Butlin's. We had just started a song when I sneezed. Next thing I notice the goop slowly running down the back of my plucking hand (ew!). A casual stroll to the back of the stage, a quick wipe on the back curtains and I didn't miss a beat!

[casapete]

11 hours ago, Bluewine said:

I love smoke machine mishap stories.

One of my early gigs with my old function band was at a hotel in Grimsby.

As it was an 8 piece band and the stage was only a small recess in a wall near the dance floor,

it was me, the drummer and keyboard player who squeezed onto it, leaving the brass section, guitarist

and the singer to ‘work the floor’. Our recently acquired smoke machine was usually operated by the

one of the sax players, but as the lead with the ‘on’ switch wasn’t long enough to reach him, I was 

given the task of using it. Very few punters dancing at this point, with most of them still in the dining

room nearby, so I thought I’d see how hazy I could make it, egged on by the brass players and of

course copious amounts of alcohol from the free bar. 
 

A short while afterwards I saw a couple of old people wander in, dressed in their pyjamas and nightwear.

A few more then appeared in similar attire, and I wondered if it was a themed fancy dress do or something.
Then next to appear were a couple of guys dressed as firemen, which I thought was even more bizarre,

until I realised that the smoke had triggered off an alarm in reception which was linked to the fire brigade.

The people in nightwear were guests asleep upstairs and were woken to be told to evacuate the hotel by the firemen,

who came over to us to advise us to do the same until they could determine the whereabouts of the fire/ smoke.

It was then that the penny dropped and they realised what had triggered the fire alarms, and gave us

a lot of grief ( quite rightly too) about their unnecessary call out.
The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful after that, and needless to say the band never played there again. 

 

[Bluewine]

2 hours ago, Norris said:

There was the time I was playing in a cabaret band doing a season at Butlin's. We had just started a song when I sneezed. Next thing I notice the goop slowly running down the back of my plucking hand (ew!). A casual stroll to the back of the stage, a quick wipe on the back curtains and I didn't miss a beat!

 

It could have been worse. I'm at the age where if you sneeze anything could happen. 

 

Daryl

[Franticsmurf]

A couple more: The first one happened to a drummer I was briefly in a band with. His first gig was in his school assembly and he had a very basic kit consisting of a snare, kick, hi-hat and one crash cymbal. He didn't have a stand for the crash, so he tied it to the stage lighting rig with a loooong piece of string. In the first song, he hit the crash with some vigour and watched as it swung away from him. And then watched with horror as it swung back towards him with equal vigour. The pendulum effect, I believe it is called.

 

Second one happened to me in my previous life as a GITarist. The band I was in were asked to play as part of a multi band line up for a charity night at a large club. It had a lovely stage and between songs the curtain would come down so the bands could swap over. We played, it was good. We finished and as I went to get my little effects board, the curtains closed - behind me. Guitar and effects board in hand and in front of several hundred people, I desperately tried to find the split in the curtains. Did I achieve this with style and coolness? No. I flapped and swished the curtain, pulled at the folds, paced up and down the stage. Just me. Finally one of the band members opened the gap in the curtains to let me through. 

[Doctor J]

Occasionally, I used to stand-in for a mate's blues/rock cover band when they were without a bassist or drummer. On one such occasion, they were playing at a bar which had recently re-opened after lengthy and extensive refurbishment, a place trying to rebuild a client base. Most of the set was to one disinterested oul fella. He left, after a while, leaving only the barman. Then he disappeared too, and we played on to an empty room. The drummer decided he needed to pee quite badly, so went off to find the loo which, as it turned out, was two floors up and badly signposted. We three stood there for quite a while like absolute dopes, on a stage in an otherwise empty room, in total silence. When he eventually came back, the barman returned too, perhaps he had asked him for directions, so we started another song, at which point my old Peavey MKII let out a mournful wail and died which, mercifully, signalled the end of the evening.

[Si600]

I did lights for the SU for my first year at Sheffield Hallam.  Thouroughly enjoyed it, but it ate into too much drinking time so I packed it in after a year.

 

We had a sort of regular rotation of bands so you got to know the faces after a while, unfortunately no-one who went on to be huge so I can't say "I did lights for X at my SU".  I ramble...

 

I found the smoke machine one day and thought it would be a giggle to plug it into the desk and out of the patch box on stage for one of the usual rock bands.  After the gig the singer came up to me and said "Nice lighting effects this evening Si, but next time, please, no bloody fog, we're not a f******ing goth band!"  Apparently the guitarist had gone for a bit of a wander around the stage and nearly come a cropper off the edge in the mist.

 

Oops.

[Si600]

I seemed destined to scupper that bands performances. At another gig I got the follow spot set up and used it on them to highlight the singer when he was singing and the guitarist during the solo etc.  Again afterwards he was very kind but said the follow spot was blinding him, so please, enough with the stadium style experimentation and just do the pretty colours next time?

 

A good band and a lovely bunch of guys, they must have dreaded coming to the SU after a while

[Merton]

On 03/02/2025 at 11:29, Steve Browning said:

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.

Similarly played a biker festival in France and our support act was two female strippers. Was quite distracting trying to prepare side stage as she tottered off completely starkers and started chatting like we were just bumping into each other in the street.

 

Other fun times in the life of Merton..

 

The massive wedding where we were playing and the bride and groom had hired a separate DJ. We, for some reason, were asked to play their first dance through our PA before our first set. Cue the one time int he world where a MacBook crashed, in front of 200 wedding guests, many of whom were slightly tipsy rugby players. It went down a lot better than it could have done.

 

I once over on stage twice in consecutive gigs, during the same song, ironically called “The Fall”. First time the singer came and stood on me as we finished up the song with me laughing, lying on my back trying to keep playing. (Second time there was a wall at the side of the stage which just about kept me upright).

[Merton]

Oh, two more.

 

Back in the early 2000s my band was playing a local pub. The drummist had invited down a hot slightly older lady to try to impress. He got very, very drunk, and proceeded to show off as best he could on the drums. Come the end of the first set, he stood up to do a big drum fill whilst getting her attention, farted and promptly followed through. The look on his eyes as he realised what he’d done will never leave me…

 

 

Fast forward to a year or so back, I play in a “rock band for kids”, where we do rocked-up nursery rhymes, modern pop songs, lots of interaction with rhythm sticks, scarves, parachutes, bubbles, actions etc…One song - I can’t remember which - the singer would fill up a small bubble machine in the shape of a fish. Normally she would go out amongst the kids as they all try to catch the bubbles etc (kids are easily pleased). This particular gig we had a dep singer, who had done enough previous gigs with us to know what to do.

“Let’s get the bubbles out” she says, as she picked up the fish. And then promptly stood stock still, holding it (switched off) whilst singing the entire song, with all the kids looking decidedly bewildered, wondering what was going on. Then she put it back down and we played the Hokey Cokey. We haven’t let her forget it.

Edited 23 hours ago by Merton

[leschirons]

A reverse "Stone henge" moment

 

Back in France, a french guitarist I knew called me to say he'd picked up a gig for one of the  wealthier communes yearly fete so could we put a band together. Fee, 1,000€.  They had also apparently agreed to supply a P.A but which we, would have set up and asked what we needed. We were the only band (Blues trio) I told him as it was purely for vocals (me, so one mic) 600 watts + foldback would do fine as we were purely using backline for the bass and guitar.

 

We arrived, to find.... No engineer but,

 

Eight x active 400w tops.

Four x active 600w subs

Two x 1,000 power amps

One x 24 channel passive mixer

One x 1200w  16 channel powered mixer

Four x 300w foldback monitors

10 top stands

8 mic stands

4 large chests of cabling, all piled up on the stage with no room for the band.

 

The guitarist, had written down 6,000w

 

We ended up using two tops, two monitors and one mic stand and left the rest piled up at the back. 😂

 

 

Edited 18 hours ago by leschirons

[Norris]

We did a gig in a WMC. We always did like curtains - just great for the occasional prank. On this occasion I set up my Traynor 400w head and 2x 15" cab behind the back curtain. In front of the curtain was a tiny 6" practice amp on a chair, with a lead connecting the two. I was chuckling all night 😁

[KingPrawn]

We used to do a gig in Tipton in the Midlands, part of the 'Black Country tour bus' route. This is basically bus companies that fill a bus with hen, stag, and group outings and drive them to iconic bubs around the Black Country. we would set up sound check and then sit around until the gaffer told us a bus would be pulling up in 5 minutes. As the doors opened we would start our set. They would stay about 30mins or so and we would stop and wait for the next bus. Maybe 6 a night. One night there was a bus with a female biker crew arrived. They had clearly been to a few venues and were well on it. we played a few crowd-pleasers etc. As the bus driver gave them their 5-minute to departure call. It turned into a scene from 'dusk till dawn ' several of the party started to undress and join us on stage. It was shocking and not in a good way. Their bits were dragging on the floor and flapping about. I remember a few kept shouting "It's just a laugh" The most Spinal Tap moment I've ever experienced 

[Bluewine]

12 hours ago, Doctor J said:

Occasionally, I used to stand-in for a mate's blues/rock cover band when they were without a bassist or drummer. On one such occasion, they were playing at a bar which had recently re-opened after lengthy and extensive refurbishment, a place trying to rebuild a client base. Most of the set was to one disinterested oul fella. He left, after a while, leaving only the barman. Then he disappeared too, and we played on to an empty room. The drummer decided he needed to pee quite badly, so went off to find the loo which, as it turned out, was two floors up and badly signposted. We three stood there for quite a while like absolute dopes, on a stage in an otherwise empty room, in total silence. When he eventually came back, the barman returned too, perhaps he had asked him for directions, so we started another song, at which point my old Peavey MKII let out a mournful wail and died which, mercifully, signalled the end of the evening.

 

Our drummer got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of a song at a gig.  It's why I don't eat before or during a gig.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

On 02/02/2025 at 18:01, MacDaddy said:

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

Sectioned , I've never heard that before, hilarious 😂. 

 

I've heard, committed and  locked up.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

On 03/02/2025 at 03:47, 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.  Upside, I'm going to steal that one.

 

Daryl

[lozkerr]

On 03/02/2025 at 22:52, EMG456 said:

When it reaches the front of the stage, it does a kind of ski jump off the foot of a mic stand and launches itself onto the floor and into the crowd who are now scattering in all directions from it's path which ends with the first table it hits, spilling all the drinks and generally ruining everyone's night. But the sound it made was amazing.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. I have just (literally, unfortunately) wet myself laughing at this!

 

I now can't get the Breeders' Cannonball video out of my mind.

[tauzero]

On 03/02/2025 at 17:36, tauzero said:

And one that happened to a band I was in - we had got our first gig in a Tamworth pub, and the drummer got his other band in as support for us. We set up and there was no sign of our guitarist. The support did their slot, still no guitarist. Then we found he had jumped in the canal. We roped in the guitarists from the other band as we were doing standards and got through the gig. I never did find out the underlying reason for Pete jumping in the canal (he did recover but I don't think I ever saw him again).

 

Just to follow this up - the events above happened about 40 years ago. This evening I was at an open mic night, headed to the toilets (upstairs) and waited for someone to come downstairs with a couple of drinks (bar was also upstairs). He halted by me and said "Did you used to be called Maltloaf?[1]" I said "Yes, who were you?" And it turned out that it was this guitarist. We chatted briefly - he's still playing guitar and gob-iron.

 

[1] At one stage in my life, I resembled a slimmer Meat Loaf.

[Si600]

9 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Sectioned , I've never heard that before, hilarious 😂. 

 

I've heard, committed and  locked up.

 

Daryl

Being sectioned is a horrible thing to happen to you.  The hoops to go through to get treatment and be released are convoluted to say the least.  My mum was a non-executive director on a mental health board for a while and the days they had sectioning hearings were the days the entire board wanted to be elsewhere.  You're stripping another human being of their dignity and liberty for an indefinite period.

Edited 7 hours ago by Si600

[Steve Browning]

17 hours ago, Merton said:

Oh, two more.

 

Back in the early 2000s my band was playing a local pub. The drummist had invited down a hot slightly older lady to try to impress. He got very, very drunk, and proceeded to show off as best he could on the drums. Come the end of the first set, he stood up to do a big drum fill whilst getting her attention, farted and promptly followed through. The look on his eyes as he realised what he’d done will never leave me…

 

 

Fast forward to a year or so back, I play in a “rock band for kids”, where we do rocked-up nursery rhymes, modern pop songs, lots of interaction with rhythm sticks, scarves, parachutes, bubbles, actions etc…One song - I can’t remember which - the singer would fill up a small bubble machine in the shape of a fish. Normally she would go out amongst the kids as they all try to catch the bubbles etc (kids are easily pleased). This particular gig we had a dep singer, who had done enough previous gigs with us to know what to do.

“Let’s get the bubbles out” she says, as she picked up the fish. And then promptly stood stock still, holding it (switched off) whilst singing the entire song, with all the kids looking decidedly bewildered, wondering what was going on. Then she put it back down and we played the Hokey Cokey. We haven’t let her forget it.

You were in the Wiggles? 🙂

[Merton]

32 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

You were in the Wiggles? 🙂

Nah, Bananas in Pyjamas 😅

[borntohang]

14 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Sectioned , I've never heard that before, hilarious 😂. 

 

I've heard, committed and  locked up.

 

Daryl

Comes from "detained under Section X of the Mental Health Act", where X is a different section of the Act depending on the reason for detention. I think you guys use '5150' for roughly same thing.

[chriswareham]

The band Section 25 were named after one of the sections of the mental health act. I was also in a band called Section (3) that took similar inspiration. Both refer to conditions where individuals can be placed into secure facilities against their will.