Gig Punch-ups

[Pete Academy]

Great response to this thread.

[bassaussie]

I used to play in a band in Sydney that regularly supported the most popular "bikie" band in Sydney. They'd attract fairly good crowds, 500 or more in a pub, and a few thousand on outdoor gigs, with 90% or more being gang members. Generally the speaking the audiences were actually pretty well behaved, they had a bit of a code where they seemed to set limits on how far the behaviour could go. But when anyone stepped out of line, it was all on. The fights were usually fairly quick - you know, two hits "me hitting you, you hitting the floor", but occasionally you'd get two evenly matched blokes, and they'd go toe to toe for a while. Pretty amazing stuff to watch, as the majority were pretty hard blokes.

It was funny, as I was a bit apprehensive about playing for bikies to start with, but they were usually pretty respectful to bands. They seemed to appreciate the fact that we'd play for them. I did one bikie clubhouse gig, which was interesting. When we got there, one of the main guys just came up and said "look, drink and eat all you want, and there's 'other stuff' if you want it as well. Just don't touch the women, and everything will be fine"!

Saw a few other fights during my time, but nothing really compared to watching bikies fight each other.

Edited October 7, 2009 by bassaussie

[ase_one23]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='615989' date='Oct 3 2009, 07:34 PM']Problem is we just played at about 40bpm between 3 grindcore bands (one minute 160bpm songs).[/quote]

i always feel that grindcore and doom bands complement each other perfectly at gigs - one band's set lasts 10 minutes, the other's an hour - evens things out!!!!

[ase_one23]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urlF9jrJ5O0&feature=related"]this is why bassists can be dangerous[/url]

watch at 2.38

[sjohns]

[quote name='ase_one23' post='620329' date='Oct 8 2009, 10:28 AM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urlF9jrJ5O0&feature=related"]this is why bassists can be dangerous[/url]

watch at 2.38[/quote]

now thats how u deal with trouble

[fingerz]

[quote name='ase_one23' post='620329' date='Oct 8 2009, 10:28 AM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urlF9jrJ5O0&feature=related"]this is why bassists can be dangerous[/url]

watch at 2.38[/quote]


Anyone else thinking how solid a fender neck join must be?!! Proper stuff. What a resourceful chap!

[johnnylager]

[quote name='ase_one23' post='620329' date='Oct 8 2009, 10:28 AM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urlF9jrJ5O0&feature=related"]this is why bassists can be dangerous[/url]

watch at 2.38[/quote]
Choice clip.

The Landmark, Pompey, 10 or 15 years ago - my midweek sports specials' fella turns up at my gig, having found out what his bird & I got up to on 'uni scuba club' nights and dragged me off stage for a panning. One brief scuffle later, he was thrown out & I was back on stage finishing the song - 'Kerosene' by Big Black if I remember correctly. Happy days.

Similar vintage at the Black Prince, Pompey - the drummer kept getting fiddled up by the landlord, so we felt bound to intervene on his behalf. After a while of watching it unfold, anyway.

La Cage wine bar, Havant, 20-odd years ago - packed the place with punters, barman tried to offer us some derisory sum of money, came back the next day to speak to the boss [Butch], ended up stuck in an alleyway with said [very hard] Butch and 3 of us were saved from a right battering by a timely beer delivery man. We graciously accepted the derisory amount.

Edited October 8, 2009 by johnnylager

[Gust0o]

I remember seeing this one a while back. Does it still count if you're fighting your soundman?

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKNBwMEtP4o"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKNBwMEtP4o[/url]

[E sharp]

Years ago when I was about 19 or 20 , I was playing with a Pub / Function band , and we had a sort of local gig at a town pub

In the break , some bad blood between the keyboard player's wife and another local couple , spilled out , and the boyfriend of the other woman ended up on the back carpark floor , with our drummer looking over him , having just smacked him .

I thought this would be the end of it - but no .

As we were packing up , the aformentioned couple were outside the pub shouting all sorts , and this attracted all the local yobs at kicking out time .

I was in the back of the van loading up with the guitarist , when I heard him shout "look out Paul , here they come !!"

I looked over the baulkhead , to see a small mob , rocking on the archway gate , which came crashing down .

The guitarist ran into the pub , and I just sort of froze , I couldn't get my head around what was happening

The van back doors were opened by some of the mob , saw me , swiftly closed them-locking me in , and proceeded to rock the van like f**k , trying to tip it over . All the time I could hear shouts and screams from the pub , over the din of the van trying to be turned over .

When the doors were opened and I was 'rescued' , I went into the pub to find the guitarist nursing a broken little finger , his wife with a head cut from a cymbol being chucked at her , and the drummer sitting down - he apparently clobbered most of them as they piled in one by one through the door .

Oh and by the way , the keyboard player and his wife had run into the kitchens and hid together until it all calmed down .

The Rozzers turned up much later , as per normal , and I saw the Landlord hand over a wad of notes to one of them behind the bar , under the counter , and off they went . Turned out that his licence was coming up for renewel , and I can only presume that this was some sort of hush money .

After all these years , I still feel somewhat guilty for being stuck in the van , although I was locked in , but not being a big scrapper , and only little more than a kid at the time , I wonder what real use I would have been .

Ahhh memories

[whimsy23]

I got jumped by 2 chavs loading gear into my van. Another one randomly punched our sax player, who was just standing on the pavement doing nothing, in the nose. It was the most ridiculous, random thing.

Luckily, the bouncers from the club we'd just played ran down the road pretty quickly and the chavs fled. I was fuming though and wanted to f*** them up, even though I'd never been in a fight ever before and wouldn't, probably couldn't, hurt a fly.

Cops came about 10 minutes later, which wasn't very useful.