What's your greatest moment in music?

[AM1]

[quote name='witterth' post='644844' date='Nov 3 2009, 11:17 PM']when I played "love games" on the released version for polydor... Mark King was sick that day....no its true.....I did .....really....[/quote]

He turned up in the studio next door to me not long ago. Believe it or not, there was NO slap!

[ash_sak]

Jam nights in Liverpool.

Listening back to recorded tracks with other band members really loudly smiling with glee

Improv. jamming amazing songs when it all just pulls together (though then forgetting them aint so great)

Getting a real! encore (i.e. we didn't have friends in the crowd demanding it)

[Mr Fudge]

My brother in law recorded some drums with Badly Drawn Boy last week if that counts.

[agoulding]

Isn't particulary interesting, but when i first played with my sister (I looked up to her as a guitar player and my sis - never taught me anything, i just tried to do what she was doing) that was pretty cool.

Playing in front of the whole school (a fair few years ago mind) filling in for someone, they asked me to learn bass for it, and i did, and we rocked, played sepultura's "Refuse/Resist".

And another one would be playing in a local club with a comedy band, jammed packed and everyone loving it and dancing like 'tards

[thumperbob 2002]

1987- Manchester international II- supporting Zoot and the Roots- the best gig I have ever played/ attended. Proper sweat coming down the walls type gig.
Packed does not describe it.

It all went wrong later when filthy lucre rose its ugly head!!

Bob

[hatori]

When I look back over 46 years of playing Im really thankful for every opportunity/gig Ive done. To be still here and doing it at 57 is a great moment for me.
4000 seaters, playing a gig at the Colston hall where Ive seen all my heroes, curtain calls at a gig where members of the royal ballet danced to our music, sharing a dressing room with Norman watt roy while supporting Wilko (he actually used my rig)...wow the list is endless !
Bike shows, Harley bashes, watching my son (a drummer) supporting Eric Clapton at two benefit gigs...it all seems like a dream.

[Ray]

When Bernard Purdie came on stage unannounced (and uninvited!) to sit in with us at the Jazz Cafe in Camden. I still can't quite believe I actually played with Bernard Purdie!

Recording two sessions for Mark Lamarr's Radio 2 show at Maida Vale.

[mark_random]

For me, so far, it has been playing sold out gigs in Japan, releasing my first album and the last European tour I did. All great fun stuff that makes it worth doing all of the dingy pub gigs to no one!

[Mrs Tinman]

Watching Tinman's band play when he would sing lead vocals on 'Feel Like Makin' Love' directly to me :wub: :wub: :wub:

[RussFM]

Playing the Astoria 2 (/Mean Fiddler) to about 1000 people, and releasing an album in Australia distributed by Sony BMG - it was nice to see a major label's logo on our album we recorded in 4 days for £1000

[cetera]

Playing the Astoria on only my second ever professional gig.

Playing to 10,000+ people at the Ariake Colisseum in Tokyo (with members of Def Leppard in the audience) then the next day getting on the bullet train and finding that I'm sitting behind Stuart Hamm, Joe Satriani & Jonathan Mover

Playing to 20,000 people in Dynamo Bucharest football stadium with my 'originals' band just before Saxon & Jethro Tull.

Going onstage at Vienna Stadthalle (in full 'Gene Simmons' garb) with my friends in the opening local band (on a 3 band bill with Motorhead & Dio) and having the whole arena believe I really was Gene....lol!.... then going backstage and being *ahem* 'noshed off' by a beautiful lady in my dressing room

Edited November 4, 2009 by cetera

[pantherairsoft]

[quote name='CHRISDABASS' post='616862' date='Oct 4 2009, 08:19 PM']For me it's gotta be playing on every track of Texas based band The Secret Handshake's new record!! I've been a fan for ages so being asked to do it and getting paid for it is just awesome!! That along with the fact that there's thousands of people out there in the world enjoying that CD, millions of plays on myspace and knowing that even roger sadowsky took the time to check my tracks out (he loved it) really makes me proud of it! [/quote]

I saw them not too long ago supporting Bring me the Horizon at Rock city... very off support choice given the pop-esque live sound of The Secret Handshake, but all of the emo kids loved it. Actually Bring me the Horizon were crap anyway so Secret Handshake was prob the highlight of the night!

No live bass though..!? Was just drums and vocals live with backing track, which I thought was a shame.

Mine was finishing my debut album back in 2001 and holding the finished product in my hands. Seemed like a dream at the time. Then 2 months later seeing it in independent music stores and a 'selected' 30 HMV stores. Reading the 4K review in Kerrang magazine and thinking we'd made it.

Lowest point, was 3 months later when HMV sent 90% of the stock back as unsold as our management deal (if thats what you call it) had done no promotion and shortly after the band fell apart... The high was pretty good though :-).

The other was 2 years ago, with a reformed 3 piece version of the same band, playing main stage Nottingham Rock City, the venue I had seen all my fav artists on whilst supporting 'Reuben'. Great gig. We called it a day after that... quit while your ahead and all that. I remember walking out onto the stage thinking 'I've seen Mike Patton walk this same walk onto the stage'... I felt like the coolest dude in the world for 45 mins.

Shep

[waynepunkdude]

This

[thunderbird13]

[quote name='cetera' post='645143' date='Nov 4 2009, 12:33 PM']Going onstage at Vienna Stadthalle (in full 'Gene Simmons' garb) with my friends in the opening local band (on a 3 band bill with Motorhead & Dio) and having the whole arena believe I really was Gene....lol!.... then going backstage and being *ahem* 'noshed off' by a beautiful lady in my dressing room [/quote]

[krispn]

First big gig at a local music festival about 3000 people there - i think I was 17 playing and playing in a covers band. Its was a summer night and abt 15 minutes into the set a travelling brass band from eastern europe and their 20 or so majorettes walked into the crowd and were all standing right at the front. The chicks looked like something outta L.A.- all tight dresses and really beautiful. And there we were rocking out. Needless to say that turned out to be a great week.

Second was my old bands last gig back in belfast a few years ago. The crowd were amazing, the support acts were all buddies, the whole vibe was unreal and the tone outta that old '78 P bass I had back then was pure delicious growl.

I hung up my bass after that as I thought it will never be topped! Here I am back like some fun junkie sniffing around for that hit again

Good Times!

[markl]

Signing to Music for Nations and so enabling me to do music as my job; getting the run of their stock room, recording at Lynford Manor, Jacobs, Eden, Orinoco and Loco.
Playing the Marquee and getting our first glowing NME review.
Releasing an album and seeing it in a special display in Oxford Street HMV and the single from it reaching the lofty heights of 136.
Being asked to the pub by John Lydon and John McGeogh, PiL were recording in the studio next door (and being to scared to go. This was all in the early 90s, so slightly later remixing the last ever Boo Raldleys single was really cool.

I don’t make my living from music anymore but a few years ago the band I was in were invited to support Lowgold on a small UK tour which was really good fun; the highlight of that being 400 people in a packed Dingwalls going mad for us.

One last one was getting to play with Damo Suzuki and Makoto Kawabta earlier this year and still being scared to speak to my heroes.

Never got to go on Top of the Pops though which is actually all I ever wanted

[wombatboter]

I was at the casino of Ostend for a tv-show. I noticed that Toots Thielemans was there too and I just went up to him, shook his hand and thanked him for the great music he had made. He accepted my gesture with kindness although he didn't know who I was.
Later on he came up to me, sat beside me and we talked about music and I mentioned his work with Jaco Pastorius. He talked about that time and I said that "Three views of a secret" was one of my favourite pieces of music ever and that I loved his playing on it.
He took his harmonica out of his pocket and played the theme for me and improvised. I was speechless and it was one of the most beautiful moments in my life. I thanked him, he stood up and I went to a dressing room where I started crying. It was magic.

[Telebass]

After all these years playing, doing my first proper on-stage type gig at The Wharf in Tavistock. We played a blinder, the crowd was great, and we even got paid pretty well!
2nd gig there was nearly as successful, but not as much fun, for no reason I can yet understand...we certainly didn't play as well, but the crowd certainly was as good and supportive, so result!

[AM1]

[quote name='pantherairsoft' post='645155' date='Nov 4 2009, 12:45 PM']Lowest point, was 3 months later when HMV sent 90% of the stock back as unsold as our management deal (if thats what you call it) had done no promotion and shortly after the band fell apart...[/quote]

A truly terrible feeling but unfortunately it happens all the time.

[pantherairsoft]

[quote name='AM1' post='645508' date='Nov 4 2009, 05:40 PM']A truly terrible feeling but unfortunately it happens all the time.[/quote]

So I hear... Bummer :-(

[steve-soar]

[quote name='krispn' post='645362' date='Nov 4 2009, 03:37 PM']First big gig at a local music festival about 3000 people there - i think I was 17 playing and playing in a covers band. Its was a summer night and abt 15 minutes into the set a travelling brass band from eastern europe and their 20 or so majorettes walked into the crowd and were all standing right at the front. The chicks looked like something outta L.A.- all tight dresses and really beautiful. And there we were rocking out. Needless to say that turned out to be a great week.

Second was my old bands last gig back in belfast a few years ago. The crowd were amazing, the support acts were all buddies, the whole vibe was unreal and the tone outta that old '78 P bass I had back then was pure delicious growl.

I hung up my bass after that as I thought it will never be topped! Here I am back like some fun junkie sniffing around for that hit again

Good Times![/quote]That's amazing.

[gafbass02]

For a long time it was replacing Reef on the bill of the 1996 run to the sun festival which was cool, and then playing supporting Dokken on the UK leg of their tour in 2005, but i reckon probably the greatest was subsequently supporting Styx on the UK leg of their tour a few months later and getting to play Glasgow SECC, and Birmingham symphony hall, Manchester Apollo, Rock city, Colston Hall and the Hammersmith Odeon/Apollo all in a week with our own crew and truck etc etc, very cool! Standing out front while people queued to get their albums signed by us was just crazy!, so was going back to work the following Monday!, no free towels, hours long soundcheck to noodle about, signs to 'Doublecross' dressing rooms and signs on the stage saying where you were and where you were the next night, no nice food, lighting briefings and fridges full of free beer, just customers shouting in my face as usual, talk about a massive come down!

Cool though!

[ezbass]

Some years back I was playing guitar (yeah I know) in a rockabilly band. We had an outdoor gig at The Crystal Palace Bowl as part of their summer festival. While on stage I got filled with the enormity of it and went for the classic rock guitar run across the stage, cheesy but brilliant at the same time.

Hang on there's more. This was probably also my worst moment on stage too. I'd never played a stage that big before (hence the histrionics) and as great as the stage run felt, this was nothing to the embarassment of pulling your lead out mid run. Pride before a fall and all that.

By way of contrast my best moment on bass was in a tiny, nasty pub with ablues band I used to play in. We used to do a version of that old chestnut Walking The Dog and I had shoe horned in a bassline derived from Tower Of Power's Squib Cakes. We hadn't really rehearsed an ending, but when it came around the drummer (another TOP fan) and I just looked at each other and used the ending from TOP's Down At The Nightclub in perfect unison. It felt great and the cheesy high fives just seemed appropriate.

Edited November 4, 2009 by ezbass

[cetera]

[quote name='gafbass02' post='645554' date='Nov 4 2009, 06:26 PM']For a long time it was replacing Reef on the bill of the 1996 run to the sun festival which was cool, and then playing supporting Dokken on the UK leg of their tour in 2005, but i reckon probably the greatest was subsequently supporting Styx on the UK leg of their tour a few months later and getting to play Glasgow SECC, and Birmingham symphony hall, Manchester Apollo, Rock city, Colston Hall and the Hammersmith Odeon/Apollo all in a week with our own crew and truck etc etc, very cool![/quote]

Ah yes, I was there down the front watching you mate! Being a big Styx fan I was at Nottingham, Birmingham AND Hammersmith

Great shows!

[Bilbo]

[quote name='wombatboter' post='645452' date='Nov 4 2009, 04:53 PM']I was at the casino of Ostend for a tv-show. I noticed that Toots Thielemans was there too and I just went up to him, shook his hand and thanked him for the great music he had made. He accepted my gesture with kindness although he didn't know who I was.
Later on he came up to me, sat beside me and we talked about music and I mentioned his work with Jaco Pastorius. He talked about that time and I said that "Three views of a secret" was one of my favourite pieces of music ever and that I loved his playing on it.
He took his harmonica out of his pocket and played the theme for me and improvised. I was speechless and it was one of the most beautiful moments in my life. I thanked him, he stood up and I went to a dressing room where I started crying. It was magic.[/quote]

That is so beautiful.

That is one of the things I love about jazz musicians. Because they are never that far away from their fans in terms of income/status etc, they know what matters to people on a human level. An improvising musician, particularly one who plays a 'horn' as portable as a chromonica, can pick it up and make music anywhere at anytime in an instant. The gift Toots gave you at that brief meeting will stay with you forever and is utterly priceless. How wonderful. THAT's the power of music.