General Music Chat

Well i had to do something Ive never done before. Cancell a gig. We were scheduled to play a VFW Club, I went up there a couple of fridays ago to do some advance pr for the gig. I told patrons about our Hot Mama contest, about the beads and how women were baring their breast and stuff. The management called me and said we cant do the beads, we couldnt cuss, we couldnt bring our own bottles in, the list went on and on.

Now this gig we were playing for the door, no guarantees. I just told the man I cant play on those conditions. Im publisizing your venue to my audience, bringing them to you and taking all the risk and you want to put a muzzle on us. I dont think so.

I think we ended our association on good terms, cause he said if we had come in and disobeyed his rules we would be asked to load up and leave.

Anyway I was curious if anyone else has had to do this?

Years ago I sang in a really heavy rock outfit and we got a guy to manage us, who had managed country acts. He booked us into country and wetern bars. The first show after the first set we were asked to load up and go. I dont want to ever do something like that again. So I know in this case I made a wise choice.

Funny thing the guy was talking about VFW clubs and all the National rules they follow. I used to sit in with a hard core country western singer who cussed worse than anyone I know and use to ask the women to show their boobs and he played this VFWs. I know cause I was with him.

Anyway kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth, having to cancel a gig 10 days ahead of time. Thru the years Ive never cancelled a gig, so I guess there is a first for everything.

Welcome to the PC world. Girls showing their breasts may offend grandmom sitting in the corner over there (sipping martinis trying to pickup a young buck).

See how that works?

Better to cancel than to have a situation that negatively affects your credibility or reputation.

I've had to cancel three gigs in my 35+ yr career.

The 1st was because I was in the hospital after being bitten by a copperhead.

The 2nd was because I had double-booked & misplaced my calendar like a dumbass.

The 3rd was when the guitar player called the day of the gig & said he'd be, like, 2 hours late for a 3 hour gig, but to go ahead & play cuz he'd be sure & be there.

The 1st 2 were solo gigs. I've never been the reason to cancel a band gig, & I thank the stars that I FINALLY got rid of the drunk guitar player!!!

If I were in your shoes, JW, I'd have cancelled that gig, too.

This is crazy but I just rebooked us at the big club where the girls were showing off thier tah tahs. I think I would rather be there anyway.

We have to cover from 10:30 til 12:30. we get paid decently, free bar, and get full radio support for the week of the gig.

Things seem to work for the best.

Seems funny to me I guess things have changed a lot. When I was a young buck in the 70's, man we'd raise some hell at the VFW. Yea they had their rules, but apparently no one could read them.

I've never had to cancel fortunately, but have been asked to leave a couple of times. First one was when a friend and I booked a gig with a band we threw together because the club asked us to. We usually played 2 piece, keyboards covering drums & bas, me on guitar and sax. we had done the same thing before at this club and it worked very well. Got the guys together, everyone met each other an hour before the show, winged it all night and did a great job, the club and audience loved it and nobody knew we had never played together before.

So they called us again. We put a band together, same terms, only had 2 weeks to get it together and no way everyone could get together and practice due to other band commitments and work schedules. No problem, everybody was seasoned players, capable of doing just about anything you want. Last minute the keyboard player called me and said he wanted to bring in a friend who was a drummer, I told him no way, the drummer I lined up a week earlier had already left the house and was on his way to the club. I had just talked to him and was on my way out the door too. No way was I going to tell him after a 45 minute drive somebody else was playing drums.

Keyboard player didn't like it, seems he had promised this guy the gig. So he sat there and half ass played, wouldn't sing anything, (he sang all the country tunes, I did the rock and blues stuff) so I had to try and think up all the Eagles tunes I could do that would pacify the country crowd, and a couple others like "Redneck Mother", finally called "City of New Orleans", (long before Willie Nelson recorded it) not realizing it was mucho chord changes. Bass player had never played it and was totally lost, I was singing and couldn't lead him through it, we bombed it big time. I was furious by this time, keyboard player was just being a jerk because his drinking buddy didn't get the gig, but managed not to let the crowd know that.

After the set the manager asked us to pack up and go, we weren't impressing anybody and that song was really bad. I quit working with the keyboard player a couple of weeks later when he let me drive over an hour to a regular gig with my last $5 in the gas tank then told me he didn't need me, nobody wanted to see me anyway. So why did everybody in the place run over and tell me how glad they were i was there, and how much they loved having me there to play sax??? He was still pissed about his drummer friend and wanted to screw me around. The club owner gave me $20 to make it back home, and told me he had been paying the guy twice what I was getting for me to play. He was taking half the money the club paid me all along and I never knew it!

Secong time was just a couple of years ago, we played in a mostly country oriented club on central Louisiana (we were from Lufkin TX, 2 1/2 hour drive) and the manager kept coming over and telling us to play louder, she couldn't hear us. She was sitting down a short hallway about 20 feet behind us, out front were only about a dozen people and a cinder block wall. I had my MX cranked to 7 by the end of the second set, louder than I had ever played it. After the set she came over and told us we could leave, we weren't playing enough country. Probl;em was, when we booked the gig we told her we were a VARIETY band, not a straight country band, she knew long before we got there we wouldn't be playing strictly country all night.

It was a disaster, after we turned up louder than we had ever played, at her request, the sound system was giving us hell since it was bouncing back at us off the bare cinder block wall, no more than 20 people showed up, and we weren't happy about having to play so loud our PA was out of control either. Band "leader" also had been on my case all night for more echo and reverb, I ended up with the reverb on 7, (I usually have on about 2 1/2) and the echo was giving me fits since it was getting 5 echoes, I usually set it for one. I was screwing up leads because I couldn't tell if I weas hearing the note I played or the echoes of the previous one. I put a stop to that next band practice, first time he told me I needed more echo and reverb I told him I had my rig set the way I wanted it and it would STAY that way and I refused to back down. Almost started a fight, but he never said a word about it again and I didn't have to deal with way more effects than I wanted. The other guys in the band had to physically drag us away from each other, they were really worried it was about to turn into a fist fight and we would trash some of the equipment. I had already told him "you want some of me? take your best shot" twice...

VFW halls...yeah those are a trip. The same band played one in TX, they kept asking for a polka...we'd never even been in the same room with a polka, so during our break we pulled the keyboard (drum machine) out of the PA and checked out all the polka settings, decided on a couple that might work, and later on played them, the band either played along or faked it. They loved it. I played some sax and keyboard solos, and a bit of rhythm guitar, the rest of us mostly faked it. we could have actually walked offstage, the keyboard played everything automatically, but of course that would have been VERY bad taste, so we simply faked it. But we also got by with ZZ Top songs, (HUH???) a Skynyrd song or two, my Johnny Winter version of Jumpin Jack Flash, and a few others like that. Overall a good night, they called us back later...

I realized just after posting I had forgotten one.

I did have to cancel a gig and it was not good...

I was in rough shape, no wheels, walked or rode a bicycle all over Baton Rouge trying to book gigs for a 3 piece I put together not long after the band that got booted out when the other singer flaked out. (See above)

Booked a new years gig at a club, this lady was really willing to take a chance, booking a new band she'd never heard and told me we had a good chance at a house band gig if we did well on new years eve. So I went home and called the bass player to let him know, he told me he and the drummer had decided to quit. Wouldn't even play the gig I had just walked 8 miles to book. And 8 miles back...yes, I tried sticking out my thumb, no takers...I walked every step of 16 miles. (bicycle was down, needed a tube and I had to get a gig before I could buy one)

Fortunately it was a month away so the club had plenty time to look for another band, the lady was very nice about it, but obviously not real happy...

That was the only one I ever had to cancel, and didn't like it at all, I had been talking to her off and on for a month, she finally decided to take a chance on an unproven band. That was what made me maddest, I had really talked us up and finally convinced her to take a chance on us, then I had to call her the next day and cancel...there went my reputation...