SPOTLIGHTS
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| Posted by Rob Samuels on 03.08.2008 |
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Hello all, obviously I have never written one of these so-called ‘blogs’ before and I don’t know how many people will actually read it but I’m gonna give it a shot. Before I begin I’d like to apologize for my two week absence from this website but worry not, the (Self-proclaimed) ‘Dreamweaver’ will be back this Tuesday with a classic Blues-Rock album to review.
In case you were wondering, the reason for this blog is for me to share my ‘greatest’ musical moments with you all. For those who don’t know, I play Bass for a sixties-esque band known locally as ‘The Sons of MOD’. We gig pretty regularly, and last night was no different as we were booked to play a local pub - ‘The DillPickle’ (Yeah – seriously). All innuendo’s aside, we were expecting a good crowd and a bit of a payday to boot. What we were not expecting was the Spinal Tap style fiasco that followed.
Anyway I arrived there at 8:45 – a mere fifteen minutes late to find myself the only MOD there. We were supposed to be on around 9:30 so I was a tad concerned. Eventually the others turned up just after 9:00 (bloody guitarists). As we started bringing the equipment inside the power went out. The new manager didn’t know were the fuse box was (seriously) so he had to literally search the place for it. He couldn’t find the feckin’ thing so he called in the Landlord. Being familiar with the building he found it, but he couldn’t figure out the problem. Together they concocted the brilliant solution of trying to call out an electrician (which is quite hard on a Friday night, apparently).
Meanwhile the pub is beginning to empty because some picky bastards don’t like sitting in the dark without a drink. By 10:30 things were looking grim, until a genius idea struck the Landlord – why not run a series of extension cables through to the flat next door and run our backline through it? Genius – plus the neighbours are Polish so they wont really understand what’s happening (Bless ‘em). So with all this in place we finally started moving shit around. As always I was given the job of setting up the PA system because I have a vague knowledge of the damn things. Of course I couldn’t find the bloody mixing desk (which is an essential part of a PA system I’ve heard), so I recruited the DJ to find it and I eventually started setting it up.
It’s now 11:00 and people are starting to get restless, fortunately the taps were back on so at least people could drink in the darkness (which is one of my favorite pastimes incidentally). The original plan was to play two sets around 45 minutes each, but we thought ‘Bollocks to it, one’ll do’. That’s until I couldn’t find any leads to plug the speakers into the PA. So I sent the DJ running off, throwing on a ‘funky record’ to keep things ticking over. Fortunately he was back within twenty minutes and we got it all plugged in – HOORAY!
The next phase of the operation was to do a mic check, to which we got absolutely fuck all. Of course my knowledge of PA systems is pretty basic so I started fiddling around with faders and knobs and shit. Eventually I discovered that the speakers also needed plugging in to the mains! What’s that about? After fixing this complex issue I was greeted with the beautiful sound of ear-shattering feedback. The DJ and me arsed around with it for ten agonizing minutes with various dick heads (and by that I mean punters) jeering. Eventually we were ready to RAWK… at 11:30. So in the end we managed to play six whole songs before we finished at midnight. We did get a roaring response from the crowd, loud demands for an encore and I got paid the same amount so I was pretty happy in the end. But what a ridiculous fiasco! It took us three hours to set up for a thirty-minute set, cracking.
So the lesson here is to be prepared, and if it all goes tits up - bring an acoustic guitar. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed my little saga. I’ll see you Tuesday.
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