The ShadowMusic Web Community

Just had a good laugh at the section in Mo's book where he talks about comments made by MCs at venues and clubs.
Made me think about a few of my own experiences and Im sure you guys can come up with loads more!

We arrived at one venue and our drummer went into the front entrance to see where we unloaded the gear. He came out in fits of laughter and said he had been accosted by the doorman. He told him he was the band and the doorman said " Banned, if your banned you cant come in here!"

Lined up on stage at another club we awaited for the MC to announce us -"Ladies and Gentlemen, for tonights entertainment we have - (Looking across at us - hand over the mic) he asked "Who are you?"

Lined up again at another club the MC made the annoucement correctly, pressed the button to open the curtains and vanished into the next room. The curtains fully opened then immediatly closed again as we started our first number!

Another MC was also the BIngo caller - a most important job! Part way through he dropped a bingo ball as it came out of the machine and looking down at his feet. completely forgetting he had the mic to his lips and told the whole room " where the F...in' hells that gone!"

The same MC on another occassion told the audience at the end of the night " Give these lads a round of applause for a great night" he then added " If you think these guys are good you want to come and see who we have on next week!"

You have to laugh.

Not MC's as such... but a few memories from not that long ago.
I remember once our old rock 'n' roll band did a gig with a disco at a private party in a club. The DJ introduced us and then for reasons unbeknownst to us, we came on stage to the song 'Jump' by Van Halen... why the DJ did that we never found out. Even worse, we had to stand there on stage completely bemused while he played the song in its entirety... waiting for the bloody thing to finish so we could start our set!
Happy days!

Other times... you know, we'd be playing... during a song/inbetween songs some punter would walk up to the guitarist and say...
'Do you know any S Club 7?'...
'Do you know any Spice Girls?'...
'Do you know any Boyzone?'...
We were a 'young' rock 'n' roll band playing rock 'n' roll standards/blues/rock songs.... sure... we knew the entire S Club 7 back catalogue didn't we?! Not that we'd ever want to play that sort of stuff anyway!
My favourite joke when gigging... and I still use it to this day... (random artist etc...)
'We'd like to play a Gloria Estefan song... but as we don't know any we'll play this instead....!'

Dedicating songs to completely random 'famous' people is another of my little 'things'...
'We'd like to dedicate this song to Gyles Brandreth/Douglas Hurd/Patricia Routledge/Derek Nimmo/Barbara Streisand/Bobby Davro/Fanny Craddock/Nigel Spink/Alan Igglesden/Michael Buerk etc... then announce a song that has no relevance to said person whatsoever!

Still my favourite - we started to bring the gear into the working men's club where we were playing and the Entertainment Secretary/MC came out and, pointing to my AC30, said, "You'll only need one of those,
lads, it's a small club."

Regarding dedicating songs to people in the audience. We used to announce that Mr and Mrs Ross were in the audience and they were here to celebrate the birthday of their son Albert. We'd then go ahead and play ' Albatross' !!

Have to agree with you Steve - some punters expect you to play anything at the drop of a hat! We were a Country band and had "Country" as part of our name so there could be no excuse for anyone not realalising what we did. On occassions it didnt make much difference - we still got asked for latest chart stuff- waltzes, fox trots and quick steps! At those times you do feel like doing a quick step - through the exit!

Neil

I was in a Beatles band only to be asked " Know any Elvis " ?

ecca wrote:I was in a Beatles band only to be asked " Know any Elvis " ?

Should have said "yes" and played them Oliver's Army...

The Elvis thing we used to do was to ask if there were any Elvis fans in - there always was - and then I'd announce - "Great heres one by Elvis Costello!"

Just to go off thread a little but staying with Mo's book, he mentions the nightmare of turning up at venues not knowing wether the electric sockets were 5 amp - 15 amp or 13 amp! I remember we bought a multiplug which had all the various pins in one plug head - saved alot of plug changing. One prob was that in some venues the sockets were mounted on the skirting boards and you couldnt get the plug into the socket as it was too low!

Many years ago i was playing with a band doing WMC etc
the Mc after announcing that bingo tickets are on sale and going through the meat raffle prices
of pork chops ,a pound of sausages etc
in a broad irish accent finaly announced us on stage
would you please welcome onto the stage ? (a quick glance at the bass drum)

THE OLYMPICS

(for non drummers this was the make of the drumkit)

Jay