What is The longest gig you have done?

Karen Lee Steenwijk · From: Pennsylvania

For me it was "The Tennessee State Fair" back in 1981.We were booked to play all the background music for believe it or not...A Chimp Show,,,followed by a magician, and 3 stage shows. We started at 1 pm and finished at 8 pm.
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Sonny Priddy · From: Elizabethtown, Kentucky, USA, R.I.P.

Seven Hours One 4th Of July. SONNY.

Stephen Gambrell · From: Over there

Cheyenne Club, Cheyenne, Wyoming, during Frontier Days. Start at 7PM, quit at 2AM, for ten days straight.

Dick Wood · From: Springtown Texas, USA

8.5 hours for 7 days straight at Six Flags TX with average day temps 105 on stage no shade except for the drummer.

We made $200 each per day but we suffered for it.

Ellis Miller · From: Cortez, Colorado, USA

This is not necessarily a single long duration, but I'm thinking it may fit here.

Back in the 70's the Nashville West in Portland, OR had an all day jam session/open mike on Sundays starting at 7:00 AM and going until 2:00 AM the next morning. It was covered by two bands: Band A would play from 7:00 AM until 2:00 PM. Band B would play from 2:00 PM until 8:00 PM. Band A would then return and play from 8:00 PM until closing at 2:00 AM. (I hope I got the times right - it was something like that) Granted, there were often other pickers sitting in and we got to take breaks while that was happening.

So.. here is the drill if you were playing in band A: 1) Do your regular Saturday night gig until 2:00 AM. 2) Since there was not much sense in going to bed and you were wound up anyway, go to an after hours jam at Taylors Viewpoint and stay until you had to start across town to the Nashville West gig. 3) Take the stage at 7:00 AM and play until 2:00 PM. 4) Maybe catch a couple of ZZZs, maybe not - depending. 5) Take the stage at 8:00 PM and finish out the night.

Believe it or not, it was actually a fun gig. There were some fine players around Portland at the time and most of them showed up sooner or later.

That said, "If I had know I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself" doesn't even begin to describe it.
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John Walden · From: Simi Valley, California, USA

For me...... 4 nights a week. Wed., Thurs., Fri., and Sat. Four, 45 min. sets. for 2 1/2 years, straight. Never missed a performance. The Restaurant was the Two plus Two Restaurant, in Camarillo, Ca. As a solo performer. It has since changed hands. Now it is all bar. Not a dinner house.
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Dave Harmonson · From: Seattle, Wa

The most gruelling I remember was The Riverside Inn in Tukwila WA just south of Seattle. Monday-Saturday 9:00-1:30 with an after hours jam on Friday and Saturday from 2AM-5AM. Sunday off to sleep. I also remember playing a club in South Tacoma that had a Sunday jam with a host band from 2:00PM-1:30AM. That was just plain crazy.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

As far as house gigs... 7 nights a week for 5 years solid. Just Christmas and Thanksgiving off. Never again. Confused

I also hosted a lot of all-day jamborees back in the '80s. Those ran from about 12noon till 9pm. Thankfully those days are over.
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Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

When our club hosted a jamboree, we'd usually start at 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon. On some of these, I played with several bands (besides my own), and then my band would finish up the evening, 9-2 o'clock in the morning. That amounts to 6-9 hours actual playing time. I think the longest I've ever been on stage playing (without a break) was about 5 hours.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Donny, I did a few of those too... all day jamboree, where I played with several bands, and then my band played our regular house gig there from 9pm-1. The club owner made lots of money. We made a few bucks more than a normal gig.... sometimes no more than a normal gig. It was a raw deal, and I'll never do that again. Winking

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Ray Montee · From: Portland, Oregon (deceased)

Anytime that I realized the band leader knew not what he was doing, with a play list of about a dozen songs total, played rhythm strumming on a LOUD electric bass and his too fat girlfriend played an electric keyboard and neither of them could follow the chord progression of a song they didn't know.....

that ALWAYS made for a very long night!

Rick Campbell · From: Sneedville, TN, USA

Ray,

Uh Oh!!!!!

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Doug, I can relate. 6 nights a week, from 8pm until 2am for three years as the house band at The Touch of Gold (which is now a strip club). And when the clocks changed for Daylight savings time, another hour for free. But,,, it did give me reasonable earnings.

Tracy Sheehan · From: Fort Worth, Texas, USA

The longest gigs i recall was years ago when i played a sit down in Chicago.Was Calumet city actually,a suburb.Played from 8:00 Pm until 4:AM six nights a week.When i took the job with a friend from Springfield,Mo.where he and i had been playing.We were on our way back from NYC.
We had no idea what we were getting into and I really do not remember how we came to get the gig.
We went into the club one after noon to get our gear.Litterly came close to getting killed.Barelyy got away.We had heard one coulden't quit.Didn't balieve it,but we believed it after we made it out of Chi town alive.And this is the gosple truth.
The next longest gigs i worked were in Vegas.Back in the 60s and 70s the gigs at the Golden Nugget was six 40 minute sets.
Now the one that seemed longest to me was the last time i played steel with a band was about three years ago.The bass player set his tall amp right beside my chair and the guitar player set his amp next to mine on the other and never shut that $W%^&& fuzz tone off.
I had no idea what i was supposed to play on most of my rides as i had no idea what song we were playig and i could not hear the singer.
MY music career had always been trying to make the singer sound good and got me jobs where there were steel players who could blow me out of town and were always out of work.
I never had an ego problem and was never a name dropper.For instanse,during my short time i lived in Nashville I played on some sessions and i really wondered what i was doing there as there were so many great steel players walking the street looking for work.I do not know how it is now but i would still advise a young steeler to forget the hot lick playing and try to make the singer sound good.
As usual i am making this too long but i never forgot What Jim Reeves told me.(not to drop a name.)This was when he was still on the LA.Haride and his career was just taking off.He hired me to play fiddle and he told me on the hay ride they had fiddle players who could burn one up on an instrumental,but all he wanted was how good i could make him sound when he was singing.I never forgot this advice.
I turned the job down as this was 1954 and my wife was about 6 months along with my son and we were going on a tour of the west coast.He and his wife Mary treated me great.
Only reminiscing(sp?) and long winded as usual.Sorry about that.b0b.
A short time later i took up steel and never looked back.Tracy
How many old geezers like my self remember these days?

Ron ! · Posted 23 Aug 2008 6:59 pm

I just waited for some of you guys to reply.Looks a little nutty to post right under Karen's post.

The longest gig I ever did was at a festival in The Netherlands where we played from 10Am till 12Pm.
14 hour gig...pfffffff.....never do that again.Total of visitors that day ran over 120.000.

Although the money was worth it.I made more that day then in almost a weeks work back then.We came close to $500 a head.
We had 6 band members in that band and we always divided by 7.That way we always had money if something would get broke....or a member needed a new amp etc etc.
Golden times back then.I had a good job and a fair amount of gig's.I was fortunate enough to buy a new steel guitar every month if I wanted too.

Played a Lashley LeGrandeII back then with 4x6 and a Sho-Bud Professional with 8x4 and used my old trustworthy 500Session.Man....did I mis that amp.Finally I bought me another one yesterday.

Where did the time go.Seems like yesterday.

Ron

Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

I don't know if 3 gigs in one day qualifies, but back in the 60's we played a morning gig from 9 AM to Noon at the University of Buffalo, then from 2 PM to 6 PM for a frat party and then 9 PM to 2 AM at our regular gig. Not only was it 12 hours of playing but we had to move and set up 3 times as well.

In the 70's we played for a wedding reception that lasted 3 days. We were in and out of people's houses, and I forget how long we played, and don't remember much about it either.

Clyde Mattocks · From: Kinston, North Carolina, USA

Tracy, I once played with a fiddle player that had worked in Calumet City. He told the same thing you
mentioned, that the clubs were run by mobsters and
you couldn't quit under threat of death. He told how
he snuck out in the dead of night and changed his name for a while.
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b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

4th of July at the Twin Oaks Tavern in Penngrove, CA, maybe 1990 or so. We showed up at 9 AM and set up on the flatbed truck. Played in the parade, which goes twice around because the town is so small. The truck comes back to the bar and we set up on the back patio for the afternoon BBQ party, "jam session" (drunk singers) and wet t-shirt contest. Then we moved the equipment indoors for the regular evening gig, which started early of course because the place is packed. Finished up at the regular time: 1:30 AM.

I'm lucky to be alive, I guess.
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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

There were times, during big football weekends, St. Patrick's Day, and local arts festivals here, when I would play 3-4 full 3-4 hour gigs/day for anywhere from 1-4 days. This was mostly on 6-string guitar, and I would have amps set up each place. I just shuttled my guitars from gig to gig, none of which were more than a block or two from each other. After mandatory closing at 2am, we'd set up for the next day, get home at 4-5am, and start again by noon the next day. This would have been brutal on pedal steel. I avoid this kind of stuff now.

There were also occasional all-day/all-night things out in the country - you know, the usual wet t-shirt contests, mud or jello wrasslin', eating or drinking contests, and whatever. We weren't playing every minute, but couldn't really leave.

I can't imagine this in New Orleans. When I used to visit there, the clubs I hung out at only closed for about 15 minutes - I think it was 5:45 - 6:00 am. Patrons didn't have to leave, but they set up drinks, turned the lights out, waited 15 minutes, and then started over. Good Lord, if the bars didn't have to close at 2am on big weekends here, musicians here wouldn't sleep for days.

Jim Walker · From: Headland, AL

One weekend four summers ago I was filling in on lead guitar at the Baytowne Resort in Destin, FL and I played with 4 bands each day Fri and Sat from 10 am till 2 am. 14, 45 minute sets a day. But I made $980 ($35 a set) for the gigs plus another $210 in cuts from the tip jar. The money was great but I never ever want to do that again.

JW
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Thomas Ludwig · From: Augsburg, Germany

my longest gig was on a gypsy party in the early 80s.
from 12:00 noon till 2:00 am. I remember one man told us: you can eat and drink what and as much as you want, you can play what you want, but leave our women alone.

Thomas

Roual Ranes · From: Atlanta, Texas, USA

We had a Company Christmas Party that we booked every year. It was always booked as a five hour gig and always ran at least two hours over.......sometimes a lot more but I dont remember just how long.

Larry Allen · From: Kapaa, Kauai,Hawaii

In Anchorage, Alaska we worked 6-7 nites a week from 8 or 9pm until 5am. This was from 1966-1986 when the bars had to start closing at 2:30am....Trying to keep the horn section sober for 8-9 hours was a challenge itself!.The $$$ was great though. We ended up with a song list of over 900 tunes and wore out lots of players...Larry

Stu Schulman · From: Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)

I played the Hub in Anchorage from 7:45 p.m. until 3:45 A.M with 13 minute breaks,This was playing guitar standing up all night.I remember coming home one morning and I could barely walk...We showed up the next night and the club manager told us that we left early and owed him 3 minutes.Larry Allen has been up here way longer than me and has seen it all,He had a drummer friend visiting from Fla. about a month ago and they were talking about gigs back in the day,I couldn't believe the hours they put in.They told me about an upright bass player who would get dead drunk always wear a tux go home drink more pass out in his tux,wake up the next day splash on some cologne and do it again!The last frontier.
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Tracy Sheehan · From: Fort Worth, Texas, USA

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