This Ever Happened To You ?

Tommy Butler · Posted 1 May 2004 11:41 pm

I went to my gig tonite and of course the singer was there already bus and all. The drummer showed and put his kit together so I went ahead and set up. Well the bass player did not show up. The singer was pretty worried and tried to call him. Well no answer. The guitar player shows up and says i'll go get my bass and play it instead tonite. He leaves and does not come back. So we did a 3 piece. Steel, Acoustic and drums. I don't think I ever played so much in my life. But I had a blast. Never seen anything like it. There were people coming up putting 20's in the tip jar. Screaming and hollaring for more. Best night I ever had as far as money. They even ask us to play an extra hour. I actually O.D.ed on solo's and it was fun.

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Tommy! Sounds like a fun night.
You get to be Chaulker for the night,
they pay you more, and won't let you stop playing.
Dream gig.

Roger Edgington · From: San Antonio, Texas USA

Nope, never had that happen to me but back in the 60's I knew of a drummer who had a problem. We would play in some Texas city 100-150 miles from San Antonio, we'd be all set and ready to go and this drummer would walk in and see us and say, "you guys playing here tonight?" We'd say yep and he'd say "oops, missed another one. This happened several times. So, I guess someone didn't have a drummer show up those nights.

Paul King · From: Gainesville, Texas, USA

I have seen it happen before. I have never understood why some people you cannot depend on. To make it worse, in these days of cell phones why they cannot be courteous and give a phone call is ridiculious. I have seen them show up for practice the next time and act as if nothing ever happened. I can say with pride I have never pulled that on anyone. There is just no excuse for not being able to make contact and let someone know what is going on IMHO.

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

It was cool that you were able to forge ahead and make lemonade out of the lemons dealt to you. You have the personal pride that people can count on you as a man of your word. As far as those that let you down, It is nothing less than disrespect for your efforts. Communication is too easy these days. If you can't do the gig, talk to who is in charge, so they can get the spot covered. Evidently, the no-shows are not serious about their craft. An average musician that shows up is far more valuable that a super picker that shows up only once in awhile in my book.

T. C. Furlong · From: Lake County, Illinois, USA

Tommy,

I salute your courage. I had two similar gigs. One was a corporate event (I think it was a national billiards championship party) at a major downtown hotel where we were supposed to be musical wallpaper, you know, theme party props that make noise. The only guys that showed up out of a full five piece band were me on steel and a fiddle player. That was rough but we got through it. I think we played about 2 hours. I like to play rhythm steel so I got my fill of it. Another time the bass player had to make an emergency run to the ladies room during a song(yes the bass player was a female)I played western swing bass lines on the C6 neck for about 20 minutes. It was a blast!

Joe Casey · From: Weeki Wachee .Springs FL (population.9)

Maybe in not quite the same way. But after I decided to hang it up around 92 I had been approached by a club owner to put a small four piece band together for two nights. myself with Guitar bass and drums to form a group for a small club.It was a nice place owned by a gorgeous blond who had asked me years earlier if I cared to play in her club on off nights.She offered me a pretty good salary and I could pay the other three 150.00 for a two night gig. Rather than see the three piece band who was working there lose their job ,I asked them to join me.They were to recieve a 50.00 raise and jumped at the offer. We rehearsed for a whole week but I had to tone down the lead player who wanted to rock out every song including ballards.Well the night of the gig I showed up and no one was there and set up..Luckily I had few friends who were there to sit in and wish me luck so we had made a pretty good band, minus drums for 0ne set .I gave the job to a friend the following week. I found out later that the three showed up at another club that night bragging that they really stuck it to me.They added they didn't want to play straight Country S--t. All I can say is payback is a B;;;h.The good thing about making friends is that word spreads pretty fast.I never felt any animosity for those three after that night.I was just glad I never got to know them.I felt that they exposed their character to other area bands. First impression is usually lasting.

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Ben Slaughter · From: Madera, California

Happened once. I was playing bass in a 5 piece and the guitar player got sick after the first set. So I go to play guitar while fiddle player played bass. I've played lead for years so was not sweat off my back except I didn't have my guitar and the dang strap kept falling off.

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Ben
Zum D10, NV400, POD, G&L Guitars, etc, etc.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Oh yes! You see, it's like this. The first country band I was in had some members that, uh, how shall I say, were..."in demand" (usually by the county sheriff or the M.P.'s). More than one night, we'd get word that John Law was 'a commin' after our lead man, or one of our singers. And, it became not uncommon to see the the sheriff or M.P.'s strolling in the front door, and one or two band members jumping out a window, or running out the back door! :embarrassed:

As a result, we played many a night with just me on steel, a drummer, and a bassman. It did help my playing considerably, but it never did help my nerves, much!

Ah yes. Those were the days (back in my formative years)...good country music, good times, and occasionally...a little too much excitement.

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Well, part of that has happened to me before: the part about the drummer not showing up for the gig...

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