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Randracula
Well-known member
I don't know if this is my best but it's pretty interesting.I already talked about in this thread..........
http://www.ernieball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13250&page=2
http://www.ernieball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13250&page=2
BigStrings
Well-known member
I dropped out of high school to go on the road with a really good local band getting ready to tour upper New York State resort areas. Sounded like a good plan at the time and really exciting for a 17 year old bass player. Anyway, a year later our agent booked us back in our home town opening for the Dave Clark Five in front of 15,000 people at one of our football stadiums. We were singing and playing through equipment that we could only dream about. This was of course a big deal as our friends thought we had really made it big. That was 40 years ago when we used to gig 6 nights a week with Sat. & Sun. afternoon matinees at Lake George, Lake Placid, Lake Pleasant and countless other towns and cities. We opened for other pretty big names at the time and even backed some groups such as the Shangralas (3 chicks, "Leader of the Pack").
Once we were backing up Buddy Randell from Buddy Randell and the Nickerbockers, famous for the song "Lies", he is also the guy who wrote "Short Shorts" if anybody remembers that far back. Anyway, he wanted to do a commercial tune called "That's All", an uptempo ride kind of song with a ton of changes. The guitar player gave him a B flat and I'll be dammed if he didn't come in singing in E flat. We never realized that we could transpose on the fly until that moment.
The whole thing was a great and exciting time in my life. We lived large as they say and when I finally came home, realizing that I didn't want to be a 40 year old balding bass player playing Holiday Inns all over the East coast for the rest of my life, the only things I brought with me were the 6 three piece suits that we used to play in. Ah, but the memories.
Once we were backing up Buddy Randell from Buddy Randell and the Nickerbockers, famous for the song "Lies", he is also the guy who wrote "Short Shorts" if anybody remembers that far back. Anyway, he wanted to do a commercial tune called "That's All", an uptempo ride kind of song with a ton of changes. The guitar player gave him a B flat and I'll be dammed if he didn't come in singing in E flat. We never realized that we could transpose on the fly until that moment.
The whole thing was a great and exciting time in my life. We lived large as they say and when I finally came home, realizing that I didn't want to be a 40 year old balding bass player playing Holiday Inns all over the East coast for the rest of my life, the only things I brought with me were the 6 three piece suits that we used to play in. Ah, but the memories.
Figjam
Well-known member
Nice story 
syciprider
Well-known member
Back in Asia (that's where I migrated from)
Sometime in the mid 80s. The local punk club was closing it doors and the local bands threw one last (and free) concert.
It was crazy. I remember we played some Spizz Energi (Where's Capt Kirk) and some Stiff Little Fingers. The highlight of the evening was when we helped burn a taxi.
Yeah, that was hardcore.
Sometime in the mid 80s. The local punk club was closing it doors and the local bands threw one last (and free) concert.
It was crazy. I remember we played some Spizz Energi (Where's Capt Kirk) and some Stiff Little Fingers. The highlight of the evening was when we helped burn a taxi.
Yeah, that was hardcore.
Colin
Well-known member
syciprider said:
What happened to the days of just throwing a TV out the window?
flywheel
Well-known member
jongitarz said:When I was in 6th grade my band played for our graduation. Being that it was in 1966, we had to submit a list of lyrics of the songs we were going to play. One of the songs was Satisfaction, by the Stones. We were told we couldn't play it because it mentioned smoking. Guess what we opened with? \/
Smoke on the Water?
I guess the gig that stands out most in my mind is the first gig I played in Kansas City at a "club". I was only 22 and was playing with some guys that you might consider veterans of "the scene" and our first KC gig was opening for the Judybats. I remember getting so excited to play the show because the Judybats had a song called Being Simple that was a pretty big hit on the FM stations. I heard several ads for the show on the radio and our band was mentioned as the opening act...I thought this was how it was always gonna be...I had landed a gig with a good band and we would be sharing the stage with awesome bands to big crowds, etc. My head was really in the clouds! The gig went really well and we played to probably 150-200 people but this turned out to be the HIGHLIGHT of my performances with this band instead of the BEGINNING to glory, etc.
Same band also opened for a band called Pleasure at the Hurricane in KC but I don't remember a very large crowd...fun night though. This band later changed it's name (same members) to Semisonic.
I also had the chance in another band I was in to open for Local H at the Bottleneck in Lawrence, KS but...this was on the first record...not the platinum selling follow up...of course!
shamus63
Well-known member
jongitarz said:When I was in 6th grade my band played for our graduation. Being that it was in 1966, we had to submit a list of lyrics of the songs we were going to play. One of the songs was Satisfaction, by the Stones. We were told we couldn't play it because it mentioned smoking. Guess what we opened with? \/
Something very 'Jim Morrison-esque' about that bit of rebellion.
flywheel
Well-known member
shamus63 said:Something very 'Jim Morrison-esque' about that bit of rebellion.
Haha...Light My Fire came to mind when I heard this too!!!
shamus63
Well-known member
flywheel said:
Mobay45
Well-known member
flywheel said:Smoke on the Water?
That would have been quite a feat since it wasn't even released until '72!
flywheel
Well-known member
Mobay45 said:That would have been quite a feat since it wasn't even released until '72!
Damn are you saying Jon wrote Smoke on the Water in 6th grade and sold it to Deep Purple!!! Woah
