[AvengedDrummer]

Wow. haha. Awesome stories guys! Too funny..

[mouse]

Hey Upstroke a friend of mine had the same thing happen, a guy every time he danced past the drum kit would give the cymbals a hit with his hand. Got to my friend after a while and he stopped mid tune, stood up, held out his arm with drumsticks and yelled "here you play the F***in things".

I was playing with a group called the Shagaroons a 6 to 8 piece farming community family band who did covers of the Pogues and folk/ celtic/ traditional, country foot stomping type hick sort of stuff? Never knew half of it just kept it all together, somehow. Anyway as we were loading gear into the pub some of the amps got damp in a heavy rain downpour.
About three songs into the first set the bass guitarist started singing something terrible and it was the guitarist who soon realised what was happening. He kicked over her amp which effectively pulled it from the power plug and broke the electrical circuit that was making her do some very unusual things. A case of "girls light up".
Wasn't funny at the time, she got burns to two fingers where they were touching the bass strings and sent to hospital for a nights observation. The band continued that night a bit daunted by the experience and not knowing how the bass player was getting on, and the fact that the gear was a bit dodgy.
She was o.k luckily, it was the local newspaper the next day that broke the ice. There was a big write up about "shocking Band" plays at pub, and a story full of puns like electrifying performance and live act and so on.
The bass players father who witnessed it all quiped later, that if it had happened to the guitarist who is a very lively sort of fellow on stage, that nobody would have known.
Funny part for me was the next gig when i found my self surrounded in an overkill of isolating transformers that they must have gathered from every farm shed in the district.

[UPSTROKE]

Mouse; I'm sorry, but this is a family oriented forum. In my opinion that story of yours is --- well it's. OK--I'll give it to you straight---It's just too shocking for a family drum forum. I hope no innocent, wide eyed, gullible, sensitive, little tiny children had an opportunity to read that shocking story without a parent or gaurdian present to supervise.

Thanks---That was great. Even if I was shocked.

Shagaroons?????

The first story about the other drummer getting his cymbal whacked sounds vaguely familiar???

[mouse]

It was an an apt name for a family of sheep shaggers ( standing Kiwi joke), this was a fun band and nothing taken seriously, played mainly at rugby clubs around the province and were very popular. They even had a local hit song called "Y Fronts".
The band unusually crossed between folk and punk, believe me was intersting to work with, never played with the same line up in the time i was with them. Bass, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, lead guitar, drums, bagpipes, harp, flute, and vocalists. They only ever had one practice which involved everyone turning up to drink back a batch of home brew, and that was it.
After the band disbanded they reformed a while later and were then called the Swede Eaters.
Any opportunity to play with different musicians makes life challenging and fun and you always learn new skills for the drum kit.

[UPSTROKE]

Originally Posted by mouse

It was an an apt name for a family of sheep shaggers ( standing Kiwi joke), this was a fun band and nothing taken seriously, played mainly at rugby clubs around the province and were very popular. They even had a local hit song called "Y Fronts".
The band unusually crossed between folk and punk, believe me was intersting to work with, never played with the same line up in the time i was with them. Bass, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, lead guitar, drums, bagpipes, harp, flute, and vocalists. They only ever had one practice which involved everyone turning up to drink back a batch of home brew, and that was it.
After the band disbanded they reformed a while later and were then called the Swede Eaters.
Any opportunity to play with different musicians makes life challenging and fun and you always
learn new skills for the drum kit.

What a line-up. I used to dream about rehearsals like that.
Always woke up with wet shorts
Apparently all the good names were taken already the day they chose the name "Swede Eaters" That's what I call a musical educational experience. I played with a German Oompha band in downtown Seattle for a while. Doing the lunch and dinner crowd thing. The other guys in the band dressed up in their Liederhosen and everything. Crazy gig. Sure makes you improve rapidly on your rolls and flams for all those Polkas and Schottisches. Some gigs just have their own little rainbow of craziness.

[Lee Mangano]

All these stories are "great" & brought a ton of memories...This is a great thread.

If this is bad, it's OK to delete it, I'll be considerate to youngsters...Back in the 80's I was in this cover rock band, we were the most popular band around & drew 2,000 people at some clubs for a cover band... anyway..

We used to do that popular "Doors" song ..."LA Woman""....not sure of the real words but remember when that song came down & Morrison would repeat a few times this line over & over & then the loud chorus would come in..maybe our words will refresh your memory to the real words..

we changed the word to ...Give up your blouse...give up your blouse...then blast with "SHOW YOUR T***IES and our following always flashed us...it was great...now onto the real story that shut down the club..

We were at the club playing & this really beautiful blond girl in a mini skirt jumped on stage & started dancing with our singer, the guys in the club loved watching her, she was really pretty, anyway...our singer calls that Doors song.

When that part comes up, he was singing right to her while she was onstage dancing ...give up your blouse....give up your Blouse...."SHOW YOUR T***IES and instead of lifting her shirt like everyone else...she lifted her skirt & funny enough had "NO" underwear on....needless to say the guys in the club loved it...

Now the song ends & we go into another tune while she steps off the stage, her handsome 230 lb. College Football QB cold cocks her straight in the nose & broke it in 50 places...Blood went everywhere...the crowd went crazy and all attacked him & his friends....there was a brawl of about 30 guys all around the stage...

We stopped playing of course & 1 of our roadies grabbed one of my cymbal stands & stood at the edge of the stage hitting anyone that came close to us or our gear...then the Patty Wagons & State Police showed up & platic tied 30 guys & arrested them & shut down the club...we were never asked back....that was our 2nd bad incident...the 1st one brought us to court....

Delete if this is too muchh...its OK, Ill understand completely

Lee

[UPSTROKE]

LEE;
Your story is the best thing I've ever seen on this site, PERIOD. GREAT STORY, & WELL TOLD. Musician stories are kind of like a couple of old soldiers sitting around in a bar drinking beer. One guy tells a story and that reminds the other guy about another story. And THAT was the idea for the basis of this thread.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much interest in it' Maybe none of these young guys have ever been on the road or done much playing in clubs.

Clubs are probably lousy places to play, BUT, that is where almost ALL the really GOOD stories come from. Thanks again for your contribution. Incidently, the ending left me hanging just right. Yeah--now I want to hear about the first story that took you to court. ----------PLEEEEEEZE. I will get off my duff and relate the tale of the biggest, longest fight I ever saw in a club. I'll do it in a seperate article so that this thank you doesn't go on for ever. Thanks again Lee.

[UPSTROKE]

Lee's great story about the big bar fight reminded me of this one. Like all of my stories, I need to tell you how it all came about.
Mistake number one: I hired on with a husband & wife trio. Thereby - breaking rule number one. RULE #1: NEVER go to work for a husband wife team. I think the origin of that rule came from back in the 13th Century when most husband & wife teams were guitar players. That rule has survived through hundreds of years because even today, most husband & wife teams are still guitar players.
As you know, when a guitar player is very young and learns one chord on his guitar his ego is multiplied by 10. This phenomenon happens every time they learn a new chord. By the time they can actually play,-- well--- they just seem to absolutely know in their hearts that God made them to be so special that even He needs an appointment to speak to them. They, of course, rarely grant Him the honor.

Oops, I got a little off track. On with this tale of mayhem. The husband of this pair not only knew how to play six or even seven chords, he also knew that he was by far the prettiest guitar player ever made. He told everyone that he was Italian and he had greasy, wavy black hair. Which he groomed on & off stage constantly.

This bar we were in had a rough history of it's own. The bartender was an ex-prize fighter and knew his way around any good fight. One Saturday night the beautiful guitar player got in an argument with the bartender. I have no idea what the little squabble was about. The guitarist tried to punch the bartender. The bartender just grabed his Beautiful, curly hair & held him out at arms length.
Now if you can visualize this picture in your mind. The bartender is just holding his hair with one hand & this fool is flailing away with both arms trying to hit him. He looks like a girl trying to hit someone. This was on a Saturday night (payday) so the bartender canned us. Then the bartender came over to me & asked if I could get another band by Monday. I said h*ll yes! On Monday I showed up with a far better 4 pc group out of Portland.
Chapter 2 to follow.

[Lee Mangano]

OK Upstroke...I love this thread & it "GREAT"...I am packed with some great stories...all true I may add...I see you have been playing since 1960...I was born in 1959 ... me & you will keep this thread alive & have fun doing it...

On a sad note, Im from Rhode Island and lost 9 friends in the Station Fire. Since then I thank God we never had anything tragic as that happen...everyone did piro back then...we were all lucky and some stuff we actually did was bigger grade than what "Great White" used that night 100 people died.


As far as our 1st episode at this same club only a few months earlier, the Singer/Owner of the band had a law suit slapped on him from 1 of the girls in the audience. This is literally hysterical compared the Bloody Brawl.

As I mentioned before, we were a top 80's local cover Rock band & had a great following. We played everything from Black Sabbath to Motley Crew to AC/DC and KISS. We not only performed & palyed well as a band, we had the best lighting tec in the state...he now works for Mariah Carey etc...Giant acts...his name is Bill

Bill not only set up the biggest concert lightshow around, he also blew up everything in sight or just set it on fire. He even set my Drums on fire...along with my hair a few times. I will have to post a picture somehow for you. Anyway back to the show...

So you know... everytime we played Motley Crew's "Shout at the Devil" Bill had depending on the size of the stage anywhere from 4 to 8 pods filled with flashpowder, when he pressed the button the spark from the wires made a 3' wide fireball that went as high as 30' depending on the ceiling height...

Let me add Bill was a profesional & liscened & very careful...but this one time the stage was only 2' high & really small & our 6 pc. band barely fit on the stage, so Bill put 4 pods right in front of the stage on the dance floor.

Well.....remember those fake plastic pants the girls in the 80's used to wear that looked really cool & like leather & were really tight....this girl & her boyfriend are dancing right infront of the stage & her drunk boyfriend throws his lit cigerette ...guess were it lands...directly in a pod...and worst...the pod 1' from his girlfriend...the cigerette sparked the flashpowder & the fire burned this girls plastic pants right off her...she also had no underwear on...isn't that funny...I should have moved to this state were no girls wear underwear...

Anyway...some of the plastic burned parts of her legs a little...not serious burns at all but enough to hurt...never mind she had more of a case to suit Bob for embarressment watching her run out of the club pantsless screaming was the funniest thing I ever saw...she was pretty good with Bob & settled out of court & kept coming back to see the band...

Lee

[Lee Mangano]

That was good story....love to see the pretty boys put in their place...and Im sure the bartender had every right to smack his cocky ass around...

Lee