Your first performance
Discussion
First gig in one old band & it's going ok, we've bashed through the first song. 2nd tune, the singer goes to take the mic out of the stand & knocks the lead out of the back of it. The rest of us try to keep straight faces as the song instantly becomes an instrumental for the second verse. I've got footage of that on you tube as it goes.
Hmmm ok. The fun starts at about 3:45, just after someone walks in front of the camera.
http://youtu.be/pmgYwuMFMeQ?t=3m24s
http://youtu.be/pmgYwuMFMeQ?t=3m24s
My first gig was in a pub where there was not enough room for the whole band at one end of the bar, so I plugged in with a long lead and played in the gents, out of sight!
There were only about three people in the pub but one of them thought that it was so funny that he asked us to do his housewarming party and from that came many other gigs and established us.
The most important thing is to be slightly nervous and humble as nobody likes a smart ass who has the "I don't really have to be here because I'm so good" attitude. You must relate to the audience and never turn your back on them to fiddle with your amp, never hang your head down over the guitar and sing with the mike slightly higher so you give your throat a clear passage.
Always have a fluent set list so there are no big discussions about what the next song is going to be in between songs.
Be flexible at dances to judge the crowd and throw in a quiet number when appropriate.
The worst example I ever experienced of not relating to an audience was some time ago in Nottingham when we went to see a concert with Van Morrison followed by Bob Dylan. Van Morrison clearly did not want to be there and played accordingly with a foul mouthed tirade and Dylan just said nothing and went through the set like a robot. Many people just walked out.
I has never ceased to amaze me how differently people remember our performances. Some times we have played really well and there has been no applause or good comments, and other times we know we have played like s
te and people say it was the best gig they have heard.
There were only about three people in the pub but one of them thought that it was so funny that he asked us to do his housewarming party and from that came many other gigs and established us.
The most important thing is to be slightly nervous and humble as nobody likes a smart ass who has the "I don't really have to be here because I'm so good" attitude. You must relate to the audience and never turn your back on them to fiddle with your amp, never hang your head down over the guitar and sing with the mike slightly higher so you give your throat a clear passage.
Always have a fluent set list so there are no big discussions about what the next song is going to be in between songs.
Be flexible at dances to judge the crowd and throw in a quiet number when appropriate.
The worst example I ever experienced of not relating to an audience was some time ago in Nottingham when we went to see a concert with Van Morrison followed by Bob Dylan. Van Morrison clearly did not want to be there and played accordingly with a foul mouthed tirade and Dylan just said nothing and went through the set like a robot. Many people just walked out.
I has never ceased to amaze me how differently people remember our performances. Some times we have played really well and there has been no applause or good comments, and other times we know we have played like s
te and people say it was the best gig they have heard. Debut aged 17 at a Christian Folk festival in Woking in 1975: we opened with the R White's Lemonade advert then a cover of Big Yellow Taxi and then one of our own songs called Spoiled Brats. They pulled the curtain on us after that.....might have been my harmonica solo (I couldn't actually play it but we thought no-one would notice as Bob Dylan had got away with it).
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