here's another joke on bodhran players, except this time its on me.
i sometimes pick up the drum when i get home after a heavy night at the pub.
i start getting into it, i close my eyes, and gradually get my ear
closer and closer to the drum. its loud, i'm drunk. it sounds great.
whack!
i hit myself in the face with the tipper.
dont ask me.
i would imagine the look on my face is similar to that of a dog as it farts.
i will never play the bodhran in public.
thats ok, i'm really a strings person.
i only confess this to entice you all to tell similar stories of musical idiocy and comedy.
For playing bodhran in sessions, the stories of dumb things I did are endless....
I once hit my self in the adam's apple with the tipper while playing some slip jigs in a session, though... The friend who saw it happen, and my bit of choking afterwards can hardly keep a straight face anymore...
I once went to a show of a "famed" accordion player / singer / recording "artist" from the island here, who ended up drinking so much he fell off his stool during the show... he kept on singing though, I guess he didn't knock over the tape player when he fell...
A friend of mine who was in a band that was on The Top Of The Pops (a British TV pop music show) in the '70s told me about when the show was going out live the drummer in his band knocked over the drums but the sound somehow miraculously continued. The show may have been live but (in those days) the sound certainly wasn't ...
Re Top of the Pops - Didn't the lead singer of the Stone Roses 'sing' a whole song with his mic held right up as high as he could reach? He may have been lipsynching too..
There was a clause in the TOTP contract that said you were not allowed to deliberately bring attention to the fact that you were miming. You used to never see close ups of drummers, because it was really obvious that the cymbals were made of felt. I remember The Smiths playing their guitars back to front, with the strings against their body. The were banned from the show and they never got their fee. Towards the end of the '80s, it just got so ridiculous that they changed their policy and demanded that the singer actually sang, but the rest of the band mimed. The advertising standards authority made them come up with a series of phrases to introduce the bands. "In the studio live" meant it was live TV, but they were all miming. "Singing live in the studio" meant everyone was miming except the singer and it was taped earlier. etc
The zip and the buttons of my flies burst open once when I was doing a gig on stage.
Strange but true.
Luckily I was wearing a jumper so pulled it down to thigh level. It got a bit hot but I survived the gig.
To be honest, I thought it was funny, and couldn't really have given a monkeys, but for the sake of modesty and to protect the innocent only, did the jumper get pulled down.
I did a gig with a cello player who wore a mini skirt that was so tight she had to be lifted on to the stage and then subtly place her cello while hitching the skirt up further so she could get the cello between her legs!!
But the most incidents I have had have probably been with my fiddle bow - particularly at crowded sessions where I've poked people, caught the bow on chair arms, tables etc,
I also had an E string break and go across my face leaving a nasty red line across my face.
I was playing in a group in an Anglican church. There was a respectful hush throughout the church as the vicar processed up the aisle to begin the service. It was in this silence that the octogenarian fiddle player next to me turned to me and said, in what he thought was a whisper but was actually a very loud voice: "My G string has just slipped...mind you, I don't use it in church very much" Keeping a straight face agter that was very difficult.
Yeah, the buttons at the top - at the waistline. They fell apart after I'd been for a wazz. So the zip was holding the kegs up. Couldn't stand the pressure of the beer gut against it, so the zip went as well. Bleedin larff mate I tell ya.
Lack of security more like.
I once accompanied a somewhat wild and crazy fiddler who lost his bow in the middle of a tune - he kept on plinking the D string in rhythm - holding his fiddle up to the mic while he recovered the bow without missing a beat (I just kept on the D chord) and went on with the tune. People were very impressed and thought it was part of the act...
Coming back to Top Of The Pops i remember seing a pop band playing in the 80's (Fairground Attraction) and the lead singer stopped "singing" and happily took an orange from her pocket peeled it and ate it while the track was playing to the anger of TOTP managers Hilarious.
Yeah, I remember that one too, It was just after the smiths. Fairground attraction got their fee pulled also.
And there was a brilliant one with some twit from haircut 100 I think that started his song with his back to the mike stand and his plan was to jump round the moment before starting to sing. Only he jumped too early and started miming to nothing. So he turned back around to do it right, but missed it, the singing started without him. hilarious. TOTP tried to pull his fee, but staggeringly, he pleaded that he wasn't trying to be a smart arse, like Morrissy, but was in fact, just stupid. He won the case.
comedy
comedy
here's another joke on bodhran players, except this time its on me.
i sometimes pick up the drum when i get home after a heavy night at the pub.
i start getting into it, i close my eyes, and gradually get my ear
closer and closer to the drum. its loud, i'm drunk. it sounds great.
whack!
i hit myself in the face with the tipper.
dont ask me.
i would imagine the look on my face is similar to that of a dog as it farts.
i will never play the bodhran in public.
thats ok, i'm really a strings person.
i only confess this to entice you all to tell similar stories of musical idiocy and comedy.
any takers?
rumpole
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by rumpole
Re: comedy
For playing bodhran in sessions, the stories of dumb things I did are endless....
I once hit my self in the adam's apple with the tipper while playing some slip jigs in a session, though... The friend who saw it happen, and my bit of choking afterwards can hardly keep a straight face anymore...
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by JosephC
Re: comedy
Come on Bodhran Bliss, you go first!
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by mcknowall
Re: comedy
I once went to a show of a "famed" accordion player / singer / recording "artist" from the island here, who ended up drinking so much he fell off his stool during the show... he kept on singing though, I guess he didn't knock over the tape player when he fell...
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by hibbs21
Re: comedy
From your description alone, hibbs21, I have a feeling I know who he is.
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by Patkiwi
Re: comedy
Pat
Were you around during the days of the Carribou Club ? I heard similar stories about the performances there.
Rob
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by mellow_bellows
Re: comedy
A friend of mine who was in a band that was on The Top Of The Pops (a British TV pop music show) in the '70s told me about when the show was going out live the drummer in his band knocked over the drums but the sound somehow miraculously continued. The show may have been live but (in those days) the sound certainly wasn't ...
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by Trevor Jennings
Re: comedy
Re Top of the Pops - Didn't the lead singer of the Stone Roses 'sing' a whole song with his mic held right up as high as he could reach? He may have been lipsynching too..
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by Brown Creeper
Re: comedy
hibbs21 - He may have practised this very thoroughly...
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by nicholas
Re: comedy
There was a clause in the TOTP contract that said you were not allowed to deliberately bring attention to the fact that you were miming. You used to never see close ups of drummers, because it was really obvious that the cymbals were made of felt. I remember The Smiths playing their guitars back to front, with the strings against their body. The were banned from the show and they never got their fee. Towards the end of the '80s, it just got so ridiculous that they changed their policy and demanded that the singer actually sang, but the rest of the band mimed. The advertising standards authority made them come up with a series of phrases to introduce the bands. "In the studio live" meant it was live TV, but they were all miming. "Singing live in the studio" meant everyone was miming except the singer and it was taped earlier. etc
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by llig leahcim
Re: comedy
Miming on TOTP?
That rumbling sound you can hear is my world crashing down . . .
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by showaddydadito
Re: comedy
The zip and the buttons of my flies burst open once when I was doing a gig on stage.
Strange but true.
Luckily I was wearing a jumper so pulled it down to thigh level. It got a bit hot but I survived the gig.
To be honest, I thought it was funny, and couldn't really have given a monkeys, but for the sake of modesty and to protect the innocent only, did the jumper get pulled down.
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by Rudall the time
Re: comedy
Zip AND buttons, Danny ? Sounds like Fort Knox type security there
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by murfbox
Re: comedy
That's Tupperware for you! (Tupperware being a make of plastic food container fashionable in England in the 70's)
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by bowburner
Re: comedy
I did a gig with a cello player who wore a mini skirt that was so tight she had to be lifted on to the stage and then subtly place her cello while hitching the skirt up further so she could get the cello between her legs!!
But the most incidents I have had have probably been with my fiddle bow - particularly at crowded sessions where I've poked people, caught the bow on chair arms, tables etc,
I also had an E string break and go across my face leaving a nasty red line across my face.
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by Tarrantella
Re: comedy
Hey, Tarantella, when's your next gig with that lady cellist? Promote it here, on this board - and you never know, it might be a sell-out!
... and regarding your close encounter with an E-string, had it been your 'cellist's G-string , that really would have been a story
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: comedy
I was playing in a group in an Anglican church. There was a respectful hush throughout the church as the vicar processed up the aisle to begin the service. It was in this silence that the octogenarian fiddle player next to me turned to me and said, in what he thought was a whisper but was actually a very loud voice: "My G string has just slipped...mind you, I don't use it in church very much" Keeping a straight face agter that was very difficult.
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by bowburner
Re: comedy
Yeah, the buttons at the top - at the waistline. They fell apart after I'd been for a wazz. So the zip was holding the kegs up. Couldn't stand the pressure of the beer gut against it, so the zip went as well. Bleedin larff mate I tell ya.
Lack of security more like.
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by Rudall the time
Re: comedy
Come on Bodhran Bliss, you go first!
# Posted on December 10th 2008 by mcknowall
Perfection bores many, my dear McKnowall, and makes others star struck or jealous.
# Posted on December 11th 2008 by bodhran bliss
Re: comedy
I once accompanied a somewhat wild and crazy fiddler who lost his bow in the middle of a tune - he kept on plinking the D string in rhythm - holding his fiddle up to the mic while he recovered the bow without missing a beat (I just kept on the D chord) and went on with the tune. People were very impressed and thought it was part of the act...
# Posted on December 11th 2008 by vonnieestes
Re: comedy
Alf, I'll get my man to advise your man on the whereabouts of a decent tailor in your area.
# Posted on December 12th 2008 by Trevor Jennings
Re: comedy
Coming back to Top Of The Pops i remember seing a pop band playing in the 80's (Fairground Attraction) and the lead singer stopped "singing" and happily took an orange from her pocket peeled it and ate it while the track was playing to the anger of TOTP managers Hilarious.
# Posted on December 12th 2008 by upmine3
Re: comedy
Yeah, I remember that one too, It was just after the smiths. Fairground attraction got their fee pulled also.
And there was a brilliant one with some twit from haircut 100 I think that started his song with his back to the mike stand and his plan was to jump round the moment before starting to sing. Only he jumped too early and started miming to nothing. So he turned back around to do it right, but missed it, the singing started without him. hilarious. TOTP tried to pull his fee, but staggeringly, he pleaded that he wasn't trying to be a smart arse, like Morrissy, but was in fact, just stupid. He won the case.
# Posted on December 12th 2008 by llig leahcim