I am waiting to hear about a last-minute New Year's Eve gig, at a small-town bar. Part of me--OK, a lot of me--hopes that we overpriced ourselves.
Anybody got some good stories about playing gigs on New Year's Eve? I would especially like to hear about some unexpectedly nice ones, to help me hope for the best.
I almost always play on new year's eve, but usually, it's in private sessions. Often unpaid, except for the bar and food tab.
Doing that again tomorrow night. But for the second year in a row, it appears as though I am going to be playing with a pretty bad cold. Last year, I had them keep me going with a steady stream of hot water for tea, and Irish whiskey, which I would mix together, and drink as a tonic to keep me from coughing or feeling too miserable...
LOL. That's a real back-slapper, Nicholas. Don't know about the stomach punches, but I have seen someone at a bar holding their beer get tackled at full pace, and we notice that as they were both drifting through the air, the guy took great care not to spill a drop of his beer - even after hitting the floor and skidding for quite a few feet. (Don't worry, it doesn't happen all the time.) Mind, in some areas, you'll have to watch out for the nipple crippler; that would bring a tear to the eye.
Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) is around 70 now - still a larrikin though. Lives in California I think.
That movie is embarrassingly dated now, but in its day it was well received here and overseas. Movieworld seems to trot out iconography like this every couple of decades - The Adventures of Barry McKenzie was the 60s or 70s equivalent.
Steve Irwin, while he wasn't your everyday bloke, had a personality which isn't (or wasn't) uncommon in the country, especially out of the big cities, Same with Paul Hogan.
Here's a bio...before movies he used to be, apparently, a painter on the Sydney Harbour Bridge - yes, the thing is continuously painted, still.
Anyway, on topic, happy new year. Here's you tube for you to the Sydney nye fireworks (last year). Shaping up to be a good one tonight as well - nice hot still night. (Excellent for beer skulling, stomach punching and nipple crippling, down at Circular Quay, among all the fireworks.)
My wife and I are taking in our granddaughter for New Years Eve, so I will probably be sitting around the table tomorrow evening playing Ponyville, which is a board game kind of like Candy Land except with little pink and lavender ponies. Oh, the things we do for love........
I've been invited to a house session, in Melbourne tonight,but I was interested in the comments about all the beer drinking that goes on.I wonder if any non Australians out there are aware that our ex Prime Minister Bob Hawke held the world record for beer drinking a yard glass that he "achieved" at Oxford whilst on his way to becoming a Rhodes Scholar.I think it was about 13 seconds.
Very good session/gig in Kilkenny Tavern South Wimbledon
with Hungry Grass 9pm, but most years a session happens
in the afternoon.
Happy new year to everybody.
I've played several New Years Eve gigs as part of various barn dance bands, and most were some version of ok, but the one that sticks in my head was the one at a staff social club of a mental hospital.....could we get the audience up to dance ? No was the answer. Our drummer was p*ssed off because he had got the gig for us as a starter in the field of working as an agent, and didn't realise that the gig was on the black list of all local agents because everything went down like a lead balloon. They sat on their hands all evening, and then paid us off at 10.30, put on some records, and the same 6 people were up dancing. We left feeling that maybe we had been playing for the patients rather than the staff !
It's New Year's Eve,The manager of an Irish pub gets a call.The band are sick,they have to cancel. He's desperate,New Year's Eve and no band.He makes a few calls,all the bands are working but he does find a banjo quintet who are not working.They do the gig,it goes well. Afterwards the manager says to them
'That went well boys.can you play here next New Year's Eve?'
.Yes,can we leave our instruments here?'
Unbelievable, stupendo...nye fireworks Sydney Australia best ever.Sydney Harbour was as still as a pond changing colour under the fireworks reflection, 22 degrees C at midnight, excellent music...perfecto scenario! Check it out on you tube, don't miss it.
A couple years ago I was visiting Colorado over the holidays. For New Year's Eve I was driving to a friend's house to have a few tunes with Reverend and a few other mates. I had borrowed my dad's car, one of those mini-4x4s, and was going about 35-40mph on a dual carriageway. A light changed and I braked. The car hit black ice, the wheels locked. It spun around 180 degrees and skidded across the road, two lanes, towards the median. I thought that this was it, I was going to flip. F*ck. My next thought was that my dad was going to be really upset about his car being totaled. I then wondered how uilleann pipes would fare in a 30mph roll over as they did not have a seatbelt. This was about to be a bugger of a New Year. Odd how your mind works when disaster is imminent. The car stopped before it the median, still upright, facing the opposite direction. I sat there for a minute shaking. I was lucky as hell, since I would have been f*cked if there had been other cars around or if it had been single carriage way. The only thing for it was to drive on to the session, so I made a U-turn and continued on to Pete and co. where I had a much needed beer and tunes.
The following year, last year, I was in the Highlands with some friends and (now ex) boyfriend. Hogmanay began with me running across a road to get some beer from a car. It was dark and just before I reached the car, I found myself unexpectedly in midair and then lying in a ditch. I crawled out of the ditch, yelling and laughing, "I just fell in a ditch! Awesome!" That was me soaking wet for the rest of the night. There was a bonfire on a beach, fireworks, and then tunes in a freezing shed (or maybe that was the following night).
Update--looks like I won't be making a 5-hour round trip to play at some unknown bar on New Year's Eve--aka "Amateur Night" according to longtime alcoholics. (We were contacted by a booking agent, who just wanted a price quote--no details about the bar were provided.)
After reading about the Nipple Crippler--not to mention the attack on Noel Hill--I'm glad. Although there is a tiny twinge of regret, because maybe it is a cozy place full of warm, friendly people who love trad. But maybe not.
I can't think of any particularly nice New Years' Eve gigs (only bad ones), so I'll skip that part.
One of my local session leaders and his family are having a big blow-out at their house, and God bless 'em, I'm invited! They asked me to bring along the piano, so it should be interesting. I decided that one of the cats needed a flea bath on Christmas, and the little ingrate bit me and took a big chunk out of one of my fingers on my right hand. Maybe I can find someone to trade off with. I think that I've got the same crud that Reverend has; I hope that I'm not coughing and sneezing throughout.
feardearg - oh, Candyland ain't so bad. Now if you were to make me listen to Lou & Peter Berryman, or play "The Devil's Walk"...
Does anyone play Stonewall? A neighbor from NZ introduced it to me and the kids. What a cool game...
Y'all have a wonderful 2009.
Hey Mickray: My kid's Mom is a substance abuse counselor, and yup, that's the joke in that community; things like New Year's Eve and St. Pat's are, indeed, "Amateur Night". My bad New Year's Eve stories all involve bars, so maybe you're well out of it.
Awwww, I ~LIKE~ The Old Bush. Perhaps because it's so modal...and, at least the way that they play it around here, there are some of those in-between notes that Llig alluded to in another discussion. So it's a bear to back properly, but I'm always up for a challenge...
Have a good one!
Well, my story has a surprise ending. As the faraway bar gig evaporated (fine by me) I checked the calendar for the coffeehouse that hosts our regular session--nobody was signed up to play! I volunteered, they accepted, I got to play a low-pressure solo gig to a nice, supportive crowd in a comfy place. Would have been better with a couple other players along, but otherwise it was just what I had hoped for. And I got home around 10 pm--perfect for a tired old fart like me!
New Year's Eve stories?
New Year's Eve stories?
I am waiting to hear about a last-minute New Year's Eve gig, at a small-town bar. Part of me--OK, a lot of me--hopes that we overpriced ourselves.
Anybody got some good stories about playing gigs on New Year's Eve? I would especially like to hear about some unexpectedly nice ones, to help me hope for the best.
# Posted on December 30th 2008 by John Galt
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
Well the Aussies will get their story in first since they celebrate it before us.
# Posted on December 30th 2008 by upmine3
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
I once played a New Year's gig at an old folks home- the gig ended at 10:00 PM.
# Posted on December 30th 2008 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
I saw "Crocodile Dundee" for the first time the other night. Now I know a bit more about Aussie ideas of a good time than I did before...!
# Posted on December 30th 2008 by nicholas
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
I almost always play on new year's eve, but usually, it's in private sessions. Often unpaid, except for the bar and food tab.
Doing that again tomorrow night. But for the second year in a row, it appears as though I am going to be playing with a pretty bad cold. Last year, I had them keep me going with a steady stream of hot water for tea, and Irish whiskey, which I would mix together, and drink as a tonic to keep me from coughing or feeling too miserable...
# Posted on December 30th 2008 by Reverend
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
Nicholas, I think what you now know more about is Hollywood's Australian fantasies.
# Posted on December 30th 2008 by oldstrings
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
I stand corrected; but surely there was at least some Australian "intellectual input"?
You mean a full-on punch in the stomach is not the standard greeting down there..?!
I don't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.
(I didn't think the film was quite the hoot it was cracked up to be, btw...)
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by nicholas
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
LOL. That's a real back-slapper, Nicholas. Don't know about the stomach punches, but I have seen someone at a bar holding their beer get tackled at full pace, and we notice that as they were both drifting through the air, the guy took great care not to spill a drop of his beer - even after hitting the floor and skidding for quite a few feet. (Don't worry, it doesn't happen all the time.) Mind, in some areas, you'll have to watch out for the nipple crippler; that would bring a tear to the eye.
Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) is around 70 now - still a larrikin though. Lives in California I think.
That movie is embarrassingly dated now, but in its day it was well received here and overseas. Movieworld seems to trot out iconography like this every couple of decades - The Adventures of Barry McKenzie was the 60s or 70s equivalent.
Steve Irwin, while he wasn't your everyday bloke, had a personality which isn't (or wasn't) uncommon in the country, especially out of the big cities, Same with Paul Hogan.
Here's a bio...before movies he used to be, apparently, a painter on the Sydney Harbour Bridge - yes, the thing is continuously painted, still.
Anyway, on topic, happy new year. Here's you tube for you to the Sydney nye fireworks (last year). Shaping up to be a good one tonight as well - nice hot still night. (Excellent for beer skulling, stomach punching and nipple crippling, down at Circular Quay, among all the fireworks.)
Cheers...ouuuuch!!!
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=jf1hd6waeIg
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800021787/bio
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
My wife and I are taking in our granddaughter for New Years Eve, so I will probably be sitting around the table tomorrow evening playing Ponyville, which is a board game kind of like Candy Land except with little pink and lavender ponies. Oh, the things we do for love........
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by AlBrown
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
Bless you Albrown. I have played my share of Candy Land. I think I would prefer a nipple crippler. Two.
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by feardearg
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
I've been invited to a house session, in Melbourne tonight,but I was interested in the comments about all the beer drinking that goes on.I wonder if any non Australians out there are aware that our ex Prime Minister Bob Hawke held the world record for beer drinking a yard glass that he "achieved" at Oxford whilst on his way to becoming a Rhodes Scholar.I think it was about 13 seconds.
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by Tony O'Rourke
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
Very good session/gig in Kilkenny Tavern South Wimbledon
with Hungry Grass 9pm, but most years a session happens
in the afternoon.
Happy new year to everybody.
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by gooseinthenettles
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
I've played several New Years Eve gigs as part of various barn dance bands, and most were some version of ok, but the one that sticks in my head was the one at a staff social club of a mental hospital.....could we get the audience up to dance ? No was the answer. Our drummer was p*ssed off because he had got the gig for us as a starter in the field of working as an agent, and didn't realise that the gig was on the black list of all local agents because everything went down like a lead balloon. They sat on their hands all evening, and then paid us off at 10.30, put on some records, and the same 6 people were up dancing. We left feeling that maybe we had been playing for the patients rather than the staff !
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
It's New Year's Eve,The manager of an Irish pub gets a call.The band are sick,they have to cancel. He's desperate,New Year's Eve and no band.He makes a few calls,all the bands are working but he does find a banjo quintet who are not working.They do the gig,it goes well. Afterwards the manager says to them
'That went well boys.can you play here next New Year's Eve?'
.Yes,can we leave our instruments here?'
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by dafydd
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
Happy 2009...you heard it here first. Sydney, Australia.
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
Unbelievable, stupendo...nye fireworks Sydney Australia best ever.Sydney Harbour was as still as a pond changing colour under the fireworks reflection, 22 degrees C at midnight, excellent music...perfecto scenario! Check it out on you tube, don't miss it.
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
A couple years ago I was visiting Colorado over the holidays. For New Year's Eve I was driving to a friend's house to have a few tunes with Reverend and a few other mates. I had borrowed my dad's car, one of those mini-4x4s, and was going about 35-40mph on a dual carriageway. A light changed and I braked. The car hit black ice, the wheels locked. It spun around 180 degrees and skidded across the road, two lanes, towards the median. I thought that this was it, I was going to flip. F*ck. My next thought was that my dad was going to be really upset about his car being totaled. I then wondered how uilleann pipes would fare in a 30mph roll over as they did not have a seatbelt. This was about to be a bugger of a New Year. Odd how your mind works when disaster is imminent. The car stopped before it the median, still upright, facing the opposite direction. I sat there for a minute shaking. I was lucky as hell, since I would have been f*cked if there had been other cars around or if it had been single carriage way. The only thing for it was to drive on to the session, so I made a U-turn and continued on to Pete and co. where I had a much needed beer and tunes.
The following year, last year, I was in the Highlands with some friends and (now ex) boyfriend. Hogmanay began with me running across a road to get some beer from a car. It was dark and just before I reached the car, I found myself unexpectedly in midair and then lying in a ditch. I crawled out of the ditch, yelling and laughing, "I just fell in a ditch! Awesome!" That was me soaking wet for the rest of the night. There was a bonfire on a beach, fireworks, and then tunes in a freezing shed (or maybe that was the following night).
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by DrSilverSpear
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
Nice, but only a prelim.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article5423940.ece
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
Update--looks like I won't be making a 5-hour round trip to play at some unknown bar on New Year's Eve--aka "Amateur Night" according to longtime alcoholics. (We were contacted by a booking agent, who just wanted a price quote--no details about the bar were provided.)
After reading about the Nipple Crippler--not to mention the attack on Noel Hill--I'm glad. Although there is a tiny twinge of regret, because maybe it is a cozy place full of warm, friendly people who love trad. But maybe not.
Have a great 2009, everybody.
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by John Galt
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
I can't think of any particularly nice New Years' Eve gigs (only bad ones), so I'll skip that part.
One of my local session leaders and his family are having a big blow-out at their house, and God bless 'em, I'm invited! They asked me to bring along the piano, so it should be interesting. I decided that one of the cats needed a flea bath on Christmas, and the little ingrate bit me and took a big chunk out of one of my fingers on my right hand. Maybe I can find someone to trade off with. I think that I've got the same crud that Reverend has; I hope that I'm not coughing and sneezing throughout.
feardearg - oh, Candyland ain't so bad. Now if you were to make me listen to Lou & Peter Berryman, or play "The Devil's Walk"...
Does anyone play Stonewall? A neighbor from NZ introduced it to me and the kids. What a cool game...
Y'all have a wonderful 2009.
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by tomw
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
p.s. My new tune for the new year: The Old Bush. I will play it very very joyfully... (tee hee)
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by John Galt
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
Hey Mickray: My kid's Mom is a substance abuse counselor, and yup, that's the joke in that community; things like New Year's Eve and St. Pat's are, indeed, "Amateur Night". My bad New Year's Eve stories all involve bars, so maybe you're well out of it.
Awwww, I ~LIKE~ The Old Bush. Perhaps because it's so modal...and, at least the way that they play it around here, there are some of those in-between notes that Llig alluded to in another discussion. So it's a bear to back properly, but I'm always up for a challenge...
Have a good one!
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by tomw
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
Check this out...I think they're still sleeping it off down around the Harbour...hmm, hangovers in the heat...it's a hard life:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=v7UbL4nfeJE
Wish you were here. Cheers.
# Posted on January 1st 2009 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: New Year's Eve stories?
Well, my story has a surprise ending. As the faraway bar gig evaporated (fine by me) I checked the calendar for the coffeehouse that hosts our regular session--nobody was signed up to play! I volunteered, they accepted, I got to play a low-pressure solo gig to a nice, supportive crowd in a comfy place. Would have been better with a couple other players along, but otherwise it was just what I had hoped for. And I got home around 10 pm--perfect for a tired old fart like me!
# Posted on January 1st 2009 by John Galt