Maybe this thread already happened , if so excuse me, but I am curious about the unusual places folks have found themselves playing in. I heard of a piper who was practicing in a Johnny on the spot .Now that must have been a particularly stunning experience.
Well, I once played in a biological research lab, though I think we've plenty who've done that. And once a closet full of extra chairs, because they wanted the sound to be "from far off in the distance" off stage. Bathrooms have great acoustics, done lots of those. I played in the (large)storage room of a Goth cybercafe once to warm up for a performance, does that count? People kept poking their heads in to see what the hell the noise was. In a cemetary once or twice. And once or twice in my husband's nightclub waiting for him to close up for the night.
Not too strange, I guess, but different than the usual pub gigs. Last St Pat's Day, I did a gig with Linda Hickman at Bloomingdale's. We sat in the housewares department and played tunes for 3 hours. Not the greatest acoustics, and a lot of customers were confused, especially the ones that didn't even know it was St Pat's. Pretty easy money, though!
Zina, how could you forget the concrete concession tunnel under the bleachers (git yer minds outta the gutters in Nelson Stadium?! All time worst acoustics ever, and a motley crew on stage, eh?
People give me funny looks when they find out I've played while driving down the road, but lots of other musos have confessed the same behavior.
*grin* I'm guilty of that too, Will. The commute to and from work has been rendered fairly pleasant since I filled my glove compartment with whistles - these days I feel somehow cheated if I don't get any long red lights on the way home.
Oh just the usual: forest clearings, mountain tops, disused quarries, traffic hold ups, at work in the middle of the night, explosives stores, sewage treatment plants, total eclipse of the sun.
( I probably told you this story before, but I can feel it coming on again). The last one was a couple of years back. We were camping for a few days in a pretty quiet campsite just above a tiny village by a sandy bay. As the sun went into the eclipse I sat on the cliff top playing a slow air which runs nicely Cape Clear, which rattles along at a cracking pace. Later, on the way to the crapper I was accosted by a guy who waxed positively lyrical, nay ecstatic, about how beautiful it had sounded, and how it really made the eclipse something special for him.
Not bad eh? - all the majesty of the heavenly bodies in their celestial dance, and it was my whistling that made it "something special".
Never in a biological research lab though. Is it good acoustics? What's the beer like?
In a totally crowded train, sitting on our bags next to the toilet door, with people squeezing through every now and then to pay their homage to Mother Nature. And once on the top of a highest rock in the mountains near Baikal lake, where we had to climb with ropes and picks, just to see the view and play some ITM in the middle of Asia, with closest human settlement a hundred miles away (the piano player was mad that we didn't want to help him with his instrument).
...
My friend from Germany taught me to drive with knees. Since I have both hands free on motorways, tin whistles in glove compartment, travelling became so much more entertaining...Especially in UK and Irish cars, where the wheel is on the better side and I can play guitar while driving...
... does it go too far?
I used to practice in one of the storage rooms in the basement at work on my lunch break, but it was way too stuffy and dusty. Now I sometimes practice before the store opens among bottles of vitamins and tubes of toothpaste. I'm always tempted to take the fiddle out when waiting for the train or subway, but I don't want to seem like I wanting an audience, but it is such a good opportunity to get some practice time in, condidering I am always taking public trans. somewhere...
Quite often in trains within the bicycle compartment etc, in quiet pubs(It's amazing how often you can get away with this!!), Musselburgh Harbour and similar, secluded areas of passenger ferries and cruise ships, recently at a Coral Regatta at Eyemouth Swimming Pool to name but a few. I once went to a pub in Mallow, Ireland called "The Rakes of Mallow" where I struck up the tune "Rakes of Mallow" but, surprisingly (or maybe not), nobody there had heard of it before )
Although now retired( Probably just as well), I used to work with the police and often practised in free interview rooms next to the cells. Nothing like a captive audience
A couple of years ago (back in my harping days) I played at a local celtic festival, and was asked if our harp duo would play in the local fried chicken shop, for the owner who was very supportive of the festival but couldn't leave the shop to attend any sessions. It certainly made for a werid gig (not a lot of room for harps, and the customers totally ignored us, but we hard fun
I am another dedicated fan of "playing in the car", but only when I'm not the driver (Not a lot of room for concertina behind the wheel
Atop the castle walls at Carcassonne, France, at sunset; at the office (by popular request), with the doors shut so other departments didn't have to listen unwillingly; on the front porch of the music store where I used to teach, with a storm coming up and the wind blowing so hard I couldn't keep the bow on the strings.
My favorite, though not all that unusual, was when I played in a band in the '80s. We sometimes had gigs on Saturday afternoons in shopping malls. People would stop and listen who had never heard Irish music before, become enchanted with it, and maybe even learn something.
It was 4am when I read the start of this thread, and I had been working for about 20 hours, so Johnny on the Spot meant nothing to me, though I guessed it was something lavatory related. Now I've been and had a couple of hours kip, I feel refreshed.
In recent years I've made a habit of playing on the top decks of night buses. Admittedly, unless there are a few of us, or I am specifically asked to continue, I usually desist from playing as soon as another passenger comes upstairs. It's a great opportunity, on the way home from a session in the wee small hours, to play those tunes which didn't come up in the session, or those which you want to get into your fingers while they're still in your head.
The first time I did it, I was sitting at the front, directly above the driver. Shortly after I had begun, the driver stopped the bus and came storming up the stairs, saying, "Will you stop tapping your foot! It's putting me off my driving!". I offered to move to the back of the bus, but refusing to accept my offer, he replied, "If you don't stop that tapping, I'll throw you of the bus!"
So I crossed my legs tightly and carried on playing.
Sure enough, almost dead on 6 weeks after Ottery asked if we were some sort of musical elite: (www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/2211) we find it comes up again:
Q: Where have you played?
Zina - *Well, I once played in a biological research lab, though I think we've plenty who've done that.*
Yes, but *I* was simply visiting one of my dance students, who worked there. *grin*
Will, you're right, I forgot about that, how could I? hehehe. Not what it sounds like, of course, since there were about 200 people there milling about. (And besides, Rose was around there somewhere, and I'm allergic to Pulaskis coming my way sharp end first.)
And, I also forgot! How could I possibly! Playing by the side of the highway at both the WY-CO and WY-MT borders in front of the road signs. The first border was so windy that Em couldn't get sound to come out the right end of her flute because the wind was blowing up it, and the second we were freeeeeezing in the early morning cold.
...*among bottles of vitamins and tubes of toothpaste* Oh so very elite. Not! (at least not me, anyway)
Morgana, your fried chicken place gig reminded me of a gig my band did last year. A little town near here, Malvern, has a Victorian Christmas thing every year where performers dress up in Victorian garb and play in the different shops up and down their main street. A few of the places we played at were really nice. A tea shop, a saddle shop, an antique shop. Then there was the pizza shop. Filled with screaming kids and tired parents. The floor awash in muddy puddles from the snow people brought in on their shoes. My beautiful Victorian skirt and bottom of my harp rested quite nicely in the mud. I was not happy. It kinda reminded me a previous gig at the Renaissance Faire, except cold and muddy and inside instead of hot and muddy and outside.
Johnny on the spot is a construction can or portaloo. I have always avoided those things. Going in there and sucking in as much air as possible seems like a death wish.
...on the beach in Malibu, just after a party gig. The four of us sitting quite comfortably on a pile of rocks. The wind was blowing so hard that it was hard to keep my bow on the strings and rosin just wouldn't stick. My hair kept getting in between the bow and the strings. Everyone was playing as hard as they could and we could just hear eachother over the wind. But it was a fun, and a great way to blow off steam (pun intended) at the end of a rather stressful gig.
...Four musicians in a jeep on a eight hour drive up to San Francisco. What else would we be doing? Bow room was a bit of a problem, but I worked it out. Talk about weird accoustics...
...the 20 minute train ride from North Hollywood to downtown LA. Again, what else would we be doing?
Yeah, you want difficult? just try and use a port-a-potty while you're in a solo dress. Let's see, don't breath, don't let the dress touch anything, try and get in and out as fast as possible...
I mean really, I never met this portapottipiper, it is likely an urban myth, After all what piper in their right mind would deek into a J.O.S to get off a few tunes?? On the other hand as the Quantum Mechanic who is undoubtedly on this list would would attest to, there is a multitude of multiple universes which suggests that if one can imagine something then it is reality somewhere, thus there must be a planet proliferating with pipers playing musical portapotties, what.
Not trad gigs, I hope you don't mind, but interesting experiences nonetheless...
Played in a flowerbed once at an outdoors cafe gig where the guests took up more room than expected so the band ended up in the garden boxes.
Used to practice regularly in the depths of an old crossbar telephone exchange factory - mechanical exchanges took acres of room and this concrete barn had an acoustic that would do San Marco in Venice proud.
A really nice gig was a staff Christmas party in the AMP boardroom, Level 25, AMP Building, Circular Quay, glass walls all round.
Led weddings guests through the streets of North Sydney (busy office/shopping/main highway area) once from the chapel of a private school to the reception restaurant (the couple had seen a movie where guests are led off by a brass band and that evolved into getting a small group of mediaeval minstrels to do same). Boy, didn't that get some funny looks from passers-by, bus drivers, etc.
Another roving gig (another period costume one) - walked round a suburban shopping area for an hour, accompanying a 12-foot high purple possum. I dunno, it paid, OK? Possum was led by a minder because s/he couldn't see to put one foot in front of the other and I think the minder was handing out leaflets for something or other, never did find out what it was about. Pedestrian crossings were fun - never, ever try to cross the street with a sackbut (trombone) player unless you're wearing a crash helmet. (Look to the left, look to the right, look to the left again...)
I also played in a physics lab at the University of Minnesota once, I was there on the week end, and while the machines were measuring, I was practicing a few tunes. The acoustic of the lab was unbelievable, the best acoustic I've ever played in!
in high school (some 35 years ago), on the santa moica freeway, in a VW bus with sun roof, double bass through the sun roof, guitar and banjo playing below. Also doing about 45 miles an hour.
----- On a replica of Columbus's Nina in the Cayman islands only the crowd were expecting a steel pan ensemble instead of the bodrhan fiddle and giutar . On the subject of porta loos . watch out for drunks at events who tie the door shut and tip the thing over( I was witness , not victim ,phew)
When I sang in a quartet, many years ago, we did one gig while seated in a hot tub in the middle of a shopping mall. Have you ever spent two hours in a hot tub? My body looked like an albino raisin.
If you really want to play a stringed instrument while driving, take up the ukuele.
On a paddle steamer [The Waverly] on the way to the scottish Isle of Arran.
On top of Errigle Mountain.
The gents loo in the White Fort pub in Belfast. We upped sticks into the bogs because it was so noisy in the bar you couldn't hear yourself playing. We brought the chairs and mikes in with us and the punters didn't even notice we were away!
The middle of the road outside the Dubliner pub in Washington DC at about 4 in the morning.
In the middle of a field outside Dundalk for a photo op.
In a stableyard beside a roaring brazier at Rowallane Garden in Saintfield.
Now, my boss Michael Lichter (http://www.lichterphoto.com) will often get his cameras all set up for a shot, and then while he's waiting for the bikes to go by he'll get out one of his whistles, which lives in his Harley jacket pocket (and considering that he's gone down a few times, I'm amazed one of them hasn't killed him -- you should have *seen* the rents I fixed in his photog vest from the last one). So he's played in the middle of highways, in the stinkin' middle of nowhere South Dakota, under highway overpasses waiting for the rain or hail to stop, in the middle of a temporary studio set up in a biker bar...
Someday he threatens to find other musos who ride motorcycles and have a session in downtown frickin' Sturgis during rally week.
You haven't lived til you've seen Catherine Bowes, Michael's wife (a Dubliner), doing her imitation of herself riding pillion while whacking at Michael's shoulders while he's hanging off the bike getting a shot, yelling, "putcher hands BACK on the handlebars! Getcher hands back ON the handlebars!"
Not the place for raw exitement maybe, but when I worked at the University in Edmonton (Alberta, not the other one), I had a key for the big display greenhouse. We used to go in there with a few beers and leave the lights off. Two stories full of nice humid air is perfect place for low whistle and flute duets. And of course, free bananas.
I almost forgot - the session in the bathroom of a run-down house in Milltown Malbay. This house had no electircity (despite being lived in - not squatted - by an eccentric poet, rather fond of his drink), only candles for light. There was a fiddle, two mandolins, a guitar and a khaen (a kind of Thai mouth organ - the ancestor of all our free reed instruments). The guitarist was in the bath, the khaen player sat on the washbasin (which partly came away from the wall), whilst I occupied the most distinguished position in the room, the throne - and what other tune could have been more appropriate than... The Convenience.
Unfortunately, our fun was cut short about 15 minutes, by a knock at the door from the Garda
The cops in Miltown Malbay broke up your session? We played a wedding this last summer of a Boulder woman and an Irishman. He's from near there, and regaled us with stories about being woken up before dawn by drunken musos playing in the cow field next his bedroom, their having been kicked out of the pub after an after hours regular-like. He said throwing things only relieved frustration so far and that they never paid his yelling any mind either, so he just gave in and listened to it going in and out of sleep, as he said that drunk or not, they were lovely players.
Last St Pats day there was a session at Durty Nellies, I didnt attend cause I had a gig, but they told me later that is was soooo noisy you couldnt hear a thing - and there is a pipe player! So they promptly went into the disabled toilet with stocks of drink and chairs and locked the door and stayed in there all night! Apparently the accoustics were great. They also took loads of photos and it looks really hilarious
Forgot to mention: The parking lot session at Glencoe. A guy was sitting in his little red truck, with speakers set up on the dashboard, playing his mandolin. I asked him, "Was that Merrily Kiss the Quaker's Wife you just played? I used to play that on the fiddle." He said, "Have you got it with you?" So I went to get it from the car. He sat on the tailgate of his truck while I stood there on the parking lot. We did get some funny looks, but it was great fun. My sister had her camera handy, so it's documented.
Johnny on the spot
Johnny on the spot
Maybe this thread already happened , if so excuse me, but I am curious about the unusual places folks have found themselves playing in. I heard of a piper who was practicing in a Johnny on the spot .Now that must have been a particularly stunning experience.
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by ppitussi
Re: Johnny on the spot
Well, I once played in a biological research lab, though I think we've plenty who've done that. And once a closet full of extra chairs, because they wanted the sound to be "from far off in the distance" off stage. Bathrooms have great acoustics, done lots of those. I played in the (large)storage room of a Goth cybercafe once to warm up for a performance, does that count? People kept poking their heads in to see what the hell the noise was. In a cemetary once or twice. And once or twice in my husband's nightclub waiting for him to close up for the night.
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Johnny on the spot
Not too strange, I guess, but different than the usual pub gigs. Last St Pat's Day, I did a gig with Linda Hickman at Bloomingdale's. We sat in the housewares department and played tunes for 3 hours. Not the greatest acoustics, and a lot of customers were confused, especially the ones that didn't even know it was St Pat's. Pretty easy money, though!
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by irishfiddler32
Re: Johnny on the spot
Zina, how could you forget the concrete concession tunnel under the bleachers (git yer minds outta the gutters
in Nelson Stadium?! All time worst acoustics ever, and a motley crew on stage, eh?
People give me funny looks when they find out I've played while driving down the road, but lots of other musos have confessed the same behavior.
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Johnny on the spot
*grin* I'm guilty of that too, Will. The commute to and from work has been rendered fairly pleasant since I filled my glove compartment with whistles - these days I feel somehow cheated if I don't get any long red lights on the way home.
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by Q
Re: Johnny on the spot
Oh just the usual: forest clearings, mountain tops, disused quarries, traffic hold ups, at work in the middle of the night, explosives stores, sewage treatment plants, total eclipse of the sun.
( I probably told you this story before, but I can feel it coming on again). The last one was a couple of years back. We were camping for a few days in a pretty quiet campsite just above a tiny village by a sandy bay. As the sun went into the eclipse I sat on the cliff top playing a slow air which runs nicely Cape Clear, which rattles along at a cracking pace. Later, on the way to the crapper I was accosted by a guy who waxed positively lyrical, nay ecstatic, about how beautiful it had sounded, and how it really made the eclipse something special for him.
Not bad eh? - all the majesty of the heavenly bodies in their celestial dance, and it was my whistling that made it "something special".
Never in a biological research lab though. Is it good acoustics? What's the beer like?
Dave
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by showaddydadito
Re: Johnny on the spot
In a totally crowded train, sitting on our bags next to the toilet door, with people squeezing through every now and then to pay their homage to Mother Nature. And once on the top of a highest rock in the mountains near Baikal lake, where we had to climb with ropes and picks, just to see the view and play some ITM in the middle of Asia, with closest human settlement a hundred miles away (the piano player was mad that we didn't want to help him with his instrument).
...
My friend from Germany taught me to drive with knees. Since I have both hands free on motorways, tin whistles in glove compartment, travelling became so much more entertaining...Especially in UK and Irish cars, where the wheel is on the better side and I can play guitar while driving...
... does it go too far?
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by Janek
eclipse story rocks!
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by Janek
Re: Johnny on the spot
Actually, now you mention it, I have been known to play harmonica while driving, but its probably best if no-one sees.
Dave
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by showaddydadito
Re: Johnny on the spot
I used to practice in one of the storage rooms in the basement at work on my lunch break, but it was way too stuffy and dusty. Now I sometimes practice before the store opens among bottles of vitamins and tubes of toothpaste. I'm always tempted to take the fiddle out when waiting for the train or subway, but I don't want to seem like I wanting an audience, but it is such a good opportunity to get some practice time in, condidering I am always taking public trans. somewhere...
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by Andee
Re: Johnny on the spot
Quite often in trains within the bicycle compartment etc, in quiet pubs(It's amazing how often you can get away with this!!), Musselburgh Harbour and similar, secluded areas of passenger ferries and cruise ships, recently at a Coral Regatta at Eyemouth Swimming Pool to name but a few. I once went to a pub in Mallow, Ireland called "The Rakes of Mallow" where I struck up the tune "Rakes of Mallow" but, surprisingly (or maybe not), nobody there had heard of it before
)
Although now retired( Probably just as well), I used to work with the police and often practised in free interview rooms next to the cells. Nothing like a captive audience
John
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by Johnny Jay
Re: Johnny on the spot
We played a gig for the grand opening of a Navajo auto repair shop -- Jumbo Auto Parts. I swear, I have pix to prove it.
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by emily_bmore
Re: Johnny on the spot
Institute of physics at M
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by kuec
Re: Johnny on the spot
A couple of years ago (back in my harping days) I played at a local celtic festival, and was asked if our harp duo would play in the local fried chicken shop, for the owner who was very supportive of the festival but couldn't leave the shop to attend any sessions. It certainly made for a werid gig (not a lot of room for harps, and the customers totally ignored us, but we hard fun
I am another dedicated fan of "playing in the car", but only when I'm not the driver (Not a lot of room for concertina behind the wheel
Cheers
Morgana
Cheers
Ptollemy
# Posted on November 14th 2003 by Ptollemy
Re: Johnny on the spot
Atop the castle walls at Carcassonne, France, at sunset; at the office (by popular request), with the doors shut so other departments didn't have to listen unwillingly; on the front porch of the music store where I used to teach, with a storm coming up and the wind blowing so hard I couldn't keep the bow on the strings.
My favorite, though not all that unusual, was when I played in a band in the '80s. We sometimes had gigs on Saturday afternoons in shopping malls. People would stop and listen who had never heard Irish music before, become enchanted with it, and maybe even learn something.
Carol
# Posted on November 15th 2003 by carolsviolin
Re: Johnny on the spot
Ah! It just dawned on me!
It was 4am when I read the start of this thread, and I had been working for about 20 hours, so Johnny on the Spot meant nothing to me, though I guessed it was something lavatory related. Now I've been and had a couple of hours kip, I feel refreshed.
Johnny on the Spot = Portaloo. Am I right?
Dave
# Posted on November 15th 2003 by showaddydadito
Re: Johnny on the spot
In recent years I've made a habit of playing on the top decks of night buses. Admittedly, unless there are a few of us, or I am specifically asked to continue, I usually desist from playing as soon as another passenger comes upstairs. It's a great opportunity, on the way home from a session in the wee small hours, to play those tunes which didn't come up in the session, or those which you want to get into your fingers while they're still in your head.
The first time I did it, I was sitting at the front, directly above the driver. Shortly after I had begun, the driver stopped the bus and came storming up the stairs, saying, "Will you stop tapping your foot! It's putting me off my driving!". I offered to move to the back of the bus, but refusing to accept my offer, he replied, "If you don't stop that tapping, I'll throw you of the bus!"
So I crossed my legs tightly and carried on playing.
# Posted on November 15th 2003 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Johnny on the spot
Sure enough, almost dead on 6 weeks after Ottery asked if we were some sort of musical elite: (www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/2211) we find it comes up again:
Q: Where have you played?
Zina - *Well, I once played in a biological research lab, though I think we've plenty who've done that.*
Kuec - *Institute of Physics at M
# Posted on November 15th 2003 by showaddydadito
Re: Johnny on the spot
Yes, but *I* was simply visiting one of my dance students, who worked there. *grin*
Will, you're right, I forgot about that, how could I? hehehe. Not what it sounds like, of course, since there were about 200 people there milling about. (And besides, Rose was around there somewhere, and I'm allergic to Pulaskis coming my way sharp end first.)
And, I also forgot! How could I possibly! Playing by the side of the highway at both the WY-CO and WY-MT borders in front of the road signs. The first border was so windy that Em couldn't get sound to come out the right end of her flute because the wind was blowing up it, and the second we were freeeeeezing in the early morning cold.
# Posted on November 15th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Johnny on the spot
...*among bottles of vitamins and tubes of toothpaste* Oh so very elite. Not!
(at least not me, anyway)
Morgana, your fried chicken place gig reminded me of a gig my band did last year. A little town near here, Malvern, has a Victorian Christmas thing every year where performers dress up in Victorian garb and play in the different shops up and down their main street. A few of the places we played at were really nice. A tea shop, a saddle shop, an antique shop. Then there was the pizza shop. Filled with screaming kids and tired parents. The floor awash in muddy puddles from the snow people brought in on their shoes. My beautiful Victorian skirt and bottom of my harp rested quite nicely in the mud. I was not happy. It kinda reminded me a previous gig at the Renaissance Faire, except cold and muddy and inside instead of hot and muddy and outside.
# Posted on November 15th 2003 by Andee
Re: Johnny on the spot
Johnny on the spot is a construction can or portaloo. I have always avoided those things. Going in there and sucking in as much air as possible seems like a death wish.
Peter
# Posted on November 15th 2003 by ppitussi
Re: Johnny on the spot
...on the beach in Malibu, just after a party gig. The four of us sitting quite comfortably on a pile of rocks. The wind was blowing so hard that it was hard to keep my bow on the strings and rosin just wouldn't stick. My hair kept getting in between the bow and the strings. Everyone was playing as hard as they could and we could just hear eachother over the wind. But it was a fun, and a great way to blow off steam (pun intended) at the end of a rather stressful gig.
...Four musicians in a jeep on a eight hour drive up to San Francisco. What else would we be doing? Bow room was a bit of a problem, but I worked it out. Talk about weird accoustics...
...the 20 minute train ride from North Hollywood to downtown LA. Again, what else would we be doing?
# Posted on November 15th 2003 by fiddleK
Re: Johnny on the spot
Yeah, you want difficult? just try and use a port-a-potty while you're in a solo dress. Let's see, don't breath, don't let the dress touch anything, try and get in and out as fast as possible...
# Posted on November 15th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Johnny on the spot
I mean really, I never met this portapottipiper, it is likely an urban myth, After all what piper in their right mind would deek into a J.O.S to get off a few tunes?? On the other hand as the Quantum Mechanic who is undoubtedly on this list would would attest to, there is a multitude of multiple universes which suggests that if one can imagine something then it is reality somewhere, thus there must be a planet proliferating with pipers playing musical portapotties, what.
# Posted on November 15th 2003 by ppitussi
Re: Johnny on the spot
Not trad gigs, I hope you don't mind, but interesting experiences nonetheless...
Played in a flowerbed once at an outdoors cafe gig where the guests took up more room than expected so the band ended up in the garden boxes.
Used to practice regularly in the depths of an old crossbar telephone exchange factory - mechanical exchanges took acres of room and this concrete barn had an acoustic that would do San Marco in Venice proud.
A really nice gig was a staff Christmas party in the AMP boardroom, Level 25, AMP Building, Circular Quay, glass walls all round.
Led weddings guests through the streets of North Sydney (busy office/shopping/main highway area) once from the chapel of a private school to the reception restaurant (the couple had seen a movie where guests are led off by a brass band and that evolved into getting a small group of mediaeval minstrels to do same). Boy, didn't that get some funny looks from passers-by, bus drivers, etc.
Another roving gig (another period costume one) - walked round a suburban shopping area for an hour, accompanying a 12-foot high purple possum. I dunno, it paid, OK? Possum was led by a minder because s/he couldn't see to put one foot in front of the other and I think the minder was handing out leaflets for something or other, never did find out what it was about. Pedestrian crossings were fun - never, ever try to cross the street with a sackbut (trombone) player unless you're wearing a crash helmet. (Look to the left, look to the right, look to the left again...)
Have played on the sailors
# Posted on November 15th 2003 by Tish
Re: Johnny on the spot
Tunnels are great. Carefully planned canal holidays provide many opportunities.
The sound quality is eerie though.
# Posted on November 16th 2003 by Fiiddle R
Re: Johnny on the spot
I also played in a physics lab at the University of Minnesota once, I was there on the week end, and while the machines were measuring, I was practicing a few tunes. The acoustic of the lab was unbelievable, the best acoustic I've ever played in!
# Posted on November 16th 2003 by sklerjen
Re: Johnny on the spot
in high school (some 35 years ago), on the santa moica freeway, in a VW bus with sun roof, double bass through the sun roof, guitar and banjo playing below. Also doing about 45 miles an hour.
# Posted on November 16th 2003 by I_Fel
Re: Johnny on the spot
----- On a replica of Columbus's Nina in the Cayman islands only the crowd were expecting a steel pan ensemble instead of the bodrhan fiddle and giutar . On the subject of porta loos . watch out for drunks at events who tie the door shut and tip the thing over( I was witness , not victim ,phew)
# Posted on November 16th 2003 by pajic
opps , that bodhran
# Posted on November 16th 2003 by pajic
thats oops
# Posted on November 16th 2003 by pajic
Re: Johnny on the spot
When I sang in a quartet, many years ago, we did one gig while seated in a hot tub in the middle of a shopping mall. Have you ever spent two hours in a hot tub? My body looked like an albino raisin.
If you really want to play a stringed instrument while driving, take up the ukuele.
# Posted on November 16th 2003 by tocotodo
Re: Johnny on the spot
On a paddle steamer [The Waverly] on the way to the scottish Isle of Arran.
On top of Errigle Mountain.
The gents loo in the White Fort pub in Belfast. We upped sticks into the bogs because it was so noisy in the bar you couldn't hear yourself playing. We brought the chairs and mikes in with us and the punters didn't even notice we were away!
The middle of the road outside the Dubliner pub in Washington DC at about 4 in the morning.
In the middle of a field outside Dundalk for a photo op.
In a stableyard beside a roaring brazier at Rowallane Garden in Saintfield.
The dockside at Burtonport.
# Posted on November 16th 2003 by breandan
Re: Johnny on the spot
On an Aboriginal sacred site, but I didn't know it at the time.
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by Clear Drops
Re: Johnny on the spot
Now, my boss Michael Lichter (http://www.lichterphoto.com) will often get his cameras all set up for a shot, and then while he's waiting for the bikes to go by he'll get out one of his whistles, which lives in his Harley jacket pocket (and considering that he's gone down a few times, I'm amazed one of them hasn't killed him -- you should have *seen* the rents I fixed in his photog vest from the last one). So he's played in the middle of highways, in the stinkin' middle of nowhere South Dakota, under highway overpasses waiting for the rain or hail to stop, in the middle of a temporary studio set up in a biker bar...
Someday he threatens to find other musos who ride motorcycles and have a session in downtown frickin' Sturgis during rally week.
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
P.S.
You haven't lived til you've seen Catherine Bowes, Michael's wife (a Dubliner), doing her imitation of herself riding pillion while whacking at Michael's shoulders while he's hanging off the bike getting a shot, yelling, "putcher hands BACK on the handlebars! Getcher hands back ON the handlebars!"
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Johnny on the spot
Not the place for raw exitement maybe, but when I worked at the University in Edmonton (Alberta, not the other one), I had a key for the big display greenhouse. We used to go in there with a few beers and leave the lights off. Two stories full of nice humid air is perfect place for low whistle and flute duets. And of course, free bananas.
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by Gzeg
Re: Johnny on the spot
I almost forgot - the session in the bathroom of a run-down house in Milltown Malbay. This house had no electircity (despite being lived in - not squatted - by an eccentric poet, rather fond of his drink), only candles for light. There was a fiddle, two mandolins, a guitar and a khaen (a kind of Thai mouth organ - the ancestor of all our free reed instruments). The guitarist was in the bath, the khaen player sat on the washbasin (which partly came away from the wall), whilst I occupied the most distinguished position in the room, the throne - and what other tune could have been more appropriate than... The Convenience.
Unfortunately, our fun was cut short about 15 minutes, by a knock at the door from the Garda
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Johnny on the spot
The cops in Miltown Malbay broke up your session? We played a wedding this last summer of a Boulder woman and an Irishman. He's from near there, and regaled us with stories about being woken up before dawn by drunken musos playing in the cow field next his bedroom, their having been kicked out of the pub after an after hours regular-like. He said throwing things only relieved frustration so far and that they never paid his yelling any mind either, so he just gave in and listened to it going in and out of sleep, as he said that drunk or not, they were lovely players.
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Johnny on the spot
Last St Pats day there was a session at Durty Nellies, I didnt attend cause I had a gig, but they told me later that is was soooo noisy you couldnt hear a thing - and there is a pipe player! So they promptly went into the disabled toilet with stocks of drink and chairs and locked the door and stayed in there all night! Apparently the accoustics were great. They also took loads of photos and it looks really hilarious
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by bb
Re: Johnny on the spot
Forgot to mention: The parking lot session at Glencoe. A guy was sitting in his little red truck, with speakers set up on the dashboard, playing his mandolin. I asked him, "Was that Merrily Kiss the Quaker's Wife you just played? I used to play that on the fiddle." He said, "Have you got it with you?" So I went to get it from the car. He sat on the tailgate of his truck while I stood there on the parking lot. We did get some funny looks, but it was great fun. My sister had her camera handy, so it's documented.
Carol
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by carolsviolin