Over the weekend my band, Dangerous Dave and the Side Effects was supporting the ska band, Bad Manners. It was amazing being able to play with such legends and I can't wait for the next gig! In this rundown of the whole weekend, I'll try and give an account of the events that took place, there were a few spanners thrown into the works which could have stopped it dead in its tracks.
Pre-Gig Blues
After being booked for the 3 gigs with Bad Manners, in Belfast, Dublin, and Galway. The band decided to recruit a friend of ours to film and document the process of getting gig ready and going to play the nights after so long of not playing together.
We had been on the run-up to the gigs, rehearsing our 30-minute set, but, while we were getting it together we got word from the drummer that he was having doubts about it due to money and the amount of travel.
After a conversation about it, we worked it all out and were able to get going again. We had a hotel room booked in Galway, the final night of the gigs. We knew we wanted to stay there that night, rather than drive back home for 3 hours after playing and the gigs fee was paying for the bands room and our travel, which we knew was just about all we were going to get, whatever we might have sold merch wise was going to be what we took home with us.
We got 50 t-shirts printed, for the design and the t-shirts it cost us 450 pounds, which was about 500 euros, or just over. Divided between the 4 members of the band, it was roughly 125 each. But, the drummer decided that was too much and didn't put any money into them. So the 3 of us had to cover that cost and it ended up being about 180 each. It was fine by us though as we knew we'd be the only ones to make money from them.
Then it came up that he wanted his girlfriend to come and stay in one of the rooms. A few of the lads were in one room and me, the drummer, his girlfriend, and the documentary maker were going to be in the other.
The room was 330 euros each, but, with 4 of us in there, it was going to work out at 82.50 a head, which was grand. But, then the drummer started complaining saying that he didn't think it was fair that she had to pay and wanted me and the cameraman to pay 110 each and let her stay for free. This bugged me, I know it's only 27 euros, but, I had already covered his portion of the t-shirts and I wasn't happy about it, but, there seemed to be no budging so I guess we were all stuck paying for her too.
Then on the Sunday before the first gig, I get a text from the drummer saying he's sick and can't make it to band practice. The gig was on Thursday, so that is really not what any of us wanted to hear. Then Monday comes and he says it's not looking good for the gigs. We were pissed off as this was meant to be our comeback tour after the lockdown and now it seemed screwed.
(I'll add here, it's not the first time he's let us down last minute for gigs, but, it will be the last.)
I straight away rang up the drummer from the cover band I'm in and he agreed to come in and jam with us. He'd never played our songs but we gave him recorded versions of the songs we were going to be playing, in the order of the set and he got with us on Tuesday and Wednesday to rehearse and it couldn't have gone better. He was able to bring some amazing power to the set and was totally confident in the gigs, which rubbed off on us. He did however say, that because of work, he couldn't make it to Belfast the next day. Which was a shame, but there was nothing we could do about that. He already helped us out so much by stepping in at such short notice. So we got some drum tracks from the recordings of the songs and left for Belfast on Thursday as a three-piece.
We canceled one of the rooms in Galway and decided that we would all just crash in one room, it was cheaper that way so we were pretty happy to do that.
Thursday - Belfast
Just as we were packing up to leave I got a call from the documentary maker, who told me that he couldn't make it with us to do the filming of the gigs as he had to go to the hospital. We were disappointed, but, it couldn't be helped. I knew about a re-occurring issue he has and while it came at a bad time for us all, there was nothing that could be done. We did some filming of our own, so at least we have something for the doc.
The Limelight in Belfast is an amazing venue and the staff were all great people and really looked after us. We did our sound check and all seemed well, then we were shown to our dressing room and were given a few bottles of beer.
I have to say, none of us were confident about playing to drum tracks. The songs we had rehearsed for all these weeks didn't all translate to acoustic, but some did, so it was a mix of playing to drum tracks and slowing down some of the songs for acoustic. I wasn't happy about playing some new additions that were unrehearsed but, we had no choice. It was this, or not play and there was no way we weren't playing.
The set went well. Let's say a normal gig is 1-10, we knew Belfast could only ever get as high as 5 on that scale and we definitely got there. The crowd loved it and were patient with us considering the circumstances and we got a lot of well wishes from people after the gig.
We couldn't stay for too long, we loaded up the car after getting off stage, went in and had a beer and hung out for a bit talking with people, and then left at around 9 o'clock-ish and we were back home for 12.
Friday - Dublin
We woke up the next morning pretty happy with how the night was before, but, we knew tonight with the new drummer was going to be the real start to the tour.
Going about our business we knew we didn't have to leave until 4:30 and that would give us plenty of time to get to Dublin in time for load in and then the sound check.
At 2 o'clock, we got word from the promoter that Buster, the lead singer from the headline band was admitted to the hospital that morning in Belfast with chest and back pain. We were told that we'd have word by 4 o'clock of whether or not the gig was going ahead. The band decided to carry on as if we were playing it and we left at the time we were going to, then about 20 minutes into the journey we got word back that the gig was being canceled.
The doctor wanted to keep him in overnight and with that, the promoters got set to put out the word and reschedule the gig. This could not be helped, as the official announcement said. "Health comes first."
Saturday - Galway
We knew that we had the hotel room booked and it was too late to cancel the last one, so we knew whether it was going ahead or not, we were still going to go, otherwise, it would just be a waste of money.
Having to leave town at 1 o'clock to be there in time, we knew we would be on our way before hearing the word. Thank god, the word was good. Galway was a go and we were delighted to hear that the lead singer made a recovery and was feeling well enough to do it.
Monroes, what a venue, the main stage was class, it seemed small, but nonetheless amazing. Galway in general is a really cool place, it was my first time being there and the people were all really sound.
We played an absolute blinder of a gig and the drummer who stepped in breathed some new life into the songs. The crowd were amazing and really liked it, I don't think I've seen so many people dancing, moving, and even moshing to our set. Sick! I'm not messing, between the 4 of us throughout the night, we had about 80 or 90 people singing our praises. The most we have ever had and I think this weekend has earned us some fans!
When we finished playing we all went on the beer big time! Bad Manners were such a great band, they were all legends and really got the crowd moving. They were showmen, true and true and each one of them were really sound people and easy to talk to. It's such a breath of fresh air when people of their caliber are also down to earth.
We received word that the Dublin gig is being rescheduled for sometime in late January, we'll be on that bill again and they're looking to book another night that weekend. So, I'll be keeping you posted on that when it's set in stone! I can't wait to play it, I'd say everyone should go and see them, you can't help but move to ska and these guys play it amazingly!
Onwards and Upwards
The stand-in drummer has decided to do the next dates with us and the guy is a legend, I have some recordings of the night and I'll be uploading them to 3speak so you's can hear it for yourself. He thanked us for getting him up there with us and said that it was the largest crowd he's ever played to. It's great working with someone who is more interested in playing the gigs instead of worrying about how much they're being paid.
We didn't have much after all was said and done, but, we were able to give him 100 euros at the end of the night, more so to say thank you for what he did for us.
We're playing in Dublin on the 10th of December, supporting Paranoid Visions in the Button Factory, along with Subhumans and The Nilz, and a new band has been added to the list, Meryl Streek, who I've started listening to and he's really good. I can't wait to play this gig and look forward to playing with Bad Manners again in the new year.