I can honestly say that Alcohol Use directly destroyed my big chance of major label success.
In 1985 I moved to NYC, had a band that had everything going for it, right place, right time, good look, accessible big hair music, etc.
We played a showcase at Traxx that had some industry people in the audience, and we killed. One of those nights where everything went right. There was enough buzz that we were asked to play a private showcase for up and coming acts at the Puck Building downtown. There was representation from many labels, and a couple started vying for our attention. A few of the original MTV VJ's were there. It was a scene. We even had a fashion designer loan us some very edgy clothing to wear on stage.
Our setup and soundcheck were a mess. David Sanborn was playing a brunch the next morning and they scheduled his soundcheck at the same time as ours. They played forever, took up the whole stage, and would not break any equipment down. So we ended up having no soundcheck and literally only enough room to stand in place. After waiting for 6 hours, the lead singer opted to stay behind while the rest of us went home and got ready.
When we came back to play, we found out that the lead singer had bought a bottle of whisky and was "sipping" it to "calm his nerves". It was a big night, we were all nervous, but we were ready! However, he had finished the whole bottle of booze and was 3 sheets to the wind.
Our set time started, the room was packed, and the PA and monitors started feeding back, and we saw NO ONE at the sound board! It went on way too long and it was unnerving to us. We couldn't move or dance around so we felt stunted in our performance. At one point, the bass player (I was on synth back then) tried to get some spotlight, hit the singer with the head of his bass, and the singer just snapped. He took off his 1967 Gretsch Country Gentleman, threw it on the floor and started jumping up and down on it, smashing it to bits. This wasn't a rock and roll smash your guitar moment, this was a temper tantrum and meltdown from which there was no recovery. We obviously lost the crowd. We may have ended the set early, I am not sure, I left my body at that point and wanted to disappear.
When we left the stage and walked to the dressing room, J.J. Jackson said in a loud voice "Well at least they looked good"! The singer reeled on him and screamed in his face, "They looked like Blankin' S***!!!"
The End.
In 1985 I moved to NYC, had a band that had everything going for it, right place, right time, good look, accessible big hair music, etc.
We played a showcase at Traxx that had some industry people in the audience, and we killed. One of those nights where everything went right. There was enough buzz that we were asked to play a private showcase for up and coming acts at the Puck Building downtown. There was representation from many labels, and a couple started vying for our attention. A few of the original MTV VJ's were there. It was a scene. We even had a fashion designer loan us some very edgy clothing to wear on stage.
Our setup and soundcheck were a mess. David Sanborn was playing a brunch the next morning and they scheduled his soundcheck at the same time as ours. They played forever, took up the whole stage, and would not break any equipment down. So we ended up having no soundcheck and literally only enough room to stand in place. After waiting for 6 hours, the lead singer opted to stay behind while the rest of us went home and got ready.
When we came back to play, we found out that the lead singer had bought a bottle of whisky and was "sipping" it to "calm his nerves". It was a big night, we were all nervous, but we were ready! However, he had finished the whole bottle of booze and was 3 sheets to the wind.
Our set time started, the room was packed, and the PA and monitors started feeding back, and we saw NO ONE at the sound board! It went on way too long and it was unnerving to us. We couldn't move or dance around so we felt stunted in our performance. At one point, the bass player (I was on synth back then) tried to get some spotlight, hit the singer with the head of his bass, and the singer just snapped. He took off his 1967 Gretsch Country Gentleman, threw it on the floor and started jumping up and down on it, smashing it to bits. This wasn't a rock and roll smash your guitar moment, this was a temper tantrum and meltdown from which there was no recovery. We obviously lost the crowd. We may have ended the set early, I am not sure, I left my body at that point and wanted to disappear.
When we left the stage and walked to the dressing room, J.J. Jackson said in a loud voice "Well at least they looked good"! The singer reeled on him and screamed in his face, "They looked like Blankin' S***!!!"
The End.
