Do you remember your first gig?

[bcbassman]

My first gig was in August of '69 at a pool party. I had been playing since Feb that year and I formed a band with my friend the drummer in May. We had Drums, guitar, keys, and bass but the keyboard player had an older brother in college who played guitar and sang. He made the band sound good so we did great and got hired for a second gig at a teen club dance in Sept.. That gig was the real horror show because we lost the older brother and none of us could sing.We also added horns and we got booed off the stage at the teen club. Good times.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

A Sweet-16 party at the fabled Huntington Towne House on Lon Guyland. I was 16, myself. I had a Hagstrom II bass and a Gibson Thor amp (50 watts! Count 'em!). We played British Invasion songs and surf music, which was how it was in the summer of 1966 for suburban white boys. And I heard applause from a large group for the first time in my life, and got paid for the first time in my life. I liked the experience so much I'm still doing it! Well, not lately.

Closed in 2007, demolished in 2011.

 

[Kijekuyo]

When I was 21 years old, I loved music, but I had barely ever touched a musical instrument. A friend of mine and I listened to and collected '60s rock, rhythm & blues, and the blues from the 1920s to the '70s. He was satisfied to only listen, but I felt the need to play. Around that time, I came to know an older guitarist, named Bob, who was from the 1960s. He had been a busker and knew all the classic-rock era songs. We formed a small band of three people with another guitarist. I chose bass guitar because 1) I loved bass guitar 2) I felt it was easier than learning chords 3) bass players are always in demand.

Bob helped me pick out an old used Fender Coronado I bass at a small guitar shop. We practiced only a short time. Bob taught me easy songs, such as "Louie Louie", and we played a yard party one evening with a drummer that had practiced with us only once. Someone that lived at the house had set up a large wooden panel in the front yard that acted as a riser for the drummer, but it was pretty unstable. The gig went fine, and I wasn't very nervous because no one expected much, and I didn't have to sing.

From then on, we became the house band for a kind of urban commune, complete with later-day hippies. It was kind of fun playing for an audience that spent much of our gigs swimming nude in the pool. Bob was a Deadhead, so our repertoire mostly consisted of Grateful Dead songs. I was unsatisfied with the Coronado, so I bought a 1983 Fender Precision that was my bass for the 16 years that I played with Bob. I finally sold the Precision last year.

 

[osv]

1988, I just joined a new band and was told we had a house party gig in a week. 50% covers, 50% originals. One rehearsal mid week. The cover tunes were easy to learn because I was mostly familiar with the songs. I learned as much as I could of the originals, faked the rest, and just turned my volume down when I was totally lost. Two girls busted me on the volume thing. It was embarrassing.

 

[audreycashin]

There's evidence....

 

[Nephilymbass]

Just curious about first gig stories. I’ll begin with my first.
I was 12 and a drummer. I didn’t discover bass until I was 13. My grandparents got me one of those children’s drum sets when I was 6. To the shock of my parents, I actually tried to play by setting a stereo up with the speakers right behind the drums. Everyday after school I would turn the radio on to the local top 40 station and just try to keep a beat with whatever songs were played. After a few years and piecing together random drums to form a real drum set, my grandmother decided I needed lessons. So she took me to the local music store and signed me up. I think I was 9 when I started taking lessons. Every Saturday morning I had a two hour lesson.
My mom was friends with a guy who played bass in a southern rock band. They had a gig at a park one night and for whatever reason the drummer didn’t show. So my moms friend asked her to ask me to fill in. I said “sure!”
So mom took me to the gig and even though I didn’t know any of the songs, I had been taking lessons and playing long enough that I was able to keep a beat in time.
The gig went well. Everything sounded great and the guys in the band were happy.
The following Monday at school I spent the day telling my friends stories about my professional gig and how I wowed the audience with my drumming prowess.
A year later I sold my drums and bought a Charvel 4 string and a peavey TNT 130 and I never looked back.
So that’s my first gig (they gave me $20) What was your first gig?

Hard to say what qualifies as a gig. I’d played my first school performance on trumpet when I was 9. As far as bass I remember playing a birthday/pool party for free when I was maybe 14 or 15, I remember playing the school talent show and coming in second place even though we clearly had the support of the crowd but we didn’t win because a few people said we were “satanic” for playing rock music, I remember my first benefit gig was actually for one my high schools clubs. Can’t remember if it was the key club or what. Our high school had a two level cafeteria where only seniors were allowed to sit in the upper level. We used the upper level as the stage. Was a rad show. The first good paying gig I played was a governors ball deal with my high school jazz band. We played several Hours of jazz and big band type stuff then took the money and had a party at Pizza Hut and put the rest towards the trip to Kings dominion theme park that we went on later that year. My first paying rock gig was at a sorta alternative store. Kind of like a locally owned version of hot topic. The most memorable thing about that gig is fan of the band was a firefighter and he put his Firefighter emergency light on and had everyone follow him to the gig which was in a small neighboring town. My first paying bar gig was at good old Jesters pub. I think we made like $20-$40 that first gig and we got our butts handed to us by the more seasoned bands that played that night. But jesters really became my home away from home for many years. We ended up being able to pack out 500 people in that little 300 capacity bar. And it was a huge time of improvement mainly because all the bands were trying to not look bad in front of the other bands.

 

[Pings Bass]

1st "gig": 5th grade band concert, first trumpet, no recollection (but I might still have the music)

1st paying gig: St Mary's Easter Mass 1982 2nd trumpet, brass quartet, probably some Bach

1st bar gig ca. 1983, got booked on a weeknight at the biggest showcase in town. Drummer was 16. The rest of us were 17 or 18. Bar manager: is the drummer legal? Us: uhhhhh. Him: just make sure he doesn't drink anything. Nobody showed up but our parents and a couple barflies. After the show, bar manager: you guys draw an older crowd, eh?

 

[Rayjay]

My first public performance was with my Jr High School Jazz Band. We played a winter high school dance, and we opened the night up and the Senior High Jazz Combo closed out the night- which featured a great bass player who turned out to be a big influence and friend (we were actually taking lessons from the same teacher too). And as I grew up and went through the high school music ensembles the director was also a big influence.

My first REAL gig was in 9th grade, with a punk band, at a punk rock fire hall show. Nuts. I’d never seen stuff like that before. It was super fun but eye opening too. These guys asked me to join their band; I was into Led Zeppelin and Jaco at the time, and I didn’t know much about the punk scene. This was 1989 or so. First time I ever saw real life swastikas. This was rural central PA.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

Just curious about first gig stories. I’ll begin with my first.
I was 12 and a drummer. I didn’t discover bass until I was 13. My grandparents got me one of those children’s drum sets when I was 6. To the shock of my parents, I actually tried to play by setting a stereo up with the speakers right behind the drums. Everyday after school I would turn the radio on to the local top 40 station and just try to keep a beat with whatever songs were played. After a few years and piecing together random drums to form a real drum set, my grandmother decided I needed lessons. So she took me to the local music store and signed me up. I think I was 9 when I started taking lessons. Every Saturday morning I had a two hour lesson.
My mom was friends with a guy who played bass in a southern rock band. They had a gig at a park one night and for whatever reason the drummer didn’t show. So my moms friend asked her to ask me to fill in. I said “sure!”
So mom took me to the gig and even though I didn’t know any of the songs, I had been taking lessons and playing long enough that I was able to keep a beat in time.
The gig went well. Everything sounded great and the guys in the band were happy.
The following Monday at school I spent the day telling my friends stories about my professional gig and how I wowed the audience with my drumming prowess.
A year later I sold my drums and bought a Charvel 4 string and a peavey TNT 130 and I never looked back.
So that’s my first gig (they gave me $20) What was your first gig?

First gig, Officer's Club at Westover Air Force Base. They served alcohol and I don't believe anyone in the band was the age of 18, i was 15, but looked older because of my size. We had a female singer, bass, drums and two guitars, of which I was one. Had no clue but could play chords and single line/note leads......albeit those were poor.

We were well received because the alcohol was flowing well, and the Father of our bassist and drummer, was AF so we had an "IN".

Good times, I believe everyone but the singer went on to continuing to do musical things in the future.

If it went over poorly, i was oblivious, but I do know we were well rehearsed but repeated a couple of songs because of a lack of repetoire. Heck, we even played one instrumental at half speed, and they danced.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

It was 1972, Sierra junior high school, I was 13.
I had got my 62 Epiphone Newport and Monkey Wards combo amp for Christmas and had been taking lessons for about a month...maybe 2.
The 2 guitarist's and I were all in glee club, so we convinced the instructor to let us have 15 minutes at the spring assembly . American Graffiti was in the theaters and the whole fifties revival thing with Flash Cadillac and Sha na na was a big deal. All the schools were having " sock hops",
I went and bought a music book called " big hits of the fifties" so we would have chords and lyrics.
We learned 3 songs:
1. Kansas city
2. Sealed with a kiss
3. Pipeline
We slicked back our hair with pomade, cuffed our Jean's, and cut the sleeves off our t-shirts. Some of the girls in glee club wore pony tails and poodle skirts. We played our 3 song's, the girls squealed, and in the blink of an eye, we went from average schlubs to cool kids.
Good times

 

[casualmadness]

It’s awesome that some of you have pictures. Especially the ones from 40+ years ago. Neat seeing the old school gear and whatnot. I somehow made it to middle age with no more than a few pictures from my journey thus far. Lots of cool pictures and great stories though, interesting reading through this thread.

 

[Michedelic]

Early 80's. Got roped in to play some German influenced industrial noise rock.

I was on a P-bass,not that it mattered. Scrap metal, grinders, hammers etc made a helluva racket

Plugs pulled after 10 minutes Shame,few year later folks were paying good money for that stuff

Sounds like Einsturzende Neubauten.

 

[SWRnut]

Photo of my first band. My parents bought me a Fender Musicmaster (that I still own) and Fender Musicmaster bass amp on my 14th birthday in 1971, and three weeks later we played our first gig at the lead guitarist's sister's church where she was the Sunday School teacher. I was the lead singer as well, and since I had only been playing less than a month, placed my bass on it's stand for "Closer to Home" since that bass line was far above my ability. We played two hours worth of Cream, Steppenwolf, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and as mentioned Grand Funk. I blew the 12" speaker in the Musicmaster that night, but never been out of a band since.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

There's evidence....

Very cool! My high-school band, The St. James Infirmary, used to play that same song, though we played it in in 1966 when it first came out!

 

[2saddleslab]

July 4th, 1986. Met the drummer that afternoon and he played w/ us for over 7 years. Besides playing the only full song we really knew over 3 times [and skating thru the others], the other memory was the drum kit sinking into the melting asphalt.

 

[The Owl]

View attachment 3842082
This was at a graduation party in May of 1969. I’m on the right, playing my new SG-style Gibson Melody Maker through my Gibson Scout amp. We had no bass player. The other guitarist was also the lead singer. His guitar was a Blackstone. The organist is playing a Tieschord organ. The vocals, rhythm guitar, and organ were all plugged into a giant Montgomery Wards amp with a 6-10 cab. You can’t see our drummer, who played a double-bass kit from Sears (comprised of two identical kits). My dad roadied for me and told me on the way home we did a real fine job.

Fixed up the pic for you

 

[SBassman]

Yes, but they were all on drums. [my primary instrument]

- 14 years old - playing a song at "Spring Festival" night at elementary school.
[Song was Olivia Newton John's Have You Ever Been Mellow - my buddy on guitar, some pretty girl singing, and me on drums . That "buddy" later bullied and harrassed me mercilessly throughout high school. ]

- 14 years old - playing a song at the elementary school 8th grade graduation dinner dance.
[Song was Taken Care Of Business - BTO. Same "buddy" on guitar. Me on drums. Nuttin else.]

- 16 years old - actual gig I guess - playing in the pit for a local theater production of Guys and Dolls.
[Best Time - EVER]

- 16 years old - actual band gig, I guess - playing at a block party.
[Anybody know what a block party is these days? Material - most of the set were Beatles tunes.]

Good times.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

It was 1972, Sierra junior high school, I was 13.
I had got my 62 Epiphone Newport and Monkey Wards combo amp for Christmas and had been taking lessons for about a month...maybe 2.
The 2 guitarist's and I were all in glee club, so we convinced the instructor to let us have 15 minutes at the spring assembly . American Graffiti was in the theaters and the whole fifties revival thing with Flash Cadillac and Sha na na was a big deal. All the schools were having " sock hops",
I went and bought a music book called " big hits of the fifties" so we would have chords and lyrics.
We learned 3 songs:
1. Kansas city
2. Sealed with a kiss
3. Pipeline
We slicked back our hair with pomade, cuffed our Jean's, and cut the sleeves off our t-shirts. Some of the girls in glee club wore pony tails and poodle skirts. We played our 3 song's, the girls squealed, and in the blink of an eye, we went from average schlubs to cool kids.
Good times

Too much Pdaddy! I worked in Vermont for about 7 years and one year the company I was working for had a 50's party. Was really funny to see the vice-president of marketing with his hair slicked and combed into a duck tail, a white T-shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve and some Levis with a cuff on them. Then one of buddies dressed up as "fat Elvis" in a white Elvis costume and I played guitar for a couple of songs and sang some harmony while he fronted and sang the lead vocals. Was a lot of fun!

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Yes, but they were all on drums. [my primary instrument]

- 14 years old - playing a song at "Spring Festival" night at elementary school.
[Song was Olivia Newton John's Have You Ever Been Mellow - my buddy on guitar, some pretty girl singing, and me on drums . That "buddy" later bullied and harrassed me mercilessly throughout high school. ]

- 14 years old - playing a song at the elementary school 8th grade graduation dinner dance.
[Song was Taken Care Of Business - BTO. Same "buddy" on guitar. Me on drums. Nuttin else.]

- 16 years old - actual gig I guess - playing in the pit for a local theater production of Guys and Dolls.
[Best Time - EVER]

- 16 years old - actual band gig, I guess - playing at a block party.
[Anybody know what a block party is these days? Material - most of the set were Beatles tunes.]

Good times.

We lived in a little T-shaped neighborhood in San Mateo from 1987 through 1997. There was only one way in and out, no way to drive through it. So we rarely got stray cars there. We had block parties once a year for about 6 of the 10-years we lived there. Was really nice. Never see block parties anymore though.

 

[Mildew Jones]

I didn't start playing bass until I was 16, first gig (I think!) was the last week of 12th grade/HS, they let us play at lunch, open grassy ampitheatre setup.. I remember playing Space Truckin, Too Rolling Stoned, I think we also played Sweet Emotion. Our drummer was an "older guy" (24,25!), had a nice van conversion (this was '79)...we smoked a doob, coupla railers in his stabbin cabin, and rocked our HS grad class. I remember nothing from it.
MJ