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Dumb lead singer stories

#22
WI Short Scaler said:
Pretty common thread is waiting for the LS to flip pages looking for a song. But the tech way to do it isn't always reliable either, bad cable, forgot to charge it, just not working isn't much better.

Still trying to get our guitarist away from staring at his music stand.
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Amazingly common for the LS to have lyric sheets, but give any musician with an instrument dagger looks of death if they dare miss a note....that they had worked hard on learning to play without any sheet music or charts.
 
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#24
TheOxRocks said:
When I showed up at a rehearsal with my iPad and mic-stand mount (with all of my tab in setlist order on it), my then-lead singer sneered “Look at the technological show-off!” I responded “More practical, I think, than your thick notebook with all of your songs in random order that you have to leaf through between songs, slowing down the flow of the show. Never mind that it’s perched on a rickety music stand that looks like it’s going to break at any moment.”

So naturally at our next gig, her music stand collapsed just before we were about to start our first song. I don’t know which pissed her off more - the embarrassment of having to pick up her scattered papers in front of the audience, or seeing my folded arms and impassive almost-smirk, all but saying to her “Told you so.”

It took her another seven years (I was long out of the band by that point) before she finally got the idea and started using an iPad onstage herself. And, knowing her and her massive ego, I’ll bet she tells everyone she came up with the idea herself.
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There is (in my mind) a workable compromise, here. It takes a bit of work/time on the singer's part, but it's workable.

Put all your lyrics in a word processor file on the comp.

Print them alphabetically and put them in a "master" binder.

Print them in set order and put them in a "gig" binder.
 
#26
Oh - there are a lot.
I think my favorite was a vocalist who got arrested for stealing a boat... on a lake.

Had one who got too drunk at a Save the Music foundation show. He pissed himself than wanted to continue the show. Needless to say we were done for the night. There was a Senator in the crowd.

Had a band with two lead vocalists. While recording a live album They got into an argument on stage, which lead to a fistfight. I had to tackle both of them into a wall so they didn't fall onto my upright bass.
 
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#28
Singer and drummer were a couple. First red flag.

She absolutely went unglued on the drummer about their driving.

Oh, details…in the dead middle of an A&R meeting on Madison Avenue. It was so bad we were shown the door. Not just humiliating but potentially career altering. Luckily it was not the only such meeting but predictably that band did not last long.
 
#29
Michael Stanley 2112 said:
There is (in my mind) a workable compromise, here. It takes a bit of work/time on the singer's part, but it's workable.

Put all your lyrics in a word processor file on the comp.

Print them alphabetically and put them in a "master" binder.

Print them in set order and put them in a "gig" binder.
Click to expand...

Which would be eminently practical, except for the fact that this woman just didn’t think that way. Believe me, it was suggested to her more than once, and she threw an impressive hissy fit. The collapse of her music stand was a sad inevitability.
 
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#30
I was reminiscing about a favorite club on another thread, which reminded me of the following:

We arranged to shoot a multi-cam S-VHS (it was 1994) at our favorite place for promotional purposes (Tradewinds, Sea Bright, NJ). Our sound company just broke into video production so they wanted to shoot for their promo purpose (win win, right?)

Great room, great crowd, great 2+ hour performance on tape, we were all so excited. Thankfully, the tapes were edited into a 13 minute promo for us, but then...

Unbeknownst to anyone in the band, our (dumb) lead singer shows up at the production studio.

Mr. Dumb: I need that tape of the show.
Studio: Sure, grab a seat, I'll make you a copy.
Mr. Dumb: No, I need the tape now.
Studio: All we have is the master.
Mr. Dumb: Good, master is 'best quality', hand it over
Studio: You realize that once we hand it over, that's it, your responsible for the only copy.
Studio: Why is it so important for you to have it?
Mr. Dumb: Budweiser is having a contest for their next round of sponsored bands (FYI - winners get a stack of posters w/ your photo right beneath BW's logo).
Studio: Please, take the 13 min promo, no one will watch the whole thing. We have dupes of the promo.
Mr. Dumb: No, they need to see the whole thing, we paid for it, it's ours, and I'm not leaving without it.
Studio: well, here you go then.

So, Mr. Dumb overnight's the only tape of the full show in existence to Budweiser were it sits among 1,000s of others. If they were reviewing with a S-VHS compatible deck, maybe someone saw some of it (we weren't selected so maybe not). Regardless, I'm beyond certain it resides in a landfill somewhere.

The only good news is that some 27 years later, my drummer hipped me to the fact that he had a copy of the promo (albeit standard VHS) and was shocked that I'd never seen even the promo once.

Did the best I could converting to digital. It's on my personal YT channel 'unlisted' with no title, mainly because Mr. Dumb does not possess, nor does he deserve a copy, even to look at... Have a look if you're curious to see what one person's incalculable stupidity has deprived me of by being unable the enjoy the rest of the performance.

Opens with 'el stupido' on camera
 
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#31
definenredefine said:
Mine is short - singer in my punk band was dissatisfied with the direction the band's going. He calls a band meeting.

...and didn't turn up. We didn't hear from him until the next day.
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Our lead singer did something dumb involving a touring band's chip reader. It was the last straw for our guitar player, the only other original member of the band. He quit but was planning to play the two shows we have later this month. Then, the venue's booker called our guitar player told him that, likely as a result of said dumb something, lead singer is banned from the venue.

So we don't even get to play our last 2 shows as a band. Cool.
 
#32
Dumb ??? But…..
IMG_4450.png
 
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#33
In the 80s, ours was your typical tomcattin Don Juan. He was not real careful.

It got really hilarious one night. At the gig, his live in girlfriend, the “other” woman and the one night stand from the previous night all showed in the audience. Needless to say, he was couch surfing the next few months.
 

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