I didn't know about stage cues when I joined a known energetic band and during a instrumental section the vocalist did a violent stage slide behind me. The cable didn't rip from my bass because I knotted around it like you should. My strap went nowhere because I use strap locks, nothing happened to my bass because it's a jazz bass and it's big, solid and heavy. I didn't fall over because I'm built like an ox (hence my proclivity for jazz basses). What this violent action did manage to make happen is to make the bass amp topple over. Luckily this didn't damage the lower mid tier hartke bass amp but after a new cable and a beer, the show managed to go on.
I respect how you handled the beer-throwing "fan" not too long ago. Instead of using your influence to sick the audience on him, you calmly explained empathy and introspection to everyone in attendance. Well done.
I saw Elvis Costello about 20 years ago now when the PA went off. They took a minute, got it working again and it went off again, so Costello grabbed an acoustic, went to the edge of the stage and held up his finger to his lip as if to say "be quiet". He took advantage of the opera hall acoustics of Beacon Theater and played The Angels Want To Wear My Red Shoes with absolutely no amplification whatsoever. The crowd actually stayed quiet. It was chilling and like you said, it was the most memorable part of the show.
“People don’t pay the price of admission to go home and then forget that they were ever there” …and THAT is the key to Rock N Roll, people. Fell in love with so many bands simply because they went to war on stage. Rock it out, damnit!!
I remember seeing The Darkness, at Alexandra Palace. Justin played a facemelting guitar solo whilst spinning upsidedown, over the audience, on a harness. It. was. Incredible
I remember seeing him do that at Sheffield Arena, but he misjudged his spin and was stuck upside down for about what seemed like 10 seconds. He didnt stop playing though!
I once saw Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers durring a thunderstorm (RIP) and the power went out twice. Both times the audience kept singing the lyrics and when the power came back on, the band picked up where we all were. The band was so tight that it didn't matter that they missed 30 seconds of the song. One of the best (if not the best) shows I have ever been to.
I saw darkness play in leamington and Justin and his brother are supposed to play part of a solo each on the song but Justin had an issue with his guitar. No one noticed because the band must have covered it somehow but Justin explained what had happened after the song ended. He said “I was thinking if you liked my brothers solo just wait for this it’s gonna melt your faces off - so imagine my surprise when I go to play and hear this *hits guitar and it makes a farting noise*”. He totally made it a highlight of the show. True pro, great crowd rapport and it obviously made an impact as I remember it after all these years.
I was at that Nottingham gig where your transmitter malfunctioned, and yes I will always remember it because you made it memorable by addressing it and making it something worthwhile. A lovely example of taking an issue and turning it into serendipity.
Daft comment, it is equally demanding to play extreme metal as what Justin does-and on bigger stages. That lame joke could be recyled for any act name you want to mock.
I was fortunate enough to see Van Halen during the tour that they had reunited with David Lee Roth, in Atlanta. Wolf was on bass. Eddie is the only person on stage and is in the middle of his guitar solo when the house sound goes completely down. I was mid floor in the colosseum. Eddie kept calm and just kept playing without missing a step. His amp still had power and sure enough, you could still here him loud and clear.
I was singing at a gig before around 2000 people in a huge auditorium when all of the power blew. I was being accompanied mostly by wind instruments so I drew breath, braced myself and blew the back wall off the room for the following two verses and choruses. As far as I was concerned the show was going on without stopping. Everyone could hear me. I had trained my voice for Opera. I wasn't phased. It was only when I noticed the conductor walking on stage, waving her arms about in a frenzy that the orchestra halted. But, I kept going. She had to stand directly in front of me to stop me. I've never had such a silly, inane, thing happen during a live performance. The audience gave us, the orchestra and me, a standing ovation. We were less than a final chorus from completion of the Aria. Yet, we had to depart and wait, the stage was cleared, reset and the house lights dimmed for effect as we did EXACTLY WHAT WE'D JUST DONE. After the show...I had countless patrons tell me that the original performance was one of the most magical things they'd ever witnessed. A minor issue dealt with through true skill and practiced talent was ruined by an overzealous conductor who thought it best to step in where not needed. The second run through was good. Of course it was but the first was far more authentic and memorable. Years later I was picking my kids up from school when one of the mother's walked up to me and said "I saw you blow the back wall off a theatre when the sound went out!" I was stoked to be remembered for that. I noted that she didn't refer to the second redition.
Been there. It was a theater venue and the guy who brought in the PA ran everything into one socket! HIs rig blew, but we played on accoustically for a tune or two until it got sorted. It was a pretty cool moment to be fair.
One of the best acts of showmanship ever was when Dave Ghrol fell off the stage mid gig, broke his leg and still finished the show. That proves his dedication to the fans and to the show
I just noticed your DX7 tattoo; I had discussed the DX7 synth with a friend only a few days ago! 😄👍 And regarding stage fails, I remember one show in the 90's where I'd forgotten to bring my drum rug, and so half of my drum kit kept sliding forward and eventually dropped off the riser 😂
Saw billy idol at Manchester a number of years ago - pa went down . So he got the entire Apollo singing white wedding a Capella . It was a memorable moment and the mark of a true entertainer.
I was at a Darkness gig here at Glasshouse in Pomona, and you (Justin Hawkins) and the band were putting on a great show. Then decided to stand on the bar between the stage during the last song of the night while getting people riled up(great show!). You lost your balance, fell forward and a few of us managed to catch you and push you back up on your feet on the bar, where you finished the rest of the show. Looking forward to the show at the Observatory!
Back in about 2007 I saw My Chemical Romance at Wembley Arena (I think; it could have been Earls Court). It was the Black Parade tour, and they played the Black Parade album in full (followed by an intermission when they transformed back in to My Chem..) and Frank laid on his back through the whole set of the Black Parade. I thought he was just playing a part. But it turned out that he was really sick, and I feel lucky he was there at all. After the intermission a guitar tech joined the band for a few songs but didn’t know enough to complete the set. I think about that sometimes when people call in sick at work. Here was a guy who was so desperate not to upset his fans that he played guitar laying on his fucken back on stage in front of 10k+ people to get through the main show. Legend.
I've been watching your youtube output for a couple weeks and I didnt know this was a thing I needed until now! I've been working from home and I've been genuinely looking forward to seeing you pop up each day. You sir have earned a place in my subscription list. Also, I just wanted to mention that the final chord and 'again....' in your intro reminds me of a refrain from Jealousy by Queen. +1 points to you !
The awesome part about the Guns N Roses incident was how Izzy immediately took over lead vocals. That's a tough thing to do! Especially when it takes you by surprise and you usually just cover backing vocals.
The most memorable concert for me, The Darkness, almost 2 years ago, probably because it's the last live concert I attended. Also, memorable for no technical problems.
I was playing guitar wearing tiny football shorts in the eighties .All of a sudden a few people started laughing,I thought oh well this is now a jam session ,these people think I’m crap .The bass player stared laughing too and was gesturing me to look down…Lmao My left ball was completely exposed .So I finished the song like that .When I spoke to audience I said sorry about that ,l then proceeded to pull the other one out and said now that’s a stage costume .They ended up loving us and we had a great night .Thanks for your naturalness and humour .Spot buddy ☮️👍🍻🇦🇺🇬🇧🇺🇸
Played a gig where the drummer put a stick through the snare skin. The few minutes it took to tape it up were a good laugh as I relayed progress of the super technical repair :)
I'm in a small, independent folk rock band. Every now and then, a piece of equipment fails on us while we're on stage, and we know it's up to the rest to entertain the audience while that gets sorted out. Kick drum pedal suddenly breaks down? Guitar and bass jam while the drummer sorts it out. The singer's wireless mic stops working suddenly? Backup vocalist can take lead vocals for this one in the meantime. That sort of thing. I find it has a lot to do with quick thinking and efficient problem-solving.
I do love when you talk about your experiences as a performer. For instance: what do you do in your head before a gig when you feel like you just can't do it that night? Tense moments between members on stage? And, of course, your best Spinal Tap moments. I'd love to hear about this stuff or related stuff. Love your channel and love seeing your subs increasing all the time.
My favourite one was playing bass during the intro to an opening song (starts as a whisper, building up to a massive chord for the first verse) and noticing the sound guy (not ours) turning the bass volume up and up, me tickling the bass string, feeling the vibration build realising a point would arrive when it all kicked in and the entire PA would explode haha
Played a gig in Norwich years ago, that had a system where it would cut the power to the stage when it got above a certain db! Someone climbed up to the box which had the sensor, and basically hugged it! Love your channel by the way, keep telling mates who are musicians about it.
Back in my early touring days I was in a band with a bassist who was fond of spinning the bass around himself. One song into a set the headstock smacked me right in the face and gave me a borderline concussion, still managed to finish the show with blood pouring everywhere and then went straight to hospital. If that happened to me now I’d probably just hit the deck
Redoing the soaring white tiger solo after wireless failure is *exactly* the sort of thing that would redouble my love for a band. True showmanship, you do not lack!
If there’s something that has convinced me to come back for other concerts, a part for the addictive effect of the songs on which we all agree, is the way you manage the stage, I was so impressed compared to the others I had seen in the past. And even last Sunday in Dublin, the way you turned some stuff I thought would end up with the security, in something involving the whole crowd… People this guy’s got points 👍🏻🙌
oh damn i was at the nottingham arena show you mention where your guitar failed and you went in reverse on the tiger, good times my man, good times lol
I break a ton of strings so I have worked out a signal to my lead guitarist to hold the band on a loop on whatever phrase we are on while I switch to my backup guitar then we jump back in. It's become part of the show to see how fast I can get back in and the fans (all 7 of them) love it. Then I ask if anybody in the crowd can string a Bigsby in case I break one on my backup. That part doesnt tend to go as well. But my favorite story is when a band came through town and during their set a member had an input go bad on their amp and the booker got onstage and laid on his back holding the cable so it didn't short for 6 songs. It became the ultimate DIY indy band photo
I remember at a Struts gig back in (I think) 2015, they played to an audience of around 30 people, and one of the wedge monitors blew out. They stopped for a moment, Luke informed the audience and the crew, and whilst it got sorted he sang with the audience, kept them entertained and as soon as it got back up and running...back in business as if nothing had gone wrong. Handled it perfectly
Once we didn't get to check the acoustics of the room we were performing in previous to the show. We start the show and find the room was so strangely resonant that we're getting every note we sang and played bounced back to us what felt like a whole second later. Gods did we just have to not lose count. Still have 0 idea what the audience heard. Should have just stripped. Mr. Hawkins seems to have "strip" as a very ready natural response to several situations in life...much love to that! Lol
I saw Neil Young during the Trans tour with those early electronics and vocoder. Nothing would stay working right and the PA had airport communications crackling through. He got quite visibly pissed off. Next set he played a wheezy pump organ.
In 1983 I saw a band (that shall remain nameless) supporting Rainbow at the Michael Sobell Sports Centre in London. At a certain point the drummer tried to do that thing where he throws the sticks up in the air and then catches them. He did this spectacularly badly, throwing them too far in front of him so he had to lean right forward to catch them. In doing so he knocked the bass drum off the drum riser mid-song. Much hilarity ensued.
This one time, I was playing at the Wolverhampton civic and the stage slopes towards the front. My bass stack was on castors and during the fourth song I looked to my left and my amp had rolled forwards to join me at the front of the stage. The road crew moved it back and wedged beer mats under the wheels. I had locking castors after that.
We played a gig once and the lead singer decided to do a sort of Mick Jagger esque shuffle across the stage from left to right. By doing so he managed to one by one unplug all of our instruments from there effects pedals and power supplies with his clumsy feet. You could only watch and listen as he strutted through like a true rockstar while each instrument dropped out of the mix one at a time. We could all see it as it was happening bar him, Hilarious and one of my all time favourite gigging memories. And we were using a shitty dell laptop for drums as we didn't have a drummer at the time (it was 80s synth pop so it worked ok!) So we had to wait for it to boot back up before we could start again, tool bloody ages.
I used to work in a nightclub and one of my favourite memories is of a catastrophic sound system failure at a Happy Hardcore, old school rave night we were holding. Everything went, bar the MC's microphone and the monitors for the decks, so for several minutes we were treated to the site of a room full of gurning ravers, dancing away in near total silence, while some guy in a tracksuit yelled at them from a stage. Fair play, they didn't miss a beat...
I saw Blondie in Southend around 2003, towards the end of the set the PA went down, which led to the smashing up of a drumkit and no encore. All I do remember is that Debbie Harry addressed the crowd without the microphone asking if we could hear her - and yes, even in the balcony we could!
We were playing an old bar several years ago that had very bad electric. My tube Carvin kept losing sound. Luckily, I had carried a backup Marshall solid state head with me that allowed us to finish the show. Never had another problem with the Carvin, since.
Once had a videographer who was shooting some live stuff for a video stand on the power cable to my amp, rendering me noiseless mid face melting solo. I kept playing, walked to the back of the stage, kicked the plug back in and resumed face melting solo.
I did your monitors at the Wedgewood rooms Portsmouth, many years ago. You were such a nice, and friendly person, that I never forgot it. The only other person, who I could compare, who was the same, was Mick Peters. Thank you Justin.
brings to mind that old aphorism, to the effect: 'they may forget what you said to them or what you did but what they won't forget is how you made them feel.'
When I was about 16 we played in a youth center and we managed to set the mixing desk (which included a PA power amp) on fire during a song. I think we never were cooler or louder.
Done heaps of gigs on old steam train, generator had gone off a few times, lucky I play resonator guitars, lights out acoustic in the dark!! Love your work Justin!!
I think you are referring Gods of metal 2012 in Milan when the power went out in the middle of your set....you said a few words in Italian....took a break for a few minutes....then came straight back in mid-song. Brilliant. Then slash played, followed by motley Crue..what a show!
It happened back in 1994 at the City Hall in Newcastle with Pantera. The power kept cutting out and like Justin said all we could hear was Vinnie Paul's drum's in the background. But it kept cutting out every few minutes. In the end Phil Anselmo threw his mic down and stormed off. They came back on to say they'll come back to a different venue that could handle their power. We all waited in the foyer and we were told to keep an eye on the press for a rescheduled venue. The press said they won't be back to Newcastle but if any fans travel to Liverpool or Manchester they'll get in with their Newcastle ticket. Needless to say I got my money back.
The was watching this hardcore band called Beecher once. The singer decided to climb up on the PA but he accidentally hit a lever that brought this curtain slowly down on the stage behind him. He stood there singing while you could see shadows of his band thrashing it out behind the curtain. The whole crowd were shouting "behind you". He turned around and to his horror, he must have thought he had somehow teleported into a different venue or something venue before sheepishly crawling under the curtain lol.
I did a show that I'd written several songs for a play. Only one of the songs I wrote involved me singing although I was playing guitar with no accompaniment for all musical pieces. The rest of the songs were wtitten for the cast to sing. After singing the first song in the play I was relieved to stand stage left and just play my guitar. Well, following the romantic duet sung by the two leads the next song was quickly shut down by the casts microphones all dying. This was very early in my musical journey and playing in front of 3000 people was a big deal to me. I immediately went on auto pilot, stepped to the mike and proceeded to sing all the remaining songs, despite the last song being one where the whole cast was to be singing. After the show I was burying my face in my hands thinking "Oh my, that was aweful". Later at the wrap party at the Hard Rock Cafe I was continually approached by different people in the music industry telling me how great the show was and complimenting me on my quick response to the technical problems. Ya just never know when a potential crash and burn can become a springboard. Thanks for the vid.
Keep a megaphone onstage and if the power cuts, lead the crowd on a singalong like Freddie until the issue is fixed. Buys time, gets everyone in the spirit, and you can always communicate your intention to take an intermission while things are sorted out.
We once played a gig when we started out with our first bassist to a who spent 10 minutes trying to figure out why his bass wasn't working, turns out he had his volume turned to 0 on his guitar and then once we'd started playing had to start again as he was out of tune. Rock and roll at it's finest, needless to say he didn't last too long after that
One T in in the Park, our guitarist left his beer on his amp, few minutes later, with the stage bouncing, one side of back line went down along with his beer lol. Beer and sockets not a good mix, a Quick change of cables and it was OK, he never left beer there again.
Great video! I think screw-ups at shows are great! They can mak great moments even more memorable. This is rock 'n' roll and it was never meant to be perfect. I would have loved to have seen you on that tiger! The backwards, tiger-mounted guitar solo would have made my year. Cheers!
I remember when KISS played Winnipeg several years ago, there was a wee fire in the lighting rig, so they jammed out while the lighting rig was slowly lowered and the crew put the fire out. (It was super tiny. Just a flickering flame.) Then, the lighting rig was raised and they just continued the show. The cool thing was that on that tour, KISS was giving fans the opportunity to receive the live show they attended as an album. They would get a CD of the show up to the encore and then get the encore on a USB stick. (CDs hadn't completely gone extinct by that point.) My then-girlfriend got the show on CD/USB and the whole lighting rig thing was on there. Several years prior to that, I remember Metallica actually incorporated technical difficulties into their show. I believe it was for the Load or Reload tour. Their lighting rig had a fake malfunction and then a stuntman ran across the stage on fire. Unfortunately, I had read about it prior to going to the show, so I was expecting it. It would've been really cool to get caught unexpectedly like a lot of the fans probably were.
Did a festival with a ukulele bass. They were quite a novelty at the time. I prewarned the sound guy that the bass kicked out a LOT of low end fundamentals and to watch the levels, and was promptly ignored. Got the cue to sound check, first note blew the cross over! Ensue loads of panic from the sound guy.
I'm sorry that incident in the thumbnail happened but I love that video because of you how handled the booze throwing incident. God love the broken Gibson but you really did handle it as well as you could. What always fascinated me was if you were trying to piss in the cup at the start of the full video?
Saw you / the darkness at a small festival called Lake fest and you wireless cut out while out In the crowd and you kept playing and laughed it off . I was close enough to hear your les Paul acoustically ... Nice one dude
I know this is an old post but and I doubt you will read this now but I remember seeing the Black Crows at phoinex festival in 93 and seeing black smoke billowing out from the stage and all of a sudden no sound but the band turned it in to a precision session and got the crowd going , so good ! 🤟
I rememeber a time I saw Dinosaur Jr (a band I hope Justin would appreciate for keeping guitar solos alive) and Lou's bass strap broke right at the beginning of a song he was singing, and without missing a beat he got down on his knees and angled the mic downward and did the song like nothing was wrong.
I once watched the Black Crows from the top of a ferris wheel that must have been on the same loop as the p.a. cos they both stopped at the same time and they turned half of the fold back round and carried on very professional I thought!
Spare everything?? Tell that to Rufus so he doesn't need to borrow the support act's snare drum (Newcastle Dec 2022) :-D :-D. Magnificently handled by all concerned, mid song change, post song pause with appropriate japery and an extra bit of Frankie (..."er, shall I do a bass solo?" :-D)... happy days and makes a memorable gig!
When you finally get to play with one of the blues men you look up to and no one sets a monitor by your drums. Half through the first set Eddie Kirkland picks his amp and mic stand up and walks it to the back of the stage and sat next to me. Now I could hear now, but I was so embarrassed by that point I was toast. Ahahaha probably my biggest gig and epic fail!
I remember seeing Metallica at earl's court, everything went bang, chap fell out of the overhead lighting rig followed by Metallica leaving the stage. They returned a shot while later with a bunch of amps and spent half an hour playing stuff by Budgie and Thin Lizzy. Excellent evening.
Sometimes a shitty venue makes a show memorable in the worst way. I remember playing a show in a pub and their power supply was all janky, unbeknownst to us. We played the first song and I was getting electric shocks off the mic roughly every 20 seconds or so, straight into my mouth. Swapped the mic out for a different one, same thing, so not our equipment. I told the sound guy, who shrugged and got the venue owner, and no matter how we insisted that it wasn't right, he wouldn't hear it and threatened to not pay us and kick our asses if we didn't finish the show (and I'm female, so nice to know he wasn't above twatting a girl...). My bandmates just pushed me to keep going, so I ended up playing an hour getting shocked in the face constantly. To the audience, nothing was amiss, and we went down well, but from my perspective, it was hell!
Saw the Allman Bros at an outdoor event and the power went out during Dickey Betts' solo, he kept playing until the power cam on and never stopped, true professional
I don't quite know how I came to be watching your channel - but I am so glad that I did! Your put-downs in response to snide comments are superb. And while The Darkness isn't quite my jam 'I believe in a thing called love' has to be one of the great British pop songs of the past twenty years or so. I hope it made you a f**king mint.
The Nottingham gig where your transmitter went down as you rode around the rigging on the white tiger was the first gig I took my son to….pretty memorable!🙂And I was massively impressed at the way you handled it!
The question I think that really needs an answer is, party rings or rich tea on your rider? And have you ever asked for something that is so weird just to see if they come through, and if they did, what was it?
I went to see the Graham Bonnet Band at a great intimate venue in the UK. He hit a technical problem and the audience was treated to him belting out an unaccompanied rendition of “Only One Woman “ now that’s class.
I remember seeing h.e.a.t. With Eric gronwall singing. The PA went off and he ran into the crowd, climbed on the bar and got everyone singing. Very memorable and very well handled.
I saw this video via facebook recently about this metal band (sorry to say the name of the band escapes me now), as they were playing the drummer's monnitors whent out like 4 songs in to a full set, so the drum tech acted quickly and crouched by the side of the drum riser the rest of the show acting as a human metronome by tapping the drummers leg to help him keep tempo and such
I remember when Spinnal Tap appeared at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert back in 1992 they hadn't even started their set and the sound engineers could get power to the lead guitarists guitar. It told nearly 10 minutes. If you see how many pickups he had on his guitar you could understand why. Amazing guitar.
