Len_derby Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 [quote name='MacDaddy' post='1368441' date='Sep 10 2011, 11:59 AM']Smallest audience? I've done gigs where there were more people in the band than in the audience [/quote] Years ago I went to see a jazz quartet and I was one of a sadly small crowd. The sax player (who was a 'cuddly' shape and no oil painting in looks) cast his eyes sadly round the room and said 'F***ing hell, I've slept with more people than this' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 [quote name='Len_derby' post='1368497' date='Sep 10 2011, 12:49 PM']Years ago I went to see a jazz quartet and I was one of a sadly small crowd. The sax player (who was a 'cuddly' shape and no oil painting in looks) cast his eyes sadly round the room and said 'F***ing hell, I've slept with more people than this'[/quote] has to go in the quotes thread! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spike Vincent Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 (edited) Smallest was 8,although one of them was a Wurzel.Largest was about 1500 patch wearing outlaw bikers,which was quite an experience. Edited September 10, 2011 by Spike Vincent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Smallest - none, apart from bar staff Biggest - approx 6000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhysP Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 (edited) Smallest was pretty small - doubt if it made it into double figures. Largest - about 2000. Best one I ever played was an open air gig in front of about 700 people - big stage, great lights (even if a bit of pyro did set my side of the stage alight for a few minutes!), great sound & the crowd going nuts. Great fun. Having said that I don't miss playing live at all, and have absolutely no desire to do so again. Edited September 10, 2011 by RhysP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiamPodmore Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Smallest: 4 (Including bar staff) Largest: Around 180-200 We're a pretty young band, so its harder to get fans to our out of town gigs, as most of them are between say 14/15 and 18. Liam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bass Doc Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 As a dep for an intrumental-only trio - a single audient who stayed for the duration and gave a round of applaud after each number. There was however also a barman and the guitarist's wife 'on the door'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Burrito Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 BigRedX makes a valid point about how up for it the crowd are. Smallest - 3 plus pub staff (twice!) Largest - about 900 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 [quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1368423' date='Sep 10 2011, 11:39 AM']Yep I agree, Ive had some very recent chuff gigs to biggish crowds but they were not there just to see us, I guess thats the thing how many to see you as a band rather than how many were there anyway?[/quote] This was brought home to me in a very forceful way just over 10 years ago when my band at the time played a large Student Union Christmas Party. The event was split over 4 areas in the main college/union building and there was a potential audience of several thousand. We were on the main stage supporting an up and coming signed indie band who were promoting their newly released album. Nice big stage and excellent sound and the opportunity to play to a massive audience. Despite playing really well and giving everything to our performance, our set was met with roaring indifference. As far as the audience were concerned we were an inconvenient interlude to the disco that gave them the opportunity to hopefully get laid that night. The only thing that stopped the evening from being a total disaster IMO was seeing the headlining band fair only marginally better in terms of audience reaction than we did which proved that it was the audience simply weren't interested and not that we were crap as a band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linus27 Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Smallest I would say was about 1 or 2 or at least just the bar staff. The biggest was probably at least 10,000 either at a French festival in Belfort or maybe the main stage at a UK festival. Not sure how many Brixton Academy holds but that was rammed when we played. I do find playing to a smaller crowd of say 500 - 1000 the most enjoyable as you can see the whites of their eyes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 [quote name='BigRedX' post='1368706' date='Sep 10 2011, 04:48 PM']This was brought home to me in a very forceful way just over 10 years ago when my band at the time played a large Student Union Christmas Party. The event was split over 4 areas in the main college/union building and there was a potential audience of several thousand. We were on the main stage supporting an up and coming signed indie band who were promoting their newly released album. Nice big stage and excellent sound and the opportunity to play to a massive audience. Despite playing really well and giving everything to our performance, our set was met with roaring indifference. As far as the audience were concerned we were an inconvenient interlude to the disco that gave them the opportunity to hopefully get laid that night. The only thing that stopped the evening from being a total disaster IMO was seeing the headlining band fair only marginally better in terms of audience reaction than we did which proved that it was the audience simply weren't interested and not that we were crap as a band.[/quote] i was in a band who played support for The Dream Boys - bizzarely enough this was in a bowling alley, and for strippers at a Vetinary college Christmas do. Despite our going for it and putting on a great show, you can imagine how interested the audiences were in seeing a band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northstreet Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Like many of the posters here, I've played the odd pub gig to the bar staff, but the worst one was a wedding where even the bridie and groom (who had booked us after hearing us a previous gig) left the room as we started to play. Think we played most of the evening to the sound man and a couple of old dears who were too doddery/drunk to move. Got paid OK but a very odd evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ead Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Smallest c. 5; largest about 150 or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telebass Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Smallest, probably less than 5, largest, around 5,000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conan Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Smallest - 2 people who left at half time. It was a rather isolated pub (The Beamish Mary for those in the North East) in the middle of winter. It had been snowing all night and when the audience pissed off after the first set we spoke to the manager who agreed that we could pack up and head home so as not to be snowed in! Largest - around 1000 people in the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle. Different band. Power went off half way through the first number. The singer, fortunately, had a brilliant sense of humour and always fancied himself as a bit of a stand-up - so he managed to entertain the crowd (that's a word I don't get to use very often in describing the number of people watching us!) for about ten minutes until the electrical supply was sorted out! A great night in a sadly missed venue... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_skezz Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 (edited) Smallest was about three - we were playing punk on a bill with several metal bands, one whose members had a problem with out guitarist and singer and so badmouthed us to the other bands and punters. Plus most of them were/are stereotypical metalheads who refuse to believe that a song can be good if there's no unlistenable fretw***ery in it ¬¬ Biggest was only about seventy/eighty people - first gig I ever played as well. How gutting that it's only gone down from there Edited September 11, 2011 by the_skezz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 Myself and the guitarist in my band played a regular bar gig where, usually, the audience was pretty meagre. This particular night we played to one person. It was very depressing (even more so than usual). It was even more depressing when he started howling like a dog along to the song we were playing. I got so pissed off I put down my bass went over to where he was howling away put him over my shoulder and threw him out into the street. He brushed himself off and came right back in, sat himself back on his barstool and started howling again. I decided that was probably my cue to pack up my bass and go home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 An audience, what's that? I am a jazz musician. Seriously, though. My lowest is the usual single figures (poorly promoted bands in dodgy venues the same night as England matches etc) and the biggest, if I am right, was an open air event at Stroud House in Oxfordshire. The irony is that the low level audiences were rock and blues bands and the biggest was a jazz septet. That's that myth busted, then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 Back in the day (mid-80s) we drove from Manchester to Stirling to play for 3 people, and Nottingham for 2. The second one was the worst, we were on 10% of the bar. 2 pints of lager = £1.50, we cleared 15p. We made sure we got the friggin 15p, tho. Largest recently was possibly 5-600 in Montrose Town Hall, played a few big clubs years ago when there could have been more, but to be honest I was having too good a time to really notice, or indeed care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lfalex v1.1 Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 Smallest? Probably about half-a-dozen. Biggest? 2.5k People from other bands always used to watch one of the bands I was in rehearse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4-string-thing Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 I seem to remember playing to ourselves one night.... except for a couple of East Europeans who only watched cos they fancied the singer and tried to chat her up as we were packing away! Biggest was the Loughborough Christmas Lights switch on, allegedly 7500. Best was the Vic bikers pub in Coalville, 300 hot, sweaty, fishnet clad, biker-milfs crammed into a pub screaming and groping the band as we played.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 I don't know if it was actually the smallest but we played the Durham International Brass Festival a few years back. A proper, outdoor, festival-sized arena. The hotdog stands at the back must have been half a mile from the stage. And they got front row seats. Seriously, there must have been 30 people there in an area the size of a football stadium. Certainly felt like the smallest audience I've ever done. Largest may have been the Sage or maybe the 02. I'd guess about 1000 maybe. The best are always the stripper bars or the university parties. For the same reasons actually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fender73 Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 (edited) Agree with alot of the comments about the size of the crowd versus how good the crowd were. Smallest probably about 5 or 6 Biggest - Have played live on both Capital Radio and Radio London so however many people listened to those brodcasts. I have mimed in front to 30,000 people at a Live and Loud event at Hampden Park Stadium backing an artist - does that count?? :-) Edited September 13, 2011 by fender73 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fender73 Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 [quote name='Jack' post='1371125' date='Sep 12 2011, 09:32 PM']The best are always the stripper bars or the university parties. For the same reasons actually.[/quote] Quote of the day for me :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lojo Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 the usual bar staff and die hard regulars only gig largest , a little over 2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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