JTUK Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 The thing is that a complete balls-up should be so out of character and unusial for the band that you'll stop the song..take the pee out of what happended and launch back in and proceed faultlessly to the end. If you aren't confident of doing this...what on earth is the song doing there in the first place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 (edited) [quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1366367484' post='2051489'] If you make a pigs bollock of the 1st 10 seconds, by all means, call a halt and start again... [/quote] IMO if you make it to the end of the first bar then you should press on to the end. Edited April 19, 2013 by BigRedX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Stopping is the mark of the hobbyist. Every professional knows to cut right back to the drums and let the singer improvise some free-form Jazz poetry. Once the 'issue' is sorted out, everyone else roars back in like a band of mercenaries overrunning an undefended village during the Thirty Years War. [i](Tip - boggle those eyes, people!)[/i] The audience will be suitably impressed. Just don't do it more than two or three times per gig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 One thing I've never understood is ploughing on when one of the band has an obvious tuning issue. If you're only a few bars in - stop the band, tune up and start again. No damage done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 The only time we've ever stopped a song was when I once started a song in the wrong key. Singer pulled me up, I had the mick royally (and rightly) extracted out of me, then we started again. Audience laughed, no harm done to anything apart from my pride No way in mid song though, carry on. A mistake is such a fleeting moment in time, even if it is noticed it will be quickly forgotten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 [quote name='chaypup' timestamp='1366367394' post='2051482'] ....The only 'thing going wrong' that should necessitate the band stopping a song and starting again is a band member dying.... [/quote] +1 .... or being hit by a tidal wave, the stage burning down or the power going off. Sorry guys the punters will only notice if you tell them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigman Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 [quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1366375971' post='2051740'] Sorry guys the punters will only notice if you tell them. [/quote] what is so wrong with punters noticing? As i posted earlier I can think of 2 times in the last x years that we have pulled ourselves up and decided to start again. What caused these I'm a bit hazy on....but that does not matter. All this talk of plough on whatever is bollocks. The punters have paid to hear your songs played live, if you screw them up then it's courteous to unscrew them and give the punters what they paid for. To plough on regardless is an insult to your paying punters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 [quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1366377087' post='2051764'] The punters have paid to hear your songs played live, if you screw them up then it's courteous to unscrew them and give the punters what they paid for. To plough on regardless is an insult to your paying punters. [/quote] Yip - especially if someone is painfully out of tune. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockfordStone Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 normally bands im in make a rule to plough on regardless, normally one or two of us a correct enough (usually the rhythm section) to allow the others to catch up. we did it once in front of a few hundred people, but we ploughed on and managed to pull it back after a few bars and stormed the rest of the song. luckily ive never been in a situation where it has been a total car crash and hard to start again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charic Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Carry on! At a gig in one song, our drums cut out (we use programmed drums), guitar cut out (there's only one) and when it did come back on his looper didn't work and we STILL carried on. When the drums came back I was still in time so I was happy. Punters seemed none the wiser too (probably helped that they didn't know the songs). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigman Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 (edited) [quote name='RockfordStone' timestamp='1366377285' post='2051771'] luckily ive never been in a situation where it has been a total car crash and hard to start again [/quote] That is actually a far far far easier situation to deal with than everyone trying to improv back together after a mid song pile up. make light of it - get a laugh out of the crowd - then blitz it second time around. It makes you seem human to the punters and bridges that 'gap' that sometimes exists twixt band and punter.....and gives the punters a 'special I was there when,...moment' Edited April 19, 2013 by Twigman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Vader Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 [quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1366377274' post='2051770'] Yip - especially if someone is painfully out of tune. [/quote] Never done the mid-song tweak like Mr hendrix then? It really dos depend on the situation and the scale of the cock up. Twigman's band are playing their original material to devoted fans who know the songs inside out, so yeah, if you get it spectacularly wrong, they will not like it. They will also probably appreciate the chance to get to hear more of it if you play it again. Much the same as most of the gigs I see WOT getting. Those of us playing new stuff to people who have never heard it before, it is less of an issue, the punters would probably rather you get through the tune with the minimum of dicking about, in order to not look like fussy primadonnas. Same goes for the pub cover band/function band, punters are not bothered about a little cock up here and there. Mostly they are too pissed to notice. If you are stopping the song cos of a couple of bum notes, or a slight loss of rhythm that can be resolved within a bar or two, you're doing it wrong. Some people can rewire a buggered pedal board in 2 bars and come straight back in (same with dropped sticks and snapped strings) some can't. If you can then all well and good, and if you can't, then it's the sort of problem that audience's will let you stop for a bit for. I've done gigs where we haven't stopped after my amp started smoking and went pop (yanked the lead out, stuck it in the desk and carried on playing) and others where the singist has forgotten a verse and made everyone stop. Also, very painfully did a gig a few years ago where the guitar player came in in completely the wrong key, and stuck at it for a whole verse and chorus while trying to blame it on me. Nobody tried to stop it, I wish I had (by battering him with my bass). Horses f&%k horses... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1366374462' post='2051699'] IMO if you make it to the end of the first bar then you should press on to the end. [/quote] I do agree unless its a key change balls up that can't be hidden or a guitar so far out of tune its painful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Keep on, whatever. The only downside ([i]and it's a biggy[/i]...) is that you will collectively and forever be known as a 'jazz' band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinyd Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 We started a song once and the singer was singing pretty much at double-speed so she was on to the chorus when the rest of us were still halfway though the verse. I still get a headache when I think about it now but I asked several people in the audience if they noticed and not one of them did. Which either means we're so incredibly professional that even our mistakes sound good, or (somewhat more likely) that all our stuff sounds shambolic and a bit sh*t anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr zed Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Keep on playing. If it is a big obvious cock-up that the audience couldn't fail to notice, then at the end of the song, announce that that was the Jazz version of (insert song name here)! Usually gets a laugh from both band and audience alike and helps break the ice! Alternatively, look at the drummer and point whilst shaking your head (irrespective of who's fault it was). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyfisher Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 I'm surprised about the number of people suggesting it's OK to stop mid-song. During rehearsals, yes, but during a gig I used to think it was a no-brainer to carry on and recover as best you can. Seems I was wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 [quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1366399415' post='2052206'] I'm surprised about the number of people suggesting it's OK to stop mid-song. During rehearsals, yes, but during a gig I used to think it was a no-brainer to carry on and recover as best you can. Seems I was wrong. [/quote] If something is drastically wrong then you'll find out within a bar or two..and that is the time to make light of a 'technical problem' and start it again. Context is everything...and you need to balls to carry it off, IMO..some can, some can't Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 [quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1366399415' post='2052206'] I'm surprised about the number of people suggesting it's OK to stop mid-song. During rehearsals, yes, but during a gig I used to think it was a no-brainer to carry on and recover as best you can. Seems I was wrong. [/quote] Ooh never mid song! False start with a light hearted blame the drummer for starting in the wrong key joke at 1 in 10 gigs is live music, stopping mid song is a car crash! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benthos Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 [quote name='jezzaboy' timestamp='1366367462' post='2051488'] Naw, you have to keep going and try and get it back together. And once the song if finished, have a laugh about it [/quote] Absolutely agree on both points. It's in my nature to get unnecessarily tetchy about mistakes but its important not to let that show to an audience. They don't pay us to get prissy about mistakes they probably didn't hear so its best in my opinion to keep smiling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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