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Do the big name acts make cock-ups like us mortals?


leschirons
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Over the past 15 years of my touring career I've seen MANY vocalists say "good evening (insert incorrect town / city / COUNTRY!!! here) and even seen them trying to talk to the crowd in the wrong language which is funnier, but at least they're making the effort!

Edited by bluesparky
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[quote name='CHW' timestamp='1456144613' post='2985786']
It is a far better piece of musicianship to drop a howler, but be able to come back in, in time, and on point. [/quote]

Same thing.

I saw a Victor Wooten clinic where he said he made lots of mistakes. Then he said he was working up a set for a Herbie Hancock gig. I asked if Herbie minded him making mistakes. VW said Herbie wasn't bothered by mistakes, but what interested him was how you got out of them.

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[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1455968027' post='2984021']
That seems a bit of an odd thing to spend time doing. I'd rather concentrate on rehearsing the tunes that are likely to go wrong so that they don't.

Effective rehearsing is an art to itself. I've spent too long in bands who will only play the songs from start to finish. A complete waste of rehearsal time. You should be able to pick up a song just before it crashed and rehearse that same few bars several times so that everyone gets it into their muscle memory.
[/quote]
The interview was a good 25+ years ago so my memory isn't great, but I think this was in the context of the band are good to go, but Mr Bowie might get the verses wrong, forget the words, etc. and how o keep the show running smoothly when that happens. After all, with his history of drug abuse it was probably a wise contingency.

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I've seen on YouTube where Muse cock up the start of a song. Chris starts playing one song and Dom plays another, both songs have bass/drum intros so unless you're looking for it, it probably wouldn't have seemed wrong. Funny though.

Another is Green Day's Mike Dirnt playing longview on the bullet in a Bible gig, he is moving up/down the steps and plays a duff note, sounded horrible but kept going. Found that funny too, it's nice to see the pros cocking up too!

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[quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1456179686' post='2986429']

The interview was a good 25+ years ago so my memory isn't great, but I think this was in the context of the band are good to go, but Mr Bowie might get the verses wrong, forget the words, etc. and how o keep the show running smoothly when that happens. After all, with his history of drug abuse it was probably a wise contingency.
[/quote]

Sure. Maybe if you've put a band together just for a tour and they're not used to playing together you might need to discuss a general 'understanding' between everyone. Maybe which tunes you stop and start again and which tunes you just carry on regardless.

However, I suspect there is a huge 'control' factor going on with a lot of the stars.

I played with a bit of an egomaniacal keyboard/singer/songwriter, the amount of micro-managing he did to each song was unreal, and totally unjustified IMO, but then it's his show and he's paying the players. Different strokes etc...

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[quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1456104089' post='2985485']


Any standout mistakes in particular from leeds or IoW?
[/quote]

During the intro riff to Summertime Blues on Leeds, JE hits a massive open E instead of a D. A balls-up but still one I feel obliged to copy whenever we cover it.

Also, in the IOW set, JE's backing vocals are a bit eccentric during I Don't Even Know Myself.

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i saw grandmaster melle mel and the furious five about 35 years ago (think thats what they called themselves, GM flash was no longer part of it). it was at the birmingham odeon in front of around 200 people. at the end they introduced their new single which was a soul record with one of the group singing at a really high pitch, michael jackson like, problem was he was miming and the tape/vinyl record got stuck!!! must have been a vinyl they were miming to? everyone jeered but was sh*te show anyway

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I read once that Miles Davis was asked about playing bum notes. His answer was that he just plays the same bum note again and everyone thinks he meant it first time. He then said if he played it a third time, everyone thought he was a beeping genius!

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[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1456255892' post='2987189']
During the intro riff to Summertime Blues on Leeds, JE hits a massive open E instead of a D. A balls-up but still one I feel obliged to copy whenever we cover it.

Also, in the IOW set, JE's backing vocals are a bit eccentric during I Don't Even Know Myself.
[/quote]

I love his backing vocals in I Dont Even Know Myself, you'd all expect him to do his falsetto, he sings over Roger on it, makes it quite good I think!

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There is a recording of Metallica playing harvester of sorrows from the early nineties where they totally missed a whole section. It was released on a b side to one of the singles.
I saw Judas Priest in 2011 and when they were about to begin the ripper iirc, glens guitar was way out of tune. He stopped the song, waggled his finger a this tech, retuned, and started again.
I've seen barney from napalm death end up either knocked out or on his backside a couple of times, also Seb Bach from skid row at donongton 92 went over on a wet stage. They'll got up and carried on as soon as they were able ;)

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There's a Clapton Live at the NEC video where the cock-up is so big they put a speech bubble over his hear with "Oops" in it.

Everyone makes mistakes. The better the player the fewer mistakes you'll hear but they're always there.

Even classically trained musicians won't get it right every time.

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