Oh boy........ From the days of The Garden Gnome Ceilidh Band (UK): We were booked for a festival(?) in Newton Abbott, along with The Boys of the Lough and some others. All went well until the end of the evening, the audience had all gone home and we, after having driven down from Derby and done the gig, were understandably somewhat knackered. This interested the person who was supposed to be putting us up not the slightest, all he was interested in was finding out where the person was who he'd entrusted the chops for his sunday lunch to. After about an hour of being totally and completely ignored, we collectively said,"Sod this" and drove all the way back to Derby. Only our roadie/soundman knew how he kept awake and on the road. Then there were the often acoustically dead village halls around Derby where the public would just not get off their arses 'cos they expected something like "Come Dancing" and "Winster Gallop" was off their radar. Then there was the solo gig in Leipzig just after 'The Wall' crumbled. Most of the audience were more interested in celebrating someones birthday.....There was, however, an Irish brickie there,(think "Auf wiedersehen,pet") totally pissed.....he 'stood' swaying about a foot from me demanding that I play The Wild Rover.........And the night before in Zwickau where the front rows were filled with chain smokers all smoking something that made Gitanes smell like Davidoff cigars in comparison. The resulting bronchitis was not amusing. Take the money and run! Don
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