Two come to mind. About 25 years ago, my old partner and I had a Tuesday night gig in Fitchburg, Mass. The owner wanted to try and make Tuesdays his "Irish" night, and since we were well etablished on the Massachusetts Irish circuit at that time, he hired us. So we arrived 2 hours before showtime, and set up our gear - 2 Shure Vocalmaster half-columns, with the old reliable Vocalmaster head and did a sound check. Then we had a burger and waited for the crowd to show up. The owner neglected to tell us that the local chapter of the Hell's Angels or the Pagans or some such biker group usually had their weekly meetings there on Tuesdays.... Well, I never heard such requests in my life!! First of all, my guitar wouldn't fit there, and if it did, I wouldn't be able to tune it.

Same for my partner's banjo.

After a lot of ugliness, the owner said, "This ain't workin' tonight, boys." So he paid us, and we got the hell outta there, terrified, never to return.

The second was in Alaska in January about 5 years ago. I was booked to do a show in Old Harbor on Kodiak in a Native activities Center. So I arrived off the plane with my little P.A., a few CDs to sell and my guitar and bodhran. I went to the hall to set up my gear, when some of the locals started coming in and asking, "What's going on? This is Bingo night." The booker had neglected to tell the folks that I was coming, and they really didn't want to hear Irish music on Bingo night. The booker showed up, and explained the situation to them and apologized to me for not promoting the concert properly. So with a very ill-grace they consented to let me start my show.

Well, I worked my ass off! Jokes, comedy bits, audience participation, funny songs, stories, and by the end of the first hour I had them. So I said, "I'm going to take a short break now, and come back for the second half in about 15 minutes." They yelled in unison, "Second half?? No!! We gotta play Bingo!"

The guy who booked me came and said, "Seamus, here's your money. You don't have to do the second half." So I broke the gear down, and went to my room across the street to change out of my working duds, and came back and played bingo with them for the rest of the night. I won $200 too, which really pissed them off. First, I took up an hour of their valuable bingo time, then I win $200 of their prize money. But while playing Bingo they were a very amiable, friendly group of folks, and I enjoyed that part of the evening.

All the best.

Seamus