Worst experience at an open mike:-

This actually happened to us at an open mike attached to a folk festival but I won't name any names:-

We went in at the time that the session was supposed to start, but no one was there in charge, but about ten minutes later, another duo came in and about twenty minutes after that the "organiser" came in.

There was himself, us, the other duo, two old ladies who were asleep, someone selling cakes and a bloke setting up the beer barrels for the concert later that night.

The "organiser" shuffled off ( I think this best described his manner of moving)somewhere for another ten minutes, then came back in and asked if anyone wanted to play, so we got up on stage and started and the "organiser" shuffled off again in the middle of our first song.

In the middle of our last song, the fellow behind the bar, who was obviously having a bit of a problem with a barrel, started to bang the said barrel loudly with some kind of blunt object, but at least he woke up one of the old ladies thus increasing our audience.

After we finished (we thought three songs probably enough in the circumstances) the "organiser" was nowhere to be seen, so we suggested to the other duo that they get up and do their spot, and decided we would stay and listen and give them a bit of moral support.

They did four songs and still no "organiser", so we suggested they carry on as we were enjoying it. By the time they'd finished that song the said "organiser" had re-appeared, and one of the duo asked "how many do you want us to do?" to which the reply was "oh, just go on until people get fed up with you." ..and he shuffled off again to unknown destination.

On a serious point though,learning to perform in public and learning to use mike/PA are two different skills, and even though you are permorming in front of "one man and his dog" it still gives you that opportunity to listen to what is coming out and adapt -it can take a long time to learnt to use PA equipment effectively.

We've recently moved and our new local has an "open mike" tonight, so we are going to give it a go!