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20 Jul 04 - 08:27 PM (#1230294) Subject: songwriter message board war From: GUEST,guest junkietoo the following appeared on a bands message board today |
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20 Jul 04 - 08:27 PM (#1230297) Subject: RE: songwriter message board war From: GUEST God what an annoying gig. No offence to the organiser (a mate of mine) but basically due to a few pull-outs out with his control the nature of the event was seriously compromised and the audience reduced to a group of locals who didn't necessarily understand the music being made. there were some very nice, welcoming and appreciative members of the audience who made us and everyone else welcome, but there were plenty of drunken idiots there too. they'd been getting progressively colder and more drunk all day and really not receptive. as soon as we arrived we had to go straight onstage (not much fun after a three hour car journey) to do a short preliminary set. I understand that they had to fill the time but we weren't really inspired or in the right headspace to play. a very beautiful version of 'undertow' resulted however... which was greeted with mass indifference. the soundman had had a few too many and kept coming back to the sound-desk to fiddle about with things which I always find annoying, and - as the desk was right next to dunc - he kept stumbling in such a way as to push dunc's mike away from him and seriously compromising his performance. the out-front sound was apparently fine but on the stage it was pretty terrible (though it improved in the second set. by the time we finished the first set I was feeling pretty murderous, and yet worse was to come! our friends Mick's kitchen played very nicely and wisely chose a selection of crowd-pleasers. however, when you know you've got to entertain a crowd whose favourite songs include 'the mountain dew', 'the Irish rover', 'whiskey in the jar' etc you know it's time to pack up and go home. We didn't - we're troopers after all - but I actually felt the need to explain at the start of our set that we didn't do other people's songs and were actually professional songwriters. indeed, this seemed to work as people then weren't expecting other peoples hits and listened to our stuff and we actually went down very well indeed - new stuff and old going down very well - as well as weird stuff like 'house carpenter'. so far so good! Then I made the terrible mistake of introducing 'don't sit on my jimmy shands'. I carefully said that we loved jimmy shand and that this was a tribute to him and his music BUT... an alcoholic, foul-mouthed Scottish pensioner/harridan took offence and thought we were taking the piss out of jimmy! She then proceeded to scream, SCREAM abuse at us. we tried to make light of it, tried to explain that we were jimmy shand fans and even had some of his records but she wasn't listening. it was clear that she intended to ruin the evening for everyone and was obviously well- known locally as being a terror as none of the embarrassed locals dared to try and shut her up. she even came up and danced in my face like marco on big brother! only for a second because i gave her a look of pure poison which sent her back to her seat but redoubled her shouting. eventually i snapped and said something like "well, let's not even f###ing play it" and then we dived into a very good matty groves and walked off. we refused an encore and cut our set short by 30 minutes! ten minutes later we were back on the road. good gigs are wonderful, bad gigs are the worst, especially when you're playing well and the majority of the audience was into it. it seems that either the advertising for the gig was none-existent or that the once-thriving folk scene down there has gone to the dogs. basically i compromised the new hall brothers ground rules to do that gig and we'll NEVER do that again. here they are in their glory; a) NEVER share a bill with a covers band (i mean pub-folk covers bands, i'm happy to play with those that do obscure and interesting covers or pro tribute bands) b) NEVER play in the bars of pubs (the wharfedale in arthington will be my last ever pub gig) c) ONLY play when people have paid to get in d) NEVER do a mate a favour. follow these rules and you'll be ok! yours nick (so pissed off that he missed charlie chuck at the courthouse) hall From: "junkietoo" Date: Tue Jul 20, 2004 5:01 pm Subject: Re: "a waste of time + energy" - a tale of woe well what a precious little git you have become nick - welcome to the real world of being a "professional performer" unfortunately your ability and fame do not allow you to play what you want yet as you still cant even fend off the disgruntled old Scots lady without losing the plot and descending to the level of the mob - get a life do a hundred gigs like that and get used to it or stay in your safe little haven of hand picked friends in your little town where you can be a prawn amongst shrimps. life as a professional singer sucks till you reach the acclaim which will only come after ears on the road learn how to read an audience and give them what they want - alternatively do your own thing and be appreciated some of the time but be ready to be ignored for a greater part of the time as you still need to grow up and the songs you are currently writing are getting more and more juvenile - almost as if you are trying to hang on to the years of your teenage angst and project it back at us in song f**k off, coward! Well Mr, Miss, Ms, Sir / whatever "Junkietoo" Interesting points all, but really if you're too much of a coward to include your name on your message then really I'm just going to ignore your comments and treat them with the contempt you obviously hold for me. You cannot have actually heard my recent songs as - even though the lyrics may contain some measure of angst - they are (in the opinion of many professional songwriters and audience members) quite simply excellent. You might not like the lyrics (and you reckon I care??!!) but melodically they surpass much of what I've done before. Maybe you're a folkie? Is it only ok to sing about damsels in distress or the squire humping the maid? These new songs are attracting the interest of the mainstream music industry so, hey, they can't be that bad. And who are you to tell me what to write about? If you're a songwriter I wouldn't tell you what to write about! F**k off!!! I also get the feeling that you only joined the group to have a pop at me. And you're telling me to get a life? Find a hobby, quick. I have paid my dues doing hundreds of gigs all over the country and some of them have been great fun and some of them have been horrendously difficult. I reserve the right to comment on any of them I see fit. The idea that I'm revelling in being a 'prawn in a sea of shrimps' is total bollocks! I play very few gigs in my own back yard and have been spending 12 months securing myself a place on the London singer- songwriter circuit. Not the actions of a man scared to take risks, in my humble opinion. I reckon you're from Otley, and I reckon you're in a band and I reckon you're just peeved cos I'm doing ok at the moment. I also reckon you're a bit of a pillock! Reveal your true identity in the next 24 hours or you're banned!! Nick (angst-ridden juvenile prat!) Hall From: "nickhallrockperson" Date: Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:15 am Subject: sorry but... sorry but i've just re-read the posting from our new little friend 'junkietoo' and i am actually a bit disturbed by it. this person is obviously incredibly angry with me for some reason. the mad sentence structure would give a psychiatrist a field day! fan turned evil stalker? friend i've managed to annoy without realising? does his wife fancy me? have i seduced his/her daughter/niece? utterly bizarre. it's kind of reminiscent of something that's happened to a mate of mine very recently. he got the police involved. unless this person owns up and reveals their identity i might indeed be tempted to involve the police myself. i've got drunk and posted some stupid stuff on here (and elsewhere) and then regretted it and apologised, but this seems like a very personal attack. let's hope this was a drunken message from somebody who should know better, who'll 'fess up to me in the pub or over the phone soon and it'll all be forgotten about. otherwise, who knows? 'junkietoo' may end up as 'junkiesued'. nick! |
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20 Jul 04 - 08:29 PM (#1230301) Subject: RE: songwriter message board war From: GUEST blicky |
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20 Jul 04 - 09:15 PM (#1230325) Subject: RE: songwriter message board war From: Bill D what has this silliness got to do with the Mudcat forum? |
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20 Jul 04 - 09:44 PM (#1230343) Subject: RE: songwriter message board war From: Amos See, the thing is we don't have enough venom and stupidity and two-bit small-brain backstabbing and putrid petulance here. So our friend upstairs thought we should import some, to show us how real whinging is done. Is it the Pillock Season in the Northern Hemisphere just now? A |
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20 Jul 04 - 10:03 PM (#1230355) Subject: RE: songwriter message board war From: Bill D oh, yeah...sure - I get it now.. |
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20 Jul 04 - 11:48 PM (#1230418) Subject: RE: songwriter message board war From: The Fooles Troupe Maybe it's a parody of the Mudcat Spats?.... :-) |
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21 Jul 04 - 04:41 AM (#1230513) Subject: RE: songwriter message board war From: erinmaidin "Interesting points all, but really if you're too much of a coward to include your name on your message then really I'm just going to ignore your comments and treat them with the contempt you obviously hold for me."!!!!!! And then poor Nick proceeds to write not one but two letters defending his position?! What ever happened to grace and dignity? |
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22 Jul 04 - 02:04 AM (#1231145) Subject: RE: songwriter message board war From: Stephen L. Rich That's show-biz! |