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[Jim McKeveny]

It is heresy, but let us break the "bartenders code" and dish about infamously bad days by talent.

Things like Liza insisting on smoking backstage/onstage/anywhere, and with the Fire Marshall onsite. Or how she has told more than one Stage Manager of a 2500 seater, 5 minutes to curtain that she "Just... can't... do... it!"

Or Art Garfunkel, with his rider proviso that no member of the crew is permitted to make eye contact with him.

We can even keep it in the audio range: At soundcheck for a post-Grammy show at the NY Hilton, a member of NRBQ complained that " The lights are so bright I can't hear myself playing!" ...

Stuff like this...

[Jason Raboin]

Or Art Garfunkel, with his rider proviso that no member of the crew is permitted to make eye contact with him.

I am a good friend with one of Art's tour managers.  That doesn't even scratch the surface.  He started to record their phone conversations.  Hopefully it will be released some day.

That's it for me.  I'm not dishing dirt on anyone I've worked with. 

[jabney (john abney)]

...At soundcheck for a post-Grammy show at the NY Hilton, a member of NRBQ complained that " The lights are so bright I can't hear myself playing!" ...

One sense being so overwhelmed that another sense is impaired? Sure. Some brains process senses differently than do others.

In fact the phenomenon is somewhat common. For example, flashing lights and bright lights are tools said to be used in 'enhanced interrogation' because they serve to disorient the subject. And the disorientation desired by the interrogators probably doesn't have anything to do with the subject's sense of sight.

best,

john

[Chris Hindle]

It is heresy, but let us break the "bartenders code" and dish about infamously bad days by talent.

Lets' not.
It's one thing to be trading "war stories" around a pitcher after an "event", but it is quite something else to be doing it out in the open, where if you happen to offend someone (quite likely, don't you think ? ) it can never get taken back.
Once it is "on the web", it is public. With the search engines both now, and in the future, how you gonna get hired once you have a rep for dishing on your employers ?

Sure, I've seen some freaky shit in 30 years of this game, but I can still get a fresh gig.
Do the job your hired to do, contribute to the artist if you can, move on if you can't.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

One sense being so overwhelmed that another sense is impaired? Sure. Some brains process senses differently than do others.

In fact the phenomenon is somewhat common. For example, flashing lights and bright lights are tools said to be used in 'enhanced interrogation' because they serve to disorient the subject. And the disorientation desired by the interrogators probably doesn't have anything to do with the subject's sense of sight.

best,

john

I remember the guitar player who would have debilitating flashbacks if the LD used any red gels.

[Tim McCulloch]

I remember the guitar player who would have debilitating flashbacks if the LD used any red gels.

I remember a casino owner who had a serious aversion to reds, orange and amber.  His family owned the Beverly Hills Supper Club....  "Can you get some more pink up there?"  "We have every shade of pink Rosco makes."  "Find more."

[Jim McKeveny]

Sweet bassist @ soundcheck: "Alls I hear is Andy's voice screaming in me wedge"!

Me: "Uh, there is no Andy in your wedge".

Bassist: "Can I have less Andy in Andy's wedge"?

Me: "Why don't we ask Andy"?

Andy is onstage about 8 feet from bassist.

[kristianjohnsen]

Granted, whenever I have the chance to work with "A-level" artists it's in the club world, but sadly I have to report that in my experience about 75% of all primadonna behavior, unnecessary snarkyness, downward attitude and condacention has been exhibited by the artist's techs, not the artists 

[Jim McKeveny]

I have a more journalistic view: These are true stories about curious or boundary behavior displayed in front of strangers. I do not live in fear of reprisal.... The proliferation of security equipment and cellphone cameras means that no-one's "private" post-show hotel bar conversation is secure.

We all look and sound silly at times. These aren't "war stories". My dad landed on Omaha beach in support of D-day. He had war stories, (though he never shared). What we all share are "we-are-all-human" stories.... 

[Scott Helmke]

We all look and sound silly at times. These aren't "war stories". They are "we-are-all-human" stories....

The most attractive photo I ever saw of Paris Hilton showed her completely freaking out at some party or club.  I found it attractive because she actually did look human in that photo. 

[ProSoundWeb Community]