Length of set without a break

[acerod]

Talking of travellers one of them told me his son had just bought a guitar. When I asked what make it was the reply was;
'' A big red one. Like Elvis's''.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

One of the things Gordon taught me was self defense with a leg from your steel guitar....... seems they are almost as efective as an AK 47

[acerod]

The bar makes a nice neat dent in the forehead too.

[Ken Byng]

Nice story Ken. It reminds me of playing a traveler wedding years ago.Our band leader couldn't remember the name of the hotel in which the wedding was to be held. It turned out not to be a problem as all we had to do was drive around the town to the various hotels. The hotel with the hundreds of Hi-Ace vans parked outside was where our wedding was. We played for a very long time that day and sure enough an extension period was negotiated for a substantial fee.

Paul
We didn't have loads of Hi-Aces outside of our venue, which was part of the large car park of the Ponderosa in Hampshire in the late 70's. However, there were a load of horses with traps in the car park and many many flat beds. I remember that I quoted a grand to do the gig (which was a big fee in the 70's for a 4 piece) because the rest of the guys in the band were not over keen to do it. The bride's father didn't flinch and paid it in advance as arranged. He also put £3k behind the bar, and he had to top that up at one point. They brought several buckets of jellied eels into the venue, and had more pairs of braces on show than I could count.

The fights in the car park afterwards were pre-arranged with referees and the like, and if one person was taking a bad beating the fight was stopped. It was all bare knuckle stuff, and I was told that this was all traditional over a few hundred years or so to determine the title of King Of The Gypsies. There are a few gigs that stand out in the memory for me, and that was one of them.

Interesting to hear the preferred choice of weapons for you guys. I have found that a steel bar in a sock to be effective over the years if a fight breaks out. Fellow Southampton steel player Dave Nash holds the world record of 30 seconds for putting his guitar completely away in its case when a scrap broke out in the pub he was playing in!

I bet all of us have funny stories that we can recount from our playing days. I could write a book.

[STEDDIE EDDIE]

yeah two hour sets straight through are the norm here now, for both dances and lounge bar gigs, about 36 songs, i have done a good few traveller weddings over the years both in England and Ireland, and we have never had any trouble with money, they tend to be a proud people, and would not bring shame on themselves, in front of friends and family, by being seen not to pay, its a question of honour, and as already mentioned by others, often pay extra money for an extra hour or so, re weaponry, my favourite memory was back in Manchester, it was going off good style between half a dozen punters, and it was spreading very close to the stage area, one of the band, Gordon, lifted his Fender stratocaster, by the neck, and swung it catching this guy with a clean hit round the jaw, ending that guys involvement in the fracas, after that gig , the guitar in question was forever more re named as the 'Fender Twatocaster' Happy Days

[Paul Brennan]

Wasn't Curly Chalker arrested at some point because he used his steel guitar leg to clout a particularly annoying punter on the head?

Eddie, I remember a gig in the Ard Rí, Manchester back in the 90's when the owner of the place showed us all the nooks and crannies where he had stashed batons. These were strategically placed around the venue so that he or the security staff could lay their hands on a big, police style baton in a hurry in case of trouble. That place had a terrible reputation although I never saw any trouble there.

[STEDDIE EDDIE]

Happy days, the Ardri closed its doors some 10 or 12 years ago, i played there must be well over a hundred times over many years, it was the venue i saw the much hyped about steel player with the T R Dallas band, many years ago, that steel player was a guy called Basil Henriques, the owner was Tommy Mc Kenna, and most of his bar and door staff stayed with him over twenty years, he really looked after all his staff and all the visiting bands, the local bands were personal friends of all the doormen, and they really looked after us, in my case too much, there was this young girl who was giving me the eye, but i was playing really cool, hard to get, and after a while she stood right in front of me, pulled up her tee shirt, exposing two perfectly formed mammary glands, sadly, Johnny clarke the doorman, grabbed her round the neck and threw her out, i never forgave him, trouble was always swiftly dealt with, and i was always relaxed when playing there, how else do you think i got to my age, and kept my good looks????/ some legendary stories came out of that place, i was very sad to see it close down, rumour was that gangsters were trying to move in looking for 'protection money' and Tommy wouldnt have any of it, .......allegedly !