Just wanted to say sorry to all of you that played tonight at the Reds. I really always try my very best to make each and every gig fun for you guys to play at. Tonight I didn't succeed, and I feel I have wasted your evening. I really appreciate people playing at these gigs and I feel I've let you down.
There were quite a few reasons why it didn't work out and I'll be writing these down in preparation for a very necessary debrief with the organisation on Monday. I'll keep you posted on the outcome of this.
The evening actually turned worse once you'd all left, security sent police after me for ignoring their unreasonable instructions (wait 15 minutes before driving to pick up the instruments), and on Park Road I almost killed Paul after he had stepped out of the car and he decided to cross the road in between my car and the trailer just when the lights turned green and I drove off.
Sorry - I do hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend.
8 comments:
Sounds like a pretty dramatic end to the evening, Remko. Is Paul OK?
Actually, I've had worse nights at Suncorp (ie when the ferals in the Roar den abused us).
At least it was fun beforehand on the concourse, and we were getting good responses from the crowd.
And I noticed we got applause as we left the stand, which made me do a double-take!
However, my two cents worth, spending most of the evening playing bang-bang-bang we-are-Reds is about as musically uninspiring as you can possibly get. :) I really liked it when we got to play some samba reggae etc.
Yes and what's more, the crowd made it clear there was way too much we-are-red too! It's on my list of things to discuss!
we-are-red is the most boring chant ever devised in the history of sport. :)
I agree with Patty that playing on the concourse is great fun. We can play the music we want, and the crowd have the choice to stop and enjoy, it or move along out of the way. It is not fun when you know you are pissing someone off who purchased their ticket. Sitting in the stands in the middle of paying patrons is not the place for a Samba band. Every time we stood up there was some shouts of shut up amongst some more subtle groans.
From home and back again it is a 6 hour gig for me. I know this is great revenue for the Samba band but what they want is some guy with a tom tom.
I all honestly, I left Suncorp Stadium never wanting to do another one of these gigs again. It is harsh I know, but it was a very uncomfortable 80 minutes.
Thanks Darren for the honest feedback, and of course I agree. I've now summarised my thoughts on this in preparation for a meeting tomorrow. If anyone has any additions please let me know:
- we were supposed to be in the middle of Charlie's dancers, a friendly crowd. Instead we were sitting right next to people that paid for their tickets and Charlie's crowd was at least 20 meters away from us.
- Charlie's dancers hardly supported up and as a result it was just plain silly
- The infamous 'we-are-red' call was done way too often. Charlie commented on that as well. We get bored, the crowd gets bored, it has the opposite effect of what we try to achieve
- We play on command from the control room. They cannot feel the vibe and make the wrong calls. For example when the crowd finally showed some initiative towards the end we killed it with another 'we-are-red' call (twice!)
- Not playing after a try is just silly, the crowd expects us to celebrate
- The very few times (only 3!) that we could play some rhythms, we got great feedback. But it was only 3 times.
- We're too cramped in there. Besides being too close to patrons, it also takes too long for us to get ready when we get a call to play.
- personally, I'd like to be closer to you guys, very difficult to play away from you.
As Patty says, when we left we got some enthusiastic reactions from people that were sitting further away. But not from those right next to us, understandably!
So as things are I will not agree to play in this format again. So either we will play in a different setting, or we won't play at all. Maybe we just play outside, which I enjoy, you seem to enjoy and the crowd enjoys.
I think it's stupid that we aren't allowed to play when they score a try. That's the point at which we should be going absolutely mental! It's the time when the crowd DOES expect to hear us.
Hi Remko,
Playing outside was great...falls down when we play in the stadium. I agree with Patty, they loved samba raggae! They simply do not appreciate the Reds chant...and I dont think the crowd is receptive to chanting. Reds need to see us as a samba band (entertainment)not crowd noise enablers.
I still enjoyed Sat night...hope it still continues.
Debrief completed, success! Separate post soon on the details!
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