Myles Roland Bartholomew / Shipton / The Divorcée

Name: Myles Roland Bartholomew

Bands: Shipton (facebook.com/collectmyyears)
The Divorcée (facebook.com/TheDivorcee)

Where: ?

I can safely say that I have played my share of awful shows for awful promoters, so I've had a long hard think about a story that is interesting enough to share with you, and this one seems to keep climbing to the top of the list... 

It was the Sunday of a warm Summer’s day, the perfect night for my whiny, acoustic widdlings. I made my way to the venue early, something I always try to do, "the early bird gets the worm" and all that. 

Dan Vuksanovich / Six To Midnight

Name: Dan Vuksanovich

Band: Six To Midnight (sixtomidnightrock.com)

Where: Chicago

ED: Although I've previously had a story from the US of A by a UK band touring over the pond, this is the first time WPE has featured a band from the States. Six to Midnight are a Chicago-based cover band and this story was submitted by their guitarist Dan, who also runs a guitarist troubleshooting & advice website called Why I Suck At Guitar. Enjoy.

We showed up one Friday night at a local venue where we play regularly and usually do very well with the crowds.

On this particular night though, the venue was conducting some sort of experiment, and had both a band and a DJ. We’ve played at other venues that have had both before, but the way it usually works is that the band plays from 9pm until midnight or 10pm until 1am, and then the DJ takes over after that.

Simon. J. Sky / Rash Decision

Name: Simon. J. Sky

Band: Rash Decision (facebook.com/rashdecision)

Where: Staines

We were doing a short week-long burst around the country and we decided to bash out two gigs in one day, starting off with a set in Bristol in the middle of the day as part of an all dayer. We played to nobody... but this is not the bad part.

We then packed up our gear and drove all the way to Staines of all places. Many an Ali G joke was cracked as we made our way to the smallest venue in the known universe. We had high spirits for this show as it was sponsored by a well known Metal magazine, giving us the impression that things would be taken care off. What followed is one of the most harrowing experiences in all of my time playing music.

Daniel Callis / Housefires

Name: Daniel Callis

Band: Housefires (wearehousefires.co.uk)

Where: A town in Hampshire

ED: So, as finally promised, yours truly who runs WPE is submitting his own story. I'm actually leaving Housefires this month to pursue other things in life, so I thought I best get it up now so you people can check them out and (hopefully) support them beyond my departure.

DISCLAIMER: I’ve been in bands since I was 17 (I’m 25 now). In that time I have got more and more hectic in the live setting, to the point where I’m starting to worry how many years of cuts, bruises, aches and pains I have left in me. I seem to have a reputation for being a bit mental/fucking idiotic live (this isn’t me blowing my own horn, I get told this a lot by others). Yes, there’s been a few dropped microphones, PAs climbed and bars jumped on/off but that comes with the music I play. However, I’m also composed enough to know what I’m doing and be aware of my surroundings. Out of the 100s of shows I’ve played throughout the years I’ve only broken one microphone and ripped one XLR lead in half. My point is that I’ve never intentionally acted like a dick or aimed to break things or upset people, put it that way. Some venues are cool and “get it” I suppose you could say, other venues panic at the idea of a band even daring to step off the curbed floor they call a “stage”. It’s always been that way and I'm used to it.

I suppose you’re wondering why I started with a diclaimer now, aren’t you? Don’t worry, I’ll explain later…

Nathan James Campfield / Breathe In The Silence

Name: Nathan James Campfield

Band: Breathe In The Silence (facebook.com/breatheinthesilence)

Where: Swansea

ED: I did a bit of research before posting this (Nathan told me the name of the "promotions" company) and realised these same people tried to book a date on my soon-to-be-former band's November tour. Luckily they were mega slack and by the time they got back to us to confirm the date (a week before the tour started and about 6 weeks since they'd said they'd put the show on) we'd been offered a decent support slot in Milton Keynes instead. Funny how things work out.

Basically, there was a gig in a Swansea city centre venue. A half dayer event with a good headliner and pretty sick bands throughout. On the promoter's part looking at it on paper, not bad. My band were also on the bill, and we were pretty stoked for it.

We knew beforehand these promoters owed our friend's band money from a previous show, but in this industry you sometimes bite your tongue and have to take what you can get. That same night, the venue also failed to receive the £100 hire fee that the promoter was supposed to pay, but they were let off under the condition that when they book again they have to pay upfront. 

Selwyn Jans / Mash Attack / S.J. Creative

Name: Selwyn Jans

Band: Mash Attack (mashattack.co.uk)

Management: S.J. Creative (sjcreative.co.uk)

Where: ?

Hey, I'm in a band called Mash Attack and having read some of these blogs of people's horror stories it just gave me a flashback of a festival we once TRIED to play.

To set the scene, the festival itself was a slightly more intimate crowd of maybe 1,500 people in total over two stages.

The main stage was awesome. There was a hill where people could watch and dance comfortably with a bar, food, yadda yadda yadda. 

The other stage though… Oh god. The other stage was in a barn, but don't judge it yet because we've played in some pretty nice barns. This one however turned out to be the barn from hell!

Gavin Miller / Ghosting Season

Name: Gavin Miller

Band: Ghosting Season (facebook.com/ghostingseason)

Where: Rostock, Germany.

When it comes to gigs, we've had our fair share of dodged bullets over the years: the time we nearly played for a Ska Punk-loving Nazi sympathizer, or the time we narrowly avoided playing Swindon on Boxing Day, or perhaps that time we walked out of an empty show in Sheffield after the promoter pushed back our set from 10pm to nearly 3am.

However, we've also done more than our fair share of utterly horrendous gigs: the one for the promoter who got sectioned, the one in front of one person (the support band's Mum, incidentally) in Milton Keynes, or the one in Oxford on May Day, in which no-one turned up and we didn't get paid or even a goodbye from the promoter.