Do you remember your first paying gig ??

[rmyAddison]

Wade's first guitar strap thread got me thinking of "firsts"...

For those who played paying gigs/jobs, do you remember your "first" ??

I do, my first band "Crazyfut" played a Battle of the Bands in South Jersey in the early 70's. We played Poco's "Pickin up the Pieces" and won the contest.

I say paying because we got a $100 gift certificate to a local music store (big bucks at the time), it was also the very first time we played anywhere. And we got to play it again at a Philly radio station, stardom was guaranteed....not !~!~!

Four of us from that band formed on and off together in different bands, part-time when we didn't get famous and all got day jobs. But for about 30 years until I moved to Texas we did bars/colleges/jamborees/charity events/weddings/country clubs/telethons. Some of the best memories...

Your turn............

I just noticed, this is my 19,000th post, I need to shut up

[crikey]

Late '70s, The Yankee Clipper in Rock Island, IL. Great biker bar, lotsa fun. This was the late '70s. We were in a rotation of 4 or 5 bands that played 6 nights/wk. from like 9 PM until 3 AM. Those hours were grueling (most of us had day jobs too) but the money was really good for the time.

There might have been paying gigs before The Clipper (there were certainly party gigs etc.) but I can't remember.

[fitness1]

It was a private party - outside in fall of '77. The bass player from a band we were just putting together and I played acoustic duo style (one 6 and one 12 string) for a couple hours for 100 bucks and free beer!

[Rodger]

1972 ? Winter, so might have been 1973. My first band, Eternitee, played another high school kid's party. We played outside in the garage. About 20 degrees F. My hands were numb. I believe we got $20. Four of us, so $5 each! Felt like a pro.

[rmyAddison]

These posts remind me, the money back then was really good at South Jersey seashore bars. Somers Point was HOT, Tony Marts and Bayshores each had 3 bands, just across the street from each other, and they were packed every night they were open. We got more than I hear Dallas is paying bands now over 40 years later.

Central/North Jersey was even better, but you had to compete with Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Bon Jovi, they'll never make it....

[Rogerblair]

Mine was around 1961. Small theater in my hometown. I had just finished painting my hollow body Gibson white (hey, I was young). I reassembled it and had no knowledge of the word “intonation”, so I placed the wooden bridge where I thought it looked good, and strung er up.
At the gig, I played all 5 chords that I knew at the time, and none of them sounded very good. The guy who secured the gig for us asked, “what was wrong with that white guitar? It sounded like crap.” I stopped playing that guitar.
Not til years later did I realize what the problem was.

Come to think of it, maybe it turned out to be a non-paid gig.

Rb

[L20A]

I was a late bloomer as far as playing in a giging band goes.
My first paying gig was in 1981.
We were a 4 member Folk Band.
Played for County Fairs, City Arts events and Church Parties.

[harpspitfire]

i remember my 1st non paying gig, we were 13 year old kids and had a decent band, a grocery store owner in latrobe hired us for a grand opening parking lot event, when we got done, he didnt pay us, he said we didnt have contract, really, just how ignorant is that? 50 years later i still remember things like this, oh and yea- the band fee was $10 to top it off

[Kerbie]

I think I was about 14 or 15 and I was part of the orchestra for the city theater's performance of, "The Sound of Music." I was a kid surrounded by professional musicians and I kept wondering, "What am I doing here"? But I had a ball, so it ended up being a recurring gig. I was earning about 4 times what my buddies were making and the orchestra got to go to all the cast parties!

[Steve DeRosa]

Early 1966, four kids (three Italian and an Asian Indian who looked like Arthur Lee and sang like John Fogerty) aged 13-15, booked to play the weekly Saturday night teen dance at the black church down the block from the Southwest Brooklyn housing project where we all lived - collected a grand total of $3 each for a full (three 45-minute sets) night's work, upped to $5 and then $10 when we became the house band; learned a little something about being prepared to respond to audience demand, quickly changed our musical focus from Brit-Invasion and American R&R to a healthy helping of Motown/Stax-Volt/Atlantic R&B - still some of my favorite music to this day...

[Methos1979]

Lol - yes I do! Because it was just this past Spring. We'd just started playing regularly at a place doing brunches for tips and we were started to line up some 'real' paying gigs when a friend from work asked us to play her brother's Celebration of Life ceremony.

I was apprehensive since it was a serious affair but we did it and it was wonderful for us and then. And we got paid - well. They ended up doubling what we asked for. Since then it's been a summer of quite a few paying gigs for us so very exciting. Slowing down a little now with the end of summer but still have some lined up.

[PiousDevil]

I'm still trying to forget it. Haunts me to this day.

[Tico]

Overseas back in the 1970s playing disco in a band.

I wish I had kept that cherry $$$$$unburst Les Paul.

During breaks I'd pull out my Guild D55 and solo some James Tayor, John Denver, Beatles, Bread, Cat Stevens and Neil Young.
Those were the days my friend. We thought they'd never end ...

[packmule]

Dublin, 1987 - a lunchtime gig in a pub near Bolton Street College, put on by their ents officer for Fresher's Week. We had to play for 30min or we wouldn't get paid. We were a punk band, played all originals but we didn't have enough songs so we played the first song twice, and also did a Velvet Underground cover ("Rock 'n Roll" I think it was). I think we got £30 and split it between four of us.

[The Bard Rocks]

For a historical celebration. I had to haul everything up 2 flights of narrow stairs. It taught me the value of light weight equipment.