My credibility is shot
Hi folks
As you’ve observed, I wasn’t able to follow through on my promise to write about each stop on the mini-tour of Southern Ontario.
There wasn’t enough time. During the last two trips, I wasn’t doing any driving. It was while riding in Rick’s truck or the big SUV that wrote most of the posts.
New Guy
The big question on this trip was whether we could continue to hold to our high standards after losing Carter. He’s a great player and was obviously a huge part of our sound.
I had no doubts about Bill’s talent, but how long would it take for him to fit in?
As I said before, Bill Bell is an A-list musician. He not only brings an obvious respect for the music, but also a pleasing, confident stage presence that the audience appreciates.
The four shows were well attended. Three were sell-outs. The weekend was a spectacular success.
I ran out of steam. Instead of staying at the hotel in Markham on Saturday night, I drove home. There was another bad snowstorm raging (when is this winter going to end?), and I pretty much slid in a crazy luge race down Highway 401 for 100 kilometres.
The idea was to get a good sleep in my own bed and then have a leisurely drive to Fergus for the last of the four shows.
It was a good plan, I guess, but I only ended up getting about an hour of sleep.
So around noon on Sunday, I did a wise thing. I called my wonderful sister Jane and asked her to drive. I knew she wanted to see my new band, but half an hour’s notice isn’t much. It was a long shot, but she said yes!
Other than getting hopelessly lost along the way (my fault, not her’s), causing soundcheck to be delayed by an hour and a half, the rest of the day went fine.
Well, almost fine. I was getting sick. Some kind of respiratory bug kicked in. Even now, three days later, when I try to speak, all that comes out is a high-pitched whistling sound.
The laryngitis didn’t start until after the show, but I was definitely feeling like twenty pounds of shit in a ten-pound bag during both sets. Over the years, I’ve adopted a no excuses philosophy. In the music business, there’s road cred that comes with doing your job well in the face of adversity and not complaining about it.
The Show Must Go On SB 101
The basic idioms for entertainers, part of Show Biz 101, consist of a few pearls of wisdom cast upon a carpet of superstitious nonsense.
Things like “Always leave them wanting more” and “Give the audience what they want, not what you want” are as valuable as they are vague.
However, “Never quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth” is just silly.
In fact, it’s considered bad luck even to say the name of that play in a theatre. If you must reference it, you say “The Scottish play” or simply “The play.”
“Break a leg” is simple irony. The malevolent gods of the theatre were pretty dense if they fell for this. It was thought that these gods would do the opposite of what you wished for.
Don’t promise the moon
Have I learned my lesson? Probably not. Will I promise to do better? Hell no. Wasn’t it a “promise” that got me into trouble in the first place?
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