"Sex and drugs and rock and roll, that's all my brain and body need" So wrote Ian Dury famously. These days, it's more a pint of shandy for me before we go onstage. As for the sex aspect, it has been a very long time since luscious ladies would throw themselves at me after gigs, which is probably just as well as my wife would batter me with a rolling pin if she saw me indulging in such shenanigans. In recent years, I've noticed how few bands actaully have a beer before or whilst they are playing. The ubiquitous bottle of water has replaced the pint as the go to vocal lubrication. I watch so many young bands up on stage, who really don't seem to be enjoying the experience. It is a real shame. Maybe there is a clue to the lack of commercial success The False Dots had in our long, illustrious carerer in the fact that we lived life to the full. I can remember playing at The Watling Festival in Montrose Park on 3rd Septemer 1984. I was on anti-biotics at the time. It was the 39th gig of our career and it was the first one I'd ever done when I was completely sober. It was a strange experience for me. I realised that I'd never paid much attention to the audience before and they are quite distracting. I guess that when you've had acouple of beers, you have to concentrate a bit harder on what you are playing. Being sober means you notice people enter and leave the crowd. You notice people at the burger van and you notice people going to and returning from the loo.
That is not to say that after a couple of beers you don't, but I found I always get wrapped up a bit more in the dynamics of the music. After that, I spent years believing that being sober was detrimental to musical performance. That is not to say I've ever performed when I've been completely wasted, but a pint or two before the gig has never seemed to me to be an issue and if anything, it makes the whole thing a bit more fun.
In recent years, as a couple of the band drive, it is a rare thing for us to drink at rehearsals. Getting a few beers in used to be an integral part of the whole rehearsal. Now it is a rare thing. Last week as Tom came on the bus, he brought a few beers. We only had a can each as we played and one after as we had a chat, but it was most pleasant. Of course, as you can imagine, we have had drunken disasters. In 1984, Paul Hircombe was drunk and knocked a beer over his bass amp which blew up and nearly electricuted him at the Bald Faced Stag in Burnt Oak. Chris Potts, our then keyboard player, also splilled a beer on his keyboard and destroyed it. It was brand new and HP. Perhaps the biggest drunken crisis was when our original lead singer never showed up for our first gig. He claimed he'd got pissed and decided to stay in the pub. I doubt I'll ever know the real story, but that was his excuse. Sadly it was the end of our friendship.
There are some great young bands around, there is some amazing music being made at the moment. I've seen some of the best gigs for decades this year, but it does seem to me that far too many musicians are taking themselves a tad too seriously and forgetting to enjoy the fleeting moments of fun that we call gigs Maybe The False Dots and myself are just dinosaurs, who managed to outrun the meteor that has decimated most of what is good in the music scene. Although there are many downsides to being 63 I am so pleased that I lived in a very liberated age for music and musicians when our band was starting. I see so many younger musicians stressing about gigs and when the slightest thing goes wrong getting flustered and angry. A bum note or a dropped beat and the band give each other a skunk eye. It was not and will never be like that in The False Dots. It is all about putting on a show and having a craic. For me a good gig is one that both myself and the audenice thoroughly enjoyed. Each to there own. I am not criticising musicians who are what may be construed as a tad more professional than us. But I do wonder how many of todays musicians will look back on their gigging career and think "That was an absolute blast"?
If you want to join in the next chapter, please come along to The Dublin Castle on Sunday at 2pm It will be a blast.
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