Shambles At Scarborough

[fenderdan]

Hi all

I've never had a rant or rave on this forum, but I feel I should share with you my experience of visiting the Scarborough Gala on Saturday.

After a 3 hour plus drive, we arrived at the Rugby Club (which I must say is a good venue), only to find that the organisers did not have a CD player, and therefore anyone who wanted to play anything with a backing CD (that wasn't the usual stuff) couldn't! They use Mini Discs, and they do have many of the commercial backings on mini disc, but I wanted to play "Eye Of The Tiger", to which the backing track was produced by my good friend Tony Kiek in Australia, and "Smooth Operator", to which I have produced the backing track myself. Therefore, these backing tracks are not available on Mini Disc.

I didn't get to play anything on lead guitar- I didn't want to be greedy, I just wanted to play those 2 numbers. I find it incredible that at a big gala weekend like that they didn't have a humble CD player. I know there were other people who were going to play tracks from backing CDs, as the organisers do not have these tracks on mini disc.

As I couldn't play the tracks I wanted, I put my name down to play live "Wipeout" amd "Albatross", but this never happened either! The only thing I got to play was bass on 2 numbers, because my friend Dave Willcox went, so I played bass with him on "Apache With Reservations" and "The Breeze and I". If Dave hadn't have gone, then I probably wouldn't have got to play anything!

I personally tried to get hold of a CD or DVD player, and eventually got hold of a DVD player from the rugby club, and they even found me the cable so it could be connected to the PA. I'm not being nasty, but it seemed like the guys running the sound desk didn't really know what they were doing. Eventually the DVD player was connected and a backing CD came out of the PA, but they couldn't figure out how to send it to the monitors. All they needed to do was to find the monitor send for that input channel and turn it up!

At that point, I was told they were not going to bother sorting it out as Ian McCutheons band were about to go on. This was about 4.30pm, and at this point there was supposed to be another backing/live section, but that mysteriosuly vanished, and Ian's band were put on instead. Now this is not a personal attack on Ian McCutheon, but why do certain people like Ian always get to play feature length sets??? I know he produces backing CDs, but other people travel long distances and pay good money to get into these events. This weekend has cost a lot of money for petrol, food, drinks a B&B for night etc! Why is Ian always treated like some sort of God? It's the same at the Bristol day- he always got a longer spot at that event! I think it's wrong and evryone should be treated equally!

They said they would try to get a CD player for the Sunday, but by that point on Saturday afternoon I didn't feel like playing, as I was really gutted and crestfallen about not being able to play on the Saturday. Also, they didn't need to get a CD player, as the DVD player would have worked fine, they just needed to sort it out through the monitors! Was it really asking too much to play just 2 lead numbers on the Saturday? Would this kind of treatment been given to Daniel Martin or Justin and his band- I don't think so!

Another smack in the teeth for me was that I turned down a gig to go to the event. It was a major dissapointment, especially as earlier in the week I had rung Ian Harper and personally spoke to him about the event- he sounded very positive and there was no mention of mini discs being required.

I think that the organisers need to decide what they are trying to achieve with this Scarborough event, as there are too many tribute bands on, and the same people playing time and time again. I think it should either be a weekend of watching tribute bands, or a U Play weekend like the Bristol day. It seemed like the day was self indulgence for certain people.

No offence to Ian Harper, as I'm sure he is a nice person, but his band played for 30 minutes, and that's quite long when you've got paying customers who have travelled a long way and paid to get in. If I were running the day, then I would have made sure that everyone who had paid would have played their lead numbers before I played myself. I think perhaps the day should have been a little longer, and then Ian's band could have done a feature set for the last hour, similar to how the lads at Bristol end the day.

I can't believe they didn't have a CD player, because what does everyone sell at these events- backing CDs- not backing Mini Discs. All in all it was a huge dissapointment, the organisers didn't really help me!

I feel sorry for my dad, as he made the effort to drive all the way, spend money on fuel, food, B&B etc.

I'm sorry, but I shall not go to this event again; like with a lot of stuff in the Shadows community, it's all too "clicky", and I would not recommend you to go to this event if you have never been before.

[dave robinson]

So let me get this right . . . . you turned down a paid gig to PAY TO PLAY?

[Telegraphroad]

Dave.
We had booked and paid for the B&B a few hours before the gig came in , Dan thought it would be good to support the event.
How wrong could he be.
Regards.
Ken.

[dave robinson]

OK Ken, I now understand.
I haven't been there since 2003, quite a few folks have had similar experiences as Dan's over the last few years, maybe they will tell you about it - though I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Telegraphroad]

Dave.
I am sure you will agree that we do want is to encourage our young players, at this rate we will have no one in the future to fly the shads banner once we have gone.
Ken.

[petercreasey]

They are not 'Clicky ' Dan...... they are a "Family"

We were " unable " to go this year and I will not be making the trip to Scarborough again either

[hoffers]

My line of business is Bed & Breakfast so I've missed the last few Scarborough Galas, however, I was there on Sunday and the welcome I got was warm and genuine, as always.
It's a pity about the CD player and I appreciate the disappointment felt, but in my opinion 'clicky' it's not and my welcome on Sunday proved that.

Hoffers

[JohnBassist]

I have to agree with Hoffers above - I am certainly not part of any "Click" at Scarborough (or anywhere for that matter) and the only "family" connection I have with the Scarborough crowd is my love of Shadows music and I got plenty of that over the weekend including, but not restricted to, the incredible Alan Jones and the excellent reformed Legend..
As per last year I was, once again, made to feel very welcome, it was great meeting up with old friends - and making some new ones - and, yes it was a pity that Dan was unable to play what he wanted but perhaps he should realise that sometimes things don't always work out exactly how you plan them.
I'm really looking forward to next year if it is on - and thank you to all at Scarborough.
From a "non-Clicky" bassist in Scotland.

John

[old romantic]

Hello
I have never replied to a comment or got into an argument before but I feel it is the time to put things into perspective.
Yes Dan did appear at the gala with a CD. However in all the 14 years we have been running the gala we have never had anyone appear with a CD. We have every number on backing tracks available and our Sunday session had 3 and a half hours playing time for visitors. Because of the tight timing on Saturday we offered Dan plenty of time on Sunday with it being a weekend affair and not wanting to disappoint him.
Having booked the fish restaurant for Dan and his family I offered to put all his tracks onto mini discs for Sunday as well as providing a CD player and asked him to give me his CD at the restaurant that evening.
On Sunday morning as they did not turn up at the restaurant I drove to the hotel at 8.30 I thought they had booked into to offer to record his music. Had they arrived at the Sunday session as they had said they were going to be there.they would have seen the time allocated to Dan which can be confirmed by the many guests at the venue.
We have always given plenty of time to our guests and treated everyone with repect and friendship which is why they return each year.
I expected this comment judging by their manner and many others did too but had the family returned on the Sunday then perhaps they would have seen our members in a different light and not been so quick to judge. We are not clicky we just have a large group of friends who return every year as many will vouch for.
We too have two daughters and have in the past when they were young taken them to many meetings where they had to wait their turn but we did not make comments about the way we were treated we accepted that things would turn out in the end.
Thanks to all who came and made it a lovely weekend and I apologise now for replying but I had to give my opinion too.
Linda Harper

[martcaster]

So, shambles, was it? I was lucky enough to attend both days and saw nothing but friendly faces (apart from a couple at the back of the room who sneered when I walked by and said "Hello"......wonder who that was?). Yes, it's "family" . It's a family that's held together by a love of the greatest guitar instrumental music in the world and everyone's invited and made welcome in this little (non exclusive!) family. Previous family members have included Bruce, Jet, Licorice & Alan and they have all (without exception) joined in and got up and played alongside our regular club members. And this past weekend was no different. We have a full repertoire of backing tracks from every source and anyone is welcome to get up and strut their stuff to any of these and/or play live with other members of the club or guests. Where else could you go and play virtually any Shads tune you could nominate and have Alan Jones play bass for you? O.K. the gentleman was disappointed that his preferred medium was not available on the day; but every effort was made to accomodate him and, seemingly, he chose not to avail himself of that generosity. But to publicly rant in this fashion is not only offensive to the organisers (I'm not one of them, I'm just damned grateful that somebody puts themselves out to allow me to play my favourite music with my friends) but it shows the gentleman in a very poor light. The event was organised so that the maximum number of people who wanted to strut their stuff were able to; it wasn't organised with one man in mind. In other words, sir, you are not the centre of the universe. If you choose to be, you are one of, what Bruce calls, The Family. If you choose to remain apart from that entity and only contribute negatively from outside, then you will always feel "out of it". But that's your choice. The rest of us are having a great time meeting new friends from all over the world, either personally or via this forum and getting together and playing the music we all love. If that's a shambles then give me shambolic every time. Roll on Shadowmania, bring on Tyneside, can't wait for next time at Scarborough. See you there? Hope so!
Love to all, as usual,
Mart.