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.