A Different Generation

I know that I am well past the first flush of youth, yet I can remember being young quite well. I remember joining my first band after I had been playing guitar for about 6 months; I remember playing my first gig at a local youth club and being overwhelmed by how good the band we were supporting were. I remember how poorly I played back then and how pathetic my equipment was, and how I used to travel to my first few gigs on the bus with my little amp and my bass. However I also remember that from day one I always wanted to sound as good as I possibly could, given the constraints of my meagre talent and even more meagre gear. I used to polish my guitars to make them look good and they were always well-maintained with clean strings, neatly trimmed at the end; also I always maintained the electrics etc. and made sure that my leads were in good working order etc.

I say all this because I recently did the live sound for a young local band and was appalled by their attitude to these kind of things. They were playing their first ever pub gig - a step up from playing for their mates at youth clubs etc. and you would have thought that they would want to make a good impression and step up to the mark. No chance! I had to not only bring the PA system down and set it up but also to make an extra trip to go and collect their amps and guitars because apparently their parents were away/working/couldn't be bothered - who knows? At least the drummer had brought his kit down the previous day, so that was one less thing to worry about eh? You've guessed it - no such luck. As time for soundcheck grew ever nearer the rest of the band were desperately texting him to ask him to come and set his drums up! He did eventually stroll in. The guitarist had a borrowed guitar because apparently both of his guitars are broken. I found him tuning the strings by ear and asked him where his tuner was. He replied that he didn't have one. I took one of mine out of my bag and gave it to him, insisting that if I was to have any chance of making them sound good they would as a very minimum have to tune their instruments. He then said, and I quote, "How do you use one of these things?" Yes, I know, I should have just packed up and gone home there and then! Instead I drew a deep breath and went to sort out the bass player. He had turned up to play in this quite large pub with what I can only describe as a glorified practise amp. It may have been loud enough to play in his bedroom but no one in the audience that night would have heard anything from it. Therefore, as the parents of the guitarist are good friends of mine (which is how I got roped into this sorry affair in the first place) and as it as only 200 yards from my house, I took pity on him and went home to get my expensive concert bass rig to lend to him. As I set it up he proceeded to take his quite nice bass guitar from the cheap, unpadded guitar bag in which he had brought it. Yes, that's right - not only a cheap and nasty bag which is only any good for keeping the rain off but one designed for a lead guitar. That meant that the top 6 or 7 inches of his bass stuck out from the top and was completely unprotected! He then proceeded to top this by pulling out his one and only guitar lead (I travel with at least 2 spare leads of every kind just in case). My jaw dropped. The lead was the extremely cheap and lowest-of-the-low quality one that comes free with a budget guitar from Argos or somewhere, with moulded plugs and is worth about 50p. Needless to say, I lent him an expensive lead too, along with a mains lead, for he had forgotten to bring one for his amp. I also had to lend them extension leads to enable them to plug their amps in as they didn't have any!

So we eventually got set up and soundchecked, even though there were now only 10 minutes to go until the time a band would normally start their first set. As you may have guessed, the word "normal" was not going to be applicable to much to do with this gig. The band didn't actually start playing until 40 minutes later than most bands start because they had strolled off to one of their houses after soundchecking and didn't stroll back until much later. They then proceeded to drive out most of the regulars with their noisy punk music, which eventually resulted in them not getting paid. And do you think they learned anything at all from all of this? No - neither do I. You see they are of a different generation to me. Everything comes easy to them. They want a guitar - no problem. Mummy & Daddy will get them one, and not just any guitar - they will get a really good one. They don't have to make do like we had to; they start off with really good equipment, get sent to guitar/drum lessons; can learn how to play any song they want from the Internet. And look at the end result - lazy, unprofessional spoilt kids who are going to have a huge shock one day when they encounter the real world.

Bah humbug - hear endeth the rant of a grumpy old man!