There was one time when we were booked to perform at a large pub in Whitley Bay, and for some reason, we arrived there quite late. That was honestly, very unusual for us.
We had lots of equipment that we used on stage and it obviously took a while for the roadies to carry the equipment from the van, and set it up.
We left this to the roadies as they were good at it. Invariably, we would just get in the way if we tried to help them.
Unfortunately, this guy who was in charge of the pub, couldn’t see the logic in us just leaving the roadies to get on with it and he started making all sorts of threats about calling off the gig if we didn’t begin on time.
Of course, that was the worst thing he could have said because after that, we became even more determined to leave it all to the roadies. Needless to say, we didn’t get the gear set up on time and he called the gig off.
The place was in uproar because there was numerous fans there who had travelled quite some distance to see us play and they did not take kindly to this “gentleman”, effectively pulling the plug. We left him to deal with the audience revolt and we also left the roadies to dismantle the gear and put it all back into the van.
We decided that the ‘gentleman’ in question needed to be made aware of what we thought of him, and so he was. For some reason, we never got asked back to that venue.