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crikey - what's the worst day gig you've had?


jimbyjoe

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as i've normally worked 9-5 in most of my jobs, enjoyed the weekend off and then played at church on sunday, having to work today (sunday) threw me a bit. i've just started working in a carpark. after being full-time unemployed for about 3 months this is the first interview i got. so it's not the best job but there are bills to pay. and when i'm touring the world soon, i'll look back and think about how necessary these pathetic jobs were....

 

as for the "crikey" element of the topic - being at home for once on a sunday night i happened to see steve irwin (croc hunter) on tv. he was picking up spitting cobras and getting intimate with monitor lizards. i agree with all of you's who said he's kewl - i never had a chance to watch him.

 

....so now we get to the real topic of this thread (to make me realise there's worse things out there to do):

 

"what's the worst day gig (job) you've ever had as a struggling musician???" :(

 

please let us all know. this should be good.

pray for peace,

k.

"Consider how much coffee you're drinking - it's probably not enough."
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Easy one. Mine was definitely doing telephone surveys/solicitations when I was a teenager. I friggin' HATED that job.

 

I remember trying to get through to doctors to pitch them on the merits of this new dopey prescription drug . Doctors REALLY enjoy being cold-called at their office when they're seeing patients. It's even more fun to try and get past their receptionists to talk to them... :eek:

 

But the worst one was certainly the bit where we had to call people to ask them questions for AARP (American Association of Retired People), and way too much of the time, the person that I would be calling was...shall we say...no longer living. What a pleasant experience it was asking their widow/widower if their deceased spouse was home. :rolleyes:

 

I think I lasted two weeks...

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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One of my duties while working at a coal company was cleaning toilets. Some people are pigs. The rest of the job was not bad, except for breathing coal dust, and hazardous fumes from chemicals, and standing next to a river trying to thaw a frozen pump when it was 10 degrees below Fahrenheit. There was also the time I pulled a blown fuse out of a 3 phase 440 volt switch box. When the sparks flew I realized that the cut off switch on the fuse box was broken. At least the pay was good. It financed my first major keyboard setup.

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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<>

 

You know its funny Dave, I pictured you as the type(no offense) who could sell a crutch to a crippled crab!! I would think phone sales would be a like taking candy from a baby for you....

 

Funny how we can sometimes get the wrong impression of someone.

TROLL . . . ish.
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Before starting doing music for my supper, I worked at a gas station (he he... maybe that's where I got the G.A.S. bug :D ).

It was quite funny, actually... I was 15, and I used the money to finance the purchase of my first synth.

When I went to London at 18, I waited at tables and worked in kitchens for a while... That wasn't bad either. One of those jobs was at Ronnie Scott's jazz club, so I heard great music while working!

Now that I think about it, I've had *music* jobs that were much worse! But I guess that's another thread... :)

 

Carlo

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a couple years ago i worked at A&W flipping burgers to finance my bass rig

 

the floors in the kitchen are soaked with grease, one day i ran to the fryer to shut of the beeper. i sliped and fell into the bottom of the fryer, thought damn, hurt my leg..

next thing i know the grease is coming over the top of the fryer and dousing me in burning fry-smelling death

 

I HATED that place

 

i dont eat fast food anymore either :)

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I've never had anything too bad except for the low pay and bad hours of my restaurant years (during college). Every job can teach you something, if you have the right attitude. I was just darned happy to have ANY job in those days.
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Worst job I ever had...

 

Parking attendant/security at a beach

under City of LA Rec. and Parks.

 

The job paid pretty well for what it was...

but the work sucked.

 

You got to sit in a little hot

parking booth all day with no AC.

 

Our shifts started at 4:30am for

the drunk fishermen.

 

I had to put up with the drunk fishermen

at 5:00am.

 

You got to count the new bullet

holes in the booth at 5:00am.

 

We had to drive 10 min away for

decent restrooms... you DID NOT

want to use the ones at the beach!

 

When the lot filled up, then

the fun REALLY began....

1. You had to turn away VERY angry

people

 

2. You had to turn away VERY angry

rich bastards with large, fancy racing

boats who tried to then run you over

to get past your cones. (We had

a few employees hit by irate drivers...

I barely got out of the way once...).

 

3. You had to turn away angry gang

members who would pull knives and

guns out at you. (We all carried

radios with panic buttons... one

push and you had 15 black and whites

in 2 min.).

 

4. You had to try to control fist fights

over parking spaces. (Yes, people DO

fight over such a little thing as

a parking space.)

 

5. On busy days, you got to help

the emergency crews in and out with

the nasty/bloody boating accidents.

 

As Dan said.. you can learn something

from every job you've had... I worked

there for 2 years. I learned that the

IQ of the average American is

VERY low and therefore, the main reason

why bands like NSYNC can be popular... along

with court TV shows. I learned to be a though

Bitch that works well under pressure and

I learned to deal with "maco" guys who

never wanted to show me any respect.

 

Aaah... yes.... I'm SO glad

I never have to go there again!

 

Valky :D

 

[ 11-21-2001: Message edited by: valkyriesound ]

Valkyrie Sound:

http://www.vsoundinc.com

Now at TSUTAYA USA:

http://www.tsutayausa.com

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valky,

 

i too work in a government owned carpark, but i have aircon in my booth :)

plus private toilets (sorry, restrooms)

and a CARPARK FULL sign, and if they didn't like it well security will come down (i find mainly bmw drivers think they're gonna get in when it's full)

plus i do get to read whilst it's quiet.

 

i too agree with dan about learning from all your jobs.

good work dan.

pray for peace,

k

"Consider how much coffee you're drinking - it's probably not enough."
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During my early college years I had a succession of not so great jobs while trying to play music too. The top three were:

 

A warehouse worker at Toys R Us. I always hated to see Christmas coming. One year I was taking a full load of classes, had a couple of high profile gigs coming up (at least high profile for us), finals and got called up for jury duty on a murder trial all within the span of a month. Seesh! Christmas Break never looked so good.

 

The second was as a temporary worker during the summer. I got called to work as a dishwasher, load produce trucks, work in a warehouse (again) and a mover all in one summer. All while trying to play music and take a few classes.

 

The absolute worst was as a security guard in a nursing home in a rough part of the city (Detroit). It wasn't so much the work but the treatment of the elderly. All while taking classes and playing music on the weekends. Man, was I ever glad to get enough credits to finally get a co-op job.

 

Picked up a lot of life experience and people skills along the way though.

RobT

 

Famous Musical Quotes: "I would rather play Chiquita Banana and have my swimming pool than play Bach and starve" - Xavier Cugat

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I've had a number of odd jobs in the past, most of them bring back very fond memories. Except for one particular, I don't regret taking any of them, even if some where boring and tedious at the time. Still, most experiences are what hopefully makes you develop into a mature & responsible human being with high ethics and morale for work and life... And even if never will get there 100%, I promise you all that I'm still working on it :)

 

However, there is this one experience that almost sucked the life out of me. It happened in 1988. I was hired as sound engineer + tour manager by a little but very devoted company. Had done a couple of tours for them when I get asked to do a longer medium-budget European tour with an american grammy-winning act (a fabulous live act, all shows where great or better). Most gigs should be at festivals and larger clubs so we did not have to bring any sound system. I was asked to provide some of the backline (that I hired from a shop I had used a lot in the past), I also hired a tour bus from a band I knew very well (they weren't gigging this summer). At the start of the tour all gigs was not booked - especially on the last leg, but management assured me that all empty spots would be filled.

 

As a tour manager I should pay the band every week. All worked out just fine for the first couple of weeks but some dates was still not booked, we stayed on hold for a couple of days and was then asked to do some major hauling all over europe. In one week we traveled almost as much as we had done in the first 3 1/2 weeks!, and the pay from those gigs hardly covered gas & food not to mention ferry trips and it was getting very difficult to pay the band on time.

 

Anyways, as the tour reached it's end and we had set up a meeting with the 2 owners of the company they don't show up! All they left was a note saying "sorry, we fucked up. Please forgive us". There I was, with a band that considered me being the representative of a company that owed them A LOT of money, an expensive backline hired by me, a tour bus hired by me... what could I do? There was a guitar amplifier at the office that I took with me that day.

 

I almost lost faith in mankind that afternoon.

 

Thankfully I had become very good friend with the band so they didn't kill me on the spot, we tried to work out some common strategy to nail those bastards and get what they owed us. Of course, we never got any more money. Still those coward dickheads had the nerve to ask me for all reciepts and books from the tour (I gave them a financial report, but not the recipts & books), they kept pestering me for years but still wouldn't give me or the band a nickel!

 

The "stolen" guitar amp I gave to the shop where I had rented the backline and explained the situation to them. They believed me and was generous to let the whole thing go.

 

The tour bus was returned to the band that "owned" it, but because funds where missing I could not pay them either. What a mess. They also believed me and joined the club, I really tried hard to solve this whole situation as good as I could. At this moment I was not very financially solvent myself either (of course, the local rock club that I had with some friends was also bleeding to death because of some other unlucky decision, but thats another story. But had I only got payed for the tour, the club would have survived, probably).

 

Is that all? No, the tour bus got reposessed by the leasing company... causing major financial disaster for that other band also!

 

 

Based on my prior experience with "those guys", everything should turn out good in the end. But it didn't and this whole chain of events still makes me very sad.

 

What could I have done differently? A lot probably. Would that have made me feel better? Maybe not, what actually happened is all I know for sure.

 

After the above events, I was a different person... broke, feeling raped by people I had trusted for years. They fucked up, but had they only faced their own mistakes we all would have felt so much better. A chain of events I wish never had happened to me & my friends.

 

Not a good experience, it took me years to leave it behind.

 

 

/Mats

 

[ 11-21-2001: Message edited by: mats.olsson@rockfile.se ]

http://www.lexam.net/peter/carnut/man.gif

What do we want? Procrastination!

When do we want it? Later!

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Originally posted by jimbyjoe:

valky,

 

i too work in a government owned carpark, but i have aircon in my booth :)

plus private toilets (sorry, restrooms)

 

Well, well... living high aren't we? :)

 

and a CARPARK FULL sign, and if they didn't like it well security will come down (i find mainly bmw drivers think they're gonna get in when it's full)

[/QB]

 

Yeah... its ALWAYS the rich bastards who think

they're above everyone else when it comes to parking! :rolleyes:

They're also the first group of people

who will say "I'm gonna call your supervisor

if you don't let me in! (While waving their

cell phones in my face...)".

Then, I say "Sure here's his name and number...

go ahead and call him PLEASE! He'll give

me a raise!".

 

My boss loved me... He got more

irate calls about me than anyone

else. He said I was the biggest parking

bitch he'd ever known.... :D

I was so proud!

 

Valky

Valkyrie Sound:

http://www.vsoundinc.com

Now at TSUTAYA USA:

http://www.tsutayausa.com

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