Not alone

[zilboy]

Still not as bad as having to beg your wife over the PA mid gig to bring you your drum key because your bass drum beater launched itself into orbit in the middle of a Who cover.

[Kim]

Everyone now... Book! Book! Book!

Go Jeff!

\m/

[drummike]

[quote="zilboy"]Still not as bad as having to beg your wife over the PA mid gig to bring you your drum key because your bass drum beater launched itself into orbit in the middle of a Who cover. [/quote]

Ha, ha...you gotta keep a drum key in your stickbag.

[GinaSuperCat]

BADASS...that goes for the OP, St Jeff's book, AND all the replies here <grin>

[DirtyMartini]

Right on, Mr. Seitz!


[quote="zilboy"]Still not as bad as having to beg your wife over the PA mid gig to bring you your drum key because your bass drum beater launched itself into orbit in the middle of a Who cover. [/quote]

Haha. At least it wasn't at home.

[kmart]

...and you gotta have a book signing tour so we can have a.....ROAD TRIP!!!!! and meet you in person....you could do a drum clininc and read a few chapters....wow...we get excited before its written, don't we?

Woo Hoo...Ill buy 2 copies "one for readin...the other for just lookin at!"

[jeffseitz]

[quote="drummike"]I guess that old head finally said enough's enough at MSG. Dang, I bet that Imperialstar bass drum had T-rods all the way around making it even more of a pain. Jeff, you earned your money that night: pull snare drum and throne out of the way; disconnect bass drum pedal; loosen and remove 10 T-rods and claws; remove bass drum hoop; remove old head and put new head on; put hoop back on and screw t-rods back into the lugs, etc., etc.[/quote]

drummike, No, the head didn't break from wear. You accurately describe the complex actions that need to take place in order to change a bass drum head without removing it from the setup. With the caveat that it all had to be performed within a very small window of time! As observed in The WHO video, musically they were able to cover it up fairly well as they managed to jam around it and move into quieter moments. They had the ability to modify the arrangement in that particular number plus there was a second bass drum to fill in temporarily. The Police is a different tale. Check it out.

This was the Police's first US arena show and my hometown as well, which meant nerves were on edge as it was. Three or four songs into the set someone from the audience threw a fifth bottle of whiskey at the stage. The bottle hit the snare drum, piercing through BOTH heads with a shattered fragment hitting the bass drum head and splitting it in half! Later on during the show I found a glass chunk with a Jack Daniels label attached!

Due to the degree of physical energy Stewart exerted over the drums I always needed to anticipate any possible drum emergency which meant carrying spares of everything. I always maintained a replacement snare drum on a stand for a quick change out, as well as spare tom heads which could be quickly changed and not missed, for a brief time. But, changing a bass drum head DURING a show? aaaaaahhhhhhhh worst nightmare and believe me there were anxiety laced equipment nightmares often! Still have them! lol

There are a few reasons it would be a nightmare operation to change out the bass drum head with this group. During this era of kit configuration the racks toms were mounted on the bass drum with finely adjusted crash and splash cymbals as well as drum microphones all in tight proximity to the toms. There was also a pickup trigger attached to the bass drum head which was wired to a Tama Sniper unit used for subbass. These two reasons alone made it almost impossible to remove the kick drum quickly without causing a chain reaction of associated stands and instruments that would be disrupted in order to change the head. It was pretty much locked in place. The most nerve wracking and MAIN reason for this nightmare scenario was that during a Police set it would be sacrilege to have a pause or a break in the energy level. The intensity level of all the members of the group resulted in Stewart flailing away at the drums with every once of energy at all times! A song would end and a micro second later you'd hear 1,2,3,4 into the the next one.

I did have help that night from the infamous Charlie Hernandez who, upon witnessing the mishap, jumped in and assisted me. Twenty six years later Charlie was in charge of the entire production of the REUNION TOUR and after not having worked together from that 1981 event until the mega tour of 2007-8, you could say we had come full circle!
The story of what happened during the head change, of what seemed like an eternity in Police time, will have to be continued at a later date.

For me MSG 1981 still ranks as one of the most intense live incidents of any Police tour. With the possible exception of? Tour stories anyone?

[Throb]

Please!
We need a good Dinner Tale!

[smax]

thanks jeff, really interesting.

stories? erm, i threw up onstage at rock garden once. That was unpleasant and entirely my fault.
other ones about touring in germany but most of those i can't talk about for moral reasons and most of them involve paul young and/or prostitutes.

i had to play drums for about 25 minutes at a boney-m gig once (i'm a bass player) the whole thing was a fucking nightmare. some crazy german guy screaming at me 'cos i was not familiar with most of their songs. heh heh.

[jeffseitz]

[quote="smax"]thanks jeff, really interesting.

stories? erm, i threw up onstage at rock garden once. That was unpleasant and entirely my fault.
other ones about touring in germany but most of those i can't talk about for moral reasons and most of them involve paul young and/or prostitutes.

i had to play drums for about 25 minutes at a boney-m gig once (i'm a bass player) the whole thing was a fucking nightmare. some crazy german guy screaming at me 'cos i was not familiar with most of their songs. heh heh.[/quote]

Ha, Good one smax! What I meant by "tour stories anyone?" was: anyone interested in more? But by all means if anyone wants to post their stories that's cool as well.

[Kim]

Yes, more!

[Rusty James]

[quote="jeffseitz"][quote="smax"]thanks jeff, really interesting.

stories? erm, i threw up onstage at rock garden once. That was unpleasant and entirely my fault.
other ones about touring in germany but most of those i can't talk about for moral reasons and most of them involve paul young and/or prostitutes.

i had to play drums for about 25 minutes at a boney-m gig once (i'm a bass player) the whole thing was a fucking nightmare. some crazy german guy screaming at me 'cos i was not familiar with most of their songs. heh heh.[/quote]

Ha, Good one smax! What I meant by "tour stories anyone?" was: anyone interested in more? But by all means if anyone wants to post their stories that's cool as well.[/quote]

Jeff, by all means, spill those beans...look forward to reading more!

(No pun intended there, smax!)

[mairinpgh]

yes, please sir, may we have some more!!!

[sockii]

More, more, more! As if you even have to ask us?

[smax]

D'oh, sorry Jeff. i feel like the idiot at the party who keeps interupting the guy everyone wants to listen to....

Waking up in the morning thinking "Did i really interupt his Cow Palace Hi-Hat story to tell my drunken escapades at the Hope and Anchor? Shiiiiiiiit."

i think i'm so used to reading "Tourzilla" that i missed your point... and definately missed your "with the exception of?" teaser.
so that's a sheepish as-you-were 'yes, of fucking course' for mo' tour/tourzilla stories.