What used to be called 'goals' is now called your "Bucket list."
The closest I came to being a record producer occurred when I was teaching high school. A group of the senior students had formed a musical group to enter a local talent contest.
Some of them knew I had done radio production and had some background in music. They asked me if I would help them get their band together.
Agreed!
At our first rehearsal, I discovered:
– Many of them could read music (while I had only the basics).
– Their musical choices were rather limited: Two guys, both guitarists, wanted to sing material by (Carlos) Santana, who was quite popular at the time, but were not avid followers of other musical styles.
– The gals were into folk music, and wondered how that style would fit in with the Rock material.
– Our excellent bass guitarist was an "import," a young man in his mid-20s who had even completed a hitch in the RCMP!
– We had a rookie drummer, who would need some work on keeping a steady beat, perhaps even using a metronome.
– Although they had never performed in public, they sang and/or played surprisingly well.
We used the standard band gear: two guitars, bass and drums, fronted by two chrome mics (exactly like the one above!) on floor stands. We also had an excellent "go-fer" and two techies.
The rehearsals went surprisingly well. Besides working on repertoire and keeping a steady beat, we could put a lot of stress on presentation.
Examples: One of my pet peeves with many musicians is the time they spend tuning / re-tuning their instruments, often before EACH song!
Since I had this chance (!), I decided to explain that the audience didn't come to hear you tuning; they came to hear you perform. So there was going to be no more than five seconds of tuning!
Another topic was: how you "looked" on stage.
I would stand at the back of the gym during the dress rehearsals, and simply watch, and make sure they looked good.
I remember only a few of the songs:
– We opened with a highly capable version of Santana's '"Evil Ways."
– Two similar story songs, both duets:
"Whiskey on a Sunday" (Irish Rovers), and "Love me love me love" (Frank Mills) which were also well done.
– "Pussy willows, cattails," (Gordon Lightfoot). We had to work hard to boost the volume on the girl's voice! She sang it very well.
–"Those were the days" (Mary Hopkin's signature tune), sung by a tall gal, who appeared in a full-length dress and sang it how it was meant to be done -- as a pub song.
As the show was being whipped into shape, I decided to make another rule: we couldn't make the audience wait, so the time between musical numbers could not exceed 30 seconds!
I warned that my intros could get even shorter.
On the Big Night, the talent show was presented in a much larger venue, the auditorium of the local "Vocational" school, for an audience of about 300.
Bands from all over the county were entered, and while we knew we probably wouldn't take any prizes, we decided to meet everybody and do our best.
I was impressed by the demeanour of our folks -- only slight pangs of nervousness!
The musicians from the other groups were extremely kind to us rookies, even allowing us to use some of their gear, which had already been set up on stage.
Musically, the county's talent was great; we were especially wowed by one of the drummers, who had been a member of the legendary Halifax group, "April Wine."
Thanks, also, to the local morning radio host, for 'vamping' with the audience during our gear difficulties.
Just when we thought our talent show gig had been a 'one-of,' along came an invitation to do a benefit concert for the local Red Cross Society, which would be a lunchtime show in our school gym!.
We leapt at the chance mostly because we had our own people to impress!
We did the same numbers, augmented by a couple, and simply had a marvellous time.
A couple of points stand out:
– When, as M-C, I stepped up to the mic and began the welcome intro, no sound came out (of the speakers).
I was talking into a dead mic.
You don't even think at a time like that, you simply walk over to the other mic and start over ... calmly!
– We had to do all the vocals on one mic, which was unplanned and unrehearsed. It became a little "crowded" when I had to duck in behind the two gals to do the harmony lines on their duet choruses!
The audience enjoyed it, we had a good time and we even raised some funds for the Red Cross.
A great experience ... can cross that one off my "Bucket List."
By the way, the name of the group, as displayed on the beautifully decorated bass drum: "divide by 10."
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