Entertainment For Lively Minds
Anyone else asked a band to play a specific song pre-gig and get it into the set?
Many moons ago, myself and my pal Scouse Dave where loitering around the backstage entrance of the Newport Centre, awaiting the arrival of Echo & The Bunnymen (or rather Will and Ian as even Les has buggered off by this tour).
To cut a long story short, Will Sergeant was travelling by train alone for the UK Tour and so arrived an hour before the gig.
After striking up a conversation with Scouse Dave on all thinks scouse related, we casually asked if they were playing Seven Seas that night.
Will said no but he'd be more than happy to accommodate us by putting it in the set.
Lo and behold, several pints and several ''new songs off the new album'' later, they launched into ''Seven Seas''!!!!
Anyone else asked a band to play a specific song pre-gig and get it into the set?
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REM requested it of their fans...
...for their tour in c2002. I went to Brix Acad and had requested two off Life's Rich Pageant (These Days, a staple, and I Believe, which was quite rare in their live set), they played them both, I like to think for me....
Crowdies
Crowded House, Message to My Girl, Birmingham Town Hall
Martin Stephenson
at a P.A. I asked the ex-Daintee to play Slow Loving in his set that night for my wife as it was the song we danced to on our wedding night. Got home, found out my wife didn't actually feel like going out that night, fought desperately to get her to go promising it would be worthwhile.
He played it (a rarity at the time, I think) with a dedication along the lines of'the person who this is for knows who it's for'. A Gentleman of the highest order.
Top bloke
Had a few beers with Martin Stephenson in Edinburgh on New Year's Day a decade or so ago. We were both mightily hungover but he was a top bloke nevertheless.
I saw
Paul Burch in Hull one night and the following night in Newcastle. He'd not played 'Living Up To The Man You See In Me' in Hull, so I asked him and he played it. I felt it was just for me.
A friend of mine used to
A friend of mine used to follow indie band The Family Cat around in the mid 90's, and saw them dozens of times. At a gig they were playing on her 21st birthday they let her write the entire setlist.
That rings a very vague bell
What was her name? (I was the Family Cat's roadie).
At the time she would have
At the time she would have been called Julie Cornish, and was from Milton Keynes - I think she saw the Cat 101 times before they split up!
Blimey
I remember Julie very well. Say Hi! from me, tell her Fred is my upstairs neighbour, and that I was at Kev's wedding a couple of months ago.
I've done better than that...
...I've emailed her a link to this thread!
Clive Gregson
was playing at a local folk club. After his first set he was chatting to the audience and I asked him about 'Touch & Go', one of my favorites. He said that he'd play it during the second set, and did so.
For the encore he came down off stage and sat at one of the pub tables, played three or four songs without amplification, lighting, etc, etc.
Fab. Top bloke.
He's a nice man, that Clive Gregson.
He did the same for me with "This Tender Trap".
Stacey Kent
Not quite the same thing but three or four years ago Stacey Kent asked for requests via her website so my wife emailed one in. During the concert she namechecked us and aopologised that they couldn't play the song because it wasn't one they ever did live.
About two months later she emailed my wife to say that as a result of her request they had started rehearsing it and had now added it to the set, which I thought was a nice touch.
Neil Finn
I was at a Neil finn gig at The Borderline. He asked the crowd to shout for songs. I waited for the right moment and shouted for Catherine Wheels, he turned to Johnny Marr and said "Do you know it, if not don't worry it's easy" and then started playing it. This bloke behind tapped me on the shoulder and said "good choice".
A very proud moment indeed.