Love For John Illsley

[Chris W]

Repetition is the enemy when recording that's for sure.
But for the most part my experience has been that bands sound better after a few weeks on tour than right at the beginning.

[TJ]

Chris,

I'm straying far from the original topic here, but I recall, and you may be aware, that Chad Cromwell ditched Mark in the middle of the Sailing to Philadelphia tour back in 2001, and Mark had to fill his seat on short notice.  IIRC Guy sent Danny Cummings a recording of some shows and maybe the stuff they sent the band before the tour rehearsals, and Danny had just a few days to get it all down right.  Would this be challenging for someone on your (or Danny's) level, stepping in on short notice in the middle of a tour?

[JF]

Chris,

I'm straying far from the original topic here, but I recall, and you may be aware, that Chad Cromwell ditched Mark in the middle of the Sailing to Philadelphia tour back in 2001, and Mark had to fill his seat on short notice.  IIRC Guy sent Danny Cummings a recording of some shows and maybe the stuff they sent the band before the tour rehearsals, and Danny had just a few days to get it all down right.  Would this be challenging for someone on your (or Danny's) level, stepping in on short notice in the middle of a tour?

no, it was during the Shangri-La tour, in 2005

[TJ]

Chris,

I'm straying far from the original topic here, but I recall, and you may be aware, that Chad Cromwell ditched Mark in the middle of the Sailing to Philadelphia tour back in 2001, and Mark had to fill his seat on short notice.  IIRC Guy sent Danny Cummings a recording of some shows and maybe the stuff they sent the band before the tour rehearsals, and Danny had just a few days to get it all down right.  Would this be challenging for someone on your (or Danny's) level, stepping in on short notice in the middle of a tour?

no, it was during the Shangri-La tour, in 2005

Yes.  Of course.  Thanks for correcting that.

[jbaent]

Actually Danny had plenty of time as he got the tapes of the MK show to rehearse while they were still in Australia, probably a month in advance to learn the show, and before Danny joined them the tour played their last show in Christchurch on March 21st and after the band didn't play again until April 1st in Lisbon, so I'm sure they had time to rehearse together in the mentime and Danny got to that rehearsals with anything well learned during the previous week.

[TJ]

Actually Danny had plenty of time as he got the tapes of the MK show to rehearse while they were still in Australia, probably a month in advance to learn the show, and before Danny joined them the tour played their last show in Christchurch on March 21st and after the band didn't play again until April 1st in Lisbon, so I'm sure they had time to rehearse together in the mentime and Danny got to that rehearsals with anything well learned during the previous week.

I guess I had the story completely wrong.   

Thanks for your answers

[quizzaciously]

On this level of gig you are required to be 90% there on day one of rehearsals. The extra 10% gets worked on before the first show.
And yeah, the band has to sound perfect several rehearsals before the first show. Things go wrong in the heat of battle, so you have to start out being perfect before a single show is played.

And the band get even better after a few shows.

But...

Sometimes the early version of one song had something special that they seem to loose. Beautiful  roughness.

That's why bands nowadays rarely play new songs on stage because it will be filmed and uploaded on YouTube anyway, and treated as the legit setlist piece right away. While it captures the "beautiful roughness", nobody wants to put their mistakes on record forever, I guess. It feels like Mark enjoys more freedom when the event is more likely not to be recorded, experimenting, trying new songs and all. I'm glad the drummerless 2006 Boothbay Harbor gig got recorded for this reason.

[Chris W]

That's why bands nowadays rarely play new songs on stage because it will be filmed and uploaded on YouTube anyway, and treated as the legit setlist piece right away.

Not exactly. You obviously rehearse before the tour.
Both Calling Elvis and On Every Street were 'new' songs at the start of the tour, that went down well with the audience and became popular songs in the 91/92 set list.
One can't escape the fact that if you play a song 150 times, week in week out, it will sound even more polished than the first few times you played it.

[Jimbo]

That's why bands nowadays rarely play new songs on stage because it will be filmed and uploaded on YouTube anyway, and treated as the legit setlist piece right away.

Not exactly. You obviously rehearse before the tour.
Both Calling Elvis and On Every Street were 'new' songs at the start of the tour, that went down well with the audience and became popular songs in the 91/92 set list.
One can't escape the fact that if you play a song 150 times, week in week out, it will sound even more polished than the first few times you played it.

What an honor, Chris Whitten.
Great drummer.
I saw you in Munich and twice in Milan with DS.
Phenomenon.
I remember the solos with Danny on Money for Nothing and Calling Elvis and an infernal rhythm on many songs.
Mythical.

[Knut]

That's why bands nowadays rarely play new songs on stage because it will be filmed and uploaded on YouTube anyway, and treated as the legit setlist piece right away.

Not exactly. You obviously rehearse before the tour.
Both Calling Elvis and On Every Street were 'new' songs at the start of the tour, that went down well with the audience and became popular songs in the 91/92 set list.
One can't escape the fact that if you play a song 150 times, week in week out, it will sound even more polished than the first few times you played it.

How about those times when you rehearse something and they suddenly reappear after being off the setlist for some time?

[Knut]

On this level of gig you are required to be 90% there on day one of rehearsals. The extra 10% gets worked on before the first show.
And yeah, the band has to sound perfect several rehearsals before the first show. Things go wrong in the heat of battle, so you have to start out being perfect before a single show is played.

And the band get even better after a few shows.

But...

Sometimes the early version of one song had something special that they seem to loose. Beautiful  roughness.

That's why bands nowadays rarely play new songs on stage because it will be filmed and uploaded on YouTube anyway, and treated as the legit setlist piece right away. While it captures the "beautiful roughness", nobody wants to put their mistakes on record forever, I guess. It feels like Mark enjoys more freedom when the event is more likely not to be recorded, experimenting, trying new songs and all. I'm glad the drummerless 2006 Boothbay Harbor gig got recorded for this reason.

I know you write "rarely", but for the sake of the argument: if the band has a reputation for doing odd songs now and then and have that "anything can happen" aura to them, nobody cares about mistakes. And it gives them a chance to prove their value as entertainers and display proper showmanship. A fuckup that's turned into comedy is just funny. And I don't think Mark is the wrong guy to pull that off, he does have a good sense of humour AFAIK. Like, the t-shirt incident with the "you're a jerk" reaction.