Ah fuck. If he was the owner of the place I dealt with he was a decent fella. Only pub owner in Cork who was willing to take a flyer on putting on the first underage rock gig Cork had had in years. And believe me I wore out shoe leather asking every bar owner, including the obvious rock bars of the day to host it.
Tough businessman, though. Charged me more on the day than we'd agreed, despite him getting all the bar money. The guards turned up as well, so I suppose he deserved extra for dealing with them. Curly haired woman, iirc. Only a few naggins found in the toilet with security doing regular sweeps. He also wanted me to put the audio through his own system but if one of the bands of 16 year olds blew that I'd have been fucked, entire thing would have to be replaced. I wasn't going to fall for that one so instead I put all my savings towards renting a system from Soundtrax. And they didn't even include half the stuff I'd asked for. Fancy acoustic violin DIs and all, and massive acoustic mics and amplifiers and a desk to take them, never mind some beefy tops and bins (still remember the jargon
) Fucked the upholstery in my Mam's car getting to and from, as well, which my Dad give me a clip around the ear about.
I also couldn't afford a sound tech and some 'friends' were demanding cash up front. Still, paid for all the posters, threw fifty quid towards any band that asked, bought multiple demo CDs from anyone that had them, paid the rent on the sound system, the guy on the cash desk, a girl I knew who'd just started a FE course who stood in as a sound tech and a taxi home for her, a few quid extra for security at The Attic, and pints for anyone who stuck around, even bringing a crowd to another gig that night. Got people blotto for a weekend. Was planning on buying a sound system after that, for more gigs and not being tied to any one place. The Attic had agreed to do more (at a higher rate.) Some other crowd moved in though. It was obvious there was a market with about 200 through the doors for some upstart hippy kid with a crappy haircut did all this off their own back. Coca-Cola money behind them and everything, I think. Hiring teenage girls to smile while giving out flyers. They made a bomb off it.
And Dog on Stilts were decent lads. High energy, lots of fun. Bouncing around the stage. They played a gig in Nancys after the gig in The Attic and that was where I brought as many along as I could, firing out pints. Thems were the days, all because a decent head pub owner decided to let a 16 year old with all the experience of a job shredding documents in an office put on the first underage gig Cork had had in yonks. What a fucking town!
