Originally Posted By: tommyad
So instead of being bummed about the loss we were pumped about the gig.


Isn't serendipity great!!! This i snot a horror story. 180 opposite.

The Motown band I was in traveled from Cleveland to West Palm Beach to play at a rib cookoff in April of 1993. For SOME reason that defies ALL logic, they booked a rib burnoff on Easter weekend, Thursday through Saturday, with a rib vendors only party Wednesday night before the festival opened. West Palm Beach is populated by old people who have retired, many of them Jewish, many of them Catholic. Jews don't eat pork at all, Catholics were at the tail end of Lent, and in those years the practice was to not eat meat all all during Lent. That aside, the common thread of serendipity starts here. Right next to the Holiday Inn where we were staying was a shopping center with a bar. Now for some reason, all these years later, I remember that we were playing at John Prince Park, and that bar was called Racers. The singer and I went into that bar Wednesday night and saw that there was a guy named Paul Ferguson doing a MIDI based solo kind of gig. He played keys, guitar, bass and sang, and the software did the rest, much like the BIAB crowd does now. We struck up a conversation with him and joined him for a few songs. Just for the heck of it, we pulled out Gladys Knight's "Neither One Of Us". He put his bass on, I played keys, and our singer sang. Paul tapped in a drum pattern in just a few seconds, and the three of us KILLED the song. After a few more, our singer and leader was talking to the bar owner. We invited him to come to the party Wednesday, and he did. After hearing a set, he pulled the two of us aside, and in that 10 minute conversation he fired his band for that weekend, agreed to rent us a PA system, and hired us in for Friday and Saturday. So we played the burnoff, moved our gear to his bar, moved back to the burnoff, and then back to his bar. A very good country band from up here went with us, and both nights they came up and down to join us as we winged songs for 2 solid nights. A ribber came up and played harp, and was great. A ribbers wife came up and sang and we wouldn't let her off stage! SO our 5 piece band got our burnoff money and $450 each night for those 2 nights in the bar. AND with all the people coming up and down, only playing 75% of our show! It was the first time any of us ever played Achey Breaky Heart! :GRIN:

AND it was a week of vacation in Florida for us.

However, the horror stories far outnumber weeks like that!!