Great story, Herb. Nothing makes me happier than an underdog story. Personally I just LOVE taking people down a rung. Even more when I can knock them off the ladder completely.

Our Motown band, Cruisin', was once booked on a double card with a competitor of ours, The Boulevard, calling it "Cruisin' the Boulevard." The owner booked that on a Sunday night that was THEIR rotating Sunday, and we were already salty about that. We sat down for a meeting and I had a list of condition for us to do it. I didn't want to do it because I didn't want to help him draw people on the standing gig night for a lesser band.

On the list was this.

They do 50 minutes. No more, no less. We do 90, and we will do 90 non-stop with no break.
I will give you a set list. They CANNOT do any song we will be doing.
Whatever you pay that 8 piece band for their 50 minutes, you pay our 5 piece band 1/2 again more than what you pay them. If they get $400 for their short set, we get $600 for our longer set. (They get $50 each, we get $100 each.)
You want a "both band jam" at the end of the night. I decline to participate in that. I refuse to play with the second team. I am a starter.

He initially balked, and I said "Then we don't do your show." I then explained that they were our competitor, and they were giving places lower prices than what we commanded, claiming "We play a lot of the same music", and I was not about to help them draw fans that are supposed to follow US around town from bar to bar.

So they did their show, there was a 20 minute break, then we came out and hit the crowd with Pick Up The Pieces, (because we had 2 sax players). After that we broke into a 35 minutes Motown medley that started with Temps, moved to Tops and ended with some Isley Brothers. Then a little Stevie Wonder which started with a bass solo during which I snuck off stage and changed from the casual tux garb to parachute pants, a vest with no shirt, an apple cap and a Cadillac hubcap on a piece of lamp chain as my gangsta medallion. The character was called Heavy E, one more than Heavy D, and my initial. I introduced the band doing the Cruisin' Rap, then went back off and changed as the guitar player did his solo, and came back to do Superstition. The end of the show was a 3 song Marvin Gaye medley that continued to reference the outro of "What's Goin' On" as we changed songs, ending with Sexual Healing. We blew that band right out of the building, and I was rarely happier than I was as we relaxed in the dressing room. So our leader asked if I would PLEASE do the 45 minute set with both bands, and I agreed but only on sax. We took his tenor and my alto up and joined their tenor (who was and still is VERY good) and their trumpet player and we ripped some TOP with them and some usual Motown stuff like Knock On Wood. When that was done we went back to our dressing room to change into "loadout" clothes that weren't soaked and 2 of them came over to our room and said "Man, you guys are REALLY good." They never really heard us because they were working when we were working. So we settled who the kings of the Motown party were that Sunday night. Our wedding business grew by about 40%, and they broke up within a year from that show.

Just like YOU cleaned their clocks! Great feeling, ain't it???

Last edited by eddie1261; 06/25/21 11:18 AM.