[Dixielandjazz] Political Gigs - as weird gigs

Kurt bowermastergroup at qwest.net
Wed Dec 17 14:53:50 PST 2003


I just remembered another bizarre political gig.

My band was hired to play the primary election results party for the
Republicans in a downtown hotel ballroom.  It was when Gary Hart (Democrat)
thought he had a chance, even after he got caught in compromising photos
with a woman not his wife.

Everyone in the ballroom was gathered around the various TV sets located
throughout the room.  One of the campaign workers started flipping channels
to find campaign coverage other than the station they were watching.  In the
process, he accidentally switched to the hotel's dirty movie channel.  For
about five seconds there was an image of a naked couple on the screen.

Someone in the crowd shouted, "Hey look.  It's Gary Hart's campaign
headquarters".  That got a big laugh.

-----Original Message-----
From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com]On Behalf Of david
richoux
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 2:42 PM
To: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Political Gigs - as wierd gigs


I have played at two memorable political gigs (I have done a lot of
them but most were just boring)

The first was for an election night party for an incumbent state
Senator - he was also a snare drummer in our local community band but
rarely made the gigs. He asked the band to show up and play some of our
standard tunes while the results came in. When we got to the
sing-a-long version of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" the first
significant results were posted.

One...Two...Three Strikes, Your Out!   and he was.

The party was a lot quieter after that.

The other was a whistle stop performance for the John Anderson
presidential campaign. He had an old-fashion rail car with a rear
platform and he made a quick stop in Palo Alto. I was asked earlier to
round up a 3 or 4 piece band to play as he arrived and left. I got a
trumpet, bass drum, banjo and me on helicon tuba - we fit right in with
the old style flavor and we played a few peppy political songs. Just as
the train was pulling away somebody stuck a small cue-card in
Anderson's face and he read: "I would like to thank the Dennis
Richardson Brass Band..." and they were gone.

Dave Richoux


On Dec 17, 2003, at 12:21 PM, Stephen Barbone wrote:

> Played for Nelson Rockefeller's party at his election to the
> Governorship of New York Sate 50 odd years ago. As he signed the banjo
> player's banjo head he was talking to us about the average working man
> in the state. Said he, trying to connect with us average folks:  "Take
> your average worker, you know, guys like you making about $100,000,". .
> . WHAT?
>
> Rats, I thought, I just voted for this man, and he doesn't have a clue.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>


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