[Dixielandjazz] free Booze in the USA

[pat ladd]

should not expect to be complimented a meal>>

Ouch!!. The things that you Americans do to my language. You don`t mean 
`given` by any chance?

In the UK it depends on the venue. If you play in a pub then you usually get 
so much cash plus, maybe a couple of pints of beer free. In a hotel for a 
dinner dance you are usually fed.
The quality of the food you get can vary considerably. I remember one New 
Years gig with a slap up sit down dinner. Because it it was at a top class 
hotel my wife and a gang of friends bought tickets and sat down to a really 
superb meal while we played.
The band looked forward to the same sort of meal on the break. What did we 
get?  Dry sandwiches left over from the bar.

I remember the gig well. We had a superb fiddle player who in his early days 
had been a really handsome `matinee idol`. He was considerably older now but 
he could undo the back of a ladies dress with the tip of his bow as she 
danced past.  Mac also liked to wander around the tables playing . On this 
occasion he really overdid it. In the middle of a number he suddenly left 
the stage and drifted off amongst the diners. He moved farther and farther 
away until not only could we not see him, we couldn`t hear him either. We 
looked at each other and just kept playing, round and round, interminably, 
the bloody tune went on and on and on. Eventually Mac worked his way through 
the tables back to the stage while we did some fancy tempo shuffling to 
match his stuff. Then he went off into a solo of his own, from the stage, 
and brought the number, which by this time felt like a full evenings work 
to a glorious finish to extended applause..The bastard.

cheers

Pat