Tailon. wrote:
Now this begs the question how many of you actually go on stage with a backup ?
Thompson, for this show (a one-off show for TV) had one electric and one acoustic guitar with him.
Most of his shows these days are solo and acoustic, and he usually has just one guitar with him on the road.
I have a John Martyn DVD at home. He breaks a string during the show. It gets ridiculous because nobody even seems to have a set of strings handy. It seems like a long time, but it was probably only a couple of minutes before a set is delivered to the stage. Martyn restrings the guitar on stage, talking to the audience as he does so.
It helps to be able to joke one's way through such incidents. Maybe the approch varies depending on the genre and the size of the gig. Martyn-esque antics may not go down in the O2 arena, but then if you're playing there you probably arrived by helicopter and have lots of spares of everything handy. Talking your way through the situation might work better in a smallish environment where you can play the cheeky chappy and have the audience react to that.
