One of those AAARGGGHHH moments!

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Hi all,

When I first bought my Mackies a few years back, it was right at the start of the Christmas season. I was really looking forward to using them...you know, that feeling of going out with something new which gives you that new enthusiasm for the job which has been spoken about on the forum recently....
I remember the second time I used them. It was a Christmas party at the hotel residency and I was fuming by the end of it because would you believe it, a 'lady' (some hope!) was dancing to a track near the set up when she suddenly fell backwards due to the alcohol consumption. She missed the set up but fell into a speaker stand. Nothing fell down but she knocked the speaker back up against the wall and for at least an hour I had intermittent sound coming from it.
It didn't seem like much of a knock at the time and I was surprised it had mullered the unit..

So.... you can imagine my face yesterday morning when I was transporting the Mackies on my little set of wheels and one of the wheels hit a stone chip resulting in a jolt and one of the units falling in what seemed like slow motion on to the concrete. It was in its cover so there were no marks whatsoever on it but I was obviously worried that it could once again be mullered.
Didn't have time to test it yesterday but have done this morning for around an hour at low and (very) high volume and everything appears to be fine.
I do have back up but I had visions of having to send the unit back when I have a busy weekend coming up.... it was an AAARGGGHHH moment.

Have you had any moments like this?

Like I said, it seemed to happen in slow motion. I could see it going but couldn't actually get to it quick enough.
I remember doing a gig in London once and thought I'd packed everything into the van. I started to drive off when I saw a guy jogging by the side of the van indicating me to stop. He asked "Are those your speaker stands by the lamp post?".....yes, they were!

Go on then....the floor is yours!

[Excalibur]

. He asked "Are those your speaker stands by the lamp post?".....yes, they were!

Go on then....the floor is yours!

By the lamp post? By the lamp post? Under the back wheel of your transit. :o:o:cry::cry:

[ukpartydj]

You'd have thought they could handle a bit more than a knock against a wall! At least this one's alright I guess!

I threw a laser a couple of years ago, I can't remember what I was doing for it to been thrown rather than simply dropped.
And a couple of months ago I threw my laptop across the floor which there is more in on here http://www.forum.mobilediscodirectory.co.uk/showthread.php?43108-Whoops!

Oddly enough both worked alright after just cosmetic damage after popping a few screws back in etc!

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I wasn't the first time Peter!
When I was gigging with the band in the mid to late 80's we were playing at a club in Soho called La Beat Route. I had full on man flu and couldn't wait to get the gig finished and get home. I didn't drive at the time but still managed to leave both my synthesizers stacked up against the wall of the venue.
Same thing happened only this time it was 2 doormen who ran after us to tell us. It was a good night though as that club was generally full of A&R men and we received a lot of interest after that and ended up getting signed up.


You'd have thought they could handle a bit more than a knock against a wall! At least this one's alright I guess!

Maybe on that occasion it took more of a knock then I realised? I was more concerned at the time of it going over on to the drunk woman but it went backwards instead and hit the wall.

[Shaun]

I once over stacked my rocknroller cart and forgot the ratchet straps after a gig. Went round a corner and 4 RCF speakers, power bar and 2 moving heads all tipped over off the cart and crashed to the floor. I could have cried.

I tested everything out the next day, luckily no damage. Thank god for flightcases etc.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Phew!

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Thanks to Glasgow City Council turning swathes of the East End into a building site for years due to the Commonwealth games I managed to go over an unmarked, unsigned and unlit island at 30 odd mile an hour the day before a gig.

There was a very brief moment of slow motion where my brain went, WTF is going on here then, following by a sharp return to reality when the airbags went.

This was the night before a gig and on doctors and mechanics orders I had to get my dad to drive me to the gig in his van :D strangely enough it was a belter which was good because he's old school and was like "HOW MUCH ARE YOU CHARGING FOR THIS????"

Long story short I claimed aganst the council and they paid up for the repairs and some damage done to my wrist. I'm actually surprised no one's been killed there, right after it happened I managed to drive home then go back with my camera to document the terrible driving conditions and lighting and was nearly knocked down with a works van.

I drove past it last week and 2 or 3 years later they've still not put street lights or even one of those little island "pass on this side" cone things :rolleyes:

[Corabar Steve]

My Micromax on wheels went over on cobbles with 2 HD2500s a DN-X500 & 2 P5000S amps on it (all flightcased) a few years back. No damage.

Many years ago I was carrying a flightcase with a twin CD player, mixer & EQ into a venue when I tripped on the edge of the dancefloor & literally threw it across the room. The EQ did not survive.

[ckpr2]

I turned up at a gig once.
Set up and couldn't find the plug in power supply for my mixer.
I was 25 miles from home.
Then I spotted it on the floor in the back of my car, phew !
I had visions of me trying to put line level outputs from my cd player straight into the amp.
I would never have got the required volume.

At another gig I tripped over the speaker lead and pulled it out blowing the fuse in the amp.
Luckily I had a spare 3 amp fuse and quickly replaced it.

[stormproductions]

Around a million years ago we had a mixer start playing up during the gig so rather dodgily my brother was dismantling it and had the soldering iron inside whilst I was still mixing.

Did lights for a mate's job and only part way through setting up did I realise I'd got all the rigging, lighting and cabling kit etc but no actual lighting desk. Thankfully there was enough time during after we'd set up for me to borrow his car as it was faster than the van to drive about 30 miles back to get it. Managed to do some 'blind' programming during the meal, but obviously a little tense!

Mate was helping me with a wedding gig (we were both guests at teh reception too) and had got locked out his house with no-one home so after we'd set up I had to send him out with my bank card and PIN to go and buy a full outfit to wear.

And as I was typing this a strange familiarity came up - looks like we've done this one before...

http://www.forum.mobilediscodirectory.co.uk/showthread.php?37304-Have-you-ever-forgot-to-pack-an-important-piece-of-equipment

[Nakatomi]

I'll never forget a certain gig I did at a cricket club on NYE in the late 80s. A committee member got very antsy with me about my setup when he'd had a few halfs of shandy, having thought I was somebody else & was pulling the wool over his eyes with all his "you used to have way more lights than this! I want some money back!" antics. Other committee members intervened to try & calm him down (I was talking about pulling out of the gig half way through if he carried on like that), then a fight broke out. Wheee.. over went my home made light gantry & crash down it went to the floor. Nobody was hurt (phew! I hadn't even heard of PLI then) and after a quick check I found all the R80 bulbs were still intact. I turned down a lot of work there after that incident.

Then there was another gig where I'd just bought some new Technics headphones. Expensive ones. Set everything up, nothing came out of the amp & no lights on. Opened the lid & found the culprit.. one of the high voltage DC wires had come off. Bum. Ach well, back to the mono spare amp (NJD 100W Slave amp)... except I had to jerry rig the audio cables to make it work. Got everything going & nobody was any the wiser. I did my set (it was a college party) & the time came for a guest DJ to have his spot... I went to step down & felt something under my foot & heard a loud crunch. D'OH! My new Technics headphones!

Valuable lessons taken away from this: 1. Technics headphones are cack, even 'DJ' ones - even when they're over £100. 2. If you're making light stands at home, don't skimp on the mechanics of stability. 3. Some people in positions of power don't deserve their title.